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Showing posts from June, 2017

A Season of Grief

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  There is one thing I have been most afraid of my entire life, I have had a fear of death…and not just for myself, for those who are closest to me. It’s not because I fear that there isn’t a God who promises life eternal in heaven or that deep down I don’t believe I’m saved. I think it’s more to do with a fear there will be pain in dying, and being a highly emotional person, I fear the brevity of my emotions. So when my sister was first diagnosed with stage four cancer, I was suddenly forced to grapple what I had long feared the most, the potential of loosing a loved one. The confronting realisation that all of us will die, our lives are in God’s hands, and none of us know how long we have to live in this world. It was taking an abstract biblical truth and then putting flesh and bones on it. A lot of big emotions ran through me on a daily basis, and at first I found it to be a very confusing time as my relationship with my sister was very close but at times complicated. Cancer in ...
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Van Gogh Inspires

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  I have long admired the work of Vincent Van Gogh; his use of colour and texture has always given me pleasure and his subject matter has been of an engaging nature. However, it wasn’t until I saw his work in the flesh (so to speak) that my appreciation and love of him grew. I can recall quite vividly the first time I stumbled upon one of his most famous paintings. Up until that point, my exposure to art had been 6 years of study at school and a board game called ‘Masterpiece’ (which was a family favourite we often played on holidays). At school, I’d had the privilege of seeing exhibitions of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, both of which I enjoyed, but never Van Gogh. It was not until the first year of living in London with my family, that I unexpectedly came to behold his ‘Sunflowers’. I had been through several rooms of the gallery, when I realised that there was a growing number of paintings I recognised from the well-worn board game I had played many years previous. A growing ...
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Lessons in Mental Health

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  If you had asked me 5 years ago, “What is mental health?” I would have given a vague answer that showed my ignorance; highlighting a subconscious idea that mental health held negative connotations. However, a growing awareness and education on this important part of well-being has shown me how little I knew.   While the experience of others has taught me, (and is still teaching me) that taking care of one’s thought life is extremely important and healthy; it was not until I began to explore what mental health meant in relation to pain management (concerning my back), that I have appreciated the value and importance of it.  For years I have struggled with bad back pain; to the point of which I lived on paracetamol and ibuprofen to get through the day. However, it was not until I started seeing a new Osteopath, that I began to have a new perspective.  The holistic approach to health encouraged me to examine more closely how I thought about pain, and consequently help...
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