Category Archives: Mental Health

Deborah Alma’s Poetry Pharmacy: Poetry Prescriptions

Posted on August 14, 2020 by Angela

Last week I had a telephone consultation with a pharmacist. Not an unusual thing to do in these corona-times, but this pharmacist doesn’t dispense drugs. Deborah Alma is a Poetry Pharmacist. Before corona I’d planned to go to The Poetry … Continue reading →

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The Benefits of Reading the Old-Fashioned Way; and Splosh!

Posted on June 14, 2019 by Angela

I found this article about the benefits of reading to children at a young age on Mental Floss a little while ago: April, I think. Anyway I’ve just refound it and it delights me to know that a 2018 study has … Continue reading →

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Anne Lamott’s Twelve True Things; and Human Libraries

Posted on May 14, 2019 by Angela

Anne Lamott, whose Bird by Bird helped me immeasurably when I was writing my first novel, Speaking of Love (I was stuck, didn’t know what to write or how, but Lamott’s Bird by Bird dispelled my despair, took my hand and … Continue reading →

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A hug a day keeps the doctor away, and Brooklyn’s new Center for Fiction

Posted on April 14, 2019 by Angela

I read here, the other day, in an article by a South Korean Zen Buddhist monk called Haemin Sunim, that hugs have health benefits. Here he is and here’s part of what he wrote: Anthony Grant, a professor of psychology at … Continue reading →

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How Doctors use Poetry, and a blue-green stone

Posted on November 14, 2018 by Angela

Recently I spent a night in hospital and the thing that struck me about the nursing staff, as I watched them admit new patients to the ward, was their infinite kindness; their ability to explain exactly the same things to … Continue reading →

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Creativity and Patience; and walks with Mental Health Mates

Posted on September 14, 2018 by Angela

Being an artist means … ripening like the tree which does not force its sap and stands confident in the storms … summer [will] come. But it comes only to the patient … patience is everything! from Rainer Maria Rilke’s advice to Franz Xaver … Continue reading →

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