Time; is waiting in the wings**David Bowie This newsletter was inspired by Shoshana Boyd Gelfand on Radio 4’s Something Understood. We cannot taste, touch, smell, hear or feel time, but we are very conscious of it. Clocks, phones, alarms, deadlines, appointments, days, months, years and seasons time ticks by. Time was born at the same point as the universe at the big bang; interestingly in the … Read More
On Isolation
Well, it had to happen at some point a positive Covid test, despite PPE, inoculations, boosters, social distancing, mask wearing and trying to keep healthy.Ten days of isolation whilst not feeling 100% it’s been an interesting experience partly because I don’t think I’ve ever been ill for that long and the novel experience of having to manage my activity levels. Of course not being able to go anywhere helps. Friends; neighbours … Read More
The Body Electric
The Body Electric The best thing that has come out of lockdown for me is being introduced to the works, thoughts and understandings of Lorimer Moseley and David Butler. Lorimer is a pain scientist and David an educator and all round good egg; their intellect, understanding, tireless work and great humour is a joy to witness. My good friend and colleague Sam and I … Read More
Heartbreak
Heartbreak What with all this study of pain I thought I would have a look at emotional pain. Now scientifically this is a bit tricky; pain needs to be felt somewhere, it needs to be unpleasant and you want it to stop. So far so good, but you can locate pain in a specific area and know it’s pain (even though we now know … Read More
Because you’re worth it.
A business coach I know decided at the age of 22 to retire at 50. He didn’t have children, move house often or get divorced, all expensive activities. He also studied investing and basically spent less than he earned. He was a great spreadsheet man and knew exactly how much he was going to need and created a plan to make it happen. Basically … Read More
On being engaged
I recently went shopping in Bath, I was looking forward to being able to go into shops, be around people have a look at stuff. In three shops I experienced really quite poor service; in one it was so bad that I decided against my purchase. Had the assistant even made eye contact with me I would have bought the item. It has … Read More
Be still and know….or not
We live with constant noise and distraction; life is lived at a pace that would have astonished our ancestors. Want to buy something? Two or three clicks and it’s on the way, hungry? Food can be delivered. Bored? TV, Streaming, Music, You Tube, FB, Tic Toc, Instagram, Podcasts. If you are older radio, newspapers, books, crosswords, jigsaws. Constant stimulation, endless messages to be … Read More
Why do things hurt?
Why do things hurt? “I cannot understand why this has happened”Is one of the most common things I hear from clients, What is going on and why?We can shred ourselves trying to fit this puzzle together, why? Because if we can understand what has led to this problem then hopefully we can avoid it in the future. Talking to someone external can help to untangle the thoughts but also get a slightly more objective … Read More
Hope
Hope In the Victorian language of flowers Snowdrops represent hope and it is very easy to see why that would be. In the depths of January they start to emerge from the frozen ground, when there is very little else around; these tiny pure white and dark green flowers come blinking into the light. They prefer sheltered spots preferably in the roots of trees and they quietly arrive, sometimes … Read More
Loving Technology? Or not?
Loving Technology? I have just spent about an hour trying to get this picture downloaded onto this blog. Why? you may ask; well I am going to hold Apple entirely responsible for all of this grief (it is also happening when I try to upload photos on Facebook). Like a good citizen I upgraded to the latest operating system, marvellous so far so good. Except that … Read More
Beautiful Webs
I recently attended a 2 day pain course (virtually); which was excellent and extremely interesting.One of the attendee’s coined the phrase ‘a spiders web of complexity’ when talking about pain. I think this is a really apt description and is something I have observed for years; think about what happens when something lands on a spiders web, it could be a twig, a … Read More
Silver Linings
I think we can all agree that 2020 has not been the greatest year and from conversations I have been having everyone is fed up with it all. Obviously coming into Winter doesn’t help and the constant debates about Xmas are unsettling. Everyone needs something to look forward to but I guess we all feel hamstrung by the confused rules and regulations. I have been trying … Read More