When people say they read for escapism, I can’t help feeling that they have missed a trick. Reading for me…
Month: September 2019
The Present Moment in E. M. Forster’s ‘Howard’s End’ (1910)
The following passage illustrates what it means to come in to the present moment, how to do it, and what…
Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, Winifred Gallagher (2009)
Essential reading on attention and why it matters. Our experience, our lives are made up of what we pay attention to and so attention is a route into the life we want to have. Attention can be a choice and it can be cultivated. A key text on ‘flow states’…
The Outrun, Amy Liptrot (2016)
This autobiographical work about alcohol addiction sets Liptrot’s recovery against the wild landscape of Orkney (where ‘the sea has enough power to throw a seal over a fence’). Sober, she feels ‘like a fraud accepting praise…because I want to drink and feel it’s impossible that I won’t again. Yet I…
End Emotional Eating: Using Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Skills to Cope with Difficult Emotions and Develop a Healthy Relationship to Food, Jennifer L. Taitz (2012)
DBT is one of the ‘third wave of behavioural therapies’ originally developed to help those in emotional pain and who as a consequence self-harm. Mindfulness and acceptance are key elements of DBT. Forget willpower, self-control, motivation and learn about awareness, urge-surfing and treating yourself with kindness. Much of this is…
Writing down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg (1986)
This book was recommended to me by a lovely teacher that I trained with, my only regret is that it sat on my shelf for about 15 years before I got around to reading it. This is a liberating read – and if you want to write but are beset…
Autumn Equinox and Turning In
Summer’s ending inevitably brings a little sadness with it. There’s a distinctly autumnal turn in the evening and I’m already…