Freedom from online

I am easily distracted when online.

 

I guess I’m not alone in this.

 

I’m sure I’m not.

 

If I have something to write or do about the house my favourite way to do it is by running Freedom. It’s a small and simple application that does one thing: it blocks your internet connection for a time of your choosing.  As I write this, I have blocked the internet for twenty minutes.

 

I feel relieved. I can’t access Facebook chat. I can’t check twitter or email. I can’t check my messages on the multitude of sites I’m a member of. I can’t watch youtube videos. I can’t check check check.  

 

Blessed stillness.

 

Get it.

Less News, More You

I have been using Twitter a bit lately and it’s got me thinking.

On Twitter you choose who you follow. You choose what voices to hear and what voices to respond to. I think there’s a great wisdom in that.

In general, I don’t read newspapers or watch news programes on television. I glance at headlines and if someone shares an interesting article online I’ll read that but usually a day or so later and on my kindle.

I have issues with news.

For one thing, there’s too much of it. There is far too much information in one daily paper for me to process and contextualise. The entire world’s news is now available to us and dumped on us. Our ancestors would have shared news from person to person. Newspapers until very recently were only a few pages long and contained stories about things that happened in the last few days and weeks. Today, the news is minutes and hours old and with less and less context.

For another, everything about news demands an opinion and a judgement.  But beyond that, news now seems to demand a sense of horror or outrage. That’s terrible. Listen to the scandal. Be upset. Be angry. The world is a terrible place. This happens to the point of what I call ‘disaster-porn’. You only have to be exposed to a 24 hour news channel to discover how much of a producer’s wet dream a school shooting or a building collapse is. And we get to listen to hours of voices sharing their obligatory condemnation and sadness.

Enough.

I felt quite vindicated last year when I read Tim Ferris’ ‘The 4Hour Work Week’. He suggests giving up news. If something of great importance happens, you’ll be told about it. It is very difficult to truly escape “news”.

I believe we should have enough information to inform us about the general state of the world and to empower us. Where is our help needed? But beyond that, it becomes a drain on our mental resources, a source of stress, and a waste of time.

I want you to skip the newspaper and the tv news, if not every day, at least once in a while.

Like on Twitter, I want you to choose who you listen to.  There’s another voice that gets lost in the noise. Your inner voice is known by many names: your (higher) Self, God, the source, creativity, your Christ/Buddha-nature, and many more. Whatever you call or understand the knowing that comes to you in stillness, that’s the voice I mean.

There are many ways to experience that voice and all it takes is to turn down the competing voices. My advice is to find a few ways to create the space you need and to listen to your own inner voice. We are always talking to ourselves but how often do we actually listen? Listen to your body speaking. Are you tired or dehydrated but too busy to notice? Pick up a pen and start a journal. Take long walks. Daydream. 

Just like on Twitter, listen to be informed and inspired.  If a voice speaks to much or listening doesn’t serve you, hit unfollow.  Listen to your voice, then speak it.  Inspiration – Expiration. Breathe in. Breathe out. We breathe in and listen. We breathe out and speak what we hear. It’s all about the balance. When you listen, you will find you have things to say. It might not be in words, but You have something to say.

Take in the news about the world that you need, but no more. Take a long walk in silence. Daydream and dance. Listen to your own truth and speak it. Write a blog post. Write a letter. Give a talk at Toastmasters.

We are waiting to hear your voice and to hear your truth. Listen and speak it.

Silence is Golden

 

 

Silence is Golden. I will be Silent in Future.

 

Those were the lines that a secondary school teacher used to give our class if the class was rowdy or misbehaved when another teacher was absent.

 

Silence is Golden. I will be silent in future. At the time, I didn’t understand it and even now it seems to me to come from an odd direction, but I do understand something of the value of silence now.

 

I have always been quiet. I can remember in primary school feeling lost in the noise of the other students. There were times when the teacher left the room and little by little the volume of the chatter got louder until it sounded like a playground. I didn’t enjoy that noise.

 

There are many kinds of oppressive and ugly silences. I am thinking of the tense silence of the exam hall.  There is the horrible silence after a loss or when a couple are fighting and in hurt, there are no words to say.

 

 

 

Much like nudity, silence is a two headed beast. When enforced, it is torture.  If chosen, it is ultimate freedom.

 

I feel that silence is a precious thing. Silent spaces and shared silences are pieces of heaven.

 

I enjoy choosing silence and walking into silent places.

 

I grew up going to our local church every week. I learned that you don’t talk aloud in sacred places.  I don’t consider myself Christian and I have no formal relationship with any of the main churches. I do, however, love church buildings. I love the smell of incense and the flicker of candles. I love sunlight streaming through stained glass windows.

 

Growing up I didn’t understand what was meant by calling a church “God’s house”.  But now, I understand that what we mean is this is a place set apart from the ordinary world. This is a place set apart from the noise, the nausea, of the city.

 

In Galway I have discovered the Augustinian church as a place to sit and along the canal as a place to walk. The collegiate and the cathedral are lovely buildings but they are used so much by tourists and other events that silence is a rarity.

 

 

I have no desire to reconnect with the main churches. Their ceremonies and rituals have so little space for Silence. What I do want, is more open and silent spaces.

 

I want somewhere I can sit and be. 

 

There is something magical about a place reserved for silence. Somewhere that I can enter and leave and that exists without me. At  home, I can close the doors on the world but I can’t shut out my partner or household chores. Even learning to shut out the ever-presence of the internet is a major challenge for me.

 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were more spaces for silence?

 

In Edinburgh airport, just inside the front door, there is a multi/non-denominational prayer room.  Wouldn’t it be fantastic if there were more rooms like that in public buildings?

 

And we can choose to share silence. My partner and I inherited a form of grace before meals from some friends we stayed with in New Zealand. We simply hold hands and share a few moments of silence. 

 

Last month I attended the Galway Quaker meeting.  Quakers worship by sitting in silence for an hour.  The peace that comes in that is immense. When I can, I will attend meetings like that.

 

At home, I will block out the internet more and more. I will light a candle and daydream.

 

Find the silent places in your life. Honour them.

If I were to reword the punishment of those lines and turn it into a affirmation, it would be this:  Silence is Golden. In freedom, I step in and out of Silence.

 

My Five Favourite Podcasts

I subscribe to a bunch of podcasts. I listen to them when I’m travelling or walking to work. I listen to them when doing the dishes.

The podcasts I listen to are ones that I particularly enjoy. I don’t listen if I don’t like it. There are many podcasts that I have sampled and let go.

The great things about podcasts are that you can listen to them whenever you want, and the entire back catalogue of episodes is available to you too. When you discover one you like, it is very easy to go back to the start and listen right through to the present.

These are the five podcasts that I enjoy the most.

In Our Time

In Our Time is a BBC Radio 4 show that broadcasts weekly for most of the year. I believe it stops for the Summer.  I have listened to In Our Time for the last four or five years. I have learned more from this programme than from any other source. Every week, the subject is something new and very different. The only exclusion they have for topics is that it can’t be something topical. So for example, the two episodes I have unlistened to on my iTunes are about:

1. the chemistry of the water molecule and
2. the evolutionary biologist Alfred Russell Wallace

The format of the show is the same every week. Melvyn Bragg introduces the topic and his expert panel, who are usually lecturers in U.K. Universities.  Melvyn then moves the conversation along asking his panel questions to explain and explore the topic. By the end of the programme I am usually left wanting more. The more you dive into any subject the more there is to explore in a never-ending chain of connections.

The Savage Lovecast

Several years ago, a good friend asked me if I knew what GGG meant. I didn’t. I googled it and found out it was one of the sex advice phrases coined by Dan Savage. (It stands for Good, Giving, and Game).

I saw that as well as the Love Letters of the day, there was also a podcast. I can remember it was on a holiday to Benidorm (I know. I know.) that I listened to the then dozens of back episodes.

The show starts every week with Dan talking about something political in relation to relationship rights or LGBT issues. Dan is based in Seattle and the majority of the callers are from the USA.

If you have a problem with sexually explicit conversations and a multitude of swear words, this might not be the show for you..

Sounds True: Insights at the Edge

I discovered Sounds True productions when I was living in Edinburgh and getting into Ken Wilber.  I found the Sounds True production Kosmic Consciousness and from there found the podcast.  I listened to it on and off over the last few years. I hadn’t listened at all until last week when I sought it out again. I listened to a few of the most recent episodes and I was really impressed. The format of the podcast is interviews with spiritual teachers and inspiring leaders. This past week I have listened to the episodes with Matthew Fox, Brene Brown and Robert Moss – all authors and speakers I admire.

My suggestion is to only listen to the episodes you feel drawn to.  There is a very diverse range of topics and interviewees. Some may be that one step too far into the “trans-rational”. Last year I heard a speaker or two that made me cringe and even this week I stopped one speaker half way through.

Check it out.

The Work of Byron Katie

If you have read some of the my writing here you will know that I have a major grá for Byron Katie and her Work.

If you like audio courses, there’s a great audio introduction to BK called Your Inner Awakening.

These podcasts are live recordings of people doing The Work with Katie. They’re sometimes from webinars and sometimes from live events. Some are less than ten minutes long and some are an hour. They aren’t released regularly but they do seem to be coming more often than they used to.

I find listening to these very enlightening and up lifting. They contain a lot of humour and I am normally left smiling by the end.

Druidcast – The Druid Podcast

I am a member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. It’s a big part of my life.  The Druidcast podcast is produced by Damh the Bard and are released monthly.

The shows usually contain a lot of great new pagan music and interviews with authors and contemporary pagan/druid folk in Britain and around the world.

It’s a fantastic show and one that I savour when it comes out.

Seeing Colours

The side altar in the Augustinian Church, Galway. I love the colours in the stained glass.

Readability and Kindle

I love my Kindle.  I love reading on my Kindle.

I also regularly find information online that I want to read. But you know how it is online. It’s hard to stay focused on one task never mind reading a full article online.  Here’s where sites like Readability come in.To use the site, go to Readability.com and Register.

Once you’re signed up, go to your Kindle page on Amazon. Take note of your send-to-kindle email address.

Now go back to your Readability account. Navigate to your Kindle settings.

Enter your Kindle email address and select the time you want your digest to be sent to you. I have mine set for 9pm.

Finally, navigate to your Account Settings on Readability and make sure you have archive articles automatically ticked.

 

I mostly use Safari as my web browser. I have installed the Readability extension but the only button I have on my toolbar is Read Later.

 

You can download the extension for your browser at readability.com/apps.

Enjoy reading.

Toastmasters

I joined Toastmasters in November 2011. I was living in Kinsale and I joined the local club there. It’s a small club and it was a wonderful introduction for me.  I had been familiar with Toastmasters for years. My Dad has been involved for a decade or so and I had been to meetings in Mallow to see him. I had had a sense for a long time that I would eventually join up.  I was incredibly impressed when I saw my Dad give the father of the bride speech at my sister’s wedding. It was perfect. I wanted that level of confidence.

I stayed with the Kinsale club from November 2011 until April 2012. At that point my partner and I went away travelling for the next six months.  Before I left, however, I took part in an evaluation contest. I stood and spoke before a hundred or so people. I never would have thought that possible. Despite the real anxiety of that day, I’ve been blessed by the memory. I did that.

I am now living in Galway and I joined the club here in November. I’m loving it. I love that I’m learning how to shine in ways I never thought I could.

Toastmasters works on a membership and ongoing learning basis. When you join you get two manuals to work through. One is on communication and giving speeches. The other is on leadership. I gave my stage 7 speech this week.

Aside from gaining confidence in myself and continually learning how to construct and give a speech, I have learned a lot more in Toastmasters.

I’ve learned that I have something to say.  This was a big one for me.  It was actually through being in Toastmasters that I started this blog. I found a new creativity in ideas and the sharing of them.

I have learned to appreciate the value of feedback. Every part of a Toastmasters meeting is evaluated and feedback given to the person performing the role or giving the speech. Rather than being intimidating, I find it very validating to hear someone show me that they’ve heard me.

Finally, a thought that’s been with me for a few weeks. I had a perception of Toastmasters, before I joined, that it would be a place of talking and showing off. I was very wrong. Apart from during the coffee break, there’s only ever one person speaking. Everyone else is present and listening. I love that silence.

I’m really looking forward to the places my Toastmasters journey will take me over the coming months and years. I’m excited about a meeting before I go and buzzed about it afterwards.

 

Over the coming week, I’m going to post on topics I have explored recently in my speeches.

If you’d like to explore more, click through these links.

 

Toastmasters International

Galway Toastmasters Club

Kinsale and District Toastmasters

Add-ons and Changes to Morning Routines

 

 

I have a simple morning routine that I add to.

Currently, I get up later than I had planned. (I have ambitions for sleeping early and rising early.  Sometimes it happens. Sometimes it doesn’t.)

I brush my teeth and brush my hair (not with the same brush). While doing that I read the Basic Principles from The Artist’s Way. I have written them out and posted them beside the bathroom mirror.

I then go to the kitchen and put the kettle on. I drink half a pint of cold water. I make a cup of tea for myself and a cup of coffee for my partner to be delivered to his bedside.

I then sit down to write my Morning Pages. These are three foolscap pages of handwritten stream of consciousness.  I have been writing them now for two years and I wouldn’t stop. I really miss them when I wake up somewhere without the time or paper to write.

I discovered that this routine is a great way to add value to my day simply by tagging something new on until it becomes habit. The drinking of water and reading the Basic Principles are recent additions.  I noticed that I was getting dehydrated and forgetting to drink water during the day. To correct that, I made a glass of water before bed and on rising part of my routine.

My next add on is going to be meditating while lying on the floor in semi-supine.  I do this every few days at present but I’d like it to be part of every day.  Including it at the start in an existing routine seems best.  I’ve tried it a few times but I haven’t given myself the time yet.

One other change I want is to start getting up early.  I’m going to try this for the next week.  I’d like to get up about 7 every day. That means I need to be asleep by 11.30.  

Do you have a routine that you use? Is it a routine of choice? Do you try to alter your habits?

 

Please let me know what you do in the comments below.

 

 

Self-improvement: That awful handwriting

I have attrocious handwriting. Anyone who sees my illegible scrawl agrees. My ten year old niece sent me a postcard from a sun holiday saying “I bet you can read my handwriting”. She has difficulty with mine.

I want that to change. I have a book. It has coursework.  It will happen.  I simply need to pencil it in.  It really doesn’t come easy. I can type fast and I write fast. I will need to spend quite a bit of time handwriting slowly and carefully.

I bought an ebook on correcting handwriting a month ago. I loved the read. I love the promise. So far I did two of the exercises. It hasn’t progressed far. This doesn’t come easily but it will come to pass.

In a future post I will show my old illegible scrawl and my new beautiful script.

 

daily prompt

Walk in Renmore