Links
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celebrating and connecting emerging forms of spiritual community - Waihoihoi Lodge
A country retreat
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an emerging church - Google News
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Changing the world through encounter: Hospitality - good food - wine - coffee and conversation. Gathering fragments of meaning and hope and some absolutely meaningless ones along the way. Finding god/goddess in all of that.
Monday, May 23, 2005
Happy is a state of mind
Once again Canvas in the weekend herald has yielded an article to get me pondering. Carlin Flora has written the article - here are some snippets
"The things we expect will bring us lasting joy rarely do. Long-anticipated events give us a swell of glee.. then we settle back into being just about as happy as we've always been. Most of us have a happiness 'set' point, fixed by temperament and early life experience, which is very difficult to shift."
"However psychologists now believe many of us can turn the well-being thermostat up or down a few notches by changing how we think about anticipation, memory and the present moment.... focusing on the moment may help us understand how to be happy. Besides, we have a built-in tendency to grow more cheerful as we get older: aging helps us ignore the the negative and shift our attention towards the positive. Finding happiness isn't hopeless, its a matter of time..."
Linda Cartensen, a professor of psychology at Stanford has done some work on this. They are now studying Buddhist meditation to see how their practice alters their perception of time.
All of this confirms for me the importance of the spiritual practice of living in the moment - treasuring the now and the sacredness of the now. This theme is there in celtic prayer - bless me in my going and my coming, as I make this fire, and tend this food.... It is there it the buddhist practice of mindfulness....
"The things we expect will bring us lasting joy rarely do. Long-anticipated events give us a swell of glee.. then we settle back into being just about as happy as we've always been. Most of us have a happiness 'set' point, fixed by temperament and early life experience, which is very difficult to shift."
"However psychologists now believe many of us can turn the well-being thermostat up or down a few notches by changing how we think about anticipation, memory and the present moment.... focusing on the moment may help us understand how to be happy. Besides, we have a built-in tendency to grow more cheerful as we get older: aging helps us ignore the the negative and shift our attention towards the positive. Finding happiness isn't hopeless, its a matter of time..."
Linda Cartensen, a professor of psychology at Stanford has done some work on this. They are now studying Buddhist meditation to see how their practice alters their perception of time.
All of this confirms for me the importance of the spiritual practice of living in the moment - treasuring the now and the sacredness of the now. This theme is there in celtic prayer - bless me in my going and my coming, as I make this fire, and tend this food.... It is there it the buddhist practice of mindfulness....
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Benefits of boredom
"Rather than be constantly told what we want and be pressurised to go after it, I think we would be benefit greatly from spells of vaguely restless boredom in which desire can crystallise"
From an article about Adam Phillips book "Going Sane" in The Weekend Herald 7 May 2005. Adams is a psychoanalyst who hates the 'intrusiveness' of therapy, a rigorous sceptic whose brilliant books have tackled despair, disillusionment and tickling.
He reflects on the madness at the heart of modern life in a way I find engaging.
He suggests knitting might be as useful as therapy. Right on.
taking time, coming home to yourself, giving yourself a break...
From an article about Adam Phillips book "Going Sane" in The Weekend Herald 7 May 2005. Adams is a psychoanalyst who hates the 'intrusiveness' of therapy, a rigorous sceptic whose brilliant books have tackled despair, disillusionment and tickling.
He reflects on the madness at the heart of modern life in a way I find engaging.
He suggests knitting might be as useful as therapy. Right on.
taking time, coming home to yourself, giving yourself a break...
