Surrender is the one word I think about most. How do I surrender more to life? How do I trust that whatever is supposed to happen will happen? I have a strong mind. A really strong mind. Part of me is always thinking 1000 moves ahead. Part of me analyses every outcome and every interaction. […]
Hygge
By July 8, 2015 10 Comments
I spent the last week in Copenhagen for a family wedding. It is a place I visit often, and it always inspires me in my mission to make my home nation of Guernsey the best place to live on earth by 2020. Denmark has been deemed to be the happiest place to live (in 2013 […]
No Lonely Old Age
By July 1, 2015 7 Comments
I want to tell you about one of my favourite projects in the world, one that inspires me and fills me with hope. It is just one example of community connection that begins to address an important issue preoccupying me at the moment. I truly believe that isolation and loneliness is at the root of […]
The Rat Park
By June 17, 2015 8 Comments
I am still really taken with the idea of social isolation as the cause of many of the problems in the world today, as I discussed in my recent blog post. I want to follow on from this by drawing attention to the real causes of addiction and the Rat Park experiments from the 1970s, […]
Isolation
By June 3, 2015 10 Comments
‘Isolation’ – this is the word that an unidentified graffiti artist in my home nation sprayed on all the green telecoms cabinets, some years ago. It is an art project that goes unnoticed and unmentioned, but every time I see it and read it, it resonates deeply with me. It haunts me in some way. […]
The blind man who can see
By May 27, 2015 3 Comments
I recently read a fascinating story that really highlights the arbitrary limits we place on people. And how we limit ourselves. The story that captivated me was of Daniel Kish – the blind man who taught himself to see. Kish has been blind since he was 13 months old, but ‘sees’ his surroundings using tongue […]
If every handshake became a hug
By May 6, 2015 5 Comments
At the beginning of every talk I give, there is a technique I use that helps me get over my fear of public speaking. It’s a quirky trick I came up with after room dynamics were explained to me by a great public speaking coach, David Roylance, who told me: “The first thing you have […]
Is Monogamy Bad For Your Health?
By April 15, 2015 15 Comments
It has been a while since I have written a post that takes me beyond my own comfort zone. It may take many others beyond theirs, as well! Not since I took on writing on the subject of religion have I felt challenged like this. Monogamy and marriage are, for the majority of people, an […]
Fixing The Broken Triangle
By April 8, 2015 4 Comments
There is a broken triangle in my community – and in most communities around the world, in fact. The relationship between people, politics and the media is broken. Nobody is happy. Each one is dissatisfied with the other. And the trouble is, the breakdown is getting worse and worse. Our communities are as unhappy and […]
The End Of Government?
By March 18, 2015 10 Comments
There is a really interesting debate going on in my island nation community of Guernsey at the moment. There is large review of government tax and spending. There is a suggestion that the cost of government will need to move from 25% to 28% of GDP. Our government rightly argues that ours is already one […]