52 Proverbs to Fight Depression and Trauma E-Book

Fiann Ó Nualláin

• Herausgeber: Mercier Press
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 274

Beschreibung

Discover a powerful tool in your journey to overcome depression and heal from trauma with 52 Proverbs to Fight Depression and Trauma by Fiann Ó Nualláin. This exceptional book follows on from the successful 52 Proverbs to Build Resilience Against Anxiety and Panic. It mergesthe timeless wisdom of Irish proverbs with practical techniques in mindfulness, positive psychology, and cognitive behavioural therapy. Ideal for readers searching for practical books on depression and trauma, this self-help guide offers 52 proverbs, each a beacon of ancestral wisdom tailored for the modern struggle against mental health challenges. These sayings, deeply rooted in Irish tradition, provide insightful strategies and exercises for navigating through the complexities of depression and past trauma. Whether you're coping with depression and seeking to heal from past wounds or looking for a path to greater happiness and calm, 52 Proverbs to Fight Depression and Trauma is a must-read. Its unique blend of ancient insights and contemporary therapeutic methods makes it a standout choice for anyone looking to improve their mental well-being. Embrace the journey towards a more fulfilling and peaceful life with the wisdom of 52 Proverbs to Fight Depression and Trauma. Take the first step towards healing and resilience.

Leseprobe

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52 Proverbs to Fight Depression and Trauma

Irish Holistic Wisdom

Fiann Ó Nualláin

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Contents

Title PageAcknowledgementsIntroductionProverbial wisdomUseful toolsThe proverbsList of proverbsBibliographyAlso Available from Mercier PressCopyright4

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Acknowledgements

Some books can be a lifetime in the making, or more to the point a lifetime lived to get to the page, and in that long journey there are of course countless encounters with inspirational and sharing people, whom by their gifts and gift, motivate or direct one on to better understanding or a better quality of life lived thereafter, buíochais agus beannachtaí to those good souls. Some whose names I did not catch, some shy of a mention, some mentioned in other books and places, some in the bibliography here. I pass this book on with the same good will and humanity you previously gave to me.

On the technical side – a buíochas to Siobhán McNamara for an ear to my Irish agus buíochas to the team at Mercier press for their longstanding support of my work and their skills of taking a manuscript into book form and on into the wider world.6

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Introduction

Resilience is not just the capacity to endure setback or trauma, or carry the toll of it, it is the ability to move forward with your life post-crisis, to live a life after the event, without the event continuing to impinge on your day to day. Resilience is the capacity to encounter challenging situations as challenges and not as catastrophes. Resilience is problem solving and problem resolving. Resilience is not letting adversity define you or worse devastate you. The aim of this book is to hone resilient traits or acquire a renewed resilient mind-set – resilience is an inherent human trait after all, we stumble our way into walking, we babble our way into talking, we learn from failures and setbacks, we thrive on adaptability, we continue to the next challenge or learning/achieving opportunity. Our life experiences and ongoing depressive episodes may have made us lose connection with that part of ourselves but the 52 proverbs of this book and the exercises that accompany them, aim to make that connection again. The challenge-orientated asks of the exercises forge a challenge-orientated perception of issues affecting our emotional sense of self, and so the realisation that something can be done. It is not game over; it is game afoot. We can overcome, we need not be so affected.

Feeling down is a natural human experience; we all encounter it from time to time. A disappointment in one’s life plans; upsetting news; the experience of a bereavement or the loss/collapse of a friendship, relationship or job; or even of a held worldview or moral standpoint, a reaction to 8world events, the ongoing complications of one’s personal life, a dip in good circumstances or a decrease in one’s sense of wellbeing or achievement potential can all trigger sadness and a demotivation.

Sometimes ‘the down’ can persist long enough or spiral deep enough, to develop into a clinical depression. For most ‘the downs’ come and go as bumps, potholes or the twists and turns on the life’s highway – not pleasant but negotiable, or good riddance in the rear-view mirror. To others the accumulation of such swerves and prangs or the constant burn-up of reserves to try to navigate around, seem to completely complicate or grind down any movement forward. We get stuck. The idea of this book is a needed push or tow, some necessary repairs and a refilled tank, but also a better road map, if not even a better road ahead.

Depression, which is characterised as a persistent sadness or continued emotional deflation combined with a lack of interest or enjoyment from previously rewarding or enjoyable activities can be overwhelming or all-consuming. Its presence in one’s life can affect one’s ability to function, participate or indeed act in one’s own self-interest. Help is required to get back one’s purpose, energy and mindset to live a rewarding life. With the help of this book, but also via one’s GP, counselling services and community supports, it is highly treatable.

On an evolutionary note, if pain is an evolutionary adaption to stop further damage to the affected area and so take care, and anxiety is an evolutionary trait to avoid danger or risky behaviour and so survive then the evolutionary biology of depression may just be as 9something to shield one from overload, to slow the brain and body until circumstances abate. My own depression often took on this hedgehog curl when the world got too much for me – my depression while wounding and distressful (in the raw and in the numb manifestations) encased me in my world away from the bigger threats. Ok it is more complex than that and sometimes you can get pierced by your own spikes and even stay in the curled ball longer than is needed but I learned to take my depression as time outs, as time outs to work out the problem, as time to figure other ways of self-care and response than perfecting the curl up strategy.

Evolutionary biologist believe that the analytical rumination of depression is this adaptation of the brain to keep one focused on complex interpersonal problems until one can arrive at a resolution or in the case of a situational stimuli (occasioned period of transition, upset or grief) until a spontaneous remission occurs. The good of that is that’s not a broken brain, that’s a self-protecting brain. That’s a brain which seeks to work in our favour. The saying ‘its ok to not be ok’ takes on some extra rational. Of course, I also say let’s advocate ‘it’s even better to get better’. If we can control the rumination, solve some of the issues, avoid the glitches of a negative bias, then we can build back stronger. Get to the other side, better.

Other evolutionary theories include the expression of depression as the facilitation of attachment within the family/tribe, encouraging bonding or care toward the wounded, helping reducing risk of social exclusion. Some have proffered it as a means to disengage from unobtainable goals or withdraw from an overwhelming circumstance, 10to buffer while changes or time-led resolution is required and even to warding off attack following loss of status. And we can see those things in the once temporary deference that can become deeper rooted self-deprivation, or the withdrawal/conservation of energies in episodes becoming a negative worldview and conditioned response. The good of it, complicated in making it worse. But we can unpick that too. Rewire better responses. Evolve a different strategy.

Depression is a common mental health disorder manifesting as low mood, lethargy and poor concentration. There is often the experience of repetitive negative thought patterns, a sense of lower self-esteem, feelings of emptiness or a rawness to emotional disturbance which can compound the depression or set up the vicious cycle effect – causing one to seek to withdraw from people, places and daily activities. Depression can also be complicated by an array of other psychological issues such as guilt, self-depreciation, pessimism. It often elicits disturbed sleep and appetite, reduced libido, irritability, increased pain sensitivity and a range of physical discomforts.

The underlying causes of depression can be complex, with interactions between social/societal, psychological and biological factors all at play. Genetics and environment can also influence its development. Life events such as childhood adversity and adult trauma can be at the heart of the issue. It can often be a matter of chemistry, the disruption in hormones and the emotional impact of pregnancy and post birth responsibility/reality in postnatal depression or the insufficient serotonin levels that come with seasonal effective disorder.

11The fact is, our thoughts and our feelings, our emotional realm, is reactive and interlinked, it can be stimulated by events and moments, by how we experience ongoing life. We can be programmed by what has gone before, by our past upsets and traumas. The trick is to unpick those problems not pick at them and to let those wounds heal, to find the solutions to avoiding future wounds; to find a way to not let both our natural inbuilt negative bias (needed for survival) and the intensified negative bias and conclusions of our lived experience with depression (our conditioned response) to halt a way of having and experiencing a good, full and productive, happier life.

Of course, this book is not about the search for happiness – the search for happiness is not necessarily the antidote to depression, in fact that search may be a psychological complication we don’t need. No, this book is about a more effective remedy to the malady. It is about stopping the search for unhappiness. We may find more good along the way, even hunt some out, which is part of building a resilience and a positive bias. But the pursuit is in participating less with the negative, uncurling and stepping into a wider world with confidence and a broader skillset.

This whole book is about reframing your reactions and responses to both actual negative experiences and to perceived ones. It is about overcoming being overwhelmed by habitual emotions and physical symptoms, or indeed by the lack of feeling that can accompany depression. It is about resetting how to discern between a disappointment and a catastrophe, between a thought and a consequential feeling, between a bad day and ‘nothing goes right for me’. 12It is about how to wind back, disarm and decommission any such patterns of negative thinking or conditioned mind-set. To escape the negative bias and find more positives. It uses the scientifically validated methods of cognitive behavioural psychology and the helpful practices of mindfulness and positive psychology to build a resilience and an array of circuit breakers to halt dark thinking and depressive episodes in their tracks. It is about moving forward with more than hope, with the skills to cope and the ability to redirect.

And yes, whatever you are sad, depressed or down about right now is genuine and real to you, is affecting your quality of life right now but what if you could make it less? Less deep, less frequent, less impacting. What if you could see and perceive it differently? What if you could refocus on not potentially what will go wrong, what has gone south, what past injury is on today’s agenda but on what bright thing might be on the horizon, what might be on the up, what might be the good to be had. Enough of pondering and ruminating the bad outcome possibilities, sure they are only possibilities you play over, not certainties. What if the only potential at the table was your full potential – your capacity to live the fullest life, unburdened from obstacles to happiness, contentment and even achievements? What if you could dismantle any acquired negative bias and construct a new positive predisposition. What if you could be in a good place? What if you could be the you that you want to be?

To that end this book takes a holistic approach. One of treating the whole person – not just the emotional self, but the social, the creative and the spiritual self – your 13full self. I have been a holistic practitioner for many years and in my therapeutic work I not only seek to solve the pressing problem, but look to the entire lived experience and circumstances of the client. To move out of the shadow of self-doubt, depression, trauma, anxiety into the sunshine of living a good life. ‘Good’ is not a moral judgment here, it the full blossoming of a positive and experiential life, one worth seeking and filled with rewards and opportunities – one not stilted by the clouds of apprehension or misery.

So throughout this book there will be prompts to get creative, to go intermingle, to dance, to do some yoga, to hug a tree or bang a gong. I also find the use and experience of alternative therapies to be a helpful liberation from woes and worries, to be of proven remedial benefit but also to further circuit-break current emotional and physiological manifestation. To get a feel-good factor in one’s life more frequently than a feel-down factor. So yes, the impetus invoked throughout is to go experience the good (positive) and not feel bad (negative).

The ‘holistic’ in the title is my way to consider the totality of the person, not to see them as their symptoms, rather to build resilience to the problems they face and to encourage a mind-set of positivity to all our worldview, world experience, greater good of life, to a life well lived, and yes, it is ok to hang a dream catcher, its ok to dream big. Your life does not have to remain the current nightmare it may be. The strategies of this book are to open up a brighter life as well as shutting down the triggers of sadness, regret and depression.

Depression as a negative emotional experience, as a stress response, as a psychological phase, has indeed a spectrum 14basis; a sliding scale of intensity and frequency. So no matter what end of the scale or how it manifests in you, the techniques in this book help to circuit-break the experience and retrain the brain out of episodes. One may need to stick with the medication or the medical supervision a bit longer but the aim here is to build strategies to overcome what brings you down. There are supports beyond this book, it doesn’t all have to be on you alone. Helplines, apps, support groups, drop-in centres, social prescribing via your GP, community based, HSE and private counselling services, and various charities and associations that can assist your journey forward.

Prolonged or repeated experience of depression may tip us into avoidance of places, people or situations, may crush our ambitions and hopes, may alter how we perceive ourself and indeed put a persistent negative gloom over our world-view. The concepts in this book seek to reverse that path and navigate a more positive route into well-being and control over your emotions, thoughts and experience of life. It sets out to help you make the changes necessary.

There is the proverb that states change is the breath of life. Change is the energy to transform. Change is the energy behind catching your breath and finding a way towards a healthy and unhindered life. We can get our life back; we can infuse it with positivity and pleasant outcomes. We can make changes. We are not condemned to eternal gloom and doom. There is more to life.

Throughout I utilise mindfulness, cognitive behavioural therapeutics and positive psychology to boost our capacity to take back control, to have coping mechanisms and to diminish the grip of gloom. The aim of this book is not 15to just be a coping strategy but to be a genuine path to a fuller life beyond depression and negative thinking. And while each proverb, and the exercises or actions connected to each, are steps to overcome rumination, worrisome thoughts, sad and numb cycles and being stuck in a perception of perpetual negativity, they are also pathways to living that fuller life – to engage with your true self, your full potential capacity, with a prosocial self, with a self positively connected to nature and the world around you. To the whole you, with all your full potential in the positive.

My aim is not only to dial that negative bias back, but also to bring vigilance and a stronger register to the good going on – to engineer a positivity bias. The actions and exercise are designed to strengthen an awareness of positivity and to work with constructive motivations and our natural neuroplasticity to rebuild the brain circuitry and chemistry in favour of a positive bias – of a more frequent experience of the good things.

We programme ourselves with the words we tell ourselves – just consider for a moment how much of your sadness or deflatedness is self-talk – the inner critic or the echoes of detractors or previous perpetrators, the playback of former incidents, the repeat, repeat, repeat and thus repeated dejection and despondency. So, the words in this book are a way to programme a different approach to life. In part, it is about reframing and altering our narrative from all the bad to all the good, but it is also a way to prime the brain for acceptance of the good. It is written with neurolinguistic programming in mind, so repetition of words or phrases and word selection are 16ways of reinforcing the message, ways of helping the mind pick up on the point. You may find similar patterns in guided meditation or in well-being apps – all designed to make it easy to put into practice the solutions they offer.

Our depression has wired our brain, personality and the way we experience living, but we can rewire it to a better state of operations. We can make little changes that have a big long-term impact. We are not talking ‘back to factory settings’ we are talking ‘upgrade’.

I have used these techniques in my life to overcome the hyper-vigilance, worry and depression, present from childhood – a combination of some childhood adversity and the manifestations of intergenerational trauma in a sphere of influence around me, compounded by my own personal seasonal affected disorder. Over the years, I had, by my reactions to experiences, trained myself to deepen a negative bias and sorrowful outlook, it stilted my life, made friendships and relationships difficult to sustain and while I could mask it long enough to get through a working day, there really were few days that were not hard work.

I had not yet come across the seanfhocal/proverb –it won’t always be raining or indeed sunshine follows gloom. All I could see was the rain or the raincloud forming. I was looking at the momentary experiences of calm or peace or contentment as the transitory part, I wasn’t seeing that the pain, the hurt, the darkness, were also transitory. I wasn’t maximising the dry and unthreatening days and I was stuck in bad weather. It took me a long time to see it, to change my reactions and responses – to 17get out from under the cloud. It took some perseverance after the initial insight, but I had always loved the poetics and humour in proverbs and began using them as circuit breakers, affirmations and ancestral advice. I found support, solace and strategy there.

For many years now, I have chosen to live each day to the best of my ability, not frozen by past or future, not halted by self-recrimination or picking at old wounds, not anticipating the next slight or hurt, not waiting for the next darkness to descend. Situations and triggers can sometimes still arise, but I can let them go, I don’t need to grab on anymore. Of course, there is always the possibility that an unforeseen storm could come and knock me over, but now I know I don’t have to stay down, I am not scanning for it to the neglect of enjoying calm days, now instead, I am ready to predict the sunshine to come.

I look at it now believing there is a world out there to explore, a life to be lived and the weather just dictates my footwear not my mind-set. I don’t self-identify as a psychological disturbance, I find myself in life, in living more mindfully and fully. This is not a book about the history of my troubles, yet my own pathway out has informed it. I may reference some of my experiences within certain passages, but they are universal experiences and while we are all unique and psychological complications come in different forms, strengths and durations – there are some universal wisdoms to help get through and beyond such experiences.

The contents here are based both upon first-hand experience and the culmination of years of participation 18with mindfulness and psychotherapies. This is how I mastered and diminished my own personal demons and how I have helped others commence their path to vanquish theirs.

In the useful tools section and peppered throughout the book, there are skill sets to assist that different way. Some you will really enjoy and even relish and for some people there may be a few that are slightly embarrassing or awkward and others that may even be terrifying – but hold strong and conquer. Remember the stoic poet Ovid, Perfer et obdura, dolor hic tibi proderit olim – Be patient and tough; someday all this pain will be useful to you. You might want to write that down and stick it on the fridge. Do the same with any of the proverbs here that really resonate with you.

Think of these proverbs as the advice our ancestors wished to pass on, a far-reaching chain of respect and self-care, a goldmine of hard learned experience, a loving kindness to the next generation. Think of these proverbs as more than ancient sense but as contemporary affirmations. Affirmations are not fool’s errands, they are the stories we tell ourselves, so instead of telling ourselves how hard it is to be ourselves with all that baggage that we lug around, let’s write a new narrative and navigate our world with a brighter more successful outlook. Let’s look beyond the clouds, they are breaking anyway, the sun is cutting several shafts through, soon it will be all blue skies and serotonin release. It is never always raining; sunshine always follow gloom.

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Proverbial wisdom

Proverbs are often thought of as clever idioms or witty observations, but in truth they are the encoded wisdom of our ancestors, incorporating the keenest insights and best life advice stretching back through the ages. They have been distilled over generations, passed on like life-coaching batons from generation to generation. Embodying not just the cultural attitudes of the place they originate in but the survival advice and moral codes that each generation wishes the next generation to cherish and learn from. Proverbs are generated and known in all cultures, worldwide. They are perhaps the oldest teaching tools, the most effective transmission of how to live a life well and are invaluable as road maps through the vicissitudes of life.

So, the proverbs in this book are the insightful nuggets of the collective consciousness, experience and of the tried and tested. The proverb or seanfhocal (old word) alone is a potent expression of a mind-set, the Irish proverbs selected here are standard bearers of a way of thinking that has brought resilience, overcoming, solace and positive motivation to each generation. The Irish wisdom of ancient heritage is so pertinent today.

And while each seanfhocal/proverb offers a psychological insight, perception shift or attitude adjustment, the exercises that accompany them are designed to reinforce the proverbial wisdom, to sink it in by way of a practice, task or additional learning aid. By getting you to perform or consider other options, it is not solely a reframing of 20current woes but a gaining of skills to work through the vicissitudes of life and tackle the dynamics of depression.

The idea is to incorporate into your life, those concepts and tools contained within this book that strike a chord with you personally – they are the ones that will especially work for you as they come to fill your days with meaning as well as a method out of pain. The book is laid out as a programme where you can take a proverb each week, over a year and take the time to develop the skills and engage with the exercises, building each week, strengths and strategies to developing a more resilient and focused mind-set, to undermine the grips of sadness or the periods of numbness and free yourself from triggers and pitfalls. Of course, you can read it all at your own pace, in one sitting, over a few days or as a dip in dip out and still benefit from the proverbial wisdom and the insights and revelations they prompt and provoke. As you read these profound ancient words and follow the exercises, a pathway to a more in control, full potential self will become clear.

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Useful tools

Every good worker knows that good tools make for an easier job; be that a sharp axe or a smart phone or a well-oiled machine. The work that you want to do on yourself also requires tools (or skill sets) that will make the job easier to accomplish. There is an old Irish proverb pertinent here; Si leith na ceirde an úirleais – The tools are half the trade, it stresses the importance of good tools or quality skills in accomplishing the task – they are half of what is required. Will power, brute force, perspiration, passion, desire, diligence, enthusiasm or even desperation won’t get you there alone – tools are a prerequisite.

In Ireland, phrases such as ‘half the battle’, ‘half the job’ or ‘half the trade’ are employed to express that your endeavourers are being sped up – helped along and assisted by something – that doing the thing or having the item in hand, is getting you there faster and more completely. A kettle is half the battle in making a cup of tea, breath control is half the battle in attaining meditative states, and a journal may be half the battle in identifying the triggers of your sorrows.

It is interesting to note that many of the seanfhocail, can have an extra nuance, can reveal a second truth – this one also reminds us that acquiring the tools is only half the trade, using them is the other half. It’s not worth a fig if you know how to relax but never relax. It’s no benefit mentally understanding how to do several yoga asanas but never physically performing them. Knowing that you need to make changes is not making changes. Wanting to 22be free of repetitive thoughts or self-damaging behaviours is not doing enough of the job. Get the appropriate tool to do the job.

Here follows a brief introduction to some of the tools pertinent to the job of creating a more positive self, of living a more mindful and grounded life, of taking control of your emotional well-being, of building resilience and equanimity, and of enjoying the joys of life too.

​Mindfulness

Mindfulness at its core is a spiritual tool – best known in the Buddhist tradition as Sati and a key practice on the path to enlightenment. Its essence being that by entering a state of ‘attentive awareness’ – that’s being fully present to the moment-to-moment reality of the present, observing without judgement, being without biases – is a way of coming fully alive to the reality of things. This practise of being of original mind or what some frame as being in ‘the now of the now’, is the switching on of your spirit, the manifesting of your pure reality – it is your alive essence unhindered by ego and emotions – the you without layers of conditioning; one might even say ‘the natural you’ or ‘the enlightened self’.

The Buddhist spiritual discourses on establishing sati/mindfulness can be found in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta and the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta, where it is also highlighted that the intent of the Buddha was to see mindfulness as a means of ‘the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the extinguishing of suffering and grief, for walking on the path of truth, 23for the realisation of nirvana’. And while each of those objectives is a spiritual motivation, one can’t but notice a psychological function in ‘overcoming sorrow and lamentation’.

In recent decades, the popularity of contemporary mindfulness, which some like to call secular mindfulness, is considered a form of the practice utilised to achieve equanimity and control over stress and the strains of modern life – as a tool of destressing and finding inner peace. But it can be much more than a relaxation programme – all the mindful techniques continue to have application as both a path to enlightenment and to extinguishing suffering and grief. Embraced now as a tool by western psychology, mindful practices are utilised to treat anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorders, depression, and other disturbances in mental well-being – with great success.

That accomplishment is because mindful practices bring one to a reality that is not clouded by thought biases or emotionally-triggered judgments or preconceptions, it allows your psychological self to experience the world or situation (and your part in it) for what it really is. As a psychological tool, mindfulness meditation and practices are seen to liberate yourself from the clutter of dissonant thoughts and manage better those pings, pangs and stings of life’s vicissitudes. It is not just attaining a peace of mind but attaining neuroplasticity – retraining how the signalling brain reacts, bringing more self-control. Being in the now – right here, right now, awake and present – there is neither time nor place for catastrophising or becoming overwhelmed.

24Mindfulness is a way of being more responsive and less reactive, it is a way to have better clarity with thoughts arising or moving through and discerning which emotions to pay attention to and which to let go. You can acknowledge the thought and even its emotion, but you don’t have to grasp at it, or invest the rest of your day in it. That anxious moment, that depressive trigger, that inner critic, they can all pass like clouds. Mindfulness is a means of control. You control your breath, you control your thoughts, you control your emotions, you control your reality. This won’t halt every bad situation or complicated circumstance, but it will give you control over how you are in the face of those circumstances. It will strengthen your resolve and your resilience, but it will also increase your participation and enjoyment with life. It will, over time, manifest a stronger frequency of better situations and achieve more positive outcomes. Here are some of its techniques/practices:

Conscious awareness: This is both the goal of mindfulness and the way to attain mindfulness. Conscious awareness is simply being present in the moment, being present to each moment, moment by moment. It is experiencing reality and yourself with clarity and without judgement, obstacles or disturbance.

You do it by simply becoming aware of what is happening, or what you are doing, right now in the moment it is occurring. It is being alert and awake to the moment, not daydreaming, fearing, ruminating, or fantasising through it. It is simply meeting the moment with your full self, meeting it mindfully (consciously) not with a mind full (self-consciously or half distracted).

25It takes practice to develop this ability and there are several practices that hone the skill; following your breath, engaging your senses, and mindfulness meditations including the techniques described later in this book, such as body scans and progressive muscle relaxation and then there are mindful virtues – such as loving kindness and gratitude – peppered through this book.

You can think of mindfulness/conscious awareness as a lifestyle, as a personality trait, as a spiritual dimension or even as a psychological coping strategy but deliberately living a more mindful life, when and where you can, will enrich your life. The more we do it the more we become it, soon enough mindfulness will be incorporated into your life daily – it will become your way to a better life – and that’s not as difficult a task or ask as you might think.

Consciousliving: In the context of your current psychological woes, stepping into conscious living is stepping out of striving and struggling with your torment. It can be a circuit breaker to your angst; that moment of truly smelling a flower, or truly tasting a cherry or truly hearing a bird song can transport you to a better place. That mindful moment can bring you to a better frame of mind, but it doesn’t only have to be an escape hatch, it can be your more frequent experience of life. You just need to start experiencing life more mindfully.

You can be conscious to breathing, to walking, to sitting to relax or sitting to meditate. Being conscious of your lived moments and the sensations attending, brings you into life, into a purer experience of your life. You can hone this skill to maximise your quality of life; you could 26