‘Somewhere a lightbulb flashed and fired me up, yesterday…’ ‘ . . .and I haven’t been able to stop since.’ A friend of mine ignored me for a few minutes, and carried on sketching something…. Read More
Connecting to the bigger picture
William Stafford is a poet whose writings I didn’t particularly know, until Matt Trinetti’s blog on Substack introduced me to this poem. I could see it – that highlight in bold is mine. It is the… Read More
Keeping well, and keeping ‘steady’.
I am often reminded of my friend Sue’s Uncle Bill, as a reference point for a good state of mind. When asked ‘How are you doing, Bill?’ he would reply with a broad smile, and… Read More
When is Mental Health Awareness Week? Right now: May 13th -19th 2024.
I have just been to see a friend who has cancer. She is gardening and keeping moving, in order to look after her overall health, as well as her mental health. I didn’t realise until… Read More
Data Breach, and Identity Theft
Making up passwords and passphrases I’m writing this because I was told that one of my rarely used websites uses a password that has been in a data breach. Now I have actually taught lessons… Read More
The Mind-Body link – 2
Physical Factors The way physical changes in the body occur in response to our thoughts, feelings and reactions is not fully understood. However, here are some possible mechanisms. When we are stressed, we release hormones,… Read More
The mind-body link
When people go to hospital or visit their doctors it is often because of physical symptoms. For some physical problems the diagnosis and treatment is clear. For example, if you have a broken leg your… Read More
How AI teaches itself to ‘sound human’
Where does the Artificial Intelligence machinery learn from? Is it the same as what I knew to be ‘machine learning’? There was a team of engineers outside my office in the London Stock Exchange in… Read More
On the final departure of Queen Elizabeth II
Hearing the news was accidental. I could easily have missed it – I don’t listen to the news much. My son was sitting next to me – he got a message from a class friend… Read More
Anxiety, grief and loss – three responses
Many people are suffering from grief just now. Personally, an uncle has passed away. My aunt is naturally sounding lost and bereft. Personal grief somehow brings into focus what might be felt by those in… Read More