Ideas for the summer holidays
Holidays are a great time to be with ourselves and to be with others, to practice mindfulness, meditation, gratitude and listening.
The rudiments of happiness
Be present: Most suffering is caused by too much thinking. Choose to be present in your physical life, rather than in the drama of your imagined mental life. “Think less, be more!” Be kind to yourself and to others: Treat yourself at least as well as you would treat a good friend! Unless we take care of ourselves, we will not be able to take care of others effectively. You could search the whole world, but you will not find anyone who deserves your love and kindness more than you do. Be grateful: Never lose sight of the mind-boggling miracle, the privilege of being alive, being conscious and being here.…
Do we have free will – can we change?
"You can do as you wish but you cannot wish as you wish." I have spent this weekend engrossed in the work of Robert Sapolsky, neuroendocrinologist, primatologist and biologist − specifically his book, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst. As much as we like to think of ourselves as free thinking rational beings, as much as we like to believe that our actions are based on choice, on free will, Sapolsky argues quite convincingly that among all the neurochemical, hormonal, developmental and evolutionary factors, rational thought and free will count for much less than we would like to imagine, if at all. The key question, to…