Whatever the reason for uprooting from the land where you were born and bred, whether it is for financial reasons, a change of scenery, for career progression or to escape persecution, relocating to another country impacts every aspect of life. My MAPP research...
I cannot get the picture of President Trump pointing his finger at members of the press and stating ‘You are fake news’ out of my mind. And the accompanying news report, stating that statistics show that people are unable to differentiate between fake and real news....
Reflections of gratitude I recently spent a month in The Philippines which brought the depth of gratitude I have for the country that I was born and raised in, to a whole new level. I have actively been practising gratitude in the form of a daily gratitude journal...
The recently published Word Happiness Report 2016 reported that the top five happiest counties in the world were Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Finland. It also reported that when taking continents as a whole, there was a difference between the happiness...
I was seeing my friend after many weeks. She’d been away in Kashmir, visiting a Hindu shrine. I knew she’d had a bad experience and I feared it had something to do with the ongoing Hindi-Muslim riots in the region. Little did I guess… A Journey to remember She said...
Mapuche culture transcends and makes us remember the meaning of happiness Two years ago I was in a remote place called Cole Cole, which is located 25 kms of the Chiloé national park (173 km away from Castro). I was there for more than a month doing trails and long...
I always had an infatuation with intuition. I saw it as an inner guide, the voice of my true self, with answers to all the questions that befuddled me. If only I could nurture a reliable connection to this secret hideout of wisdom. If only I could tune up its voice in...
The Syrian crisis has been the most frequent topic of discussion in my twins’ Global Perspectives class. I love the concept of the class – they access media coverage from around the world and see the same event covered from different perspectives. A great way to...
Overlooking the pleasures of food There is no better season than summer to write about pleasures and food falls squarely within this realm. Yet, we routinely overlook its sensuality and fall into mindless, functional eating or succumb to overconsumption, missing...
I have always had an interest in living a good life – perhaps a natural attraction towards positive psychology. An experience early on in life eventually taught me the value of seeing the self as far deeper than the finely curated fragments of body and mind that we spend a lifetime trying to conquer. It showed me, albeit exclusively, the faint and subtle yearnings of the soul that often went unheard in the noise and clamour of daily life.