The Zen Diarist

Author website of Andrew Marshall

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Archives

  • September 2024
  • May 2024
  • March 2024
  • October 2023
  • May 2023
  • December 2022
  • September 2022
  • July 2022
  • April 2022
  • December 2021
  • October 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • April 2021
  • February 2021
  • December 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015

Categories

  • Awakening Heart
  • Happiness
  • Health
  • Meditation
  • News
  • The Art of Not Doing

Powered by Genesis

  • Welcome
    • Blog
  • Books
    • The Great Little Book of Happiness
    • Awakening Heart
    • The Art of Not Doing
  • About
    • Legal stuff
      • Disclaimer
      • Privacy
      • Copyright
      • Terms
  • Subscribe
  • Contact

Being happy: why we should choose to flick the switch

November 29, 2019 by Andrew Marshall 2 Comments

HappinessBeing happy is really rather good. Have you noticed (well, of course you have) that when we are happy, life seems so much lighter? It is also really rather good to be in the company of people who are lighter in spirit. Lightness can be catching. Unlike winter lurgies, happiness is a wonderful infection to pass on. Feel free to pass on your lightness! Indeed, let’s lift the cloak of gravitas that hangs heavily over so much of life today! We need inspiration, not gloom; but what can we do about it?

Being happy: is it a matter of choice or fortune?

We cannot solve the problems of the world, nor can we necessarily change many of the things that affect us, such as health and living conditions. What we do have control over is how we respond internally . When we are feeling down or serious about life, our internal energy takes a bit of a nosedive. Our emotions are very much affected by our energy or Qi; in turn, our Qi is influenced by our state of mind and our consciousness. This is where choice comes in.

Choose to look on the bright side and sow seeds of happiness

Looking on the bright side is not to be unrealistically optimistic but to realise that good can come out of anything. It really is like turning the light on. I sometimes imagine that there is a switch in the heart energy centre. To throw it from dark mode to light relies simply on intention. The significance of this little mental step is that our energy immediately becomes lighter. Energy follows intent. There is a very deep truth in this. We don’t need to analyse, though; just do it. And who knows? Make it a habit and we could well start off an epidemic.


The Great Little Book of Happiness is filled with tips on what we can do to improve our happiness and sense of wellbeing.

Energy circulation meditation 

If you like this, please share it:

  • Share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Print (Opens in new window) Print

Like this:

Like Loading…

Related posts:

  1. Diet: the Vegans may have landed but don’t lose the feeling
  2. Seeds of happiness – sowing the greatest investment
  3. Be rooted again: how a simple trick enhances life and wellbeing
  4. Seasons and ageing: the life-enhancing secret of Nature

Filed Under: Happiness Tagged With: blame, bliss, cause and effect, chi, consciousness, happiness, health, heart, inner peace, joy, love, loving kindness, qi, truth, unconditional love, wellbeing

Thinking too much? Why it can make you ill

August 2, 2019 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment

Thinking too much
“Hmm… I should have thought of that.”

Thinking is a good thing, of course. If we didn’t think, we would get nothing done. There would never be any brilliant new ideas and there would be no education. Life would be a series of responses to basic needs and not much else. The ability to assess, calculate and learn is a staggering faculty that we take for granted. It is one of many aspects of a miraculous state called consciousness, though certainly not the only one. Thinking intelligently is a great gift, but most of us – and I most certainly include myself in this – suffer from unintelligent thinking. It is this that has the potential to make us ill.

Thinking without thinking

More than ever, there is a pressure in society to have an opinion on just about anything at all. It is so important, that corporations spend billions of pounds every year on ensuring that we do. Addiction to social media guarantees that at any given moment millions of people are expressing their opinions on this that or the other. Click Like if you agree. (No, please don’t – that was a joke.) The end result is that our minds are constantly active on things that don’t really matter. So how can this affect our health?

Too much focus can easily create tension

Energy flow

For good health, we need vitality. For that, our energy needs to flow easily through the body. When the flow of energy is blocked or restricted for any length of time, discomfort can build up, eventually leading to illness. We know if we are too sedentary or eat unwisely, there can be a negative impact on the body. But probably we don’t consider the effects on the body of our thinking.

Awareness, not thinking

The fact is that all our mental responses affect our energy circulation in some way. In short, too much thinking creates tension that interrupts the free flow of energy. Yet the nature of consciousness is not to be in a constant state of activity – it is to be aware. It really does pay to stop sometimes. Stop thinking and just be aware. It’s a treat for the body and a boon for the mind. Oddly, it’s great for our health, too.


How we can reduce unnecessary thinking is explored in my third book The Art of Not Doing. Available in print and on Kindle.

If you like this, please share it:

  • Share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Print (Opens in new window) Print

Like this:

Like Loading…

Related posts:

  1. Clarity: why it’s a vital antidote to this mad world
  2. Action: Why everything you do and say is more important than you think
  3. Mortality: why our own impermanence is such a wonderful gift
  4. Time: why keeping an eye on the clock shortens your life

Filed Under: The Art of Not Doing Tagged With: ageing, blame, body, business, cause and effect, consciousness, ego, emptiness, happiness, inner peace, letting go, loving kindness, meditation, mindfulness, positive thought, tai chi, thinking, wellbeing, wisdom

Feeling stressed by Christmas? It’s largely a matter of choice

December 15, 2018 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment


Feeling stressed at Christmas Feeling stressed is extremely unpleasant. It turns our body into a state of high alert. With no enemy to run from or fight, we can be anxious, miserable, tetchy, depressed, excited, tired and unable to think clearly, all within a very short space of time. It’s a very messy state of affairs. If we were able to see the effects on our energy, and consequently the body, we might be… well, even more worried. So why for so many of us does the approach of Christmas and its season, which should be happy and joyful, result in us feeling stressed? And is there anything we can do about it?

Feeling stressed is caused by one major mistake

In spite of knowing deep down that nothing is what it seems, the human race has a collective amnesia. We have forgotten who we really are. So instead of seeing things, and indeed ourselves, in their natural state, our foggy minds make it all up. Imagining situations as real, we continually respond to everything we see and hear. It’s like being in a never-ending dream – and it’s exhausting.

Coffee feeling stressed

The remedy can be summed up in one word

Stop. That’s all we need to do. There may seem to be a million and one things we have to do but that’s part of the dream. Stopping enables us to have a lucid moment and realise that we have created an enormous, and very convincing, illusion. But with this new-found clarity, we see there is no urgency to respond to everything that appears in front of us after all. Now we have choice. When we learn to stop for a few moments and be still, we allow our natural peace to take over for a while. Then it’s easier to make the right choices, and finally bring an end to feeling stressed.


The importance of stopping and how it can give us a clear mind is explained fully in The Art of Not Doing

Free guided meditations

If you like this, please share it:

  • Share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Print (Opens in new window) Print

Like this:

Like Loading…

Related posts:

  1. Motivation: how using Nature’s power can change your life
  2. Time: why keeping an eye on the clock shortens your life
  3. Action: Why everything you do and say is more important than you think
  4. Mortality: why our own impermanence is such a wonderful gift

Filed Under: The Art of Not Doing Tagged With: cause and effect, choice, Christmas, consciousness, emptiness, guilt, happiness, inner peace, karma, peace, self-realisation, spirituality, stress, wellbeing

Mortality: why our own impermanence is such a wonderful gift

November 30, 2018 by Andrew Marshall 1 Comment

Mortality wealthMortality or immortality? Given the choice, which would you choose? Those who regularly buy lottery tickets dreaming of untold riches might think living forever would be the most fabulous gift of all. Provided the money didn’t run out, of course. That view might change as the body begins to creak and groan. Nevertheless, certain events in life can – and should – make us reflect on our own temporality. Such thoughts are not always happy, hence the burgeoning market for anti-ageing serums, Botox and the like. But perhaps mortality is not something to fear and could bring a sense of freedom, even joy.

No end, no beginning

When a tree dies, we know that all the materials that made that tree simply change into something else. There isn’t an end, just change. In fact, it’s very hard to say when the tree began. Was it when the seed sprouted, or the seed itself – perhaps the flower of the mother tree? It’s the same with us. The chain of events that led to our appearance is without beginning. Remove one ancestor from any generation and we would cease to be.

Mortality ancestorEmbracing mortality can be a blissful release

Instead of resisting life’s natural flow, we can embrace the ephemeral nature of life. That doesn’t mean simply accepting the obvious fact that one day we are going to die. Rather, it involves understanding that our appearance on this Earth, and that is what life is, is a miraculous product of constantly changing conditions. Our body didn’t suddenly materialise out of thin air. There are causes which put it together, maintain it and change its form. That’s all mortality is – impermanence of form. Not only that, our body is made entirely of recycled material. It is actually recycling all the time and the body we had in our youth simply doesn’t exist anymore. That’s pretty amazing. Don’t resist the changing face in the mirror. It’s meant to change. Cheers!


See more in The Art of Not Doing

Free guided meditations

If you like this, please share it:

  • Share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Print (Opens in new window) Print

Like this:

Like Loading…

Related posts:

  1. Losing those we love, and the search for constancy
  2. Seasons and ageing: the life-enhancing secret of Nature
  3. Thinking too much? Why it can make you ill
  4. Change is brilliant, no matter how bad it is – possibly

Filed Under: The Art of Not Doing Tagged With: ageing, aging, attachment, body, cause and effect, consciousness, death, fate, happiness, inner peace, joy, karma, letting go, rejuvenation, self-liberation, wellbeing, youthfulness, zen

Home improvements that strike at our essence

September 1, 2018 by Andrew Marshall Leave a Comment

Home with love

It is so fundamentally important to the spiritual, mental and emotional well-being, as well as the physical health, of the human race that each and every home is filled with love. It doesn’t matter if we live on our own or in a household of many. If love is absent, the home is not a healthy one. Although that is obvious, or should be, it may not be at the forefront of most people’s minds that the greater the love is where we live, the healthier it will be for everyone within it. This love isn’t something that we reserve for our nearest and dearest; it is love for the whole of one’s home environment.

Home should be a sanctuary

If there is love for the home, we have a deep respect for it and, most importantly, for everyone who steps into it. Our dwelling place should be one of sanctity and a refuge from the bustle of the outside world. We should feel happy and blessed as soon as we enter. To help with this, we can bless the house, not in a form of words necessarily. It can simply be from a level of feeling, which may be a mixture of gratitude and an intention of goodness.

Raising the energy of our home

By doing so we immediately uplift our surroundings. At some level everyone who enters receives a positive effect from the general energy of the place. Whether we live in a grand house with beautiful gardens or in an apartment or bedsit is immaterial. If every home on our planet were filled with warmth, joy and happiness, if every single dwelling radiated love and generosity of spirit, wouldn’t the world be an amazing place? Forget home improvements, just do the one improvement that fills it from the heart. The jobs and the gadgets can wait.


From Awakening Heart, the Blissful Path to Self Realisation available here

Our next evening workshop Beginning to See Light is on Monday 17th September 2018 at Wolseley Bridge, Staffordshire. Only a few places left. More details.

If you like this, please share it:

  • Share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Print (Opens in new window) Print

Like this:

Like Loading…

Related posts:

  1. Home: four reasons why love in the home is crucial to your health
  2. Radiance and the energy effect: why we all need it
  3. Attachment or love? Why we have to let go
  4. Love: why cosmic glue stops us falling apart

Filed Under: Awakening Heart Tagged With: energy, family, happiness, health, home, inner peace, joy, kindness, love, self-realisation, wellbeing, world peace

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • …
  • 8
  • Next Page »
Loading Comments...
%d