• Treatments that have helped my anxiety and where to find them At the back of my new book, first, we make the beast beautiful, I promised to share on my site a list of treatments that have helped my anxiety and where to find them. This is that list. Please bear in mind these are my own personal techniques and chosen brands. I’ve not been endorsed in more
• I asked my mindful mates how we should respond to Trump-ism… I’m approaching you, I wrote to a handful of people I know whose job it is to be mindful in their commentary, wondering if you had the will and time to share what a sound, wise, mindful way of coping with Whatever The F*ck Is Going On Right Now. I’m after the “better” and “bigger” response. more
• Do you want to be right or to love? I’ve had reason recently to visit this idea again. A most powerful idea, beautifully brought to us by Rumi. Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there. More than six years ago I wrote about the idea in detail. I’d read a New York Times Modern Love more
• Getting too caught up The other day my meditation teacher Tim introduced me to a young bloke over an impromptu lunch. I was not in the mood for meeting someone new, to be frank. I was thyroidy and scratchy and couldn’t deal with the “So, what do you do?” palaver (a conversation pivot point that always makes my eyes glaze more
• refining your quirks I sometimes see my personality quirks as highly expressive boils on the face of life. Too loud, too swollen, too festy. I’ve been feeling this way lately and have been backing away from things a little…to give the world a break from my boils. I could probably put this prettier. But it’s the picture that more
• are you ready to meditate? The best thing I ever did was to learn to meditate. As in properly meditate. For years I flim-flammed around trying different techniques. They gave me the shits. I never “got” it. I then bit a bullet and tried Vedic meditation. I’ve talked about this style before here and here. When I first met Tim more
• are we ready? I read recently on some efficiency blog that teachers at Montesorri schools (which push a self-directed style of learning) do this thing where they ask the class, “Are you ready?” Apparently it’s a technique geared at getting kids to focus and prepare themselves for learning. I love it. Are we ready? Before I run out more
• stuff I’m not paid to endorse: transcendental meditation Note: this post has been updated. I follow the “vedic style” of meditation, not the transcendental style, or TM. There isn’t a lot of difference, but there is enough to cause contention and confusion. I’ve corrected this post to reflect things more accurately.  I’ve tried just about every form of meditation. None of them really more