What I’ve been reading this week…
Healing through writing is the theme of Writing Away The Demons: Stories of Creative Coping through Transformative Writing edited by Dr. Sherry Reiter. The book is a collection of stories written by those who took up a pen and paper during their crisis -  be it alcoholism, domestic violence, cancer, and addiction.  Informative, enlightening, and inspiring, each story offers encouragement and insight to readers who might be in similar circumstances.
Deborah King suggests that what you hide can hurt you in Truth Heals, a book that focuses on the relationship between the suppression of truth and …read more

Back in the 1970’s two research teams (Paul Costa and Robert McCrae (National Institutes of Health), and Warren Norman ( University of Michigan)/Lewis Goldberg ( University of Oregon))  discovered that most human personality traits can be boiled down to five broad dimensions of personality, regardless of language or culture. The ‘Big Five’ as they became known are…

Extroversion
Openness 
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Neuroticism

So, want to know where you sit on the Big Five Scale?
Then take this free personality test to find out.

How good are you at recognizing faces?
Would you be able to recognize, say for example, a waitress that served you once five years ago? Or  someone at the checkout counter at the grocery store you visited while on holiday in, say, California a decade ago?
If the answer is no, then you are like most of the population that sits in the middle of the face recognition spectrum.
But if the answer is yes, then you are probably a ’super-recognizer’.
It’s a term coined  by Harvard researchers  following a recent study they conducted on face recognition. They administered  standardized face recognition tests to a group of participants and discovered  that …read more

Is there a ‘creative genius’ in all of us?
Elizabeth Gilbert, author of bestselling book Eat, Pray, Love (One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia), thinks so.
In this TED talk, she considers the possibility that everyone has a ‘genuis’ inside them and they just need to find it and let it out.

Watch it. It will inspire you to keep working on finding your genius.

Coined by Dr Donald Dossey, the word “paraskevidekatriaphobia” describes those who have a paralysing fear of Friday the 13th.
According to Dr Dossey, those suffering from paraskevidekatriaphobia have symptoms ranging from a mild  anxiety to a sense of doom. Seems that some people won’t even get out of bed on friday the 13th. I guess they think it’s safer to pull the covers over their head and make the day go away.
Listen to what Dr Dossey has to say about this phobia at this Bryant Park Project podcast recorded last year.

Am happy to see that so many of you are like me and love hitting the road. Road trips really are exhilerating and result in such memorable experiences.
But road trips aren’t only about getting in the car and driving off in the sunset. They can also be about looking for change, looking for answers, and clearing the mind.
And that’s really what the book ‘Road Trip Guide to the Soul’ is all about. I can guarantee that by the time you’ve finished reading it and following some of the ideas and action plans, you’ll be feeling as exhilerated as when you …read more

Death and Taxes – they are the two real guarantees in life. And of the two, taxes are probably the one that we understand the most about. Death, on the other hand, remains a mystery.  For ever, people have been asking the question ‘what is your purpose and why on earth do we live only to die?’
Many have tried to answer this question but in the end, death and the possibility of an afterlife, remains a mystery.
The directors of a new documentary The Path are hoping to remove some of this mystery surrounding death, dying, and, in particular,  the afterlife.

It features interviews …read more

Friends say that whenever I hear the words ‘road trip’ my eyes light up and I’ve got one foot heading out the door trying to catch a ride. I just love getting out on the road and heading somewhere. I don’t even have to be heading anywhere in particular. I just like to be on the road.
So it‘s not surprising that  Sadie Nardini’s book ‘Road Trip Guide to the Soul’ caught my eye. After, the whole premise of the book rested on one of my favorite activities. But once I started reading, I soon realised that this road trip was …read more

According to the trusty random number selector, the winner of this useful ‘Relieving Your Holiday Stress’ CD by practicing psychologist Ronald G. Nathan, Ph.D is…

Audrey
Congratulations Audrey. You should be receiving an email shortly with directions on how and where to provide your mailing address.
By the way, I have a sure fire why to avoid stress these holidays.
Hibernate.
Okay, so that might not work for most people.
But remember, when you are getting stressed, the best thing to do is take time out for yourself. Try to relax, treat yourself to a massage or manicure, take a long walk somewhere …read more

Hands up anyone who’s starting to feel the stress of the holiday season.
Mine hand is up. Is yours?
Well, you’ve shown up at Healthbolt at the right time because this next giveaway is aimed at not only relieving holiday stress but also helping you Achieve New Year’s Resolutions.
It’s a CD called Relieving Your Holiday Stress and Achieving Your New Yearʼs Resolutions.

Created by Ronald G. Nathan, Ph.D., a practicing psychologist, award-winning teacher, and co-author of three popular stress management books, this CD is a collection of simple and effective strategies to handle holiday stress more creatively.
It addresses ways to stay focused and …read more