It has been some time since I posted and much has changed both within my focus and outside it. I am 18 months into a teaching career that has proved massively more rewarding and enjoyable than I could possibly have imagined. Social media is filled with positive spins on everyone’s life – people cherry picking … Continue reading The road being travelled
Health and Wellbeing
The people around us
I discovered the other day that someone I have known for many years committed suicide. This is the second time I have experienced someone connected to me taking their own life; a friend of mine also committed suicide when he and I were both in our late teens. Knowing one person who took their own … Continue reading The people around us
Chemicals and depression
There was an article on the BBC News website a couple of weeks ago outlining a potential new treatment for the severely depressed. The treatment is nasally-administered ketamine which, according to a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, led to significant improvements in the symptoms of heavily depressed and suicidal patients. The effects … Continue reading Chemicals and depression
Fairweather Fitness: or the Value of Discipline
I was out running on Sunday morning and it struck me that there seemed to be massively more other runners out than usual. Great to see so many people also making the effort to get themselves fit, you might think. But hold on a minute. These are all new runners – they haven’t been out … Continue reading Fairweather Fitness: or the Value of Discipline
Is life about happiness?
I’m not sure why, but I have never seen happiness as a necessary outcome of my life. Indeed, for large portions of my life, I haven’t even seen my own happiness as desirable. I don’t know whether that is, in itself, good or bad but I do know that at many times I have lacked … Continue reading Is life about happiness?
How to get started exercising
There is a great deal written about exercise: how you should exercise, when you should exercise, what body parts you should exercise… The MOST IMPORTANT PART of exercising is simply deciding to do it and ACTUALLY DOING IT.
Once you have made the decision, just do it – in whatever form you feel most comfortable and engaged with. Walk, run, swim, pogo stick, skip, play football… Whatever takes your fancy, just do it.
The Value of Exercise
For me, and for many other people I know and have read about, exercise is enormously beneficial to my state of mind as well as my general health.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is one of the most valuable and transformative meditation techniques I have tried – and I’ve tried plenty! I am always sceptical of techniques and processes that make bold claims to change your life but in this case there is not only anecdotal evidence (myself included) but also scientific evidence.
5 Danger Signs
Self-deception is one of the most difficult hurdles to jump when it comes to rebuilding. Often, the signs that not everything is right are clear - it is just that you willfully ignore them!
Here are five danger signs that all is not right with you.
Robin Newton 