ANYBODY who knows me will know that I am a huge fan of a book called ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle.

I can safely say that having become familiar with the book and all the ins and outs about understanding the Now it has changed my life.

It has never failed me and has given me, if nothing else, a refuge for peace of mind and a clear direction in life.

The first thing I can say about the Now is the universal fact that all we ever have is Now. You can’t live in the past and the future has not yet arrived so honestly the only gig in town is the Now.

If you want to be on the dance-floor of life you have to learn to live in the Now! Another fact about the Now is that it opens up all sorts of paradoxes and contradictions.

For instance in my opening sentence above I wrote about understanding the Now which by itself is a total contradiction. You cannot understand the Now you can only be in the Now.

If you are trying to comprehend the Now, that de facto means that you are thinking about it. Thinking brings us somehow by its very nature into the past or the future which are the very two places in the mind where the Now cannot exist.

So to summarise the above.

1  The Now is the only gig in town.

2  You cannot understand the Now you can only Be in the Now.

So ultimately the secret to the Now is a very simple one, but the problem is that our minds will never agree with that statement, purely because they are being sidestepped and do not like being ignored. (Who or what likes to be ignored?)

However we have to live with the truth and the truth is that the only connection that we have with the future or the past is our thinking mind. Another truth is that the two places that the Now cannot exist in is the future or the past.

That in a nutshell is why, whether we like it or not, our thinking mind has to be sidestepped (ignored!).

So to live in the Now and to truly appreciate the Now, we can only experience it and not think about it.

To put that in another way, if we cannot think about it the only thing that is left is to experience it. Now you’re on the dance-floor!!

If I was to ask a question at this stage it would be this. Having mentioned the above, is it any wonder that the true place of refuge where we can find God is in the Now??

Another Paradox!!  We can never find the Now we can only Be in the Now. We can only experience the Now.

Wouldn’t it then be also true to say that we ultimately can never find God (search for God) in our lives we can only experience God in our lives.

How can we search for God if he is always present? Is this not what Jesus meant when He said “Be still and know that I Am God”.

P.S. There may be some people reading this who are uncomfortable with the term ‘God’ and I totally understand this and at no stage am I trying to offend. I would suggest that they can replace the term ‘God’ with the word ‘Peace’ or ‘Love’ and they should find that  will also work for them.

ACCEPTANCE is one of the most powerful tools that you can have in your psychological welfare arsenal.

I discovered this many years ago and I regularly use phrases like ‘it is as it is’ or the infamous teenage phrase of ‘whatever’ much to the chagrin of my family and friends.

The Irish love to complain about the weather, but at the end of the day, complaining about the weather isn’t going to change the weather so one would be much better off accepting the weather as it is and investing in a decent raincoat and going out and enjoying oneself.

The song ‘Singing in the rain’ by Gene Kelly is a metaphor for accepting the situation as it is and enjoying the moment.

One must ask ‘why does acceptance work?’

To answer this, one must investigate the whole area of stress. Many people talk about stress or treat stress on a daily basis.

In fact there are billions of euros being spent on or lost to the economy around the world in the whole area of dealing with stress.

This is a problem in itself! Most people, if you asked them to define stress, would be unable to do so.

Again ‘What is stress?’ The best definition I have ever heard of stress from a ‘working’ point of view is Stress is ‘being Here and trying to be There’.

If that is true then surely the opposite is true. The secret to a stress-free life is being Here and not trying to be There.

It all comes back to living in the ‘NOW’. Acceptance of a situation is the one tool that will always render us in the ‘Now’.

It is easy to accept a situation when it is pleasant but may not be so easy if the situation is difficult. However it is in acceptance of a difficult situation that we come to realise the real power and benefit of acceptance.

Without doubt acceptance is always the better choice over the only other choice which is ‘non acceptance’. Non-acceptance of a situation will inevitably lead to some form of stress as we are ‘Being here and trying to be there’ as explained above.

At the end of the day there are three ways we should best react to any given situation;

1. Accept the situation as it is.

2. Change the situation (in other words take action and so something about it)

3. Accept that we are unable to change the situation (Note we always retain the power to change how we Think about the situation i.e How we React!)

Non Acceptance is never really a good option as it can result in much pain, stress and confusion for both an individual and a country.

Many great leaders have used the Power of Acceptance to great effect. Nelson Mandela brought about the Freedom of South Africa from the terrible regime of apartheid and he achieved it by accepting his situation in a prison cell.

Ghandi achieved the freedom of India by accepting that ‘non- violent’ means was the best way forward for India.

Jesus Christ used the symbol of ‘Acceptance of The Cross’ to spread the message of eternal love and to save the souls of mankind.

He died and gave His life without hesitation to teach this message. Millions of Christians around the world celebrate this message every Easter.

I SELDOM write about things of a personal nature, but I suppose being the day that’s in it I believe it would be remiss of me not to mention my father, so I decided to go the whole hog and write about him.

My father Roger was one of 13 children and was born in Tralee in 1919.

There was a lot of love in his family, but there is also no doubt that times were tough back then and he was encouraged to leave Ireland at the tender age of 14 and go to England to work.

He had two aunts in England and he started to work as a trainee chef in Bournemouth and worked his way up to being a chef in Grovenor House Hotel in Park Lane London.

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This would explain why he had little interest in formal education as he barely did his junior cert examination but have no doubt he was an expert with A levels in the ‘university of life’.

He returned to Ireland in 1939 when World War 2 broke out, thanks to his Uncle Ned who purchased a public premises in Castle Street, Tralee.

My father could return home safely instead of being drafted into the British Army as fodder for the German soldiers on D-Day. What a thought, but this was the harsh reality of the time.

He was a big Arsenal fan and often travelled to Highbury Stadium and saw the likes of the great Ted Drake in action.

He used to love to regale me with stories of his time in London often talking about things that thought him tough life lessons.

Going shopping at a market in Piccadilly, he purchased a beautiful shirt at a stall to find when he opened the box at home that all he had was a box without a shirt. And when he returned the stall had moved on. Be careful where you purchase!

On getting into difficulty at work a senior chef gave him advice; ‘Harty you got yourself into the shit so get yourself out of the shit!”

Good advice on the importance of self-responsibility in a nutshell.

On common sense, he used to say, “the thing about common sense is that they gave it the wrong name, it’s not that common at all”. Then he would give a big laugh.

He was a founder member of The Rose of Tralee and in fact it was founded in his own public premises.

He travelled with the festival to New York on a bi-winged plane to bring the first New York rose home for the first Rose of Tralee in 1959.

I believe there were only five rose contestants that year. Alice O’Sullivan, a great friend of mine who is still in great fettle, was the first Rose of Tralee winner.

While in New York he wondered about emigrating to America but decided instead that, as he said himself, “I can have New York at home”, so he brought many of his ideas home with him.

He renovated his bar (Roger Harty’s Bar) in 1962 and was one of the first in Ireland to install central heating and a Steak Grill, probably one of the first pubs in Ireland to have food on the premises and was renowned for his toasted special sandwich.

He had very loyal staff on board with him and it would be remiss of me not to mention the great Eddie Howard who worked with him arm in arm for over 50 years.

He had a great love of all things racing and was a shareholder and founder member of Ballybeggan racecourse.

Perhaps the greatest lesson that my father gave me is to reassure me that he was always there for me as a guide, but he was willing to let go and let me learn the ups and downs of life for myself. In doing we learn.

God Bless you Dad ! RIP  2008

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J.D.I. (the Nike slogan) is a slogan that is very close to my heart.

The reason for this is that it works and it was of huge benefit to me in my own life.

Every morning I made myself go for a walk, rain, hail or snow whether I liked it or not (I just did it).

What I found was that at the start I didn’t particularly like doing it – in fact I vehemently didn’t want to do it – but after a while the thing that I didn’t like initially became very enjoyable.

It was as if my mind was saying that no matter what I do, this fellow is going to keep on walking so I may as well enjoy myself.

When we analyse why J.D.I. works, things get very interesting. You see J.D.I. bypasses the thinking mind. In other words if you have a task to do – Just Do It and don’t think about it.

You see when you apply the J.D.I. philosophy you take choice off of the table. In other words whether I choose to do something or not or whether I like it or not is irrelevant – just J.D.I.

By applying this we get all the benefits of doing the task (e.g. exercise) without the resistance of the thinking mind which is the very tool that can put us off doing it in the first place.

How often in your life have you said ‘I should do this’ or ‘I could do that’ or ‘wouldn’t  life be great if only I had done that’. We must ask ourselves what is stopping us ?

When all is said and done, when you get to the bottom of it you will find in 99% of cases, the thinking mind is involved in some form of resistance – I don’t like this and I don’t like that…blah blah blah!

“Everybody is looking for freedom, but with freedom comes responsibility” – Nelson Mandela

One of the greatest freedoms we can give ourselves is freedom from our own thinking minds. If we are to be totally honest and we want to improve our lives, the best place to begin is to accept the fact that we are where we are as a result of the choices we have made.

The main difference between successful happy people and others is purely down to the choices they have made (please don’t confuse rich with happy and successful!!)

As I explained in a previous article, over 80% of the thoughts of the average human being are negative so that means when we stay away from our thinking mind (meditate), we hit the jackpot 8 out of 10 times – not a bad result from any bookmaker!

Here is the crux of the matter – when we practice J.D.I. in it’s true form we are bypassing the thinking mind and all the resistance (negativity) that goes with it. This can help us in many areas of our lives and here are some good examples.

Exercise – Decide on a healthy programme (get expert advice) and then apply the programme – don’t think about it, J.D.I.

Diet – Decide on a healthy programme (again get expert advice – we also instinctively know what foods serve us well and those that don’t) – don’t think about it, J.D.I

Meditation – Learn to do it (Get advice or look it up on youtube) and practice it – this is without doubt the most rewarding advice I can give you as it impacts on all others – so J.D.I.

Most people refuse to J.D.I. purely because of psychological fear (resistance), however we find in practice those fears aren’t real.

FEAR = False Expectations Appearing Real

So finally I am going to leave you with another great slogan…

In Doing We Learn

I HAVE always said to get the solutions to the deeper elements of life it is far far easier and better to ask the right question than spending an eternity looking for answers.

In America, with all that is going on right now, I ask the simple open question ‘Where is the Love?’

Also another truth you will find is that if you delve deep enough you will find that someone else somewhere in the world has asked exactly the same question.

One of my favourite bands over the last few years is The Black Eyed Peas and the title name of one of their best songs released about 11 years ago is, you’ve guessed it, ‘Where Is The Love’…

Look at some of the lyrics as they are so prophetic and so powerful…

‘What’s wrong with the world, mama?

People livin’ like they ain’t got no mamas

I think the whole world’s addicted to the drama

Only attracted to the things that’ll bring you trauma

But if you only have love for your own race

Then you only leave space to discriminate

And to discriminate only generates hate

And when you hate, then you’re bound to get irate

Madness is what you demonstrate

And that’s exactly how anger works and operates

Man, you gotta have love, this’ll set us straight’

I’m not for one second suggesting that I have all the answers for America — and remember America is a huge country with many diverse aspects to it — but what I am suggesting is to go back to basics and ask the simple question, ‘Where is the Love?’

When you have a leadership who, by his own words, ‘wants to dominate’ and not be seen as weak or a pushover, then is it any surprise that he is only inciting deep trauma?

He’s inciting trauma in America and that is exactly what America is getting and it is very sad, trauma.

For once I am purposely not going to mention him by name as he does enough of self -publicity and propaganda himself.

All I am going to ask is, where is the love?

I do not usually write articles of a political nature as I believe everyone has their own opinion on things. However when I see a great country that was once held in such high esteem around the world suffering so much, I just had to write.

All I have to say to him is, if the cap fits – wear it – but ‘Where is the Love?’

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ON the surface this may appear to be an overwhelmingly pessimistic, negative title, but I can assure you nothing could be further from the truth.

Let me elaborate further.

You see, we now live in a world of ‘things’. Things are very important to us.

Things like holidays, nice houses, nice cars,expensive clothes, restaurants, electrical products, social media products, tasty foods in supermarkets etc, etc are all readily available to us on our doorstep.

That was not always the case even up to 50 or 60 years ago, which in terms of the evolution of mankind is only a pinprick.

Not only are they readily available but we are also subjected to a continuous, relentless bombardment by professional advertising convincing us that we need these products and that our lives would be far better off and happier if we had them and that our money would be well spent if we purchased same.

Ask the simple question; Are we happier than our ancestors? I don’t think so!

A very interesting experiment was forced upon us during this current Covid 19 lockdown where we had to survive without many of the above items.

Advertising was reduced to a trickle because companies wouldn’t waste their money on advertising if customers couldn’t get access to the shops.

Did the world come to a Stop? What happened?

• People spent time with their loved ones and children.
• People engaged in simple board games and playing cards
• The environment got a unique and well-earned recovery break
• People began to pay more attention and appreciate the company of others
• Less money was spent on things like petrol and people began to exercise.
• People began to bake and cook at home (Flour was at a premium)
• Pastimes like knitting and home hobbies like woodwork and playing music.
• Gardens never looked better

I know I have only covered the basics here but many of the above mentioned items are not ‘Things’ – they involve paying attention to ourselves and to others and to the environment.

By paying attention we learn to love ourselves, love each others and love and appreciate the wonderful world that we live in.

I know that difficult experiences happened during the lockdown and I’m not saying that all is rosy in the garden. What I’m suggesting is that ‘No-Thing’ will make us happy.

Happiness is an inside job and requires time and attention. This is ultimately the advice of Jesus when he said “Be Still and Know that I Am God”

In other words get away from the rat-race and take time to appreciate yourself, others and the world around you, which are all part of His creation.

We have got a wonderful insight and lesson during thelockdown. The only question is, are we listening and heeding the lesson?

Are we going to go back to the way we were? Or, are we ready for ‘The New Normal’.

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THE government had a tricky job recently, whereby because of all this Covid Virus business, they had to act quickly and segregate the older generation from the rest.

Quick action meant that they had no time for petty nuances and they defined the older generation (i.e. those over 70 years of age) as the elderly population.

They could have used terms like senior citizens, old age pensioners, etc, etc but they chose the term elderly and I must say, I like it.

Why I like it requires a little further exploration.

First and foremost, the sound of the name ‘Elderly’ rings well with me I find that somehow important and also interesting.

Why I ask you? Well for me when I hear the term ‘Elderly’ it somehow generates a certain amount of respect.

Respect for our older generation is paramount and using the term elderly in my opinion reflects that.

In many countries around the world, especially in the continent of Africa the elderly population are held in the highest of esteem. This is rightly so and only as it should be.

Man is a creature of habit and therefore tends to repeat the same successes and failures down through the ages. The trick is to embrace our successes but also more importantly learn from our failures.

In order to do this we should pay great respect and regard to what our elders are saying for two main reasons.

1. They have lived through many of the difficulties before, thus they have learned from their own experience.

2. They in turn have learned in the past from their own elders and thus can continue to pass that wisdom down through the generations.

There is a group of very distinguished elderly people who gather on a regular basis in order to give their sage and experience to serious world affairs.

This group was formed as a result of a brainchild suggestion of entrepreneur Richard Branson and musical artist Peter Gabriel.

In involves people of the character the likes of Nelson Mandela RIP, Ban Ki-moon  and our very own Mary Robinson, among others.

Their vision is, I quote; “Our vision is of a world where people live in peace, conscious of their common humanity and their shared responsibilities for each other, for the planet and for future generations.”

I’m sure a lot of thought and expertise went into the formation and suggestion of a worthy name for this distinguished gathering of people.

What was the best name they could come up with? ‘The Elders’.

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AS I sit here reflecting on the Covid-19 virus to date, I feel a deep sense of gratitude towards our elderly population and what they have done for our country.

What they have done is sheer patriotism at its best which is a very rare commodity in the modern world.

The term elderly was defined as ‘those being over 70 years of age’ by our government as this virus began to show its ugly teeth.

As a group, they did not overreact to this terminology or get involved in pedantic pathetic squabbling, they simply got on with the job they were asked to do.

The country was facing a life or death situation, both from a health perspective and also a financial point of view. They could give strong leadership and direction which they undoubtably did but this guidance is utterly useless without swift and universal  cooperation.

The elderly population stood up to the mark with unbelievable acceptance of their role and applied it with great stoicism and dignity. They even gave it a new name ‘Cuckooning’.

Now cuckooning is a very strange name to apply here because when you look at it the cuckoo doesn’t even have a nest (home) of its own. They were asked to stay inside away from everyone on their own and basically to separate themselves from society.

This really was a very big ask as it involved being removed from family and friends and especially grandchildren. The sacrifices they made were indeed enormous.

Now as we begin to enter a new phase and we begin the important but nervous path to recovery, we can see that the ‘cuckoos’ are beginning to emerge from their nests.

We can now see members of our elderly population beginning to take strolls in the local parks many of them experiencing the outdoors for the first time in over 8 weeks.

All of this is new to us and especially them and they must feel particularly nervous as they venture back into society.

My suggestion here is that if you come across such an elderly person and there are hundred of thousands of them scattered around the country, say a simple ‘Thank you’ and welcome them back.

They, by their actions, have show us how to tackle difficulties and to simply apply by the guidelines they were given to the T.

This is where the recovery of the country gets more interesting and more serious in many ways. They ‘the elderly’ have done their job and now they are handing the baton over to us.

How do we know they have done a good job. Like everything else simply look at the results and you will find that overall things are going to plan and the green shoots are beginning to emerge.

As we now move on into the next phase of the lockdown I think it would be remiss of us not to turn to our elderly community and say a heartfelt ‘Thank you’

Yes that ‘Thank You’ is of vital importance but an even better ‘Thank you’ would be to follow their gentle but profound leadership and carry the next phase of the lockdown to a successful conclusion.

Next week I am going to write about — Why I like the term Elderly.

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SOMEONE, who I have great respect for, put it to me very clearly recently when she said ‘Roger we are living a new reality, aren’t we?’

This is so true. We are living in a new reality and knowing that to begin with is a great start.

The thing about this present reality is that for once we don’t get to dictate the pace – the Coronavirus does.

Yes, I agree that the Coronavirus is in control and it is dictating to us as a human race to be still. It’s telling us to be aware of personal hygiene, to keep social distance, to remove ourselves from unnecessary business dealings and to stay at home.

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As a human race, it is telling us to be still. It’s as if the world is warning us ‘tut tut and listen!!’

From a world that is used to racing about the place like headless chickens this stillness is our new reality.

The thing is that if we apply this stillness properly and with a certain amount of dignity then great things can emerge from this.

We may learn to smell the roses.

How many people are learning new skills right now or developing on old skills that had remained dormant. I have never seen so much bread baked.

Young children are playing games with their families that they never have played before. With all the different kinds of extra-curricular activities cancelled (sports and music etc) children are experiencing boredom for the first time in their lives which is an important part of any child’s development. Learning to daydream and ponder on the wonders of the world.

Our environment is getting a well-earned rest. Nature is certainly benefiting from this Covid lockdown.

We need only look at our streams and rivers and notice how clean they have become. It is said that jellyfish have appeared in Venice for the first time in years.

The truth is that we all know that we were engaging in the rat-race of everyday life and with all of this computer technology were losing the most basic quality of all – the ability to connect with each other as human beings and with our world around us.

I use a great expression from time to time; ‘If you’re explaining, you’re losing’.

So to that end I’m going to leave it to the poets.

Trees

BY JOYCE KILMER

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

Be still and know that I Am God

TWO of my favourite life philosophers (gurus) are Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie.

When you combine the knowledge and the wisdom of the two of them it is like putting a match to dynamite but in a positive way.

Both can be extremely helpful but when you combine them the results can be positively explosive.

Last week I wrote about the power that comes from living in the Present (The Power of Now) which is basically the work of Eckhart Tolle.

‘Loving What Is’ i.e loving the reality of the present moment (warts and all) is predominately the work of Byron Katie and one of her signature books is or the same title.

Loving what is, is essentially, loving the reality of the present moment without exception and using that love to allow our creativity to grow. In essence loving life’s difficulties.

To put this in a nutshell it is all about true acceptance.

The reality of a situation still holds true whether we like it or not so we may as well start with acceptance. Acceptance may not be easy but it is always easier than non- acceptance.

This is very appropriate at the present moment where practically ever country in the world and practically every person is consumed with the Covid 19 Virus.

So what happens when we test the work (advice) of the above mentioned gurus. Live in the Now – well all we have is ‘The Now’ and it will help prevent worry or anxiety by not living in the future or the past.

Loving what is — Now that perhaps a little more tricky – Roger, with true respect how can we possibly love the corona virus?

Well —– What if we looked at the corona virus as a teacher – what is the teacher telling us?

Here are some ideas and I’m sure you can add many more.

• It’s telling us that mankind isn’t totally in control of what is happening in the world. Sometimes the world dictates to us.
• It’s telling us that good health is truly wealth and that without it we have nothing.
• It’s telling us to show gratitude to our doctors, nurses and health staff who are daily putting their lives at risk to save life.
• It’s telling us that education comes in many forms and that we will appreciate our teachers more and open new opportunities for learning
• It’s telling us to slow down.
• It’s telling us how much we love the world we live in and how much we miss enjoying all it brings.
• It’s telling us that we should learn to respect our planet more.
• It’s telling us that everything isn’t all about business, and that in fact the health and • happiness of out love ones is of far more importance.
• It’s telling us that small things make us happy.
• It’s telling us to laugh and play more.
• It’s telling us how connected we all are and how we really miss that true connectivity. No computer can replace a real hug or a kiss.
• It’s creating an opportunity to spend more quality time with our children.
• It’s telling us how much we are looking forward to getting back to that real connectivity.
• It’s warning us that when we do go back we have to treat our world and each other with far more love and respect or otherwise we are going to repeat our mistakes
• It’s giving our environment a much needed rest (Build on this)
• It’s telling us that we should respect, love and learn from the teacher

So ‘Loving What Is’ is loving an appreciating all that life can throw at us – good and bad, and using that knowledge to develop us all into better human beings.

The only tough question to ask here is; Will we learn?

‘Stormy seas make a good sailor’

P.S. I write this article with full respect for all the people who have died or who have suffered as a result of this Covid 19 virus. I believe the greatest tribute we can give them is to learn and change our ways to the benefit of all.

I SAW a lovely post on Facebook this week that funnily enough I had posted myself about 6 years ago and it came up as a memory. It goes like this.

One day at a time – this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in The Present and make it so beautiful it will be worth remembering.

Happiness is a journey.

Even though I posted it 6 years ago I reflected on how appropriate it is in the current climate. There are so many many people worried in the current climate about the Covid 19 virus and all of it’s implications.

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I ask the question; Is there something we can do that might help us in the middle of this terrible situation? The answer is – Live in the present.

Again funnily enough, the only place we can truly live is in The Present, for the past is gone and the future hasn’t yet arrived so the only show in town is The Present.

The problem is that our mind loves to live in the past (worry) or in the future (anxious about things to come) but the only place our mind doesn’t like is The Present.

Why? Because it has nothing to think about if we truly live in The Present, so it is out of a job and it doesn’t like that (turkeys don’t vote for Christmas!!)

Living in The Present doesn’t mean that we are living in denial ( De Nial – a river in Egypt!!).

Yes, our world is in turmoil right now, yes people are out of work, yes this virus is very, very serious and people are losing their lives. There is no denying any of that.

The key is to accept all of these things and the seriousness of them.

In that space of acceptance, we should follow as best we can all the guidelines that have been given to us. Keep social distance, wash our hands on a regular basis, wear gloves and minimise the amount of contact we have outside of our houses etc.etc

In the meantime living in Present means doing things that will be helpful to keep our minds away from our thoughts. The serious mind practitioners use things like the breath for meditation purposes.  In essence all they are doing here is using their breath as an instrument to distract them away form thoughts. They are practising living in The Present.

Other simple ways of doing the same thing are for example, listing to soothing music, baking a cake or preparing a nice meal, doing a jigsaw, playing cards or a board game, enjoying the company of each other etc.

Have you seen the huge increase of ideas for living in the present appear on social media of late. That is because mankind has this innate ability to survive and more and more people are realising that if they can improve the quality of their present moment amidst all of this upsetting time it is only going to help.

So, look to our creative people (who know what will help), and in the meantime.

Live in The Present.

Next week I am  going to write about — Loving What Is 

NEVER, at least in my lifetime, has the Serenity Prayer been more apt or more helpful than it is at the current moment.

What is the Serenity Prayer? I’m fairly sure you have heard of it and perhaps even said it, but this time I’m asking you to slow down (most of us have plenty free time now!) and fully appreciate the beauty and depth of this prayer.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

and wisdom to know the difference.

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This was written by the American theologian Rheinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971).

It is said that when Niebuhr originally wrote the poem, he wrote it for courage first, but as you can see it was changed to put ‘grant me the serenity to accept’ in the primary position.

Why is this so?

The reason is that in great times of difficulty like we have now with the COVID 19 virus, we can turn to the hands of God (Father, Almighty, Higher Power…whatever term you are comfortable with or even terms I haven’t mentioned) and place ourselves at His mercy, pray for serenity (peace) and hope this serenity is given.

This serenity is best achieved through the medium of acceptance.

This COVID 19 virus is beyond the control of even the best scientists in the world right now, but we can all pray for calm and accept that there are things that are beyond our control.

In the meantime, we can all pray for courage to do the things that we can — things we can control like social separation, washing our hands, closing down unessential businesses etc, etc. This takes courage and application.

It brings great peace which is the space where our best creativity thrives.

We can also pray for wisdom; to know the difference between what we can control and that which we cannot control — very simple.

If we cannot control it, we can still pray for peace which funnily enough is within our control. We as individuals decide whether we pray or not.

May I also ask you to pray for the doctors, nurses, health workers, scientists politicians and anyone else involved in essential services, that they may get the strength and co-operation to do their job at this extremely challenging time.

THERE is no doubt that we are living in unprecedented times.

If normality was in place, we would now be preparing earnestly for next Tuesday’s St Patrick’s days celebrations, but now all of the talk is of the Covid-19 virus and all of its implications.

Unprecedented for this generation at least, which is another name for new territory. When mankind experiences new territory it brings with it all the fears that go along with it.

This fear is natural if only the fear of the unknown. So as I write this, I can totally understand the natural worries and fears that exist at the moment, but the purpose of this article is to share the realisation that we need calmness more than ever at this moment and to listen and apply the guidelines that we are given as a society.

The problem with excess fear and worry and resulting increase in stress levels is that they bring nothing to the table and in fact can cause people to become ill. Now have no doubt that our health systems are stretched to the limit  at the moment so therefore the more we can help them as groups and individuals the better.

The subject of this article is ‘calm’ which I believe is what we need more than ever right now. It is the complete antidote to worry so as such is good for our bodies and our resultant health.

It also has a unique and hidden benefit. When we are calm it increases the resulting calming chemicals in our bodies which in turn increase out creativity.

What the world needs more than ever right now is calmness. Calm strategies to allow us to re-evaluate the virus as an on-going living concern, which in turn  will allow for the space to come up with the best creative solutions.

Yes the solutions are out there, but it is a fact that our minds work in a much more creative way when we are calm. We need that creativity now more than ever.

I wrote above about strategies (tools) for calmness. There are many, like spending quality time with family and friends (virus aware!!) or doing ones favourite hobby or reading.

However one of the best in times of difficulty is learning and practicing meditation as it can really help alleviate stress in difficult times.

It is the advice of many of the gurus down through the centuries be it Ghandi, The Buddha, Eckhart Tolle , Deepak Chopra, Jon Kabat Zinn etc etc.

It is the same ultimate and simple advice of Jesus Christ when He said ‘Be Still and know that I Am God’

So Calm is Cool.

Ní neart go cur le chéile.

2006 was a very significant year for me. I was coming to terms with depression and was working at sorting it out.

I began to look at the roots of the problem and came to the conclusion that the thinking mind (thoughts) was the culprit.

Also, 2006 was the year of a very painful family tragedy, one which I will never forget. To cut to the chase, I decided it was time to speak out and I did a long, frank and open interview with Deirdre Walsh of Radio Kerry discussing all aspects of depression.

Now it’s time to ask a good question.

Why wouldn’t I do the interview? There is ultimately only one answer. Fear.

Fear of what? Fear of what others might think of me. Fear that I might lose my friends. Fear that I might lose my job, marriage, family etc. Ultimately fear of the unknown and will people think I am going mad?

Yes I can promise you that those fears were very very real but the real question to ask here is. Are they true?

Well the truth is just like going on a rollercoaster there is only one way to find out and that is to test it,  so therefore do the interview.

It doesn’t mean that all the nerves disappear, it doesn’t mean that it is easy, but it was important to test it. Do the interview!

The thing about an interview like this is that it is a bit like prayer. You either do it or you don’t. There are no half measures here.

Deidre Walsh is an excellent radio journalist, she was very kind and understanding but her greatest attribute in my opinion is that she was able to ask direct and to the point questions on all aspects of depression, which was exactly what I wanted and why I did the interview in the first place.

Needless to say the interview got a huge response and I must say I got a huge amount of support. I can put my hand on my heart and say that not one person gave me any form of criticism, but I got a lot of congratulations and admiration.

Now for the real question which I could now test as I had done the interview.

Were those fears I wrote about above true??

Answer: Absolutely not!

I did not lose my friends, family, job etc and in fact I got a lot of recognition for doing the interview.

I did not do the interview for recognition, nor am I writing this article for recognition. The purpose of both is to show that it is very important if we want to live life to the full to face out fears and test them.

Depression thrives in an environment of fear. So therefore when we remove fear from the environment and replace it with truth, love and honesty then depression withers just like a plant without water.

Feel the fear and do it anyway!!

That is why it is important to talk about depression.

• Next week I am going to write about — Negative ions

TO understand emotions I believe we have to go back to basics. Just like building a house we have to go back to the foundations.

The basic ingredient of a cake is flour.  Without flour you cannot have a cake. No flour – No Cake.

The basic ingredient of emotion is thought. No thought – No emotions.

We can get bogged down in the whole area of – Do thoughts cause emotions or do emotions cause thoughts ?

In my opinion it’s cyclical – thoughts cause emotions which in turn cause thoughts etc, etc.

All I am saying is that the basic ingredients of emotions are thoughts, be they positive or negative, and to examine emotions we have to examine thoughts.

Some interesting information about thoughts.

a) Thoughts are energy

b) The average human being has about 60,000 thoughts a day (That’s a lot of energy!!!)

Now if thoughts are energy then it would make sense that emotions are energy.

This is where it gets very interesting; Look at the word Emotion and break it down into

E- MOTION  …………. Energy in motion.

So if we express our emotions i.e. put them out there, then the energy is in flow – as it should be (in motion).

But — If we supress our emotions, it can result in a blockage of the energy flow which over a period of time can be very harmful, especially to our health.

So in a nutshell – Free moving good energy flow i.e  E-motion, is beneficial to our health and wellbeing.

Yes I know I may be stating the obvious here but I believe it is very important to see the link between our emotions and our general well –being.

To be honest I was not always aware of that link and that is why I now try to pay more attention to this area of my life.

I can well remember a man commentating many years ago about a certain tragedy that happened locally and in particular my reaction to his comment.

He said “Isn’t it terrible how people don’t learn to deal with their emotions”. At the time I was quite hurt by his comment and thought he was being very insensitive. As time goes on I can now see whether I like it or not the great  wisdom of his comment.

Learning to control our emotions is essential to our health and wellbeing.

• Next week I am going to write about — ‘Depression; why it’s important to talk about it’

I HAD an aunt who used to give advice that in the event of a row “don’t get involved”.

She is long passed on now, God rest her, but I can still hear her voice in my head and she used to pronounce the ‘v’ in involved like a ‘w’, like “don’t get inwolved” and she’d say it with a glint in her eye.

She used to say it like a throwaway comment, but as time goes on I can now appreciate all the more the wisdom of that throwaway comment, as well as the everlasting wisdom that emanated from the glint in her eye. Very powerful indeed.

I wrote recently about a place of calm in a storm and how it brought about peace (http://traleetoday.ie/roger-harty-an-eye-for-calm/).

Well in a similar way, in the case of a row (especially a heated row), the above advice can administer a similar type of peace when needed. If nothing else it will take the heat out of a situation rather than erupting it.

Only yesterday someone put up a post in Facebook asking about the difference between a discussion and an argument. It was explained as follows;

In the case of an argument one can discover…  ‘Who is right’ and

In the case of a discussion one can discover…   ‘What is right’

‘Not getting involved’ does not mean that you are not part of the row. Yes you have a part to play but it allows for a place of calm where you can still be ‘of the row’ but not ‘in it’. This ‘calmness’ will be of great benefit in the search for a solution.

In a similar way, getting to the ‘eye of a storm’ will bring you to a place of calm where you funnily enough are still part ‘of the storm’ but not ‘in it’.

Both of the above situations will bring us to a place of observation, where we can still watch very closely what is going on without getting sucked in to the storm or row as it erupts.

Did you ever watch a rotating blade spin very fast, it spins so fast that it even looks calm as though it is not moving. The strong advice would be to stay out of it and make sure not to put your finger in— danger is about and not to get sucked in. Don’t get inwolved!

In the innocent or youth when I was about sixteen, a friend of mine gave me similar advice when he said with true Tralee wisdom, “in the case of a row – take lots of no-notice”.

That skill of taking ‘lots of no-notice’ and ‘not getting involved’ is a skill that I believe is well worth developing and putting into practice.

I also believe developing this skill and applying the advice is more important now more than ever, as we live in a world of social media where hurtful painful comments from keyboard warriors can indeed cause so much damage and can even end lives.

Need I mention the current tragedy of television presenter Caroline Flack among many other instances?

• Next week I am going to write about ————— Emotions, what are they?

THERE is something special and exciting about writing on a subject that is very topical to the moment.

It’s as if the universe has somehow decided that now is the time to write this article. Well the whole talk in Ireland at the moment is all about storms. We have just experienced storm Ciara and as I write I can hear storm Dennis beginning to rage outside.

I am very aware of the devastation, rampant damage, unrelenting fear and resultant pain that a severe storm can inflict upon us.

All you have to do is open the newspapers and listen to the news. It can also result in the closure of many businesses and incur huge financial hardship. A picture of utter chaos.

In this chaos the last thing we would expect to find is any connection with peace and calm. Yet we are told if one can get to the eye of a storm, that is exactly what the weather experts will tell you exists.

In the eye of a storm you will amazingly  find peace and calm and a position where you can somehow observe the chaos of the storm that is going on around.

In America where there are storms of a much more serious magnitude there are professional storm-chasers who know exactly how close they can go without getting sucked in. They can watch the storm from an observatory of peace and calm.

The wisdom is to know that the place of peace is there and the skill is knowing how to get there. This image of the storm I have created above can be used as a great simile for life.

In life we often experience our own chaos and our own storms when nothing appears to be going right.

How comforting is it to know that there is a particular place within where we can truly access inner peace and just like the storm experts we can observe the devastating turmoil going on around us.

Jesus tells us that there is such a place when He tells us to look within and not outside for peace and happiness especially in times of trouble.

Jesus also tells us to ‘Be still and know that I Am God’ and that here we will get the resultant comfort and guidance.

So just like the storm Jesus informs us that in times of turmoil.

a) There is a place of peace within and

b) How to get there

How comforting is that I ask you?

• Next week I am going to write about — Don’t get involved

LIKE in every household, ever since being a small child and being told to go to bed early, we start to resist being told what to do.

‘Go to bed now’, ‘eat your vegetables’, ‘put on your coat and hat on when you go outside’, gets met with a very regular and equally resistant ‘no I won’t – you won’t tell me what to do’, type of attitude.

This is met with the inevitable ‘tears’ and some form of ‘parenting’ (mostly through kindness and cajoling but maybe not always the case!)

I believe I have set the scene for many households across the world. The bottom line is that we don’t like being told what to do, from early childhood the reality that we don’t like being controlled is inbred into us. It’s as if our freedom is being attacked.

So we can see how the platform is set  for, human rights, religious rights , prisoners’ rights, gay rights, free speech, racism, and now the ‘Me Too’ movement etc ,etc.

While all of the above hold great importance in their own right, the common ground for all of the above is that they resist any attempt at control.

It is an attack on freedom. Control – It gets bad press!

Why? Because there is another type of control.

For instance, if you had a car and you turned the steering wheel to the right on 10 occasions but if on one of the occasions it caused the car to veer to the left then I’m pretty sure you’d soon lose confidence in that car.

Why? Because the car is not performing as it should then ultimately we are putting our lives in danger and we feel unsafe. In other words we are out of control and that comes with a very uncomfortable feeling.

Thus, the only avenue open to gettting a comfortable, safe feeling back, is to change the car and get one that we are sure gives us control.

What I am trying to demonstrate here is that control, safety, security and confidence and ultimately peace, all go hand in hand.

As I have said before – We cannot control what happens in our lives but we can always control how we react.

The secret to inner peace as human beings has to lie in the area of our reactions as this is ultimately all we can control.

Control of reactions = Peace

All human beings are made of emotions, so I believe that when we learn to control our emotions, then this in turn controls our reactions which is the secret to inner peace.

How do we control our emotions?

Jesus gave us the answer when He said “ I Am (is) The Way”

I Am – Mindfulness – Meditation – Buddha Practice -The Power of Now are all saying the same thing and all will help us to regain control and thus peace of mind.

Inner Control (of our emotions) = Peace of Mind

Next week I am going to write about — Emotions – What are they?

LAST week I wrote about change and the fact that accepting change as a constant is a great awareness for living.

Change by its very nature is beyond our control and nobody can ultimately guarantee you what is going to happen be it in the next minute, hour, day, week, month, or year.

If we can’t predict what is going to happen then how can we control it. The answer is obvious, we can’t control it – it is simply beyond our control. This in turn brings its own kind of fear as we somehow do not like or embrace being out of control.

Ah!!  But there is good news to follow. Here it is…

We cannot control what happens in our lives but, We can always control how we react.

The secret that I am sharing with you is to go to the control centre, the second part of the equation. The one thing that we always have control over is how we react to any given situation.

The only game in town is our reaction. ‘It’s All About Reaction’.

Anyone will tell you it is easy to react when the things are going well in our lives, when we get good news.

However the real benefit of knowing how to control our reactions can come to the fore when we get bad news, when things are difficult and the going gets very tough.

The Buddhist advice here is very clear.

Treat success (good news) and failure (bad news) exactly the same as they are both imposters.

What they mean by the word ‘Treat’ is to control how we react – to train ourselves to react to both equally.

Even the most ardent of Buddhist practitioners would tell you that this type of reaction does require regular and consistent training of the mind to come to this realisation and then application of the same.

Perhaps that is why they are called Buddhist practitioners as they are in a constant state of practice and as we all know the more I practice at anything the better I get.

Jesus in His own way demonstrated this by sincere example when He offered up His life for us on The Cross.

As He was suffering and was being mocked by soldiers (Who represent all of us), He reacted with complete acceptance of His situation.

He did not complain about being wronged or even of His innocence. He did not blame anyone or anything but entered into a state of complete acceptance of His tortuous situation. His final reaction which was the only thing He could control at the time was…Thy Will Be Done.

He demonstrated through self- example and unlimited love for us that Acceptance of God’s Will is the ultimate form of reaction.

It’s all about Reaction!

• Next week I am going to write about ‘Control — It Gets Bad Press’

IT was a Greek philosopher called Heraclitus who lived around 500 BC who came up with the statement “The only constant is change”.

It goes without saying that he didn’t say it in those exact words as he spoke in some sort of Greek/Turkish language but it had exactly the same meaning. (The gist was the same!)

Now if the only constant is change then it makes sense that we had better be as prepared as we can for it. A good question here is ‘But sure how can we prepare for change’?

Continued below…

Well to start with, we have to become aware of the fact that change is inevitable and we have to fully agree with that.

As always another good place to look for advice is to look to nature. Nature surely has some advice to give us.

The seasons for instance remind us that our world is in a constant state of flux. Summer will change to autumn which will change to winter which will change to spring, and round and round the cycle changes.

We get the appropriate changes in temperature which result in the growth and death and rebirth of plant life.

It is now causing great consternation in our would that even the above seasonal changes are changing due to reckless behaviour of mankind towards our  planet and the inevitable effects of global warming.

Danny Healy Rae and company might disagree with the above statement but by the time he comes to agree it will be too late.

The business world also recognises that change is inevitable. On a far more serious level what is changing even quicker is the speed of change.

The population of the world around the turn of 1800’s was 1 Billion people. As I write I just ‘googled it’ and the current population has now reached over 7.5 Billion people.

These facts, if anything, demonstrate the speed of change that is happening. It took from the beginning of mankind up to 1800 to reach 1 Billion and in the last 200 years it has reached 7.5 Billion. You see what I mean,  like it or not these are facts.

I recently heard an executive from RTE being interviewed and she was being chastised for not having a definite plan for the future of RTE.

I thought her reply was brilliant. She said that for instance if I put a five year steadfast plan in place for RTE the only thing that I can almost certainly guarantee you is, that that plan will be obsolete in five years from now.

What she ultimately was saying was that any plan from now on has to allow and factor in for change.

Why? Because the only constant is Change!!

• Next week I am going to write about ‘It’s All About Reaction’.

I SUPPOSE as an optician, 2020 was always going to be an interesting year with the comments about 20/20 vision etc.

As an interesting sidenote – Do you know where the term 20/20 comes from?

Answer: It’s the size of a letter that suspends an angle of 5 degrees with the eye at 20 feet. From my college days if I remember correctly, the size of that letter has to be 8.75mm in height.

So if you can determine a letter of 8.75 mm in height at 20 feet then you were said to have 20/20 vision. 20 divided by 20 is 1.  This in turn represents 100% vision.

Going back to the year 2020 I do hope that it is going to be a wonderful year for everyone but I also see it as an opportunity to take stock and to take charge of our own lives.

To that end we all need some sort of guidance to help us along that path.

As I said above 20 divided it by 20 is  One, and what a wonderful coincidence that is. To come to the realisation that we are all part of this great ‘Oneness’.

If we can take this approach to life i.e. that we are all One then it brings with it a reality that we are all equal in this world and that we all share equal responsibility for the wellbeing of ourselves and of our planet.

They say that little steps matter and little things matter, but when we realise the power of Oneness then we can all work together to make great things happen.

As a help along the way, a I said we all need guidance and if we are all the same then we have the guidance of one God to help us on our journey.

To this end Jesus gave us His most powerful prayer, the Our Father.

Note: He didn’t call it ‘My Father’ or ‘Your Father’, but ‘Our Father’.

By doing this He was giving the reality of the ‘Oneness’ which we all share and thus we can all pray in unison.

There is beautiful story about a man walking a beach where there were thousands of crabs washed up and stranded on the shore. In the far distance he could see a little boy picking up some crabs and throwing them into the sea.

As he approached the boy he was getting a little bit angry and frustrated at what he believed was the futility of the little boy’s efforts. He slightly chastised the boy and informed him that the task was too big and that he was ultimately wasting his time with his effort.

With that the boy picked up a single live crab and tossed it into the sea in front of the stranger and addressed him; “I bet you that crab doesn’t think I was wasting my time”.

The Power of Oneness. So enjoy 2020, be kind to Yourselves, to Others and to Our planet and let’s make it a great year.

I WROTE an article last week about the beauty of a compass and how it is a great instrument to give us security of direction.

In the middle of writing that article it dawned on me that ‘compass’ is an integral part of the word compassion.

I said to myself ‘Now isn’t that interesting’!

What makes it even more interesting in my view is the question ‘What if we made compassion our compass for living?’

In other words if compassion was our direction for living ‘what kind of world would we have?’

This very question is being posed to us at this very moment all around the world, in Europe and closer to home in Britain and Ireland. It is very current and is going to determine the success or failure of our society going forward.

The word compassion has its origin in Latin – ‘compassionem’ – meaning to suffer with. If there is one thing that we have in common as human beings it is that we have all suffered in one way or another in this life.

If we realise this, that we have this in common with every other human, then it is only natural that we should show understanding and empathy for another person’s suffering as we have experienced it ourselves. We are only human after all.

Many years ago I came across a wonderful film called ‘Freedom Writers’ staring Hilary Swank.

It told about the horrible gang warfare that terrified the community of Los Angeles, and how a teacher (Hilary Swank) and 150 teens used writing to change themselves and the world around them.

There is one special scene where the teacher introduced two lines of students of different ethnic origin and asked them to stand opposite each other. In normal circumstances they couldn’t remain together, but she made them look each other in the eye.

Then she asked each line (ethnic group) to stand forward if they had lost a sibling in the Los Angeles violent rioting. Several of each group stood forward.

By doing this she got them to come to the realisation that the pain of loss that they had both experienced was equal for each other. They each had similar suffering and in a funny but strange way they were united by their suffering.

When they came to the realisation that they had something in common as human beings they began to look at each other in a different light and thus developed compassion for each other’s pain.

This in turn helped to reduce the violence of the L.A. riots and gave the youths a direction for working their way out of conflict.

Compassion was their compass and I can only hope that the world was watching on.

• Next week I am going to write about — Change

I CAN remember it as though it was yesterday when my son, who is now 22, was about four years old and he was standing in the sitting room with a compass in his hand.

In walked his uncle who asked him what was that in his hand? The child simply replied “a compass”

His uncle asked “And now tells me what is a compass?”

With this my child looked up as if the answer was obvious and said; “It tells you where you are and where you aren’t are.”

As they say, ‘out of the mouth of babes’.

The main point here is that we all need a direction in life and what a beautiful and clever instrument a compass, is and how ultimately we are going nowhere without it, as we would be truly lost.

To this end, ask the sailors of bygone years and they would be very quick to tell you how loathe they would be to negotiate the perilous oceans of the world without instruments like a compass or a sextant.

Thus when we know where we are going and have safe guidance, then we can derive great comfort on our journey.

A good compass is our ultimate security. When we are secure, fear dissipates.

To this end look to the beauty of nature. Did you ever wonder in awe at how a flock of thousands of starlings (a murmuration!) glide ceremoniously in unison together?

Did you ever admire the ability of a flock of Brent geese and how they can fly all the way from Canada to Ireland or how a tiny swallow can migrate from Ireland to Africa.

This has and still does continue to baffle mankind and the only plausible answer is that they have some sort of inbuilt compass and are secure in that knowledge.

To this end we humans also are lost without a direction. Jesus Christ could see this and decided to step up to the plate.

He became our compass and guiding light and not only that, gave us the simple direction like any good shepherd would.

He said “I Am (is) The Way” and then all we need to do is to ‘Follow Him’.

He was teaching us to be ‘Still’ and to be ‘Present’ and to take time out to follow the guidance of our inner light just like the starlings, the Brent geese and the swallows.

Just like these creatures of nature when we know that we have a never-failing compass we can bask in the comfort of knowing that we are guided by the ultimate guide. We can be feel secure.

It does not mean that just like the geese and the swallows that there won’t be trials and tribulations on the way – in fact there most certainly will.

However we can bask in the joy and comfort that we have a compass and all we need to do is trust in that compass.  In Jesus I Trust.

• Next week I am going to write about ‘Our Compassion is our Compass’.

J.D.I. (the Nike slogan) is a slogan that is very close to my heart.

The reason for this is that it works and it was of huge benefit to me in my own life.

Every morning I made myself go for a walk, rain, hail or snow whether I liked it or not (I just did it).

What I found was that at the start I didn’t particularly like doing it – in fact I vehemently didn’t want to do it – but after a while the thing that I didn’t like initially became very enjoyable.

It was as if my mind was saying that no matter what I do, this fellow is going to keep on walking so I may as well enjoy myself.

When we analyse why J.D.I. works, things get very interesting. You see J.D.I. bypasses the thinking mind. In other words if you have a task to do – Just Do It and don’t think about it.

You see when you apply the J.D.I. philosophy you take choice off of the table. In other words whether I choose to do something or not or whether I like it or not is irrelevant – just J.D.I.

By applying this we get all the benefits of doing the task (e.g. exercise) without the resistance of the thinking mind which is the very tool that can put us off doing it in the first place.

How often in your life have you said ‘I should do this’ or ‘I could do that’ or ‘wouldn’t  life be great if only I had done that’. We must ask ourselves what is stopping us ?

When all is said and done, when you get to the bottom of it you will find in 99% of cases, the thinking mind is involved in some form of resistance – I don’t like this and I don’t like that…blah blah blah!

“Everybody is looking for freedom, but with freedom comes responsibility” – Nelson Mandela

One of the greatest freedoms we can give ourselves is freedom from our own thinking minds. If we are to be totally honest and we want to improve our lives, the best place to begin is to accept the fact that we are where we are as a result of the choices we have made.

The main difference between successful happy people and others is purely down to the choices they have made (please don’t confuse rich with happy and successful!!)

As I explained in a previous article, over 80% of the thoughts of the average human being are negative so that means when we stay away from our thinking mind (meditate), we hit the jackpot 8 out of 10 times – not a bad result from any bookmaker!

Here is the crux of the matter – when we practice J.D.I. in it’s true form we are bypassing the thinking mind and all the resistance (negativity) that goes with it. This can help us in many areas of our lives and here are some good examples.

Exercise – Decide on a healthy programme (get expert advice) and then apply the programme – don’t think about it, J.D.I.

Diet – Decide on a healthy programme (again get expert advice – we also instinctively know what foods serve us well and those that don’t) – don’t think about it, J.D.I

Meditation – Learn to do it (Get advice or look it up on youtube) and practice it – this is without doubt the most rewarding advice I can give you as it impacts on all others – so J.D.I.

Most people refuse to J.D.I. purely because of psychological fear (resistance), however we find in practice those fears aren’t real.

FEAR = False Expectations Appearing Real

So finally I am going to leave you with another great slogan…

In Doing We Learn

IT could be fair to say that we all have a body and a brain and that we should all just get on with life and that’s it. Life in its fullest simplicity!

Yes, all of the above is true, but I will add that if we do not become aware of the workings of our brain and bodies, and pay attention to them then life can become far more difficult.

Have you heard the term ‘We are our own worst enemy’?

Yes it is often said, but more important is the question—- ‘Is it true’? I believe that it is very true.

I wrote before about how 80% of the thoughts of the average human being are negative and how over 90% are repeated from the day before.

If this is true (don’t believe me? Google it!) then this would definitely suggest to me that our unaware unchallenged minds are definitely not serving us well (not our friend) so de facto it must be our enemy.

If you were a goalkeeper and you missed the ball 8 times out of 10 you would soon be called to the side-line!

However the news is good and the beauty or our body and mind is that it allows us an escape clause, thanks be to God.

In essence our brain can be divided into two parts. The left hand side and the right hand side.

The left hand side of the brain is more engaged with thoughts, logic and analysis, while the right hand side is more involved with our creativity.

In an ideal world they would both work perfectly together and all would be well, but as you well know that is not the case.

Over the generations as humans evolve, our left hand side of the brain is beginning to take over. We believe that we are more intelligent and have all the modern gadgets and answers for living fulfilled lives but the reality is that, that is not the case.

I don’t wish to sound like a kill-joy but the world is moving faster and faster and we are all trying to keep up, which in turn is causing more stress, thus more health worries and thus fearful of our very survival. In essence all left sided brain stuff.

Solution: Move to the Right Hand Side of the brain.

How? Learn to meditate or to use the modern idiom – practice mindfulness.

When we do this we become more creative in our ways and come to realise that there are many ways to skin a cat!

Ultimately we will discover that there is no need to worry, that there is no point and anyway that all Shall Be Well ( Look up the life of Julian of Norwich who preached this over 600 years ago.

Another huge benefit is that we also become far less concerned about our need to survive.

I cannot espouse enough the benefits of meditation other than to encourage anyone to practice if for themselves and watch their lives transform for the better. ‘In doing you learn’.

What happens? Slowly but gently you move to the Right hand side of the brain where the real beauty, truth and creativity of our lives unfold.

So, for true peace, health and happiness, Right Is Right

• Next week I am going to write about, ‘What The Aborigines Knew That We Didn’t’

I WAS looking at Facebook during the week and up popped an image which for me finally produced the answer to the age old question – Why did the chicken cross the road?

It showed a picture of a chicken in the middle of the road with a word bubble over her head (I use the feminine as it is a hen!). The word bubble simply said “I have my reasons” end of story.

For some reason that image of the chicken in the middle of the road and the word bubble reply registered and struck a very deep chord with me and I just had to explore why? – this is what I’m doing now.

The bottom line is that the chicken was doing what it wanted to do and felt that she didn’t have to explain herself to anybody and basically ‘sod anybody’ if they cannot accept this – that is their problem!!

You see, we really come to the realisation of the beauty of life if we are prepared to be true to ourselves and are willing and brave enough to travel our own journey as individuals.

We are told we are unique and beautiful, so therefore this ‘uniqueness’ can only come to the fore when we express ourselves in our own individual way whatever the consequences may be.

It is a true gift of life to come to realise this and even more important to put it into practice. Yes I totally agree that we need community and fellowship at an emotional level, but it is so important to believe and travel on our own individual journey.

How often do we come across advice like ‘Be yourself, everyone else is taken’ or ‘Have the courage of your own convictions’

It is only when we do this that our own beauty and diamond like uniqueness begins to shine.

At this stage I suppose when we explore something properly we also have to explore the opposite to make sure we are on the right track.

When we are afraid or curtailed by others from expressing ourselves, what effect does that have on us?

We suppress our beauty and uniqueness which in turn can have lifelong devastating consequences.

Is this not the reason why bullying whether obvious or subtle, comes to the fore and is written about so often in the media and the detrimental effects it can have on both children and adults?

Yes our very brave ‘Chicken’ is a wonderful example of how we should travel our life journey, and dance to our own tune.

As long as we are not inflicting harm on anybody, we can have our own reasons and  ultimately we don’t have to explain ourselves to anybody.

“If you’re explaining you’re losing”. Good on you Chicken.

• Next week I am going to write about –     Why we don’t like taking orders

I ONCE heard a quote from an elderly Tipperary man, when he was asked about time, he said “there are three important aspects about time when doing anything”

Be on time.

Take your time.

and

Go home in time.

Mankind has always been baffled about time. Imagine if you could, asking any animal for instance a cat or a dog “what time is it?” they would look at you with a certain amount of bemusement wondering if you were mad to be asking such a silly question as the answer is obvious – “The only time is now”.

You see if you think about it, the past doesn’t really exist, it is gone. Similarly the future doesn’t really exist either as it hasn’t arrived just yet. The only time that ever really exists is Now.

Yet for some strange reason the human mind finds it very hard to remain in the Now. It is always trying to bring us into the past or the future but the untrained mind finds it very difficult to remain in the Now.

It’s as if our mind feels threatened by the Now and is constantly trying to get us to worry about the past or be anxious about the future yet it always seems to regard Now as unimportant. Yet Now is all we ever have got.

Anyone who is familiar with the book –‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle will be familiar with the style of reference to The Now that I have written about above.

But the truth is that Eckhart Tolle is only rearticulating a truth that man has known about since the beginning of mankind.

Jesus and The Buddha among many other sages have shared the common theme that the main route to happiness can be achieved only through access to the Present moment i.e. accessing the Now.

There are many names given to this subject – Zen Beginners Mind, Mindfulness, Meditation, Living in the Now, Being Still, The Power of I Am, The way of Tao, amongst many others.

The one thing that they all have in common is that they all recognise the Present moment of time which we call ‘The Now’ is the vital link to our inner happiness.

When this is brought to its highest level it is known as enlightenment.

On a lighter note, one day I was in a hurry to go somewhere and I was halted by a fellow Kerryman wondering what was all the fuss about.

“I have to go somewhere says I”

“My dear boy” he said – “There are only two ‘Have tos’ in life, the lavatory and the cemetery.

I was walking down Denny St Tralee recently and I met a friend of mine and stopped for a chat.

She was worried about her daughter who had just emigrated to Perth, Australia and she was very concerned about how she was getting on and also whether her two granddaughters were settling down in the local primary school.

When I went home I reflected on a simple question. ‘what is the benefit of worry’ and the only conclusion I can come to is none.

While I totally understand that it is totally natural and normal to worry, the actual reality is that there is no real benefit to worry. In fact I am much more aware of the harm it can do. So why worry?

When you look at it through the ‘eyes’ of energy, I feel it makes a lot more sense and will also make us aware of what we are doing to ourselves. In fact if you Google ‘Origin of the word worry’ you will find that it came from the old English high German word ‘wurghen’ which, amazingly enough, means to strangle.

So if we are continuously worrying we are strangling the energy out of ourselves, which can in turn result in unnecessary illness.

If you extend the word worry to worrying that is where the English word wring as in “wring out a towel to dry” comes from. So if you don’t wish to wring the energy out of yourself, stop worrying!

There is another little known aspect to worrying which when pointed out to people may encourage them to stop worrying. The following sentence is worth having a look at: ‘They say that worrying about something is the same as praying for it.’

This again makes sense when we look at it through the ‘eyes’ of energy. When we are worrying we are at some level sending negative energy out into the cosmos which can in turn result in the thing that we are worrying about to manifest itself. This to me is another very good reason not to worry.