“ It is a truism ... that men who are comfortable with their own aggression respond more lovingly to the world in general. ” - George Vaillant

“

How many things, both just and unjust, are sanctioned by custom!

” - Terence

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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

“ No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted. ” - Aesop

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It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.

” - Seneca

“ I'm not tense, just terribly, terribly alert. ” - Anonymous

“ Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. ” - Thomas Edison

So it was the second session of the group yesterday.  I blogged about the first session last week.  Sadly a couple of people couldn't get to this second meeting - due to a pre-planned holiday and to an unexpected crisis.  It's quite common for participants to miss one or two evenings across a twelve session course like this, but I want to be careful when people miss such an early meeting.  It's important that they don't lose their way and get left behind.  They will get copies of the handouts and the Autogenic CD, but I also make a note to contact them myself.   

“ I'm not tense, just terribly, terribly alert. ” - Anonymous

Yesterday we had the first evening of the Life Skills group.  I've written in the past about the background planning behind this group.  How did this first meeting go?  Well there were nine of us - eight participants and myself.  Rather demandingly I'm both running a new course and trying to get used to new technology at the same time.  For years, when running small group trainings here at our house, I've used an overhead projector to shine transparencies up onto the wall.  For a while I've wanted to upgrade to a laptop and data projector, and this evening I went ahead to put this into practice.

“

The impediment to action advances the action.  What stands in the way becomes the way.

” - Marcus Aurelius

In the 1970's I taught yoga and several different types of meditation.  In the 1980's I began teaching courses in Autogenic Training, a form of deep relaxation/meditation.  I continued running Autogenic classes for about 25 years.  In addition to the relaxation/meditation exercises, the teaching also covered several other life skill/stress management techniques.  For a much fuller description of these eight session courses, visit the Autogenic Training section of this website.