What exactly is nostalgia? The word itself is formed of the Greek νόστος (nóstos), meaning “homecoming” and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning “pain” or “ache”. However, in contemporary use, the word doesn’t necessarily mean a painful yearning for home. Nostalgia is actually one of my favourite feelings. Although likened by many to a melancholy, I always feel it… Read More »Nostalgia and Positive Benefits
No-self as a Concept Pretty much a decade ago, I read a book called ‘What the Buddha taught’ whilst travelling in Malaysia and the impact is still with me. While I’m not a practising Buddhist now, certain ideas have had a significant impact on my thought processes. Two notions, in… Read More »No-self : Interpretation of the Buddhist Idea of No Soul
Mental Suffering Alleviating mental suffering is something we spend our entire lives working on. I have previously posted about drawing on ancient philosophies and ideas to write about good mental health practices and this post forms part of that arc. It is my contention here that the Buddhist ideas surrounding mental… Read More »Alleviating Mental Suffering (using ideas from Buddhism)
A Confidence Trick The internet can be an unnerving and wicked entity, and I’m saying that without even having ventured onto the notorious Dark Web. A couple of weeks ago I paid the equivalent of five dollars to list my blog on a blog directory called Blogarama only to find… Read More »Confidence Trick : Trust and the Online Nemesis
A Scene on the Tube This week on the tube I saw an amusing situation. I was on my way to work on the Bakerloo line. It wasn’t crowded and the door between the two carriages was swinging open and making a loud metallic clanging noise when it swung back.… Read More »Failures : Embracing the Past and the Opinions of Others
Rise of the Internet Society There has been a subtle and profound change in the nature of relationships between people within society. I want to talk briefly about how this may be affecting us as people; essentially what the rise of the internet society and use of social media means… Read More »The Internet Society and You
Procrastination The word procrastination has its routes in the Latin words ‘pro’ (forward) and ‘crastinus’ (belonging to tomorrow) so it literally means putting things off until tomorrow. Making a habit of procrastination is harmful to productivity as it’s likely that whatever is being put off is something that needs to be… Read More »Stopping Procrastination Through Practicing Gumption
Working towards Goals Sometimes in life, it is fine to muddle through, to relax and to cruise, but there are certain points when one needs to take control. Part of taking control means knowing where you are headed. There is a lot of material written on the psychology of… Read More »Ambitions of the Past and Orienting your Future
Blue Monday Today is known as Blue Monday. This is apparently as it is roughly two weeks out of the festive season but still two weeks until the end of January. For me, I’m still catching up with people who I didn’t see during the winter celebrations, which is fun… Read More »Recognizing Good Fortune
As you breathe in, be aware that you are breathing in. As you breathe out, notice that you are breathing out. – Thich Nhat Hanh Learning Mindful Breathing We exist in a world that is constantly in motion, change is perpetual. From when we are born until when we die our… Read More »Becoming Aware of your Breathing
Having various projects running over long periods of time can mean things fall by the wayside once the going gets tough or the novelty of newness wears off. I’ve found from my own experience that I will take up new interests, devote massive amounts of time and energy to them… Read More »Revitalising Projects (using SWOT)
The rise of China will affect us all in the coming years. Not necessarily the next few years but definitely the next couple of decades. I wanted to talk about a few things in this post. Primarily, my experiences travelling to China, how much it has changed (even in the… Read More »Perspective on the Rise of China