Daily Archives: January 15, 2021

Music for Meditation

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I don’t know about you but despite being a regular meditator I find it really really difficult. My mind just keeps chattering away!

I do like to think of meditation as having many facets and methods and I have written about ‘meditating on’ something as being a thing. I do like to quieten myself and see what comes to mind and then think about that. I have some wonderful thoughts and ideas when ‘meditating on’. But you have to be careful that you don’t get into ruminating and worrying and overthinking something so that ‘meditating on’ becomes negative.

Sometimes though I do like to (try to) clear my mind – and there are two things that I find helpful in doing this.

The first is my Shakti Mat – I’ve written about that here. I love it. Yes, in the first instance it’s uncomfortable but it does become blissful after a few minutes. But what I find is I have to concentrate on managing the discomfort and this helps me clear my mind of other things as I relax into that.

The other thing that helps is music. I listen to lots of meditative music not only when trying to meditate but also when working as it creates the right atmosphere for me in which to work. Now, you may or may not know but I am also a musician so I thought why not write some music for myself to meditate to and then i thought – well – why not share it with everyone.

And that is what I’ve done – and here it is! Available on Spotify and iTunes/Apple Music as well as many other lesser known but equally fabulous platforms!

Give it a listen and tell me what you think!

Reworked – Let me tell you about the new book!

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Excited to be telling you that today (Friday 15th January 2021) the new book is out! Strictly speaking it’s a reworking of the other book – a remix if you like for the music people among you!

We wrote a book (myself, Lisa and Steph) and we aimed that book at Social Workers because we are all social workers and wanted to provide some sort of ‘toolbox’ to social workers to help them with their self-care, wellbeing, and productivity, because we knew for ourselves and from our social work friends that social work takes its toll.

But, what we and the publisher noted, as we were finishing the book and it was set for publication, was that the advice in it was relevant to so many more people than just social workers because many people in many workplaces experience work based stress and indeed many people experience the stresses of life overall. The book would work for everyone.

So, the publisher, Critical Publishing, had me re-write the book for the general market as the launch of their Business in Mind series – and there are more books to come in that series! Exciting!

So there are two ‘How to Thrive….’ books. How to Thrive in Professional Practice is the one aimed at Social Workers and How to Thrive at Work is the one aimed at everyone (and social workers would find it useful too). So buy one or the other – whichever suits who you are – but don’t buy both as they are very very similar.

I would say though there’s a very nice chapter in the How to Thrive at Work one on Rest which isn’t in the first one…. and even though I say it myself it’s a very nice addition!

Whichever you were to buy – I hope you get something from it!

Happy days!