Archive | Life columns & features 14-15

I HAVE a spiritual teacher in India. This year, when I was with him at his ashram, I sought a private audience to discuss my concerns. Continue Reading →

I RECENTLY travelled to Nepal with my spiritual teacher, a man known as Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Not the musician – Shankar is a common name in India – rather, a famous teacher or “guru” who was a disciple of the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (guru to The Beatles, and founder of the Transcendental Meditation movement). Continue Reading →

IT’S all too wonderful. Scientists in the US and ­Britain are working on a brain implant that will stimulate pleasure centres, according to an authority on Ayurvedic and complementary medicine and surgery, Robert Svoboda, speaking in Sydney as part of an ­annual conference run by the AYA association (Ayurveda Yoga Australia). Continue Reading →

I MET a man during my recent spiritual journey through Asia and Nepal, who shared a surprising story. He was married for 25 years. He and his wife loved each other deeply. A few years ago doctors diagnosed him with heart disease and told him he had to dramatically change his lifestyle. Continue Reading →

IN the wake of Charlotte Dawson’s suicide, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s drug overdose and with Michael Hutchence’s death again on our minds, many people are wondering why and how. “But he/she was so talented and beautiful …” Continue Reading →

TO many, the term “Conscious Uncoupling” sounds like a huge pile of psychobabble mixed with deluded New Age naivety. It left most media people and couples therapists shaking their heads when Gwyneth Paltrow used it to describe what she and her soon-to-be-ex-­husband Chris Martin were doing. Continue Reading →

IT’S been confirmed. We don’t just go to work to make money, we need satisfaction. Gallup research has shown that there’s a strong link between corporations’ success and staff happiness levels. Lost productivity due to employee disengagement costs more than $300 billion a year in the US. Continue Reading →

Bette Midler used to sing a song I loved: “You’ve got to have friends…” which we all sang along to as teen­agers, surrounded by lots of buddies. Continue Reading →

My teenage daughter recently went to what marketers described as a “Hippy Festival”. What is a modern-day hippy festival? I asked her. Continue Reading →

I NEARLY killed a young woman the other day. It was her lack of foresight but I can’t get over the shock of it. Continue Reading →