"When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago. "


Posts tagged with 'relationships'

Peer groups: Wiston autumn group – second reflection

12th November 2008

Yesterday was a normal day's work for me. The group is getting a bit more distant. In writing the reflection yesterday, I skipped past the structure of the final morning. Waking, writing, tea, fruit, greeting, breakfast. We negotiated details of the final morning timings. The start was the last meeting …

Peer groups: Wiston autumn group – first reflection

11th November 2008

When I woke this morning I lay for a few minutes, asked myself how I felt, went inside, and there's sadness, a sense of tears in my chest. And when I touch the sadness, try to sense what it's about, it seems about "missing", missing warmth, the hugs, a sea …

Peer groups: Wiston autumn group – fourth morning

10th November 2008

Yesterday I was away from the group for most of the day. I started as usual - got up, wrote, met others, breakfast. Then we came together briefly as the full 37 standing in a big circle outside the house on the gravel. OK, we had already been the full …

Peer groups: Wiston autumn group – third morning

9th November 2008

So yesterday was the second full day of the group and it went roaring along - like holidays where initially time moves slowly and then seems to accelerate. Here the "train" of group memories seems to gather pace for me by this second day. My sense has been that for …

Peer groups: Wiston autumn group – second morning

8th November 2008

Saturday - the group has now been running for 36 hours or so. As I'd expected, I slept much better last night than on the first 'just-arrived' night of the group. Getting up at around 7.00am, I still seemed to be the first person up and about - so it …

Peer groups: Wiston autumn group – first morning

7th November 2008

Back in May I wrote about a peer Mixed Group I have been involved in for many years. I explained how I'd been coming to this Mixed Group since 1991 and how the group had evolved and budded off both a Men's Group and Women's Group. I talked about the …

Recent research: a mixed bag of studies on personality, paranoia, burnout, somatization, and relationships

9th October 2008

This week's recent research post is a mixed bag of six studies covering the physiological & psychological changes triggered by being separated from one's partner, why similar levels of anxiety & interpersonal sensitivity can lead to social anxiety in some individuals and paranoia in others, how difficulty identifying feelings is …

Autism research centre

10th September 2008

I spent a bit of time exploring Cambridge University's Autism Research Centre (ARC) website recently. It's fascinating and helpful in so many ways. ARC apparently has over 30 research scientists and support staff. The website links to a series of freely downloadable research papers and assessment questionnaires. One of the …

Handouts & questionnaires for assessing & building good relationship networks

8th September 2008

Relationships are crucial. They are crucial in promoting resilience to stress, and they are crucial in enhancing wellbeing and happiness. Research suggests that all three of social support, social integration and (inversely) social conflict contribute to self-esteem and health. The relationship questionnaire & scoring provides a helpful way of assessing …

Nourishing self-esteem – second post

31st August 2008

In yesterday's post I discussed interesting research (Marigold, Holmes, & Ross, 2007) on boosting self-esteem by helping people allow appreciation in rather than dismissing it. In these studies, the typical experimental instructions were: "Think of a time when your partner told you how much he/she liked something about you. For …