The success of any year will be determined in large part by what you choose to ignore.
Wise words from Execupundit’s Michael Wade, one of the handful of pithy, insightful bloggers who start my day.
Photo by Romain Vignes on Unsplash
Downtime
Classic works of literature by William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and other great writers can boost your brain and relieve depression, chronic pain and dementia.
Andrew Gregory, The Sunday Times, The Pick-me-up Papers: Dickens better for mental health than self-help books
Here’s a thought-provoking piece from last week’s Sunday Times. Mental health is improved by reading classic works of literature because…
Unusual phrases and unfamiliar words in great works of literature command the undivided attention of readers, provoking moments of self-reflection and helping shift brains into a higher gear.
And, the approach seems to be having a positive impact in clinical scenarios…
There is no evidence bibliotherapy, or reading therapy, can cure mental health disorders, but medics have reported dramatic results in those with poor mental health. Dr Helen Willows, a GP, said she had seen reading “transform the lives of the people that we see day after day at our surgery — those that are stuck, perhaps with low mood or who are socially isolated.”
Dr David Fearnley, executive medical director of the Betsi Cadwaladr University health board and one of the longest- serving medical directors in the NHS, goes further. Reading aloud with others in particular, he says, is “the most significant development in mental healthcare in the past 10 years”.
It’s interesting that, in all areas of life, we pursue ease and a reduction in friction, whether that’s making writing simpler, our background music less intrusive or our daily lives less exercised. But, like resistance work in the gym, or fibre in food, it’s the push-back, the friction that has greatest effect.
Photo by Max van den Oetelaar on Unsplash
He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation. He who chooses his plan for himself, employs all his faculties. … Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.
John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873), On Liberty
Why does social media get so toxic so quickly?
The answer may be that it’s an easy platform for moral grandstanding.
An interesting study on BPS’ Research Digest.
Photo by Frida Bredesen on Unsplash
All of us are creatures of a day; the rememberer and the remembered alike.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (4.35)
Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
Epicurus (341 – 270 BC)
Image: Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia [CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]
Bach’s music needs to be unlocked; its emotional content, when discovered, is somehow in and of itself, and uniquely musical. Much of it is deeply confessional. By contrast, Romantic music now seemed to create a broader emotional landscape: that of falling in love, spending a night on a bare mountain, suffering in turmoil or throwing oneself off a parapet. Instead of experiencing those things for ourselves, we are given music that stirs and excites the corresponding emotions within us. Thus the refrains of the Romantics are often more accessible, yielding their power more or less immediately. Those of us who prefer the earlier mode might even say this emotional mode became a mere substitute for experience, and that the unique, private experience of music was diminished.
Derren Brown, Happy (p152)
On a separate note, I love the above portrait, borrowed from DerrenBrown.co.uk. It’s so rich. And, I’m not at all jealous of the laddered library, nor of the impressive amp in the background. No, I’m not.
We way we process thoughts is reflected in our body language.
Here’s something I first learned about on a Nicholas Bate course, maybe 15 years ago. A useful (and visual) reminder…
Photo by Juan Rumimpunu on Unsplash
Each person acquires their own character, but their official roles are designated by chance. You should invite some to your table because they are deserving, others because they may come to deserve it.
Seneca (4 BC – AD 65), Moral Letters to Lucilius (47.15)
Make the best of today. Those who aim instead at tomorrow’s plaudits fail to remember that future generations will be nowise different from the contemporaries who so try their patience now, and nowise less mortal.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (8.44)