Steve from England

Learn Something Today Whilst I do have an invisible illness this is not just about me. So many people have an illness we can't see and most of them share the same experiences in their lives. Short lived sympathy, well meant encouragement and disbelief. This is true for so many ... including me I think we have all done it, we've been either sick or healthy ourselves then seen someone who isn't working, perhaps claiming financial support and we're like .... yeah right, looks like they're ill! No one intends to be mean about it but, we just don't think. I know I have been guilty of it myself and I should know better and, this is why ... My Mum! Mum had chronic arthritis. I had many stern comments to say to people on trains who left her standing whilst they sat in the disabled seat but mum was in constant agonising pain every day for the last 20 years or so of her life. I have lived knowing what invisible illness looks like so, yes, I should know better. One of the

Let's get this totally clear ... we already know where we have been in life but we certainly don't know where our life is heading. The trouble here is, we spend so much time worrying about where we are going we tend to forget where we have been. When we choose to remember we then tend to cloud it with our negativity to where we think we might be going. We focus on the bad things which have happened in our life as though that is somehow the sum of our lives this far ... is it really? We may have an ex we would rather forget but, does that mean we have to forget all the good times we had with them? Perhaps someone died and it hurts so we try not to think about them but ... that thinking is what makes our love for them real, what keeps the memories alive. Some people go as far as to use their bad experiences as an excuse for why their life is going to be bad. Hey, you choose your path now, no one else is in the driving seat. Only if you allow the bad memories to dominate can they

I was just listening to the radio and they were discussing the human ability to lie to ourselves, to honestly believe we are honourable people who never lie yet continually have one part of ourselves convince another part of something which is actually untrue. How many of us are shocked when we see a picture of ourselves? This is because when we look in a mirror we have already convinced ourselves what we look like so, more or less, that's what we see. In those nano seconds before getting the image we already converted it. In the picture we seldom get that warning and see the reality which can come as quite a shock! How about our voice? Isn't it amazing how often you hear your own voice and barely recognise yourself or even go as far as to blame the equipment for in incorrect capture of our voice? Both these examples are the same thing, the perception we have of ourselves are the one we have convinced ourselves to be true. Reality often comes as quite a shock. Whether that is p