From Fear to Courage: Little Fears and Big Fears

Come join us in this 3-hour workshop! We explore practical ways to find our way back to courage, no matter what the life brings us.  Saturday 17th May 2025, from 4pm to 7pm CET. (That’s starting at 3pm UK time or 10 am Eastern.) If fear plays a big part in your life, you’re not alone. With our world seemingly … Read More

How I Developed a Daily Yoga Practice

I do yoga every morning. It wasn’t always this way. For years, I wanted to be doing yoga more frequently. I thought it would be good for me, for my stiff shoulders and neck as well as aches from an accident decades ago. I felt virtuous when I did yoga and guilty when I didn’t. I liked feeling virtuous. When my kids were … Read More

New Year – Time to Celebrate or Reflect?

I might be alone in this, but New Year never seems a huge deal to me. Just because we switch the calendar from one number to another, why does that give license to burn thousands of pounds (or dollars) of fireworks? And what is the deal with getting so drunk you don’t even remember seeing those fireworks? Okay, so I’m … Read More

How To Be Your Own Friend Through Sadness And Disappointment

Be your own friend

When things are going well for us, it’s (mostly) easy enough to feel good about ourselves, and to feel compassion towards others. But when life throws us those old curveballs every other day, or several times a day, it’s not so easy. Yet that’s when we need compassion the most – both to feel it for others and to feel … Read More

When Someone You Love is Suffering – Be Real

A person I love works hard, against difficult odds, to achieve a goal. It doesn’t happen. This person feels disappointment. I feel it too, and regret: perhaps if I’d followed up on an idea I had months ago the odds could have been reduced, this sadness prevented. I allowed others to dissuade me, wasn’t sure. I’m still not sure, and … Read More

I am who I am because…

More and more these days, I’m not sure who I am. I don’t mean I’ve forgotten the name written on my birth certificate (not even the middle name I’d rather forget.) I even (usually) manage to remember that I have another name for the Health Services – the same surname as my husband and kids, which I never use for anything … Read More

The Tao of Meow

I am cooking, trying to get the food ready quickly. I notice my body feels tense, and then the cat comes in, meowing. She wants food – and not just any old food but the kind that comes out of a little sachet and has lumps of meat and gravy, and is fish. (No other flavour will do.) She has … Read More

I wonder why I write…

Sometimes, I’ve noticed a niggling thought lurking in my mind: “I’m not good enough.” Mostly, in the last few years at least, I haven’t given in to the thought. Instead, I have taken it out into the open, let it have its say and then let it go. Logically, I knew it wasn’t true. Logically, I knew I was as … Read More