Simon Walls has resumed his cross-Canada pilgrimage, a journey focused on music, meditation, and meaning
After a winter’s pause, singer-songwriter Simon Walls has resumed his cross-Canada walk, setting out from Toronto at the end of May, and heading for Canada’s eastern coast. Simon has been blogging about his pilgrimage, his music, and his experiences online. The coast-to-coast trek developed in the aftermath of a friend’s suicide—and a similar pilgrimage across Spain. (more…)
Eric Nordal launches SocialCoast.org to create an activist alliance that could help social, anti-poverty groups connect
Eric Nordal has launched a Victoria-based online gathering place for community groups and organizations to share ideas and resources with one another, as well as collaborate on campaigns and events. He says that various social movements that “seem very separate are actually connected in a lot of ways.”
We speak with Eric Nordal about SocialCoast.org. (more…)
Marika Swan’s work with Redwire Native Youth Media has shown her the importance of healing through expression
Marika Swan is a Tla-o-qui-aht woman who was born out in the wilds of the west coast. Marika says she believes in a deeply profound relationship with the land that she comes from and a responsibility to its survival, health, and freedom. Marika is an artist who has also worked with Redwire Native Youth Media Society for the past five years.
We speak with Marika Swan about healing through expression. (more…)
“Mental illness”, diagnoses, and associated concepts are all social constructions, but the professions haven’t yet recognized it, psychologist saysMultiple fingers point to a ‘debacle’ unfolding at the psychiatric emergency service in Victoria, British Columbia
The Archie Courtnall Centre [opens to PDF], also known as the Psychiatric Emergency Service (PES), is connected to the ER at Victoria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital. Two years after its opening, the number of patients trying to access services at PES was overwhelming what was available. The clinical director resigned, saying the PES had “become the default processing centre for addicted individuals seeking treatment” due to lack of detox beds in the region. (more…)
From the two-minute miracle to writing your memoirs—expressive writing holds the promise of health benefits
Life Writing is an organic process—living and vital—with interrelated functions. In simple terms, it’s anything you write about your life. Life Writing’s genres and practices include autobiography, biography, memoir, diaries, letters, testimonies, autoethnography, personal essays and digital forms such as blogs and email [source: Wikipedia].
But what are the benefits of writing about your life…your experiences…your emotions…your thoughts? Author and life writer Sharon Lippincott says that results from three decades of research are clear: expressive writing is good for you, however you go about it. And research by Chad Burton and Laura King [opens to PDF] found that—amazingly—health benefits follow from just two minutes of written expression. (more…)
