We are urged to manage stress these days as a safeguard for our own mental health and wellbeing. It is ironic that so many of us are greatly stressed at a time when the standard of living and longevity are at such peaks. The industrial and technological revolutions raised expectations and now we have AI to push the limits even further on what it means to be human.
A child doesn’t need to be taught to lie but he or she does need to learn the difference between the truth and a lie. Truth takes responsibility but a lie passes the buck with an easy way out – ‘it was someone else, not me!’ For some, lying can become a way of life, […]
There are times in life when you feel you just don’t fit in. Perhaps it’s a new job, new club, social set or even church. You begin to go quiet and then withdraw like this little guy hiding in the bushes. Other times, everything feels as comfy a fit as an old pair of slippers. […]
If you were to wander past many war graves, you would find this phrase on each tombstone, but why? Influential and eccentric author of The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling, lost his son John in the First World War and offered his services to what became known as The War Graves Commission. Despite having an eclectic […]
Ever wondered what it’d be like to be living alone on a small inaccessible island? Lighthouse keepers are not the only ones who do – there are many who either choose to be alone or who find themselves alone through life circumstances. Unwanted singleness, bereavement, friendship breakdown, loss of sight, hearing or capacity and loneliness can descend like a dark dense brooding cloud. Joan Collins said that ‘loneliness is the universal problem of rich people’ yet surely it is the poor who are often short of friends.
Fear paralyses – absolute fear paralyses absolutely. It can’t always be rationalised for it is often irrational. The face of fear has many masks but our fears must be faced if we are to be free to live a life worth living.
‘I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear’ – Nelson Mandela
‘We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light’ – Plato
So what fears are you facing? Are they long-standing fears that have dogged your life from childhood or are they the dogs that began to stalk the corridors of your adult mind?
Sometimes you hit a wall and it seems impossible to go on. For those going through assault course training, it’s encouragement from the team that get most over the wall. As marathon runners hit the wall after 20 miles, its encouragement from the crowd that can make the difference. If you’re facing some kind of wall, you need encouragement – getting over or through that wall is possible and it will make you stronger. Others have trod where you are treading.
‘God help us, we can’t keep up this pulling, that is certain. Amongst ourselves we are unendingly cheerful, but what each man feels in his heart I can only guess’ – Captain Robert Falcon Scott
There are many with broken dreams who carry the heartache of disappointment – it could simply be a new car gets mangled or it could be cherished dreams wrecked and destined for the scrap heap. Such emotions are common to all of us but it is perhaps this younger generation that feels it most keenly. Consequences of credit crunch and austerity have led to weighty student loans, unattainable home ownership, uncertain pension prospects and feelings that they have been let down.
