Last Saturday was the fourth day of this seven seminar "Emotion-focused psychotherapy: Level 2 workshop series" that I'm going to at Glasgow's Jordanhill campus.  I took my bike on the train from Edinburgh and then cycled along the canal and in past Gartnavel Hospital.  There was a woodpecker chipping away high up in the trees as I arrived at Jordanhill.  It was a lovely morning ... the weather showing its creativity with rapidly alternating rain, snow and sunshine ... but mainly sunshine.  

I've written three blog posts about sleep in the last three months - "'Sleep well and live better: overcoming insomnia using CBT'- a workshop with Colin Espie", "The links between sleep disturbance and depression" and "Is short duration sleep a problem or is it just disturbed sleep that leads to increased mortality risk?  A personal exploration".  It is clear that many people struggle with sleep difficulties and that this is associated with a network of other problems.  A recent paper that highlig

"No man was ever wise by chance."     Lucius Seneca

"Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger."   Franklin P. Jones

I recently wrote about the fifth week of meditation practice - chapter nine in Mark Williams & Danny Penman's book.  This post is about the sixth week of practice and chapter ten "Trapped in the past or living in the present?" (pp. 183 to 208).  The week-by-week programme summary (p. 60) comments "Week six develops this process (turning towards difficulties) even further, exploring how negative ways of thinking gradually dissipate when you actively cultivate loving-kindness and compassion through a 'Befriending Meditation' and acts of generosity in daily life.  Cultivating friendship towards yourself, including for what you see as your 'failures' and 'inadequacies', is the cornerstone of finding peace in a frantic world." 

I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database -