Sometimes, New Year’s resolutions can feel more like a ball and chain than a new beginning. By the time you read this, you may well have already given up on one or two of yours. But it’s always a good time to give yourself a break: take the time to decide what you actually want to …
Stop and listen. What can you hear? The cacophony of the city, the strains of the suburbs? Hopefully, there’s birdsong somewhere among the din, signalling the beginning of spring and the promise of new growth, fresh starts and warmer times ahead. This is the ideal moment to explore the ‘rewilding’ movement and learn how and …
Some people breeze through life, rarely thrown off course no matter what hits them. Others flounder at every turn, weighed down by life’s challenges. Most are somewhere between the two, minds preoccupied with the minutiae of the everyday as they strive to meet the often conflicting demands of home, work, family and friends – leaving …
Breathe is abuzz now summer’s well and truly here. There are books to be read, ice creams to be eaten, beaches and gardens to be explored and, well, general lazing to be done. That’s the usual plan. But this year is going to be slightly different. Alongside the much-anticipated summer treats are new intentions: being …
Think back to when you were a child… what were your dreams for the future? Did you have any idea of what you wanted to be, of people you hoped to emulate or countries you longed to visit? Back to the present… are you living your dreams? For many people, the answer will be ‘no’, …
A life story can be many things – a tale of unwavering self-belief and an eagerness to tackle fresh challenges regardless of others’ perceptions; a narrative choked by self-doubt, opportunities missed; a chronicle where self-belief is ever-shifting, sometimes towering above the rooftops, occasionally disintegrating in the basement, but mostly at street level, with chances taken …
‘Did I do okay?’, ‘Did I say the right thing?’, ‘Did I seem professional?’. Questions, questions, questions – all hinting at self-doubt, all suggestive of a desire for reassurance and a need for external validation. And all common parlance in the workplace, which, when you think about it, is natural. There can’t be many people, …
Solitary. In Western society, it feels a loaded word, pejorative even. In fiction, the image of a solitary house, be it on the moors, in a glen or sitting atop a cliff often provides the doorway to a wretched history and inhabitants who led the most miserable lives. Similarly, a person who stands, sits or …
‘Do what you want to do.’ On the face of it, it seems a benign (if overused) statement. But what if what you really want to do challenges or goes against society’s norms? In this case, ‘Do what you want to do’ can suddenly feel contentious, complicated and even fraught with difficulty. It doesn’t matter …
Get out more, set ambitious intentions, ditch the morning muffin – advice (wanted or otherwise) comes thick and fast at the start of a New Year. But who really needs to be told what to do (at any time), especially when the person who knows what’s best for you is, well, you? It might not …
