Category Archives: Mental Health

Older women: Elder, not elderly

Posted on March 14, 2023 by Angela

It’s getting close to mother’s day here in the UK (here’s a list of mother’s day dates worldwide) and that set me thinking about women and the different stages of our lives … and, naturally enough, Sheila Hancock. In a … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Kindness, Listening, Love, Mental Health, Mythology, Psychology, Women | Leave a comment

Kindness

Posted on January 14, 2023 by Angela

In Matt Haig’s The Comfort Book – reflections on hope, survival and the messy business of being alive – he writes: Life is short. Be kind. A beautiful thing to be. (The Comfort Book is also beautiful, full of ‘consolatons … Continue reading →

Posted in Good Things, Kindness, Mental Health, Psychology | Leave a comment

The Good Ally by Nova Reid

Posted on July 14, 2022 by Angela

When Claudia Rankine, a Black poet and playwright, was asked by a white man, after a reading from Citizen: An American Lyric (Rankine’s 2014 anthology about the collective effects of racism in our society) ‘What can I do for you? … Continue reading →

Posted in Allyship, Antiracism, Books, Climate Change, Democracy, Education, Equality, Health, Human Rights, Mental Health, Psychology, Racism, White Allies, White Fragility, Women | Leave a comment

Stephen Lawrence Day 22 April 2022 #sldayfdn

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Angela

This is from Stephen’s Story on the Stephen Lawrence Day website: Stephen Lawrence was born and grew up in south-east London, where he lived with his parents Neville and Doreen, his brother Stuart and sister Georgina. Like most young people, … Continue reading →

Posted in Allyship, Antiracism, History, Human Rights, Mental Health, White Allies | Leave a comment

Black Minds Matter (BMM) : donations #BMMUK21K

Posted on July 14, 2021 by Angela

I’ve been in therapy, but the reasons for my therapy have never included the trauma of racism, of living inside a black or brown skin in a white-supremacist society. Nor have I been misinterpreted because the colour of my therapist’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Antiracism, Fiction, Health, Mental Health, Psychology, Racism, Writing | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Creativity, Mental Health, Mind, Psychology, reading, Things I'd Love to Have Made | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Artists, Creativity, Love, Mental Health, Psychology, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Women, Writers, Writing | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Bookshops, Creativity, Mental Health, Psychology, Things I'd Love to Have Made | 1 Comment

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 →

Posted in Art, Creativity, Jewellery, Mental Health, Poetry, Psychology, Science | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Artists, Creativity, Mental Health, Poetry, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Walking, Writers, Writing | Leave a comment