Our lives and our world have been well and truly disrupted by coronavirus and all that it entails.
We have each been living our own ‘temporary normal’ in order to survive and cope.
Many are already talking about what our ‘new normal’ will look like afterwards.
All we do know, for sure, is that no-one is unaffected and that we can’t go back – we can only go forward. Continue reading “Disrupted lives – what next?”
This is from an internet search I did yesterday:
It’s my experience that the (Western) world has been shaped mostly by extraverts and that, consequently, those of us who identify more with the traits of introversion, or are on the cusp between the two (ambiverts), can find it a tough place to navigate at times.
In her book ‘Quiet‘ (which I love), Susan Cain talks about the different levels of stimulation required, and able to be tolerated, by introverts and extraverts and the ‘extrovert ideal’. She quotes William White:
“Society is itself an education in the extrovert values,
and rarely has there been a society that has preached them so hard.
No man is an island, but how John Donne would writhe to hear how often,
and for what reasons,
the thought is so tiresomely repeated.” Continue reading “Today is World Introvert Day”
I was fascinated this week when I saw a report on BBC Breakfast about a ‘back to basics’ experiment in a UK nursery which, it’s reported, has stimulated creativity and improved communication amongst the children involved (especially the boys, apparently) – and decluttering the rooms in the process. I also found an article about it in the Mail Online (published back in March of this year).
Matt Caldwell, the Head of the nursery was, apparently, inspired by similar schemes in Germany which replaced plastic toys with everyday items and real size objects – so, for example, instead of a miniature/child-size/toy version of a musical instrument, they would have an adult-sized, real one to explore.
Other items were day-to-day objects such as kettles, bottle tops, egg boxes, corks, pine cones, conkers, lavender and pots.
The backs were taken off electrical items so the children could see how they were constructed. Continue reading “What is a Toy?”
I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit lately.
The stories we tell ourselves about our own lives….
What we say, how we ‘report’ our lives, when we speak to people we haven’t seen for a while and they ask us what we’re up to these days…
Does it feel like we have to ‘put on a show’ and that we’re in a competition that we’re losing more often than not..?
For example, what do we say when someone asks “What did you get up to this weekend?” Have you ever been tempted to ‘guild the lily’ a little to appear more active and interesting than you think the truth might sound? I know I have… 
And what does success in one area of our life cost us in another?
Hence some of my recent Instagram posts:
Lukas Bates completed the London Marathon in a very respectable time this week (3hrs, 54m, 21s) and all whilst wearing a fancy dress costume of the London landmark: the Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben.
What hit the news, though, was that his costume was too tall for him to get underneath the frame at the finish line without some help:
This made me smile for several reasons. Continue reading “He took it in his stride – literally!”
‘Ikigai’ is a Japanese word for describing the pleasures and meanings of life – from ‘iki’ (to live) and ‘gai’ (reason) – sometimes described as ‘the reason we get up in the morning’.
It has five pillars:
This is a lovely combination of several concepts which I find particularly useful. Continue reading “How Ikigai Can Help Us”
To kick off the New Year with some reflection.
From an unknown original source, I think this list contains a lot of good sense and some food for thought:
If you’ve read any of my previous blogs relating to Christmas (such as ‘Christmas Presents an Issue’ or ‘Something they want … or an IOU?’) you might be somewhat surprised at the title here.
I do struggle with the commercialisation, the social/emotional pressure to be with people with whom we might not choose to spend our time, to do things (in a way) that might not sit comfortably, for everything to be ‘perfect’, the false ‘bonhomie’, and so on….
So why do I enjoy watching Christmas films?
I think I’ve finally peeled away the layers and figured it out – and what I enjoy about them actually has little to do with Christmas as such… Continue reading “Why I Like Watching Christmas Movies”
Back in June I posted this on Instagram:
I really like what Hayley Williams said here.
Despite the substantial progress we’ve made in recent years, I think many of us still struggle with talking about mental illness – which is why we talk about ‘mental health’ instead?
And, like Williams, I think we do tend to polarise the issue – categorising ourselves and others as either completely healthy or sick – but surely there’s a whole lot of space in between these?
Whole People 