Recently, when I was doing some wider reading around the subjects of ‘contemplation’ and ‘mindfulness’, I reminded myself of a concept which was very much in vogue a decade or so ago and is still present in much professional practice. This is the concept of the ‘reflective practitioner’ (which, broadly speaking, indicates that, in our personal and professional lives, we should take a certain amount of ‘time out’ as it were to reflect upon the events of the last time period (which could be a day, week or a month) and come to some kind of conclusions as to the level of our performance and our reactions to it.  We could conclude that some of our ventures had worked out well and we might reflect upon why this may be the case whereas others were less successful and perhaps there are lessons that can be learnt from the future. Taken to excess, this can result in a spiral of introspection which is not healthy for us all and could become, as I can almost hear an ex-boss of mine snorting, that we become involved in excessive navel gazing. On the other hand if kept within reasonable bounds, then this can help to improve our performance as professionals and can probably assist in our personal and emotional lives as well. Fundamentally, it gives the opportunity for an occasional pause to ask questions about whether we should blindly carry on doing what we have always done in our ventures or are there lessons to be learnt? The concept of the reflective practitioner is now widely embedded in a whole range of professions and we used to require it of our students when they had to write up their final reports of their experiences of ‘supervised work experience’ that they spent the third year of their four year degree course gaining practical experience in the work environment. It is widely used in therapy circles as well when people are suffering from a trauma such as an addiction, or a major transforming life event such as a bereavement or a divorce and are learning to reconstruct and make sense of their lives typically by chronicling their thoughts perhaps in a journal. One technique that I have come across is to write a sentence or so each day in a journal kept for the purpose and I suppose this can either be a private or even a public document to be shared as the writer wishes. I cannot quite decide whether this would be a useful activity for me these days as well as this daily blog but it may be that I just have one long file which I augment if not on a daily basis, then when the mood takes me. One organisational practice which I thought was excellent was embedded in the culture of the last university in which I worked. When all of the examinations had taken place and results considered in multiple Boards of Examiners, the whole university had what was termed a ‘washing up’ day or half day in which we collectively reflected upon that which worked well in our procedures and those that needed some tweaking or improvements for future years. This worked well, was not time-consuming or filled with any sort of blame culture and I thought was an excellent way to maintain the quality of our procedures.

In the morning, I have to make a fairly early start as it is my ‘Tai Chi’ class, conducted in the same Methodist Centre which I attended yesterday. These sessions are 45 minutes long which I find long enough because, as opposed to my Pilates sessions, the exercises are conducted entirely in a standing position and I find that both my knees and hips start to feel the pressure after the passage pf a certain amount of time. But I was delighted at the end of the session to have a coffee with a new-found male friend, a one-time bank manager, who attends both the ‘Strength and Balance’ class on a Wednesday as well as this class on a Thursday. So we spent a very pleasant time in other’s company, enjoying a coffee and some-made drizzle cake before we have to go on our separate ways. In my case, this entailed a weekly shop where I frequent the Aldi store if money is a bit tight in that particular week and I know I need to keep a careful watch on my expenditure. By the time I have got home and unpacked, it is generally about 1.00pm or later and then I bustle about both unpacking the shopping and cooking lunch (quiche today) at the same time. On consulting my phone, I received a couple of texts one being from one of my University of Winchester friends setting up a video-call between the two of us for the following day – this we do about every three weeks or so. The other text was from an old ‘Pilates’ class friend who apologised for not being I touch to arrange a coffee together. She had been quite poorly with a really bad cold but at the same time was hobbling about the house, trying to get herself in reasonable shape for a replacement hip operation which is scheduled in a week or so’s time. Then I received a telephone call which was welcome in the extreme from some of my Catholic friends who love down the road, inviting me around for Sunday lunch this weekend. Also coming to lunch would be our newly installed priest so that might make for an interesting conversation over lunch – I wonder if we shall steer clear of religious/moral issues altogether and confine our conversations to social issues. I feel pretty sure that the topic of how Meg and I were introduced to each by the Jesuit Catholic chaplain at the University of Manchester might find its way into the conversation, although in all fairness Meg and I did know each other by sight before this meeting and actually only really ‘got together’ as they say during the Rag Week celebrations in the following February. The whole university had mid-year examinations at this point and as our tutors were busy marking our scripts, the University in effect  said ‘go out and play, students’ which we did, raising £20,000 for charity in the process (probably worth £500,000 or £0.5 million at today’s prices)