I went for a 5K run with my daughter at the weekend. She was surprised that I was running without listening to music. She said, “But you’ll be stuck in your own thoughts all the time.” And what’s wrong with that. I guess the problem is that many people do not have...

In recent years society has been taking mental health more seriously, and one thing we are discovering is that positive change is easier than we thought. Although support can be patchy and largely privately provided, mental healing is possible. For hundreds of years...

Language of Love One of the most rewarding things that we can do in life is being in a long-term, happy relationship. When this aspect of life works, we feel like we can conquer the world. Yet at the same time if it isn’t working well, if our needs are not being met,...

Storytelling is built into human DNA. We like to tell stories and to listen to them. Children learn through story structure, and adults do too. Even when I worked as an account and was presenting monthly financial results, I would look for what story the numbers were...

In my last blog piece, I talked about compassion, recognising the suffering of others and then taking action to help. And that compassion should be a year-round activity not just a Christmas special. As we step full force into the festive giving period, doing so with...

As we move into our annual festive period, people become more motivated to help others. Footballers and TV stars turn up at children’s hospitals, local news programmes show people helping the disadvantaged, and we give gifts to our friends and family. Christmas is...

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of John F Kennedy (JFK). Most people reading this will not know where they were when they heard the news of his death, because most of us weren’t born then. So why does his death still echo down the decades? I...

On the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, of 1918, the guns on the western front fell silent. The Great War, the war to end all wars, ended. Every year on this day we remember the fallen from the Great War and from more recent conflicts too. We wear...

School is good for learning to read, write, and to do basic maths. In school we also learn a little about how the world is. All of this means that we can contribute to society. But this is just the start of our learning journey. We can, or indeed should make our...