Category: gratitude
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Middle Age Is About Making Important Choices
I knocked back some paid work last week. Not that we’re rolling in money and I can pick and choose the hours I want, but this time my choice was based on my health. I knew that working five days a week in three different fields would have undone all of the good I got…
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Why Try Mindfulness In Middle Age? Because That’s When You Realise Just How Fucked Up The Worl
I took an introductory course in mindfulness a few weeks ago. I thought that the company of calm, spiritual people would wield its inner peace on me. But when it turned out that only my friends had signed up for the course, I realised something I already knew – that we’re all dealing with our…
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Running Doesn’t Get Any Easier, But Let Me Tell You What It Does Do…
This week, I’ve decided to guilt you off the sofa with another smug-assed update about my new running career. Photo from Unsplash. Catherine McMahon Cue drumroll: Last week, I reached my target of 4kms for the Mothers Day Run For Breast Cancer. In other words, my weekly jog/hobbles around the lagoon in our new suburb…
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Next Year, I Will Choose Another Date To Celebrate Australia Day
Something didn’t feel quite right when I woke up on the morning of “Australia Day” this year. You know me, any excuse for a piss-up and I’m there with bells on, but this year felt different. Sure, we had only organized a small gathering of friends at a local pub, followed by a nice lunch…
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New Years Resolutions: Page 1 of 365
I didn’t begin page 1 of the next 365 with a run or yoga. Instead, I lay in bed for as long as I could, and when the pain in my head refused to go away, I was grateful for Berocca. On page 1 of 365, it wasn’t goals on my mind, it was food…
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How Do You Defrost A Turkey Quickly? Asking For A Friend
The red cabbage is out of the oven to the somewhat predictable retching noises from NC – proof that she is a rubbish vegetarian. The presents are wrapped and under the tree – apart from mine, which I have no doubt will be remembered sometime between the closing credits of Elf and bedtime. And the…
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Managing Anxiety and Depression: The Trick Is To Find Happiness In The Small Things
After the cabin fever brought on by the Armageddon of a dodgy weather cycle in Sydney over the past 24hrs – totally unrelated to climate change, according to our government – it was a relief to get out of the house this morning. After almost a month of holiday excess, I decided that I would…
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We Owe It To The People Suffering To Live Our Lives To The Full
The news doesn’t seem to get any better and I expose myself to it daily in search of inspiration for my writing. While physical empaths are people that absorb the physical symptoms of others, I absorb the anguish of others and the unfairness in their lives, and that transference has a direct impact on my…
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Living One Day At A Time And Being Content With What We Have
A successful designer, seemingly with the world at her feet, takes her own life. Her body is found in her New York apartment with a note that will devastate her family and change the course of her young daughter’s life forever. One thing is certain: she achieved success in the way that the west determines…
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A Postmortem Of Twenty-Five Years Of Marriage
As we hurtle towards our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary – celebrations and condolences for which are still under negotiation – it seems to me that the timing couldn’t be more perfect for a postmortem of our relationship. I’ll be honest with you, as the product of divorced parents, I never expected our marriage to last, and…
LOUISA SIMMONDS 