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Archive for the ‘health’ Category

The shortest distance

Posted in from the consulting room, from the dark room, from the living room, health, life, personal growth, photography on April 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Over the course of my career as a doctor patients would frequently ask me about diet. I’m a great believer in the uniqueness of every individual human being and I’ve no doubt that just as we all have our own taste preferences, so we each have certain foodstuffs, or whole food groups, which suit us best (or certainly which disagree with us the most).

I’m not that keen on the word “diet” because it seems to be used most frequently for a pattern of eating which the person really doesn’t want to follow for the rest of their lives. Isn’t it much better to find a way to eat well for you? Not just for a week, a month, or even a year, but all the time?

The most important practice to follow is the combination of awareness and reflection. Then you can make your choices. Notice what you eat, when you eat and how you eat. Notice how you feel before, during and after eating certain foods. What are your real preferences? Which foods seem to give you a boost, or make you feel well? Which foods upset your system, make you tired, or unwell?

Not only are you likely to find that you are not the same as other people, but you are likely to find that you will change over time. When you are a child you may well handle food differently from when you are an adult in your 30s, 40s, or older. However, by practising awareness and reflection, you can alter your choices if need be.

I do think there are other basic principles however. I’m quite a fan of Michael Pollan’s “Food Rules” – “Eat food. Mainly plants. Not too much.” And time and time again the “Mediterranean diet” is found to be associated with good health. But if there is one single principle I would highlight it is about quality of food, and it seems to me that the shorter the distance from land to table the better.

That applies not just physically, as with this photo of a selection of what is growing in our garden just now on its way to our lunch table. But it also applies to the number of stages of preparation.

The more processed and transported a food, the more I prefer to avoid it.

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Re-enchanting life – the importance of Nature

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, health, life, personal growth, photography, psychology on April 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Vineyard early April

I’ve been away from home for about three weeks, and when I returned I noticed that the vineyards are starting to blossom with wild flowers.

As I look out from my house or from my garden I see vineyards in every direction. I see trees, flowers, bushes, birds, butterflies and blossoms. I hear beautiful birdsongs both during the day, and at night. I look up into the clear night sky as I did last night and the more I look the more stars I can see.

So, today, I am reminded about the importance of our natural environment in deepening my experience of life. In Japan there is something called “forest bathing”, which is just about spending time amongst trees. It seems that not only do we gain a psychological boost from being in the forest but the trees produce anti-inflammatory substances which we breathe in.

Richard Louv wrote a book about the importance of Nature for our health – he coined the idea of “vitamin N” (N for Nature) and he postulated that many of us are suffering from a disease – “Nature Deficit Disorder” – for which the cure is, of course, enough doses of Nature!

I know we are not separate from Nature, but rather that we emerge from within it and never exist outwith it on this Earth, but it is all too easy in our increasingly urbanised societies to become cut off from the healing influence of Nature.

Wherever you live, I expect that within half an hour or so of travel, you can find a park, a wood, a beach, a riverside walk, a lake or some other abundant area of plants and animals. Pop along now again. I bet you’ll feel the better for it.

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Re-charging your batteries

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, health, life, personal growth, photography, science on March 17, 2015| 5 Comments »

Charge your batteries

I was surprised to see this street in Paris with its row of recharging stations, and every one of them occupied by an electrically powered car having its battery recharged.

An encouraging sight in a city battling with air pollution issues, in a world undergoing climate change.

It also provoked a few moments of thought about how I re-charge MY batteries, and I thought it might be good to ask you what you do to re-charge yours? Are you aware of your energy levels on a day to day basis? And if you are, do you do anything about it? Burn up, store or re-store your energy?

Oh, and I also just found the shot I took to be really pleasing. I applied one of the “Photos” filters which came already installed on my iPad……nice, isn’t it?

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Imagination has no off switch

Posted in creativity, from the consulting room, from the living room, health, life, neuroscience, perception, personal growth, philosophy, photography, psychology on March 8, 2015| 1 Comment »

In my A to Z of Becoming, one of the verbs beginning with “I” is “imagine”.

As it happens, I’ve chose “imagination” as my keyword for this year. Do you do that? Do you choose a “word for the year”? 

I think I have a very active, very well developed imagination. My feeling is that I used my ability to imagine every day at work as a doctor to help me understand my patients. For me, good medical practice is dependant on the ability to empathise. Without empathy there is a diminished level of understanding. In fact, the complete lack of empathy, resulting from a failure of imagination, as a cause of cruelty, was highlighted by the author Ian McEwan, and others, after 9/11.

Since retiring and moving to France, I’ve begun to experiment with writing fiction as another way to use my imagination. What startles me, and repeatedly surprises me, when I write fiction is how my imagination comes up with things I hadn’t expected. 

Maybe that shouldn’t surprise me because every night when we dream our imaginations are producing the unexpected, aren’t they?

That got me thinking…..is there an off switch for imagination?

Are we ever not using our imagination?

When we fear something, we are imagining whatever it is we fear. When we worry about something, we imagine whatever it is we are worrying about. When we experience something we bring our imaginations into the experience as we create the subjective experience for ourselves. When we remember something we re-create the memories using our imaginations. When we plan to make something happen, we use our imaginations to create the plan.

Actually, I think, there is no off switch for the imagination.

However, when we are on auto-pilot, when we are in zombie mode rather than in hero mode, we are not aware of the activity of our imagination, and we are not making conscious choices.

Those are the two key elements to moving from zombie to hero mode, I reckon –

First, become aware.

Second, choose what to do.

So, here’s two things about imagining to explore this week.

What are you currently using your imagination for? And, what are you going to choose to use your imagination for?

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Opening

Posted in from the consulting room, from the dark room, from the living room, health, life, narrative, personal growth, philosophy, photography on March 6, 2015| 6 Comments »

opening

As this little plant opens up, it collects the morning dew.

Opening……I was recently reading an interview with Richard Sennett where he was talking about co-operation, and one of the things he was discussing was the difference between “dialogue” and “dialectics”.

Although that latter word might seem strange to you, it’s what we do a lot. As we converse with one another we each set out our views or beliefs and the idea of a dialectic discussion is to try to find “the truth”, or to achieve a shared view. (It’s not exactly that, but that’s probably close enough for this post!)

He proposed what we need to do if we want to live together, is dialogue.

In dialectic conversations, opposing positions (thesis and antithesis) confront one another with the goal of resolving conflicts (as a synthesis).  “In dialectic[s]…the verbal play of opposites should gradually build up a synthesis…the aim is to come eventually to a common understanding. Skill in practicing dialectic[s] lies in detecting what might establish that common ground.” Dialogical conversation, on the other hand, is much more open ended, not necessarily seeking the goal of resolution. “Though no shared agreements may be reached, through the process of exchange people may become more aware of their own views and expand their understanding of one another.” There is an openness of exchange in dialogics that is captured by idioms like ‘bouncing ideas off each other,’ ‘thinking out loud,’ or ‘brainstorming.’ Because the exchange is not structured as assertion, defend, assertion, etc. one has the space to be inventive, creative, and wrong. The value of dialogical conversation then is not the resolution of conflicts, but is to create a greater understanding, empathy, and sociability between parties; in other words, the goal is exposure

So, in dialogue, he says, we seek to understand the other. We don’t refute or challenge what they say in order to deny it, or modify it to suit our own views or purposes, but instead we ask more about why the person thinks that, or says that, and in so doing we might not achieve a “consensus” but we do achieve an understanding. Build that in with tolerance and you have a way of living with difference. (Dialectics, he says, seeks elimination of difference)

I found that in consultations with patients it was important to understand not just what they were experiencing but what sense they were making of that experience. And that sense might have a religious or a political/social basis which I personally didn’t share, but if I was to do my job well, I didn’t need to replace the sense they were making of things with my own personal beliefs and values. Rather I needed to understand, as best I could, what was different about this person – what beliefs and values were important to them in helping them to make sense of their experience.

That process is a process of opening up. It involves asking open questions, not ones where I have an answer or two up my sleeve, and I’m just waiting to produce the “right” one.

So, here’s what I’m thinking……when we talk to someone else, how do we open up the conversation, rather than close it down?

How can we be open to difference, instead of trying to eliminate it?

 

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Delusions of control

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, health, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography, psychology, science on March 4, 2015| 2 Comments »

The Atlantic

People crave certainty.

We want to know, for sure, what the results will be of our actions. We want to be able to predict what is going to happen in the world, and in our lives.

Don’t we?

Two examples spring to my mind.

1. The daily weather forecast.

Every day millions of people listen to, watch or read the weather forecast. We want to predict what the weather will be like tomorrow, in a few days time, next week or the week after even……

2. The focus on “outcomes”.

Knowing for sure the results of our actions – in Medicine, we want to know for sure what will happen if we have treatment X, and we want to know for sure what diseases we will get and what effects they will have on us. In Economics, we want to know for sure that if we introduce this particular policy then it will have the results we desire. In engineering we want to know for sure that the machines we make will consistently and reliably do the job we design them to do.

That’s how it is for us humans. We’re afraid. We know that none of us live for ever but that’s a terrible knowledge to have. We want power over the unpredictable. We want to control the present in order to control the future.

But does the world work like that? Is Life like that?

I don’t believe those who predict futures, but I’ll listen to what they have to say, and make some choices all the same. If the weather forecast says it’s going to pour with rain tomorrow but has a good chance of being sunny in a couple of days time, I might choose to put off my trip to the beach tomorrow, and, instead, to plan to go in a couple of days time.

But do you know what I find most satisfying of all?

To “seize the day”.

If I wake up tomorrow and the forecast is wrong…..there’s bright sunshine and clear blue skies, then it’s great to set off to the coast, and not wait for a “better day” a couple of days ahead.

And what about control – of diseases, of economies, of machines and so on? We don’t control any of that.

Look at that lighthouse in the image above.

Does it control the Atlantic Ocean?

Does it ensure that shipping will not hit rocks?

No, neither of those things.

It gives us the opportunity to be aware, and so let’s us make adaptive choices. (In the case of the lighthouse, to be aware of the rocky coast and to change direction)

But if the opposite of control and prediction is “out of control” and unpredictable, then I don’t know any human beings who can manage to live that way.

So, for me, it’s not about trying to be out of control or to relish unpredictability. Despite the fact that the delusions of control and fallibility of predictability will always be unsatisfying, disappointing or frustrating.

I do think there is another way.

The other way has something to do with awareness, with resilience, and with living in the present moment, but I think I’ll take the time to explore that in more detail in future posts.

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March – playing to your strengths

Posted in from the consulting room, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, health, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography, psychology on March 3, 2015| 3 Comments »

Dragon

A few years ago I wondered why the twelve months of the year have the names they do, and around the same time I was thinking, for many of us, there is a lack of awareness of rhythm and ritual in our lives, so I put the two ideas together and came up with a theme for each month of the year.

I use the theme as a touchstone of a kind. It’s a reminder, a meditation focus, a thought to return to each day….

March, the month which is named after Mars, has become, for me, the month to focus on strength.

There are two aspects of that which have come up for me this year as I reflect on this theme.

The first has been prompted by my reading of an article by Richard Sennett about “open cities”. He focuses on the issues which arise from us trying to live together – as we do as human beings, clustering together and building huge cities. That reminds me of T S Eliot’s Choruses from the Rock –

When the Stranger says: “What is the meaning of this city?

Do you huddle close together because you love each other?”

What will you answer? “We all dwell together

To make money from each other”? or “This is a community”?

And the Stranger will depart and return to the desert.

О my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger,

Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions.

Before I wander too far off topic, one of the key points Richard Sennett makes is about boundaries and borders. He says

The boundary is an edge where things end; the border is an edge where difference groups interact. At borders, organisms become more inter-active, due to the meeting of different species or physical conditions; for instance, where the shoreline of a lake meets solid land is an active zone of exchange where organisms find and feed off other organisms. Not surprisingly, it is also at the borderline where the work of natural selection is the most intense. Whereas the boundary is a guarded territory, as established by prides of lions or packs of wolves. No transgression at the boundary: Keep Out! Which means the edge itself is dead.

That’s a pretty new idea for me, but I’ve long since known the importance of healthy borders. In thinking about health, we need healthy boundaries which are maintained by our immune systems, but we also need healthy borders where we meet and interact with what is “other”.

So, here’s the first thing I’m going to reflect on this month, the month of strength – how are my boundaries and how are my borders? How healthy are they, and how might I make them healthier?

I think the answers to those questions are unique for each of us, but if you are inspired by this, why not reflect on boundaries and borders in your own life? See what you come up with?

The second aspect which has come up for me is Seligman’s idea of strengths. If you’ve never done it, or it’s some time since you did it, go and take the free questionnaire on his site and find out what your own core strengths are.

Just as I reflected on the difference between positive and negative hope, I think we can build our strengths by paying attention to them – not by beating ourselves up over our weaknesses!

So, there you are – March – the month of strength. What does that mean for you?

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Heroes not zombies

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, health, life, narrative, personal growth, philosophy, photography on February 24, 2015| 3 Comments »

The amphitheatre

I call this blog “heroes not zombies” because I think so many of us go through much of our lives on autopilot. You know the kind of thing where you travel from home to work, or to a local shop or school, and when you get there you realise you’ve been thinking about something all the way and you actually have no recollection of any detail from the journey. Scary, huh?!

We easily create habits for ourselves, always sitting in the same seat, or taking the same route to town, or ordering the same drink in the same cafe…….not that habits are bad in themselves, but they do take the consciousness out of choosing. They are another way of slipping into autopilot.

We are controlled that way too. Our societies might claim to be free but they are based on mass markets, on global brands and services. We are “normalised” and “socialised” to “fit in”. Uniqueness isn’t encouraged.

In health care drugs are prescribed on the basis of research conducted on groups which is used to create protocols which patients are plugged into on the basis of a diagnostic label.

The Romans had a phrase for this – “bread and circuses”. They knew how to create a zombie society where citizens would conform. Two basic techniques – bread ie make sure people don’t go hungry, and circuses ie entertainment which provides distraction and absorption in what isn’t important. Using these two they could go a long way in the creation of a compliant populace.

Of course they used other techniques too – not least fear and violence – great control measures.

The amphitheatre I photographed above was a key venue for bringing all of that together – food, entertainment, fear and violence – all in one place!

What’s the modern equivalent? Industrial scale “food” production, highly processed, loaded with sugars and chemicals of no nutritional value, and mass media “entertainment” with a focus on “celebrities” and “reality TV”. Add on top plenty of scare stories to keep the population afraid and daily threats of violence through the mass media.

Seems to me the formula still works.

But there is an alternative. Every single one of us is an individual with a unique story to tell. That story makes sense of our lives, creates an awareness of who we are, and sets us in our unique contexts – of place, of family and of tradition. That story gives us the ability to hope, to imagine and to aspire. It gives us a direction. And YOU – yes, YOU – are THE hero of your story. You are the main protagonist. It’s you who chooses, you who accepts or avoids the challenges, you who grows and develops.

So there we have it. We don’t have to succumb. We don’t have to sign up to the zombie creation programme. We can be the heroes of our own stories, and, so, of our own lives.

How do we do that?

Well, you could start by taking a look around at the articles on this site. Check out the A to Z of Becoming posts for example. Read the posts on “story” or “narrative”. Or just come back periodically and read what you want to read.

Hopefully, you’ll be inspired.

 

 

 

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3 kinds of active dreaming

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, health, life, neuroscience, personal growth, philosophy, photography, psychology on February 1, 2015| 1 Comment »

DSCN2811

 

In the A to Z of Becoming, D can stand for Dream. Let’s consider three different kinds of active dreaming this week.

Probably when you first think of dreaming, you think of the dreaming you do when you are asleep. Dream experiences are astonishingly diverse. From almost mundane rehearsing a day’s events, to bizarre, symbolic totally baffling dreams, to dreams which feel important somehow. And how annoyingly common it is for the dreams to vanish in a flash as you wake leaving you with some kind of memory of having been dreaming, but the content has suddenly become inaccessible. Lucid dreams are ones where the dreamer is aware of dreaming. It doesn’t happen often for me, but when it does the dream always has the feel of significance. My most recent lucid dream was like that. As I flew above the Earth I was aware I was dreaming and that this experience was potentially important to me so chose to zoom down and look carefully to see what I could see. What I saw astonished me and is working its way out in my life in a myriad of incredible ways. (Maybe I’ll describe it some time for you)

Scientists have discovered something very interesting about lucid dreams. The part of the brain which seems active during self-reflection is especially well developed in lucid dreamers, raising this interesting prospect –

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich have discovered that the brain area which enables self-reflection is larger in lucid dreamers. Thus, lucid dreamers are possibly also more self-reflecting when being awake.

This is one of those fascinating chicken and egg scenarios. If you could train people to experience lucid dreaming more frequently, would that assist them in becoming more self-reflective? And the other way too…..if you practice more self-reflection, do you have more lucid dreams?

So, there’s the first type of active dream to consider – lucid dreaming. If you have a lucid dream stick with it. My experience suggests that it will pay off in abundance. If you don’t have lucid dreams, developing daily self-reflective practices such as journaling, or meditation, might increase your chances of having one. (And you will probably receive the benefits of the self-reflective practices anyway)

A second kind of active dream is the conscious, heading towards something kind of dream. I find it is very common to discover that top musicians, artists, or sportsmen and women, dreamed of their achievements even as children. If you have such a dream, if you desire with all your heart to develop a particular skill or talent, then that dream may well contribute to its coming true. Whilst we can’t all be top performers in some area, I do think that the consistent dreams which run over many years generate both motivation and commitment. I dreamed of being a doctor when I was three years old, and I can’t remember a time throughout my whole childhood that I didn’t have that dream. Once I became a doctor, the dream modified to become more specific. I dreamed of being a particular kind of doctor. By that, I mean a doctor who practiced according to certain values. That dream underpinned all my career choices. I’ve also had a dream since childhood to become a writer, and that’s something I’m realising more consistently now, than at any previous stage of my life.

What dreams do you have for you life? What does your heart desire? What does your soul long for? If you know, why not take some time to write it out. Describe it, make it more concrete, lay the foundations for the life you hope for. If you don’t know, you could start to journal about it, or to meditate about it, or to discuss it with a loved one. Explore potential dreams and see what makes your heart sing. (By the way, that constitutes self-reflection, so such a practice might increase your chances of lucid dreaming)

Finally, a third kind of dream is a day dream. Now you might think day dreaming is a passive experience, not an active one. But that’s only partially true. Day dreams usually begin with a contemplation or a reflection. They usually have a focus. However, instead of rigorously wrestling with whatever we are focusing on, day dreaming involves an active letting go. Letting the mind find it’s own way without being too directive.

I think day dreaming has a bad press. It’s one of the things children are scolded for, and is considered to be sloppy or lazy. I think that completely fails to see the potential in day dreaming. Actively choosing to day dream can bring a whole other dimension to your life. What comes up may well surprise you, bringing you much deeper insights than other exercises can. Solutions to problems can appear in day dreams as “aha!” moments.

So, there’s three kinds of active dreaming to consider and play with this week – lucid dreaming, getting in touch with the foundation dreams of your life, and active day dreaming.

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The beauty of difference

Posted in creativity, from the dark room, from the living room, health, life, perception, personal growth, philosophy, photography on January 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »

yellow and blue

I think it is often difference which catches my eye.

i think difference is beautiful.

Sameness quickly becomes, well, sameness.

This simple photo is beautiful, not just because the blue sky is beautiful, and the yellow lichen on the tree is beautiful, but also because of the contrast between the blue and the yellow, and the contrast between the smoothness of the sky and the roughness of the branches.

Mass production and mass control seems to have a different ethic from this – uniformity and the “elimination of variation”.

Here’s to a celebration of difference, of uniqueness and of diversity.

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