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.
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
- Jun 1
- 7 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
- 6 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
- 5 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
- 5 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
- 5 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, 2021
- 5 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, 2021
- 4 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, 2021
- 6 min
The Naming of Things
Sandra muses on the Naming of Things and shares wisdom from the imitable Aldous Huxley.
Sandra Hilton
- Jul 23, 2021
- 4 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, 2021
- 5 min
This is Normal...
June Soul Notes by Sandra Hilton
Sandra Hilton
- May 21, 2021
- 4 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, 2021
- 6 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, 2021
- 5 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, 2021
- 5 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, 2021
- 5 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, 2020
- 5 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, 2020
- 5 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, 2020
- 6 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, 2020
- 7 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, 2020
- 5 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, 2020
- 6 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, 2020
- 7 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, 2020
- 4 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, 2020
- 5 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, 2020
- 1 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, 2020
- 5 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, 2019
- 5 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, 2019
- 6 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, 2019
- 6 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, 2019
- 7 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, 2019
- 5 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, 2019
- 5 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, 2018
- 2 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, 2018
- 6 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, 2018
- 6 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, 2018
- 6 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, 2018
- 5 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, 2018
- 5 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,...
Sandra Hilton
- Jan 26, 2018
- 4 min
Contemplations & Reflections For The Year Ahead
January 2018 Soul Notes David Whyte's poem, 'Sometimes', invites us to pause and to listen to what emerges. Simple and yet so challenging...
Sandra Hilton
- Dec 22, 2017
- 3 min
To Instruct Ourselves In Joy
December 2017 Soul Notes So where are you right now as you read this? Have you taken up my invitation and allowed yourself a moment to...
Sandra Hilton
- Oct 20, 2017
- 3 min
Contemplations on Retreat
October 2017 Soul Notes The seasons are changing and autumn has arrived with the crunch of leaves underfoot and the frantic schedule that...
Sandra Hilton
- Sep 22, 2017
- 3 min
Building Community & Connection
September 2017 Soul Notes I don't know about you but I've got that September feeling. At this time of the year, I'm inspired to sharpen...