Three Principles

“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”

Mark Twain

When things are getting tough in life, we often turn to the world and look for a reason for our pain, our upset, our misery, and as if by magic, we always seem to find the perfect scapegoat. This seems to be temporarily useful, as it serves as help to justify why we feel the way we do. Yet if we take a closer look at the situation we find that the culprit is not out there in the world, but in fact, right where it all started: in our thinking. It is the way we are ‘seeing’ the situation via what we think about it, creating the feeling response we have to it. 

Continue reading “You are the Solution you have been Looking for” →

Why are so many people suffering within the mining and construction industries today? While health and safety remains a huge priority within both fields of work, very little seems to be on offer for those men and women in genuine need of help. 

A person may receive Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), or some form of counseling or psychotherapy, but often these approaches fail to deliver any lasting help for those in need. They may attempt the help an individual solve specific problems, but lack the capacity to show people how to live a full and satisfying life while continuing to work in such challenging conditions. For some the problem may be that these male dominated workplaces create an ethos of ‘just muscling through’ problems rather than admitting they don’t feel good. Yet federal government funded OzHelp, who do a lot of good work with suicide prevention, estimate suicide rates for both industries are 70% higher than the rest of the work force and indicate that this is due to drug and alcohol problems, bullying, abuse, and what they call: ‘a low emotional capacity to work through problems’. This suggests a far greater and growing problem that needs a positive and urgent solution. 

Continue reading “Depression and Suicide in Mining and Construction: Taking a Fresh look at Staff Wellbeing” →

How many times a week do we hear people saying that they need to work on some aspect of themselves; fix something; make something better; grow as a person?

In the context of developing new skills, such as a new language, learning a certain aspect of history, or choosing a new career path that requires adaptability, these all make sense in developing our understanding of the world.

Continue reading “The Myth of Self Development” →

Creon: “An enemy is still an enemy. Dead or alive.”Antigone: “No, I was born with love enough to share: no hate for anyone.” From Antigone by Sophocles

If someone is acting in a bullying manner, we can be sure of one thing alone; that this tells us very little about ourselves but a lot about the psychological state of the person caught in the bullying mindset.

Continue reading “Some thoughts on the Nature of Bullying” →

The world is continually searching for stillness, for quiet; to feel good and happy and contented. The paradox in all this searching is that the stillness and good feelings that we strive toward is the most natural state in the world.

Let’s look at it like this: we all experience moments of stillness that simply come upon us, these moments arise spontaneously and invariably seem random; moments such as having the leisure to observe somebody undertaking an activity or task that requires deep concentration. We watch and pick up on the good feeling of neutrality.

Continue reading “Stillness: the Natural State” →