Feel good techniques

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23097143

Perhaps the real conundrum is: if someone tells you how to be happy, will you do it?

The longer I go on exploring, the more I keep coming back to the belly and the felt sense of contentment that comes from this area. It happens in meditation, it happens in yoga, it happens when you walk down the street. This core zone is dominated by the psoas muscle and if you tune into it and start to relax it, nice things happen. Try it and see.

I am still enjoying the peony.

After 15 years of trying, it seems as if my peony is going to make a flower. I never thought I'd live to see what flower it would make - another thing to tick off the list.


Seems like I'm have a good year in the garden, which is remarkable given my gardening skills...

There's lots of them. We have the ability to choose which moments to focus on and build them into our view of the world. The media chooses to focus on problems, things that are not right, and the sense that everything is going to fall to pieces if we don't keep our eye on it. It's kind of wearing after a while.

I'm getting back into twitter again after a bit of a break and it's quite refreshing to tune in to non-media minds for a bit. There's a different vibe to the world - people are people; happy, sad, enlightened, delighted.

You will find me drifting along on these sorts of hash tags

#happymoment
#contentmoment
#pleasantmoment
#positivemoment


Think of them like drifting currents of positivity in the river of our collected consciousness.

It has taken three years but it is finally here. It is an amazing flower if you get the chance to inspect one.

Without wishing to undermine the self help nature of what I do here, it is useful to know why it doesn't help to simply read information and expect your life to become miraculously better. The first reason is this:

The mind that reads the self help book cannot understand that it (the mind that initiated the reading) is the problem

Another way of saying this is: the mind that wants to fix itself is already broken.

Luckily, the joyful conclusion we might eventually realise is: there is nothing wrong with me just as I am.

Reaching the point where you realise that there is nothing wrong with you is the mind that is already fixed. If you think you have problems, then you most certainly have problems. If you don't, then you don't.

So, you might not find this helpful because:

a) you're looking for a way out of your torment
b) you need help doing it
c) you feel certain that you need to do something to fix it

In reality what you should be fixing is the idea that these three thin…

If you embark on a healthy eating regime you will probably encounter these grains. I can eat rice as plain as it comes but I find that these grains require a little bit of help on the flavour front. It's quite a simple process of cooking the grain and adding your flavour.
Here's a couple of ideas:
- gently fry an onion and some garlic until they are soft - add some cumin, coriander, salt and pepper (perhaps even add some curry powder) - mix it into the cooked grain
- gently fry an onion and some garlic - add some cumin, coriander and a tin of chickpeas - add some raisins, salt and pepper - mix it into the cooked grain
You can also try it with a vinegar and sugar combination. Experiment with different flavourings and other tinned pulses. You could also add freshly chopped herbs and some lemon juice.
Once the grains have been enhanced you can keep them in the fridge and use them as a salad for the next day.