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Épanouissement

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography, psychology on April 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »

One of the great things about learning a second language is how you keep stumbling across words which are difficult to translate exactly into your first language. I find that doesn’t just expand my vocabulary, but it increases the ways I have to think about, and express, my experiences.

So, here’s a new word for me, and, if you don’t speak French, it’ll be a new word for you too – épanouissement.

I have a Larousse English-French dictionary app on my iPhone – here’s what it says about this word – “blooming”, “opening up”, “lighting up”, “fulfilment”, “self-fulfilment”.

Doesn’t that give you a nice, rich and deep range of ideas and concepts all at once? I love that.

When I took this photo yesterday, I was lucky to catch the bird stretching out its wings and then when I looked at the image on my computer I thought that the combination of the bird stretching out and the tree blossoming really conveyed one underlying phenomenon.

Isn’t this what Life does in the Universe?

Life emerges, expands, grows, matures, expresses itself.

Don’t each of us, as living beings, express ourselves to our fullness? And doesn’t a tree do that, a bird do that, just as you and I do that?

I wouldn’t claim to know what life is all about, but it seems to me that this Universe manifests itself through “épanouissement” – it opens up, it blooms, and it lights up the cosmos with a constant process of self-fulfilment.

Daily I become the most “me” I can become.

Daily the bird in the tree becomes the fullest expression of its unique life. Daily the tree grows from one form to another through the seasons, expressing the uniqueness of its own particular life.

I hope you enjoy both your own personal “épanouissement” today, as well as having the opportunity to enjoy that of some of the other lives around you.

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Nourishing – what nourishes your heart, feeds your soul?

Posted in creativity, from the dark room, from the living room, health, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography, psychology on April 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »

The “N” in my A to Z of Becoming, can stand for “nourish”, so here’s my focus for this week – what nourishes my heart, feeds my soul?

Looking back over the series on re-enchanting life which I posted over the last couple of weeks (scroll down to read them, if you haven’t seen them already), I realise that everything which I find enchanting, stirs my blood, sets my heart beating stronger or faster, and touches me right down to the core of my soul.

Beauty is one of the common factors. Difficult to define but don’t we sure know it when we see it, hear it, touch it?

Love is one of the common factors. Wherever love stirs, the heart leaps and the soul expands.

You’ll have some of your own, I’m sure, but here’s just a few photographs I’ve taken recently which nourish me –

…the first “gariguettes” of the season – wow! what a taste!

The love locks in Paris – it’s as if they exude love into the air, surrounding you, filling you, gladening your heart.

Relaxing by a pool at lunch time, seeing the simple pleasures of sharing a bite to eat, of chatting with friends, of reading, sailing a boat, or simply snoozing..

Cheers! Here’s to whatever nourishes your heart, your soul, your body and your mind. May you taste it, feel it, hear it, see it, know it, be amazed by it, every single day.

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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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Shiny new leaves

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, perception, personal growth, philosophy, photography, science on April 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Oh, wow! Look at the new leaves coming out on the vine at the end of my garden!

Look how shiny they are! Brand new and glistening!

I love to stumble across these moments of emergence, seeing the Life Force surging through the bare stalks and bursting into colour and shape like this.

It reminded me – there is no such thing as a fixed object in this universe. You can see that easily when you encounter the leading edge of life, but if you think anything you see is a fixed object, then you are either just not paying close enough attention, or you aren’t looking for long enough.

Becoming not being, that’s the way of the universe.

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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 »

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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Trick of the light

Posted in creativity, from the dark room, photography on April 7, 2015| Leave a Comment »

What I like about this photo is how the hedge looks like it has been lit up by the lamp behind it, but in fact the lamp is unlit.

The only light source in this scene is the sun, but it lights both the lamp and the hedge quite differently.

I do enjoy capturing these little tricks of the light – showing the light itself somehow, not just what it is lighting up…..

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We are not machines

Posted in creativity, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, life, narrative, personal growth, philosophy, photography, science on April 6, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Andreas Weber, who coined the term “enlivenment” (to follow the “enlightenment”) describes how biology is changing to a more life-focused understanding, than the till now dominant reductionist parts-focused one –

Such eminent biological and systems thinkers as Lynn Margulis, Francisco Varela, Alicia Juarrero, Stuart Kauffman and Gregory Bateson have opened up a picture in which organisms are no longer seen as machines competing with other machines, but rather as a natural phenomenon that “creates” and develops itself in a material way while continuously making and expressing experiences

I like that. It captures a lot in a few words. We are self-making, self-developing creatures who are bodies (not who have bodies). And we continuously make (co-create) and express (not least through our stories and our art) our experiences.

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We are makers

Posted in creativity, from the dark room, from the living room, life, photography on April 5, 2015| 1 Comment »

We are makers.

Make it happen. We take actions. We interact with each other and with the world.

Make a difference. We bring our uniqueness to every situation. Conscious engagement is the way to make a difference which only you can make.

Make it up. Our imagination is active all the time, both in waking life, and while we are asleep. Reflecting on what our imagination makes for us, and playing with active imagining deepens our experience of life. Tell stories.

Make music.

Make art.

Make someone happy. Today.

Make love not war. Couldn’t resist that one! The more we love in this life the better, in my opinion, and yes, many people choose instead to make war, to make acts of violence and to destroy. But you can choose, and my choice is love.

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Re-enchanting life with symbols

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography on April 4, 2015| 1 Comment »

What are your favourite symbols? Which symbols mean the most to you?

i wear a yin yang symbol around my neck. I love what it represents, that flowing balance of darkness and light, the harmony of the male and female energies, and the subtle hint that each opposite contains the other.

But I am also a fan of the more Celtic type of triple spiral, the triskele. I took this photo of buttons when I visited an exhibition at the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris because in all the variations of triple spirals I have seen, this is a new one on me.

As far as I am aware, human beings are the only creatures to create and use symbols. Choosing to have around us symbols which are personally meaningful can deepen the quality of every day experiences.

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