Category: Anxiety
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Lessons in living bravely from elephants and lions.
Three weeks spent enjoying the African bush gives you plenty of time for reflection. And there is much they can teach us. Like living life to the full, before we run out of teeth.
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Reframing old memories to change current perceptions
Our experiences shape who we are in the world – and how we react to things. When our responses lead us to a place we don’t want to go, can we reconfigure our memories to move in a more positive direction? Probably. But it takes practice.
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The Power of Attention: Shaping Our Thoughts
Somewhere along the line in my grown-up life, I developed a sense of hopelessness about humans. But I’ve realised I’m caught in a negativity bias, and that good and wonderful things abound, if only I’m mindful to attend to them.
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Wise up chicken, said younger me to current me.
Something strange has happened to me since I turned 50. I feel quite disconnected from my old self. I’m finding myself breathless on occasion, struggling to work out who I am and what I’m good at. But then, my younger self said – wise up chicken, embrace joy. So wise, younger me!
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How to be less anxious: Lessons in life from the ski slopes
Coming into Nozawa-Onsen we are confronted by a slope that sets my pulse racing. It’s below the ski lift, and although covered in deep drifts of white snow, it’s as black as they come. Immediately, despite having zero intention of going down a black run, I’m swamped in anxiety about this whole skiing malarky. Before…
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Everything Changes – how can we deal with it and still love life?
Everything changes. Acceptance. Gratitude. Things I’m learning, or at least trying to.
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Rituals, blessings and lessons in happiness from Bali
We are on a small island off the coast of Bali. Remote times two. It’s nice and warm here. The sea and pool both a balmy 27 degrees. The sun warm enough to make Sydney’s cold winter grip feel like nothing but a distant memory. If we leave the poolside, it’s to watch the sunset…
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Can we talk about the M word?
You know, as in M is for Menopause. “It’s under reported” my swimming mate, 10 years ahead of me, comments in the changing room. That feels like the understatement of the year. It feels like a full-frontal assault on women by Mother Nature. She goes on to say, “I feel like I’m only coming out…
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The weight of inadequacy…
Inadequacy has a weight. But rescuing oneself from it is a choice I’ve got to remember to make.
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Letting go of my worry-list and hopping off the what-if train…
I’ve always been a worrier. For as long as I remember I’ve worried about what people thought of me, or whether I was liked. I’ve worried about underperforming, and not being good enough. Despite never being misplaced by my parents in the fruit and veg section of the local grocery store, I have a visceral…
Midlife Unpacked 