-
Alcohol Addiction: Disease? Choice? Other?
Is Alcohol Addiction A Disease? If you have a drink problem and you sign up to the idea that alcoholism is a disease, then you are a member for life! Even when you stop drinking you are still in the club and you cannot leave. It’s a sort of shitty Hotel California. The disease…
-
Jump Into The River Of Life And Let It Carry You Away
If you feel stuck, bored or depressed for no apparent reason then maybe you need to change your perspective on life. The Hindu concept of the River of Life is one that I find both comforting and compelling. Come with me on a trip to the river … Picture a beautiful river. The sun is…
-
You can’t control life so stop trying so damn hard!
You are not in control of your life How do you feel about the above statement? Fearful? Resigned? Confused? I had to go through a 4 month long major depression episode in order to discover something that might be glaringly obvious to many people. This simple realisation has helped me overcome depression, quit alcohol and…
-
Feeling overwhelmed? You need a fake hangover!
The only good thing about a hangover is that it forces you to do sweet FA for most of the day. Since I quit drinking I have been super productive. I get so much done these days that I wonder how I achieved anything when I was still drinking alcohol. But occasionally I hit a…
-
Your Most Powerful Self Help Tool Is Honesty. Honestly!
You can try solving your problems by asking your friends, your family or your partner’s opinions. Am I a fun person? Do I drink too much? Am I good enough? Do hats suit me? But are you actually looking for honesty or is it reassurance you’re after? If it’s real personal growth you seek then stop…
-
Your mind is a puppy: can you make it walk to heel?
At the heart of mindfulness is the belief that we are not our thoughts. Our minds are distinct and separate from our ‘inner self’ or our ‘voice of calm’. We can see the mind as a puppy, which needs to be trained in a non judgmental, loving but firm way. Can you make yours walk…
-
What exactly is mindfulness and how do you practice it?
Recently, I keep seeing blog headlines along the lines of ‘mindfulness didn’t work for me’ or ‘mindfulness decreases motivation at work’ or ‘CBD oil will replace mindfulness as the new fad.’ Apart from the fact that the authors are clearly using mindfulness to get clicks, the articles illustrate how misunderstood mindfulness is. So I thought…
-
Why You Need A Happy List And How To Write One
The weather is complete shite today – rain, rain and more rain. On a grey day like today I really need a boost – I need my happy list: a short menu of easy, mindful activities I love. Sounds simple doesn’t it. But wait! The art of happiness is in part maintaining our contentment levels day…
-
Sri Lanka: Coming To Terms With The Tragic Loss Of Life
I have been searching, as many people have, for meaning and comfort in the wake of the horrific Sri Lanka Easter bombings. Struggling to comprehend the depth of heartache, I googled ‘tragedy’ in the hope of comfort. Arthur C Clarke said, The greatest tragedy in mankind’s entire history may be the hijaking of morality by…
-
Social Media Stress Taught Me How To Build A Happy PR Business
Rochelle White is a PR who started her own agency, Rochelle White PR in 2016. Her clients range from health and beauty brands to lifestyle and alcohol. But it nearly went very wrong. Rochelle tells Voice of Calm how she rescued herself from severe stress to create her thriving PR business and how she keeps…
-
Is The Muse 2 Meditation Headband Really That Good?
The short answer to this question is yes, the Muse 2 meditation headband is really that good! For the long answer, keep reading… If you meditate then you will be familiar with this little snippet of internal dialogue… Ohmmm…. deeeep inhale…. long exhale… aaand inhale….. exhale….Calming and soothing breathing, clearing my mind ….. Meditating’s great.…
-
Kath Austin On Quitting Clingfilm, Refined Sugar And Her Comfort Zone
Kath Austin, founder of BeeBee Wraps, is the smart, self-possessed, environmentally savvy, mum-boss you need to know. We’re all worried about our plastic usage but how many of us created a new product to replace clingfilm? Well? Me neither. Kath Austin not only cracked down on her own single use plastic habit, she started a…
-
From Child Abuse Victim To Inner Child Guru: Meet Penny Parks
Psychotherapist and author Penny Parks is one of the most inspiring women you could ever have the pleasure to meet. Her ground breaking treatment for adult survivors of child abuse, Parks Inner Child Therapy, has helped countless people. However, Penny’s own harrowing experiences of sexual abuse are little known. We are so grateful to Penny…
-
Embrace Failure To Master Your Greatest Success
I work with a lot of creative people and without exception the most successful creators I know are those most unafraid of failure. The terrifying spectre of failure can loom over us like the grim reaper, exhaling garlic breath all over our cool ideas. But what if, instead of running from it, we embrace failure?…
-
Love Island Is Not To Blame For The Tragic Suicide Of Mike Thalassitis
I feel so desperately sad. As you must know by now, Mike Thalassitis, a 26 year old man from Essex who appeared on ITV’s Love Island 2 years ago was found hanged on Saturday morning. He committed suicide. Twitter is full of accusations today, mostly directed at the TV show who have stated that they…
-
5 Easy Mindfulness Hacks For Creative Success
Whether you are writing a script, a report for your boss, creating a piece of art or just planning a party theme, you need your A game. Mindfulness techniques have helped me push past both overwhelm and writers block many times. Here are 5 super easy mindfulness hacks to improve your creativity and stop you…
-
Everyday Mindfulness Techniques: Driving Mindfully
As part of Esther The Golden-Doodle’s Lessons in Mindfulness we will be looking at every day techniques for staying mindful. Today it’s driving mindfully. Vroooom! Have you ever driven somewhere and when you arrived at your destination you had absolutely no recollection of the journey? You know you got there safely because you and your…
-
3 Self Help Books To Read Again And Again
From mindfulness and eastern religion to laws of attraction and secrets of success, I used to be something of a self help book addict. But there are some books that I can repeat read and learn something new every time. Here are my 3 self help books to read again and again. The Subtle Art…
-
6 Reasons Life Journals Make You Unhappy
Type ‘life journal’ into a search engine and you will be presented with an array of beautifully bound books, which claim to help you achieve your goals and make your existence more rewarding: Big Life Journal, My Goals, Daily Greatness, Get Your Sh*t Together Journal. But the truth is that life journals make you unhappy.…
-
A Handy Contemplation For Anxiety
A dry Christmas is a challenge and anxiety levels can be at their peak. Hell, a wet Christmas can be full of anxiety so we all need help to get through. The responsibility to make it special, the food to cook, the presents to wrap. It can be overwhelming. It’s a wonderful life (for now)…
-
Teenagers At Christmas
It’s now just 3 days before Christmas and I am facing the raw reality of children who are too old for Santa Claus but too young to let go of their stockings. I am dealing with teenagers at Christmas! Split personalities Christmas is everything they are trying not to be. It’s enthusiastic, eager, traditional, family…
-
Don’t Let Your Inner Child Be Your Guide
Happy December 1st! Party season is upon us and it is the most wonderful time of the year. My inner child is singing Christmas carols and woke me at 7am so she could open the 1st door of my Liberty Advent Calender! You have to check this bad boy out!…It’s an advent calender full of…
-
How To Find Your Voice Of Calm
We all have an inner Voice of Calm: an unconditionally loving, non-judging, eternally wise voice that has all the answers. Here’s how I discovered mine. When I decided to live happily ever after without alcohol in my life I started to hear voices in my head. My macaw Atticus does sound like a demented old…
-
Has Dreaming Big Left You Feeling Small?
Has dreaming of big success left you feeling like a constant failure? We have become obsessed with achieving our goals but how is that working out for us? (WARNING: This post contains Miley Cyrus and S-Club-7 lyrics.) So you have a dream and you want it more than anything else in the world. If you were…
-
Where will you find happiness? Here and now.
I woke up this morning and looked at yellowing leaves on the trees and suddenly thought, “I feel great! Well done to me. I am nailing winter like a boss!” Then I realised that it’s still October and my heart sank. I started to fret about the dark mornings – I get up at 6.50…
-
5 simple ways to stop over-thinking.
I am a chronic over-thinker. I mean, I don’t just do it a little. I do it all the time about everything and what’s worse is that I know I am doing it. So I analyse the over thinking which sets me off on new depths of self analysis. Oh hey, look at the first…
-
Watch your language! It could save your life.
I love listening in on other people’s conversations. Because I’m rude and inappropriate like that. I do it covertly in coffee shops where I write, eeking out a large Americano, allowing myself to be distracted by all the chat. Office gossip, family feuds, medical mysteries and whispered arguments between couples. But more than the subject…
The Alcohol Spell
