I’ve watched it multiple times and each time I’m hit with a kind of spiritual lightning bolt: The Queen has more to offer us in terms of life advice than any of the self-proclaimed wellness gurus now littering social media and culture. popular. It’s all in this 76-minute documentary, a true treasure trove of guidance for those who feel a bit adrift. Here she talks about parenting: “Like any team, the combination is strength”; and here she is on the importance of inclusion, back in 1947 during her first visit to South Africa, long before any of us understood the concept of “awakening”: “We share the same world, but we don’t share the same opportunities.” . A tolerant society actively develops the people who comprise it and enriches their lives because it values their diversity”.
Here is a woman who could have been lost in glitz and glamour, but instead shares the qualities of all great spiritual leaders, from the Dalai Lama to the Pope: she knows that no one is better than another and that she is a vessel for something much bigger than herself.
“We are all visitors to this time, to this place,” he says at one point in the film. “We’re just passing through. Our purpose here is to watch, learn, grow, love. And then we go home.”
The Queen speaks of faith in the future and the need to remove fear and in a few words conveys a message that spiritual masters such as Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra have dedicated their lives to spreading.
“I’ve lived long enough to know that things never stay the same for long.” Queen-speak, that is, for the most Instagrammable quote of all: This too shall pass.
I was moved by his sentiments about doing service to others, another concept that is crucial in the treatment of addicts.
“Sometimes we think the world’s problems are so big that we can do little to help,” he said in the film. “On our own, we cannot end wars or end injustice.
But the cumulative impact of thousands of small acts of kindness may be greater than we imagine.” And when she speaks of her late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, she may well be summing up the key to life: long-term satisfaction for all of us: “His sense of service, intellectual curiosity and ability to wring the fun out of anything stuff”. situation were all irrepressible.”
I hadn’t thought of the Queen as an icon of mental health before, but now I can’t stop. May she smile and greet us for a long time.
Price Interventions Won’t Stop Addicts
Attempts in Scotland to curb binge drinking by setting a minimum price have failed. It only made things worse, as problem drinkers cut back on food when the unit price was set at 50 pence. The powers that be are always trying to stop people from drinking excessively or using illegal drugs. I was invited to speak at the Home Office about my own addiction. The question they asked me was: how do we get middle-class people to stop using drugs?
Human beings have an innate desire to get out of their heads and escape the pain they carry inside. If you want to stop them, provide adequate investment in mental health services, so people know there are solutions to their problems that are not at the bottom of a glass. It is time for politicians to change their tune and come up with some viable policies that could really make a difference.
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