Category Archives: Catastrophising

Throwing out our rubbish & garbage

Bins IMG_8805

In many parts of the UK the rubbish/bin collections have changed. Pick up times have been moved from weekly to every other week. So every two weeks we get our rubbish picked up. Outside my door are the two sizes of bins. The small green ones which I pack with rubbish for the weekly pick-ups and the large blue and green bins which will be for the every other two week pick-ups later on in June. It seems a silly topic to blog about.

But its like life. We often have to throw our garbage out. We have to erase and wipe out some part of our own hard drive (our mind) and make way for the rewriting the new and informed information we might now have. Information has to be ‘informed’ and not rubbish or garbage. Some people just go on and on with the rubbish being brought up back again and again – like an old awful boyfriend/girlfriend who should have been given their papers ages ago. Instead some rubbish is there right in the forefront rather then moving it away down the chute and then out and disposed of. Why is that? Why do we love our rubbish? Bring it up, open it and go through all the used and rotting food – again and again. Maybe even swim in it. Some of the times we even walk through and drink the bin/rubbish juice. Eugh. Maybe it needs recycled. Maybe it really needs thrown out. But certainly much more then the once every two weeks that the bin men are now going to do in my street. Our own personal bins should be looked at more regularly…..

©2016 Yaz

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Filed under Catastrophising, Health, Self-regulation, Thinking Patterns

Glass Half-full and Glasses Galore

Glass

I was watching a bartender make drinks at a restaurant last weekend. It was really interesting as to how the cocktail was put together with such accuracy. Everything was measured. The ice was shaken in a cocktail shaker for a set number of times. The drinks were mixed and poured to the exact droplet.

It made me think. Why all this fuss about the glass being half full or half empty? Why not have many glasses? Let us have more than tap-water. How about different kinds of juice? Sparking water from the Himalayas? Why not a long tall and swirly glass? Why not pieces of fruit in the glass? Why not more? We really need to think abundance and not just whether the glass is half full or empty……

©2016 Yaz

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Filed under Anxiety, Catastrophising, Uncategorized

Plebgate: going past our own personal plebgates……

Plebgate and the edge

Plebgate and the edge

I don’t know about you but have you noticed how it is very hard to sue and win in an action for libel or slander? And if you win you also lose too? and then costs that are awarded can be so paltry it would have been best to ignore it.

Why do you think that is?

It seems an unwinnable thing really. Today the former government chief whip Andrew Mitchell lost his High Court libel action over the “Plebgate” incident.

What is a pleb? A Pleb (from the Oxford English Dictionary) is a mid 17th century word: originally as plural plebs, from the Latin plebs ‘the common people’.

Whether he called the policemen “plebs” or not in the long run is not the real issue I am looking at here. Why has it been taken further? Do you remember taking something beyond the edge – when it really was time to stop? I think we all have done that. Just in this case all the lawyers won and now it really looks like he did say that. If Andrew Mitchell had not taken it further it could be ascribed to a misunderstanding – now though…..Giving his ruling, Mr Justice Mitting said: “For the reasons given I am satisfied at least on the balance of probabilities that Mr Mitchell did speak the words alleged or something so close to them as to amount to the same including the politically toxic word pleb.”

Sometimes don’t we all wish we could turn back time…..this must be one of them…..and make sure we don’t have our own costly “plebgate” errors in future. …..

©2014 Yasmin

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‘Yes’ Vote and ‘No’ Vote; Catastrophisation, Scotland and Independence

Flag of ScotlandEarly Friday morning we will find out whether Scotland gains complete independence or stays within the Union. It is a really exciting time and a sign we live in a democracy for there to be such a vote taking place.  I lived for quite a few years in Scotland. It is a wonderful place and I can completely understand why many in Scotland may want independence. I now live in London and it does feel sad Scotland may split off. I wonder though at the catastrophisation that is going on.

The ‘Yes’ vote and the ‘No’ vote. Will things will be better for Scotland or will Scotland not be able to afford to go on its own? Will the rest of the UK be then pushed into a recession and left with the pieces of a difficult ‘divorce’. I know people who have said if there is a ‘Yes’ vote then they will leave Scotland. Or those who said if there is a ‘No’ vote then they would go into a deep depression.

Not everyone will get the outcome they want but in the end, as in any upset most tend to adapt and then change. Some though will leave. Some will drown their upset in drink. It is a choice we have. This is the same in many other areas of our lives. Do we stay or do we leave? What will benefit our lives the most? This is a once in a life-time decision.

If only we did this more often in our own lives; to vote daily on the important choices and decisions we have within our own lives. To know we never need to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ all the time. We can change our minds and we never have to follow the herd.

Meanwhile I wait to see. Will I need to bring my passport with me when I next go north? Will there be border controls? What will life be like after the vote? Will we all really be poorer or is this really political catatrophisation at work?

©2014 Yasmin

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Typhoons in Life

Sunday Morning Post

Sunday Morning Post

At the moment I am in Hong Kong and everything I see is a world of incredible organization. Public toilets are cleaned every hour.  Staff seem very well trained. A typhoon is expected. In the early afternoon it was a level 3. It is interesting to see the reactions and behaviours of people around me. When asked at the hotel lobby about the typhoon, I was told not to worry and that sometimes people like to go to the harbour and put their arms wide and sing like Michael Jackson. The staff and people I talk to appear very calm about matters, and so, myself am calm too.

The hotel has advisories not to go out and by 8pm I receive a message from the hotel ‘kindly be informed that the Hong Kong Observatory has hoisted a Typhoon Signal No.8’  In order to protect yourself from any personal injury, please do not leave the hotel under these severe weather conditions’. What do I do? I go outside off course at 8.30 pm and walk outside the hotel and life seems to go on as normal.

Outside, the shops were busy with people stocking water and food. I bought a few bananas, water, some snacks, breakfast cereal. It seems banal, irrelevant but at another level something I must do, just in case the hotel is affected. There are far fewer cars. People are still going about their business. Even now, a few different people approach me to sell authentic ‘genuine copies’ of Rolexes, some others asked if I wanted a tailor. It is ironic, I can still buy watches and have a suit made in the midst of a level 8 typhoon warning. The hotel is not far from the harbour. The leaves of the trees are moving a little. It is raining a little too. It seems the quiet before the storm. Sometimes, is life a little like this? There is the madness of the outside world. The reality of what each of us is experiencing and then the reality that does or does not happen? When I return to the entrance of the hotel they seem to want me to wrap my umbrella in plastic so that it does not drain onto the floor of the hotel. It seems odd, worrying about water and the rain messing up the floor when a typhoon is due, but life goes on doesn’t it?

©2013 Yasmin

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Filed under Anxiety, Catastrophising, News

Has the Greek wedding turned into a Funeral?

Remember the last time there was a financial crisis? Well there have been many in the last few decades. The Asian crisis in 1998, There was 2007 then 2008. There was Lehman Brothers, Northern rock and the queues around the block to withdraw money from a feared collapse of one bank and then many others. Some thought we were hours from doom. If you were to visit Greece a few years ago you would have felt money was all around you, now it seems to have seeped away.

Often when we are in a crisis, we forget that we have managed to survive at other points in our lives. At present there is the fear of the contagion of the Greek crisis in Europe and the world. The….What if? What if? Questions seem to go on in the newspapers and the financial markets. What if questions are anxiety filled. So much is driven by emotions, even the very markets which are meant to be about logic seems to be foaming at the mouth with fear at the moment. At these times it is best to stay still, stay tight and not make any rash decisions.

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Why did the Riots occur in the UK? Attachment theory, thoughts and Perceptions

Riots occurred only 500 yards away from where I live. Just behind my home crowds of youths ran into a dead end road and burnt a car. Nearby more cars were burnt. Ealing is usually a very quiet leafy green surburban area and I decided to explore as to why riots may have happened here. It seems there are many possibilities open as to why the riots occurred.

In the New York Times in the photograph opposite various reasons for the present riots were put forward. In an article in the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14483149

Ten competing arguments on the BBC site are used to explain why the riots occurred. The reasons given have ranged from welfare dependence, social exclusion, lack of fathers, spending cuts, racism, weak policing, gangsta rap and culture, consumerism, opportunitism and technology and social networking. Are there more reasons? I heard of entitlement being a possible reason or even astrology and mercury being retrograde. Maybe more will come to your mind. The point is though, we all choose our reasons and what we choose is also based on our beliefs and perceptions we can take. Looking at things from a statistical perspective, research from the Guardian newspaper has a different perspective and showed that of around 1,000 cases going through the magistrates courts, just 8.6% of defendants have jobs or are students. This then would lead to different opinions and thoughts on the matter.

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The Duffy Effect; Gordon Brown, Mrs Duffy and Catastrophisation

Mrs Duffy and Gordon Brown

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Ash and volcanoes; catastrophising and what if’s

Eyjafjallajoekull (Yur gat a kurt-clek) Volcano

Ashes to ashes

Over the last week the aeroplanes were grounded. I live in west London and it is common to hear aeroplanes fly overhead every thirty minutes. Sometimes they are so loud when I am in town conversation stops.  It has been pleasant and very quiet not hearing airplanes fly overhead. The loss to industry has however run into the millions. It does not only affect the airlines but also all the airline services, baggage, meals, cleaning, deliveries, overseas post, decisions and meetings had also been delayed or cancelled. So many people I know have not been able to get back. Continue reading

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