"To stand and stare, to watch the rising sun, fills me with such calm happiness, I am sure I have dwindled away too much time on inessentials. "


Posts tagged with 'personal'

Peer groups: Wiston autumn group – first morning

7th November 2008

Back in May I wrote about a peer Mixed Group I have been involved in for many years. I explained how I'd been coming to this Mixed Group since 1991 and how the group had evolved and budded off both a Men's Group and Women's Group. I talked about the …

Checking in with Larry - next morning

6th July 2008

This is a continuation of yesterday's blog about regular check-ins/life planning with my great friend Larry. And now it's Sunday morning around 7.00am. Yesterday we went out to the 'hut' at Carbeth knowing that there was a good chance that the owner, Gerry, might in fact be using it himself. …

Checking in with Larry - first evening

5th July 2008

On the train to Glasgow. It's a Saturday afternoon in early July and I'm heading over to meet up with my old friend Larry to spend 24 hours or so together looking at how our lives are going. We've been getting together to do this three or four times a …

Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - second reflection

13th May 2008

There's a huge amount more I could reflect on about the group. I'll keep it here, though, to just a final set of thoughts about the overlapping field of group therapy. These peer groups are about all kinds of things - friendship, wellbeing, ‘retreat', fun - and they are also …

Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - first reflection

12th May 2008

Why are these groups often so great, so welcome, so precious? Real life is very rich - theories only capture aspects of this richness. However a theory, that I like a lot, highlights one reason why these peer groups are so important. The theory is Self-Determination Theory (SDT). It has …

Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - final day

11th May 2008

I wake feeling sadder this morning - partly because it's the last morning, partly because there are still feelings from yesterday hanging around. It's so interesting to notice the hugely different emotional spaces I move through over the intense four days of this kind of group meeting. Again a blessing …

Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - third full day

10th May 2008

Up, making time for a longer yoga practice this morning. Settle on Satie's piano music as a background CD. Sitting meditating with Catero. A plunge in the stream. Such a beautiful spring morning. Outside our bedroom window a wren is nesting and, on the other side, just outside our door …

Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - second full day

9th May 2008

Woke a bit after 6.00am. Lay in bed for a while, then up, washed. How am I feeling today? How am I feeling about the group? How are we doing? A bit pregnant, maybe a bit stuck. But at this stage of the group it isn't unusual to feel something …

Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - first full day

8th May 2008

The morning starts slowly and gently ... ambling up to the kitchen, doing some tidying away after the night before, switching on the big hot water urn ... then some yoga stretches, meditation, a plunge under the waterfall in the stream, walking up the drove path amongst the sheep and …

Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - arriving

7th May 2008

Catero and I drove down from Edinburgh starting a little after 2.30 pm and reached Fawcett Mill Fields in Cumbria less than three hours later. We've been to this lovely converted watermill so many times. Such a special place. We began - or this phase of meeting up with friends …