Some interesting articles from April '08
20th May 2008
Here are details and links for about thirty mainly April articles that I found interesting. Most of these articles (and many others) are also listed on my searchable Connotea online database. Arbor (2008). "Folate and dementia (289)" Arbor Clinical Nutrition Updates 289(March): 1-3. [Full text] Arbor (2008). "Tea and health …
Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - second reflection
13th May 2008
There's a huge amount more I could reflect on about the group. I'll keep it here, though, to just a final set of thoughts about the overlapping field of group therapy. These peer groups are about all kinds of things - friendship, wellbeing, ‘retreat', fun - and they are also …
Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - first reflection
12th May 2008
Why are these groups often so great, so welcome, so precious? Real life is very rich - theories only capture aspects of this richness. However a theory, that I like a lot, highlights one reason why these peer groups are so important. The theory is Self-Determination Theory (SDT). It has …
Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - final day
11th May 2008
I wake feeling sadder this morning - partly because it's the last morning, partly because there are still feelings from yesterday hanging around. It's so interesting to notice the hugely different emotional spaces I move through over the intense four days of this kind of group meeting. Again a blessing …
Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - third full day
10th May 2008
Up, making time for a longer yoga practice this morning. Settle on Satie's piano music as a background CD. Sitting meditating with Catero. A plunge in the stream. Such a beautiful spring morning. Outside our bedroom window a wren is nesting and, on the other side, just outside our door …
Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - second full day
9th May 2008
Woke a bit after 6.00am. Lay in bed for a while, then up, washed. How am I feeling today? How am I feeling about the group? How are we doing? A bit pregnant, maybe a bit stuck. But at this stage of the group it isn't unusual to feel something …
Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - first full day
8th May 2008
The morning starts slowly and gently ... ambling up to the kitchen, doing some tidying away after the night before, switching on the big hot water urn ... then some yoga stretches, meditation, a plunge under the waterfall in the stream, walking up the drove path amongst the sheep and …
Peer groups: Cumbria spring group - arriving
7th May 2008
Catero and I drove down from Edinburgh starting a little after 2.30 pm and reached Fawcett Mill Fields in Cumbria less than three hours later. We've been to this lovely converted watermill so many times. Such a special place. We began - or this phase of meeting up with friends …
Walking retreat - second reflection
6th May 2008
Mindfulness - the mindfulness I experienced walking and camping in the hills was different from what I was expecting. This triggered thoughts that I classify under four headings: a.) mindfulness and simplicity. b.) what makes mindfulness helpful? c.) mindfulness & creativity. d.) the value of other altered states. I could …
Walking retreat - first reflection
5th May 2008
First thing on Monday morning. How delicious, warm, beautiful to spend last night in our own bed with darling Catero. Bliss. My body softens and settles. So how was that four nights camping in the mountains and climbing the nine Munros? I drove north thinking of adventure, connection and mindfulness. …