Synecdochically… what a great sounding word!
You might not know what it means – and before watching lexicographer Erin McKean’s highly entertaining TED talk I’d never even heard of it.
McKean discusses the future of dictionaries in the age of the internet – which might sound dry but her presentation certainly isn’t – it’s full of life and humour and easy to understand. Continue reading “Synecdochically Speaking … and Word of the Year 2016”
You might expect that the title of this campaign would appeal to me – and it does. So does the purpose.
Launched for World Mental Health Day, #IAMWHOLE is fronted by Jordan Stephens, the hip hop star from Brighton – one of the Rizzle Kicks duo – who lost someone to suicide and who’s had his own mental health issues, too. Continue reading “#IAMWHOLE”
‘Five ways to wellbeing’ was developed by NEF and is currently being promoted by Mind, the UK mental health charity. Simply put, it’s a framework to help us look after our mental and emotional health:
A close friend of mine recently sent me a link to the You Tube video of Carole King performing ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ in Hyde Park. Watching this (which I really liked) made me think of the words of another favourite song: ‘Lean on Me’ by Bill Withers:
“Lean on me, when you’re not strong
And I’ll be your friend
I’ll help you carry on
For it won’t be long
‘Til I’m gonna need
Somebody to lean on”
In the latest episode in the series broadcast last night Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall updated us on progress since last time and is now targeting the big coffee shop chains for using cups that aren’t recyclable (even though many of us thought they were – I did) and the amount of packaging used by Amazon. Continue reading “Hugh’s War on Waste: The Battle Continues”
How do you react when your plans are disrupted? Do you go with the flow?
Or do you get angry? Do you do everything you can to get back on track with your original plan?
Perhaps sometimes you let go, and see what other options arise? Continue reading “Disruption – Friend or Foe?”
What does it mean to be a man in today’s society? The age-old ‘nature versus nurture’ debate rages on, as does to what extent we all can (or want to) overcome any of the predisposition or (pre-)programming that exists from either source. Some of what’s out there may be generalisation but, even then, I quite often find ‘nuggets’ that might hold true. Continue reading “Men and Masculinity”
I’ve been on a few courses on mindfulness in recent years – it seems to be a bit of a buzzword at the moment, and in danger of being promoted in some circles as a bit of a ‘cure all’ perhaps? There’s a good deal of research being done with the aim of demonstrating how mindfulness might help us increase our alpha brain waves which could increase our creativity and also help relieve the symptoms of conditions such as depression, anxiety and chronic pain. Continue reading “Mindfulness – My Way”
I was talking to someone about resilience recently and was reminded of a CIPD branch event I went to a couple of years ago. The speaker was Andy Gibson, ‘Head Gardener’ at an organisation called ‘Mindapples’. Continue reading “Mindapples: five-a-day for our minds”
Whole People 