The Reward is the Journey

I was reminded recently of the importance of the right support.  When things get tough, sometimes we need to get tougher.  Sometimes we need to get stronger.  And strength, I have found, comes sometimes from the most unlikely sources.     Oftentimes I will explore with a client what their support network looks like.  There's no coincidence about my choice of words here.  I care not at all for jargon.  But in this context, 'network' means what it says.  Net-Work:  It is a net for us to fall onto, or into.  And it needs to work to be worth having.    The sales assistant knew what she was talking about (she sold me the most wonderful pocket sprung pillow).  Never before have I found a pillow like it.  The comfort is in the support.    I find enormous comfort in the support I know I am surrounded by.         

Standing there (for, what felt like, ever) emulating a mighty Warrior my wonderful yoga teacher's compliment sank right the way down through my body - through my hands, and arms, my tired shoulders, down my back (which hasn't felt quite itself for the last 24 hours; it's been so well stretched) and into my legs.    "Very strong" she remarked, as she subtly but significantly adjusted me.   In that moment, I felt grounded, and resilient.  I knew I could breathe a few more deep breaths, and felt myself rooting down, and bending my left knee a little deeper, feeling my weight distributed between each of my legs (by now feeling the workout), supported by the floor beneath me.    Yoga is non-negotiable for me just now.  It is, quite simply, an essential and immovable part of my routine.  Those 60 or 90 minutes are absolutely invaluable and whilst not always transformative, are genuinely restorative.  I fee...

I meet everyone before they begin a mindfulness course I am running.  The more I teach, the more important I believe these pre course meetings to be.    On average, I spend as much time in these individual meetings as we will spend together as a group, and experience has shown me that it really is a very important part of the process.   There is something about meeting face to face that crystallises motivation and solidifies intention - both of which are, it would seem, significant determinants of outcome, in terms of what someone approaching a mindfulness programme is likely to get from coming.   These meetings are precious opportunities for participants to meet me, their teacher, and to ask anything and everything they might wish to know before the start of a course.  From the outset, I seek to answer the enquiries I am met with from my position as a practitioner.    For this is where my teaching is born.  I, like th...

There can be no doubt that we've made some progress.  There have been significant shifts in the media portrayal of those who identify as sitting somewhere above or beyond the gender binary.  I was reminded of this at a conference organised and attended by those interested in supporting those for whom the trans* identity appeals.    For far too long, those of us who did not subscribe to, or comfortably fit into, the boxes hitherto afforded to us have been pathologised as deluded or perverted.  It is no longer inconceivable to have experiences that validate, or even honour an alternative identity.    Gender is the poetry each of us makes out of the language we are taught. Leslie Feinberg, Trans Liberation: Between Pink or Blue     Gender is, after all, what resides between your ears, not your legs.  It is not fixed and can be fluid.  It might be best regarded as a...