Read our posts about Soul

10Apr

How to Lift a Boring Conversation

Chris Skellett

friendship, self, society

Soul

Have you ever found yourself locked into a conversation which seems purely mundane or felt the need to escape a boring conversation? Author Chris Skellett shares some tips on how to get more out of conversation.
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03Apr

Do your Clothes Define you?

Jackee Holder

self

Soul

If you scanned your life what would come out tops as your favourite all time outfit? Mine was a check grey and white mixed wool and cotton mixed style blouson jacket. It had a collar that stood up with two lapels that added an extra sense of style to the garment. It looked great over skinny jeans covering my long, slender, sixteen year old legs that went on forever. It even made it onto television when I was a guest on a children's show with children's presenter Elvis Payne and a very young Gordon Honeycomb. It showed it’s dexterity when teamed up with a grey and white checked borderline skirt with pleats all the way round.
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31Mar

Wellcome Book Prize 2015: My Age of Anxiety by Scott Stossel

Camilla Nicholls

anxiety, books, culture, Wellcomebookprize

Soul

In My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread and the Search for Peace of Mind Scott Stossel uses his own experience of chronic and debilitating anxiety to examine with clarity and charm a condition that is thought currently to affect 15 percent of people in the UK.
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25Mar

Digital Detox at Middle Piccadilly

Louise Chunn

retreats, spas, stress, technology, wellbeing

Soul

Rather than staying away from easy addictions like alcohol or sugar, you are expected to dis-avow the very oxygen of 21st century life: the internet. For me this is complicated by two contradictory facts: I have founded a business on the internet; the business is to promote well-ness, which can be destroyed by the downsides of the internet. And yet I craved the chance to detach myself from its distractions.
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21Mar

Culture Tip: x + y

Jacqueline Palmer

autism, culture, films

Soul

Morgan Matthews' film x + y sensitively explores the world of autistic teenager Nathan; a film for anyone who has ever felt on the outskirts.
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20Mar

International Happiness Day: Go Out and Play

Elisha Goldstein

anxiety, depression, happiness, society, stress, wellbeing

Soul

Children play. Nobody has to show them how to do it; they're just born knowing.  But as adults, we become so disconnected from it that we forget what it is and how to do it. Psychiatrist Stuart Brown, who founded the nonprofit organisation National Institute of Play in California, says: 'Play is an ancient, voluntary, inherently pleasurable, apparently purposeless activity or process that is undertaken for its own sake, and that strengthens our muscles and social skills, fertilises brain activity, tempers and deepens out emotions, take us out of time, and enables a...
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18Mar

Wellcome Book Prize 2015: Do No Harm by Henry Marsh

Louise Chunn

books, career, culture, Wellcomebookprize

Soul

This book may not sound like an easy read. Chapter after chapter about the triumphs, tragedies and tribulations of a London-based neurosurgeon as he looks back over 40 years of treating serious accidents and illnesses. Blood, bone, brain and many tears. Doctors live with life and death decisions every day; they seem to be able to cut themselves off the human tragedy. But some, like Henry Marsh, can use what they see, hear, and ultimately do, to open us up to essential truths about life and what really matters. That’s why this book has made the shortlist of...
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09Mar

Wellcome Book Prize Shortlist Announced

Welldoing

books, culture

Soul

This year’s Wellcome Book Prize shortlist is an amalgam of non-fiction and fiction books that as head of judges Bill Bryson said today, are “all accessible, engaging and beautifully written”. Deciding on the six books that would make the shortlist was “like being in the world’s best book club”, said the best-selling non-fiction author. The prize, which was relaunched last year with the strap line “books for the incurably curious”, is for publications that engage with some aspect of medicine, health or illness. As Ken Arnold, Head of Public Programmes at the...
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07Mar

Why We Need International Women's Day

Terri Apter

men, society, women

Soul

Explanations of women’s under-representation in science, technology, engineering and maths (only 14% of women entering University choose science related subjects, compared to 39% of boys) are usually stacked up like layers on a wedding cake. The bottom layer, the stodgy foundation, is about “hard wiring”.  Fortunately, claiming that gender career segregation is down to differences in women’s and men’s brains is now high risk; though this claim has helped launch one Cambridge professor as a star, it has also brought down one Harvard president. Girls opt for...
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06Mar

Healing Music

Terry Snow

creativity, music, wellbeing

Soul

Music often strikes a chord with us deep down, even if we don't understand why. Terry Snow explores the healing power of music composition and listening.
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