When the Words Don't Come
I am a woman of words. What do we do when the words don't come? Write anyway...one word at a time - you write what is here.
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Pour yourself a cup of tea and settle in...
Your soul knows the geography of your destiny. Your soul alone has the map of your future, therefore you can trust this indirect, oblique side of yourself. If you do, it will take you where you need to go, but more importantly it will teach you the kindness of rhythm in your journey "to love you".
John O'Donohue
Sandra Hilton
Dec 21, 20235 min
Loving and Leaving
December 2023 Soul Notes Photo by The Poetry Pharmacy I was mid-way through writing Soul Notes when I arrived at my Tuesday morning...
Sandra Hilton
Nov 22, 20236 min
Shadowing
November 2023 Soul Notes Photo by Gabriel Meinert on Unsplash Since 7 October, our gaze has been directed towards Israel and Gaza. From...
Sandra Hilton
Sep 14, 20236 min
Putting Down the Worry Beads
September 2023 Soul Notes Photo By Sandra Hilton I live in academic years. The body of the year starts in September and stretches to July....
Sandra Hilton
Jun 29, 20235 min
Carrier Bag Theory
June 2023 Soul Notes Thanks to Arisa Chattasa for this image: https://unsplash.com/@golfarisa Written in the Tao Te Ching over 2,000...
Sandra Hilton
May 26, 20236 min
What's the Question Looking at You?
May 2023 Soul Notes Photograph by Stetson University Newgrange Spiral; the threshold stone to Newgrange I’ve been in several...
Sandra Hilton
Apr 6, 20235 min
Taking my time...
March 2023 Soul Notes Art by Alexandra Warren, www.alexandrawarren.co.uk I have sat before this page for many days now. Staring blankly,...
Sandra Hilton
Feb 10, 20235 min
Finding Our Way Home
Feeling restless and wanting to wander... I understand this now as a longing to find a home, but what is homing?
Sandra Hilton
Dec 21, 20225 min
"What does this place know of me?"
December 2022 Soul Notes I’m thoughtful about place right now. I feel a restlessness in my bones and a longing to wander; to smell fresh...
Sandra Hilton
Nov 11, 20224 min
Sorting the Seeds
How to bring ourselves back to sensing, to love, and to ourselves through sorting our seeds.
Sandra Hilton
Oct 14, 20229 min
“It isn't the changes that do you in, it's the transitions.”
October 2022 Soul Notes Photograph by Aleksandr Barsukov made freely available on Unsplash Trough There is a trough in waves, A low spot...
Sandra Hilton
Jul 15, 20225 min
The Shape of Life
The Shape of Life considers life in its seismic and small shifts, and making space for grief and brokenness through its journey.
Sandra Hilton
Jun 1, 20227 min
Rebranding Selfishness
May 2022 Soul Notes “Remember when you were younger and you practiced kissing on your arm?” asks Pádraig Ó Tuama in his searingly...
Sandra Hilton
Apr 29, 20226 min
What's In Your Toybox?
April 2022 Soul Notes “So much of what delights and troubles you Happens on a surface You take for ground.” writes John O’Donohue in his...
Sandra Hilton
Mar 25, 20225 min
Patience
March 2022 Soul Notes Photo by Andrew Lloyd-Seetim As spring nudges those of us in the northern hemisphere into the world, how many of us...
Sandra Hilton
Feb 11, 20225 min
What Binds Us...
The theme of this month’s Soul Notes looks at what binds us. This piece ponders the question as restrictions loosen in the UK...
Sandra Hilton
Jan 14, 20225 min
I am no longer waiting...
January 2022 Soul Notes Thanks to Andrew Lloyd-Seetim for this image Mary Anne Perrone’s poem reminds us that life is for living. That...
Sandra Hilton
Dec 17, 20215 min
A Letter to the Judge
December 2021 Soul Notes “This is the season to go home far within” …… “as I wrap myself in winter silence and curl into its rooty...
Sandra Hilton
Nov 5, 20214 min
Salsa in the Time of CoVid
Autumn 2021 Soul Notes This week, I returned to working face to face with some of my therapy clients. It’s been a plan long in the...
Sandra Hilton
Oct 1, 20216 min
The Naming of Things
Sandra muses on the Naming of Things and shares wisdom from the imitable Aldous Huxley.
Sandra Hilton
Jul 23, 20214 min
Time to Play
Sandra poses some deep questions about about the longings within, and the antidote to the narrowing of life since the pandemic.
Sandra Hilton
Jun 25, 20215 min
This is Normal...
June Soul Notes by Sandra Hilton
Sandra Hilton
May 21, 20214 min
Loving All the Parts
In this edition of Soul Notes, I explore what it’s like for us all to emerge from our home cave and back to a life of hugs and socialising.
Sandra Hilton
Apr 23, 20216 min
The Second Half of Life
April 2021 Soul Notes There’s a time in our lives when we feel overwhelmed by our hormones. The familiar shape of what we feel to be our...
Sandra Hilton
Mar 19, 20215 min
Making Friends with our Anger
This month's Soul Notes is devoted to our anger. Often seen as the emotion to be fearful of...I invite you into the angry space...
Sandra Hilton
Feb 19, 20215 min
The Alchemy of Longing
Many of my conversations these days start something like this….”I just wish that I could ….” followed by a simple longing
Sandra Hilton
Jan 15, 20215 min
What Does Hope Taste Like?
January 2021 Soul Notes Ironically, in spite of the “sameness” of the shape of my lockdown days, I don’t quite know what to expect of...
Sandra Hilton
Dec 4, 20205 min
Showing Up and Showing Off
December 2020 Soul Notes “you are not everything but everything could not be everything without you” These lines from poet and...
Sandra Hilton
Nov 6, 20205 min
Letting Go, Letting Come
November 2020 Soul Notes Like many of us, I’ve been working out of a small room at home for the last 8 months. My desk is set up in a...
Sandra Hilton
Oct 2, 20206 min
The Heart-Led Path
October 2020 Soul Notes My daughter has just returned to sixth form where she has chosen her subjects for the next two years. It's been...
Sandra Hilton
Sep 4, 20207 min
Loving Our Inner Life
September 2020 Soul Notes The poem above is a teaching story written in the native American teaching tradition and is the answer to the...
Sandra Hilton
Jul 30, 20205 min
Art at the Kitchen Table
July 2020 Soul Notes Artist, Antony Gormley was the inspiration for this month’s Soul Notes. In his article “Lockdown reminded us that...
Sandra Hilton
Jun 30, 20206 min
Scaling the Ledge
June 2020 Soul Notes Anyone who knows me, knows I am terrified of heights. Any height above my own. Clambering up a tree is no longer...
Sandra Hilton
May 22, 20207 min
Holding Space for Real Connection
May 2020 Soul Notes I’ve written before about Mrs McDowell, my inspired infant school teacher. One of my earliest memories is of sitting...
Sandra Hilton
Apr 24, 20204 min
Emotionally Vague: Responding to Embodied Experience
April 2020 Soul Notes Orlagh O’Brien, a graphic designer who conducted a research project into how emotions are experienced in the body,...
Sandra Hilton
Mar 27, 20205 min
Reaching Inwards
March 2020 Soul Notes Psychologist, Dr. Ruella Frank writes of the six fundamental human movements of reaching, yielding, grasping,...
Sandra Hilton
Feb 21, 20201 min
Trusting Yourself - the path to purposeful living
February 2020 Soul Notes Something a little different for this month as I bring you some listening rather than reading in the shape of a...
Sandra Hilton
Jan 24, 20205 min
The Hungry Wolf & the Art of New Beginnings
January 2020 Soul Notes In his poem 'For a New Beginning' nestled within his collection entitled 'To Bless The Space Between Us', John...
Sandra Hilton
Dec 20, 20195 min
Crafting our Stories
December 2019 Soul Notes I'm fascinated by stories at the moment. My stories. Your stories. Our stories. Novels. Movies. Documentaries....
Sandra Hilton
Oct 24, 20196 min
The Yin and Yang of Self Compassion
October 2019 Soul Notes I’m seduced to surrender when I read 'Song of Autumn' by Mary Oliver. She draws a picture of welcome and...
Sandra Hilton
Sep 27, 20196 min
Trusting the Gold Within
September 2019 Soul Notes According to the Roman philosopher, Cicero, “the eyes are the window to the soul”. I first heard this in Russia...
Sandra Hilton
Jun 28, 20197 min
Discomfort Resilience
June 2019 Soul Notes When I was 15, I used to watch a TV series where the lead female character left her boyfriend and went to work in...
Sandra Hilton
Mar 22, 20195 min
Honouring our True Self
March 2019 Soul Notes I was inspired to write this piece by an interview with the Hungarian physician, teacher, writer and trauma expert,...
Sandra Hilton
Jan 24, 20195 min
The Hidden Discipline of Familiarity
January 2019, Soul Notes This season urges us to transform. To promise ourselves the changes that thus far have eluded us. To imagine a...
Sandra Hilton
Dec 21, 20182 min
My Personal Thank you to You
December 2018 Soul Notes On my walk this morning, I tuned into The Moth podcast, which presents true stories told to live crowds...
Sandra Hilton
Sep 21, 20186 min
Coming Home to Ourselves; a Lifetime Experiment
September 2018 Soul Notes When I was 4 years old, I used to head off to the small wood at the end of our street and climb into the trees....
Sandra Hilton
Aug 23, 20186 min
Nurturing our Soul Scripts
August 2018 Soul Notes ”I hope you will go out and let stories, that is life, happen to you, and that you will work with these stories...
Sandra Hilton
May 25, 20186 min
Giving Space to the Pain: Finding a New Direction
May 2018 Soul Notes Portia Nelson’s simple poem, 'An Autobiography in Five Short Chapters' resonates with me right now. Why, as human...
Sandra Hilton
Apr 12, 20185 min
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
Easter 2018 Soul Notes Recently, I visited the stunning Giants' Causeway on the Atlantic coast of Northern Ireland. It consists of over...
Sandra Hilton
Feb 23, 20185 min
Self Compassion: The Key To A Successful Life
February 2018 Soul Notes As this year begins, many of us are stumbling around in the cave, dazed and confused in the haze of busyness,...
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