Berlin weekend: approaches to happiness
12th December 2009
Berlin, Saturday morning. We flew in from Edinburgh pretty early yesterday. Direct flight. Easy. Guilt over air travel a little allayed by buying carbon offsets through ClimateCare. We're staying in a Miniloft, one of the really nice set of self-catering apartments designed by Matthew Griffin & Brita Jurgens, an architect …
Recent research: six studies on depression - adolescents, heart disease, telephone management, memories, & primary care
10th December 2009
Here are half a dozen recent research papers on depression (all details & abstracts to these studies are listed further down this blog post). The first two are about the well-known Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS). There have been a whole series of research papers published on this …
Handouts and internet resources for healthy eating
7th December 2009
Here are details of information leaflets and other excellent resources about food. "We are what we eat" is bit over-simplified, but only a bit. It's amazing how important what we eat and drink is for our psychological and physical health. This site's blog posts "New research shows diet's importance for …
New research shows diet’s importance for preventing depression
6th December 2009
You know how it is - no buses in sight, then two come along at once. It's been a bit similar for good research on diet and depression. There have been plenty of studies on individual components of diet and mood (e.g. fish, folate, other B vitamins), but very little …
Recent research: articles from November journals
3rd December 2009
I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database - EndNote - which currently contains over 13,600 abstracts. Every few weeks I scan through all the articles I've found interesting in the previous month (in the general areas …
Recent research: diet associated depression, weight & violence, vitamin D fall prevention, IBS & anxiety, yoga & mindfulness
26th November 2009
Here are a mixed bag of six recent research papers on diet, vitamin D, IBS and yoga (all details & abstracts to these studies are listed further down this blog post). The first three papers highlight the toxic effects on psychological health, physical health, and society of our processed, high …
Peer groups: Cumbria autumn group – reflection
25th November 2009
Wednesday morning - about 36 hours since we got back to Edinburgh and less than a week since we began the group. The last half day started as usual with some of the "self-care practices" that quite a few us use (Tai Chi, meditation, running, and so on). Good breakfast, …
Peer groups: Cumbria autumn group – challenge & flowing on
23rd November 2009
I wrote in my last blog post how the group had begun to work more deeply/flowingly. Yesterday was the final full day. I've been dunking in the cold flood stream further upriver than during other groups. It sure wakes me up to strip and hold firmly onto roots as I …
Peer groups: Cumbria autumn group – flowing
22nd November 2009
And it's the third morning of the group. Yesterday again I took time for a usual mix of "self-care" - yoga, meditation, stream-dunking, tea & fruit. As I wrote yesterday, I was very aware of feeling frustrated and impatient with how I felt the group had been going and how, …
Peer groups: Cumbria autumn group – frustration
21st November 2009
Yesterday I wrote about arriving for this Men's Group in Cumbria. It's the second morning. Groups - particularly these residential interpersonal groups - seem a bit like rivers to me. They move on inexorably, often full of surprises. I may have some guesses as to how a group will evolve …