Category: Health

More and more people are choosing to take a DNA test. This may be prompted by some popular TV programmes. ITV’s DNA Journey and Long Lost Family and BBC’s Family Secrets presented by Stacey Dooley which helps individuals to find their birth families through the use of DNA.

Young adults are an interesting demographic; often, their minds are more advanced than their physical bodies. Did you know that the pelvis remains in 3 parts, not fully fusing until we are 15?

When we imagine something, the same parts of the brain are active as when we actually experience the event. That’s to say, brain cells make no distinction between fantasy and reality. Because the mind and the body are intimately connected, when we remember an unpleasant experience, the feelings we had at the time come back to us.

Much of my work in schools over the years has been in the field of developing children’s thinking skills. Even now, much of the focus of the curriculum requires children to remember facts and reiterate them at exam time. Such recollection of information is a low-level skill. Creative thinking on the other hand is proactive, diverse, enjoyable and surprisingly easy to practise.

No, the above is not a typo. Glancing again at the phrase we realise that the language tricks us into thinking that there is a me to which the mind belongs. But what is this ‘me’ as distinct from the mind? And does the mind form a part of some greater me?

The Fitness box are excited to announce the brand new Ladies only fitness classes. Do you want to be toned, confident and strong? Do you want to improve your mood, your productivity and your energy levels?

The changing of the seasons can have a profound effect on our health, emotions and state of mind. Each season is related to a transition of life, to our experience of being human. Spring is a time of new life and rising energy (Yang). Working with acupuncture there are the five elements: water, wood, fire, earth and metal. The wood element is the one related to the season of spring. 

I have a confession to make. Many years ago, when I was at college, I used to splash on some ‘Burley’ cologne for men before going to the disco. Another confession I must make is that I’ve kept the bottle ever since: there’s a little bit of cologne left in it, and sometimes when I have a quiet moment by myself, I’ll unstopper the bottle, take a sniff and memories of those far-off disco days flood into my mind.

“Osteopathy isn‘t for me’'

Traditional acupuncture theories of health or illness are based on the concept of Qi (pronounced chee). There are several translations for the concept of Qi and the ones that resonate with my own perceptions are ‘life force’ and ‘vitality’. The derivation of the word Qi is from Chinese language and philosophy. Similar to our own complex language of English, the context of a word will give you so many different meanings! For example, in Chinese medicine the word “shengqi” can be anger, vitality, mood, sparkle, to sulk.