The Me, the Here, the Now In this episode I try to unpick the puzzle of presence. I draw a line between perceived safety and protecting the precious parts of ourselves. I argue for integrity and wholeness as the pathways to self-acceptance and the tools for calm and confident presence. I also share a very personal story to illustrate the…
Slurp! or How I Learned to Love Licking (kind of) In this episode I get stuck into bad behaviour and why we tolerate it in ourselves towards the people closest to us. I reflect on the dangers of unchecked parenting and the legacies of unaddressed trauma, and the difficulty of putting that stuff to bed. Finally, I use the Man…
There’s no two ways about it. I’m in a spot, and I’m not enjoying it. I am experiencing a moment of paralysis in my life. I find myself afraid to breathe and afraid to move for fear of breaking. My anxiety and dread sit between my shoulders at the top of my spine like an invisible parasite waiting to cut…
Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise (Daniel 12:1) In a crisis, I look to myself. It is rarely my first instinct to seek help or counsel elsewhere. I partly do this because I have a certain amount of faith in my own resources, and I partly do it because I possibly have less faith in…
Each day must be begun anew. Sleep is the restorative. Waking is the opportunity. To open your eyes and be able to say “still here, still alive” surely has the potential to infuse you with renewed vigour and appetite for life. Somehow, no matter how paltry your contribution to humanity, no matter how insignificant your squawks and wirbles, you’ve been…
“…my personality had been completely erased. That’s why I’m so boring. People stopped listening to what I was saying, and didn’t seem to notice I was there. Everybody forgot about me. I wasn’t a boy, I wasn’t a girl… I was just a cypher, a sort of glyph. Life’s very difficult when nobody knows you’re there. I couldn’t get a…
Lappeenranta, Finland. November 2004. I stood in the shadows of a darkened stairwell, another man standing close to me, nervous energy hanging in the air around and between us. He bristled with anger and intent while my mind raced over what was about to happen. I concentrated on my breathing, willing myself to be loose and limber and receptive. I…
“There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” ― C.G. Jung Darkness and light. A dichotomy of great purity and simplicity through which humanity examines and ponders itself. Echoes of…
It was hot in Melbourne yesterday. Thirty seven degrees (99°F). Not off the charts hot but hot enough to make you sweat doing nothing at all. And if you weren’t doing nothing at all? If you were pushing hard in the heat with demands being made of you, emotionally and psychologically? If you were pushing hard for a few hours…
Has there ever been a Miss World candidate who hasn’t declared her wish for world peace? How admirable, how marvellous, to behold the nobility and compassion of the bikini-clad, doe-eyed tiara-aspirant! Such ambition! Such gravitas! Such shiny teeth! But imagine the ripples through the universe of beauty pageantry if one of these paragons of female wondrousness turned around and expressed…
the ClearOut 