Welcome to another smattering of bite-sized, oven-ready, mini blogs . This month we are focusing on bodywork: interventions that can aid our body's wellbeing, alongside ways to unify the body with the mind. We'll be passing through circadian rhythm, decrepitude, smells, dance and quivering, among other things. Here are some videos to accompany some of these themes...

Emotional Freedom Technique

EMDR demonstration

Vooing

Tension Release Exercises (TRE)

The Butterfly hug

Are you happy with your moral compass? Do you think it's fit for purpose? Would you be up for having it road tested? Then have a listen to this episode. No show notes this week. I'm on smoko.

Games. Playing. Acting. Dressing up. Doodling. Music. Symbols. Imagination. These are just some of the topics we'll be exploring for July. You might want to bring some paper and pens to this episode. As well as your inner child.

"“We need to be childish to understand. Only a child sees things with perfect clarity, because it hasn't developed all those filters which prevent us from seeing things that we don't expect to see.”
Douglas Adams

Here's some links for your attention:

The Roles We Play - Sabba Khan

Ways of Seeing - John Berger

Art of Protest - De Nichols

The Happy Writing Book - Elise Valmorbida

Art Therapy Exercises - Liesl Silverstone

The trouble with this podcast is that there's not enough dissent. It's too fixated on individuals solving their own problems.

There is a whole world of systems, structures and institutions that are failing us day in day out. Can we at least shine a light on this - even if we can't change it overnight? So at the very least we don't end up gaslighting ourselves!!!

This is a sonic journey through a critical lens, passing by evolution, money, voting, democracy, communism, journalism, hell, even small talk. And here's some show notes to add to the general disagreeable nature of the content...

The Triffids Madeline 

Madeline animation 

Where does money come from?

Mid Staffs Report

Wiki page on Harold Shipman

The Women Revolution of Rojava

BBC journalist Andrew Marr interviews Noam Chomsky

Did anyone notice that within the word citizenship there exists the smaller word 'zen'.

This episode sees self-detectivism expands its reach into the realms of universal wellness. Here we share ideas and notions that serve the collective good, not just our own individual needs. Be prepared to be tentatively challenged!!!

Here's some show notes that add to the themes of the episode:

Two Monkeys Were Paid Unequally (You Tube)

Mutual aid

Corporate whoring

Consensus decision making

Article on human-sized

Hannah Arendt: The Quiet Power of Thoughtlessness (podcast)

Person-centredness (You Tube)

Every interactions can be an interventions(You Tube)

We have a process when it comes to death. We call it grieving. But there's not much going on, ritualistically speaking, when death brushes past us. In this episode we will be staying with these reminders, these close shaves. We have instances from poems, songs and prose. While Simon, your host, will also be sharing his own lived experience cheats, inspired by Maggie O'Farrell's non-fiction book I Am I Am I Am.

Here are some more show notes, starting with:

Ten Meter Tower | A Short Film by Maximilien van Aertryck and Axel Danielson

A TIMELINE OF IRA ATTACKS IN LONDON

Freud's Concepts of Thanatos and Eros

Fortune Presents Gifts Not According to the Book

Joe Henry's Ohio Plane Crash

Bongwater's Great Radio

Smog's Lazy Rain

Dr Alimantado's Born for a Purpose/reason for Living

Neko Case's Tightly

Andrew Bird's Fake Palindromes

Courtney Barnett's Avant Gardener

And, and, and... it would a great remiss if we didn't flag up the importance of burping kombucha.

BTW - If you are interested in the logo of this episode, it comes from a medieval movement called Danse Macabre

(Mystery Bonus Track)

How much of our internal world do we understand? Our thinking, feeling, actions? Our senses, hormones, nervous system? Would it be useful to delve into this world for the sake of our wellbeing? If so, listen up.

Here's some show notes:

The Book of Human Emotions

The Action Cycle (aka The Gestalt Cycle)

Bad Faith

Defence mechanisms

Polyvagal Theory

NLP: changing bad memories

If the body expresses what the mind represses then we're going to need some somatic knowledge to help us out.

In this episode Louise shares her lived-experience as well as her professional wisdom when it comes to healing, regulating, and generally being at one with our bodies. She's full of ideas, interventions and challenges. Enjoy.

Here's some links to go with this episode...

Top Ten Somatic Exercises

Grounding Techniques

Brain development and the alarm system

Nervous system/polyvagal theory

Self regulation/Co-regulation

Mirror neurons

Vooing

Peter Levine (1)

Peter Levine (2)

Body Doubling

Isn’t just about everything we do based around relationships in some way or other? Aren’t relationships the source of 99.9% of all our happiness and 99.9% of all our distress? 

In today's episode we are going to explore themes such as games people play, attachments, love, as well as substitutes of love.

Here are some show notes that follow up on some of these themes...

Games people play

https://xabierlopez.co.uk/a-classification-of-games-people-play/

A strange situation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRejV6f-Y3c

The elephant in the room

https://www.nyc.gov/assets/olr/downloads/pdf/wellness/elephantintheroom-poembyterrykettering.pdf

Harlow's monkeys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrNBEhzjg8I

Mental Load

https://english.emmaclit.com/2017/05/20/you-shouldve-asked/

It's all very well having a cognitive self. But if we want to work out stuff that isn't so easy to pin-point or find answers to, then we'll likely need a wider approach.

Welcome to the world of creativity - as a means of tapping into our unconscious self. Welcome to the idea that when we are actively expressive we are less dominated by our neocortex and more open to accessing more aspects of ourselves.

In this session you'll be invited to undertake 10 relatively simple tasks. With time and space, alongside pens, pencils and 10 sheets of paper, let's have an experience and see where it takes us.

“I use this word ‘I’ and I don't know what it means. I don't know where it begins and ends. I don't even know what it's made of.”   

Scarlett Thomas, The End of Mr. Y

This episode  of the Wellness Calendar finds us devoting our energies towards understanding our self.

Who are you? What makes you who you are? What are the essential qualities that separate you from others? When you think about yourself, what immediately springs to mind? What defines you as a unique individual? At what point might you stop becoming a ‘self’ – and start becoming something else? 

[In case you are wondering why this episode is a little delayed, the short answer is gremlins - of the electronic kind. There is one glitch still to be sorted: March 3rd entry has no content! In the meantime, here is the missing bit.]

In this episode we are seeking ways to engage with music on a wellness-focused level. Rather than treat sounds passively we're looking to utilise all that sonic waves can offer us. We'll be exploring different tempos, rhythms, instruments, genres, lyrics, soundscapes, etc, etc, in order to help regulate and enhance our emotions, our senses, our bodies as a whole.

Have a listen. See what you think. Part two of this show - the lived experience bit - is just waiting to be recorded, once we round up some self detectives willing to share their own personal musical adventures. Could this be you? Link to eventbrite invitation - here.

Feedback, suggestions, links, collaborations always welcome: podcast@selfdetective. net

Here's some more links to more musical resources/websites:

'Self Detective Playlists' on Spotify including the mentioned African Music Playlist

Coping Strategies of the Musical Kind [Interactive PDF]

The Musecology website takes music, wellness and our environment into interesting directions. Check out their playlist on the English countryside.

Elsewhere we have the website for Nordoff and Robbin's music therapy; You Tube clips on: Music Vibro-acoustics; Toning; Music–elicited imagery; Musical Improvisation.

Finally, if you do want to see the Norman Wisdom clip from the film 'One Good Turn' - it's right here.

Welcome to another series of bite-sized ideas to get us thinking about ourselves and our wellness. This time we are focusing on coping strategies. Listen in and you'll find notions such as mood wheels, recovery bags and leaky buckets. As ever, take the gems away with you and bin the rest.

Could this episode be useful to you? Could it be used to expand the range of tools you have available for your own self detective purposes? Could shapes be of use? Symmetry? Periodic tables? Playing cards? Spinning plates? Aliens? Have a listen. See what you think. And in the meantime here are some links to stuff from the show...

Using Shapes pdf

Using Spinning Plates pdf

Using Aliens pdf

Using The Periodic Table pdf

Chanel Miller's Victim Impact Statement (you tube)

⁠Eric Berne's Parent, Adult, Child Model pdf⁠

Smog "To Be Of Use" (Spotify)⁠⁠"

And, as always, here is a useful email if you wish to contact us: podcast@selfdetective.net

In total, across the year, we have 365 bite-sized nuggets for you to consider - on the subject of your very own wellbeing. January's 31 mini-blogs explore the ideas, tools and skills that might be useful to create and develop your own self detective agency, your own wellness landscape.

This episode is an open letter to anyone who is in a dark place. And who is looking for a way out. It contains an alternative method to actual physical suicide. It speaks of a different way to end pain and distress. One that involve leaving your existing psychological life without taking away your very own life force.

If you or someone you know may benefit from the content of this letter, please know that it is also freely available in written form using this link.

We wish you well.

Here are some other links that maybe helpful in times of need:

For more open letters, and links, check out Reasons To Stay website

International Association For Suicide Prevention website

Find A Helpline

This episode is a spoken word version of a pamphlet. It's written by a group of counsellors who have had counselling themselves. It's designed to empower clients with knowledge/informed consent before they start the process - rather than having to figure it out on the hoof. We find it crazy to think that people (of all ages) might engage in therapy without really knowing how it works. So here it is. We hope you find it useful. And if you do, please share this episode - or the pdf version - with those who might benefit from it, too.

In this session we are concentrating our efforts on the art of making a start: making a start on ourselves, our wellness, on setting up our own detective agency. Hopefully there will be something within all the shared examples and case studies to get you up and running on your own journey of discovery - whatever that might be. Good luck!

Below are some links to stuff that might be worth exploring further...

Johari Window

The Hero's Journey

6 Thinking hats

Bloom's Taxonomy

Gestalt Action Cycle Model

Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Model

Self-Forgiveness Model

Why bother understanding yourself - when no one else can be bothered to do it? Why bother to spend time on your self-care, when you just eat a nice cheese sandwich instead? Why bother with self-sustained wellness when it doesn't make you anymore successful or wealthier? In today's episode we will be taking a historical and critical look at why bothering to know thyself could be one of the best decisions you'll ever make.

How can we enhance our lives so that we get more fulfilment and less hassle? In this episode two counsellors, Linda and Violet, share their thoughts and experiences on the subject of safe and nurturing spaces. We hope you enjoy their company, just as we hope you get some useful take-outs from the conversation.

BTW, here are some links to information that came up in this session...

A brief account of the core conditions of Carl Rogers

What exactly is person-centredness?

The Hierarchy of Need

'Morgan A Suitable Case For Treatment'

Nick Cave Fan Video

You might also be interested in 'How To Create Safe Spaces' (which was written for group facilitators, but can easily be plucked for other uses).

& Nick Cave's The Red Hand Files

Take care.

Can this club become a nurturing haven in its own right? An independent principality of psychological safety and stability? A landless, borderless place where wellness is always - always, always - the number one concern? Where people can do some good work on their own well-being, free from the restrictions and hostilities of their day to day lives; away from the oppressions of their own societal cultures and conditionings?

In the next two episodes we'll be looking to unpick what this term 'nurture' means to us; and see how we can get more of it in our lives. We'll be looking to start the process of creating and maintaining a good, thriving club culture for all the Self Detective people who are invested in this space. Happy days.

Welcome back to the lived experience part of the club. Here we have Anna-Lou and Jillie sharing how they navigate their way around adversarial environments.

How can we navigate our way through hostile realms within our society, within our day to day life? Tune in to find out.

Welcome to the lived experience part of the show. Here we get to hear Jillie and Richard talking to your SDC host about what wellness means to them. We trust that listening to them speak so freely and openly will help generate your own thoughts on the subject.

Is there anything more important than wellness?

If there is something – anything – that’s more important than wellness, shout it out. 

If there isn’t anything more important than wellness, then what are we waiting for?

Let’s reverse back along the road.

Let’s find out what it’s made of.

Let’s start learning about the stuff. 

Let’s immerse ourselves in the stuff.

Do you prefer to think for yourself, rather than be spoon-fed stuff?

Do you prefer curiosity to being judgmental?

Would you rather collect insights than medals?

Do you have the capacity and desire for self-reflection, self-love and self-care?

Would you like to be part of a human-sized platform that promotes freedom and equality not just culturally and interpersonally, but intrapersonally?

Would you like to be part of a revolution that start with you, and then works outward?

Then have a listen, dear listener, and decide if you want to invest some of your free time with us.

"There is one person you are going to spend the rest of your life with. Maybe now is a good time to get to know yourself." Self Detective.

“The first revolution is when you change your mind about how you look at things, and see there might be another way to look at it that you have not been shown.”  Gil Scott Heron.

The Self Detective Club. Not for the faint-hearted. Not for the fascists. Not for the ruling classes - but for the masses.

Nb

If you want to do some good detective work on yourself straightaway, you could do a lot worse than checking out some of these SD calendar entries.

If you'd like a transcript of the trailer, its right here.

Thanks to The Samphires for letting us use bits of their music.

Say hi, ask questions, discuss future episodes, etc, right here... podcast@selfdetective.net