the sensation of life
Anxiety, holding Magnifying Glass. Studio Shot Anxiety is excitement without breathing.Fritz Perls So here we are: 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety. It took a while! Here's where we have been: BreatheFeel into this bodyMeeting with stillnessPrayerPauseTalkingWritingWalking and NatureDoing the dishesIdentifying fallacious reasoningSuffer the childThe next step Here are some things I have learnt in … Continue reading 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety: Roundup
I am entranced by Tuesday night's documentary, Make Pots or Die, about the potter and author Edmund de Waal, in the BBC1 arts series, imagine, presented by Alan Yentob. In a voiceover in the final minutes, Edmund de Waal gives a testament of his life. How objects get handled, used and handed on is not … Continue reading What is your question?
Anxiety, holding Magnifying Glass. Studio Shot This is the final instalment of 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety, an ongoing experiment in meeting life with gusto. Take the next step There is one fundamental way of dealing with anxiety. Instead of sitting there worrying, get up and do something. I admit I find this difficult. … Continue reading 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety:
11. The next step
Anxiety, holding Magnifying Glass. Studio Shot This is the tenth instalment of 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety, an ongoing experiment in meeting yourself with tenderness. If something hurts me, the hurts I suffered back then come back to me, and when I feel guilty, the feelings of guilt return; if I yearn for something … Continue reading 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety:
10. Suffer the child
A dear friend made very helpful comments in response to Where to start?. He deserves a reply, and I need to express myself more clearly. Here is the second of a set of pieces in which I reflect on what he says. One way in which I feel you may be going a wee bit … Continue reading Sensation: the key to the art of living
A dear friend made very helpful comments in response to Where to start?. He deserves a reply, and I am going to devote a few pieces to this. Here's how he opens: As a person who finds it hard to sit still finds it hard to be quiet is suspicious of the notion of a … Continue reading Sit!
Lift your heart up to the Lord, with a gentle stirring of love desiring God for his own sake and not for his gifts. Cloud of Unknowing, Ch.3 (tr. William Johnston) I wake up anxious, feeling layers of loss, the mess I call my life, a failure, ashamed to be me. I am sure some … Continue reading Soft heart, trusting heart
I can't emphasis enough the value and importance of staying in this body. What I am writing about are not only ideas. They are primarily practices: practices in being alive, being animal, being human, being present, being (in) God. Lying in bed in the night, I notice how tense my legs are. I guess it … Continue reading Starting at the bottom (part 2)
Sitting here today I am distracted. My head is all over the place. I didn't pray first thing and I have been walking, writing, talking, reading, cooking and eating breakfast. I'm feeling a bit sleepy. It is difficult to settle into stillness and silence. I am elsewhere. I have forgotten how to pray and instead … Continue reading Starting at the bottom
Anxiety, holding Magnifying Glass. Studio Shot This is the ninth instalment of 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety, an ongoing experiment in meeting yourself with kindness. Identifying fallacious reasoning … it is the way of the evil spirit to bite, sadden and put obstacles, disquieting with false reasons, that one may not go on … … Continue reading 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety:
9. Identifying fallacious reasoning