Vocal Power | Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Looking for Free adult Coloring pages ? | Coloring Pages for adults. Why time management is ruining our lives | Oliver Burkeman | Technology. The eternal human struggle to live meaningfully in the face of inevitable death entered its newest phase one Monday in the summer of 2007, when employees of Google gathered to hear a talk by a writer and self-avowed geek named Merlin Mann. Their biggest professional problem was email, the digital blight that was colonising more and more of their hours, squeezing out time for more important work, or for having a life. And Mann, a rising star of the “personal productivity” movement, seemed like he might have found the answer.
He called his system “Inbox Zero”, and the basic idea was simple enough. Most of us get into bad habits with email: we check our messages every few minutes, read them and feel vaguely stressed about them, but take little or no action, so they pile up into an even more stress-inducing heap. Instead, Mann advised his audience that day at Google’s Silicon Valley campus, every time you visit your inbox, you should systematically “process to zero”. Bates Method - Techniques. In this section: Basic Principles Containing an overview of Bates Method Techniques and how they work to restore eyesight. Palming Perhaps the simplest of all the techniques, Palming is also regarded as a foundation for learning how to relax the eyes and mind. Sunning Sunning is the simplest application of light to the eyes, this technique provides a similar foundation for the eyes as Palming. Together they provide the basis of all vision: the discernment between light and dark. The Swings The Swings introduce the vision and mind to movement in the world.
This section contains descriptions of five different types of visual swing. The Sway The Sway is also an excellent method for learning to see movement in the world. Need a break? Don’t fall into the too-tired-to-rest trap | Life and style. You already know, I take it, that you’re supposed to take regular breaks throughout the work day. You’ve seen the stories about how sitting at a desk is worse than attacking yourself with an Ebola-infected chainsaw; you heard that the Geneva conventions were recently expanded to make eating lunch at your desk a war crime. You know you should get up, do some yoga poses, nip to the park, perhaps even take a nap – all the research shows you’ll be happier and more productive that way, plus you’ll get to leave the office earlier, with energy to spare.
But you don’t actually do these things, do you? Instead, you check Facebook. All of which highlights a frustrating irony about rest and recuperation. The too-tired-to-rest trap is familiar to many of us in the form of “bedtime procrastination”, as it was labelled in a 2014 study – “failing to go to bed at the intended time, while no external circumstances prevent a person from doing so”. Is there any way out of the trap? How to ask a new employer for homeworking | Timewise Jobs. Tips on making a business case for working from home A recent survey highlighted that 7.5 million British employees would rather work from home one day a week than get a pay rise.
For employees over 45, they felt that homeworking increased their productivity and made them feel less stressed and more in control of their workload. If you secure a full-time role and want to make a homeworking request, then here are some tips to help you make an attractive business case. Work hard to make it work If you’re not being productive when working from home, then it will show, so don’t be nervous about making the request.
Building your case Really think through how you see homeworking fitting with your role, and also think about whether your personality actually suits this way of working. Here are some other points to consider when building your case: How will your job work out of the office? Take a look at the job description and ask yourself if any elements of the role can actually be done remotely. The Loneliness Quiz - Psych Central. Mental health at work. Mental Health in FE | MHFE. Wellbeing at work. Wellbeing at work Key findings▲ A good work-life balance reduces employee stress levels Job security and greater personal control helps motivate workers Companies benefit from promoting well-being through increased staff loyalty, creativity and productivity Share this: Photo credit: Ronny-André Bendiksen March 26, 2014 // Written by: Karen Jeffrey, Researcher, WellbeingSaamah Abdallah, Senior Researcher and Programme Manager, WellbeingJuliet Michaelson, Associate Director, Wellbeing Sorcha Mahony Wellbeing at work: The benefits Wellbeing plays a central role in creating flourishing societies.
For decades, organisations have tried to foster these qualities through employee engagement strategies but engaging employees is just one part of the story. Strengthen their personal resources. Wellbeing at work: The evidence The Wellbeing at work report summarises the strongest evidence on the factors that influence wellbeing at work, along with possible implications for employers. Issues More More. Why choosing the right workout could fine-tune your brain. By Teal Burrell PUMPING iron to sculpt your biceps. Yoga poses to stretch and relax. Running to whittle your waistline and get fit fast. There are loads of reasons why it’s smart to exercise, and most of us are familiar with the menu of options and how each can shape and benefit your body. But we are discovering that there are numerous ways in which exercise makes you smart too.
That the brains of exercisers look different to those of their more sedentary counterparts is, in itself, not new. But a new chapter is beginning in our understanding of the influence of physical exercise on cognition. They are looking beyond the standard recommendation of 30 minutes of moderate, aerobic exercise a day, for the sake of your brain. Coping with catastrophe: what keeps us going in the face of adversity? Amie Du Buisson-Spargo is a drama student set to follow in the footsteps of Grace Kelly and Robert Redford when she starts at the New York acting school they attended.
She faced stiff competition – and never let on that she lives with a rare, incurable condition, gastroparesis, that means she can’t eat solid food and must be fed via a tube into her intestine for 10 to 15 hours a day. “I try to do it at night, so that it doesn’t interfere with my day-to-day life,” she says. “It’s difficult, though, since it means I’m connected to a machine on the mains supply and I can’t really move; it’s difficult to get a good night’s sleep. But it’s just one of those things you have to adjust to.”
So, how does a young person such as Du Buisson-Spargo keep going? Resilience is our response to an event that could otherwise impair our normal function. George Bonanno, a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University, and his team have studied how people cope with adversity. What is computer vision syndrome – and how can I prevent it? Do you sit in front of a screen at work for hours, then leave with a headache, sore, dry, blurry eyes and a painful neck? If so, welcome to computer vision syndrome (CVS), a condition just waiting to happen to those who use a screen for more than three hours a day. This happens to be quite a lot of us – about 70 million worldwide. At the risk of being alarmist, some researchers argue that CVS is the “No 1 occupational hazard of the 21st century”.
But back pain, tension headaches and discomfort are not inevitable consequences of screen time – perhaps we should simply be more careful. At the very least, we should encourage our children to develop good screen habits. A study of 642 students in Iran between the ages of 11 and 18 found that about 70% used computers for at least two hours a day. Eyes work harder when they read from a screen because computer images are made of pixels, tiny dots that have a bright centre and blurred edges. Home - Ladan SoltaniLadan Soltani | Live with greatness! Our gigantic problem with portions: why are we all eating too much? If you want to see how inflated our portion sizes have become, don’t go to the supermarket – head to an antique shop. You spot a tiny goblet clearly designed for a doll, only to be told it is a “wine glass”.
What look like side plates turn out to be dinner plates. The real side plates resemble saucers. Back in a modern kitchen, you suddenly notice how vast everything is – 28cm has become a normal diameter for a dinner plate, which in the 1950s would have been 25cm. Just because we are eating off these great expanses of china does not of course mean that we have to serve ourselves bigger portions.
But as it happens, we usually do. Brian Wansink is a psychologist (author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think) who has done numerous experiments to prove what you would hope common sense might already tell us: that oversized tableware makes us consume bigger portions. In fact, it seems that the only people who are immune to big portions are tiny children.
Jay’s typical food day. Why feeling like a fraud can be a good thing. Image copyright iStock If you feel inadequate or that you are likely to be "found out" at work, you're probably not alone. It's part of a phenomenon called the "imposter syndrome" and it's very common, writes journalist Oliver Burkeman. "I have written 11 books but each time I think 'Uh-oh, they're going to find out now,'" the novelist Maya Angelou once said. "I've run a game on everybody, and they're going to find me out. " Angelou was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and won five Grammys for her spoken recordings, plus a myriad other awards. But the "impostor phenomenon" - sometimes known as impostor syndrome - had her firmly in its grip. You've probably felt the same. So you may not find it reassuring to learn that Angelou felt it too. "Sure," you tell yourself, "she thought she was a fraud - but I really am one.
Image copyright Getty Images But the truth is you're far from the only sufferer. "But you have to come across as being relatively competent and confident. " Image copyright AFP. How to be happy: follow these five easy steps. The key to happiness, according to the latest research, is knowing where to look. We’re conditioned from a young age to aim high and seek fulfilment in a better job, fresh achievement and further success – and yet these goals are more likely to make us miserable. If we’re driven, it may hold us back, says Dr Raj Raghunathan at the University of Texas. His research shows that supposedly successful and “intelligent” people don’t make life choices that lead to happiness. He noticed that after a reunion with his PhD class, the more visible their achievements – work promotions, pay rises, fancy holidays and bigger homes – the more unfulfilled and distracted they seemed overall. As a result he started to research why certain psychological traits – the desire to control, to feel important, needed and wanted – are the very ones that can get in the way of our wellbeing.
Don’t pursue happiness It’s a bit of a balancing act but we need to prioritise rather than chase happiness. Take responsibility. Forget mindfulness, stop trying to find yourself and start faking it. People are often surprised to learn that Confucius, Mencius, Laozi and other classical Chinese philosophers weren’t rigid traditionalists who taught that our highest good comes from confining ourselves to social roles. Nor were they placid wise men preaching harmonious coexistence with the natural world.
Rather, they were exciting and radical thinkers who exploded the conventions of their society. They sought to make the world a better place by expanding the scope of human possibility. The mid-first millennium BC was a similarly turbulent age to our own, giving rise to debates about how to live, how to be ethical and how to build a good society. Stop finding yourself Our thinkers would be sceptical of the existence of a true self, especially one you can discover in the abstract Here’s one popular assumption: it’s important to look within and discover who you really are, your true self.
Be inauthentic We aren’t just who we think we are, we can work on becoming better people all the time. Joint Pain Leaflet. 10 ways to beat loneliness | Society. 1) Feed a hen It was a chance remark by a resident of a Gateshead care home that sparked one of the UK’s most innovative schemes to tackle loneliness among older people and those with dementia. The man told carers he was “missing his girls, Joan and Betty and Doreen and Pat”. It turned out that the girls in question were his hens. He’d kept chickens all his life and missed the daily routine and sense of purpose that came from caring for them.
Working with local charity Equal Arts, Joanne Matthewson, manager of the Shadon House care home, arranged for six hens to be moved into the home on a six-month trial. So positive was the feedback that the HenPower programme was born and has now been rolled out in 40 care homes nationwide. It is also expanding to Australia and the Netherlands and is being trialled at a community centre in Hackney, east London, which works with young people with autism. Hen keepers give talks at primary schools and appear at festivals and roadshows. 3) Meet the street. Flying with Confidence - Fear of flying course from British Airways. Mood enhancer: go down to the woods today. In autumn our woodlands are at their most enchanting.
The sunlight angles gently in to create a changing mosaic of gold and brown; leaves twist and stall as they fall to the floor; branches chatter in the strengthening winds. It is the time of year when trees seem keenest to communicate with us, and when our bond with them is most vital. The polymath American biologist EO Wilson first propounded his theory of biophilia – that we have a deep affiliation with other forms of life, like trees, which is instinctive and rooted in our biology – in the mid-80s. Around the same time, Professor Roger S Ulrich completed one of the first and best-known studies in the interdisciplinary field now known as environmental psychology. Ulrich’s conclusion – that patients recovering from surgery in rooms with a window facing natural surroundings took less medicine for pain relief than patients with a window facing a brick wall – was groundbreaking. How Groundhog Day changed my life.
Can a movie change your life? How about a comedy? How about Groundhog Day? I believe that this wonderful film contains remarkable wisdom that can help you be happier and more fulfilled. There are three transformative principles at its heart that I have used to improve my life and that you can use to improve yours, too. Principle number one: practice makes perfect. Groundhog Day is a sustained, ingenious experiment in how to make the most of every day and live your life to the full.
Bill Murray’s character, Phil Connors, learns how to be incredibly resourceful as he turns a miserable day into a great day through consistent practice – until he masters the art of living his one day to the full. Ask yourself: “What could I think, say and do differently today?” The second principle: improve the quality of your inner life. This has been a big lesson for me. The third principle: appreciate that you have everything you need to be happy now.
Is it time for doctors to prescribe volunteering? | Voluntary Sector Network. Top 65 happy songs - Music. Timetable. 30 Day Free Trial - focus@will - Music for focus. Being unhappy or stressed will not kill, says study. MindWorks Richmond - Home. Book Spa & Salon Appointments Online. Journaling. Therapy wars: the revenge of Freud | Oliver Burkeman | Science. 10 best foods to make from scratch and save money | Cook on a Budget.