Read our posts about Soul

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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11Aug

Under Pressure: As a Millennial experiencing the Quarter Life Crisis

Alice Stapleton

career, love, stress

Soul

Increasing numbers of generation Y are experiencing a quarter life crisis due to the barrage of work and social pressures of the modern age.
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04Aug

Top 5 Retreats in the English Countryside

Caroline Sylger

health, retreats, spas, wellbeing

Soul

You don't have to travel far for relaxation – here's our pick of 5 beautiful UK retreats
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23Jul

What We Don't Know About Death

Patricia Pearson

bereavement, death

Soul

I’ve heard ghost stories about death before, but, until the spring of 2008, I didn’t realise that in reality they were usually love stories. No one in my family realized that until, one March morning, my father unexpectedly died in his sleep. My beloved elder sister Katharine happened to be awake in her bedroom one hundred miles east, that night. All of a sudden, she sensed a presence with her, and felt hands gently cupping the back of her head. Tender, loving hands; an inexplicable swirl of energy. It was an utterly uncanny sensation that she’d never had...
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11Jul

I'm a Female TV Sports Addict

Anne Wilson

sport, TV

Soul

Do you realise the pressure I’ve been under this summer? Not because of my job, or an unusual number of family celebrations. Instead, it’s the pressure of watching every World Cup game, the tennis, the Tour de France and keeping an eye on the Premiership transfer market, whilst still maintaining a semblance of normal family life. I love watching sport; I was brought up on it. It was a family thing - tennis and athletics for mum, footie for dad. I remember the delicious ritual of closing the curtains to keep out the summer sun while we watched the Olympics,...
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02Jul

Writing Fiction Airs My Demons

Joanna Briscoe

books, creativity, therapy, writing

Soul

We all know that diary and letter writing can be cathartic, but writing longer fiction works as therapy on several different levels says novelist Joanna Briscoe
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23Jun

Top 5 Sea Retreats

Caroline Sylger

retreats, spas, wellbeing

Soul

Go with your lover to the Maldives Spa time at Constance Halaveli (above) If my husband and I ever won the lottery, it’s the Maldives we’d head to first, to have treatments, drink champagne and plan our new life together. There are all sorts of glamorous retreats out there, but we rather liked Constance Halaveli in the Ari Atoll, a civilised island with mahogany-lined over-water villas, exceptionally good Balinese therapists (ask for Ayu) in the over-water U Spa by Constance and delectable seafood (we got addicted to the reef fish balls). Hang out in the hot pools...
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11Jun

Beauty: What Lies Beneath the Makeup

Edyta Wanic

society, women

Soul

Inspired by the media coverage of the no-makeup selfie campaign by Cancer Research UK, I decided to research the influence of makeup on women’s lives by setting myself up as guinea pig for my student paper at the University of Warwick.   One day I went out barefaced and the next I wore noticeably more makeup than usual. How would I feel? And how would other people respond to me? I normally wear minimal makeup, but the idea of going out makeup-free even for a day made me feel uncomfortable.  I was concerned about looking unprofessional at work and...
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