Is it time?

Is it time to make that change?

You know; that one that you have been thinking about, on and off for a while.

The change that has seemed just a bit too disruptive; difficult, maybe even painful, until now.

So when is NOW the right time to finally do what you really want?

Life, as far as I know, is not unlimited. An average man in Britain might live to be 74 years old, a woman maybe 80.

Maybe a little longer, maybe a lot shorter; who can tell?

I am approaching the point where I will have been alive for 50 years. By the law of averages that means possibly two thirds of my life have been spent. So I ask myself questions.

What have I done?

What have I done well?

What have I done badly?

Who did I help?

Who did I inspire?

Who have I loved?

As I ask myself these questions, I feel the same sense of curiosity and wonderment about life that I did at age 8.  

I ask myself the question; how will I do things better, how will I care more (for me as well as others), how will I achieve more?

In a sense it is the ego driven quest for immortality, the desire to know that somehow we will live on even when our body is crumbled to dust. But as motivators go it's a useful one for me.

Now, what about YOU?

Work anxiety leads to stress & not taking holidays

It's something that is probably obvious to those who have a job but work pressures are mounting as the recession goes on longer. (Those who argue the recession is over might want to talk to the staff at Comet stores this week.)

Today yet another stress story (YASS?) hits the newspapers, in this case the Daily Mail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2235280/Recession-means-half-work-unmanageable-stress-levels.html

Elsewhere in the news we can find that those who lose their job are more likely to die of a heart attack in their first year out of work and that the secret of raising children who will become wealthy is to raise them to be happy.

There's no doubt that in spite of the material wealth in the country, it's difficult for many people to cope at the moment.

Friday thought; a step backwards

It's a line from the novel Player Piano written by Kurt Vonnegut. The line itself is spoken by the main character in the book Dr. Paul Proteus, who has become disillusioned by the society systems now in place, where many people have their jobs replaced by machines and are left doing Government paid community work instead.

Paul Proteus comes to recognise that the system has gone too far, it has removed the ability for people to have worthwhile work as a part of their life.

In his court scene he says

...a step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction.

 I think this is something we can apply in our life.

So often we worry about taking a step backwards in case we lose face, or are seen as weak and yet sometimes a step backwards can truly be a 'step in the right direction'

Tea is good defence against diabetes

More good news if you drink tea.

Mrs Doyle says "Go on, go on, go on. Drink!"

According to an article in today's Daily Mail, drinking black tea helps to reduce the incidence of Type 2 Diabetes.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2229333/Drinking-tea-cut-risk-type-2-diabetes-suggests-study.html

Mine's a cup of Yorkshire please!

There's knowing and then there's really knowing

It normally happens with smokers who want to quit, sometimes with those who wish to lose weight.

They know that smoking (or over eating)  is potentially, catastrophically bad for their health but carry on anyway.

I term this knowing at an intellectual level. They know the information but are in no way engaged with it.

Do you see the warning or is it just 'white space'?

They look at the grim pictures or words on the cigarette pack, they have read all the warnings and still they carry on. They have not made the connection that this applies to them. It's seems to be almost a random droplet of knowledge that they picked up somewhere; "Oh yes I know that".

It seems slightly different to a state of denial, more a state of  uncaring.

Then we start work and my role is to have them know the information fully, that is on an emotional level as well as an intellectual level. When this happens, when they connect the information to their own life, the effect is often profound. It's as if they have put information into different boxes in their head that never got opened at the same time, but when they do, I expect tears or anger.

Then I find that positive change can happen quickly; intellect and emotions are aligned. Things happen quickly and generally very successfully from this point on.

This should be obvious but...

The only person who can make your life better is you.

Sure someone else can give you a pay rise or car or other gift but that just means that you gave control to someone else again.

Only you can change your life in a way that you choose. Only you can choose to exercise the control of your thoughts and emotions.

Others can aid you or make it more difficult for you, just like the wind can blow at your back or in your face. You set your sail accordingly.

Set your sail to suit the wind and make progress anyway

So today, decide to take one small step towards your goals.

If (like so many) you are not sure of where your goals are then your first job is to determine what they should be.

Decide today to set your sail in spite of the adverse wind that blows against you. Even the smallest progress is a magnificent win for you.

Anti-Depressants in the news again

Suicide and anti-depressant use seem inextricably linked together. We know learn from Peter Hitchens of the Daily Mail, that Film Director Tony Scott was taking them prior to committing suicide. On the Mail web site he wrote;

When I read in August that the talented Hollywood film director Tony Scott had killed himself without any apparent good reason, I was fairly sure that pretty soon  we would find that the poor man had been taking ‘antidepressants’.
Well, a preliminary autopsy has found ‘therapeutic’ levels of an ‘antidepressant’ in his system. I take no pleasure in being right, but as the scale of this scandal has become clear to me, I have learned to look out for the words ‘antidepressant’ or ‘being treated for depression’ in almost any case of suicide and violent, bizarre behaviour. And I generally find it.
The science behind these pills is extremely dubious. Their risks are only just beginning to emerge. It is time for an inquiry.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2224255/Enter-church-hear-echoes-eternity--Sugababes.html#ixzz2AfPCGnR8

This is not proof of a cause and effect link (yet), but yet another indicator that far more care should be taken by GPs and patients before prescribing and taking these drugs.

There are so many people taking them (possibly 7-8 million adults in the UK alone) that it can seem normal; it's not. At best they mask some unwanted emotional symptoms, at worst they are implicated in the suicide of those that take them.

If you are feeling depressed, a talking therapy will generally help you to resolve the underlying issue, rather than simply deal with the symptoms.

What is vital to know is however is that not all therapists and styles of therapy will suit you. Don't write off the idea of a therapist because you had one bad or even ineffective past experience.

Work with someone else, and/or work in a different style this time. From simple Rogerian counselling to analytical hypnotherapy, something will work for you, to resolve old issues. Drugs will only mask the feelings and potentially lead to worse situations (read the warnings on the leaflet inside the box!).

How a motorcycle racing technique can help you even if you hate bikes

If you ride a motorcycle you may have heard of an American called Keith Code. If you race motorcycles there is a possibility you may have attended his California Superbike School.

Keith literally wrote the book about how to ride motorcycles faster. He dissected the complex sequence of operations need to get a motorcycle to go around a corner faster not by making the engine more powerful but by changing the way that the rider thinks about the sequence of actions needed to corner more effectively.

That book is called 'A Twist Of The Wrist'.

Now what does this have to do with anything outside of motorcycling?

As it happens, quite a lot.

One of the core elements of Keith's approach is to recognise that attention has its limits; that each of us has a finite amount of attention to give in any given situation. He asks us to imagine that at any given moment we have only $10 of attention to give at any time. If we spend $5 on one thing then we have only $5 left for everything else.

Now how might this approach benefit you?

Think about that $10 of attention right now; what are you spending it on. A family feud? A workplace vendetta? An old wrong that has not yet been avenged? Each of these things is costing you. Each of these emotional entanglements is a drain on your $10 bill of attention.

Which means that you do your job less well, you learn a skill more slowly, you achieve less in your sales plan, you don't develop that deeper level of love and understanding in the relationships you care about most.

If part of your mind is still working out how to punish someone else for the wrong that they did to you, then you are losing twice over. Once from what they did and once again from mental and emotional resources wasted on your planned retribution.

The fix?

Let it drop. Hanging on to the anger is like holding on to a hot coal in readiness to throw it at the person who harmed you. You get burned more than they will from that same hot coal.

Let it go, drop it, cut them out of your life or even, forgive them. No because they deserve forgiveness but because the attention its costing you is stopping you from achieving your goals.

Sometimes I forget to count my blessings

Life is difficult, bloody difficult and then I read...

I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.

 That's Kurt Vonnegut for you, straight in there with something to rattle your cage of preconceptions.

Kurt Vonnegut

So I sometimes forget to count my blessings; like this morning for example. I was the fraught, stressed grumpy man. Then three of my blessings went to stay overnight with their Nanny and Granddad. Now I miss them like crazy.

As Kurt has said;

Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.

Count your blessings.

I am bang on with a prediction and I wish I wasn't

It has become an exercise of mine to predict trends and events for the year ahead. Of course there are some very well known people out there who do this, but why should they have all the opinions.

My forecast for 2012 was put on this blog:

http://johncburns.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/trends-and-forecasts-for-2012.html

Some of the events outlined there are happening now, some are still waiting in the wings.

One of the things I predicted was an increase in suicide rates because of the very poor state of the economy.

Sadly this is one area where I seem to have been accurate in my predictions.

One need only read stories like this one:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2219345/Why-did-banker-perfect-life-fatal-leap-Fourth-tragedy-City-restaurant.html
to see just what is happening.

These deaths are the by-product of the way we have chosen to life today. Perhaps chosen is the wrong word. We strive to be successful in the environment which we find prepared for us by others.

A workplace filled with similarly driven people, where success and money equal status and the loss of face implied by failure is too awful to contemplate; even death is better than that.

Actually though the numbers are more complicated than they appear. In truth it is suicides for men over the age of 45 that are rising as you can see in the chart below.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_254113.pdf

So it seems that something more complex is happening. Is it more to do with the loss of status, the change in society from a basically patriarchal system to something more based on skill than gender?

Whatever it is and whatever part drugs (including prescription medications play in it); it is surely worthy of more consideration. Of course this chart only runs up until 2010, the next two years may change the story.

From my own perspective  I feel that so much of this is about the loss of core values and meaning in a person's life. If you sacrifice all to your career to provide for your family, but the family relationships fall apart because of the single minded focus, what have you really gained?

When you absolutely have to do something

Were you one of the 8 million people around the world who watched Felix Baumgartner jump from space?

If you missed it,you can catch it on YouTube, it's worth seeing.
After the jump Felix said;

"Let me tell you - when I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble. You don't think about breaking records anymore, you don't think about gaining scientific data - the only thing that you want is to come back alive," he said afterwards at a media conference.

But in spite of his (justified fear) he still HAD to jump.

Sometimes in spite of your fear, you just HAVE to do something, because the only thing worse than not doing that fearful thing is how much you'll wish you had after the opportunity is gone.

Free speech and fredom of thought.

We learn from a recent article in the Daily Telegraph that the Government of Saudi Arabia would like to censor a lot more of the content on the internet.

The full story is here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9602263/Anti-Islam-film-prompts-Saudi-call-for-net-censorship-body.html

Remarkably the claim is made that the recent internet video posted called "The Innocence of Muslims" is equivalent to child pornography and should be banned.

The quote provided in a submission to the UN body The World Telecommunications Policy Forum is;

"Any reasonable person would know that this film would foment violence and, indeed, many innocent persons have died and been injured with this film as a root cause,"

Ok, so it was freedom of speech that killed people? Or was it people that killed people?

Here we have the ever so slippery slope towards complete censorship, not just of the Internet but also of thought itself. Self censorship, the things that you stop yourself saying before you have uttered a word because it may offend someone else.

Australian comedian Steve Hughes deals with this point brilliantly in the stand comedy performance in the link below (I couldn't find an embeddable YouTube version sorry)

http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=29555#.UHe4Ba7cvAk

Basically he says " What's wrong with being offended?"

The sky does not fall in, your faith in your god/religion/belief system is not changed, you just disagree.

I'm offended by most of our politicians, not much changes though.

French enlightenment writer Voltaire may or may not have said:

"“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

But he certainly would defend the position of free speech and free thought.

If now we allow some countries, religions or vocal special interest groups to curb our freedom of expression (and it is already happening), it is not just our words that will be censored but our own thoughts too. Then it will be as if the enlightenment movement had achieved nothing at all and we will all be poorer.

The state of modern American (& perhaps British) society. Huxley was more right than Orwell

I like to stay relatively up to date with current affairs. This does not mean that I treat every newscast as gospel truth but rather that I gather information from many sources and then attempt to draw my own conclusions.

One of those sources is the financial web site Zero Hedge. It often takes a contrarian position to the main stream media and so offers insights into the global pushes and pulls of the finance industry.

Sometimes a guest post catches my eye; this is one of those posts.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-08/guest-post-decline-decay-denial-delusion-and-despair

It highlights the failures both financial and health related in the USA today.

It's a good coffee break read; it posits that many Americans have moved away from self reliance to being clients of the state. This has impacted mental awareness, financial well being and now personal health too.

It appears that Aldous Huxley was right; here is the final revolution for mankind a doped up, over fed, unwell, mentally and physically compliant mass of unproductive (in any useful sense) people.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.”

– Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death

It's happening here in the UK too.

Are you awake and aware or just another drugged up and distracted, passive client of the state/banks/commerce (of the least useful kind)?

The new normal

I'm old enough to remember the Miner's strikes and power custs of the early 1970s.

I was a child then and I remember that we were never without matches, candles and a gas powered 'tilley' lamp for the inevitable power cuts.

As a child it didn't seem so bad (though I hated the cold), it was normal for us back then.

Now after 40 years apparent economic growth (with occasional panics & slumps) we start to contemplate a new normal. A normal where economic growth is not always rising, where expectations of being cared for by the state may be very misguided and real income is actually falling.

Say hello to your new normal.

Judging by the depth of the recession and by what the politicians admit to, we could have to grind through this for another four or five years. Welcome to the new normal.

But for me, it's a reminder of the make-do-and-mend approach of my youth. Of repairing clothes instead of just throwing them away, of DIY on your home and car and of being more self-reliant.

The trouble is, if you were born after around 1979, you have never known these low times. You probably thought that life would always be on a fabulous upwards trend. You may not have the tools needed to make it through the next few years.

A Riders Digest manual is your friend

For you these will be uncharted waters you'll want a map or maybe some books. Those well thumbed DIY books seen lurking on the shelf in charity shops. The crumpled paperback on how to make wine and bar at home, seen in a thrift sale. Because without some navigational tools to get you through the next few years, life is going to be hard.

The economy is much like the weather, it's unlikely that you are going to be able to change it. The wind will blow where it will, and you must set a sail to catch the best breeze you can, to make progress towards the goals you have set. Progress that happens inspite of the way the economy is rather than because of how wonderful it is.

It's time to discover and foster in yourself both new skills and a sense of positive self reliance. As the old support structures fall (or are trimmed) away by a Government unable to meet colossal bills created by undeliverable expectations, there is only person you can really rely on in the end, it is you.

So now is the time to ditch the hang-ups, learn new skills and change your perspective. Hypnosis techniques can help here and a good practitioner will be able to help you. 

Looking across Chesil Beach

I had occasion to be high up on Portland Bill in Dorset today. The weather was wonderful (if a little windy).

This picture was taken with my mobile phone; unfortunately I didn't have the camera with me. Amazing views though.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

There are times...

There are times when I wish things were different.
There are times when I manage to make things a little better.
There are times when in spite of my good intentions I make things worse.
There are times when I despair.
There are times when I see the sunlight shining over a green field that I am filled with wonder.
There are times when being with other people is difficult.
There are times when I want nothing more the touch of someone I love.
There are times when my body feels exhausted.
There are times when I feel as if I could float on the breeze.
There are times when I feel trapped.
There are time I feel filled with a world of possibilities.

At all times I am me. Human. Contradictory. Loving. Living.

After the rain...

A double rainbow. Picture taken on the edge of Yeovil, Somerset on 3rd October.

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Medicating to a new normal

Anxiety? Depression? Don't worry we have a drug for that.

In the USA Valium was the cure all medication for anxiety as this article in the New York Times shows.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/sunday-review/valium-and-the-new-normal.html?src=me&ref=general&_r=0

Closer to home in the UK, we have our own pill popping problems as an article in today's Daily Mail shows:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2211523/Millions-patients-hooked-tranquillisers-using-pills-20-years.html

It begs the question what is normal? What level of anxiety is usual and what is unusual and requires medication? Once we considered it normal for a woman's brow to furrow when in thought, now we have botox for that slightly dead look.

Like the characters in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World novel, are we all guilty now of wanting to be medicated with Soma so that we never worry about anything again. Because the flip side of that argument is that we'll never experience true joy again either.

The doctors don't have all the answers of course, lots of people self medicate with alcohol or cannabis to deal with the cards that life has dealt us.

Talking therapies work and are worth engaging in to find a new path in life but the fact is that for most people the simple act of living is stressful. Once, it would have been the sheer effort of physical toil, for meagre wages that caused this. Now we have a massively complex society, filled unrealistic images, about what we should expect from life.

Is it time for us to reassess what is important to us? To be once more, true individuals, rather than being held to the local cultural norm? I think so.

But if you don't, then the latest fashion pages are your guide to conforming to the new standard (down with the old standard); you'll discover that Vintage inspired jewellery is now in and that SSRIs can keep you functioning in a chemical marriage where both partners are on prescription.

Welcome to The Brave New World.

Who do you rely on?

It's easy to ignore politics, stay away from the radio, the TV, the internet, the cinema, bus shelters, bill boards, newspapers and libraries and you can just about avoid politics.

Which is also unrealistic unless you live in the woods like Simon Dale does.

Lovely, but he had major battles with the local council and planning authority (note that word) to build his house and live in it. So even he was obliged to deal with politics.

It is virtually unavoidable if you live in the UK.

This Governmental influence on our life has many different layers and each layer has many different departments and sets of rules to ensure that you live within a framework described as 'the common good'.

Except; again and again we find the the 'common good' means different things to different people. You may think that it is protecting the environment or securing your rights. I'm sorry but that's rather a quaint view.

He is some advice for you, whenever someone talks about 'the common good' or 'sensible rules' or laws, look at where the money is flowing.

Today on the Daily Telegraph web site we learn of yet another proposal to charge for road usage. (One of the MPs proposing this is Andrea Leadsom a previous employee of Investment fund Invesco Perpetual who surprise surprise, invest in big infrastructure projects) You may think this is a very sensible approach to saving the environment and deals neatly with the polluter pays principle. You would be wrong to think this way.

The polluter already pays, in fact we all pay around £38 Billion a year for driving, through the fuel taxes we pay. Drive further and you spend more. It's a simple enough method.

By the way, very little of this money is spent on the roads, most goes into the general taxation pot.

What is more interesting is that the bank NM Roschild has put proposals before government before to privatise the roads. Now where do you suppose the money would go if a privatisation scheme is being promoted by a bank?

Follow the money. Always follow the money. The Government is not there for you to rely on. Social Services are not there for you to rely on. (Just check the child abuse scandal in Rotherham for confirmation of this,)

So now to the question I posed at the beginning of this blog piece; who do you rely on?

You can rely on the Government if you like but recall that most MPs seem to spend their time working out how to take more money from you whilst feathering their own (already luxurious) nest(s). Your MEP? Not likely, they're on the gravy train and they can't even propose new laws or suggest the removal of old ones.

No in the end it's you. You must rely on your own skills, your own knowledge, your own ability to see through the visual noise to what's really happening. Only when you decide to be in charge of your life will things make sense for you.

The structures and systems that should provide a framework for you to work within are corrupt and often not fit for purpose. Or put another way, you can't change the wind that is blowing but you can set your sail towards your goals accordingly. Along the way you may meet like minded people, fellow travellers with a common goal. But remember always, that in the end it is your life, and no one else has the same investment in it as you. Self reliance will be the key to surviving the turmoil that continues around us.

I'm travelling today, light bloging

I'm on road trip today. Blog activity will be limited.
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Advice on life from a tour guide

In 1997 I finally went on a trip that had been a dream for much of my adult life, a trip to Egypt.

However even a week before I went, there was doubt about the journey, Islamist terrorists blew up a tourist bus outside the Cairo museum and I had doubts about the wisdom of making the trip. In the end I went.

A trip down the Nile, time by the Red Sea and time in Cairo followed. Our tour saw the incredible sights of Luxor and the Nile. The Valley of the Kings and their tombs and of course the pyramids too.

We were lucky to have excellent guides on the tour who were both knowledgeable and spoke good English.

Looking at some of the incredible sites one was forced to contrast the achievements of the past with the poverty  of the present.

In a quiet moment and in a light-hearted way, I asked the guide what had happened to that great Egyptian civilization. With a thoughtful look on his face he replied "Sometimes you're up and sometimes you're down.". With one sentence he had compressed 5000 years of history into a pin-point clarity.

Isn't that true of all of us? Sometimes you're up and sometimes you're down. What really matters is whether and how you get back up again after you've been knocked down.

Can't afford to see a therapist, but can afford a CD/MP3

There is no getting away from the fact that personal one-to-one therapy of any kind is expensive. It's also the most effective form of change work with unresolved issues being dealt with as the treatment plan progress'. However, with prices ranging from £35 per hour to £100 or more, it can be beyond the financial reach of some people.

So what if you have identified an issue you would like to resolve but have rather limited funds or you'd just like to to try out the hypnosis process; a pre-recorded hypnosis audio session might meet your needs.

Typically these range from free (internet downloads) to around the £20 level. The quality varies widely and does not seem to be closely linked to the price you pay. 

The quality of the 'script' used and the associated backing track (if present) can also vary widely. But you can often hear a preview of the track before downloading or buying the CD.

Of course at this point I'd like to promote my own CDs that you can find at  http://www.somersethypnotherapy.com/hypnosis-cds.html .

How best to listen to the CD though?

First turn off your phone (or at least put it on silent) and lock the door. No interruptions please!

Generally I recommend listening with comfortable earphones or headphones rather than through the loudspeakers of your audio system.The experience is much more immersive and effective.

Where to listen? 

Choose somewhere that you feel safe and comfortable. At home in a reclining chair, or lying on a bed are both suitable. You might also find listening in your (stationery) car whilst parked up works for you.

When to listen?

Early in the morning before the day really gets going is a great time to listen, unless your day begins in great hurry. More often clients will listen in the early evening. After a meal and the children are put to bed often works well (a couple of hours before your own bed time). Or some clients have said that they enjoy listening in their car during a work lunch break.

How often?

Daily for at least one week and then every other day for the next two weeks. Repetition enables the positive suggestions to achieve a similar level of effectiveness as seeing a therapist just a few times. Often people will go back to a recording every few months when they feel the need.

Give it a try, see how you get on. You can find a free relaxation track on my own web site www.somersethypnotherapy.com

 Let me know how you get.

Fear....how it defeats rational thought

If you are in a panic; you can't think.

At least, you can't think with much in the way of rational clarity

Fear activates the flight or fight response, fills our body with chemical messengers like adrenaline and cortisol that change our breathing patterns, the way our muscles can respond, can narrow our awareness and change our gut response too.

Which makes fear a very bad place to make decisions from.

But it seems we live our life today in an almost permanent wash of fear. From 24 hour news that tells us about the awful thing that will happen next (war, flood, famine & violence) to the positing of ' what if' scenarios. What if YOU got flooded, what if YOU lost your job, what if YOU were attacked?

Then your own imagination can fill in the blanks to create the most incredible fearful images and feelings.

Leaving you debilitated, unable to think clearly and easily persuaded and controlled by others.

From nuclear war to terrorist attack, from the dangers of smoking to GM food; they all are used to induce fear.

So today, take a step back, take a deep breath in and stop for just a moment and ask the question; "does any of this apply to me right here, right now in this moment?"

Because the chances are that  none of these things are directly affecting you in that moment. So relax take another deep breath and move on with the rest of your day with a clearer mind and the ability to reconnect with your rational thought patterns.

A permanent solution to a temporary problem

I attended my first 7 day NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) training session back in 2001. It was, in lots of ways, an eye opening event. I was reminded of part of that NLP course yesterday when watching financial reporter Max Keiser's latest broadcast. His guest was discussing how the victimless crime carried out by the banks (essentially financial theft on a grand scale) really does have victims.

The financial collapse of the last 5 years has put some people under enormous stress. Coping strategies vary for those under stress, but sometimes that feeling of being stressed is so intense and overwhelming that only suicide seems to offer a way out.

According to a BMJ report, in the 2008 - 2010 period there were almost 1000 additional suicides in the UK as a result of the financial collapse. Full report here: http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e5142.

In the USA, recent news stories tell how suicide now outstrips car crashes as the cause of death. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2207089/56-million-suicide-prevention-programme-launched-study-reveals-Americans-lives-die-car-crashes.html)

A suicide prevention operation backed with $56 Million is now being put in place.

Suicide is not just about the economics it is often driven by the fractures in relationships caused by the way we live. But to come back to my point about the NLP course; Richard Bandler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bandler) one of the NLP co-founders said this

"suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem".

That quote has stuck with me over the years. It is true that most problems are temporary. Eventually one can adjust to a new situation. But again and again we see news stories about apparently successful people who take their own life rather than accept that their situation must change. It seems that the loss of face is even more frightening than the the loss of their own life.

Yet, history is full of example of people who failed, who fell from grace and yet came back later stronger, wiser and more capable than ever. Isolation, physical or emotional and broken or damaged relationships can stop the person contemplating suicide from getting the help they need.

Losing a job or home is terrible, losing status conferred by money can be debilitating but it should never be a reason to lose your life. Talk to someone today.

Ready for the apple harvest

Sometimes the simplest things can bring a quiet pleasure.

Here the apples are ready for harvesting reminding that the warmth of summer must give way to the colour of autumn.

Indeed to all things there is a season.
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Friday links for fun and inspiration

It's way too easy to get caught up in all the negative things happening both in this country and elsewhere so here are some inspiring / uplifting links that I hope you'll enjoy.

http://faircompanies.com/
Some fantastic videos here of people creating their own small homes or bringing back a more natural approach to living. Not too hippy-dippy just practical ways to live a better life and create a better environment. You could easily spend an hour or more here!

http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.co.uk/
Lloyd Kahn has been responsible for inspiring many self-builders. His original Shelter book from the late 1960s showed how it was possible to create your own building/home in different ways. Check the side bar links on the blog and the links to the the Shelter home page.

http://kk.org/cooltools/
If you like tools and gadgets that actually work and work well check this link. From can openers to tents to, well you name it; it's a wonderfully eclectic mix of products that do what they say they'll do.

http://www.hypno1.co.uk/
This hypnotherapy web site used to be run by Dylan Morgan (now deceased) but I'm pleased to see that Rosemary Owen who now runs the site has kept an archive of Dylan's writings and material. I didn't know Dylan personally, but if you are at all interested in hypnosis, you'll find lots to treasure here. (scroll down the home page for links to Dylan's content)

Have a great day!

Child abuse and its aftermath

Let me say first that I am not an expert in this field; I write only from my experiences in personal one-to-one therapy work.

Around 12 years ago, not long after I had started on a new path in my life that involved NLP, hypnosis and personal change of all kinds, I went to a hypnotherapy conference. It was a decent event and most of the speakers had interesting things to say.

Near the end, one speaker (who's name escapes me) talked about his work. From Harley Street practice to creating relaxation recordings for airlines with nervous fliers. But one thing stood out and that was his claim that sexual child abuse was widespread; that for more people were abused than we would ever believe. It was thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of children each year.

To be honest I thought he was exaggerating. Of course we hear about child abuse but surely it is rare, isolated and unusual; isn't it?

Now I find in my own practice that again and again I meet people (mainly women) with adult issues where the roots of the problem lie in child abuse. Sometimes it unwanted weight, sometimes it's an old habit, sometimes it's a lack confidence.But the root is frequently that familiar story of abuse.

Often I don't discover this abuse until a second session when the client has developed enough trust in our relationship to be absolutely honest with me. Normally once out in the open, we can deal with the unwanted habit or response that is linked to that old childhood issue.

I don't have a deep answer to the reason why this happens, much less a solution to the problem. But I do look at those intractable patients at the Doctor's surgery and wonder if the reason why they have a problem, is less to do with a medical issue, and much more to do with an emotional response to a trauma from way back.

Viewing web trends and your health

If you have not yet discovered Google trends then you are missing an interesting tool for viewing the world. Google trends accepts a string of search words and then shows you in a graph the relative interest in those terms. You can change the time frame and even geographic location. Google will also try to provide some context for very sharp changes in the graph.

So far so much fun.

What is constantly surprising is how the changing cycles of the year appear to drive trends, especially those relating to health.

Take a look at the graph below. It shows 3 trend lines of interest on one graph. In this case it's Anxiety, Yoga and depression. Click on it to see a bigger image.

You can see how the lines although of different sizes have very similar 'sawtooth' waveforms. In each year you see a decline in the last quarter followed by a jump upwards at New Year.

 

Here in the graph above I've shown just one 12 month period so that you can see how the activity changes around the New Year period. (Just when most Gym memberships are sold!)

So as interesting as this is what's the point?

Just this; why wait for the New Year to make the changes that you want? Start today and get a three month head-start. That's three extra months to reduce your weight, get rid of that phobia or change your life style. Get healthier starting today, YOU CAN do it.

Even if you feel that you have nothing to change, be aware that others will be going through this process. Are you going to support and encourage them? Good.

Images to relax the mind...

Images taken in a quiet moment in the middle of the day. Just a few pictures to sooth the mind.

I am not claiming any great camera skills but I find the taking of the images relaxing and sometimes the results justify being shared.

Last of the fading yellow

Is your parachute packed?

I hear more and more often about people losing their main form of employment.

They are 'downsized' or 'rightsized' or told simply that they have no job now.

Whilst it may not come as a bolt out of the blue, most people are not prepared with a back-up plan.

In other words, they have no parachute ready packed for the fall.

Is your parachute packed?

Of course I'm not talking about a literal parachute but a back-up plan that you can roll out quickly if the worst should happen.

• The obvious element is how will you earn money?
• What skill can you fall back on that will create some income whilst you think about other things?
• What tools do you have available if you were asked to leave the work office and not return? Do you have a PC or smartphone of your own?
• What relationships will last beyond the office water cooler and be helpful for you later?
• What resources can you bring into use?

The point about a parachute plan is not that helps you to survive long-term (although it might) but that it slows your rate of descent to something that you can safely land from.

Your choice of landing area may be limited and you may still land with a bump; but you'll survive and just possibly thrive as long as you have that parachute plan in place.

Think about what your plan may involve and get started today. With luck you'll never need it but if the worst should happen you'll have a much better chance of survival.

Go pack that parachute today.

Life plans are not written in stone

It's easy to forget sometimes, that the life plans we make are not etched in stone or cast in bronze. They are not immutable, they can be changed.

Most plans are written on paper, or created as a file on a computer. So if your plan is not working out or you've changed your mind about what you want...rip up the old plan, press the delete key and start over.

It's never too late to make a change. Ready to let rip?
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Friday links and news

A few interesting links about health and hypnosis for this Friday.

Could GMO wheat actually damage your liver?
http://www.naturalnews.com/037170_GM_wheat_liver_failure_GMO.html

The power of staying positive in extreme circumstances
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/09/11/oukoe-uk-usa-alaska-fisherman-idUKBRE88A1IT20120911


New stem cell gel applied to site of injury 'can regenerate broken spinal cord nerves to an astonishing degree'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2202776/New-stem-cell-gel-applied-site-injury-regenerate-broken-spinal-cord-nerves-astonishing-degree.html#ixzz26RImwFNW

And also from the Daily Mail
Being bossed around at work 'raises risk of heart attack by 23%' (I see plenty of clients in this situation)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2203000/Being-bossed-work-raises-risk-heart-attack-23.html#ixzz26RJ4Tfwc

And now hypnosis Apps come to the iPhone or iPod touch or iPad. Perhaps this is a platform I should develop on too.
http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/health_stories/tyzen_cell_phone_app/2012/09/12/474079.html

Trouble sleeping? Perhaps that clutter is the problem.

From time to time I work with insomniacs. Generally they are at the end of their tether, drugs based remedies have either failed or are causing side effects and at last they reach out for the "weird" solution of hypnosis.

By this time the problem is often deeply embedded and multi-faceted. The clients body clock is out of whack, they use stimulants during the day to stay alert because they have had little sleep the night before. relationships are often strained because of the poor sleeping patterns and depression may have set in too.

Where do you start?

Simple things first;

• Cut out all the caffeine (gradually) so that's tea, coffee, cola, Red Bull and similar drinks
• Check your diet; a poor diet won't help. Make it fresh and varied
• Consider taking a multi-vitamin tablet and cod liver oil supplement (there are vegan alternatives too)
• Go to bed early! Go to bed early! Go to bed early! Yes 10pm at the latest.
• Set the alarm clock for 7am and get up when it goes off. Regardless of how little sleep you may think you have had.
• Drink plenty of water throughout the day (or fruit juice) stay well hydrated. It will tend to lower overall anxiety
• If you can't sleep in the middle of the night get up and do something useful away from the bedroom for an hour or two (dishes anyone?)
• If your partner is disturbed by your night time excursions, get them ear plugs. That way you won't be fretting about disturbing them.
• Take the TV out of the bedroom. Yes really. The bedroom is for sleeping in. (well some other stuff too)
• Leave the laptop or iPad outside the bedroom, the white light in the screen backlight has been shown to disrupt sleep hormone patterns
• Yes you are allowed a book. Just one to read in bed.

Got unresolved emotional issues too? Get them dealt with!

Now one last thing...remove any clutter or unfinished work from the bedroom.

Why?

Because it can act as a visual trigger to the unconscious mind. A reminder that "I must get that done" and that will set mental processes running that are likely to stop you getting to sleep.

In my experience there is no really fast remedy for insomnia. It is a process of following the right steps consistently over time but most of my clients have responded well within 6 to 7 weeks of adopting this approach. Try it for yourself.

PS You could also buy this CD from my web site; that'll help too.

Sleep Easy my guide journey to sleep CD

"Stress admissions to hospital jump"

This was one of the stories in UK newspaper The Daily Mail.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2201469/Hospital-admissions-stress-jump-7-just-year--men-treated-women.html

Given the enormous changes taking place in the UK this probably should not be a surprise. For many people in work, more is expected of them and with wages stagnant or falling they get less in return.

The deal struck over the last four decades of rising prosperity in exchange for flexible, knowledge based working has been broken. When a computer programmer in India will work for £420 per month and a UK employee might cost £2250 per month (or more) it's not difficult to see how jobs can move country.

The fear of losing one's income is real; it has physical effects. If you read the article you'll see a comment from a person who had a hole in their oesophagus created by an excess of stomach acid in turn caused by stress.

The economic model we follow today is deeply flawed. Most of us want to live a fulfilled life where work is one component of that life not THE component.

Take time to look around you today and think about what you really need. Will new wallpaper make you happy. Is a new larger TV really going to be fulfilling.

It's time to reassess what is important and what is necessary; compared to what is trivial and possibly even health threatening.

How little does it cost to buy a change in Government policy?

Less than you think apparently.

Take a look at this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2200465/Education-Secretary-Gove-accused-conflict-school-meals-party-accepts-50-000-Dominos-Pizza.html

If this story is to be believed, Michael Gove may have 'adjusted' the guidance given to allow schools to set their own nutrition standards rather than having them dictated from central Government. (Which in turn allows the school to use cheap outside catering.)

All this after accepting a 'donation' from a major shareholder in Domino Pizza UK to help run his constituency office. (I thought we the tax payer covered that?).

Of course it's just possible that none of this is connected. It's possible that it's just a coincidence. It's probably just a coincidence that Domino Pizza is a major player in the school catering market in the USA.

None of this would matter if food were not important; but it is important.

A lack of vitamins and nutrients combined with too much stress and caffeine leads to anxiety. I see this in my work regularly. The first step to anxiety reduction (in my view) is to check on the quality of the client's diet. Frequently it's terrible.

Frequently the client has already been through the medical mill of anti-depressants or beta blocker drugs to get through things. Normally these have little or no real effect.

So now we risk doing the same thing to our children that has happened in the USA. Give them an unbalanced diet, put them under stress and then wait for them to drop into the medical system to be fixed/screwed up further.

So how much did it cost? Just £49,541.25, unless it was just a coincidence of course.

Fading summer flowers

Even the insects know that Summer is fast fading and now is the time to collect what you can.

With Autumn storms already on the East coast of the USA, I think days like this will be rare in the next few weeks.
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Autumn brings change

Do you feel it in the air? Autumn. A change happening all around you.

As John Keats said, it is the "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness"

I love the cooler morning that lifts a gentle mist from the river and changes the light from the morning sun to something diffuse and mysterious.

 
In the Charles Dickens novel Bleak House he wrote;

Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards, and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats. Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides of their wards; fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper, down in his close cabin; fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little ’prentice boy on deck. Chance people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog all round them, as if they were up in a balloon, and hanging in the misty clouds.

And so as the weather changes we change too. We withdraw more to the home, reflect more on things done and not done in this year. We think about the colder weather ahead and perhaps towards celebrations like Christmas.

We might also think about the fruits of our labour too. Just as the hedgerow plants are loaded down with fruit so to are our efforts yielding their rewards.

So though we may be saddened by the passing of summer, now is the time for you to realise your rewards for the work put in during the spring and the summer of the year.

What will you put by for winter? What experience will you hold close to your heart to keep you warm through the winter? Truly autumn is a time for personal reflection.

Falling into a slump...finding a way out

It's easy, so easy. When life is beyond tough, whether you are in work or not; it can be tough to stay motivated on your goals. It's easy to fall into a slump.

A slump; a lethargy, an inability to see clearly to the horizon, all your focus on the near term.

It can get to all of us. Sometimes it's just for a few minutes or hours, sometimes it's for weeks or months and it can morph into a long term depression.

But often it can be as simple to change as having someone else provide an outside perspective on what is good in your life. You may think you know the good and bad things in your life but often as exterior view provides the perspective that we lack.

So if you find yourself to be in a slump, talk to a mentor or friend or counselor and see if a new perspective can shake you from the slump.

A world city

I spent most of Yesterday in London; now often referred to as a world city.

It's not difficult to understand why it should have attracted this name when you visit London. Simply travelling on the tube network one hears voices and languages from many nations. Walking past a building sight you may hear Polish, or Swahili or French or..well you get the idea.

The fine buildings, the bustle of people, the frantic activity of travellers stuffing themselves (me included) onto crowded underground train carriages all seem to indicate a vibrate economy rich in colour and culture. It is invigorating, uplifting and wearing all at the same time. It's not hard to understand how some people would live nowhere else.

I had the opportunity to view parts of London from one of the towers at Canary Wharf. The views presented were stunning and the photograph here hardly does them justice.

And yet, at the end of a busy day in London it was the fields of recently cropped wheat seen through a train window that lifted my spirits the most. As I travelled west, the warm colours of the evening sun lent a golden glow to fields of grass and stubble alike. It was the sense of space opening up and a view towards the horizon that restored my sense of calm.

So like all things, balance seems to be key to a healthy mind. From busy to quiet, from grey to colour, from noisy to peaceful.  Balance is all.

What will you do when you reach 30 or 40 or 50

I remember very well when I was 18 years old being utterly incapable of imagining what I would be like when I reached the age of 30.

I think like many 18 year olds I thought life would be almost over by the time I reached that milestone. All I knew was that I wanted to be a millionaire by then and 12 years seemed like more than enough time to make that happen.

In spite of my best efforts, I was not a millionaire by 30 (nor even now) but my life was very different to that lived by my naïve 18 year old self.

We tend to use these decade marker years as times for reflection and a life assessment. But why wait?

As I approach the 50 marker I'm getting the life appraisal in early. What have I done well? What have I achieved or given? What do I still wish to do?

If you are 28 (or 38) what did you say you would do by the time you were 30 (or 40)? Has it happened? Will it happen?

Get your decade based life appraisal in early and make some fundamental, positive shifts in your life now.

Why wait? Take action today and start doing what you said you would have done.

Have fun with it and shake up others people's perceptions of who you are too.
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Sometimes tools can help you perform better

If you want to make changes in your life you'll want all the help you can get.

There is a lot of help available out there. From personal coaches and trainer to gadgets and gizmos that promise to make life easier than ever.

Today I'll pass over the personal therapy stuff and tell you about just one tool that I use everyday to make me more effective in the areas I choose to work.

Note taking/Scrapbooking on your computer

How often do you find an article on a web site and bookmark to read later or keep for the information only to be unable to find it after the event?

Perhaps you have meetings with people and collect their business card only to be unable to find the card at the time you need it. This used to happen to me too. Then I found a program called Evernote.

Evernote is a web based program that also work locally on your PC or smartphone. It allows you to clip text or pictures from web pages and add useful tags to the data. It can also store documents in PDF and pictures in JPG formats also with tags.

Now so far, so dull. So what you may say, I've got notebooks and a photo album big deal.

Imagine now that you meet a new contact for the first time, you exchange business cards. Now instead of slipping the card into your wallet or purse you take a picture of it and email it to your Evernote account. You tag it with words related to the situation, perhaps location, nature of business or product, who introduced you and more if you choose.

Search by tags

Now all that information is sent to your Evernote account and is searchable by the tags. You can choose to send it to a notebook within your account by adding @notebookname to the subject line. Tags are added by use #tagword.

At first nothing much changes about how you work but gradually you generate a bigger database of data and finding those elusive bits of information gets much easier. You can search by tag, by word, by date or even by using Optical character recognition that Evernote has built in.

Reads handwriting

Now things get even more interesting, you may have made some notes during the meeting. Take a picture of the notes and send it to Evernote. Use tags to define it. Evernote search will even try to recognise the words you write longhand (and generally does a pretty good job).

There are hundreds of uses for Evernote  but here are some that I find useful almost everyday.

Take a picture of every business card you collect. Tag it and send it to Evernote.

Do your children make lots of lovely drawing that you hate to throw away (but that clutter the home)? No problem. Use the @ function to send a picture from your smartphone to an Evernote notebook tagged with the child's name. (Make sure you download the Evernote application to your phone too. It sometimes slow to load because of local data rates but it can be a real life saver when you need THAT bit of information.)

Use it to store login names/passwords for your accounts (Evernote data is encrypted). Be careful about this on a shared PC though.

Clip articles, recipes, holiday locations and more by using the web clipper function that integrates with Firefox and Chrome web browser. Clip the whole page or just the selected text and tag it as you do so.

Use it as an area to store your daily todo list.

Use it to store important PDF documents that you need to refer to wherever you happen to be.

Create a notebook and call it "things I want". Next time you see that certain something on Amazon or elsewhere, tag it and send it the Evernote notebook.

Use it to collect information on articles or blog posts you want to write. Goodbye shoebox of clippings.

Photograph your store receipts and fuel purchase receipts to make expense claims and money tracking much easier.

Upload important travel documents before you go. (Evernote can be accessed by an computer with a web browser.)

Take a picture of your passport and you'll always have it available on Evernote should the actual item be lost or stolen.

Store and tag inspiring quotes for the next time you have to give a talk or wedding speech.

Share a notebook securely with a co-worker so that you can work collaboratively online.

 Make audio visual notes by using the Web Cam facility.

Record audio notes from your smart phone and upload to Evernote.

If you have GPS on your smartphone notes can be sorted by latitude and longitude. Would that be useful to budding Estate Agents and Letting Agents?

User the Ink note feature to sketch and idea on screen  and then email the note to a fellow worker or friend.

Notes can be easily shared with others by email. Genius for those who work with others whose memory is not as good as yours. (or perhaps they have never heard of Evernote)

The basic version of Evernote is free with a maximum monthly upload limit but there is a paid for version too that allows more data and a wider variety of document types to be uploaded.

I have no doubt you'll find your own fantastic ways to use Evernote. Why note share them here as a comment?

Start the week differently

Do this on the night before your new work week or early in the morning of the first day.

Grab a  fresh sheet of paper (A4/Letter or larger).

Turn it sideways (landscape).

Now just start writing any tasks that need to be done in the coming week.

Don't bother to try and prioritise work over home life or near term over long term goals; just get them down on the page.

Write it with a pen, not computer, it just works better.

Once the first flurry of activities are down, sit back take a breather. Trawl back through your mind for any other tasks. (Not aspirations like I want to be a successful dancer, just simple solid tasks.)

Done? OK.

Now work through the list.

Strike things through when you have done them.

Put a tick by them if you started but could not complete (perhaps you needed input from someone else.)

When you are wondering what to do next in your day, refer to the list.

At the end of the day check to see if any tasks carry forward to the next day, start a new sheet of paper.

If you don't have a work system you use today, I guarantee this will double your effectiveness.

If you already use a system perhaps the simplicity of this method will make you even more effective.

I don't have a name for this method; perhaps you can invent one and let me know.

Blogging has been rather light

I suppose it's true for nearly everyone, the best of intentions can be pushed aside by other events.

As a sage somewhere once said "Life is what happens while you're busy planning what will happen next".

And so it goes...

Me challenging myself!

How ever I'm setting myself a new challenge, a blog post a day for 30 days (or more). let's see how it goes.

Rainbow-relaxation hypnotic recording for you to listen to

Rainbow-relaxation

Here is track that will have you relaxing deeply in no time at all.
Please let me know how you get on with it!

Alcohol-moderation2012-Free Hypnotherapy audio

Alcohol-moderation2012

I created this hypnotherapy track a while ago for those people who would like to moderate their alcohol intake rather than stop completely.

Clicking on the link will take you to the Soundcloud player page.

I have recently re-edited the track for you to use. Try listen with headphones whilst sat in a comfortable chair.

Use the track daily for 5-7 days and notice what changes you make to your habit.

A summer rainbow

This picture is from Saturday evening when the setting sun coincided with a rain storm to produce a wonderful double rainbow.

The picture hardly does it justice, it was spectacular.

Friday foto - Superwide, hi-res view of Street and Glastonbury Tor

I drove along Collard Hill in Somerset today and stopped to take pictures. Here is the result of 6 pictures being stitched together. You can see the large warehouse roof that belongs to Clarks shoes in Street and of course the famous Glastonbury Tor in the distance.

I wish it had been a little clearer.

Zoom in and enjoy!

Yeovil Saturday night, cinema, closed shops, closed eateries

For a variety of reasons we found ourselves able to take a night out in Yeovil on a Saturday. Fantastic. "Let's go to the cinema" says she. "Great idea" I say, it's been a long time since we went.

A quick check online shows a few films that look interesting. Good.

Taxi to cinema. Chaos inside. Huge queue, ticket desk closed, what the hell is going on? In what is I presume a cost cutting measure, you can buy tickets from the snack desk or the ATM but not at the ticket counter. Not great, but tickets purchased, we rejoin the queue. We are going to see 'Rock of Ages'. I wish I had read the reviews...

If you like stage musicals maybe this is your thing. I thought it was going to be an updated version of Spinal Tap. I was very, very wrong. It's a string of '80s rock tunes (so far so good) held together with some dodgy acting and awful dance scenes. It's the first film I can recall walking out on in a long time; but we did. (The huge queue of people were waiting to see the Westlife tour film. It had to be better than Rock of Ages.)

OK we said, "Lets go eat..."

Where?

Umm..not too many choices in Yeovil town centre actually. OK Let's try the Green Room, we had heard nice things about it. "Table for 2?" I enquire. "Sorry we stop serving at 9pm" (it's 10 minutes  past nine).

Alright, what about Mulberrys say I. Same story. Kitchen closed at 9pm. What a bloody farce. Does nobody want to eat after 9pm? Spanish visitors (notoriously late eaters) to Yeovil must think we are in the dark ages. Even Burger King was closed. As we walked to the taxi rank I took the picture below; it was around 9.30pm.

Yes it's raining but there there was virtually nobody on the streets of Yeovil.

9.30pm Saturday 23rd June, Middle Street, Yeovil AKA Ghost Town

So off to the Indian restaurant then. A decent meal was had at the Mem Saab at the bottom of Silver Street.

Now the question, what is happening to Yeovil? Shops are closing right through Middle Street and into the town centre. The only restaurants that can be bothered/can justify staying open past 9pm on a SATURDAY NIGHT are Chinese or Indian; why?

Have we locals forgotten how to work? Our first taxi driver was Romanian our second was (I think) Polish.

It rather feels like a long and terminal slide into irrelevance and this is coming from someone who chose to live here and has done so for 10 years. It's not good and it's getting worse. Sorry.