From watching a little-known festive film, to trying a Victorian parlour game or even spotting a once in a lifetime astronomic occurrence, academics at the University of Warwick have compiled a few ideas to help you enjoy something different – deliberately – this Christmas.
The news that many of the pandemic restrictions we have been learning to live with in the UK over the last nine months will be lifted for five days over Christmas will delight some, but it may not be good news for everyone, explains Professor Sarah Stewart Brown, expert in public health and wellbeing from Warwick Medical School.
It’s not surprising that some families find that tensions grow in close quarters. Families are having to find ways of living together that they are entirely unused to, when many of their usual ways of coping have been taken away says Professor Sarah Stewart-Brown from Warwick Medical School.
Mindfulness is often described as a state of being where our awareness is focused on the present-moment flow of experience without commentary, analysis or judgement. In this state the mind has less chance to wander and worry about other things, explains Dean Howes from Warwick's Centre for Lifelong Learning.
On the 75 anniversary of VE Day, Dr Alexander Smith, associate professor of sociology at the University of Warwick, shares a personal story of a heroic grandfather who served in Bomber Command, but who fought a lifelong battle with addiction after the war ended.
While Covid-19 and the current lockdown has major implications for all families, it poses particular challenges for young carers and their families, explains Dr Michael Wyness from the University of Warwick’s Centre for Education Studies.
Lockdown is showing us that our lifestyles, in the main our reliance on motorised methods of transportation, have an insidious and detrimental impact on our environment and ultimately our health. Rob Lillywhite, from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick reviews the impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on the environment.
Dr Stephanie Schnurr, from the Centre for Applied Linguistics explains why humour is a powerful tool that can help us feel less worried, less alone, and more in control.
It is amazing that whole allotments and greenhouses full of vegetables and flowers can come from just a couple of handfuls of small, dry fragments. Dr Charlotte Allender, from Warwick’s Crop Centre, explains the importance, diversity and quite incredible resilience of seeds.
Dr Harbinder Sandhu, Associate Professor in the Clinical Trials Unit at Warwick Medical School and clinical psychologist, explains some of the feelings we may all experience in the coming weeks and shares some tips for looking after our own wellbeing.
