What is mindfulness?
Originally added on 28th September 2011
Last updated on 3rd November 2011
Last updated on 3rd November 2011
M: Life skills for stress, health & wellbeing, session 12
“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little coarse and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice? Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.
” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Yesterday we had the twelfth & final session of this "Life skills" evening class. There was scheduled to have been a bit less than a three month gap since the last - eleventh - session. However the heavy winter snow we'd experienced had resulted in this last session being postponed.
Antonio Damasio’s “Self comes to mind”: memory and the autobiographical self 1
Originally added on 10th January 2011
Last updated on 2nd February 2011
Last updated on 2nd February 2011
L: Life skills for stress, health & wellbeing, session 11
“The brains of human beings seem built to process stories better than other forms of input ...
” - Thomas B Newman, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics
K: Life skills for stress, health & wellbeing, session 10 (part 2 - therapeutic writing)
“Without courage other values wither away into mere facsimiles of virtue
” - Rollo May
I wrote yesterday about the first part of this tenth "Life skills" evening. I particularly discussed development of Goodwill practice - very much in the "Nourishing positive states" section of the "Four aspects" diagram (below). In the second half of the evening we moved on to the "Exploring & processing" section of the diagram with the introduction particularly of various forms of therapeutic writing.
J: Life skills for stress, health & wellbeing, session 10 (part 1 - goodwill practice)
“ To stand and stare, to watch the rising sun, fills me with such calm happiness, I am sure I have dwindled away too much time on inessentials. ” - Diana Gault (when dying of cancer)
If you want others to be happy, practise compassion. If you want to be happy, practise compassion. Dalai Lama
I: Life skills for stress, health & wellbeing, session 9
“ Happiness is a kind of gratitude; it is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy what we have that really counts. ” - E. Edwards
Yesterday was the ninth evening of this "Life skills" training. I wrote about the eighth session last week. The sequence of regular weekly classes now moves on to increasing gaps between sessions - so it's three weeks until the tenth, a further five weeks until the eleventh, and then an additional eleven weeks until the final twelfth session. My hope is that we will be able to arrange occasional follow-up meetings even after that.
H: Life skills for stress, health & wellbeing, session 8
“ 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
G: Life skills for stress, health & wellbeing, session 7
“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Polonius in Hamlet
” - Shakespeare
F: Life skills for stress, health & wellbeing, session 6
“ Where there is much desire to learn there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making. ” - Milton
Yesterday we had the sixth session of this twelve evening "Life skills" course. I wrote last week about the fifth session. A dozen slides covering material we explored are viewable/downloadable at slides 1-6, Powerpoint or slides 1-6, PDF and slides 7-12, Powerpoint or slides 7-12, PDF.
