Winter Blogging

Today I'm catching up with my blog and have added a blog list of favourite blogs. I have started the assignment on wikis - more to follow.

Mid winter - just past the shortest day. Today it's cold but the sun is out.

Went to the 'Key to Managing Stress' workshop at Outside the Square yesterday. Heartily recommend it to everyone. The speaker, Derek Roger, presents his philosophy clearly and concisely. He offers suggestions that can help in all areas of life.

To sum up, the way to handle stress is to wake up, pay attention, become detatched and let go. He uses the analogy of a house with a stream of thoughts up to the windows. If you ignore them, they'll break in. If you indulge them, you'll drown. So you open the doors and let the current run through while you sit up above in the attic and watch them go by.

Thoughts always occur but there is no need to entertain them constantly. We have choice and can chose how to spend our waking time - either in waking sleep or wide awake. Derek made us pay attention to our senses. Just listening to what is going on around us, helps us gain perspective and stay in touch with the world. We can only make a difference in the moment, now. Everything else is a dream.

Very powerful stuff.