"Ananda, one of the Buddha's disciples, said to the Buddha one day, "I've realised that half of the path to the holy life is made of good friendships." "No, Ananda," the Buddha said. "Friends are not half of the holy life. They are all of the holy life."


Posts tagged with 'self-esteem'

Boosting self-compassion & self-encouragement by strengthening attachment security: twelve practical suggestions (7-12)

27th March 2011

This blog post is downloadable both as a Word doc and as a PDF file. Last week I gave the first six of a dozen ideas for boosting self-compassion & self-encouragement in the blog post "Boosting self-compassion ... twelve practical suggestions (1-6)". Here are a further half dozen ideas. Remember …

Boosting self-compassion & self-encouragement by strengthening attachment security: twelve practical suggestions (1-6)

20th March 2011

This blog post is downloadable both as a Word doc and as a PDF file. Research suggests that self-compassion may be as much as ten times more relevant than mindfulness for improvements in anxiety, depression & quality of life (Van Dam, Sheppard et al. 2011), although the two concepts (self-compassion …

Embodied cognition: posture & feelings

21st February 2011

This blog post is downloadable both as a Word doc and as a PDF file. Sadly (!) more recent research throws doubt on this 'power posture' literature ... see for example Simmons & Simonsohn's paper "Power posing: P-curving the evidence". Intriguingly there is an argument that possible benefits of an …

Our life stories: needs, beliefs & behaviours - part three, "behaviours"

13th September 2010

I have already written about the "Needs" and "Beliefs" sections of the "Needs, beliefs & behaviours" diagram. Today's post is about the "Behaviours" section. A fuller post from earlier this year - "Our life stories: needs, beliefs & behavours" - gives further insight into this territory. So the model is …

Our life stories: needs, beliefs & behaviours - part two, "beliefs"

12th September 2010

I posted yesterday on the first, "Needs" section of the "Needs, beliefs, behaviours" diagram (below). Today I want to say a little about the second section of the diagram - "Beliefs". This diagram is downloadable both as a Powerpoint slide and as a PDF file. As I said in the …

Recent research: six studies on money, happiness, romance, leadership, self-compassion & avoidance

26th August 2010

Here are half a dozen recent research studies that caught my eye. Diener et al, in a large sample of people round the world, found intriguingly that wealth tends to increase life satisfaction, while it is the fulfilment of psychological needs - learning, autonomy, using one's skills, respect, and the …

Peer groups, Cumbria spring group - second morning, authenticity & feedback

7th May 2010

Yesterday in "A 3 layer view of intrapersonal & interpersonal judgement" I wrote about the first morning of this four day residential group. Now it's the start of the second day. What happened yesterday? I began in that "on-my-own" familiar way - getting up quite early, washing, writing, meditating, plunging …

Berlin weekend: self-affirmation theory

13th December 2009

All day Friday and all day Saturday exploring Berlin. Then on Saturday evening we went to a reasonable restaurant and this morning - Sunday - I woke with what seems to be a pretty good dose of food poisoning. Humph. Well it's been a peaceful day for me with my …

A couple of fine, recent books on attachment

27th September 2009

I wrote earlier this month on "Attachment, compassion & relationships". I've been aware of John Bowlby's work on adult-child attachment for many years but, when I've approached it for insights that might help in my work as a psychotherapist, I've been put off by the complexity of assessment methods and …

Attachment, compassion & relationships

6th September 2009

Well I didn't sleep too well last night. Catero, my wife, and I went to the cinema yesterday evening and watched "500 Days of Summer" . I enjoyed it and it got me thinking about relationships. The "Summer" of the title is a woman who doesn't believe in romantic love. …