More than half the world’s population now lives in a large city, and by 2050 that figure will very likely jump to two thirds. China’s megacities in particular are fueling the trend, with more than 10 million new residents every year. Historically, urbanisation has brought about stupendous changes—the Renaissance, the industrial revolution, globalisation. Yet this […]
Romantic relationships can begin anywhere. When Cupid’s arrow strikes, you might be anywhere. My own romance with Sjoerd started with some hilarious double-entendre Dutch-language mistakes, together with an incident in the gas cyclinder storage cupboard (well, better than a bike shed, even if we are in Holland!). Sometimes, however, Cupid seems to have emigrated…so instead […]
I always smile enormously when science starts to catch up with what the healing-therapy-natural medicine community has been doing. So this month I share with you the latest scientific findings on mindfulness and EMDR. Mindfulness to Reduce Social Anxiety Many people who suffer the pain, depression and negative health effects associated with social anxiety […]
Practicing meditation might make you sick from colds less often, and botox treatments that prevent facial muscles from registering negative emotions and could help depression. Have I gone completely mad? Not in the least! The latest scientific research reveals both of these to be true. Meditate Away Your Cold To stop or get rid […]
Traditionally psychologists have attributed negative body image to pictures in the media of unusually thin or beautiful people with whom the rest of us compare our own physique. In June 2011 the American Medical Association released a statement that urged advertisers to stop the use of digitally altered photographs after researchers found links among exposure […]
When someone approaches you to ask, “What’s wrong?” you know that you are broadcasting unhappiness, whether or not you said a word. Perhaps it was a grimace or your sluggish gait that conveyed the message. You cannot help but communicate your mood to colleagues, neighbours and fellow commuters through numerous subtle cues. Sensing the emotional […]
I was standing in the queue, waiting to disembark from the airplane at Leeds Airport, when the strong acrid sweaty odour of a dishevelled man a few places in front of me, filled my nostrils. I found myself transported back into the sitting room of an old lady I used to visit when I was […]
The scientific community is just beginning to appreciate how the fields generated by living systems and the ionosphere interact with one another. For instance, the earth and the ionosphere generate a symphony of frequencies ranging from 0.01 hertz to 300 hertz, and some of the large resonances occurring in the earth’s fields are in the […]
At this time of year many of us are trying to turn over new leaves, and make plans for the coming year. We might even be trying to forget some of the more painful events of the last year. But is it possible to actually erase traumatic memories? For decades scientists believed that long-term memories […]
There seems to be no escaping stress. Even the good things in life can stress you out! (After all, “desserts” spelled backward is “stressed.”) You may think that the best way to reduce stress is through relaxation (e.g. yoga, meditation), but apparently that is NOT true…… Some experts suggest that a little stress is good […]
Many of you have (or are still) spending your Summer holidays outside your own country. This probably means that you have been trying to speak a few words of the local lingo….probably with mixed reactions, but probably lots of memorable fun too. Speaking different languages has always been something I’ve enjoyed, and the motivation (plus […]
Science and the Arts are full of highly creative people whose personal behaviour sometimes strikes others as odd. Albert Einstein picked up cigarette ends off the street to get tobacco for his pipe; Howard Hughes spent entire days on a chair in the middle of the supposedly germ-free zone of his Beverly Hills Hotel suite; […]