Clients come to therapy for many reasons, but one of the most common goals clients express is the desire to be free from disturbing emotions. In my experience, coping strategies can be divided into three major categories, and here’s why detached awareness wins.

I have practised meditation and studied Buddhist philosophy in some detail, but never has it been so clear to me that all phenomena are impermanent and transient, that life is suffering and change, or that everything in fact depends on your mental attitude to the constant stream of illusions, as a day by the seaside in England.

Buddhism, as a religious and/or philosophical enquiry, has been pointing the way towards the casting off of the self for the last 2,500 years.

Abundant research testifies to the awesome power of music to affect our mental and emotional states and even influence our behavior.

In the previous post, I had a bit of a vent against both “positive thinking” and “negative thinking”. Is the answer not to think at all? Not according to the most helpful way of living with the power of thinking that I have ever come across.

Compassion meditation produces physical effects in the brain, “proving” in terms of Western science that an Eastern spiritual practice “works”. Are compassion and empathy skills which can be developed through meditation, or is this missing the point of a spiritual experience?

What does it mean to be in control of our lives? Is it at all possible, or desirable? Is it a better idea to try and let go of our need to control, or to find a way to exert influence at least over the meaning of our lives when bad times hit?