“Under pressure, we don't rise to the level of our expectations,  we fall to the level of our practices.”* I’d never really thought about how I reacted under pressure until my training  at Strozzi Institute. Years of therapy had given me an intellectual  understanding...

As I sit with a blank page, it’s tempting to invite AI to give me a starting place (and occasionally it does) but today there’s a sense of being nudged to wait until something forms. So I wait…. What comes in the pause is something to share and celebrate. I don’t...

New beginnings: a blank page, a fresh planner, a crisp new year striding in with perfect posture and no emotional baggage whatsoever. If only. January 1st usually arrives dragging along the same old body, the same (now overflowing) inbox, perhaps a slightly fuzzy head...

Some rather special people have recently qualified as Strozzi somatic coaches, and I’m inviting them to guest blog. Here’s the first, the soulful Mark Kelly. We met almost ten years ago and our paths keep crossing (which is something I pay attention to).  He’s a...

Pause for a moment. No—really, pause. Turn the phone to silent and place it  face down, find something beautiful to look at, and check in: can you feel a  gentle hum beneath all this busyness? That’s life, in process, bubbling its  unpredictability just below the...

There’s a peculiar magic in awkwardness. It shows up when least expected or welcome — the sudden rise of heat in the room, the blush creeping up the neck, the stressful search for somewhere to put your hands. Just last week, I found myself standing at the edge of a...

My High School teacher will tell you I was not adept in scientific realms, preferring the gentle art of calligraphy and printing fabric. I was not a member of the phys-chem-bio clan destined for medical school or further scientific study, I was a member of the English...

Celebration isn't the right word. Celebration suggests cake and candles and corks popping. It reminds me of the moment when someone said “Thirty-five years sober? We should celebrate, let’s get champagne” the irony completely lost on them. A few days ago, somebody...

Through me course wide rivers and in me rise tall mountains. And beyond the thickets of my agitation and confusion there stretch the wide plains of my peace and surrender. All landscapes are within me. And there is room for everything. Etty Hillesum I have to pause,...

“I would love to live Like a river flows, Carried by the surprise Of its own unfolding” John O’DonohueI have glimpses of living in flow. Those special moments when everything is in alignment, there is a sense of effortlessness, being is just a simple endeavour...