My mission is to help readers live bigger lives. This means growth and development at an intellectual and spiritual level, which can only be done with a solid bedrock of wellness, achieved through self care.
When your mind is tied up with stress, health issues, and exhaustion, there is no space for the creativity you need to expand your thinking.
To consider what your life could be, what you want to achieve and how you want to make your mark on the world, you need mental space, freedom, imagination. These are not qualities that bounce into our lives at will…
I’ve finally caved and written a listicle. It is a long-form listicle, but a listicle all the same. Yes, I still want to maintain the integrity of the blog as a forum for open intellectual discussion. But I found as I was writing that naturally, this particular post emerged as a series of ideas related to a common theme. Realising what I had done with a rapidly descending dread, I accepted my fate and reluctantly numbered each point. I hope you will have an open mind toward a controversial topic in a controversial format: religion.
Why is this relevant now?
A recent poll found approximately…
Every so often I have the spark of an idea which hasn’t yet fully formed into an article or reflection piece. Some ideas (like this one!) are big, broad-stroke conceptual frameworks and others just little thoughts and ‘ponderings’! I am putting these little ideas out in the world in the hope of better understanding where I am close to the mark, or be challenged where I am way off the mark.
On this occasion, I have attempted to broadly conceptualize ‘happiness’. The framework consists of four pillars which are within your control: joy, connection, alignment and growth. All are interconnected…
For years I worked hard to learn a language: French. Until, around a year ago, I concluded that it was, in fact, a redundant effort.
I had heard the classic arguments in favour of learning a language from friends, teachers, and in the media, over and again. All of which no longer seemed to hold true.
I want to outline my thinking on this subject here, as I feel that these arguments in favour of language learning have true value.
The myths of ‘employability’, travel and ‘usefulness’
Most commonly spouted is that having a second language will make you more employable. Yes, on average, most linguists have…
Melanie
I'm behind the blog Whittle Away. My mission is start up conversations about how we can all grow intellectually and spiritually, to live bigger lives.
