The Reward is the Journey

  Sleep is the golden chain that binds health and our bodies together. Thomas Dekker     Sleep is something most of us need.  I certainly benefit from a decent night's kip.  The more regularly I sleep well, the better I am able to function.  Long gone are my teenage days when I was able to lie-in once a week(end) and sleep until midday, when would wake feeling refreshed and recharged.  My body tells me it needs at least seven and a half hours of proper sleep each and every night to feel restored upon waking.  Which requires some conscious effort.    My working day tends to start late and finish later.  The practice of psychotherapy is, in this way (and perhaps some others), something of an antisocial vocation.  I have something of a routine on concluding my client work which enables me to shift mental gears and adjust into my evening.  I have another routine prior to going to bed, again facilitating a...

I see him most days.  He sits there.  Unassuming.  Undemanding.  Yet he captures my attention, and my imagination.  Who is he?  Who was he?  How did he come to be there?    Sitting outside Sainsbury's, he passes his day it would appear deep in thought.  Pensive.  Considering what, I often wonder?    We've had only the briefest of interactions.   I do not usually give directly to individuals, choosing instead to set up Standing Orders which leave my bank account each month.  I review these annually, selecting charities whose mission appeals to me in some way.    This, I find, is a straightforward way of giving.  But not, I think, a terribly engaged manner in which to do so.     We make a living by what we get But we make a life by what we give Winston Churchill       I've noticed a great many more prompts to give on the Underground of l...

I have not yet got my head round it.  In a month's time, my mother will have been discharged from the nursing care home at which she has been a resident for the last four and a half months.  The news has hit me hard.   I did not see it coming.  I have been coming to terms with her transition into residential care.  It has been a far from straightforward road for either of us.    I feel a mixture of emotions.  Disappointment is prevalent.  We had, I think, all been hoping that she would adjust to the new environment, and make herself 'at home'.    Why this hasn't happened isn't entirely clear.  But it's obviously not the right place.  For her.  For now.      And so the mission continues...  Trouble is, its terms are not yet entirely clear.  And the hardest thing is that it may be too late to adequately refine them with their subject.      The...

I have been fortunate this summer to discover some new places that have become immediate favourites.   Having enjoyed swimming at the Lido (something of a favourite haunt of mine for a little while now), I was blown away by the skyline I found to stand above it when I wandered through Brockwell Park on a Sunday morning recently.    Observing the city from a distance struck me as a great metaphor for what my mindfulness practice stands for.    It was possible to see the landscape more clearly, from a distance.  The City of London looked beautiful and manageable, from where I stood.  With regular practice, I have come to see that by seeking to know better the landscape of my own mind-body I have a better chance of recognising those familiar 'signatures' - physical, emotional and cognitive.    And, by standing back, to observe these clearly, I have the benefit of a space to pause, and remember that I have a choice....