Read our posts about Soul

22Nov

Using Mindfulness to Banish Negative Self-Talk

Gill Hasson

mindfulness, self, wellbeing

Soul

How do you feel about 'future you'?  Can you see possibilities and positive things for your future or is your future negative and difficult? When faced with a new challenge, do you find yourself filled with self-doubt? "I'll never be able to do this", or "I'm not good enough", or "I can't". How do you feel about 'past you'? When you judge yourself in a negative way it can lower your self-esteem. For example, when you've made a mistake, do you tend to judge yourself for it? Does your self-talk include comments such as "How could I be so stupid?"...
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21Nov

Culture Tip: Grayson Perry's Who Are You?

Camilla Nicholls

creativity, culture

Soul

The Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry talking recently about Who Are You?, his display of new works at the National Portrait Gallery in London, commented that, “identity is one of those words that gets used a lot particularly in political terms and it always seems a slippery term to me”. In this diverse collection of 14 portraits shown in the Gallery’s nineteenth and twentieth century rooms Perry uses his fierce intelligence and particularly winning aesthetic to try to pin that term down. The works have all been made in response to meeting...
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07Nov

The True Value of Volunteering in Sport

Join In

exercise, society, volunteer, wellbeing

Soul

Here at Join In, we often see the effect that volunteering has on people. We love hearing how rewarding our volunteers find it to help others, and make a difference in their communities. So we decided to look into the subject a little bit more with an independent online survey. What did we find? Our first conclusion was that volunteering in sport makes you happier. This wasn’t exactly new- previous research in other volunteering sectors has found much the same thing. The big question was how much happier? Could we quantify this? Well, yes we could. The results...
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03Nov

The Runners: Life on the Move

Camilla Nicholls

exercise, films, society, wellbeing

Soul

Camilla Nicholls on short film The Runners, which reveals the philosophers in all of us ordinary people.
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29Oct

What Do Your Dreams Mean?

Philippa Perry

dreams, self

Soul

Dreams, says Philippa Perry, are an important way of understanding ourselves. They are a metaphor for our psyches and a way of unpeeling our unconscious to reveal what we are truly thinking. Philippa’s dream workshop was the first co-production between welldoing.org and the how to: Academy; it was held at the beautiful Condé Nast College of Fashion and Design in Soho, London on October 28. I joined a capacity crowd to hear Philippa, a (non-practising) psychotherapist, teach us how to gather meaning from our nighttime adventures. She doesn't agree with Freud...
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21Oct

What To Do When A Friend Is Bereaved

Markie Robson-Scott

bereavement, care, family, friendship

Soul

When a close friend is bereaved – especially when the death is traumatic and unexpected – what’s the best way to offer support? Is emailing appropriate? Should you phone or rush round? What if they’re far away? It’s easy to feel paralysed and hopeless when everything you say sounds trite. If all you can come up with are glib phrases like ‘I can’t imagine the pain you’re in,’ or ‘I’m thinking of you constantly’, is it better to keep quiet? It’s essential, says integrative psychotherapist Sue Cowan-Jenssen, to realise that offering support is better than...
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20Oct

The Power of Big Picture Thinking

Chris Skellett

self, wellbeing

Soul

The pace of modern life seems to continually hold us back from thinking about the bigger picture. Instead, we are locked into a world where we focus on simple facts and information. We do not dwell on context or seek a wider analysis in our conversations. It's also a world where we rarely pause to reflect upon more personal conceptual questions, such as who we are, where we are going, and what life is all about for us. These are the kind of questions that require us to ‘change gear’ in our thinking; to lift ourselves up from asking questions that require...
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17Oct

Trolling: What Does it Say About Us?

Sue Cowan-Jenssen

society

Soul

Sue Cowan-Jenssen examines our tendency to hide behind trolling on the internet and how this behaviour can limit our own personal happiness and success.
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10Oct

5 Adventurous Wellbeing Retreats

Caroline Sylger

health, retreats, spas, wellbeing

Soul

Want some adventure with your wellbeing? On these wonderful healthy holidays you can see the world but look after yourself at the same time, says retreat journalist Caroline Sylger
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25Sep

Culture Tip: Pride

Camilla Nicholls

Soul

When watching Pride, written by Stephen Beresford and directed by Matthew Warchus, a warm, witty and timely film based on true events during the miner's strike of 1984, I was reminded of one of my favourite protest posters of the late twentieth century: 'If Thatcher gets up your nose, picket'.  I was taken back to a period of my life when bucket-waving and badge-wearing were everyday occurrences. I recall a time of political certainty for myself and my peers. We knew we wanted 'Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Out, Out, Out!' We didn't want to go to war. We didn't want...
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