How much of you do the people closest to you really know? What do they understand of the person that you are, as something distinct from the things you do? And when the time comes, inevitably, will your story die with you, or will it remain with your friends, your spouse, your children?
Here are five ways to help preserve the life and growth of a good idea when circumstances mean we can't follow it up right now, ways to stop it becoming just another weighty addition on a "to do" list.
Almost every mental health practitioner tries in some way to keep track of referrals. But do you know how your referrals compare to your conversions? How about the impact of primacy and recency effects? And would you be surprised to learn that nobody finds you via your own website -- even if you think they do?
'Isolation' seems too feeble a word to describe the part of grief that is aloneness, since it suggests a world out there which we could connect with were it not for our state; it is, rather, the kind of aloneness that tells us there is nobody there at all.
It's only superficially ironic that work on Creative Regeneration and making a healing refuge should leave me so wiped out.
A heightened state of anxiety seems to be the norm. But have feelings really taken over the world? Is it enough to just calm down?
There's a standard piece of advice frequently offered by psychologists and counsellors to people who are struggling to make sense of a challenging relationship. That piece of advice works pretty well when trying to understand politicians, too.
What if there were one true way to healing -- one method certain to deliver wellbeing and the resolution of whatever problems you might want to throw at it? Would you be tempted to give it a try?
In meditation, the suggest to 'let go' can seem a bit abstract, a little either/or. Softening, on the other hand, is different. You can't get it wrong.
When we just paint, or just do anything, we are working from our raw feelings. These feelings carry live connections to the whole context of life: everything which has ever happened and is happening right now, more than the rational mind could ever hope to be aware of.
Guided meditations have never been my thing. I've generally found them cringey, annoying, or simply superfluous to requirements -- the very antithesis of the experience I was having, or wanted to have.
The person is always more -- infinitely more -- than the addict. Thinking of the addict as your real nature, liable to erupt at any moment if you're not careful, may be helpful as a practical measure, but is it really true?
Can the 12-step programme liberate us from a cult of individualism and materialism? Enjoying a good feeling from simply being alive may be a natural thing, but it's not the default these days; we need to actively work on it.
Once you get to adulthood, you generally like to feel you're calling the shots. But are we in a position to decide anything at all of our own free will as individual agents?
The human urge to transcend physical existence and death is a powerful one. But is the application of so much human ingenuity in this direction a good idea?
Do joy and grief share something essential in common? And by cutting out one, do we end up cutting ourselves off from the other?
It's time to examine the mental inbox. Have you been getting messages from yourself, read them and ignored them? Are you set permanently to 'do not disturb'? Have you actually blocked your own number?
Money as we know it today is a system of exchange -- but it is no longer a neutral system. It's a sprawling, dominant monopoly that can leave individuals feeling worthless. Is there another way?
It seems not only that everyone is in pain, but that there's an underlying assumption that we shouldn't be, creating an extra layer of suffering on top of the pain itself.
My conviction is this: whatever you actually manage to do, with the sincere intention to improve your life, will work. There really is no shortage of methods. The trick is in managing to do the thing, whatever it is.
