Healing Your Worries in the Wilderness

Here’s three great personal development articles that are worth a look:

How to Climb Up the Ladder of Healing and Growth

Ari Koinuma gives us a short and a long version of this post. Having the attention span of a gnat, I went for the shorter version first but in fact the full essay makes more sense (although if I were Ari, I’d steer clear of calling something an essay, makes the schoolboy in me want to run a mile).

The concept he is exploring is that we are at any one time set to a default state-of-mind that appears on a scale of what he terms a “healing/growth spectrum”. This idea will be great for systematic minds that like classifications, numbers and graphs. That’s the complete opposite of how my brain works, but still I really enjoyed this post. Ari has good storytelling skills and the guts to reveal information about his personal journeys. And as a new father, I was especially interested in the idea of young children starting out at a fairly positive level, then moving up or down according to what cards life deals them. Definitely worth a look.

12 Techniques to Stop Worrying

This article over at PickTheBrain.com caught my eye because, despite my swaggering bravado, I am in fact a chronic worry wart.

Writer Cindy Holbrook runs us through some stats about worry which do a pretty good job convincing me that there’s not that much to worry about after all. Then we get the list of suggestions to help you stop worrying. I totally agree with most of them, especially to “get support” as I have found that discussing my concerns seems to dissolve a lot of worry. (I might add that this took me up until about 6 months ago to discover as being a typical male and all, I used to just clam up and tough it out. Not recommended.)

I also agree that gratitude or, as Cindy puts it, counting your blessings, is a fantastic way to change the mental channel you’re tuned into.

I wonder however, about the recommendations to “distract yourself” and to “get busy”. Sounds a bit like running from the issue. But then again, maybe it’s actually a good piece of advice and I am just a crazy opinionated hack!

I would add two suggestions:

One which is kind of hinted at in the first tip to “prepare for the worst” is to ask yourself, “what’s the worst thing that can happen?”. Usually it’s not that bad and if it is really, really bad then there’s usually not a whole lot can be done about it anyway.

Two is stop listening to the bullshit that mainstream journalists are constantly bombarding us with – it’s an unhealthy mental diet that plants seeds of worry and stress. (What’s with those guys anyway? Oh, that’s right, they’re arseholes, nearly forgot.)

Wilderness Shangri-la

Ok firstly I should admit that this is the latest post at a website built and managed by me and Steve (who also runs this blog with me). But it’s not ours, LivingNow are our client.

So full disclosure out of the way, it’s a lovely article. Admittedly it’s a bit hippy for Rebel Zen, especially the lame title, but it reflects a very pleasant state of mind that I experience quite often but (unlike violent rage) I don’t usually find the need to express: calm, peaceful and connected to nature.

Writer Steven Katsineris does an awesome job of describing how beautiful the Tasmanian wilderness truly must be. It’s just so important that we don’t screw these gifts up with our selfish ways, isn’t it?

I am actually off for my first visit to Tasmania early next year (about time too as it’s only a short flight from Melbourne, Australia). This article got me all freshly excited about it!

Anyway, there’s three great posts worth a look – I’m off to meditate before bed. Enjoy!

Seamus Anthony
Click here to get the first Rebel Zen e-book “Curly’s Law” – it’s free!