Let me live, love, and say it well
in good sentences
SYLVIA PLATH.
Powerful words
"Words have a magical power. They can bring either the greatest happiness or the deepest despair." Sigmund Freud My parents used to tell me “Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never harm you.” What nonsense! It’s words we remember, especially the...
Are you afraid of looking stupid?
“Perfectionism is a twenty-ton shield that we lug around thinking it will protect us when, in fact it’s the thing that’s really preventing us from taking flight.” Brené Brown I’ll run a mile rather than sing Karaoke. I know I can’t sing in tune- the teachers made me...
Catastrophic Thinking
2.9 Catastrophic thinking “Of all your troubles great a and small, the greatest are the ones that don’t happen at all.” Thomas Carlyle There are many people whose negative thoughts take over, racing ahead to the future with a host of “What if” questions that torment...
Imposter Syndrome
I’m sure there isn’t a person anywhere who hasn’t at some stage thought ”I shouldn’t be here. They going to find out I don’t know what I’m doing”. Feeling like a fraud is common and for some people it is almost impossible to shake it off, no matter the situation. The...
Just breathe.
Breathing is one of the simplest and most effective ways of managing stress, anxiety and general feelings of uptightness. We don’t think about breathing- we take in about 23000 breaths a day and never pay it any attention. But when we are stressed or anxious...
Covid Questions
I was writing regular blogs for this website with ease until Covid hit us and then suddenly I was stuck. I didn’t know what to write about. The enormity of the disruption and the threat to all our lives and livelihoods left me feeling that anything I might say was...
Take a Forest Bath!
Find a place. A forest. A park. A garden. Then make time. Turn off everything electronic. You now have all you need- silence and trees. Be still. Savour nature- be present to all you can see, all you can hear, all you can smell, all you can touch. The tiny insects...
Sleep tight!
Not having enough sleep makes most of us grumpy. In my case, it makes me both bad-tempered and super slow. I’ve never understood how people can function on 3 or 4 hours’ sleep. But new research by a team at Boston University has shown that not enough uninterrupted...
Celebrate imperfection
Yesterday I was sitting at the hairdressers and on the wall next to me was a large advertising poster. It was of a beautiful young woman with gorgeous hair and with her arms up, exposing her underarms. But what extraordinarily perfect underarms! I couldn't stop...
Do you procrastinate?
Do you procrastinate? I’m a pretty organized person but there are things on my “To Do” list that never seem to get done and that I keep transferring from one list to the next. Every time I get to them, I choose to do something that is more appealing, even if it’s just...