reflection

sculpture depicting death

At Peace with Death: Reflections on Befriending the Inevitable

We live in a society ruled by technocratic elites. Their latest preoccupation: immortality. For Silicon Valley tycoons, the prospect of life ever-lasting is no more than a question of advanced engineering, scientific knowledge, and technological mastery. In their innovation-driven subculture, immortality is merely another point in a long line of technical challenges bested by human […]

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man among rubble

What is Mental Health in a Time of War?

The past year has been tumultuous for the world. In a span of weeks, things seemed to have further fallen into disaster. Carnage, destruction, chaos spread like vicious ripples across the globe. Conflict in the Middle East has seen widespread bloodshed, environmental devastation, disruption to commerce, political upheaval, and a stupendous shock to oil prices.

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screen doors and garden

The Grass is Greener on this Side of the Fence: Gaining Perspective on Life.

My wife and I have a favourite pastime. We take leisurely walks through unfamiliar neighborhoods, admiring the houses that we pass. Minimalist, modern homes tend to catch our attention. From the sidewalk, we note the architectural motifs, the complementary landscaping. Sometimes, if the home has large windows, we peer inside and appreciate the warm lighting,

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beach mindfulness

This is It! Mindfulness for an Ordinary Day

In his autobiography, Speak Memory, Vladimir Nabokov wrote that “life is a slim crack of light between two eternities of darkness.” Take a fraction of that briefest spark, and we arrive at a day like today. Perhaps there is little that marks today as anything extraordinary within the span of our lives, yet within the

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burning newspaper

Falling in Love With What Is: Acceptance in the Face of the Unacceptable

We are living in a modern iteration of the Book of Revelations. Housing affordability, economic uncertainty, political turmoil, war, inequality and climate change have coalesced into what Edgar Morin has called the Polycrisis. The pressures of life can fracture our psyche and erode our wellbeing. This fractious state of affairs is the backdrop against which

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Reading: The Bread and Butter of Inner Life

In a recent conversation, a friend asked me the difference between reading books and scrolling on a phone: “If you lament the bus riders with their eyes locked on their screens, might you not also bemoan the same absorption if everyone was reading books?” The question led me to ponder the qualitative difference between the

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Living a Beautiful Life: Habits for Mental Health

People come to counselling because they are hurting. Something has gone awry. A relationship ends, a career stalls, health declines. Clients come in search of healing and repair in the throes of adversity. Counselling therapy can be helpful as we navigate the difficult passages of life. However, if therapy is only for times when things

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Each Day I Begin Again

There was a time when birthdays were about cakes, balloons, grainy photographs of toothless children. A while later, birthdays were about friends, campfires, beer-soaked nights at bars. With the passing years, birthdays become more subdued, more in keeping with the mundane circuit of life. Youthful celebration gives way to pensive reflection. Birthdays are signposts on

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