Scratching Only Makes It Worse
Compulsively worrying about the causes and consequences or one’s anguish is draining, and self-sustaining. Like scratching an itch, the more you do it the easier it gets to do it some more. You can make an itch go away by consciously focusing on it, the same it true of intrusive thoughts.
The Solutions Mirror
Recognising how you solved something in the past often holds the seeds of the solution in the present. We have to believe that there is an inner part of ourselves that can help us in an hour of need. The trick is to see the pattern to the problem, and to trust your own creativity.
Stories Help Us Understand and They Shape Our Lives
Stories weave things together and provide order, meaning and understanding. A metaphor, like 'spill the beans', is a mini story that contains both image and impact. We love stories and we depend on them. Good or bad, it's the most powerful ones that hold the attention, and our own story is the most important one of all.
Back to First Principles
It pays to revisit basic ideas from time to time. How we look at things and how we build and maintain our relationships are closely connected.
Symbolism and Doing It (or, When Is It Safe to Let Go?)
People often tie themselves up in knots following a change, because the haste to be free of the past actually ties us to it. Before you can let go of something properly, you have to embrace it.
How To Be Happy (Yawn)
History has taught us many things, they say. It's probably more accurate to say that throughout history we have been able to teach ourselves a lot of things. Except, that is, in the two things where it matters most.
If You Are Afraid, You Are Alive
Beore you can embrace the things that get in the way, you have to recognise what they are.
Imagine, and Probably You Will
There is no escaping it, the imagination shapes outcomes. Some cultures say "Be careful of what you wish for...", with others it's "Beware of your dreams...". Ether way, it's happening now.
An Intellectual Diet
I’m not promoting some high-brow agenda, I’m talking about how we seem to have an unhealthy preoccupation with the negative things that surround us.
