ACT* in a nutshell
I'm still having a big adjustment to working full time, in the same place, with the same people, five days a week. I'm already bored with myself saying this. I'm not sure if I'm working harder, but the consistency makes it seems so, and experiencing the team dynamics is challenging, at times. On the plus side, its helping me to get acclimatised more quickly than if I was there less often.
Today is a TOIL (Time Off In Lieu) day, which I am grateful for. And today I'm going to think about gratitude, which is a core component of positive psychology. Recently a good and long term friend of ours, Perry Else, died unexpectedly. He was a Professor of Play at Sheffield Hallam University, UK, which is just about the best job title you could have. Perry was indeed a kind, creative and playful man, and his death in his fifties is shocking. He speaks about his illness here, just three months before he died.
Being grateful for just being alive, then, seems a good place to start. And some other things, in a list, for brevity, in no particular order.
- Dr Pieter Rossouw, another professor, who gives amazing workshops on neuroscience, trauma and psychotherapy. This is his website.
- Good Vibrations, a fantastic new movie about man, Terri Hooley, who opened a music shop in Belfast during 'the troubles', and who embraced punk rock in the late 1970's. Made me feel like I'd live through a significant part of recent history, even though I was in Essex and London, not Belfast. The best line: 'New York had the haircuts, London had the trousers, but Belfast had the reason' (to appreciate the ethos of punk). So true.
- Eat Street Markets. Maybe not the most gourmet experience, but a (high carb) dinner of empanadas, BBQ pork steamed dumplings, Japanese 'pizza', Okonomikake, and lime and coconut gelati would be hard to organise elsewhere. Makes me realise how much Brisbane has changed in the (almost) 25 years we have lived here.
- Family - for everything, really. Just discovered some new relatives, this seems to happen to me fairly regularly. This time, we share the same (Irish) great grandmother, and our grandmothers were sisters. As usual, the reason we don't know each other is historical feuding, probably around something someone found shameful. At the time. Amazing.
- Spin class, 6am, Mondays and Wednesdays, despite being given bike no 3 last week, which is the one that makes a loud ratchet noise when you stand up.And despite another annoying instructor, who turned my gears up without my permission...
- Winter sunshine. And the Sunshine Coast.
- Food Connect, which had a film night last week: the films were not really for a general audience, being about Latin American soil chemistry (well timed for the World Cup bandwagon, perhaps?), but the food was great. So was the ambiance, with over 100 people in the packing shed on a cold winters night, eating pulled pork rolls with red cabbage, yum...
- Supervision with my art therapy colleagues, much appreciated last night. Thank you.
holding on tightly to something precious
- Meditation
- Sourdough
I have to go to work now. More later. Probably much later.
* Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
