I have come to realise that I am in essence a vulnerable adult – vulnerable that is to my emotional state.

In recent years I have been engaged in a process of deep inner work of finding resilience through continued development.

To be in the search of finding resilience is to be in the work of continuing practice because it is through the practising that I feel safe or should I say safer from reacting on an emotional level to the world around me.

My practices are manifold and include:

• sitting quietly listening to my inner voice;
• noticing and appreciating the natural world and feeling myself to be a part of it;
• running;
• writing;
• reading coaching material which is recommended to me;
• visiting my coach and bringing everything;
• reaching out to my family to be a source of support for their needs of me in their life;
• prayer;
• friends;
• working;
• eating;
• relaxing;
• sleeping;
• listening to others;
• reflecting;
• loving;
• learning something new;
• reminding myself of the things I am passionate about.

Above all, finding resilience for me, is to be engaged in the important work of accepting all aspects of self, in deepening my capacity to be expansive in my thinking; of being less reactive to events, being more reflective; more honest and open with others; and more empathetic.

Finding Resilience is to be engaged in the habits of practices which give stability and hope and peace to a conflicted life.

My next blog will be: Cornfield

William Defoe

I have been noticing within my body-physical a set of brakes.

It is an interesting phenomenon which has revealed itself to me through running five times each week for the last nine months of my life.

I have been wondering why it is that even though I am much fitter, carrying less weight, my run times, although improved, are not even better.

I first discovered my brakes running downhill but they are not in my legs.

These brakes hold me back  when perhaps it is possible for me to run faster, but they control my speed, not from my head (fear of falling) but from my abdomen (keeping me centred).

They speak to me of taking all factors of my run into account, not just my speed, but also my rhythm, my breathing, my stamina and my enjoyment.

I think my brakes have enabled me to keep focused, allowing my run to be an important time for my mental development because they facilitate head space to think, to notice my inner voice, to help me to stay present.

They are unlike the brakes in our heads which at times say to us, “we can’t” or which judge harshly ourselves or others.

My next blog will be: Finding Resilence

William Defoe

My skin – your skin – a seamless suit of exquisite beauty which holds in all of me – and all of you!

Our skin soft, malleable, resilient, self healing, beautiful and a vital and living wondrous organ which is magnificent in its scale and ambition.

The soft skin of the face and buttocks (ne’er to be confused) contrasted with the harder skin of the heel and palms which reveal the vastness of the skins capacity to adapt and protect and nurture what is me and what is you.

So often when I am feeling agitated, it is in the skin in which the stress shows itself to be in distress with a rash here and there, perhaps under the arms or along the belt line or groin or on my feet and hands.

This manifestation of the anxiety felt within is revealed on the surface of my skin, and I soothe with water and cream to heal the wounds which I have inflicted on to my skin in my time of distress.

Slowly those wounds heal, but to avoid these moments of disconnect between my mindset and my beautiful skin, I need to find a place to be calm, a place to be in dialogue with what the skin is protecting physically which is:  my truth; my essence; my life.

My next blog will be: Brakes

William Defoe

I was reminded this week how easy it is for our words spoken to be interpreted by the listener in a manner which results in them taking offence.

My adult child having spent a wonderful day with me, in which my intention was to show her my love and continue our journey to overcome some difficulties in the past, took offence at something I said towards the end of the day in relation to my hopes for her future.

In realising that a word in my sentence changed very much its sentiment, and being told I had caused offence, I apologized.

I then had a long drive home in which my feelings of frustration and hurt threatened not just to spoil the day, but the very future I am trying with my adult child to improve.

It has taken several periods of reflection and inner scrutiny to find my way through all of this and my overwhelming desire is to maintain and strengthen the good work we have begun and that is what I am resolved to do.

I reflected more on my own capacity to take offence and what I can do to work harder to resist the temptation myself to communicate that I have been offended by the words of others, particularly when the context of the relationship is far bigger than a mis-spoken word.

It seems to me that to take offence is to react in the moment without looking wider at the broader importance of the circumstances of the whole relationship and also at whether the words were designed to cause offence or were merely an expression of a view or aspiration which I am less ready to accept than the person expressing them.

A few years ago, after I told my brother that I was gay,he told me that our older brother had suspected as much in a conversation they had about me, but not with me.

I have felt a sense of hurt right from the moment my brother told me about this conversation and it would be fair to say that I took offence – I was mortified by it.

Throughout my journey to nurture and develop my love for self, I have come to understand that to take offence is to close down our opportunities to listen, it is to close down our opportunities for dialogue, it is to close down our opportunities to be open with self.

My next blog will be: Skin

William Defoe

In recent weeks I have felt quite anxious.

This feeling of anxiety has been a regular feature in my life and I am overcoming gradually its destructive power, by becoming better acquainted with its cry for help  – a call from within which requires a response – and also its effects on my mind and body.

Often when I am anxious, I wake up early.

I am restless in my sleeping, and also in my waking.

My waking thoughts are often a surreal experience of eroticism, fear, exhilaration and confusion with a tendency to be trapped in a situation which repeats itself over and over from which I struggle to emerge.

As I finally wake up, whether anxious of not, I am amazed at the experience of how somehow my brain re-boots and reminds me of who I am, where I am, what day it is, what time it is, what my plans are for today, what I am worried about, what I am looking forward to.

My waking thoughts are often the very clearest of the day. I am surprised at how often at the start of the day, a sudden answer appears to a dilemma or a course of action is determined upon, which seems to have come from nowhere.

The deep sub-conscious is processing these things as I sleep, and where feelings of anxiety remain, or issues are unresolved, I know through my Integral Coaching development that I must try to find space in my waking life to be silent – to think, to ponder, to pay attention to my inner voice – to listen to my soul which is the essence of my being.

My next blog will be: The Summons (Verse 4)

William Defoe

I don’t like the taste of cucumber, but I eat this vegetable virtually everyday of my life.

I like to eat a salad for lunch each day, especially in the summer months, and the way I keep them interesting is by including regular ingredients of lettuce, spring onions, tomatoes and cucumber and then a variety of toppings, cold meats, chicken, egg, spicy chicken, cooked pork, salmon etc.

The cucumber is included each day without notice because instead of neglecting to eat it each day, I have discovered that if I cut it up into fine pieces, it looses its impact as a taste I cannot palate, to become an enhancer of the rest of the food on my plate.

Cucumber is therefore, for me, an excellent example on how living in the present can be possible when having to live through challenges which at times can be difficult to bear.

I have known for some time, through my development, which is enhanced through quiet reflection and outward engagement with the world, that the difficult aspects of my life must be spread over all the other aspects of my life to make them less painful, less demanding of my continual notice, and less destructive in my reaction to them.

I have found, that I am better able to consume the troubles in my life, because they are spread in and amongst the balanced reality of my life.

Searching for truth is not some search for a goal of absolute peace and tranquility  – it is rather being able to welcome all things.

So the secret is to spread the cucumber lightly over the salad so that it is consumed with ease rather than being left in the tupperware bowl all the day to rot and decay.

My next blog will be: SS Peter and Paul

William Defoe

My wife and I have opposing views politically.

Whenever there is an election, we walk up to the polling station holding hands and vote in our respective ways.

No attempt is made by either of us to change the others mind.

After exercising our democratic right, we usually call into the pub for a drink – summer elections in the UK are the best because it normally means a pint of beer for me and a glass of wine for my wife, in a lovely English Beer Garden.

We walk back home holding hands.

In the constituency where we live it is my wife’s political party which always wins – it is a safe Westminster seat for her political party.

My wife could decide not to vote because her party would win without her, and my vote has the appearance of not making a difference, but I believe that it does.

My vote counts as a part of the overall “share of the vote” and it gives the result of the election legitimacy for the Government whether it is of my choice or not, and also importantly, to the Opposition.

I think that an important part of exercising our democratic right is to accept the result when we find ourselves on the losing side.

To miss out on this opportunity to respect opposing views in a democracy is a recipe for anarchy.

And I speak here as a voter for “Remain” in the UK’s EU Referendum.

A majority of my fellow citizens who voted, voted for Brexit, so Brexit it is!

My next blog will be: Head, Heart and Soul

William Defoe