The Nomad Yogi

What is “Resilience”? It can be difficult to define precisely but you know it when you see it. My personal definition is this: “A resilient person can deal with severe adversity without being deformed by it. A resilient person can make it through painful experiences and live an optimistic, meaningful life while enriching the lives of those around them.” Last week I wrote about how our ability to rise above challenges depends, in part, on the communities and resources that surround us. I stressed the importance of community and being part of a “tribe”. However “resilience” can also be reflected in the way people choose to respond to adversity. There was a fascinating study done on resilience which is described in the book “Out of the Woods: Tales of Resilient Teens” published in 2008. The book opens in a locked psychiatric ward full of troubled teens. These young patients did not have trivial issues: drug addiction, suicide attempts, major disruption at school and criminal be...

Resilience is not only a DIY Endeavour. Professor Michael Ungar is a Canadian social worker who has been a family therapist for 20 years. He also leads a large team of researchers that study child, family, and community resilience. He is the author of the book: “Change your World: The Science of Resilience and the True Path to Success.” His research, involving large studies in many countries, has convinced him that resilience is not primarily intrinsic. That is, how well you cope with life is not just about what you do and think. My blogs this year have focused a lot on self-improvement so I thought this research would be an interesting counterpoint. Ungar and his merry band of researchers maintain that striving to better ourselves will not improve our lot in life if our family, workplace, community, health-care professionals and governments fail to provide sufficient care and support. In fact, according to him, all the internal resources we can muster, are not of much use wit...

In 2019, more people than ever are struggling with anxiety and negative thoughts, and finding some peace of mind and composure is high on the list for most of us. Life coach Kate James’s book, Create Calm , written on managing stress and what she calls “difficult thoughts”, is a carefully compiled and highly accessible resource for anyone grappling with the stress of modern-day living – and that is really everyone. James describes her book as not intended as a replacement for professional help in dealing with mental health issues, but rather an extra tool to have and refer to. For this reason she attempts to explain and describe as many techniques for “creating calm” as can be listed, from exercise and sleep, mindfulness, creativity, talking, all the way through to professional support if it is needed. The book’s extensive contents page enables the reader to flick between sections that may be relevant or of interest to them, and each section is no longer than a few pages. James’...

Here we are at the end of our meditations for a calmer life - learning to deal with anxiety. I hope you have found them helpful. Today is number 10. So what have we learned? We started with breath, body and sense awareness. These simple techniques draw us into the moment. The present may be difficult, but often it is not, and grounding ourselves in it gives us a bit more distance from repetitive anxious thoughts. This creates more space in our head. It is a bit like flipping the breaker switch when you’ve used up too much mental power. We learned how to set an intention (goal) for our practice by visualizing what our life and relationships could look like if we feel more calm. As I mentioned in my blog Jan 12, 2019 - “Your Best Year Ever” being able to visualize our future is useful. Several studies show that our brain doesn’t know the difference between a real memory and an imagined one. When we imagine our future vividly with emotion, our brain chemistry changes as though ...

Only one more to go. I have been writing and recording a series of 10 meditations on dealing with anxiety. We have been learning that anxiety is bigger than ourselves. It is a shared human experience. When we recognize it as a passing phenomenon, not who we are, our experience of it changes - it becomes less frequent and intense. This can free us up to become more aware of those around us and we start to see our own experiences mirrored in them. Our empathy grows and again our anxiety lessens. Anxiety becomes a point of connection: “Hey are you feeling a bit down?” “Are you feeling uptight?” “I get that. I’ve been there.” And gradually we feel less isolated. Anxiety becomes something that just happens to us from time to time as we all do this thing called life together. We are not alone. It is not permanent and it is not an obstacle. Like all of our emotions it is a sign of our membership in the human race, and exists to teach us stuff. If you have followed all of these meditati...

Stephen and I thought it was a good day to die today at the Mass Extinction Rebellion Lie-in at the Queensland Museum. We had plenty of company. People of all ages, families and young children. Extinction Rebellion is an international movement using non-violent actions to achieve radical change. A past Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, was quoted by media as saying that climate change activism has become a religion substitute. I think climate change action IS religion at its best. The sacred scriptures of every major religion and the indigenous spiritual wisdoms of the world talk about humanity’s duty to safeguard the planet. They talk about the interconnectedness of all living things. For better or for worse, we are this planet’s caretakers. Modern science, a different kind of search for truth, is telling us we are doing a lousy job. One young lad at the rally spoke eloquently about his concerns for the Great Barrier Reef. Some people, even politicians, say that we do...

Welcome to Meditation 8 in this series of 10 meditations for calm living. If you’ve been following along from the get go - congratulations. We are almost there. I hope you are starting to feel a little different. A little more skilled at dealing with your inner world. I hope that if you tend to be anxious you are feeling more moments of calm creeping into your days and that this is beginning to challenge any beliefs you have about being an “anxious” person. Perhaps you can now accept that anxiety is something that comes and goes. Sometimes we are anxious but then again often we are not. One thing we can observe when we take the time to be still and mindful is that life is always changing and so are we. We can liken our mind to a limitless blue sky. Thoughts, emotions, and sensations in the body come and go like clouds in that sky. If we get completely wrapped up in them we lose sight of the blue sky. When we let go, we catch a glimpse of blue expansiveness again. The more we pra...