Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at You

With the third lockdown, too many of us are facing a torrent of stress over job insecurity, home schooling, isolation, illness, or all of the above! Stress makes us want to eat badly, exercise less and drink more. It also has a profound effect on our immune system. While brief or ‘acute’ stress can spur...

Editor:  Finally, if you want to generate some local stories, how about the following?  Why not ring round and invite three or four people in your church to share ‘A day in my life under lockdown’? – get them to send you 100 words of how they are spending their time at home, and what...

Taking a mature look at Valentine’s Day Do me a favour? What happened to your New Year’s resolution? What we want during the pandemic Beware hand sanitiser! Pandemic dreams Want to feel better? Cuddle your pet National Nestbox Week – time to help your garden birds Rising demand for leggings Let your teenager sleep Restaurants...

You do not see many Zimmer frames, wheelchairs or hearing aids on Valentine’s Day cards. They mostly seem to be full of young love, hearts and roses. Young love is wonderful and beautiful, full of optimism, and plans and hopes for the future. But love in later life is precious too. It is a love...

I just had an email from a clergyman, saying, “Hi” and asking me to do him “a favor”. I replied to say yes, of course. I then began to wonder why he had not said what sort of favour it was, and why he was asking me. I decided to telephone him and find why...

If you are already struggling to keep it, here is something that might help you. Psychologists advise that it is useless to say you are going to quit anything. Instead, make your resolution to change into something positive. For example, instead of “I will give up sweets,” say “I will eat fruit twice a day.”...

What have men and women been thinking about during the pandemic? According to recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), men have been preoccupied with takeaway food and pints, while women have been keeping in touch with their friends. In a study on the social impact of coronavirus, the ONS found that women...

Don’t let vulnerable members of your family accidentally poison themselves with hand sanitiser. It can kill them. Poisonings from swallowing alcohol-based hand sanitiser have more than doubled in the past year, to nearly 400. Doctors from the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford urge that more needs to be done to...

The pandemic is affecting our dreams. More people are reporting nightmares which relate to ‘contamination’ and ‘cleanness’. A recent study has found that the more anxious a person is in their waking life, the more vivid will be their dream images. The findings, published in the journal PLUS One, explain that “Pandemic dreams show a...

If you think you feel better after cuddling your dog or cat, there is a good reason: you really do feel better. After only three minutes of cuddling your pet, your levels of oxytocin, the ‘love’ hormone, increase, according to a recent study from Australia’s Monash University. And just five minutes of cuddling will also...

Our birds are short of nesting holes, and no wonder: gardens, parks and woodland are much neater than they used to be, and modern homes offer few crannies for nest building. National Nestbox Week, which is celebrated from 14th February each year, aims to encourage us to put up more nestboxes, and to consider planting...

The popularity of leggings soared last year. They became the must-have fashion garment to see out Covid-19. John Lewis reported sales of leggings and loungewear had increased by 1,303 per cent.  Sweaty Betty was selling a pair of Power Leggings (£75) every 90 seconds. Julia Straus, CEO of the brand, explained: “Good quality leggings transform...