Welcome to our tales from the thinking environment. I’ll be sharing thoughts, ideas and insight to keep us thinking and talking. Join in, and if there’s anything you’d like to put to me as an idea or point of discussion, I’d love to hear from you. Use the contact form to drop me a line.
As I walked outside this morning, the trees were shedding their leaves with such ease — a quiet, seasonal surrender. It struck me how much harder it feels, sometimes, for us to let go. This piece explores the tender terrain between letting go and giving up — and what it means to release what no longer serves while trusting the wisdom of what might grow in its place.
Burnout doesn’t always look like burnout. It often begins in the very traits we’re praised for — until they quietly cost us our well-being, our health and ultimately our happiness.
We often think of rest as sleep — but what if it’s something more? In this piece, I explore how rest changes with seasons, roles, and inner needs — and offer a gentle invitation to notice what truly brings you back to life.
We often chase insight like it’s something to earn — but what if it’s something we already hold? This piece explores the quiet power of remembering what we’ve always known — and the conditions that help us see it.
We often praise patience — but what if it’s just waiting in disguise? This piece explores the quiet, radical power of being truly interested — and why it might matter more than you think.
If we are open to it, winter holds space for deep and necessary rest so we can heal what has become frayed over the year and gives room for our inner wisdom to (re)emerge.
A conversation with Oscar Trimboli author of How to Listen and the award-winning podcast - Deep Listening - Impact beyond words
Rested, we are ready for the world but not held hostage by it, rested we care again for the right things and the right people in the right way.
If you're like the 80% of people who've already broken your new years resolutions maybe those goals weren't the right ones for you anyway.
Maybe life is unfolding exactly as it was meant to and you can spend your precious time and energy focusing on valuing what brings you joy and makes you feel alive.
For a lot of people confidence depends on what they are doing, who they are with and how competent they feel. But what if confidence had nothing to do with the things we do or achieve and everything to do with who we are? .
Denial is the refusal to admit the truth or existence of something. And by it's nature, when we're in it, we can't see it. It happens in 3 stages:
First we ignore it. Then we distort it. Then we re-write it.
Can you remember the last time you truly felt at ease?
When you weren't rushing around?
When you looked out of the window, before looking at your phone?
When you gave your full attention to just one person or task at a time?
If I could choose one thing to gift myself on a moment by moment, day by day basis it would be ease.
What do you want? It's a simple question isn't it? But simple is rarely easy. Working out what we want can sometimes feel like really hard work. Letting ourselves want it, can feel even harder.
That’s one of the things I’ve discovered about change.
I can’t expect things to be different out there if I’m not able and willing to change myself right here.
It might not feel like it at the moment, but eventually, the light will return, and with it fresh energy and new possibilities that feel almost impossible to imagine at the moment.
These strange days will pass. Gradually I expect, and then suddenly. And just like that, we will all be in a different place. Each of us will be the same, and yet different.
I had the absolute pleasure last summer to meet the inspiring adventurer and writer Alastair Humphreys to talk about what living adventurously means to me (you can find out more about him here, he's a truly wonderful human being).
How are you in conflict? A simple yet powerful way to navigate the challenge that can arise over the festive period when expectations and emotions are running high.
All through my twenties and a large part of my thirties I thought I had to learn how to think like those women who seemed so much better than me and strive every sinew in pursuit of perfection. It didn’t get me very far, and my thinking and energy was like butter spread over too much bread (to quote a Hobbit!). In exploring the the 10 components and practising with them on the course I have really begun to understand that this was not only not helpful, but counterproductive. What an absolute delight to discover that I need to focus on creating conditions that reflect that I matter.
In essence the 'Sign of Enough' will be different for each of us but it's that moment when you say 'oh, okay, that enough' and you take some kind of action for change.
I'm not suggesting you need to do anything as dramatic as move country, or leave your job but if there's a small voice which needs to be heard then I hope this poem might give you the nudge you need to sit down quietly, by yourself and listen to it.
The 'Sign of Enough' will be different for each of us but it's that moment when you say 'okay, that’s enough' and you take some kind of action for change.
If you knew that listening with full attention was a gift that makes people feel valued, inspired and intelligent, who would you want to be really present with today?
Are you thinking of attending a Time to Think course but you’re not too sure whether to start with the Foundation course or the Thinking Partnership course? This short video and article might just be what you need.
"The principle of the Thinking Environment are simple. It's so rich, even though it's so simple..There's a handful of ideas in there..but they're deeply sophisticated..you can think about them, and they keep coming back with more and more."
When you change your mind, you don't need willpower or discipline. Once you've shifted the assumptions the gap between decision and action is almost invisible.
How can we create places where people feel safe enough to be themselves, to have conversations that matter, to make mistakes, to learn, grow, and to find fulfilment and happiness? We'd do well to start here.
How do you take something that is incredibly complicated and make it simple?
Simple to use? Simple to understand? Simple to recognise?
We have to consciously choose ease. Even when it's not easy. Especially when it's not easy. We have to make being at ease a daily habit. Why? Because the world outside isn't. Our workplaces aren't. But if we can be, even in the midst of this, the quality of everything we do improves.
