Free Articles

Narrative Medicine: From Sickness To Health

This is the second of the monthly installments on the topic of writing and its healing qualities for Olte Confine (Outer Limits) magazine. Issue number two is now out and it continues to show how thoughtful, open-minded inquiry can lead to an informative, tasteful production, beautifully illustrated and presented in magazine format on quality paper. Perhaps the whole thing could be translated into English one day, but each of my columns is translated into Italian showcasing and some of the research I've done into how writing heals. This is exclusively shown here and on my blog. This second installment covers Narrative Medicine or Pathographesis, the proliferation of narratives about how the soul was put on trial in the body through diseases and how that transforms people.

The next one is about how keeping a daily diary or journal can keep you sane. So watch out for that in the new year 2012. This is part of a short series of explorations of how writing heals based on my research and experience as a writer of all things difficult, exploring, among other things, how writing can be time travel, yoga, meditation and take us to the core of our minds.

Read the full article >>

Healing Through Writing: An Introduction

Just to introduce my new monthly column for Olte Confine (Outer Limits) magazine. Issue number one is now out and what a splendid production it is. Written in Italian, with headquarters in Rome, it is a tastefully designed feast of ideas.

For those, like me, who only know a few words of Italian, here is the first instalment in English: Healing Through Writing: An Introduction. This is the beginning of a short series of explorations of how writing heals based on my research and experience as a writer of all things difficult. It is part of a series that will explore among other things how writing can be time travel, yoga, meditation and take us to the core of our minds.

Read the full article >>

Hypnosis & Meditation - Same or Different?

Read Kieron's latest article in the August issue of Yoga and Health Magazine, August, 2011.

In response to questions about whether hypnosis is like meditation or can be used in the same way, this article explains both the similarities and differences between these related processes. Hopefully it will dispel some of the confusion and offer clear lines of thinking on how valuable they both are.

Read the full article >>

How Music Heals Bodies and Minds: A Waltz on the Sublime Side

Last week I went to the Proms with a friend. We perched high above the Albert Hall stage from the gallery looking down on the heads of the Minnesota Orchestra percussionists and the BBC Symphony Choir.

Read the full article >>

How to be positive while still being negative: The positive power of negative thinking: Part 1

Not everyone believes in a one-size-fits-all Smiley face universe. Some have a strategy of focusing on all the terrible things that might happen in order to make it turn out good.

Read the full article >>

The Positive In The Negative, Part 2: How To Extract The Benefit From Anxiety, Depression, And Disappointment

All the contrarians in the world can now rejoice they have found a voice. Dr. Rorem’s theory of the power of the negative thinking is not just alluring, but can be an effective strategy for managing anxiety.

Read the full article >>

Combining EFT with Lucid Dreaming - Part 1

EFT is a fast - a gift to all who use it. It can instantly dispel the toxic waste that accumulates around negative feelings. But just consider how doubly effective it might be when you do it while you are dreaming.

Read the full article >>

Writing is a form of Healing Hypnosis

Writing is a much undervalued tool for accessing calmer, wiser inner states of mind. When we write, we activate thought streams from both left and right hemispheres of our brain and connect them to our hand. This allows a greater flow of insight and creativity.

Read the full article >>

How to Have a Creative Attitude

The simple answer to this question is to peak more - but first, let me tell you a story. Back in 1994, I was lucky enough to travel to Myanmar, which we still persist in calling Burma. Nothing has changed much there for three hundred years.

Read the full article >>

A Pen is Mightier than a Pill

I always suspected that I wrote to stay sane and whole. Poems sprouted from conflicted feelings, short stories from odd or traumatic events and novels emerged more slowly out of deeper stuff, what The Lovely Bones author, Alice Sebold, calls ‘the subconscious stew.’

Read the full article >>

Self Hynposis

Relax, we are told, time and again. But it does not always work - the body wants to relax, but the mind is not sure. Sometimes our mind becomes overactive and does not allow us the rest we need. The danger of letting our minds run on unchecked is that we could be inadvertently creating all kinds of problems for ourselves.

Read the full article >>