Category: Minutes a Day

  • Don’t Dispair

    There is of course so much hurt and damage being done around the world right now, coordinated by such a small group of dangerously wealthy individuals.

    I’ve recently forced myself to give up doomscrolling, try to focus on building communities with people around me, and try to reduce the amount of my life that can be controlled by others.

    Then I read this quote today, that felt like it really hit the spot:

    Despair is a tool of our enemies. We must never submit to it, no matter how seemingly bleak our minds may rationalize things to be. Revolutionary optimism is the radical will to imagine something better and more than the reality inflicted upon us — to resist its normalization.”

  • BeKind WearAMask DontBeABot

    Life has obviously changed massively for the world since my last post on here over 10 years ago.

    My aim is still to try and provide simple techniques that can take just minutes to apply, to help improve your life.

    But I woke up this morning at 4am, feeling the need to take steps to try and help counter all the misleading info being spawned, misdirection by policians, and abuse by the wealthy minority.

    So these are some of the hashtags and soundbites that came up this morning, that I’m looking to share.


    Hacking up your lungs in a shared space?
    Just because you don’t have to wear a mask anymore, doesn’t mean you can’t.

    Do something that helps somebody else, not because you have to, but because it is a good thing to do for others. #WearAMask

    #BeKind #WearAMask


    Late stage capitalism and individualism is clearly not helping us do more for each other.

    There’s so much talk about community and coming together in times of a crisis, but that’s a ‘future crisis’. We are currently in a crisis.
    It may not look like post apocalyptic landscape of the movies, but it is a lot worse than it has have been for so many people, it is real, and it is happening now.

    Genocide is happening in front of our eyes in HD.

    Climate change impacts are affecting millions of people, and every year it’s getting worse. There’s no way back, but we can stop it escalating exponentially.

    The media’s message is being corrupted to how bad it is, and who is responsible.

    Oil companies made up the idea of an individual’s Carbon Footprint, in an aim to shift the focus from the biggest emitters, and the oil companies saturating every part of our world with oils and plastics, all for their own short-term gain.

    Algorithms are hiding anything which goes against the views of the corporate owners, silently hiding it from feeds, to reduce engagement and make you feel alone.

    #YouAreNotAlone


    AI [LLM] bots using huge electrical resources are flooding comments with bias, making you think that the social majority think that way, they do not. The social majority are kind people #BeKind

    Do you have cold or flu like symptoms? Are you feeling tired, fatigued? Have you been in recent shared air space with someone else with any of those symptoms? #BeKind #WearAMask

    Do you still need to go to your shared workplace, or are there flexible arrangements for you to work from home again. If you really need to go in, please

    #BeKind #WearAMask


    Are politicians increasingly representing you less less? Do you want to make a change but don’t know how? It starts with small steps to make a movement. Counting the media messages we have been told to downplay verity of what is happening around us #ClimateChange #Genocide #Pandemics


    The healthcare industry around the world studies last five years have been pushed and pushed and pushed. If you are not wealthy enough to have dedicated private specialists at your beck and call, you may have seen these increased waiting times. Hospitals are traditionally the safe places to go to be well and recover, now they are super spreader events, particularly for the immunocompromised. if you can #WearAMask


    Are trolls and fascists filling the comments on your posts, demanding empirical evidence but then ignoring it with excuses, then demanding something else instead? Over and over again wasting your time, and the more they engage, the more they imply there is validity to their arguments?

    An online fascist one that have their mind changed by a valid argument, or evidence, or emotion, or anything else for that matter.

    #DontEngage #Don’tWasteOurTime


    Would you like community? Do you care about other people? #BeKind

    Pro Elon? #DontBeABot
    Pro Trump? #DontBeABot
    Pro Zuck? #DontBeABot
    Pro Bezos? #DontBeABot
    Pro capitalist? #DontBeABot
    Are you mad at immigrants? Trans people? Women? #DontBeABot
    Are you using ChatGPT to write content to try and drive engagement just for empty social capital? #DontBeABot

    #DontBeABot

  • The view from today’s business meeting

    So today I had a great meeting with those involved with a new enterprise called yomo, aiming to bring one minute of mindfulness to everyone through their range of podcasts on a new app currently in development.

    The meeting started with a lovely walk around the Otari Reserve just on the edge of Wellington, and continued whilst sat looking at this view:

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    Sometimes I do remember about business meeting locations in the UK, but not often!

  • The importance of a good night’s sleep

    I’ve just had the pleasure of watching this very informative video about the chemical benefits to your brain, of a good night’s sleep.

    In very quick summary: Jeff Iliff demonstrates the results of his research, showing that the toxins from around your brain generated through normal activity, are only removed from your brain via the Cerebrospinal fluid, whilst you are asleep. Whereas I know the other toxins generated from the rest of your body, removed by the lymphatic system, normally happen the most whilst awake and particularly moving or receiving a lymphatic drainage massage.

    I’ve become very much aware of the body’s lymphatic system as a result of my years of work as a professional massage therapist, so it was great to see a similar process happening in your skull whilst you’re asleep.

    Thinking of the people I’ve known with various challenges from a brain level (emotional and intellectual) and the associated challenges they’ve had sleeping, it does to me make a clear correlation with toxin build up around the rest of the body.

    When there are too many toxins in an area of muscle for example, that muscle becomes tight, inflexible, and weak.  Whereas, a person with a more active lifestyle, with good degree of flexibility, and regular massage treatments where appropriate, are able to achieve far more with their body, are less stressed, etc. with fewer toxins in that area.

    So if you don’t get the toxins cleared from around your brain whilst you’re asleep, it makes sense that you would become more agitated, trapped in negative thought processes, and unable to think clearly and efficiently.

    So get a good sleep everyone!

  • My new office

    After spending some great time on the road, I’ve now settled into a lovely barn conversion in Wellington for a few weeks.

    As a result, I’m surrounded by exposed wooden beams, a lovely view over the Wellington hills and NZ blue skies, and a great location not too far to town.
    IMG_3712 (1)

    However, when I want to get out and about, this is the view just a few minutes away overlooking the Cook Strait.  The snowcapped mountains are those of the South Island, a cross channel ferry making its way back to Wellington.
    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

  • My office for today

    Another lovely writing spot today, but one of my last times overlooking Lake Wanaka for a while unfortunately.

    So here’s a 3 part panorama of the view from my portable office in the campervan today:

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  • Another lovely writing location

    Today I’m fortunate to be in another really wonderful location to carry on with the Minutes a Day book.

    This is the way to a better life!

    The view from near Beacon Point, Wanaka
    The view from near Beacon Point, Wanaka
  • My writing location today

    It’s another lovely day in Wanaka today.  This is the view right now from where I’m working on the Minutes a Day book.  Pretty good views really!

    The current view from my office at home.  It's a pretty good place to work!
    The current view from my office at home. It’s a pretty good place to work!

    And this was my view from the portable office yesterday:

    The office view on the 31st August 2014
    The office view on the 31st August 2014

    There is a pretty good chance I feel like I’m having ‘a better life’ right now ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Illustrations for the PIES Chart chapter

    I’ve been fortunate to meet a superb illustrator recently, by the name of Alex of 2 Stoked.

    As a result, I commissioned him to draw this, to feature in the forthcoming book chapter of the ‘PIES Chart’.

    Jason Pie

    So just to confuse you, the PIES Chart is not actually about pies, hence the illustration ๐Ÿ™‚

    To find out more about the book launch, please sign up to our mailing list.