Posts tagged with 'personal'
A day spent "idle and blessed": report of an experiment
30th November 2012
In the words of Mary Oliver's beautiful poem "The summer day": Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean - the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of …
Some suggestions for giving and receiving helpful feedback
21st October 2012
(this blog post is freely downloadable as a Word doc and as a PDF file) "Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor." Dr. Alexis Carrel "It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm …
Lessons from a personal multi-source feedback project
19th October 2012
"A friend is someone who sees the potential in you and helps you to live it." W. B. Yeats (adapted) "Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger." Franklin Jones A few months ago now, I initiated a personal feedback project. …
Going back for a university reunion: emotional archaeology unearths a treasure trove of insights & new directions (6th post)
18th September 2012
This is the sixth and final blog post about going back to my old university for a reunion dinner. I wrote three posts last month and a further couple earlier this month. In the first post of the series, I said: "I've never been back for any kind of reunion …
Going back for a university reunion: I couldn't have imagined the script if I'd tried (5th post)
16th September 2012
It's the day after our "university reunion dinner". It was weird ... and actually very lovely ... and fun and warm and moving and interesting and hugely welcoming. Gosh, I really couldn't have imagined that script if I'd tried. I came back to this reunion as an exercise in "emotional …
Going back for a university reunion: self-esteem, hallucinogens, wonder & the transpersonal (4th post)
14th September 2012
"Who will prefer the jingle of jade pendants if he once has heard stone growing in a cliff?" Lao Tzu "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." Diana Gault (when …
Going back for a university reunion: emotional intelligence, group work & learning to relate more deeply (3rd post)
19th August 2012
"God guard me from those thoughts men think in the mind alone; he that sings a lasting song, thinks in a marrow bone." W. B. Yeats "We camouflage our true being before others to protect ourselves against criticism or rejection. This protection comes at a steep price. When we are …
Going back for a university reunion: reconstructing our personal stories (2nd post)
12th August 2012
"Those who do not have the power over the story that dominates their lives - the power to retell it, reexperience it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change - truly are powerless because they cannot think new thoughts" Salman Rushdie I wrote a first post …
Going back for a university reunion: stirring up memories, avoidant attachment, "puffing up" and kindness (1st post)
5th August 2012
"The spirit of a man is constructed out of his choices." Irvin Yalom "I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or …
Peer groups, Cumbria spring group: last morning and reflection overall
21st May 2012
And now it's several days after the four days sixteen of us spent together at the old converted watermill in Cumbria that we've been visiting for over twenty years. I've already written about the final full day and the last evening singing together under the stars. I think these groups …