As Rumi here suggests, there is something beyond division that offers a cause for profound reflection: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing. There is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other” doesn’t make any sense.” (Rumi) When we take a look at what is going on “out there”, none of it all can make any sense when we read those well-known words of Rumi, the 13th century Persian Sufi poet. Let’s take a brief look. It is a scary look for a lot of people right now. People are busily engaged in taking opposite positions, digging themselves almost literally into trenches. They occupy different realities, refusing to listen to each other and simply asserting their own perspective as “the truth”. There is a lack of common ground. Moderation struggles to get a voice and such perspectives can seem like giving in by one side to the other. Politically that is what happens when extremism takes a hold, and in the past that can result in a diktat, one perspective being imposed. As you read this you might even …

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You are probably aware that on 28 February 2026 there was a very rare planetary alignment. It was also the date when the US and Israel launched their attack on Iran, starting another Middle East war with potentially global implications. We could examine all sorts of implications for these events, but necessarily for these posts we keep it to what it might mean for us ourselves in personal development terms. So, what’s really going on? You might for example have been very emotional over the last few weeks. Life might have seemed very challenging in some area. For myself, we had one major storm that blew down our long garden fence, and then quickly another that flooded the Garonne valley region, and then I had a diagnosis of a basal cell carcinoma on my ear necessitating its rapid removal (ouch!). I wonder what if anything came up for you. It’s often interesting to look at how the external world parallels our own at some level. We’re human. What’s really going on? The planetary alignment suggested, some astrologers said, that this is a time for honest self-assessment, where individuals may feel a strong urge to clarify life goals, set boundaries, or transition …

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It’s a question we need to ask, and one we need answers to. Something calls us, and we feel impelled to move forward. At one level we don’t know the destination but at another we already do. Things have happened in our lives such that the status quo is no longer enough. We want to move on, perhaps to change, but what to? There’s an impetus to shift; the resistances to do so come into conflict with the desire for change, but the desire is too great. We feel we have to resolve the contradiction. But where’s it taking us? We know where are we going unconsciously, but not yet consciously. There may be some personal or collective crisis that impels people to question themselves at a fundamental level such as the above. Classic cases abound, like the upheavals of a break-up in a relationship, a sudden and much unwanted bereavement, a realisation that one’s life is going nowhere, a redundancy that wrecks one’s career and leads to a questioning of what one is about, a financial crisis that ploughs right through all one’s cherished dreams, a storm or fire that wrecks one’s home and leaves one destitute, an illness …

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As I’m writing, I’m conscious that a group of monks are making their way on foot from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington DC on a Walk for Peace, promoting peace, compassion and nonviolence. They are walking in subzero conditions and are experiencing enormous challenges. It’s in the context of a world that has seemingly descended into increasing polarisation and division, and the walk makes testimony to the value of holding a different space to that being experienced by many in the world today. That’s the world as we might well perceive it – or not. It’s perhaps worth taking a moment therefore, and pausing, and enter a state of presence and being present, and notice how you feel about these words. Just take a deep breath or two and, with the in-breath, breathe in peace and calm… Notice your breathing… Notice your surroundings… Notice your self in this moment… Notice this moment… Notice your breathing… Notice this present moment… Being present… Being aware… Being very aware. And now come back into this conversation. Where are you now with it? Has it receded a bit? We can just let it go. Peace is just a breath away. It’s not to say …

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You might be wondering if we all need a wake-up call, like we need to wake up and pay attention. We’re living in unprecedented times, where opinions and feelings are polarised and attitudes are fanned by an under-regulated social media. The world feels full of anger and conflict, and anxiety is rife. What we look at, what we think, feel and talk about, we get more of. A bit like the algorithms in social media, our minds feed us more of the same, and it features more in our lives. This can build in us. When we are out of awareness, we more easily get caught up in it, like we don’t see what we’re doing. It’s then a knee-jerk response. Some things happen, there’s a news item, somebody says or does something, and away we go, off on some treadmill. Has this happened for you? These are very difficult times. Humans are doing what they tend to do, fight each other, either verbally or in real time. Or so it can seem. Maybe it is a wake-up call – for us. We need to wake up Those of us who take a spiritual perspective on what is happening can …

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The art of letting go “Let it go” can sound very simple. In a way it is, but there’s a lot more to it, a practice that can yield enormous benefits. Like so much in personal development it needs to be worked on to see the results, but once understood and regularly applied, it can be truly liberating and open us up to far greater calm and contentment in our lives. Let’s look at how you can learn to just drop it. The suggestion is to drop what’s going on for you that you don’t really need. It’s meant in the psychological sense. You might be well attuned to physically holding on to things since obviously dropping them might be damaging. You might therefore get how you might be already well attuned to holding on in psychological terms. It can be costly otherwise. We fear the outcome. It’s a safety habit, since we try to take care of ourselves. So also do we hold on psychologically. The trouble is that it doesn’t always serve us. Holding on to pain and upset You, or I, might have a long-term grievance about how you were treated at work. Maybe you lost your …

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The world seems like it’s becoming very divided, conflict-prone and beset by intractable problems. We see this in international affairs and in our communities. For people who are spiritually aware but also concerned about how they deal with all this and manage their own state, this division and feeling separate and at odds with one another can pose a severe dilemma. We could get out there, be engaged and take a stand on some issue. That might serve some of us, but not necessarily others. Others might struggle to keep their cool and remain calm and centred. Some might shut off from it. In the conflict-ridden world we might observe characteristics like people being separate and divided from one another; absorbed with being right and making others wrong; being adversarial and against others; being in opposite camps; viewing a world where one is black and another white, both figuratively and in reality; inhabiting different polarities; being in a love/hate dichotomy. There can be a lot of anger, it can take up a lot of energy and for the sensitive it can be exhausting. It won’t feel good and yet one can be completely absorbed in it. Hence one may call …

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When you’re feeling up against it and you hear those words, “All is well”, a knee-jerk response might be, “No, it (expletive) isn’t!” Some stuff might be going on in your life, and positive thoughts about how things are can be the last thing on your mind. A reframe might be beyond us. Reality, as we see it, would be telling us otherwise. This reality might be that we’ve suffered some adversity. Serious stuff can come in many guises, financial loss or loss of a loved one, an accident, serious illness, intense worry, depression, you name it. We don’t have far to go to find it. In fact our minds might be conditioned in ego-mode to fear the worst, like it’s a habit. Let’s look at the state of the world. We’re faced with ongoing wars in parts of the globe. Genocide, many believe, has returned to haunt us. Powerful men are taking the law into their own hands, or at least the law as we might perceive it. Populations are facing famine and destruction. Peoples are on the move. Then there’s climate change, and the question that lurks now in many people’s minds is that life as we know …

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