I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database -
"God guard me from those thoughts men think in the mind alone; he that sings a lasting song, thinks in a marrow bone." W. B. Yeats
"We camouflage our true being before others to protect ourselves against criticism or rejection. This protection comes at a steep price. When we are not truly known by the other people in our lives, we are misunderstood. When we are misunderstood, especially by family and friends, we join the 'lonely crowd.' Worse, when we succeed in hiding our being from others, we tend to lose touch with our real selves. This loss of self contributes to illness in its myriad forms." Sidney Jourard
Earlier this year I wrote a sequence of ten blog posts to support people working their way through Mark Williams & Danny Penman's fine book "Mindfulness: a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world" as a self-help training in mindfulness practice. I've referred lots of people to these posts and it's a bit messy finding them as they are strung out over many weeks. Here are links to the ten posts organized into one place:
"Those who do not have the power over the story that dominates their lives - the power to retell it, reexperience it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change - truly are powerless because they cannot think new thoughts" Salman Rushdie
I wrote a first post a few days ago entitled "Going back for a university reunion: stirring up memories, avoidant attachment, "puffing up" and kindness (1st post)". I mentioned psychiatry professor Irvin Yalom's suggestion that going back to reunions like this can stir up material that can be chewed over to yield helpful new insights. It's happening. And I'm encouraging it to.
I've been asked to give a talk on "Mindfulness and the healing relationship" at a seminar later this autumn. The brief is to approach the subject via the emerging research evidence. The seminar organizer may well reduce the number of words involved, but the information I sent him read:
Earlier this year I used Google Analytics to identify the most read pages on this website and I wrote the post "Update on website traffic: the ten most popular blog posts". I then wondered - "What are my own personal favourites?" and I quickly realised that the posts that I've written that have had the most impact on me and my practice as a therapist are nearly always made up of sequences of blog posts rather than just individual items. I said that glancing back over the last year or so, themes that stood out included mindfulness, therapist feedback, self-control, conflict, embodied cognition and positive psychology. Going further back still there are the posts about interpersonal groupwork, relationships, therapeutic writing, walking in nature, compassion, exercise, healthy lifestyle, attachment and goal setting.
"The spirit of a man is constructed out of his choices." Irvin Yalom
"I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being,
let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again." William Penn
In about a month's time I'm scheduled to go back to my old university for a reunion. I've never been back for any kind of reunion before ... not to school, not to university, not to medical college. Why not ... and why am I going back now?
In June I wrote a series of five posts reporting on a pre-conference workshop (about treating chronic fatigue) and the first day of the British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) main annual conference, held this year in Leeds. Then last month I wrote a further couple of posts. Now here is the eighth and final report in the sequence:
The last day of the BABCP main annual conference in Leeds was the usual mix of presentations & conversations. I had breakfast with a couple of delightful researchers earnestly discussing the technicalities of a proposed new questionnaire about genital dissatisfaction. Mm ... not a very appetising topic over the tea & toast.