Medscape has just commented: "It's officially 2023, and if history repeats, millions of Americans are likely vowing that this year will be one when they drop those unwanted pounds for good.  After all, weight loss usually lands one of the top spots on New Year's resolution surveys.  And just in time, there's guidance to pick the best plan. Released today are U.S. News & World Report's annual rankings of the best diet plans.  Once again, the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes fruits, vegetables, olive oil, and fish, got the top spot, as best diet overall. It's the sixth consecutive year for that win. But many other diets got top marks as well."

“ Who will prefer the jingle of jade pendants if he once has heard stone growing in a cliff? ” - Lao Tzu

                                   how to live well – a shared exploration 

what is it? This course is ambitious. It aims to help us live longer, healthier lives that are more energised, happy and fulfilled. We will work to improve our knowledge and activities in three interconnected areas – optimising wellbeing, nourishing relationships, and living with health, energy & resilience. The course is constructed partly on the recent state-of-the-art, evidence-based ENHANCE intervention for building wellbeing, with ingredients that focus on our values, self-determination theory’s needs/goals/motivations, mindfulness & compassion, positive emotions & savouring, and the central importance of relationships. 

“ I'm not tense, just terribly, terribly alert. ” - Anonymous

This chapter will aim to cover areas like - The proportion of premature death & illness due to poor diet.  The prevalence of obesity & eating disorders (and malnutrition).  Diet & ecology. Recent research on diet & mental health. What is a really healthy diet? Mediterranean diet & SMILES study.  The value/dangers of supplements.

Last year I was intrigued by a paper - "Zinc in depression: A meta-analysis" - from Toronto University's "Neuropsychopharmacology Research Group" where the authors brought together 17 relevant studies and concluded "Depression is associated with a lower concentration of zinc in peripheral blood.

I have recently written a couple of blog posts about diet and mental health - "Emerging research on diet suggests it's startlingly important in the prevention of anxiety & depression" and "So what dietary advice should we be following - for psychological as well as physical health?" 

A couple of days ago I wrote a blog post that I think makes a very important point - "Emerging research on diet suggests it's startingly important in the prevention of anxiety & depression".  Much of what the post said is downloadable in Powerpoint and can be printed out as a six-slides-to-a-page handout that looks like this:

The key points of this blog post can be downloaded & printed out as a helpful 6-slide-miniatures-to-a-page Powerpoint handout.

“

Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new. 

” - Ursula Le Guin

In the 1970's I taught yoga and several different types of meditation.  In the 1980's I began teaching courses in Autogenic Training, a form of deep relaxation/meditation.  I continued running Autogenic classes for about 25 years.  In addition to the relaxation/meditation exercises, the teaching also covered several other life skill/stress management techniques.  For a much fuller description of these eight session courses, visit the Autogenic Training section of this website.