Bridget McNulty

Something more.

// January 16th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Inspiration, Life (and the living of it), Love

Now, obviously it’s because I’m reading Eckhart Tolle’s ‘A New Earth’ (subtitle: awakening to your life’s purpose) but I’ve been thinking a lot, this week, about our grander purpose in life.

I suppose because we were all on holiday, and now we’re back and? Is this all? Work all week and hang out with friends and in nature on the weekend? It’s lovely, don’t get me wrong, and I love what I do with my everydays, I think I’m so extraordinarily lucky to be able to fill them pretty much as I please.

But shouldn’t there be Something More?

And not even something more like a goal to be reached, because I’ve got that too! My novel is being published in the USA in May, I’ve written a rough draft of my new novel, I’m filling my days with purpose. But. I can’t shake the feeling that that’s not really why we’re here. Surely there has to be something deeper? Tolle said something that really struck a chord with me about how who we are is not our function. I may be a writer, but that’s not who I am. Who I am is something far greater, and wider, and deeper.

And all I can come up with is that we are here to become Who We Really Are, to live our best selves, to continuously challenge ourselves to be more and more loving.

What do you think? Too heavy for a Friday morning?!

Nose to the grindstone.

// December 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // Blogs, Life (and the living of it)

Yip, that’s me. A mere few hours away from finishing all my work for the year and hooo-boy am I grumpy! I’m just so sick of working. Ready to be on holiday. Lying in my hammock reading a book. Waking up late. Not thinking about work.

And much as I know the grumps are caused by a resistance to the work at hand, and that if I could change my attitude it would all be much easier, it doesn’t seem to help.

I. am. tired. of. working.

It’s been a long year. Seems to be everyone’s chant at the moment, doesn’t it?
I’ll report back when I’m on the other side of this cement mountain.

In the meantime, check out 1000 Tiny Things I Hate (http://tinythingsihate.blogspot.com/) – one of the only things that can make me laugh when I’ve got the grumps!

Sick day -

// November 4th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Decisions

Ah, foolish me!
I thought I could work myself nonstop and not get sick… And then I thought that I could keep going even when I didn’t feel that well, and not get worse.

Today I’m rectifying all that – with a sick day. A lying-down-all-day day. A Seinfeld watching day. A no-brain day. And let’s hope tomorrow the fog has cleared and I feel well again!

Sleep, glorious sleep…

// November 3rd, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Life (and the living of it), Time

My mom always said that sleep is the greatest healer, and I have to admit I agree with her…

These past few weeks, while I’ve been working myself to the bone to finish my deadline on time, I was amazed, pretty much every night, how I’d go to bed feeling exhausted and depleted, and wake up full of beans again (except not really beans, because I despise beans).

Sleep really is the most wonderful gift, isn’t it? No matter how tired / sick / grumpy you are, a good sleep is guaranteed to help. So in the two or three days since I handed in my deadline (hooray!) I’ve been trying to get as much of this wonder drug as possible… Can there be anything better than a late afternoon nap? A doze in a hammock? A slipping-into-sleep while lying in the lap of someone you love?

I’ve always felt that human beings putting themselves to bed is a marvelous thing. We’re so mean to ourselves all day – we work too hard, we poison ourselves with junk food and alcohol and cigarettes and medication, we don’t exercise, we get too stressed – but then, at the end of the day, we put ourselves into comfortable clothing, pull back the sheets and tuck ourselves in. And that is something pretty special, I think.

Here’s wishing you a wonderous night’s sleep tonight (or a nap this afternoon if you should be so lucky!) and promising to be a more regular blogging buddy now that the madness has passed!

I haven’t disappeared completely!

// October 30th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Inspiration

I’m just slowly slowly working through this giant deadline. But it’s due tomorrow! So I’ll be back then, to talk about life, and love, and everything else.

Till then, a quote from Esther and Jerry Hicks (www.abraham-hicks.com)

This is always true: What I think and how I feel, and what manifests, is always a vibrational match. But here’s the big kicker: What manifests isn’t manifesting instantaneously. So, you’ve got all this buffer of time leeway that makes you sloppy… If you thought a negative thought and a brick would instantly fall on your head every time, you’d clean up your thinking. But you’re not here to be punished about your thinking. You’re here to use your thinking—and your focus—to create.

Celebrate good times!

// October 26th, 2008 // No Comments » // Laughter, Life (and the living of it)

It was my man’s 30th birthday on Friday and we had a huuge (and wonderful!) party.

It was a great big gathering of all his favourite people in a super-cheesy club with the most amazing 80s music (courtesy of the Wedding DJs) and a 70s Sweat theme. Everyone dressed up, everyone danced their feet off, everyone let loose. And as we danced (and danced and danced and danced) and sang along to fun tunes, and laughed and drank and revelled, I couldn’t help thinking how amazing it was for everyone to be celebrating together. Nobody was thinking about work, or about how they looked (because everyone looked crazy dumb) and everyone was just having fun.

Fun! Remember that?

I think so often we’re so busy being busy we forget to let loose and enjoy ourselves… to celebrate life, and love, and the people we love. To have a little fun.

A worthy goal for this week, no? Especially seeing as everyone seems to have kicked into end-of-the-year stress a little early!

Productivity mode…

// October 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // Blogs, Life (and the living of it), Time

I woke up early this morning. Although I usually LOVE my sleep, and feel far better when I’ve had my 9 hours (yip, nine whole hours, I know!) this has been a remarkably productive morning.

I had 8 things to do on my To Do List. I’ve done 6 of them, and it’s not yet 11am! Truly, this is remarkable. Take my word for it.

It’s just that it’s so easy not to use time wisely, isn’t it? To linger over emails, read a blog or two, stare out the window and think about what’s for lunch… But sometimes the most delicious thing to do is just put your head down and Get Things Done.

I’ll report back on what I’ve been getting done next week – it is SO exciting!
For now? I have 2 more things on my pre-lunch list

How far have you come in a year?

// October 8th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Decisions, Diabetes, Life (and the living of it)

I was chatting to my dearest best friend yesterday about maturing (over tea, after a walk on the beach – this is why I love Durban!)
We both decided that sometimes it’s easier to see from the outside – that you grow into a different person in such small increments that sometimes you don’t really notice until you look back a year (or six months, or a couple of weeks!) and realise that your decision-making process has changed… It might look, to others, like we’ve matured rather quickly, but actually it’s been a daily process, a slow but steady growth into someone new.

I love this! I think life would be a dull and stagnant thing if we weren’t always changing. But I also think we don’t give ourselves enough credit for it.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, because I’m nearing my One Year Anniversary of Diabetes Diagnosis (on Sunday). So this time a year ago I was lying in my cottage, desperately ill, not having the strength or mental clarity to get to a doctor, mood swinging dangerously and looking like a skeleton. Not fun! And obviously part of my journey this year has been getting healthy, and adjusting to insulin injections, and being constantly aware of my blood sugar.
But when I look back on my year that’s not what I see.

I see someone who was so focused out that she couldn’t focus in. Someone who had to learn to recognise that life isn’t about doing things, it’s about how you feel as you do them – that it’s not about people applauding you, it’s about the quality of your every days. When I look back a year I see someone who was so stressed out she couldn’t appreciate how lucky she was. Someone who needed to learn to listen to her heart – even if her heart was saying, “Just stop! Slow down! Read!”

It’s not the easiest thing, this change. Especially not when we’ve been doing things a certain way for years, and realise that it’s time to shift. But we are changing – in small and beautiful ways, all the time – and I think it’s a helpful (and potentially inspiring) question to ask:
How far have you come in a year?

All work and no play?

// September 11th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Inspiration, Laughter, Life (and the living of it)

As you know, I’m a big fan of the ‘more play and not so much work’ philosophy in life.

But what happens when you actually have to work? When there’s a pile of work to be done, and nobody to do it but you? Too often, I think, we forget to take time out, and just put our heads down and plough through the work. Very enterprising, yes. But not very good for the soul.

I’ve been working craaazy hard this week (the pile of work was resembling a mountain!) and I noticed, yesterday, that I was feeling irritable and generally out of sorts. Why? Because I hadn’t given anything back – I wasn’t having any fun, or laughing enough, or relaxing at the end of a busy day… I wasn’t dancing or taking delight in all the wonderful things in my life, because I was too bogged down by work.

When I was younger, I was hooked on this series of books by a woman called SARK (visit her website here – www.planetsark.com ). I’ve grown out of a lot of her work, or perhaps grown INTO it, seeing as I don’t need as many reminders to live a passionate life and be creative as I did when I was writing school exams!
But there’s one quote of hers that has stuck with me for at least ten years… it’s about living a juicy life.

“If we rush around, never look closely, and practice self-denial, we will begin to feel dry and cracked for the lack of sweet wild moments that nourish us and those around us. The name for this is living juicy!”

I love that! When’s the last time you indulged in a sweet, wild moment? Are you living juicy?
Food for thought on a busy Thursday in an altogether busy month!

I’m back!

// September 2nd, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Decisions, Durban, Inspiration, Life (and the living of it), Uncategorized

Apologies for the long and unexplained absence…

I went home to Durban first thing on Wednesday morning (fairly suddenly – I only booked my ticket last weekend) and then once I got there I found I was allergic to my computer. I’ve been working really hard, lately, and I just needed some down time away from email and writing and work work work.

Now, after a wonder-fully nourishing six days with my family, I’m feeling recharged.

It was an interesting trip, not only because I decided last minute, but because (probably for the first time ever) I didn’t try and see everyone and do everything in such a short time. My dad has had troubles with his back, and might need surgery, so I pretty much went home to check on him and my mom, and to spend some happy time with them. Having a focus like that was so wonderful, because it took out all the stress of me trying to see every one of my friends while I was home, and trying to swim in the sea every day, and trying to cram in tea at every single one of my favourite coffee shops. I remember my philosophy teacher saying that trying is one of the most exhausting things we can do – if we can learn to just be, and stop trying all the time, we’ll find we have a lot more energy.

So I spent the week hanging out with my mom – buying shoes, watching movies, drinking tea, and chatting to my dad – over fruit salad and prawn curry and roast beef. I ate some amazing food, caught up with my best friend, had a lovely breakfast with my brother (just the two of us, very special) and went out for dinner with friends that had me laughing till my stomach ached. It was such a good week!
I didn’t do one word of work.

And I was thinking, on the plane home last night, that maybe one of the reasons it was so special and felt so fulfilling was because I knew what I was there for. I was there to spend quality time with my parents, and maybe cheer them up a bit. I wasn’t there to work / swim / catch up with all of my friends / rediscover Durban / go everywhere I love in the city. I was simply there to spend time with the ones I love the most.

Maybe if we could gt this kind of clarity in everyday life it would help us to live clearer, less stressful lives. It would certainly remove the guilt of not getting enough done, or not doing all the things we want to… So here’s my challenge to you – decide what you want out of this sparkling new month of September, and make it specific, and not too complicated. Then, for all the weeks that are to come, focus only on that.

And let me know how it goes!