Practice
The beginning of the new calendar year is a good time to take stock. While deciding on the topic for this week’s reflections, I compiled a list of the ninety-two essays – all still accessible in the `Weekly Reflections´ section –which have appeared on this website since the very first, on February 2nd, 2021. That essay was aptly named `Imbolc´, which is the Irish name of the feast day of St Brigid, which falls on February 1st, and marks the beginning of the Celtic year.
Gossip
The conscious witnessing of this phenomenon of internal gossip is relatively new to me, something I have learned in the PQ Coaching Programme. The simplicity and user-friendliness of this mental fitness programme, as devised by Shirzad Chamine and his PQ Team, has been helping me greatly in this process…
Stress
I state the following key principle of Positive Intelligence: All your distress is self-generated. To be more precise, all your distress in the forms of anxiety, disappointments, stress, anger, shame, guilt – all the unpleasant stuff that makes up your suffering – is generated by your own Saboteurs.
Shirzad Chamine, `Positive Intelligence´
Forgiveness
The core goal of PQ mental fitness training is to train three mental muscles: The Saboteur Interceptor, the Sage Enhancer, and the Mind Command muscle. The latter enables us to strengthen our ability to switch from Saboteur to Sage, ideally in real time. PQ can thus be regarded as an `Operating System´ on which a wide range of applications (business goals, team building, relationship issues, parenting, healthy living, etc) can better run…
Comfort Zone
To a greater or lesser degree, we all love our comforts. After a November evening walk in the driving wind and rain, we delight in the comforts of a steaming hot cup of tea imbibed as we warm our limbs by the roaring fire. In fact, it is sometimes the promise of the anticipated comfort that keeps us motivated as we navigate unpleasant challenges. We play `good cop, bad cop´ within ourselves.
Halloween
For our Celtic ancestors, the Festival of Samhain (Halloween) marked the beginning of winter, and it heralded the start of the new year. For many of us, the encroaching darkness brings a shiver, not so much from the cooler temperatures, but more from anticipation of the shorter, colder days and the long, silent nights ahead. The green of the once fresh leaves is giving way to shades of brown, bronze, russet, and red. They will soon have fallen, leaving behind the skeleton-like silhouettes of the majestic crowns they once mantled.
I And Thou
In this mental fitness programme, with daily exercises provided by means of a powerful and easy-to-use PQ-App, we need to train only three muscles: The Saboteur Interceptor, The Sage Enhancer, and the so-called Mind Control muscle, the one that enables us to switch from Saboteur to Sage mode in real time. These exercises are, for the most part, short body-based exercises which help us return to and remain in the present moment. Until we get carried away to past or future again, that is…
Moonage Daydreamer
My life since its turning point in 2003 has brought many dreams to fruition. Climbing mountains which appeared beyond my reach, running marathons along beautiful shores, dancing, singing, and making music, engaging in service all around the world, re-engaging with my beloved family, learning photography and meeting people who inspire and lead by example…
Action
Even more critical than in the realm of practical daily chores is the topic of (in)action when it comes to breaking out of destructive behaviours to move towards a cultivation of self care. This is a topic familiar to a wide range of personality types: the sedentary `couch potato´ who knows that physical exercise is not only warranted but would also be beneficial and probably even enjoyable, the junk food consumer who knows deep down that a better diet would bring about positive changes in body, mood and well-being, and the social media/streaming aficionado whose FOMO tendencies result paradoxically in actually missing out on the real life..
Despondency
In my case, nature has a very positive effect on my well-being, so I spend as much time as possible in the outdoors. Since childhood, I have been fascinated by all things, great and small, that can be found in the natural world. Plants, animals, rivers, skies, and all the rest; these keep me in a state of awe. The river we visit today is not the same one we saw yesterday. If we look closely enough, we can see that everything is alive, and in flux…
