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Archive for the ‘from the living room’ Category

The changing light

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, photography on December 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I love how the light changes towards the end of a day…..

Towards the end of the day

And how the light we make begins to glow…..

time to close the shutters

It’s almost time to close the shutters….

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Difference

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, health, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography on December 9, 2014| 6 Comments »

difference

Wouldn’t it be great if difference was seen to be something interesting, attractive, even beautiful?

If we could not just respect and tolerate difference, but encourage it and celebrate it?

Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t try to make everyone the same?

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Imagination and grounds for hope

Posted in books, creativity, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, life, personal growth, writing on December 8, 2014| 1 Comment »

where I write

Here’s where I write.

The reflection of the sky in the window of my study really caught my eye. In fact, I’d say it caught my imagination.

Imagination.

Too often these days imagination is harnessed to fear. Our daily newsfeed from the media provokes us to think about and worry about the most awful horrors. During the Referendum campaign in Scotland this year the No camp bombarded people day in, day out, with scare story after scare story. How else can a minority continue to hold power over the majority? How else can a fraction of the 1% who grow richer by the day, no, by the minute, continue to exert power over the 99%? Is it any wonder that in democratic societies so many are disenchanted with politics? Where are the politicians and parties with vision….with spectacular, engaging ideas and passionately held values which motivate us to create the solutions to the problems which face us?

It seems to me that we need to fire up peoples’ imaginations.

Where else are we to get our new ideas from? Where else are we to get our hope from?

Ursula Le Guin, the author, received a medal at the National Book Awards recently, and she said this –

I think hard times are coming, when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies, to other ways of being. And even imagine some real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom: poets, visionaries—the realists of a larger reality. Right now, I think we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. The profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable; so did the divine right of kings. … Power can be resisted and changed by human beings; resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words. I’ve had a long career and a good one, in good company, and here, at the end of it, I really don’t want to watch American literature get sold down the river. … The name of our beautiful reward is not profit. Its name is freedom.

I so agree.

Hard times seem to be coming. For many, they are here already. We DO need the writers who can see a way ahead and inspire us to create a better future. We do need to writers who “remember freedom” and count it as “our beautiful reward”. And we certainly need writers who can “imagine some real grounds for hope”.

I hope that, daily, little by little, I am becoming one of those writers……

After all, if we can’t imagine real grounds for hope, how do we carry on?

Imagination is such a precious and amazing facility. We can use it to solve problems. We can use it to create – art, music, literature, new thoughts and new acts…..not just, as Ursula Le Guin says “other ways of being”, but other ways of becoming!

If we are to realise our potential to become heroes not zombies, we’re going to need those writers who can fire up our imaginations…….. to think creatively, and, importantly, to DO things differently.

If we believe freedom is possible, aren’t we going to have to use our imaginations to create it?

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The A to Z of Becoming. Part 2. W is for Wish

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, personal growth, photography, psychology on December 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

a wish

In the second part of the A to Z of Becoming, W stands for Wish.

How nice, that we’ve come to this verb at this time of year!

You might want to make a single wish, like the Japanese one I saw above, or to create a whole flourishing bush of wishes, like in this next photo….

blossom of wishes

Or you might be a more organised type, and like your wishes in rows and columns! –

making a wish

Whether or not you choose to tie your wishes to a tree, or a fence, or a line of thread, I think it’s a great idea to actually write your wishes down and put them somewhere! This Japanese tradition is an attractive one. Why not try it?

Do you think wishes come true? Well, have you ever heard the phrase “Be careful what you wish for!”?

What does that mean? Does it mean you might not like what you get even when you’ve longed for it? Or because you might not have thought through the consequences of your wish? Does it mean you shouldn’t wish lightly? But only after careful consideration?

Whatever it means, the person saying it clearly thinks that wishes might indeed be fulfilled. Otherwise, why be careful?

I think wishes are often fulfilled. But I don’t think wishes are the same as magic spells. There’s some similarity between wishes and goals. Both provide some kind of focus, some kind of direction and I think a wish is more likely to come true if you apply something like the “SMART” principles which people apply to goals – “Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, Time related”.

I wouldn’t map the same criteria directly onto wishing, but I do think wishes are more likely to be fulfilled if they are at least specific, realistic and time focused.

I think there is also a relationship between wishes and hopes. Someone without hope is unlikely to make a wish.

What about you?

What place is there for wishing in your life?

Would now be a good time to draw up your own list of wishes for yourself for the coming year? Would that be a nice complement, or alternative, to resolutions, or goals?

And what do you wish for others?

When you wish something for someone else, maybe the wish is more likely to be granted if you actually do something to help make the wish come true. What could you do to help make your wishes for others come true?

I think that also applies to your own wishes, by the way – the ones more likely to come to pass, are the ones you actively work towards……

One final thought about wishes. Values-based wishing is likely to orientate you towards acting according to that value. For example, if you wish there was more kindness in the world, you are reminding yourself how much you value kindness, so you are giving yourself a chance, not just to act more kindly every day, but to open yourself up to acts of kindness in your life.

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Fields of gold

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, from the music room, from the viewing room, life, photography, video on December 6, 2014| 1 Comment »

How lucky am I? To live amongst the fields of gold?
fields of gold

(not barley, but vines, in my case!)

 

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Dinnae fash yersel

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography on December 5, 2014| 2 Comments »

swans at the weir
So, I saw these two swans standing calmly on the edge of the weir and I thought maybe one was saying to the other “dinnae fash yersel” – or don’t worry/don’t get upset……..and how that attitude then turned out to be typical of this part of the world.

Not long after moving to the Charente region of France I was in the Orange shop trying to organise a phone line, broadband, a French mobile….and the assistant was on her computer trying to set me up with a new account. Something went wrong and she had to phone for help. After a few minutes of clicking here and there and conversing with her support line, she said “Soyons Zen” and finished her call. “C’est ça”. That was it sorted, our account was created and off we went.

I liked the phrase “Soyons Zen”, which means something like “Let’s be Zen”, or “Let’s stay Zen”. I think that little exchange says so much about the quality of life in this part of the world. Repeatedly I’ve found people helpful, friendly and not inclined to get agitated or upset easily. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but the Charente river has the reputation of being a calm, flowing river through these parts.

 

the Charente

One of the nearby villages is Segonzac, which is a signed up member of the “Cittaslow” movement.

I do think there’s something about this environment which seems to generate this attitude to life.

Which makes me wonder…..how much does our physical environment influence the way we experience life?

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An ancient, but insightful teaching on placebo

Posted in books, from the consulting room, from the living room, from the reading room, from the viewing room, health, life, personal growth, science on December 4, 2014| 5 Comments »

Rainbow fountain

I’m using this photo of a rainbow appearing in a fountain because I think rainbows are a symbol of hope, as well as being a phenomenon which exists only in the presence of the subject (the observer), and a fountain which is symbolic for me, of the life force, that flowing healing energy which enlivens and heals us all.

Isaac Judaeus lived from 855 to 955. He was physician to the Fatimid rulers of Qairawan in Tunisia, and his works were amongst the first to be translated from Arabic into Latin at the time of the great translations which brought Arabic thought and science to the notice of the West. His books had a big influence on Western medieval medicine, still being read into the 17th century. There’s a small book of his, Guide for Physicians, which only exists in Hebrew translation, where he sets out his ethical conception of medical practice (remember this is writing from the 9th and 10th centuries). I’ve only read a few of his aphorisms, but this one, in particular, caught my eye.

Comfort the sufferer by the promise of healing, even when thou art not confident, for thus thou mayest assist his natural powers

What’s he saying here?

First of all that physicians should comfort the sufferer. Sadly, that’s an element of health care which patients don’t always experience. Shouldn’t physicians always offer care and comfort?

Secondly, they should do this “by the promise of healing”. He goes on to say “even when thou art not confident”. Wouldn’t this be deceit in some situations? One of my earliest experiences as a young doctor was admitting a very elderly, very ill lady to the ward where I worked. Her also very elderly daughters were hugging each other on the seat outside the ward, wringing their hands, crying and upset about what was happening to their mother. I thought I’d comfort them and said “Don’t worry. Your mother is in the right place now. I’m sure she will be fine” They smiled to me just as one of the nurses came out of the ward and called me aside. “That patient you just admitted doctor? She’s just died”. Well, that taught me a lesson. But it didn’t stop me practising with hope, practising with the expectation that there was a potential for things to go well. It just taught me never to assume I could accurately predict the future!

I still believe that. I believe none of us can predict the future….especially not in the case of the particular, the specific, individual circumstance. I was surprised many times throughout my career when patients did so much better than the textbooks would have predicted. So, I often thought, the truth is that as you look forward from this point in time, there are a whole range of potential paths leading from here into the future. In the situation of illness, some of those paths will be largely ones of decline, some of stumbling along, and some of steady, or sudden, improvement. And nobody, but nobody, can accurately predict which path this particular patient will take. Therefore, at each stage of the process, hope is not only possible, but is as reasonable an option as any other.

That’s what I understand about “the promise of healing” – it’s not really a promise, in the sense of a guarantee, but a potential (in the way we say something may be “full of promise”). And I think acting from that perspective contributed to the improvements patients experienced.

That’s the final part of Isaac Judaeus’s aphorism – “for thus thou mayest assist his natural powers”.

I can’t see there is any healing other than that brought about by the human being’s “natural powers”. I’d describe them now in terms of systems theory, or complexity theory. Those natural powers are the power shown in any “complex adaptive system” – the powers of self-regulation, self-defence, self-healing…..the “autopoietic” “self-making capacity” of a person.

Medical acts, medicinal substances, physicians’ interventions are only truly healing when they work with, not against, this capacity. That’s why doctors should always remain humble. It’s not what we do that heals. It’s what we stimulate and/or assist….the astonishing self-healing powers of the human being.

In contemporary thought, these “natural powers” Isaac Judaeus refers to are often wrapped up in the idea of the “placebo effect”, but, sadly, that’s a concept so entangled with ideas of trickery and deceit that the “self-healing” powers get lost in it.

So, here’s what I get from that old aphorism –

  • offer comfort and care
  • offer hope and the promise/potential of healing
  • and in so doing assist the natural or self-healing powers found in every human being

One of my hopes for the future of Medicine would be that we learn many other ways to assist those “natural powers”.

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Thank you for December

Posted in from the consulting room, from the dark room, from the living room, life, personal growth, photography, psychology on December 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

bell rope

In my monthly themes, December is the month to focus on gratitude.

I know, for many, your thoughts will be turning to gifts….what to give and what you hope to receive. I just wonder how your choices might be affected by keeping your focus this month on gratitude. Maybe then ever gift you give will demonstrate, somehow, something of the gratitude you feel towards the recipients of your gifts.

Many studies have show benefits, in terms of mental and physical well-being, which emerge from the practice of gratitude.

Have you ever thought about starting a “gratitude journal“? This might be a really great month to try it out.

Even if you don’t want to start a gratitude journal, why not take the opportunity of December to focus on gratitude anyway? Who do you want to say thank you to? Go ahead, tell them. What do you feel grateful for? Take a moment to think about exactly what it is, and to allow yourself the full benefits of feeling that gratitude swell in your heart as you contemplate it.

Or maybe you’d like to create, or participate in, a ritual of gratitude?

There’s certainly no single, only way to focus on gratitude, so explore a few ideas, and see what works best for you.

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Where does your genius reside?

Posted in creativity, from the living room, from the viewing room, life, neuroscience, psychology on December 1, 2014| 1 Comment »

The other day I watched Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk about genius.

She recounts how the ancient Greeks had the concept of a “daemon” which would communicate the great ideas and creative breakthroughs from the gods. The Romans adopted this concept but used the term “genius” instead.

The really interesting thing about this concept is that inspiration came from somewhere “out there” – whereas nowadays we tend to think that it is entirely up to us. She tells several stories of artists who experienced inspiration as coming from “out there” somehow and how the artist’s job is to turn up and do their work every day in order to give the “genius” a chance to deliver something.

I think this is a really interesting perspective. It doesn’t lessen the need to be disciplined and to do the work, but it also allows the artist to be a little kinder to themselves, and to know that not all “genius” resides in them. Potentially this could make an artist more humble….if they truly believed that their creations weren’t entirely their personal brilliance.

For me, this makes me think of two things.

First, we all live “on the shoulders of giants” – we all emerge from all that is and all that has existed before. I start at this point in human development, at this moment in the emergence of consciousness in the Universe. I don’t exist in a vacuum. I don’t exist in isolation. My relationships with other human beings now, and other human beings in the past, will, and do, influence what I write, what I compose, what I create. In that sense, at least, inspiration will often turn up from one of those sources.

Second, the idea reminds me of Rupert Sheldrake’s idea of memory. He suggests we think of memory not as a filing cabinet in some part of our brain cells (in fact no “place” in our neural structure has been discovered to be the repository of any specific memories), but instead, we should think that everything that happens, every thought we have, every word we express ripples out into the continuous web of the universe and remains there. To access a memory then is more like tuning in to a radio station than looking in a filing cabinet. He suggests the “store” as such is “out there” and we can tune in to it to access the specific memories. Now, I’m sure that is a very controversial idea and not one which has been even remotely proven, but there is an interesting one in the context of the old ideas of the sources of inspiration, don’t you think?

Here’s her talk in full

 

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The A to Z of Becoming. Part 2. V for Vary

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, health, life, neuroscience, perception, personal growth, philosophy, photography, psychology on November 30, 2014| 3 Comments »

barometer

In the second part of the A to Z of Becoming, V stands for the verb “vary”.

I found this photo of an old barometer in my collection and it really captures something about the natural function of variation. A barometer is pretty constantly moving, responding continuously to the rising or falling of the atmospheric pressure. I’ve always thought it quite funny that one of the words on these old barometers is “variable” because I tend to think, when it comes to weather, when is anything other than “variable”?! But then, that’s probably down to my experience of living in Scotland for 60 years! I’ve never lived in a country where the weather is the same, day in, day out.

The truth is Nature is constantly varying because all of Nature is a dynamic phenomenon. And the Universe so loves diversity!

But there’s an interesting aspect of human experience, which is “tolerance”. All of our sensory systems have a tendency to tolerance. That is, when something new comes along we notice it, but once its been there for a bit, we stop noticing it. How often have you had the experience of suddenly becoming aware of a noise just when it stops?

Not quite the same as tolerance, but in some ways related, we also tend to move to the “back of our minds” the routines of our lives. This can lead to living on auto-pilot (or as I say in this blog, living like a zombie).

It’s good that a lot of things are dealt with on auto-pilot. What on earth would life be like if we had to think about every breath we take, if we had to initiate every beat of our hearts, if we had to actively, consciously digest all our food, and so on…..? What on earth would life be life if we had to be consciously aware all the time of every single sensory signal our body picks up, second by second?

But the problems come when we default our whole lives to auto-pilot. What happens then is that we tend to just keep repeating the same behaviours, having the same thoughts, feeling the same feelings, and, ultimately, neither making choices, nor creating any life anew.

So, it’s also good to disrupt the default, to break the routines, and raise our conscious level to higher state of awareness.

One way to do that is to vary something.

Walk a different way to work. Choose something different for breakfast. Read a different newspaper. Deliberately introduce a variation to your “normal” habits.

Go on, try it. Vary some things this week and see what that feels like.

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