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11Mar

My Mad Fat Diary: Journals as Therapy

Wendy Varley

creativity, family, therapy, TV

Soul

It doesn't matter in which decade you were an adolescent, My Mad Fat Diary will resonate. It's dark, funny, touching and painfully true. I was never fat (though I thought I was, agonising over my weight when it crept over – shock horror! – 9st) and never mad (though it's jarring to re-read my diaries and see the young me passing off casual mention of suicidal thoughts as "nervous tension"), but watching this programme is a sweet agony. It transports me right back to those teenage years of acute self-consciousness and vulnerability when binge-eating followed by...
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07Mar

Are Role Models Useful to Women?

Terri Apter

career, success, university, women

Soul

Do women need role models to help them achieve more?
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05Mar

What Not to Wear to Work - and Why

Anne Wilson

career, unemployment

Work

Does it matter what you wear at work? In an ideal world, perhaps it shouldn’t matter what you wear, as long as you’re good at your job. In the real world, in many jobs, it matters quite a bit. Lawrence needed a company to organise a corporate event. “I met this woman twice and both times she wore a low cut top. Great for a night out, but for a financial services conference? I don’t think so.” The business went to someone else. And here’s Alice talking about a new grad who hasn’t realised yet that his clothes are stopping him being taken seriously: “His outfits...
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04Mar

Discovering Vedic Meditation

Nick Duerden

meditation

Soul

It's early on a Thursday evening, and I'm standing alongside a man I have just met, Will Williams, in his smart Shad Thames apartment. We are in front of a photograph of Guru Dev, one of the masters of the Vedic tradition, and Will has his eyes closed while singing something in Sanskrit and offering the gifts I was encouraged to bring - three pieces of fruit, a bunch of thornless flowers - to the guru. As he sings, I steel a glance at Will. His eyes are closed, and he looks utterly serene. Will himself does not resemble what we in the west think of as a "guru". He is...
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04Mar

How to Control Emotional Binge Eating

Jayne Cox

bingeeating, eatingdisorders, emotions, nutrition

Body

Understanding the reasons behind emotional overeating is not easy says life coach Jayne Cox
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03Mar

"Head in a Car Crusher": Understanding Autism

Phoebe Caldwell

books, care, society

Mind

When I first started to work with people on the autistic spectrum, I was given a very bad piece of advice: because the brains of people with autism were damaged, one should not listen to what they had to say. The implication was that they had nothing useful to contribute. I repeat this now only because it highlights how completely our perspective on autism has been challenged and redirected by the autobiographical accounts of such courageous people as Temple Grandin, Donna Williams and many others, presenting us with the view from the inside. Starting as a...
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28Feb

It's Good for You: High-Strength Fish Oils

Welldoing

nutrition, wellbeing

Body

How high-strength fish oils can boost your immunity and offer other health benefits
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28Feb

Tantric Trance

Claudine Levy

meditation, sex

Body

Think of the word ‘trance’ and you think of music, drug-fuelled dance and trippy raves off the M25 in the 80s. Think of the word tantric and you think of sex. Now put the two together and you have yourself a very alternative way to spend your time. It was with this in mind that I blindly followed my friend into a church in Vauxhall on Saturday night. The space was lit with flickering candle-light and the smell of incense was overwhelming.  Various free-spirits festooned the pews, stretching and deep breathing, as if preparing to embark on a marathon of mind, body and...
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27Feb

Musical Meditation: Discovering LifeFlow

Nick Duerden

meditation, music

Soul

A few months ago now, I came across an audio meditation practice called LifeFlow, the conjoining of the two words presumably designed to illustrate the effortless link that should exist within all of us in the ideal world we all wish to inhabit. "You can allow this scientifically proven audio technology to bring your whole life into perfect harmony and feel peace of mind today!" read the aggressively motivational website blurb, employing, as these things invariably do, a proliferation of exclamation marks in pursuit of blanket persuasion. "YES!" it went on in...
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26Feb

Love Your Belly

Kate Codrington

complementaryhealth, massage, stress

Body

Few of us feel love for our bellies. We squeeze them into Spanx pants or belt them up Clarkson-style; our bellies are viewed as wayward creatures that will embarrass us given half a chance. As Susie Orbach says in her book Bodies: “Bodies are becoming our personal mission to tame, extend and perfect.” The reality of our soft, fallible selves is regarded as out of control and unacceptable. However, tension in the belly is translated into tight tissues, which can inhibit the function of our digestion, our backs and our hormonal flow. Ninety percent of serotonin is...
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