I wake before dawn. I get up, brush my teeth, light a candle and some incense, make a pot of tea and take a cushion outside, where I sit in the open air and meditate. To close my meditation I inhale and spread my arms out wide, sweeping my hands up above my head into …
Our sense of self begins to arise in infancy, and develops until we have a solid experience of ourselves as individuals by the age of five. Over the years this identity gets fleshed out with our likes and dislikes, our associations and relationships, and our talents and shortcomings. We start to know who we are …
I’ve never had a ‘proper’ job. For the first five years of my life as a sound engineer I was on the payroll with a live audio company, but the only desk I’ve ever been behind is the mixing kind, and the music business doesn’t run on a 9 – 5. Weekends and bank holidays …
Professional Gypsy – confessions of a routine-phobe Read More »
I’ve been touring internationally in my role as a professional sound engineer for around 20 years. I’m also an English ex-pat living in Australia, and I’ve to’d and fro’d since getting together with my Aussie husband in 2006. It’s fair to say that I’ve picked up a fair few travel tricks along the way, so …
Essential long-haul travel hacks from a life on the road Read More »
Sitting down is killing us. Numerous studies show that, whilst many of us need to increase our moderate to high-impact exercise, the really dangerous aspect of modern life lurks in every office, every home and every cafe. Yes, the humble chair is a wolf in sheep’s clothing; a veritable serial killer in your sitting room. …
When I describe myself as a reluctant vegetarian, people often ask ‘why do it, if you’re reluctant?’ It’s a fair question – the only person stopping me from eating meat and fish is me, so if I want to eat it then why don’t I? The answer is that I like the idea of non-violence …
Do No Ham – the musings of a reluctant vegetarian Read More »
In my last post I shared some easy ways to give yourself an instant lift, be that out of a common or garden bad mood, or a more serious visit from depression. They all follow Newton’s first law of motion (sometimes called the law of inertia) – that an object at rest will remain so …
As I write this, I’m sitting on the ground in our little garden. The temperature is below freezing, the sun has not yet risen, and I’m wearing pyjamas, a hooded dressing gown, and an assortment of blankets. A hot water bottle nestles in my lap and I have a lovely big cup of Yorkshire tea …
‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it …
Who are you? I don’t mean what’s your name and where do you come from, I mean, who are you deep inside? Who are you in your quietest moments, with no-one to impress and no damns to give? Who are you, when you lose all self-consciousness and become simply your conscious Self? Society has a …
