by Suzy Reading | Mar 3, 2013 | article, blog
Flow is a truly delicious state of being, one that you will have experienced at some point in your life. It may have occurred while you were immersed in cooking, connecting with your child, out in the surf, on your yoga mat, deeply engaged in conversation or simply while you were nutting out a Sudoku.
It is characterised by complete absorption in the moment and deep involvement with the task at hand. In this state of intense concentration people report losing all sense of time and self-consciousness; you are simply so focused that there is no space left for irrelevant feelings or thoughts.
People also report a feeling of being powerful, switched on, in control and at the peak of their abilities when in flow and it can often invoke a natural high. By being stretched and drawn towards greater challenges in the repeated experience of flow we grow to become more skilled, complex and capable beings. (more…)
by Suzy Reading | Feb 15, 2013 | article, blog
Self-care can broadly be defined as personal health maintenance undertaken with the intention of improving or restoring health, or treating or preventing disease. I’d like to add the purpose of ‘flourishing’ to this definition and to promote the notion of thinking broader than just nourishing physical health.
When we think about practices to sustain good health and wellbeing, the most common themes are good nutrition, exercise, relaxation, sleep, hygiene, minimizing health hazards like caffeine, alcohol, and all of these are valuable, helpful elements to consider. Less often considered are those things that directly enhance psychological functioning – the things that alter how we perceive the world, our place in it and the quality of our interactions with other people.
In addition to caring for your body and nourishing your insides, I’d like to take an introductory look at some of the self-care tools that make you happier by nurturing your mental, emotional, social and spiritual bodies!
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