As some of you might already know, I love word puzzles and I am a daily Wordle-er.
I also appreciate the beauty and balance in mathematical concepts like symmetry and correlation.
Right now, I’m enjoying Ed Sheeran’s new album and his documentary on Disney+, not just for their content but also for their titles !
Whether or not you switch to the next song or to a different radio station when you hear Ed, you might like to read about “The Struggle Switch” made popular by Dr. Russ Harris and introduced to me via Padraig O’Morain’s book “Acceptance“.
Have a good month !
Sinead
Ed Sheeran released his latest album at the start of this month.
The majority of Ed’s albums to date are called after mathematical symbols: ➕ (plus), ✖ (multiply),➗ (divide), ➖ (subtract) and his documentary on Disney ➕ (where else?😉) is called “The Sum of it All“. There is correlation between mathematics and music given the repeating patterns and formulaic progressions found in music compositions. Ed’s lyrics show him to be a skilled writer, maybe he is also a maths genius?
I have only seen some of Ed’s documentary so far but he does seem to have mastered “The Struggle Switch” (more below). His focus and drive appear to have superseded any daily frustrations, doubts or second guessing of himself. I’m half way through the series, and whilst I can’t tell (yet) if Ed is as skilled with numbers as he is with words, he does come across as a very down to earth, relatable guy.
Padraig O’ Morain is a Mindfulness Trainer who has written two books on the subject.
Padraig’s newest book “Acceptance” was released earlier this year.
Page 96 of that book introduced me to the idea of “The Struggle Switch” (attributed to Dr. Russ Harris).
When your struggle switch is turned to “on”, everything is a struggle, every minor inconvenience causes hardship and frustration. However, maybe we can do something to address that by turning the switch to “off”. When we switch to “off”, we can just accept the irritating things and try to get on with our day without being frustrated by the traffic or the weather or other elements that are outside our control.
I loved Padraig’s personal comment, “At the end of a challenging day, I imagine a row of those switches and flick them off in my mind quite calmly saying “Off… off… off… off”.
“You make a choice about whether to react or not by accepting that not everything will go your way. And that not everything can be, or needs to be, fixed.” Padraig O’Morain
“Be yourself. Embrace your quirks.” Ed Sheeran
“The more we try to avoid the basic reality that all human life involves pain, the more we are likely to struggle with that pain when it arises, thereby creating even more suffering.” Russ Harris
Sinead Huskisson 