Linda Holman

  Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels "Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realise there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." – Lao Tzu A few weeks ago I saw "It's never perfect, make it work" written on a blackboard outside a barber shop and I thought it sums up how I think about life these days. I used to be very hard on myself and everyone around me, with very high expectations and a low bar for disappointment. I'm very glad those days are behind me, but sadly I don't think I was alone in that.  Society can be hard on people, especially young women, and the pervasive sense of never being good enough seems to be common for many people. I certainly used to feel like there was something just a bit wrong with me, and so it felt good to achieve things and receive praise from people. But so quickly the buzz of praise would fade and I'd be back to feeling bad about myself again.  This lack of self-wor...

  "Never believe that body is permanent. Body is like a water bubble. Mind is like a mad monkey." - Sathya Sai Baba   When I first heard the phrase "monkey mind" I immediately understood what it meant! I was a few years in to my meditation journey, and mostly this had consisted of making huge resolutions to meditate for impossible amounts of time, followed by disappointment that I was never able to "empty my mind" or stop thinking.  But learning that the nature of our minds is to be like a monkey - jumping from thought to thought as a monkey jumps from branch to branch - this was very freeing! That's just my mind being the best mind it can be. It's been running the show for a long time now and absolutely expects that any idea or notion that it flings at me will be given my full attention. I leaned that I didn't need to try and stop the thoughts, I just had to stop being carr...

    "Go within every day and find the inner strength, so that the world cannot blow your candle out."      –Katherine Dunham    Meditation seems super interesting to you, but yoga.. not so much. Is it possible to get benefits from meditation without having to do yoga? Yoga and meditation are often practiced together; in fact there’s a school of thought that the main point of yoga is to get the body ready to sit for long periods in meditation. The word “yoga” is often translated as “union”, and the uniting of the mind and the body is a common way of thinking about it, so in that regard they can work well together. But there’s absolutely no requirement to do yoga along with a meditation practice - and especially when you are new and working on building a habit you want to have as few barriers to practice as you can . I think it’s easy to get caught up in how we think something should look, or focus on having all the perfect conditions before starting so...

  “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”  –  Arthur Ashe Sometimes people get pretty excited about the benefits of something they've recently tried and get quite evangelical about it. I've definitely been guilty of this over the years, even though I find it annoying when people do it to me. It can have the opposite effect and put me off trying new things just because someone tells me I "should" try it!  Another barrier to trying something like meditation is wanting to have all the conditions right to begin - that's basically impossible, so it's best to just start as soon as you can, even if things won't be perfect. You don't need any special clothes or particular types of cushions - you can meditate in a chair, sitting on a train, or even walking !  There are many, many different types of meditation, and most groups want you to meditate in a particular way as their experience tells them that's the "best" way to do it....

  “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” - James Clear Consistent underachievement can help us reduce perfectionism, which holds us back from starting things and makes us very hard on ourselves. If there’s something you want to do, then starting small is great, and starting small today is amazing. Consistent underachievement can help us get out of our own way and begin doing the things we’ve always wanted to do, without all the huge self-imposed expectations. Years ago, when I first read the phrase “consistently underachieve,” I hated it. The thought of specifically setting out to do a crappy job felt like it went against every fibre of my being — I was utterly in the grasp of perfectionism back then. But it was a seed, planted in my overwhelmed and under-rested brain, and it grew and grew until I had to take notice of it. The idea is that rather than making a massive life change, which you’ll struggle to maintain (for example, doing an hour of...

It's been a wee while since my last post - I wanted to take this year to really relax and recover, and try and figure out what my "new normal" looks like. I'd love to say it's been a year of ease and endless happiness but that'd be a lie. It hasn't been a bad year - but there have been a number of challenges I really wasn't prepared for. I don't think you can ever be truly prepared for cancer and its aftermath, you just have to roll with it and hope it doesn't run you over. Yay for drugs! I started the year moving into the (hopefully) final stage of treatment, hormone drugs. As my tumour was oestrogen recepter positive I am able to take drugs to block the production or uptake of oestrogen - which is a growth hormone that "feeds" the tumour. Taking these pills for the next 5-10 years helps to stop the cancer coming back. There are two types - aromatase inhibitors or Tamoxifen . Generally post-menopausal women (which I am now, tha...