Today's video alludes to the fact - the psychological fact - that, even when we're at our happiest, our mind is conspiring to drag us back down to what it sees as "reality". When we're having a good time we know it's too good to last, when we've nothing to worry about we'll manufacture something - as my grandmother used to say in her own wonderfully optimistic way, "All laughing comes to crying!"

We are our own worst enemy - left to its own devices, according to the University of Chicago, our mind will degenerate into negative mayhem in a very short period of time. The fact that we are predisposed to being negative, however, has more to do with our subconscious mind's obsession with the past than with negativity as such. In other words, what I am trying to say is that we shouldn't seek to think positively, we shouldn't attempt to fight our negative thoughts, we should stop thinking altogether and let the negative thoughts pass as surreptitiously as they arrived. All things pass... let those thoughts pass too.

Now, don't get me wrong - when I suggest that you stop thinking I am not suggesting that you stop behaving as a discerning adult... in fact I'm suggesting that you start behaving as one - perhaps for the first time in your adult life. I am suggesting that you stop letting the noise that rattles around between your ears - the average person is entertained by 70,000 discrete items of such noise everyday - absorb your mind. As things stand, this is pretty much all the normal mind does - allow itself to be absorbed by thoughts that stand in our way, hold us back. These thoughts are your stored knowledge - they are out of date and have no place in directing what you do and how you behave today... but, left to their own devices, that is exactly what they will do.

The key to being happy and successful - experiencing and living enduring happiness and success - is to stop playing host to the nonsense in your head and start immersing yourself in the wonderful reality of the here and now. Obviously, this isn't something that you can simply decide to do, no matter how obviously sensible the idea may sound. You've "lived" all of your adult life whilst mentally buried in the past - you can't just suddenly discard that way of operating.

The interesting thing, however, is that when we start retraining your mind to pay more attention to the here and now - using the scientifically proven method of meditation to do just that - you do end up discarding that way of operating. And, once you even start to experience the difference between normal madness and the wonder of the moment, everything you do and experience in life starts changing. This is how you change your life - by changing how you life and experience the here and now.

I read in the news about the perceived inefficiency of the public service... in France, in Ireland, it seems to be a problem that knows no borders. We should not, of course, be surprised about the extent to which people appear to be incapable of doing what they're paid to do... cut these people some slack - after all they're just as crazy as the next normal person.

And, strangely enough, I bumped into the nex normal person yesterday - or, at least, I encountered him via email. Some of you way remember the extent to which purposeful focus was required to enable my son, David, find a suitable apartment in Paris. Well, it's not so much purposeful focus that finally got him enrolled in his final year at college... it's been more like an endurance test!

The people who look after the enrolment of students lost his file, found his file, lost it again and, when it was finally found, failed to register our direct debit payment within the period required by the Bank. So, on Monday, I was asked to do it all over again by someone who told me, and I quote, "we have tolerated your emailing us the documents because of the delay you caused - normally we required originals".

Having finally completed all the documentation - for a third time - I was informed this morning that "Antoine's enrolment is now confirmed". I replied "Thank you for your message - but my son's name is David... could you confirm if his enrolment is confirmed too, please!"