Hi Everyone 👋 Years ago, I sat here and asked a simple, rather vulnerable question... "What one word describes how you are feeling today?" The replies came rolling in, honest, unfiltered, and unpolished. Pain. Surf, as in the waves, ripples and tsunamis of the ocean. Happy. Blessed. Growth. Truth. Understanding. Joyous. Be. Love. Anticipation. Creative. Thankful. Wonderful. Sad. Complicated. And then there was that one friend who simply said, "He's looking for the word." I tucked those replies away, thinking I'd captured a snapshot of a single moment—a Polaroid of where we all stood on that particular Tuesday. But lately, as I've scrolled back through that old post, I've realised something that rather stopped me in my tracks. The passing of time hasn't changed the words; it has only deepened their resonance. We often tell ourselves that age, experience, and a bit of hard-won wisdom will eventually tidy up our emotional vocabulary. We imagine that one day we'll "graduate" from pain, outgrow sadness, or finally unravel the knot of our own hearts. We think that with enough years behind us, the waves of that ocean (Surf) will settle into a calm, placid lake. But they don't. And I'm not sure they're meant to. And the interesting thing is....We still feel the same way. - Pain hasn't vanished; it has simply become a familiar companion. I know its shape now. I know it will pass, but I also know it will return, and that's alright. - Joyous and Blessed aren't just the bright, fleeting highs of youth anymore. Time has grounded them into something quieter; something that sits in the bones during a quiet morning cuppa or a shared glance across the room with someone who matters. - And Complicated? That might be the most honest word of the lot. Time hasn't simplified life; it has revealed just how tangled our emotions truly are. We are not one word; we are a mosaic of all of them, shifting by the hour. - Time has a curious way of peeling back the layers. It doesn't rewrite our emotional DNA; it simply expands our capacity to sit with the full spectrum. We still cry. We still ache. We still hope. The pages of the calendar turn, the years stack up, but the human heart beats to the same ancient rhythm.

Hi Everyone 👋 I've been working on something for quite a while now. And it began with a question.... What if the way we feel isn't who we are, but simply where our mind happens to be standing right now? Some days we're frightened. Some days we're angry. Sometimes we get caught in wanting, worrying, regret, shame or simply feeling stuck. And then, sometimes, something shifts. We feel acceptance. We become willing. We find a little courage. We experience peace. Maybe even joy. And occasionally, there are those beautiful moments when the mind becomes quiet enough for us to see things differently. I've spent a long time exploring this territory through Traditional Chinese Medicine, behavioural psychology, mindfulness, Buddhist and Daoist philosophy, but also simply through being a human being and walking my own path through life. I've been turning all of this into something practical. A map. Not a map telling you where you should be. A map helping you recognise where you are. And perhaps, more importantly, showing you a way forward. I'm going to share more about it over the next few days. But for now, I'm curious… If you had to describe where your mind has been living lately, what word would you choose? Fear? Anger? Desire? Acceptance? Peace? Joy? Or somewhere in between? With Love ❤️ Always Mark

I'm sad. I watch the world: the relentless push for more, the greed dressed up as progress, the hatred wearing the mask of righteousness. Division everywhere. Between neighbours, between nations, between allies who used to stand together. And even in the spaces that were meant to be healing, spiritual, religious, holistic communities, I see the same fight. Who's right? Who's best? Who's biggest? The marketers have gotten in. The salespeople are running the show. Followers become currency. Truth becomes branding. And the quiet, humble work of actually sitting with ourselves gets drowned out by the noise of who's winning. It makes me wonder: where is the Oneness now? It feels further away than ever. And I can feel myself wanting to fix it. To say the right thing that will wake people up. To write the perfect post that will cut through the fog. But I know that's just my own craving wearing a spiritual mask. The craving for control. The craving to be the one who saves everyone. I can't save anyone. I can barely save myself on most days. So I sit with the sadness. I let it move through me. I don't push it away, and I don't drown in it. I just... hold it. Like a friend who has nowhere else to go. And I remind myself: this sadness is not a sign of failure. It's a sign that I still care. That my heart hasn't hardened. That I haven't bought into the numbness that the world is selling. I can't fix the greed. I can't stop the wars. I can't break the spell of spiritual competition. But I can refuse to play. I can tend my small patch of ground. I can show up here, not as a guru, not as a brand, not as someone with all the answers, but as a guy who is also just fumbling. I can write honestly. I can listen more than I speak. I can stop measuring my worth by the size of my audience. And maybe that quiet refusal is itself a form of resistance. Because the world of greed and division survives on our participation. On our hunger for more, for status, for being "right. When we step out of that game, we're not changing the world overnight. But we're no longer feeding the machine.

On my morning mindfulness walk with YoYo 🐶 I contemplated non attachment

Hi everyone, come along for a mindfulness walk with YoYo and I as we contemplate something new every day. Please remember to leave a like and subscribe, as it's free 🥳 https://youtube.com/shorts/NMEE4jqklBc?feature=share