Where's your head at? Calming the crazy mind.

You know those times when you feel out of control?

Your thoughts are messed up. The little voice in your head is in control and won't stop chatting to you. Thoughts such as "Why did this happen to me?". "I have totally messed up!". "I'm not very good at this". "I am a bad/unworthy person". "I am not pretty/skinny/wealthy enough". "There must something wrong with me". "I am useless/hopeless/not good enough" - ad infinitum.

This often happens after a negative event; a break-up, an argument, some form of mistake or rejection. Sometimes even just a 'bad day' can increase the negative chatter.

This negative chatter is part of what I call your emotional mind (aka 'the crazy mind'). It's in control and it is taking you for a ride. Often a ride that just goes around and around the same block, for hours if not days on end. It's painful, it's soul destroying and it is totally cruel.

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Work Less, Live More

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Work Less, Live More

This has been something that has been on my mind for quite some time.

And something I have been trying to get my head around for a while.

I know so much has been written about it and I know that there have been all sorts of ideas and suggestions to 'throw away your day job and travel the world'. And that's all very well and good (if that's what you want to do). But it's not at all possible.

Is it?

It's the small things....

It's the small things....

One of my very favourite cartoons is this one from Michael Leunig. It's been on my page a number of times - and to me encapsulates sometimes how life is - and how - when things are very tough - it is the small things that get you through.

Life has never been made to be easy. We are challenged - often on a daily basis - to rise above what we might consider our primiative response, to engage our brain, to make decisions no matter how minute on a moment to moment basis.

Remember to Breathe

Remember to Breathe

We've all experienced those moments. The ground moves beneath us, what we though was stable is not. As a friend hashtagged the other day #whathappenedtothecertaintiesoflife ! And it is a bit like that. We feel groundless.

Pema Chodron, Buddisht nun, teacher (and in my eyes a goddess) tells us to make friends with the groundlessness to sink into it. To breathe it all in.

If you've ever been in such a position - it is easier said than done. Some  events literally take our breathe away, as if we have been punched in the solar plexus. Our initial urge is to stop breathing, to tense, to get ready for the fight or the fligh

What to eat for health and well-being

What to eat for health and well-being

The more I read about diets, the more confused I used to become. So here is my simple uptake on everything I have read, heard and studied about dietary advice - along with the most recent world wide agreed dietary advice from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAD). Following some simple idea's make shopping and deciding what to eat a lot less stressful.

pAris speaks

pAris speaks

The aftermath of the Paris bombings has left me feeling a little shaken. My daughter lives in the centre of Paris (read about her thoughts the following day here)

A friend of hers was in the theatre where over 120 people were apparently rounded up and gunned down - mostly one by one.

I can not begin to understand what it was like for the people inside that building. I also can not begin to think what is going on in the minds of the people that are part of the organisation who chose to wreak such havoc on a otherwise peaceful city.

How can we as humans get things so wrong?

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Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda..... The truth about choice

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Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda..... The truth about choice

Ever get stuck on the word 'should'?

You know - I should do some exercise. I should phone my friend. I should eat some spinach.

And then the word 'must'... I must sort out my filing, I must pay attention. I must pay the bill.

The definition (according to the online dictionary) of the word 'should':

used to indicate duty, propriety, or expediency.

'One Life - A Life Worth Living' © 2015 Helen Duyvestyn. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any material without express and written permission from the author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.