Read our posts about Soul

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, counselling, family, friendship

Soul

Markie Robson Scott offers advice and support about the best way you can offer support to a bereaved friend. Show up, don't shut up.
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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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18Sep

How I Fell in Love with a Dog

Louise Chunn

love

Soul

I didn't see this coming, this puppy love. If truth be told, I agreed to my teenage daughter's pleas for a dog because (a) I thought it would provide company for her in the evenings so that my husband and I could go out more easily,  and (b) I realised that I was never going to extricate myself from my desk without being forced. I could blame welldoing.org for that - launching a website is beyond hard work, and as long as you're sentient you will be sitting at a desk, gazing at a screen. Having done some research on the internet, we drove to Norfolk where a...
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31Aug

Why Won't We Help Each Other Out?

Jane McGregor

empathy, psychology

Soul

What prompts us to ignore the distress of other people? We’ve all found ourselves in situations - the times we’ve seen someone taunted and didn’t intervene; when we’ve driven past a car that has broken down, assuming another driver would pull over to help. We’ve noticed a young man slumped on the pavement, and not gone over to check if he’s okay. We witness a problem; consider doing something, then respond by doing... nothing. Something holds us back. So why don’t we help in these situations? Apathy can immobilise us when we feel the impulse to flee and help at the...
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28Aug

Imagine A World Without Trees?

Jackee Holder

wellbeing

Soul

Can you imagine what your neighbourhood or this country would look like if there were no trees covering the countryside or dotted around our cities, towns or villages? In her novel The Twelve Tribes Of Hattie, author Ayana Mathis describes this scene perfectly when she writes, “ She smelled the absence of trees before she saw it…” There was a time in the past when the UK was covered in wild forests, where trees would live for up to 2000 years. Surely the ancient trees that have survived, who have worked so hard on our behalf, providing wood, habitat for animals and...
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