Black History Month’s theme in the UK is Standing Firm in Power and Pride Paulette Hamilton, Labour MP for Birmingham Erdington writes: This year’s theme … is deeply personal to me, not just as Birmingham’s first Black MP, but as a woman who has dedicated her life to fighting for health equity in our communities. … Read More
Mental Health
I’m breaking up with my shame, on Valentine’s Day
There are studies that show what happens to couples on Valentine’s Day: the less attachment-avoidant among us fare better, as you might guess, and some of us break up. But what if the relationship is between a person and an emotion? My shame and I have been strongly-attached for decades. But now we’re breaking up. … Read More
BEING KIND CAN REDUCE CHRONIC INFLAMMATION. Who knew?
On 10 January, in Dr Michael Mosley’s series, Just one Thing, there’s an episode called Be Kind. In it, Mosley talks to Dr Tristen Inagaki, PhD of San Diego University whose studies show that being kind improves our immune systems and reduces the inflammation that can cause serious diseases. Being kind on a regular basis can … Read More
Older women: Elder, not elderly
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 2022 Guardian interview about her book Old Rage (brilliant title) and her life, Hancock talks … Read More
Kindness
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 and suggestions for making bad days better’. I was given mine for Chrstimas … why … Read More
The Good Ally by Nova Reid
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? How can I help you?’ she replied ‘I think the question you should be asking … Read More
Stephen Lawrence Day 22 April 2022 #sldayfdn
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, he juggled an active social life, school work, family commitments, and part-time employment. But he … Read More
Black Minds Matter (BMM) : donations #BMMUK21K
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 skin was different from my own. Which is why Black Minds Matter (BMM) is so necessary, … Read More
Deborah Alma’s Poetry Pharmacy: Poetry Prescriptions
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 Pharmacy in Bishops Castle, in June. But by the end of March I realised I … Read More
THE BENEFITS OF READING THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY; and Splosh!
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 discovered that: The simple act of reading to your kids can influence their behavior in … Read More
Anne Lamott’s Twelve True Things; and Human Libraries
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 led me step by step through the possibilities and the process, restored my confidence and … Read More
A hug a day keeps the doctor away, and Brooklyn’s new Center for Fiction
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 the University of Sydney, presented research results showing that, in addition to reducing anxiety and … Read More
How Doctors use Poetry, and a blue-green stone
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 each new, slightly-groggy patient as she was wheeled in, as if she was the only … Read More
Creativity and Patience; and walks with Mental Health Mates
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 Kappus from Letters to a Young Poet. Quotation found here. Patience. Now there’s a thing to … Read More