Acceptance and I are new acquaintances. For many years, I couldn’t see its beauty. I thought it equalled resignation: sitting on the couch, hunched into my shoulders, and slowly shaking my head in a sad, Eeyore-type way. But acceptance is an active and dynamic force. It precedes and provokes change. For many years, I’ve been familiar with psychologist Carl Rogers’s contention that: ‘When I accept myself as I am, then I can change’. But I still found self-acceptance tough. In a … [Read more...] about Acceptance is a beautiful thing
dyspraxia
How to accept your dyspraxia as part of yourself
If you’re reading this and you have dyspraxia, you know exactly how that feels. So do I. My dyspraxia diagnosis didn’t arrive until I was 59. I’d already spent a lifetime feeling different, frustrated, incompetent, confused, and, worst of all, stupid. Except, deep down, I knew I wasn’t stupid. My ability with words and language demonstrated that. In that context, I was super-human; in the context of normal life though, I was sub-human. My schooldays were accidents waiting to happen – and … [Read more...] about How to accept your dyspraxia as part of yourself
Top ten things walking has taught me: # 1
Walking is the most natural, most primal activity on the planet. And it can teach us much of a profound and life-enhancing nature. I'd like to claim that thought as my own, but, as is so often the case, the ancient Greeks got there first. Diogenes, the one known as "the cynic", proclaimed: 'It is solved by walking'. This has come to mean that the answer to a problem can usually be found by a practical experiment. For me though, it's also true that the problems going round and round in … [Read more...] about Top ten things walking has taught me: # 1
What would Winnie-The-Pooh do?
Early in 2016, I decide to listen to my instinct. It tells me that the next step in my quest to recreate my relationship with the dyspraxia that has shaped my life is to walk the 2,000 kilometres from London, down through France and across Spain, to Santiago de Compostela. That's a big deal for anyone. It's an even bigger deal for me. My dyspraxia means that I have no sense of direction and I can't read a map nor use a compass. But I’ve learned not to argue with my instinct, so off I … [Read more...] about What would Winnie-The-Pooh do?
Could you walk the Camino de Santiago?
Industrialist Henry Ford had the answer to that. 'Whether you think you can or you can't - you're right.' Sometimes the only thing stopping us from achieving a dream, such as walking a Camino pilgrim route, is ourselves. We allow ourselves to be confined by what we believe about ourselves. If we become too attached to these self-beliefs, they can confine us. They can deprive us of our ability to act beyond them, to behave in different ways. Let me give you an example. Do we want to … [Read more...] about Could you walk the Camino de Santiago?