I have been exposing myself, failing and learning, as a bystander of the Israel-Palestine conflict. From my Jewish ancestors who died in the holocaust, I learnt how important it is to stand up to oppression. From my German ancestors who were in Berlin during the second world war, I learnt to be an Active Bystander, […]
Studies increasingly point out that we heal primarily in and through the body, not just through the rational brain or talking. This happens through what our bodies experience and do – not through what we think, or cognitively figure out. Most people could benefit from a daily embodied centring practise, and a quick method that […]
The world is in hiatus – the cost-of-living crisis, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East; populist far-right governments and loss of democratic rights, the potential escalation of conflict in a divided world and the pressing needs of the environmental emergency. How do we live with this? How do we stay resilient? How do […]
Nicolas Castell Aligning what you feel spiritually (or your awe at the magnificence of the universe) with your sense of who you are and your beliefs and values, empowering the skills that let you give your gift to the world, is the work of a week, a year, a lifetime! Here is a short video […]
Dilts Logical Levels can be facilitated as a deep meditation that aligns: what you do with your skills and strengths with your core beliefs and values with your sense of who you are when you are at your best with your inner, half-hidden, knowledge of the essence of existence (which you know secretly, because it […]
A sense of community is a key factor of wellbeing, but in our postmodern age, the people we spend most time with may not be our “sangha” or soul tribe. Who are your soul tribe? Do you have more than one? Do you have an urge to be seen more, understood more, to hang-out with […]
With the almost unimaginable scale of the impending catastrophe 1 for humanity with climate change, why aren’t people taking action to mitigate it? Research on the “Bystander Effect” shows that 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙖𝙣 𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙮, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙤 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙞𝙩. 𝙒𝙝𝙮? There are two factors: ●︎ 𝗗𝗶𝗳𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 […]
Your life involves two different worlds. In one, you discover your Life-Calling and fulfil it. To help, you heal the wounds that stop you from being free. In the second, you use mindfulness to go beyond time – beyond past and future. Your past disappears and there is no future. Even a glimpse of this […]
𝘖𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘴, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘤 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘤, 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 “𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴”¹. 𝘐𝘧 𝘸𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘪𝘵 . An ancient forest, like the Amazon, is not just […]
The divine is everywhere, all the time, if we slow down enough to notice. Yet it is also helps to have some guidance, a mentor, or an inspirational teacher. A humorous idea is that someone should come up with a dating app for Gods, Goddesses, Teachers and Saints. You fill out your profile, and then […]
The divine is everywhere, all the time, if we slow down enough to notice. When I gaze in a baby’s eyes, or look at flowers growing out of a stone wall or take time to notice the little cues that hint at the lives and history of people on the underground in the rush hour; […]
Generative Citizen is a network of people using generative skills to help make the world a better place.
As you know, my aim is to make the Life Talent Programme the most powerful personal evolution programme in the world and my aim is to include the latest evolutions of personal change, coaching and psychotherapy.
I thought it would be good to paint a picture for you about where I would hope you would be in your life by the end of the 2022 Life Talent Programme.
In these 6 recordings of Zoom mini workshops on Building Self-Belief and Hope in February and March 2021, we develop our memories of success, happiness, being loved, of the sacred, our strengths and being safe and empowered in our bodies, and we create a powerful sense of having more of this in the future.
During the first half of 2020 during the first outbreak of COVID 19, I started running free mini workshops on Zoom from 4pm-6pm BST every Wednesday.
Victor Frankl in his book Man’s Search for Meaning wrote that there are 3 forms of meaning in life: meaning through work, meaning through love and meaning through how we face unavoidable suffering. Frankl was a successful Austrian psychiatrist who was born in Austria and was sent to a concentration camp during the 2nd World […]
I have been thinking about personal psychology, spirituality and the climate emergency recently, and how we need to fulfil our potential in three dimensions to get us through this crisis: An anonymous theosophical writer wrote: “To find yourself is half the way to god To lose yourself, and all the way is trod”
Positive psychology research shows that having a Life-Calling helps you to be more successful, as well as helping you to be happier, healthier, more fulfilled and to live longer. The research shows that if you put your Life-Calling in your work you will enjoy it more and find it more meaningful1. You are likely to […]
Do you know what is great about you? One of the most important things in life is to know what is great about you. Yes, I am talking to you.
I wonder how Christmas has been for you. Christmas can be beautiful, intimate and magical, and also awkward, disconnected and even haunting… and sometimes both at the same time, or just somewhere in the middle, rather dull and flat, with lots of TV and social media! How was it for you this year?
We need to make the most of ourselves and our talents, and we also need to overcome our inner obstacles to fulfilling your potential.
All the rest of what I teach is meaningless unless you take action to improve your life.
I have talked in previous blogs about fulfilling your potential in life, but now I want to talk about the practical aspects: how to actually do it. Today, let’s talk about how to go about making the most of what is special about you.
Do you want to evolve and express what is great about you? Here’s how:
What is life all about? The science fiction writer, Kurt Vonnegut wrote “We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is.” Fulfilling your potential has two dimensions:
Let’s talk about the practicals of how to take action to improve your life. There are 3 key things you need to do to change your life:
What is the most important thing in life? For me, it is to liberate myself from unnecessary suffering so I can savour the great mystery of life; to revel in the beauty of the natural world, and to open to love more and more, especially the beautiful planet which we are in danger of destroying.
Four things hold you back from fulfilling your potential in life: difficult memories, unresolved emotions, disempowering beliefs and dysfunctional habits and behaviours. Let’s look at how we heal these, and ultimately to discover that the healing process itself becomes part of our gift to the world.
There are four principles for fulfilling your potential in life: this article is about the third principle, learn to feel the support of life itself.
Once you have satisfied your basic needs for food, water and housing, what can be more important in life than fulfilling your potential as a human being? There are 3 “marriages” in Life: the marriage with your work, the marriage of love and the marriage with yourself.
Positive psychology research shows that having a Life-Calling helps you to be more successful, as well as helping you to be happier, healthier, more fulfilled and to live longer. The research shows that if you put your Life-Calling in your work you will enjoy it more and find it more meaningful1. You are likely to […]
“Deep down in every human heart is a hidden longing, impulse, and ambition to do something fine and enduring.” – Grenville Kleiser For those of you who know me or have read my Facebook posts you will know that my early life was difficult: my father was alcoholic and went bankrupt. My mother had post-traumatic stress […]
Many of you will have tried mindfulness or basic meditation, paying attention to the senses to bring you into the present moment, but many people have never got beyond a mild feeling of relaxation. If that is the case for you, you haven’t had the truly revolutionary experience that will turn the world inside out […]
A simple way of thinking about spirituality is that there is an outer practice, an inner practice and a non-dual practice1. When you have all three your spirituality will really flourish. Let’s explore these three levels and reflect on how they apply to our own practise.
The problem with world religions is that deep truth is often mixed up with the out-dated thinking of old conservative men. As I said to a gay Muslim girl, “What men say God thinks isn’t necessarily what God thinks”. How do you keep the best of the tradition you were born into while rejecting fundamentalism […]
There are 4 important reasons: To remember you aren’t in complete control of your life. To connect to a purpose bigger than yourself. To open your heart. To live long and prosper.
I am not a parent myself, but I have had the privilege to spend a lot of time with my friend Anna and her son, my godson, Teddy, since his birth. I have also had the honour to spend time with my girlfriend and her wonderful children. Through these families I have come to deeply […]
You are not alone! Our skin-encapsulated ego gives us a biological sense of identity, but we would not exist or survive without other people, our food sources, or the entire biosystem. We are part of the biosphere. At a deeper level, we are also part of a great mystery – consciousness itself, and some traditions […]
You want to be the best you can be in your chosen area, giving your gift the world. Here is what we can learn from the training method of Olympic athletes.
“I have great potential, but I also have inner gremlins that get in my way”. “Deep Coaching” focuses on your vision, strengths, psychological resources and potential, but also seeks to heal disempowering memories and generalisations that undermine you.
Personal transformation is what an athlete goes through to win a gold at the Olympics; it’s what a martial arts practitioner faces on the journey of becoming a master, or an executive going up the ranks of a well-managed organisation to the top, or a junior officer seeking to become a general in a modern […]
This article is Part 2 of Listen to the music on the journey of a lifetime: part 1. Life as music You may have noticed that in the three marriages (the marriage with your work, the marriage of love and the marriage with yourself) each of these journeys eventually leads to an almost mystical experience – […]
I have a vision in my mind’s eye: a hazy but inspiring picture of me in my old age and, somehow, I seem to be shining with love and wisdom – whatever that looks like- and I am happy and fulfilled. This vision is something I am working towards, and every time something in life […]
Having a Life-Calling helps you to be happier, healthier, more successful and to live longer. The research shows that if you put your Life-Calling in your work you will enjoy it more and find it more meaningful1. You are likely to work harder and be more committed, and not surprisingly, you are likely to be […]
One of the simplest, life-changing things you can do is sponsor your friends – it is one of the most powerful approaches to psychological change. Why? – As young kids we are brilliant learners. We suck up everything we see and hear our parents doing… both the good and bad, unfortunately. Parents are a bit […]
Are you mean to yourself? Do you criticise yourself? Is that helpful? Does it make your life better? If not, stop. How do you stop? Create new habits. Start sweet-talking yourself. Bring your compassionate wise adult mind (yes, there is one in there somewhere) and your warm tender heart and start being kind to the […]
Speaking at the 2017 Life Talent graduation, Julian Russell relates his own story and explains why helping other people blossom is so important to him personally. Contains some swearing.
I don’t make New Year resolutions, because it is so easy to be overtaken by unrealistic enthusiasm! However I do dream about who I want to be in the year ahead, how I want the year to be, and what success looks like to me. My personal philosophy is to: Make the most of myself […]
What would it take for you to be at peace with yourself and happy with your life? In addition, what if you could also be transparent about who you are, what you are good at and what you stand for at work and in your community? There is a very natural and authentic power that […]
Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible – St. Francis of Assisi Discipline and decisiveness are about knowing that “what you do today determines your success tomorrow”. There may be things that need to be done but you are frightened of doing them: for example, calling […]
Many people believe that when they are successful they will be happy. The evidence says “no”. Research1 shows that when people become successful they are still not satisfied, and continually move the goal posts.
Our society focuses on the outer world, not the inner life. Our inner life is a secret world of feelings, fears, anxieties, rage, fantasy and magical stories: stories which end “happy ever after”; or dark stories that end in catastrophe and humiliation; stories in which we are the hero or heroine; or the evil one […]
Cathy Broome writes: I’ve always been a fan of Doctor Who. It’s one of those shows which sparks lots of inspiration for me, as well as being entertaining. That and he wears great coats! It struck me recently that Dr Who is a bit like a coach and the ‘enemies’ of Dr Who are a […]
These famous lines speak to me deeply: Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner […]
