It's time, don't you think?

2016 has arrived.

All those things you've always wanted to do. That life you have wanted to live.

Isn't it about time you started to put things in place?

Want to find your soul mate?

Want that job?

We've all experienced those moments. The ground moves beneath us, what we though was stable is not. As a friend hashtagged the other day #whathappenedtothecertaintiesoflife ! And it is a bit like that. We feel groundless.

Pema Chodron, Buddisht nun, teacher (and in my eyes a goddess) tells us to make friends with the groundlessness to sink into it. To breathe it all in.

If you've ever been in such a position - it is easier said than done. Some  events literally take our breathe away, as if we have been punched in the solar plexus. Our initial urge is to stop breathing, to tense, to get ready for the fight or the fligh

Ever get stuck on the word 'should'?

You know - I should do some exercise. I should phone my friend. I should eat some spinach.

And then the word 'must'... I must sort out my filing, I must pay attention. I must pay the bill.

The definition (according to the online dictionary) of the word 'should':

used to indicate duty, propriety, or expediency.

Today I had a Skype call with a few of the participants in the study group of the Science of Happiness course through Edx.

This was my second Skype conference call.

And both times I have come away from these with a profound sense of appreciation.

We now have the research to back up what we think and believe promotes well-being. The concepts are simple and nothing is mentioned at all about owning stuff or watching tele :-)

Quite some time I posted this on my Facebook page.... I'm not sure if anyone got it.

This concept occurred to me at work one day. It had been a hard week, and to put it bluntly - I was feeling a bit 'peeved' about a few things. These things had been going around and around in my mind for a few days. One morning - I realised that the anger was beginning to consume me. I was feeling tense, I wasn't enjoying my food. And I sat, with this anger, it dawned on me. In order to stop being angry - I had to do something to change my circumstances. That in itself was obvious, but I also realised that if I never got angry about things - I would be much less likely to make significant changes in my life....

So for the last few weeks, I've been doing a few courses (all in the name of research of course). Two are on Happiness - (A Life of Happiness and Fulfilment and The Science of Happiness), and the other is on Resilience. (Through Coursera and Edx). All are excellent courses and highly recommended.

In all the courses they talk about how humans are naturally wired to seek the 'bad' or negative in circumstances - it's a life saving strategy (noise in the bush - better think it's a lion rather than a bird, rather being the other way around). However, clearly it doesn't always serve us well in the modern world