Do you think you stand up for yourself? What does that actually mean? It is often said that we dictate how others treat us. In psychology terms, this is referred to as Personal Boundaries. If someone is a doormat, they will have “weak boundaries”. What this suggests, is that you are likely to a pleasant and amiable person, who is somewhat underdeveloped in the area of “pushing back” against...

Have you just come back from a holiday? Are you suffering from post holiday blues? They say all good things come to an end and never has this been truer than in the case of holidays. However long you take off it never quite feels like enough. One day you are relaxing on the beach feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin and enjoying swimming in the sea. You have no care in the world other than what cocktail...

I came across the Top 10 Most Ridiculous Laws from Around the World and it got me thinking about rules in general. Are rules devised to control the behaviour of each individual? What are the incentives to comply with the rules? There are legal rules that we have to follow otherwise we are breaking the law and there are concrete consequences for that. Then there are general societal laws that are far more subjective...

Do you work with a difficult boss? Is your boss making your life miserable at work? Have you tried to address certain issues to no avail? Has the time come to escalate matters and talk to their boss or HR? These conversations are never easy and can cause anxiety so here are a few ideas to try to minimise your distress. Before engaging in this type of conversation, ask yourself the following: – ...

Are you stressed at work? Do you feel strained, anxious, worried and tense? These are just other ways of referring to stress. They all represent negative emotional states that are detrimental to your well being and it is important to know some preventative measures to manage them. Attitudes and emotions can be contagious and the better you control your own levels of stress, the better others will react to you...

Do you work with someone with an oversized ego? Chances are we have all come across at least one or two people with massive egos. It can be very difficult to work with someone like this. The question is, how do you know it’s an ego problem in the first place? The answer is that you can’t know for sure. The competitive nature of the work place can lead to people looking out for themselves. You could just...

Have you ever lost your temper? Or said something in a moment of anger, which you later regretted? There’s nothing wrong with feeling strong emotions, yet there are plenty of negative emotions that we may wish to control. I am an avid scuba diver and it has recently occurred to me that the basic principles of diving can apply to life and be used to control negative feelings and unpleasant situations. SCUBA...

Most languages and cultures have a grammatical use for past and future tenses, yesterday and tomorrow. Many brilliant scientific minds such as Galileo, Newton, Einstein and Stephen Hawking have studied time. Fascination with time and time travel has also been the inspiration of innumerable fiction books and films. So what exactly is time and what is it good for? Einstein stated that time was simply what a clock...

It is all too easy to get bogged down in the day to day things in our lives and we often forget to take a step back and think about what is really important to us. We are faced with challenges every day. Just remember, you are the PAINTER of your own life. You can design it however you chose to. Here are seven common items (one for each day of the week) you may wish to include in your Daily Survival Kit. Try...