Read our posts about Soul

21Feb

The Top Five Regrets of the Dying

Susie Steiner

emotions, psychology

Soul

So there I was, on a miserable February morning, watching the rain dribble down the windows of the Guardian offices at Kings Place, searching for stories for the feature pages, when I came upon a website belonging to an Australian palliative nurse who had written a fascinating survey. Bronnie Ware had asked her dying patients about their greatest regrets in life and had condensed their wisdom down to produce The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. I read it hungrily, for perspective, for comfort, as anyone would. The features editors weren’t interested in it for...
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19Feb

Why Writers Need Retreats

Deborah Dooley

creativity, retreats

Soul

 Most writers develop the ability to block out noise and a certain amount of chaos. Complete peace and quiet is a rare commodity, so in the interests of getting any work done, this is a skill worth nurturing. What writers don’t always manage is to block out the endless nagging feeling that there is something else they should be doing. And this feeling is invariably made worse when the writer is working from home – as so many writers do. The answer of course, is to leave home for a while and go on a retreat. Preferably a writing retreat. A jobbing journalist, as I was...
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13Feb

How to Meditate: Discovering Headspace

Nick Duerden

meditation, mindfulness

Soul

In his book Headspace: 10 Minutes Can Make All The Difference, Andy Puddicombe writes: "This is meditation, but not as you know it. There's no chanting, no sitting cross-legged, no need for any particular beliefs… and definitely no gurus." This, then, is  Meditation 2.0,  aiming to free the practice from its hippy associations . Puddicombe is mindfulness's first poster boy, a former monk and  circus trainer, who boasts good bone structure and an Abercrombie & Fitch dress sense. The New York Times has already suggested he is "doing for meditation what Jamie...
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12Feb

What I Would Tell the Younger Me

Angela Neustatter

friendship, marriage

Soul

Angela Neustatter contemplates what she would tell her younger self
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10Feb

What To Do When a Friend Dies

Louise Chunn

bereavement, friendship

Soul

Louise Chunn mourns the loss of an old friend, Guardian journalist Georgina Henry, and wonders what we are supposed to do to mark our sadness when friends die
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30Jan

Seven Ways to Streamline Your Schedule

Linda Blair

psychology, stress, tips

Soul

Techniques to help stop you being overwhelmed and learn to manage your time, and streamline your schedule
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29Jan

Why Carmel Allen Founded Kiss It Better

Louise Chunn

empathy

Soul

Cosmetics can get a bad rap from serious-minded people, but sometimes a lipstick is much more than an indulgence. Carmel Allen has used lipsticks to help raise £800,000 for research into childhood cancer with her charity Kiss It Better, which celebrated its 10th birthday today. I remember where the whole thing started.   Carmel was a much-respected beauty director on the glossy magazine that I was editing. One morning she didn’t turn up for work – and phoned to say that she didn’t know if she could ever work like that again. Her baby Josephine, who was not even one, ...
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27Jan

Meditation: My Journey Begins

Nick Duerden

meditation, stress

Soul

I have never had much time in my life for peace or quiet, and have never really craved either. My mind is a happy hive of perpetual activity, everything churning away up there all the time, day and night. My wife points out, with reason, that I never sit still, never stop. At night, I dream of work, and on holidays, thanks to technology, I take it with me. In sleep, I grind my teeth. The RSI I developed 20 years ago was put down to overwork, poor posture, bad habits, a lack of inner calm. My solution was to start swimming, every day. I swam fast, faster than people in...
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23Jan

Culture tip: The Reason I Jump

Jon Madge

books

Soul

Knowing what we’re really thinking is an elusive enough goal, knowing what someone else has on their mind is harder still, and what if that person thinks in an entirely different way? That’s often how the minds of people with autism are depicted: qualitatively different and impossible to understand. The Reason I Jump breaks through a lot of the misconceptions surrounding autism and gives an insight into how the author, a person with autism himself, sees the world. Translated, and featuring a forward, by acclaimed author David Mitchell, the book is a combination of...
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19Jan

Four Thoughts on Anxiety About Ageing

Anne Karpf

self, women

Soul

1. Why are some older people described as 'still beautiful', as though age mostly erases beauty? Banish the words from your vocabulary, along with other self-deprecating remarks about ageing bodies, and admiring comments about people who don't look their age. Train your eyes to recognise and your language to include 'old and beautiful'. 2. We read so often about frail old people yet resilient, engaged, vital and outraged ones surround us. If they're not in your family seek them out as your friends, especially if you're young: it will help dispel the...
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