Peace by Piece

24/11/2023

🖤❤️‍🔥🖤

27/04/2023

20/04/2023

TALKING THERAPY REDUCES HEART TROUBLE, STUDY FINDS

Talking therapy can help to reduce the risk of future heart problems, research has found. People who reported an easing of their depression after NHS counselling found that their risk of cardiovascular disease was reduced. The impact was found to be comparable to following a low-fat diet.

The study is the first to show a link between talking therapy and cardiovascular disease. Previous studies have shown people with depression are 72% more likely to develop cardiovascular disease.

Researchers used data on almost 640,000 people aged 45 and over who were treated through the Improving Access to Psychologically Therapies service between 2012 and 2020. The service offers cognitive behavioural therapy, counselling and guided self-help in sessions offered individually and face-to-face or in groups online.

They followed participants for three years and found that people with depression symptoms improved after the treatment were less likely to develop cardiovascular disease than those who did not.

The study author, Celine El Baou of University College London, said: “People whose depression syndrome improved after therapy had a 10 to 15 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those who did not improve. Comparable effects were found in similar studies investigating low-fat diets. Our study suggests improving mental health could also help physical health, especially in those aged under 60.”

She also said the study could not give an insight into how therapy might reduce cardiovascular risk and more research was needed.

(The study is published in the European Heart Journal.)

15/04/2023

"Grandma, I'm tired. So tired of this life..."

"Take your tiredness, my child, and wrap it around yourself. Like a blanket in the cold winter months. Tiredness comes to make you a nest, to bring you to wear comfortable clothes, to make you sink into its warm embrace. I invite you to stay within yourself. Without strength, without thoughts, without actions. Like the snow that covers everything to soften the world, to make it muffled, to protect it from noise. Accept the flakes of your tiredness and let yourself be completely covered by them."

"I could die buried under there..."

"You will be reborn instead. Like the seed in the ground. Do not resist your weariness, do not reject it with a thousand actions, a thousand intentions, a thousand feelings of guilt. It just wants to take you by the hand and lead you to sink into the void. Right there, where the source of every inner strength lies. They taught us to be strong by resisting. But it is in surrendering that the true heroes emerge."

"I'm afraid, grandmother. What if fatigue will annihilate me?"

"My child, you are not afraid of tiredness but of losing control of yourself. The time has come for you to give yourself to life. And to generate together with it the most wonderful children: the fruits of your soul!"

Author: Elena Bernabè

Picture by Magic on Flickr

12/04/2023

What Billy said! ☔

12/04/2023

Virtuous behaviour means shifting our focus beyond our own narrow self-interest, no matter how talented we think we are.