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1.       Music and Drama

I can enjoy music much more, now that I no longer teach it. I love classical music; 'Pictures at an Exhibition', Holst's 'The Planets'; pop music favourites are Kate Bush, David Bowie and the Beatles. I also love jazz and film music. Another great escape is drama. I love radio dramas, TV dramas, films, novels, even people watching when I'm out and about in London. I don't like drama in my own life, but often find it difficult to avoid. I think now I'm over fifty and have discovered Buddhism I want to simply be rather than rush around doing so much and keeping busy for not much reason. Music and drama help me to enjoy this newer way to life.

2.       Reading and Writing

In 2018 I read over thirty third wave therapy and Buddhist psychology books. I reviewed 26 of them and they made it into the 'A book a fortnight' bibliography for my 'Everyday is a Mindful Act' project. In 2019 I wanted to escape into fiction reading once more and chose six Mood Boosting books for the task, I have also been reading more poetry. It has been lovely to get back to these lovely literary escapes. While working out therapy for myself I also discovered that blogging has been a positive thing for my wellbeing and I should continue to do it. Sylvia Plath once described writing poetry as 'her deepest health' I know what she means. Being creative is important to human beings. I intend to carry on blogging and with other forms of writing as well.

3.       Walking and Water

One of the things I have been enjoying and appreciating for the past ten years or so is walking by the River Thames. I have walked the length of the Thames Path from The Thames Barrier to Hampton Court. My favourite bit is The Royal Festival Hall at Hungerford Bridge to Southwark Cathedral at London Bridge. Walking by water, whether it's a canal, a lake, the sea or a river, can be very therapeutic. I often dream of living nearer the sea, maybe, one day, this dream will come true.

4.       Art and Crafts

I have enjoyed taking photos and making pictures for my blog over the years and I now enjoy mindful doodling and colouring. As part of my art therapy endeavours I have made a point of visiting more art galleries and now I am practising Slow Art, concentrating on a work of art for at least 5 minutes. Art is great and I find it one of the things that gives my life greater meaning. Like art, craft is also important as a source of creativity and meaning in life. I have attempted many paper and fabric crafts over the years and sell them in my craft stall 'ALF Creations @ the Star Heart Cafe'. I find knitting to be the most therapeutic craft and these days particularly enjoying knitting snuggle muffs for mental health patients. A recent advance I have enjoyed is the idea of a 'Crafternoon' with my daughter, who works on her card game, while I often drink tea, doodle and knit.

5.       Mindfulness and Meditation

I started practising mindfulness in March 2018. I did the body scan with my daughter and started doing the breathing to connect exercise from The Happiness Trap. Sometimes, often, it feels like I'm in the middle of an ocean, in a rowing boat, with no oars. Sometimes it's good to meditate on this feeling and then to appreciate the smaller things in life, which you can do with mindfulness. I appreciate a cup of tea, cuddling a teddy, mindful doodling and colouring, listening to music, reading a book, contemplating water, clouds, trees, flowers, art. I think it is good to give yourself some time everyday to just be; with your breath and your body. I often do mindful meditation in the morning, at work, in the evenings, it helps me through my day.

The Patient Librarian

I have been working on ideas for the patient librarian for many years. These are some of the literary decisions I have come to about it.

Story Outline

Jasmine Peak, a goth girl in emotional turmoil, arrives at the United Free Hospital to spend a year working in the Patient Library. The patient library is situated three floors below ground level near the morgue and is run by the mysterious Patient Librarian, Mr Eap. Soon Jasmine is engrossed in her work and finding out all about the world, love, life and death which inhabit every corner of the hospital and can be explained by her new boss, Edgar, and the stories he holds in his collection.

The story is divided into three and I have in mind a number of Edgar Allan Poe stories I thought could be incorporated into each part.

Part One - Arrival
1. MS found in a bottle
2. Ligeia
3. William Wilson
4. The man of the crowd

Part Two- Captivity
5. A descent into the maelstrom
6. The masque of the red death
7. The Tell-Tale Heart
8. The Black Cat

Part Three -  Departure
9. A tale of the ragged mountains
10. The facts in the case of M. Valdemar
11. The cask of Amontillado
12. Hop frog

I'm not sure about the Poe ideas as yet, I think he will be in there somewhere, but possibly as a more subtle influence.

  

ALF @ The Death Cafe

As a preliminary to attending a Death Cafe; I visited St Mary's Church and graveyard on Harrow on the Hill and also did some mindful doodling and colouring on the subject.

   

I have wanted to attend a Death Cafe since finding out about them in 2013. It has been difficult organising time out from my busy life to attend one. I have been making an effort to make my life less busy and committed to attend the one happening in the Playground Theatre, Latimer Road, on the 4th October 2019.

Unfortunately the Death Cafe scheduled for the 4th October had been cancelled at the last moment. I went along to the Playground Theatre anyway. The Cafe Bar looked really pretty. The kind of place where you could happily sit for a while and contemplate your own mortality. On the way were many remembrances of the Grenfell tragedy so it ended up being a very poignant afternoon out.

 

I didn't spend all afternoon on my own. Two other people turned up and we spent a couple of pleasant hours discussing death and poetry.

Autumn Term Therapy

September is traditionally the start of a new school year. Even when school is but a memory, September can be thought of as a chance for a new beginning, of developing ourselves, starting on new paths of self realisation. You can begin therapy at any time, use it to help you. You have one life, you didn't ask to be here, be kind to yourself and do what's best. Therapies for the Autumn Term involve writing, whether working on my blog or writing poetry, facing fear through horror, Edgar Allan Poe or Dr Who, or just contemplating higher realms through tea or spirituality.

London Therapy Part Five

I have been doing guided meditations with my daughter since March 2018. Our thought defusion meditations involve a lot of nature imagery; green spaces, clouds in the sky, leaves on a stream, the sea and a waterfall. I thought it would be good to contemplate a waterfall in real life. A quick google search revealed that our nearest waterfall was in the Japanese Garden in Holland Park. We visited it on a warm Indian summer afternoon. Holland Park and the Japanese Garden were both highly therapeutic.

  

  

  

Twelve years a piano teacher

I taught piano quite intensively from 2008 to 2019 and in my life I have taught piano to about 30 people. From 2009 to 2018 I helped myself and my pupils gain fifteen certificates from practical grades 1 to 5, theory grades 5 and 6 and my dipABRSM in piano teaching. I feel pleased that I did make quite a success of teaching the piano and also feel pleased to be having a break from it.

Amy Stuff

These art pieces by Amy were part of her GCSE school exhibition in 2016. We got them home and put them on Instagram in 2017. More of Amy's artwork is on my Pinterest pages under Amy Stuff which can be found here.

Piano Lesson One

I have taught many 'Piano Lesson Ones' over the years. The first thing I explain to people is Middle C, which is the C in the middle of the piano.

I encourage people to think about fingering, starting with 'One is Thumb', so they can use all five fingers of both hands when playing the piano. I talk about notes as in pitch and time. The letter names of the notes of the octave, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and back to A again. I talk about the stave; the treble clef played with the right hand and the bass clef played with the left hand. As for timing I talk about time signatures: common time 4/4, waltz time 3/4 and march time 2/4. I also talk about semibreves, minims and crotchets. I don't usually get to talk about the rests at the bottom of the page.

Terminal Therapy

2018 was such a difficult year I started creating a whole range of therapeutic approaches and coping strategies in order to live the best life I could given my situation and circumstances. My collection of therapies are split into the three traditional academic terms; Spring Term (January to April), Summer Term (May to August), Autumn Term (September to December). Within that I have created therapy ideas for each day of the week, I will be sharing them with my blog over the next three years.