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A wellbeing journey with Víkingur Ólafsson
I recently watched the Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson performing live from his new home in Reykjavík. In that video, Víkingur played three pieces by Bach, Rameau and Debussy, but also talked about the power of music to take us on a journey, to transport us to another place, and to stabilize emotional turmoil especially during times of crisis. Unfortunately, that video is no longer available on YouTube, so I’m sharing today other videos with Víkingur Ólafsson on the piano. The power of music to stabilize emotional turmoil during a crisis As both a musicophile and a Psychiatrist, I am in total agreement with Víkingur Ólafsson. In fact, I have previously…
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Breathing, Music and Mental Wellbeing
When I published my posts about mental health and wellbeing, I did not include either breathing or music into the 10 key areas (of pillars) of mental wellbeing. I did, nonetheless, consider music (and music therapy) in the context of pleasurable activities (key area or pillar no 10). But how about breathing? On average, we breathe 16 times a minute, or 23,000 times a day. Over a lifetime, we take hundreds of millions of breaths. Yet, we barely think about breathing. Yoga (key area no 3), meditation and mindfulness (key area no 6) are practices that help bring our attention to our breathing. Deep breathing is actually an effective stress…
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Sophrology: Europe’s alternative to mindfulness
When I recently visited my friend Marie in Nantes, her 5-year-old daughter Daphne was about to start attending sophrology classes at school. Neither Marie nor I had been particularly familiar with sophrology (I had personally read an article in the Guardian, and that was pretty much all). So, we understandably struggled to explain it to Daphne. Since my return to England, however, I have tried to learn more about sophrology. Amongst the resources I used were the books ‘The Life-Changing Power of Sophrology: A practical guide to reducing stress and living up to your full potential’ by the Swiss sophrologist Dominique Antiglio, and ‘The Sophrology Method: Simple mind-body techniques for a…
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Self-isolation, social distancing and wellbeing
I’ve recently written a couple of posts about the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, the situation has dramatically changed since then; the number of cases and coronavirus-related deaths has sharply increased around the world. As I am writing this post, the death toll has reached 422 in the UK alone, whereas the total number of confirmed cases is now 8,077 across the country. On a global level, so far we have had 18,251 fatalities and 407,678 confirmed cases. As many countries are now in lockdown (including the UK as of this week), the terms ‘self-isolation’ and ‘social distancing’ have entered our daily vocabulary. In these challenging times, we should not forget our…
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Keep Calm and Carry On & Secrets to Serenity
The iconic ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ poster was originally produced by the British government in 1939 in preparation for World War II. However, it was little known until 2000, when a copy was rediscovered at Barter Books, a second-hand bookshop in the market town of Alnwick, in Northumberland, in North East England. It was not until the late noughties, nevertheless, when the famous phrase printed in sans serif font, in white letters against a red background, and topped with a crown, took the world by storm. Since then, it has been used as the decorative theme for a range of products, from mugs to coasters, and from T-shirts to…
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Back from holidays: routines and structure
September. It’s this time of the year when for most of us the holidays are over and we’re back to business as usual. About a year ago, I published the post ‘10 tips to beat those post-holiday blues’ where I shared some tips that not only work for me (a frequent traveler), but are also based on my professional experience. As a Psychiatrist, I cannot overemphasize the importance of having routines and structure to one’s days, weeks, and life. Routines and structure are important because they provide a sense of security and familiarity, as well as order, direction and meaning. They also help provide a sense of achievement (purpose) as…
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Finland and the World Happiness Report
Happy International Day of Happiness! Today is the International Day of Happiness and the theme this year is ‘Happier Together’. The focus is on what we have in common, rather than what divides us. Indeed, research has shown that relationships are essential to our happiness and wellbeing. I do not refer only to romantic relationships; our social network includes friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, teammates and so on. Research has also shown higher mortality among individuals who are lonely. In The Nordic Guide to Living 10 Years Longer: 10 Easy Tips to Live a Healthier, Happier Life Dr Bertil Marklund, a doctor and researcher at the Gothenburg University, shares…
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9 Secrets to Happiness from the Cultures of the World
In the foreword of Happy: Secrets to Happiness from the Cultures of the World first published in 2011, Maureen Wheeler, Lonely Planet co-founder, writes that ‘happiness in travel comes from the moments you are aware how lucky you are to be in that place, at that time, and how wonderful the world is’. As I’m reading this book, I’m reflecting on my own travels and what traveling means to me. I first traveled abroad at the age of eight; visiting Thailand and then Singapore was such an eye-opening and character-shaping experience, for which I’m always going to be grateful to my family. As I’ve recently written, for me, traveling is…
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Skyros: the island of wellness & wellbeing
My home country, Greece, has 6,000 islands of which 227 are inhabited. Having been to a dozen (including Mykonos, Santorini, Amorgos, and Koufonisia), I am often asked to provide tips and inside information. When people ask me which Greek island is my favorite, or which one to visit (a frequently asked but rather difficult question to answer), Skyros is always the first to come to mind. I have to admit that I am somewhat biased, as this is my late grandfather’s home island; not only I have precious memories of spending my early childhood summers there, I also have beloved relatives still living on the island. For this reason, I’ve…
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The Traveling Psychiatrist: Wanderlust & Wellbeing
Wanderlust Being a non-native English speaker, I was well into my twenties when I first came across the word wanderlust: the wish to travel far away and to many different places. Yet, now that I know this word, I realise that I have been familiar with its true meaning since I was eight, when I first stepped into a plane, and then into a foreign country (Thailand, and then Singapore). The following year, I traveled back to Far East Asia (Thailand and Indonesia), and that is how I became addicted to traveling. At the age of nine, I had already experienced my wanderlust, and from then on, I would travel…