Posts

Showing posts from December, 2018

A new perspective in grief

Typically, the beginning of a new year has always prompted in me a fresh resolve to begin or recommit to a resolution that fell by the wayside long ago; usually a casualty of the inevitable hurly burly of life and the big beautiful mess that it so often is. The turning over of a brand new calendar page will evoke in me an optimism for the year that lies ahead. I am an optimist at heart and therefore am hopeful that a new year will be a little better. Summer has naturally been a time to take stock and plan for the year ahead.  However, this year I’ve approached things very differently. The events of the past 18 months have left on me a big heart wound. Last year was filled with so much sadness and grief, one does not simply turn the page and move on as if all that was in the past has no lasting impact on the present. While the end of a year naturally brings to a conclusion some things, feelings and emotions are a little more elusive to box up. Rather than resolving to do and be someth

Bringing Christmas in Focus; Mindfully Celebrate the Birth of Jesus

I’ve been learning a new skill of late: the skill of practicing mindfulness. It’s a skill that helps to focus a mind that is overly busy and distracted. For someone like myself, someone who thinks about a million things at once, (often ruminating about worries and fears or mentally trying to solve all of life’s problems) the practice of mindfulness is helpful. It helps to discipline your thoughts in such a way as to be fully engaged in the present. The model I have used to help me learn this skill is called Mindful Walking, a program put out by Headspace. It taps into the simple exercise of walking. Being a natural habit of mine, it is perfect. It begins with getting me to think about how my body feels when I walk; how my feet feel as they hit the ground. As I allow my mind to focus on this, I am drawn into the present. However, it is difficult to stay in this moment (thinking only of my movement) and my mind invariably drifts off to other things. When I recognise that I have wandered