Here you may learn about the science and literature behind (and about!) mental health & heritage.
Feel free to browse our monthly book and poem recommendations as well as the news/reports section, which includes reports and articles on this fascinating world.
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Click HERE to see the book and poem recommendations from 2023
by Sara Nisha Adams
An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people in a London suburb.
by Samuel Johnson
Rasselas, son of the King of Abyssinia, is shut up in a beautiful valley, "till the order of succession should call him to the throne." He grows weary of the factitious entertainments of the place, and after much brooding escapes with his sister Nekayah, her attendant Pekuah and his poet-friend Imlac. They are to see the world and search for happiness, frequent various classes of society and undergo quite a few adventures.
by Victoria Sweet
San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital is the last almshouse in the country, a descendant of the Hôtel-Dieu (God’s hotel) that cared for the sick in the Middle Ages. Ballet dancers and rock musicians, professors and thieves—“anyone who had fallen, or, often, leapt, onto hard times” and needed extended medical care—ended up here. So did Victoria Sweet, who came for two months and stayed for twenty years.
Laguna Honda, relatively low-tech but human-paced, gave Sweet the opportunity to practice a kind of attentive medicine that has almost vanished. Gradually, the place transformed the way she understood her work. Alongside the modern view of the body as a machine to be fixed, her extraordinary patients evoked an older idea, of the body as a garden to be tended. God’s Hotel tells their story and the story of the hospital itself, which, as efficiency experts, politicians, and architects descended, determined to turn it into a modern “health care facility,” revealed its own surprising truths about the essence, cost, and value of caring for the body and the soul.
by Magnus Fridh
When life is moving at a breakneck pace or when at times we're confronted with almost unreasonable demands clogging up our calendars, it can seem as if we have no time left to simply do nothing. Spending more time surrounded by calmness, resting and recovering, gives us the space to really process experiences, make sense of what we're feeling, and put a good distance between us and all the things on our to do list. What's more, this also makes us more present and able to devote our energy to the things that are important in life. Simply sitting in silence every once in a while, without moving, doing nothing, might just be the smartest choice you make in the world we live in. In The Art of Stillness in a Noisy World, meditation and yoga expert, Magnus Fridh, will help you find the calmness amidst the stresses of everyday life, helping you to become more present in a world where we seem to becoming ever more absent.
by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see, standing before him, the most extraordinary little fellow. "Please," asks the stranger, "draw me a sheep." And the pilot realizes that when life's events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. He pulls out pencil and paper... And thus begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed forever the world for its readers.
by Jessica Baum
A road map for building strong and secure relationships for those who struggle with anxiety in their romantic connections.
Developed over ten years in private practice, Baum's signature Self-full® Method has helped her clients get off the toxic roller coaster of anxious attachment and discover the secure and mutually supportive relationships they deserve. In this book readers will learn how Anxiously Attached offers a practical and holistic approach for overcoming anxious attachment issues to discover happier, more fulfilling relationships.
by Laurie Lee
Cider With Rosie is a charming memoir of Laurie Lee's childhood in a remote Cotswold village, a world that is tangibly real and yet reminiscent of a now distant past.
In this idyllic pastoral setting, unencumbered by the callous father who so quickly abandoned his family responsibilities, Laurie's adoring mother becomes the centre of his world as she struggles to raise a growing family against the backdrop of the Great War.
The sophisticated adult author's retrospective commentary on events is endearingly juxtaposed with that of the innocent, spotty youth, permanently prone to tears and self-absorption.
by Peter Daybell
With a Smile and a Wave provides a vivid picture of the squalor and danger of war, the backbreaking hardship of trench life and of the challenges of pioneer air fighting. It draws extensively on Captain Liddell's own letters and diaries and exposes the character and courage of the man in his own often compelling and moving words. But it is a story not just of war, but of growing up in a devout and prosperous family, of a Jesuit education at Stonyhurst College, and of Edwardian Oxford before the Great War. It portrays the privileged lifestyle of the English country gentleman, and describes how a very close knit and patriotic family dealt with the adversity of war.
by Ernest Hemingway
This short novel, already a modern classic, is the superbly told, tragic story of a Cuban fisherman in the Gulf Stream and a giant Marlin —specifically referred to in the citation accompanying the author's Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.
by David Lodge
Paradise, tourist style. It's a very long way from home. Bernard Walsh is in Hawaii on family business, escorting his querulous father to the bedside of a long-forgotten aunt. His mission transports him from quiet obscurity in Rummridge, England, to a lush tropical playground, from cloistered solitude into the unfamiliar company of package tourists: honeymooners; young women looking for Mr. Nice; families nuclear and fissile. But it is the island itself that holds the most astonishing surprises, as an accidental encounter opens up to Bernard possibilities of life, and love, never dreamed of in his normally overcast habitat. Paradise News is an enchanting--and very funny--portrait of the late flowering of an honest man.
“When we listen, we hear someone into existence.” ―
Laurie Buchanan, PhD and writer
“Heritage is all these places that make me who I am. It is like a book that we all write in, a story that has no end but many layers of meaning.”
― Desi Gradinarova, PhD and Senior Policy Adviser at Historic England
“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and oftentimes we call a man cold when he is only sad.”― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet
"Poetry, plays, novels, music, they are the cry of the human spirit trying to understand itself and make sense of our world." ―
Laura Malone Elliott, author
“The secret, Alice, is to surround yourself with people who make your heart smile. It’s then, only then, that you’ll find Wonderland”
― Lewis Carroll, writer
“Suffering is part and parcel of extensive intelligence and a feeling heart.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, writer
"Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.”― Rainer Maria Rilke, poet and novelist
“Let July be July. Let August be August. And let yourself just be even in the uncertainty. You don’t have to fix everything. You don’t have to solve everything. And you can still find peace and grow in the wild of changing things”
― Morgan Harper Nichols, poet
“You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry. Don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.”
― Walter Hagen,
professional golfer
“Life is unpredictable. It changes with the seasons. Even your coldest winter happens for the best of reasons. And although it feels eternal, like all you'll ever do is freeze, I promise Spring is coming and, with it, brand new leaves.”
― Ernest Hemingway, novelist
“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.”
― Washington Irving, writer and historian
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”
― Ernest Hemingway, novelist
What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That’s not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that’s the burden of the year.
I had for my winter evening walk—
No one at all with whom to talk,
But I had the cottages in a row
Up to their shining eyes in snow.
And I thought I had the folk within:
I had the sound of a violin;
I had a glimpse through curtain laces
Of youthful forms and youthful faces.
I had such company outward bound.
I went till there were no cottages found.
I turned and repented, but coming back
I saw no window but that was black.
Over the snow my creaking feet
Disturbed the slumbering village street
Like profanation, by your leave,
At ten o’clock of a winter eve.
Is it not fine to walk in spring,
When leaves are born, and hear birds sing?
And when they lose their singing powers,
In summer, watch the bees at flowers?
Is it not fine, when summer’s past,
To have the leaves, no longer fast,
Biting my heel where’er I go,
Or dancing lightly on my toe?
Now winter’s here and rivers freeze;
As I walk out I see the trees,
Wherein the pretty squirrels sleep,
All standing in the snow so deep:
And every twig, however small,
Is blossomed white and beautiful.
Then welcome, winter, with thy power
To make this tree a big white flower;
To make this tree a lovely sight,
With fifty brown arms draped in white,
While thousands of small fingers show
In soft white gloves of purest snow.
When April comes with softly shining eyes,
And daffodils bound in her wind-blown hair,
Oh, she will coax all clouds from out the skies,
And every day will bring some sweet surprise,
The swallows will come swinging through the air
When April comes!
When April comes with tender smile and tear,
Dear dandelions will gild the common ways,
And at the break of morning we will hear
The piping of the robins crystal clear --
While bobolinks will whistle through the days,
When April comes!
When April comes, the world so wise and old,
Will half forget that it is worn and grey;
Winter will seem but as a tale long told --
Its bitter winds with all its frost and cold
Will be the by-gone things of yesterday,
When April comes!
I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars,
And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chef-d'oeuvre for the highest,
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels (...)
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.
In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?
Each heart has its haunted chamber,
Where the silent moonlight falls!
On the floor are mysterious footsteps,
There are whispers along the walls!
And mine at times is haunted
By phantoms of the Past
As motionless as shadows
By the silent moonlight cast.
A form sits by the window,
That is not seen by day,
For as soon as the dawn approaches
It vanishes away.
It sits there in the moonlight
Itself as pale and still,
And points with its airy finger
Across the window-sill.
Without before the window,
There stands a gloomy pine,
Whose boughs wave upward and downward
As wave these thoughts of mine.
And underneath its branches
Is the grave of a little child,
Who died upon life's threshold,
And never wept nor smiled.
What are ye, O pallid phantoms!
That haunt my troubled brain?
That vanish when day approaches,
And at night return again?
What are ye, O pallid phantoms!
But the statues without breath,
That stand on the bridge overarching
The silent river of death?
Praise to the emptiness that blanks out existence. Existence:
This place made from our love for that emptiness! Yet somehow comes emptiness,
this existence goes. Praise to that happening, over and over!
For years I pulled my own existence out of emptiness. Then one swoop, one swing of the arm, that work is over. Free of who I was, free of presence, free of dangerous fear, hope,
free of mountainous wanting. The here-and-now mountain is a tiny piece of a piece of straw
blown off into emptiness. These words I’m saying so much begin to lose meaning:
Existence, emptiness, mountain, straw:
Words and what they try to say swept out the window, down the slant of the roof.
When the White Eagle of the North is flying overhead
And the reds, browns and golds of Autumn lie in the gutter dead,
Remember then the summer birds with wings of fire flaying;
Come to witness Spring’s new hope born of leaves decaying.
As new life will come from death, love will come with leisure;
Love of love, love of life, and giving - without measure;
Gives in return a wondrous yearn of a promise, almost seen.
Live hand in hand and together we’ll stand, on the Threshold of a Dream.”
The Museums, Health and Social Care Resource suggests heritage activities and identifies how these activities could specifically support quality of life, health and wellbeing in older people.
learn moreNature Mental Health is a monthly online-only journal publishing original, peer-reviewed research from the breadth of sciences exploring mental health and mental health disorders.
learn more Heritage is inextricably linked to mental health and well-being, often generating positive emotions and a sense of connection, but also capable of triggering distress, trauma and negative memories.
The report summarises our work using cohort study data to explore the impact of the arts on population health
A UKRI MARCH Network Plus funded project, carried out between November 2020 and May 2021, in partnership with Historic England, saw an expert panel develop best practice guidelines for organisations offering heritage projects as interventions for people who live with mental health issues.
This report commissioned by the Baring Foundation and produced by the Restoration Trust showcases work from 18 heritage and arts organisations using a wealth of heritage assets, and the creativity of artists, to improve mental health and community connections.
The National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) has published an evidence note briefly looking at the link between mental health and social prescribing.
This paper presents a first, comprehensive realist review of wellbeing benefits and pathways through which those emerge. Benefits related to exposure to or engagement with historic places are discussed, attempting a classification of academic papers and empirical published studies, according to various types of place experiences (range from experiencing to living in a historic environment).
The global “COVID-19” pandemic resulted in national lockdowns and the closure of museums to visitors. The pandemic had considerable negative impact on individual, community, and society wellbeing and changed museum practice, specifically through increased online presence. This pilot research sought to start to understand the impact online museum provisions had on individual wellbeing during the pandemic.
This paper describes a collaborative research partnership between museum educators and art therapists. Twenty-two visitors at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group based on an art therapy informed protocol. Those in the experimental group created art based on their emotional response to the exhibition contents, engaged in reflective writing and participated in a discussion group.
The empty former cottage hospital of Winsford is a building like no other in the world. The result of a philanthropic dream shared by a rich widow and a leading Victorian architect, in the 119 years since the ailing people of north Devon were first welcomed under its slate roof, the place has aided many a recovery, including shell-shocked soldiers seeking sanctuary from first world war trenches.
This article reports a cross-disciplinary literature review focused to identify if and how history and heritage have been linked with public health.
Widely varied opinions suggest history, heritage, and historic places are valuable assets for improving the human condition.
The Australian Government Intergenerational Report 2023 projects that the population of Australia will age over the next 40 years. Rather than viewing this as a problem, we should recognise this as a time of unprecedented opportunity to tap into a vast human reservoir of wisdom, experience, and optimism.
Activities, social networks, and technology use helped mitigate the health effects of social isolation during COVID-19
We estimate the direct causal effect of loneliness on a variety of health outcomes using a sample of second-generation immigrants among older adults drawn from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. In an effort to account for the endogeneity of self-declared loneliness, we explore the link between loneliness and a specific trait of maternal cultural background strongly associated with quality of relations and use the latter as an instrument for loneliness
All sinopses (from the Monthly Book Recommendation section) have been retrieved from www.goodreads.com
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