Growth Mode

Last month I spoke about survival mode and how it closes your life in. When you use calming practices like breathwork and meditation you will start to quell this survival mode and the appetite to grow will emerge. We understand a lot about the stages of childhood development and growth but growing as an adult gets less attention. … Read more

Survival Mode

In survival mode, people are often grasping for control, certainty and routine. It can be associated with feeling busyness and anxiety. Survival mode keeps perception in the short term, the nervous system is primed to absorb a lot of information quickly for your protection. In this mode life tends to close in, the busyness becomes all consuming … Read more

The Shapes of Stories 

Above is a summary of graphs adapted from Kurt Vonnegut’s presentation on the Shapes of Stories. His presentation is brilliantly funny (and short) and you can watch it here. These graphs got me thinking about how all of us would display the ups and downs of our lives. Do we fit a profile like the ‘best … Read more

Meditation, A Hard Sell

Someone: I feel tired all the time, I’ve too many things in my head, I forget so much stuff. I don’t even know how I cope, I am stressing about stressing too. Me: I can help you with the stress, we can calm your fight or flight response, manage your nervous system? Someone: Yeah, I’m so irritable these … Read more

Is Mind Wandering Useless?

In the busyness of life, it is hard to let the mind just be. Our conditioning leads us to believe that we need to be constantly productive, otherwise our purpose/contribution is in question. But what is happening when we are not actively thinking or problem solving?  Neuroscientists once believed that when you are not actively … Read more

Is Meditation Selfish?

There is a lot going on in the world and there have been major changes to how we live over the last few years. These changes have drastically impacted people’s lives.  When people see that I don’t react to these events like many others, they may think meditation has made me less caring, less passionate and … Read more

Pain – Look! But Not Just There

Spontaneous pain will arise from time to time during your life. Spontaneous meaning there is not a clear cause for the pain. You haven’t broken your leg or burnt your hand. You will sometimes simply wake up with pain or it will come on gradually without a known reason.  When this happens it’s a wake … Read more

Emotional Competence

A major part of moving inwards to uncover the workings of our bodies and minds is our ability to understand our emotional landscape. Our conditioning often leaves us in a place where we strive for happiness and avoid sadness or other emotions such as anger, resentment, jealousy. Our desire to experience happiness or feeling we deserve to feel happiness … Read more

The Awareness Hill

Starting to look inside yourself can be intimidating and a little overwhelming. It usually begins with becoming more aware of habits and thoughts that are deeply ingrained. Habits that previously fell below the radar of your conscious mind are now being reflected upon either in the moment or shortly afterwards. This can feel taxing for … Read more

Where Do You Feel Pain?

Pain, particularly pain that becomes chronic can have a strong impact on your life and perception of the world. When the pain experience is persistent, it becomes part of your identity. Many conditions where chronic pain is one of the main symptoms have no cure. These conditions are managed by drugs that relieve the symptoms … Read more