It’s been over a year and a half since my marriage ended. Twenty months if you want to be precise. In that time there’s been bushfires, a pandemic, I’ve moved house twice, changed jobs, started a business, released three radio singles, two film clips, a video series and an acoustic album (and written over fifty songs). I’m still grieving.

Time and time again, I would seek to understand what the meaning of life was. Searching the recesses of my mind asking myself “Who am I? Why do I operate the way that I do? What is my purpose?”.  The questions may not always look so deep and meaningful they may have been quite negative, more like “why am I such an idiot?” Or “why me?”.   I spend a good portion of my life feeling sorry for myself, blaming my outer circumstances…

I was fourteen or fifteen years old when a doctor recommended that I go to rehab. Back then I had only ever really heard of that for junkies or for old people who lived in parks. I thought that you got locked in a room until you ‘dried out’.  I was in my mid teens and that to me was ridiculous. Yes, I had a drinking problem but I didn’t drink every day (even if I did think about it). I was seventeen when I realised that I was an alcoholic but in my mind my drinking was still normal and my life was manageable (no it wasn’t).  

I think about openness as almost like a prerequisite of a transformation.  Like when you study, some courses just aren't available to you unless you've done a course that's a prerequisite, or you're at a certain level. Openness is kind of like that, in that in order to cultivate transformational personal growth, you really need to be open. If you have a closed mind you might overlook something that is entirely necessary for your next step in transforming your life.

I’ve always been pretty awful at saving and pretty compulsive at spending. Here is how I got in front with my bills and managed to save as a single mum.

I think from memory it started with me getting tired.  Tired isn’t as easy to remember as the pain and once the pain started pain and tired went hand in hand.  I can push past tired. I can push past some levels of pain and I certainly did that. However eventually, working together persistently and over time, the pain and tiredness rendered me useless…

The more we have to do with people, the more likely it is that someone will say something that hurts our feelings, or offends us or upsets us. So how do we get strong enough to not be so hurt?

Caught up in Cranky-ville? Try this technique to break the cycle and find your way back to a more carefree and joyful existence…

Do you find yourself constantly talking about the things that outrage you? Repeating the same story five times to different people, rehashing the drama that’s gotten under your skin, feeding off the outrage that you have inspired in your friends and family? You may just be feeding the beast - an anger addiction.