This article was written by James Dear for Meditation New Zealand Happiness... For practically my entire life I have attempted to crack the code.  I jumped from one fix to the next, trying to squeeze as much fun out of it as possible, until it was exhausted. Upon facing the dark and empty void within, […]

Guest author Katy Stark I’m glad I waited until today to write this, with our rapidly changing environment, we can’t be sure where the next 24 hours will take us. I have spent the last couple of months being reminded, everywhere I go,  that this day was looming. It’s hard to ignore when businesses are […]

Written by James Dear A few years ago if someone had asked me what was most likely to kill me before the age of 45, I would never have guessed it could be myself. After losing a close friend to suicide it plagued my mind that I didn’t know anything about the pain he must […]

If you are having suicidal thoughts then please know that you are not your thoughts.  Someone once told me this metaphor and it really helped. Think of yourself as water. Water is pure like you. The negative thoughts that you are having are dirt that has got into the water. Despite the water being dirty […]

I got bullied a lot when I was in primary school, so when I started secondary school I felt like I had a point to prove. I started trying to be a hard man. I would pick fights with people for no reason. The way that this usually ended up was by someone's older brother […]

Guest author Marius Cuit In 2014 I left my normal life in Lithuania to follow my heart. It lead me to Austria to snowboard and to see the mountains. My aim was to find a job that could pay for food and accommodation so that I could spend all day living the dream. This is […]

Written by James Dear Since doing work on various bad habits, and one serious addiction, I have come to realise that everyone is self-medicating in one way or another. Self-medication can be in the form of food, shopping, alcohol, illegal drugs, medical drugs or almost anything that you find comfort in.  I realised that I […]

Guest author - Anonymous Hi James, I have read your story and it has unexpectedly made me want to share my story with you. So here goes… Growing up I had an abusive father who drank heavily, although never physically hurting me or my brother, we witnessed my mum getting beaten. He would call the […]

Guest author Eddie Jury After reading Mr Dear's blog I felt inspired and reading his story compelled me to share my own in the hope that it can help someone too. Here’s my story (I promise there is a happy ending) We are the same age and we partied in the same circles, but we […]

Written by James Dear I feel that I am doing fairly well in life at the moment, but things have not always been this way. Through my stupidity, I have become rich in the wisdom of hard lessons and I would like to start giving back what so many have previously given to me. I […]