Higher Diploma in Coaching / Coaching Psychology UCC Open Night

HODA | Coaching Psychologists for the individual, group and organisation

An Event not to be missed. http://hoda.ie/?tribe_events=1st-dingle-peninsula-mindfulness-festival-2016

HODA | Coaching Psychologists for the individual, group and organisation

Come join HODA in Bantry on Saturday May 13th for a workshop on Mindfulness and Mindful Living. Details at; http://hoda.ie/?tribe_events=mindfulness-and-mindful-walking-in-bantry

Timeline Photos

Mindfulness always raises the possibility to look on things differently. hoda.ie

I Love Hiking

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Lovely this morning, to see my book Mindful Walking still working it's quiet magic. The journey continues mindfully.

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Thanks to Dr Eddie Murphy for spreading the word RTE_GUIDE. #operationtransformation

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Very excited to be at the first Network Cork event of the year #NCMindful

Good Wishes for 2017, from all at HODA.

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Always remember that taking offence in your life is your problem. What is your mindful solution though?

Photos from Hugh O Donovan and Associates's post

Happiness depends only on your mind. When the mind is free of past impressions and future cravings, happiness is there. Sri Sri Rao.

Transcript of Commencement Speech delivered by Hugh O'Donovan, Principal Hoda.ie, at ACE (Adult Continuing Education) Conferring Ceremony in University College Cork on 18th November 2016. Acting President, Distinguished Members of the University, families and friends of today’s Graduates’ and most especially you, the Graduates of 2016, the rightful centre of attention today. I am honoured to be with you as you graduate from this wonderful place of learning and as you celebrate your notable achievement today. When I was asked to speak today, I said yes and then it started……….. that sense of unease, that gnawing familiar feeling, that it might not be good enough. That, YOU might not think it good enough. The internal critic was at his unnecessary work. The internal critic was predicting a future that might or might not come to pass. And then……… I set about my work as usual. Start putting the speech together. Make a plan. I’m good at plans. Sure, wasn’t I in the Army for 23 years? I learned about planning there. Oh, tell them that setting smart goals is so important and while they are of immense value, are not the full story. Tell them about the profound paradox at the heart of our goal setting. Life does not turn out the way we plan it….. Remember to ask Seamus how long the speech should be. 15 to 20 minutes. Ooooh. Better bump it up a little. Add a bit more to the introduction….. a few more inspiring quotations in the main body. Add a bit more to the conclusion. That’ll do it. And then, yesterday evening, I tore up the lot. Not part of the plan I can assure you, as I sat looking, in sheer panic at three weeks work, sitting in the bin. However, with one solitary deep breath I gave myself permission to slow down, to show up to what I might really want to say. It was as if three weeks of DOING was not enough. One moment of showing up, and being fully present to myself was more powerful. It was, as if, in doing nothing, the answer came from a place that matters most, the heart. It was like, in the three weeks of doing, I had travelled the world, but didn’t know my own country. How often in the busyness of life do we get lost, as if sleepwalking. I was very fortunate last year to be invited to write a book. The title of the book was “Mindful Walking” but it really should have been entitled “Waking Up”. I could tell you, that it is essentially, an exploration of Physical and Mental Well-Being, and the balance needed for a life that flourishes with energy and vitality, but I won’t. I could tell you, that I drew on the current scientific evidence, of Positive Psychology, Coaching Psychology, and Contemplative Neuroscience. But I won’t. What I will share with you is a Story. On the 30th May 2015, around the time that the book was published, my wife dropped me to Mizen Head, and left me alone to start my journey. As you might imagine, having trained as a psychologist, I am interested in how the mind works. However, at 60 years of age, and I can assure you that it is never too late, I wanted to challenge myself and my own ability to deal with uncertainty, and the way ahead. I deliberately didn’t make any plan as to where I would stay each night on my journey. My only clearly stated intention was to SLOW DOWN, SHOW UP and NOTICE what was going around me with a particular attitude of curiosity and non-judgement. On my first day, I arrived wet to the skin, in Durras, having left Mizen at 1030, with nowhere to stay. I met two strangers, told them my story and they took me into their house and fed me. I noted in my diary that night “ A journey begins with the first step.” My diary of the following morning records that “I definitely have a body and it is not impressed with me”. I could hardly walk. I took the next step, and reached Kealkill that evening, with nowhere to stay . I reached out to some people I met, and they pointed me in the direction of Future Forests Nursery, which may be familiar to some of you. Louise, who came to this country over 40 years ago, offered me a small caravan to sleep in. Ciara gave me eggs to cook. I was in heaven. The following morning a stranger pulled up in an escort 9 cwt van. I told him my story. He told me his. I did notice a sense, that in my own thinking, I was jumping to conclusions and putting him in a box. Different to me. I was also surprised to notice, a fully grown deer sitting in the back of his van. It was dead. “Road kill”, which I was informed, would fill his freezer for the summer. He was so happy. I could not help but take my next painful steps that day, with a lighter touch. That didn’t last too long either. The walk from Kealkill to Ballyvourney was horrendous. Worn down with a load too heavy to carry, I arrived in Ballyvourney, to be taken in by Michael and Mary Creedon, owners of the Abbey Hotel. That night I took everything out of my Rucksack and Lightened Up. I got rid of the light weight tent, the sleeping bag and mat. I got rid of the cooker and the two days food I was carrying. I lightened up. As I lay in bed that night I reflected on how fearful, anxious, insecure and uncertain I really was. In my need to be more certain, in my need not to be found out, in my need to control, in my need not to fail, I was sowing the seeds of my ultimate failure. Where did I think I was? ………The Kalahari Desert. I was only walking through my own country where there is a house every two hundred metres, where there is food aplenty around the next corner. My stone age reptilian brain of fear was winning the battle. As I recorded in my diary that evening, “I have lightened up, but maybe not enough”. The next day, over Mullaghanish was lighter but still a struggle. It wasn’t so much that I felt weak, but not strong enough. I walked on. The same, simple, pattern of experience unfolded over the coming days. A simple intention and commitment, each morning to Show UP, Slow Down and Notice more about what was really going on in my world. My journey over the coming days, took me through places I had rarely if ever visited. Lismire, Newmarket, Johnsbridge. I met a man in a pub in Churchtown whose 23 year old son was at home and couldn’t get out of bed. He told me his story. I was sad. I noted in my diary that the “Worst time of the day on this trip, is the morning. You don’t really want to leave the comfort of the known. There is anticipation and an uncertainty about the way ahead but when you move and take one step you are off and on your way”. The other choice was to stay in bed that day. I met Fergal Butler of Kinnanes Pub in Upperchurch that evening. His tea, was like no other tea I have ever tasted in this world. How I savoured and appreciated it. It was now day 12. I was beginning to get the measure of the challenge. Maybe this isn’t as mad as I think. I might even get to my destination. I was still following the Beara / Breifne Way, that famous march by O’Sullivan Bere after the Battle of Kinsale, as he made his way, to the safety of County Leitrim and the O’Rourke Stronghold. I thought of others, who had walked this way, in more difficult times. I was greatful. Fiachra, stopped on the side of the road to enquire about my well-being. He left only to re-join me a few miles further on with a bottle of water and some chocolate. I cried again. And so it went each day. Sometimes travelling alone. Sometimes with a new companion. Taking time to stand and stare. Ballygar, Ballymoe, Ballintubber, Creggs, Glinsk. I will not forget, the two East Galway men, who I stopped to talk to, as they rebuilt a damaged stone wall. “I wonder will anyone ever remember who built the wall” one of them asked. I will. I will never forget those two philosophers, as they made my steps lighter for the rest of the day. None of them had a university qualification. And onwards, Cloonloo, Knockvicker, Drumshanbo. On the journey to wherever we might wish to get to, we can make things so complicated. We can be so attached to the way we believe things should be. The journey can become so heavy and draining that we may even lose hope, when, all the time, the simple magic and sheer beauty of it all is in front of our noses, if we are prepared, to SLOW DOWN, SHOW UP and NOTICE. I was never in Monasterarden before Day 16. On Day 17 after 8 hours and 40 km walking, I arrived in Blacklion, Co Cavan. Late that evening, as fearful thoughts again held me in their cold grip, I was back to predicting the future negatively. “I will definitely have to sleep on the side of the road tonight”. My good friend of over 40 years, Liam Murphy and classmate in the Cadet Class of 1973, rang me to tell me that, Nevan Maguire, would give me a bed for the night and feed me. Do you realise how long the waiting list is for his restaurant he asked? Nine months. Nevan took me in that night…. on the basis that no one, had ever walked for 17 Days to get to his restaurant. That night even amidst the heavenly feast and all the comfort, I was lonely. I missed my girls. I missed Michele my wonderful wife who always gives me enough rope to save myself. Each Day, I simply walked on, step by step. Committed to see, to smell, to listen, to feel, to touch, to experience from the heart. I was given a lesson in sheep shearing by two Fermanagh Men. I walked through the Barnsmore Gap, a place sometimes snow bound and impassable. No sign of snow that day, as I walked on. In all of the Walking and Talking and Noticing there was now a lightness, a sense that mind and body were working in unison. An amazing sense that my heart was in it too. So So So simple. On day 21, I arrived into Buncrana, after almost 11 hours on the road that day. I was tired and weary but as I struggled up the seafront promenade in Buncrana, a little before six in the evening, my attention was drawn to three men sitting on a park bench and canoodling. It’s the only appropriate word I could summon to describe the scene. I was immediately aware of my own threat detection system being activated. This was somewhat different. I was aware of thinking that Ireland has come a long and very necessary way in my lifetime where diversity and difference is rightly embraced and respected. However, I still had a bodily sense that I was preparing to avoid. I walked on, but as I passed the bench, I could not resist looking, only to discover that three of my good friends who I played rugby football with in Cork Constitution, had decided to surprise me and accompany me on the last few days to Malin Head. It has now become known as the “Buncrana Ambush”. There were tears. There were man hugs. There were man kisses. I will never forget those emotional moments of sheer unbridled joy. Those great, big hearted, generous men of mischief and good humour, shared two and a half more days with me before we reached Lloyd’s Tower at the head of the Malin Peninsula, the most Northerly tip of Ireland. I had never been there before. In the process of getting there step by sometimes painful step, I had gotten a glimpse of my own truly amazing country, its people, their warmth and generosity. It is a truly beautiful place. That is the power when we tear up the script, when we slow down to really see what is important and enjoy the journey. That is a power that nourishes us as human beings. It nourishes and sustains our relationships. So often in the busyness of life and doing we forget to just be fully present to what is really needed. Today, remember that you are always adding to your experience, step by step. But as Saint Bernard of Clairveaux said, “More things are learnt in the woods than from books; Trees and rocks will teach you things, not to be heard elsewhere. You will see for yourselves, that honey may be gathered from stones, and oil from the hardest rocks”….. May the honey and oil of your life be gathered from the trees and the stones and the rocks you encounter on your continuing journey? Show up, Slow Down and pay greater attention, in your life, in your family, in your relationships. Your heart will surely beat with less judgement and greater understanding and compassion. When, we the people of this country, look to the left of us and to the right of us, at this time, then perhaps it is time to truly wake up. I wish you all well in your futures. Go Mindfully. Thank you.