On Saturday 15th December 2012, I sat alone in my apartment and chanted for the very first time. I had been having great conversations about the practice with a good friend who had started it a couple of months before that, but as a cynical atheist I was more interested in the philosophical debate than […]
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How to Deal with Negative People in Five Easy Steps
A few years ago, there was a guy in my life. I won’t go into the boring (and ultimately irrelevant) details of what happened, but suffice to say he was not a good guy. It took me a while to realise that, though, as he had enough charm and wit to get under my skin, […]
A Return From Recess
The other day I was sitting on the beach here on Koh Lanta, my home away from home again this winter, watching this serenely beautiful sunset. I was thinking about someone, a person in my life whom I have come to love beyond measure.
A New Year: Reflections and Hope
Well, 2016 has been a real humdinger of a year, amiright?! On a global level, it has sometimes felt like the world is collapsing around us. We’ve lost so many incredible artists and global icons. We’ve witnessed political calamities unfolding like Brexit and the election of Trump. In public commentary, behaviour and voting patterns we’ve […]
21 Quotes From “Conversations With God”
Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations With God is one of my favourite books of all time, and one that resonated deeply with me when I first started getting into all this spiritual malarkey. The book is written as a dialogue between Walsch and “God”, after Walsch claimed to hear a response to his desperate plea for answers during a […]
5 Ways To Focus Your Mind While Chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo
As spiritual practice goes, chanting is a relatively easy option. It can be challenging to quiet your mind and release stray thoughts during silent meditation. It can be difficult to bring a sense of mindfulness to every moment, especially the difficult ones. With chanting, however, all you really need to do is say the words. Out loud, regularly […]
New Year’s Resolution: Put Your Self First
You might have noticed that all has been quiet on the Happy Chanter front for the last couple of weeks. My excuse for that comes in the form of my lovely friend Emily who came to visit for the holiday season, kicked up a party storm on the island, and left a series of hangovers in […]