Summer

I was reading my book today and I came across a word I didn't know: 'languorous'. I took out my phone and typed the word into Google. The meaning provided was "characterised by tiredness or inactivity, especially of a pleasurable kind". The example used to illustrate its meaning was, "summer has a slow, languorous feel…

Noise

Is anyone else exhausted by the noise of our current public discourse? It seems impossible at the moment to discuss any issue, any event, without the volume of the conversation surging to 10 instantly. And with every outrage there is a subtle but discernible compounding effect going on. Each time the ratchet turns and makes…

Attention (II)

Our attention is the most important resource we have. As Richard Davidson says, "attention is a building block for everything else". How many of us are conscious of where our attention is directed from moment to moment? Perhaps we're not even aware that we have the capacity to exert control over our own attention; isn't…

Discomfort

I spend so much of my life trying to ward off the possibility of experiencing something bad in the future. Vitamins and supplements to prevent illness and optimise health, detailed to-do lists to make sure I haven't forgotten something important, saving myriad links and articles "just in case" I need to refer to them down…

“I don’t have enough time”

I constantly feel as if I don't have enough time to get everything done. And I get the impression I'm not the only one - busyness appears to be the quintessentially modern condition. But what would it mean, on a granular level, to get "everything" done? Would it mean, on an average weekday, spending 10…

Restlessness

Last week saw the completion of an intense work project which lasted for around three months. I was delivering training with one other person to criminal lawyers all over New South Wales. I had to be "on" every day. I was always busy, rushing, frantic. In between sessions, I was either travelling or preparing for…

At first glance

Every day, it seems, another "good" guy is outed as an alleged sexual and/or violent predator. These are often men who, from an outsider's perspective, appear to be models of what it means to live an admirable and a successful life. What does this flood of allegations teach us? Question everything you thought you knew. The…

Scarcity and abundance

Today I went to a second hand bookstore. I spent a good half hour browsing before a particular book grabbed my attention. I picked it up, read the blurb, decided instantly that I wanted to buy it, and held onto it while I continued browsing. After just a minute or two, I came across another…

Ambition

Ambition is what motivates us. It generally goes hand in hand with passion and commitment. But ambition can become toxic. It often leads to feelings of entitlement, disappointment and resentment of others' successes. When faced with the inevitable setbacks inherent in life's journey, we can feel overwhelmed by failure and give up completely. Instead of…

Apologies

So often when someone is upset at us or we're criticised, our first instinct is to get defensive, to fight. "What would you know?" "If you hadn't done x, this wouldn't have happened!" That response happens almost automatically. It seems like a challenge to our moral integrity; we think that our fundamental goodness as a…