Eyes to the front!

As a young girl playing outside in the 1970's my Dad was always keen to reiterate that I must, "Watch your step! Watch where you're going!" The primary reason was to avoid the amount of dog mess on the pavements because in the 70's it was everywhere!
Not literally, but it seemed that way.
Forty years later and his words still leap into my head when jogging along the pavement I unwittingly stand on a dog poo cunningly disguising itself as an autumn leaf.
I'm not going to stop going out for a jog just because I might stand on dog poo! I have a route planned before I leave and I will stick to that no matter what.
If you have an idea about where you want to go but find yourself watching your every step - just stop for a moment.
Remember that you may well go through messy areas en route to your destination, in fact to be more blunt about it you may have some shit to contend with.  However, if you know - even roughly - what you want to achieve and you have an idea of how to get yourself there then do not delay!  Please just get on with taking the necessary steps towards your goals because none of us knows how long we have left to put on our running shoes and get out there!
"Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road." - Dag Hammarskjold 

Appreciation of today

There's no doubt that I'd rather be the adult I am today than the confused struggling girl and woman I was in the early 80's through to the early 90's.  
A life pebble dashed with sores so deep and yet invisible to the untrained, uneducated eye.  No-one's fault of course as back then I was an expert at hiding and camouflaging the roughness cutting into some edges of my life.
Today I have a contentment about who I am as a mother, a wife, a friend, and of course as the person I am to the hundreds of clients I have been privileged enough to teach and encourage back to health.
And yet, as time does the inevitable and change happens to those I love I can feel that panicky feeling rising.  Like a stubborn toddler demanding not to be taken from the party, I'm digging my heels in and refusing to accept that change is inevitable...I want things to stay as they are, and I'm not budging from that stand point!
However, there is a reluctant acceptance washing over me, gently reminding me that I'm not in control.
A tough call.
As I take stock of where I am right now I can see quite clearly that my life is overwhelmingly good, and unrecognisable to how I felt thirty plus years ago; so I must learn to lovingly let go of the fight to maintain the status quo.
Neither you nor I have that power.
What we do have is the ability to appreciate the good, cry at the bad, love those we love and literally embrace each day as it comes and deal with whatever comes our way with our feet on the ground and our hearts wide open.
Written with love and appreciation for a life filled with amazing people! Kathleen x
"We are so often caught up in our destination that we forget to appreciate the journey, especially the goodness of the people we meet on the way.  Appreciation is a wonderful feeling, don't overlook it." - Author unknown

The limits of protection

There's a moment when the sunflower is in full bloom when I just want to hold it perfectly still and cradle it from the ravages of time, protecting it so carefully before the first autumn frost and battering winds nip and slash the perfect stem and magnificent flower. 

I can't protect it of course, so instead I cringe a little as I watch it writhe and quietly wither away.

I hold the thought in my mind that soon, once the fallen leaves from the deciduous forest giants have long since lost their crunch and are well trodden and crumbled into the soil, spring will come again and I can replant a sunflower seed and watch with wonder as nature does its thing. 

One can only provide the cane to support the sapling as it grows wide and strong.
One can only provide nutritious fertilized soil to ensure it has the best possible start.
One can only position it in a place where the sun beats down on it, and it's sheltered from the prevailing winds.
We do what we can, but we can't save the flower from every possible threat to it's survival.

Trust that there is a strength throughout the natural world. A hidden, deep, inexplicable strength which we need to trust runs through the sunflower and each and every one of us.

"People protect what they love." - Jacques Yves Cousteau 

To fly and fly some more

I looked on-line for an explanation for the phrase, "To have your wings clipped" and the description read,
"To restrain or reduce someone's freedom."
We can all search for the reason's why we haven't achieved all we set out to.  We can scan the horizon of our lives, stare at the silhouettes of all our relationships and feel justified as we point the finger of blame at that friend, or that relative who wouldn't have coped if we'd chosen that path.
"To restrain or reduce someone's freedom."
Bird's can't nor do they clip their own wings.
Human's do it to them.
A bird wouldn't choose to change their natural ability to fly, nor would they choose to stop living their lives as flying beings.
Human's on the other hand....
We ruin our own lives and sabotage our own chances to fly and live fully and we do it time and time again disguised under a thin vale of being the, "right thing to do."
Who for?
If you are making choices based on what you think is best for another person please STOP!
Look closely at the decisions and choices you're making.  Really look....
Are you clipping your own wings?
Are you "restraining and reducing your own freedom?"
What do you really want to do?  Why aren't you?
Chances are that some (if not all) of your decisions and reasons for stalling are based on you thinking of the needs/attitudes or opinions of others.
NEWSFLASH!  
This is YOUR life!
Please start by being kind to yourself, make choices based on what you really want and who you really want to be.
Too many illnesses creep into our body casting shadows on our vitality because we're not living our lives honestly.
When we're well we're being authentic and our body-mind loves us for it.
When  we're exhausted accommodating everybody else's needs we become suffocated by a sense of duty to others and our own shining light is snubbed out.
Please make a point of reminding yourself that if you truly follow your path the world will not stop spinning, those who love you will still love you - and you will have more energy and time to achieve all you want to be.
"Pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly, and if left unresolved you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place." - Wm. Paul Young, The Shack

The strength and vulnerability of isolation

All my life I have been intrigued by solitary trees.
In more recent years I've started taking photographs of them.
There's something that draws me to them; a strength and solidity that stands boldly against many a dramatic back drop and I love that.
Against the odds there it stands, on open moorland, on top of a  hill, roots dug in to a cliff top or in the middle of a field where only the buzzards appreciate it's presence as an excellent viewing point for them to spot their next scurrying prey.
Each tree is so different, yet there's a familiar thread that binds them together in isolated unity.
A defiant:  "I'm here. I'm alone. I'm strong!"

And yet whenever I stumble across a tree on it's own I think of this famous quote by Canadian artist and writer Emily Carr,

"You come into the world alone and you go out of the world alone yet it seems to me you are more alone while living than even going and coming."

This is particularly poignant when I re-visit a tree I've long before photographed and discover it's been snapped in half or uprooted completely and lies dying alone and forgotten.  I can't tell when or why it's happened, was it diseased and I didn't realise?  Perhaps that last stormy night took it down - and yet it had survived maybe a 100 or more bad winters and spring gales...why now?

Off in the distance the forest stands unperturbed by the loss of it's comrade.  They stand together arrogantly looking on as I wonder how long my old friend's been lying there.
An unanswerable question of course.

Every now and then, when the storm becomes unbearable even the most independent and stoic need the shelter that friends and family can provide.

It's true that we will go out of the world alone - but we can allow those who care for us to be our companions and lovingly hold our hand for at least part of the journey.

"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives." - George R.R Martin, A Game of Thrones.

Appreciation of now, and taking it all in.

Last night I dreamt about my Mum.  I don't often dream about her, but today I realised it's 22 years since she died in July 1993 at just 54 years old.
In my dream she was lying in bed talking to me, she said her arms were aching.  I asked her why? She said, "I have no one to hold.  Arms were meant to wrap around those you love."
I woke up and  though I was glad to have "seen" her I was sad that her arms ached.
Yesterday I spoke to Andrew about wanting to walk long distances, using my legs to walk miles and miles to experience the landscape and natural world on foot as that is what legs are for!
And then there's my hands...
I love to feel the texture of  bark on trees, I love to feel the cool earth on my hands as I pull the weeds from my veggie patch and I love the feeling of wool running through my fingers against the cool, metal seriousness of my crochet hook.
Our limbs, our eyes, our sense of smell, taste and touch, paying attention to their experiences is crucial to our well-being.  The more technological and "advanced" we become the further away we get from being human in the most fundamental and in my mind crucial of ways.
I'm not anti-advancements in science and technology, but we should make time for the basics, and actually what I feel is the most important aspects of being human.
To feel and be present in the world,  to just walk in nature without multi-tasking.   Taking in all that surrounds you and reminding yourself that this is it so make the most of appreciating and being part of the natural world surrounding you. Have a wonderful Friday everyone!  Love, Kathleen x
"To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour." - From Auguries of Innocence by William Blake

Laughter, life and the great outdoors.

For those who know me well it won't be news to read that humour plays a big part in my life - I believe laughter is an essential aspect of being human.  Every day I observe my life trundling along in all it's wondrous, fluctuating, madness and in between the serious stuff I sneak a peek at the more colourful, bizarre and uplifting opportunities for laughter, joy and appreciation of all that life has to offer.
Many comedians use their observations of the world to share their humorous view of all that surrounds them. But how long can this continue when we're not looking up any more?
Walking along the street,  or in the hairdressers, at the cinema for goodness sake and on the bus, no matter where I go I view the tops of heads. Seriously, I'm becoming an expert in trichology.
The studying of scalps, hair lines and hats is not because I'm abnormally tall for a 47 year old woman, but with heads tilted forward and the important job of checking phones now apparently an option of life or death , everyone and their dog (almost) has forgotten to look up and make eye contact with their fellow human. We can share our concerns, our laughter and joy with a passer by with a smile or a glance no words exchanged as we simply observe the same scenarios and share the experience of being in the same place at the same time.
Sadly this is something of a rarity these days. We're distracted by someone sending us a photo from 1000 miles away, when right in front of us a red squirrel has leapt and scurried across our path, or as the sun sets on our horizon we miss it as we're trawling through the filtered images by our, "friend" on Instagram.
This weekend friends spoke to me about the Scottish poet, songwriter and humorist Ivor Cutler (1923-2006) as they were sure I'd appreciate his work - and they were right!
His humour is so clever.
It can be dark at times (as is life) but his ability to observe his world back then, mixed with a tad of creative license is nothing short of genius.  I'm sure his humour will appeal to many, none more than those brought up in rural Scotland from the 40's onwards.
The flash backs to a life lived free from the intrusive clutter of today's TV's/iphones/smart phones and all things computery.
Bliss!
Look up from your computer screens and smart phones and let the outside world inspire you creatively today!  Before you do...GOOGLE Ivor Cutler and have a listen to some of his work!
"Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh."  W. H. Auden

Expressing yourself out of depression

Musicians express themselves through their music, artists with their brush strokes, writers craft and weave their words to release their emotional bundle; what about you?
How do you share with your loved ones and the world what you're really feeling? Who do you share your emotional truths with?  Who hears the plight of your broken heart as it reluctantly beats clinging onto a sadness long ago buried away from the sight of others?
When I hear the expression,
"I suffer from bouts of depression."  I think, how wonderfully intelligent we are -  isn't it fantastic that our body and mind recognises something isn't right, and gives us the, "nudge" that now is the time to address this horrible feeling?
The first place to start is by simply speaking up - admitting to yourself first and then sharing with others who love and care about you that you're not feeling good is the most important first step.
Only then can you start your journey back from depression.
So then, why not quietly make the decision today to stop putting a brave face on it and start being more honest about all that you're feeling?  And by this I mean, the good feelings, the bad and the ugly!  We are all capable of experiencing the whole spectrum of emotions, but how many of us are prepared to express the whole range?!  Culturally it's not encouraged to be emotionally honest, but our bodies know differently - burying our feelings makes us unwell.  Make a start on constructively expressing your feelings today and know that by doing so you're doing yourself a great favour - you might just find yourself emerging from that tunnel of depression far sooner than you'd anticipated.
With love,
Kathleen x
“Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.” ― Sigmund Freud

Be here for today, not tomorrow.

While you're striving to reach the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow you risk missing the beauty of the wondrous spectrum of colours displaying itself to you. 
Waiting for time to hurry up, working to help speed our lives along.
How sad.  
How wasteful.
All the while both the mediocre and amazing are fleeting past our consciousness as we sleep walk to the next big thing we want to experience.
What about now?  What has now done to upset you so much that you're choosing to turn your back on it?
The truth is that now is the only thing that's real.
Ssshhhh!!
Be quiet. 
Be still and just be present.
Look!  It's not so scary after all. 
Notice everything, the sounds, the smells, the colours - it's all right here in front of you right now.
No need to wait, no need to long for it - your senses are just waiting for you to join in! 
Your life is happening right now so let the body and mind become united and start celebrating your life experience! 
"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.  Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land.  There is no other land; there is no other life but this." - Henry David Thoreau

The patchwork of life.

Patchwork intrigues me.
The bringing together of pieces of fabric from a variety of sources to create one beautiful piece of art.
Some fabrics leap out and tickle my eyes with delight, while others blend silently into the background, each piece doing a great job at making the ensemble an awesome artistic achievement.
If I look at each piece individually I notice the texture, the neatness and quality of the hand stitched joins. Some pieces are frayed, some held tightly, some are perfectly symmetrical and knowing each stitch was done by hand brings a new quality to this hand crafted gem.
As in patchwork, as in life....
Each patch of my life has a different vibrancy about it, some pieces I don't wish to look back on, other patches I want to stare at and long to re-create.
The areas where the edges are frayed and the joins worn and thin are clear reminders of times when I didn't pay attention to all the aspects that make me whole.  My physical, emotional and spiritual needs all require daily attention, if I push any of them to one side the patchwork that is my life will not be able to hide the evidence.
How is your patchwork looking?  Are the edges of each patch beautifully held together, or is there some repair work required? Take time today to decide what you could do to ensure you can look back on today with joy and delight.  You can make this moment a beautiful snap shot of  your history; a life lived in balance and harmony will  help you create the most wonderful patchwork.
With love, Kathleen x
"We do not live an equal life, but one of contrasts and patchwork; now a little joy, then a sorrow, now a sin, then a generous or brave action." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Kindness: your natural way

You should express all your emotions, including your hurt, your confusion and your anger but they should be, "moved out" from your body constructively and not destructively! Expressing how you feel going by the sensations you have in your body is far healthier and effective than listening to your ego driven head mind and spurting out with derogatory disdain all that you feel, stamping your feet over how hard done by you are! Your body can deliver the same honest expression of your emotions but in a way that is not accusatory or hurtful, and you'll feel a whole lot better if you listen to your body as you say what you need to say.
Meet malevolence with a kind smile.  Listen to gossip with muted silence, sending feelings of kindness to the perpetrator and victim.  Express what you want to say with your feet firmly connected to the ground, an awareness of your in breath and your out breath, speak slowly and clearly and behind every word, think "kindness".
Kindness is the soothing balm on a gaping sore.  It's the antidote to the most venomous of poisons; and we all have the capacity to use kindness to quell the nonsense spewing from the mouths of others.
Be in charge of yourself, don't be dragged into behaviours or attitudes that don't resonate with who you are!  Be your own kind friend and make choices from a body mind, heart felt place.
With love, Kathleen x
"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love." - Lao Tzu

Moving on with purpose.

I was sitting in my car in Perth, parked up while my husband Andrew went to the opticians for his annual check up and it gave me the chance to do my favourite thing - watch people go by.
There were the striders and the rushers, the, "Notice me! I'm very important" upright, limb straight, unyielding sort of walker, the meanderers not sure why or where they're going, the chatty Mums pushing their prams and sharing how long they were allowed to sleep last night, the frail couple supporting each other, but each pretending it's the other that needs the support and the troubled school pupil rehearsing his excuse for not producing his homework that he promised to hand in today.
Each step towards wherever they were headed was significant, as sooner than before they were going to reach their destination and their day would unfold in a way they couldn't predict - and that's okay.
Each step we take is significant, we can move purposefully forward, we can blindly follow the masses, or drift slowly through the crowds oblivious to all that surrounds us.  At different stages of our lives we've probably experienced one, two or all of the above!
However, as you read this now you have the capacity to decide how you want the next chapter of your life to unfold.  With mindfulness you can receive clarity on how to hear what purposeful steps you could take today to enable you to "write" the beginning of your next chapter.
Enjoy!  With love, Kathleen x
"For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning." - (Little Gidding) T.S. Eliot

Live, love, cry, repeat.

In a moment our lives and relationships can change forever.  By accident or through illness in a heartbeat what we once took for granted as an immovable infallible union can become the most fragile and broken relationship we've ever experienced.  Our hearts seem to scream and race; our heads scrape around in the dusty dark cave of hopelessness for some sense or reason for the news we're hearing.
Sadly most of us will experience this state of complete shock and desperation at some point in our lives, so then why do we grieve and ache over the small stuff?
Some of the strongest people I know are those who have experienced real hardship and trauma, the daily up and downs, disappointments and failures just roll away with a simple shrug of their shoulders and a muttering of ,
"Shit happens - deal with it and move on!"
I think this is the case because they've been in that state of scrambling desperately for an answer to the really big unanswerable questions faced during a life and death scenario.  Perhaps, in a controlled environment we should be trained to deal with life's hardships at the appropriate level.  For example, the loss of a loved one would get the highest rank with the person being encouraged to cry, shout, be angry and in turn they would receive the relevant support they needed.  But they couldn't be given the highest rank of support, nor c
ould they be encouraged, or enabled to react at the highest level when they missed the last bus home from a night out!
On a day to day basis we have moments of joy, disappointment, frustration, annoyance, happiness, love and grief - that's life.
Practise the art of being emotionally honest at the appropriate level - it's far healthier than bottling things up on a day to day basis then having a massive outburst over something fairly minor in the bigger, more complex scheme of life.
"Look to this day!  
For it is life, the very life of life,
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence;
The bliss of growth;
The glory of action;
The splendour of achievement;
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision;
But today, well lived, makes every yesterday
a dream of happiness,
And every tomorrow a vision of hope." - Attributed to Kalidasa

Listen...really listen!

I listen to the radio a lot.
The radio in my living room is a bit ropey, it hisses and coughs it's way through my favourite programmes and shows.
I've tried hanging the aerial in different positions, but it never really improves things.
A favourite tune comes on and I somehow manage to ignore the background distortion and pick out enough of the music to be transported on a nostalgic journey to another place.
In my kitchen however the radio is a rather fancy DAB contraption.  The clarity is second to none.
I can almost hear the broadcaster create another laughter line the precision of the sound is so exact.
I only notice the difference in the quality of the two radios when I walk from one room to another.  If I stay in the kitchen all day I get lulled into the false belief that this is the quality of my radio listening life.
Maybe this is true of many aspects of life.
We ignore the annoyances that seem to be irreversible, we tolerate the background distortion and "make do" with the quality of life we believe is as good as it can get.
Why don't I just save up and buy another DAB radio?  That is a feasible and very do-able way to fix the fluctuating quality of my radio listening life.  Is there something you're tolerating because you think this is just the way it has to be?
"Where you are, be there totally.  If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now.  Then accept the consequences." - Eckhart Tolle

As Taylor Swift would say...."The haters gonna hate!"

Recently, on a fairly uneventful day, I haphazardly discovered I've been the focus of someone else's hatred and determined attempts to sabotage a loving relationship  I have with a member of my family.
This revelation felt weird, confusing and disturbing.
Energy of the most negative type had been directed my way for nearly three years while I was blissfully oblivious!
Without foundation or reasonable cause this person wanted to damage me and damage a person they claimed to care about.
This left me feeling a strange mix of emotions.
On one hand I was saddened at the apparent desperateness of the individual orchestrating the hate campaign, and on the other hand I felt angry that a fellow human being could choose to instigate such a toxic plan based on their own insecurity.
I'm still a bit perplexed, and I don't expect I'll ever fully be able to understand their motives.
However, the ramifications of their master plan being exposed to my family and close circle of friends means that the lovely family member who had the strength to confide in me can now get even more love and support to prevent this sort of thing ever happening again.
Despite the attempts this person made to hurt me and my loved one, I don't hate them.  I feel sad they thought this was an acceptable thing to do, and I hope they can find a way to live a life based on being responsible for their own happiness and not continue to have expectations that their life is dependent on the input of others.
"Do not let the behaviour of others destroy your inner peace."- Dalai Lama

The risks of retrospective gratitude.

If only we could truly be glad for what we have in this moment, right now.  Retrospective gratitude is to me the saddest and heaviest of emotions.
Reflecting back brings a rush of warmth and joy, only to be followed by a heavy hearted sadness when the realisation hits that that time is no more - it can't be brought back - it's gone forever.
Only in my mind can I  re-create those memories, there's no tangible way to grab it back and haul it into my life today!  Try though I might, even when I concentrated my efforts on remembering the minutiae detail, the lead weight in my chest drags me back to face the harsh truth; no matter how good my memory is; that place and time is fading deeper into a sentence, a page, a chapter in my history.
That elusive past.
So today I must stay focused on the reality of the quality of my life. The peaks and troughs are an inevitable part of being human. But if the main thread running through my life is strong, with only a few frayed fibres on the edges then I have little to concern myself with.
But then there's the battle with my self indulgent head. It teases me with flashes of significant experiences in a less than illustrious life, and in that moment I'm giving too much attention to the frayed, tattered, irrelevant fibres and I need to return my attention to the core strength of the thread holding my life together.
My husband, my family, my friends; bearers of so much love and loyalty that I am truly cushioned and protected from the more negative aspects of the world.
I have so much to be grateful for!
Right now find one thing in your life to be grateful for and feel that gratitude in your body and mind!
"It is strange how we hold on to the pieces of the past while we wait for our futures." - Ally Condie

Let your art flow!

When an artist is crippled by the need for perfection, disabled by their own doubts and criticism that the work they're crafting and shaping from their heart is in some way deficient, a potentially debilitating situation can ensue.
A self perpetuating downward spiral can lead to that place; the loneliest of places called, contempt for oneself.
In the early stages of creating, you start to produce your art because in that moment you were inspired.  Pay attention to that sense of creative clarity that evokes a tingle of excitement in your belly, a buzzing in your head as the mind and body work harmoniously together.  
If this resonates with you - whatever your art - you must work on letting your heart win over the battle with your head, and return to that beautiful union between your emotional, intuitive, creative bodymind and the more critical, analytical headmind.  However, we must be careful not to condemn the headmind because when it's working with the bodymind the results can be tremendous.  Artists know that their best work is produced when they have a feeling about a particular piece they want to produce and they use the headmind constructively to put that idea together - bliss!
Meditation, mindfulness, yoga, whatever it is that helps quieten down the chatty headmind - do it! Do it so that you can maintain that peaceful core both in your body and mind, and then your most wonderful creations will flow from you.  Happy creating everyone!
With love, Kathleen x

"Rational thoughts never drive people's creativity the way emotions do." - Neil deGrasse Tyson
"Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties." - Erich Fromm

The importance of movement.

Sometimes I forget to look up and remind myself that all is well.
So pre-occupied and busy with work related emails and concerns about my family, I get too involved with my head and ignore my body's needs to get outside and just breathe!
To feel so separate from myself and separate from the world can be catastrophic - a catastrophe caused by my own inability to stay right here, present in this moment now. I must learn to stay attached to my body and mind, not ignoring the importance of the flow between them both!
When I feel myself drifting up and up further into my head and even more distant from my body - my emotional centre - then I know I must take back control and move.
Sometimes the move is simply walking into the kitchen and making some vegetable soup, sometimes it feels right to make a bigger move and get out for a walk, a run or a bike ride - away from the house and away from anyone being able to contact me.
At times it can feel like it's an inescapable fact that I can never truly be alone - except when I'm out in the garden or out in nature.  And yet, it's when I'm outside that I stop and truly listen for the activity surrounding me and I find myself looking up in awe at the company I have.
Ironic.
The busier the birdsong, with the blackbirds, the tits, the robins, chaffinches and yellow hammers surrounding me in the garden the happier I am.
I had a buzzard accompany me on part of my bike ride recently, a union between two species I'd not expected.  I pedalled effortlessly through the crisp, clean air watching as his legs hung down, his upper body moving with a strength I knew I could never comprehend,
"I see why you love your life!" I whispered to my feathery companion.
Just a short time away from all things electronic and I feel my head clearing, my passion returning and I can rest assured all will be well.
Back in my house again, kettle on, I hear the first, "ping" of an email hitting my inbox....that's fine! My head is clear again, my body feels good too.  I want to sit down with my cup of tea and get on with helping others help themselves - just as I have to help myself.  I gently remind myself not to let things build up again, you know the signs Kathleen!  Feel what you feel and take action according to those feelings; and that message is relevant to each and every one of us!
"To keep the body in good health is a duty..otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear." - Buddha

Me, myself and the sensible one.

The swooshing and rushing sound of the wind rattling through the gaps in the tiles, woke me with a start.  In that startled state I notice the rushing speed of my thoughts and the loudness and urgency of the questions,

"Where am I?"

"What was that noise?!"

Then comes the reassurance....

"You're on Islay."

"It was the wind."

"There's nothing to worry about."

"Go back to sleep."

That cyclical conversation with myself is just a snippet of something that happens all the time. That sensible, invisible person quietly providing comfort and solace to the anxious child.  Both the adult and the child reside in my head, both vie for my attention, it takes patience to settle the anxious child and when I do, all is well.

I don't want to get rid of her though...she loves to laugh, do cartwheels, run like she ran when she was playing tig in the playground and has a freedom about her that the adult would surely scoff at.

To keep my body and mind together I must embrace both aspects of who I am.

The sensible adult provides a level- headedness that ensures I can help the clients I work with, while the child invariably injects a bit of humour into the sessions.  Don't shy away from any aspect of yourself that makes you your wonderful unique self.

"Be happy with being you.  Love your flaws. Own your quirks.  And know that you are just as perfect as anyone else, exactly as you are." - Ariana Grande