Boasting thought leaders such as Bill Bryson, Derren Brown, Richard Dawkins, Marie Forleo, Ruby Wax and Alain de Botton, the festival will see influential figures share their unique life lessons for a happier, healthier and more inspired life. With its writers and columnists at the forefront, The Sunday Times will ensure that ideas and information are not only cutting edge, but rigorously researched and, ultimately, scientifically sound. In an arena saturated with conflicting advice and opinions on wellbeing and healthy living, this weekend will offer festival goers not only a fresh perspective, but real, tangible knowledge to carry forwards into day-to- day life.

The weekend features over 40 talks from more than 80 speakers, along with an abundance of mindful activities including yoga, meditation, sound therapy, crafting and more. Designed with a structure that will allow guests to not only learn from experts but others around them, with taster sessions to explore new skills, and examine their career potential Life Lessons is a chance for attendees to design a better future for themselves.

Visitors will build their own bespoke programme from topics such as nutrition, health, sustainable living, business, society and psychology. The festival will tackle questions both big and small, from whether it’s possible to design a perfect society, to which foods are beneficial for both humans and the planet.

Eleanor Mills, Editorial Director of The Sunday Times, said of the event, “Every day, we are bombarded with new ways to improve ourselves, to be happy, to live well. It’s impossible to work out which ones are the real deal and which are just snake oil. Until now.

At the inaugural Life Lessons weekend, our mission is to find the answers to life, the universe and everything. With the help of a carefully curated line-up of smart thinkers, we’ll apply a healthy dose of scepticism and a large chunk of science to an industry and world built on promises. Is clean eating really good for you? What does a healthy society look like? Is it possible to parent mindfully? And where are we on butter?” 

Visit Life Lessons for more details and to buy tickets.

Liane Moriarty’s latest novel Nine Perfect Strangers is a funny read with acute observation and fast paced plot. There are thinly veiled barbs at the wellness industry, selfie culture, and the pressure of modern society are delivered through witty dialogue and clever characterisation. All of the characters are flawed, in entirely relatable ways, and it’s easy to warm to them as you roll your eyes at them. New lottery winners, a grieving family, middle aged women – a whole human range is there, and the experience holds a mirror up to the misfits and makes them see things about their lives, even if it wasn’t what they expected.

Moriarty is the Australian author of seven best-selling novels. Big Little Lies shot to fame as a television show featuring Nicole Kidman. Nine Perfect Strangers will also be hitting the screens, with Kidman’s production company Blossom Films and Big Little Lies producer, Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories having signed a deal for the TV and film rights.

Nine Perfect Strangers is an excellently executed book with a catchy and thrilling storyline and sensitively crafted characters. Definitely worth a read.

Wellness and alternative health have certainly become cool, and as Ruby puts it ‘the New Age has got an image upgrade and become the Now Age.’ In her funny and bold tone we are taken through Ruby’s transition from coke snorting anxiety to crystal healing bliss through chapters titled ‘Astrology as Basic Life Skill’, ‘Your Period as Sacred Goddess Code’ and ‘Healing is the New Nightlife.’

It’s funny, and clever, and very compellingly written, and even though I can’t see me getting on board with most of the ideas, Ruby does make them sound damn good fun. Who doesn’t want to ‘get buzzed’ on breath?

But why she came to doing this – that I’m down with. She thought she had it all, and she didn’t. She decided to seek the ‘something fundamental to the purpose of me taking up space on the planet.’ That should be the goal of us all, whether we look to the stars for it or not.

Out now on Harper Collins.

Using words to soothe the emotions and alter thoughts is the root of bibliography – the use of literature to help people deal with psychological, social and emotional problems. The concept dates back to 300 BC when ancient civilizations placed inscriptions over library entrances that stated that within the building was healing for the soul. Aristotle considered literature to have healing benefits and reading fiction to be a way of treating illness and in Titus Andronicus William Shakespeare encourages the audience to ‘Come, and take choice of all my library, And so beguile thy sorrow … ’

Although stemming from ancient cultures, one of the first times it was applied to medical care in the UK was after World War I to help treat the emotional trauma suffered by returning soldiers, when engagement and occupation with books in psychiatric institutions was seen to be beneficial for the patients’ general sense of wellbeing. More recently it has been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) UK as a useful start in treating mild and moderate depression, anxiety and panic and some other mental health problems. In Ireland GPs suggest specific titles through the Power of Words scheme and on the other side of the world, Central West Libraries in New South Wales has developed a Books on Prescription scheme.

Different forms of bibliotherapy exist. Some is very much within the self-help genre, whereas other therapists ‘prescribe’ personal reading lists based on the type of literature a person favours, whereas others still offer guided group reading sessions, known as creative bibliotherapy. This is what Sharon Dunscombe, who runs Tales for Tea offers, via the practice of sharing great works of literature by reading them aloud, together. She describes this as a ‘deeply personal and social experience’ where the text and pleasure of reading is enough in itself, but can be enhanced by the experience of engaging with it in a group. Sharon believes that ‘It is my duty as a bibliotherapist to make connections; personal connections between the content of the books and the people I read to, thus promoting a therapeutic response.’

It was after running reading groups in a junior school whilst studying for her Level 3 NVQ that Sharon came to bibliotherapy. She discovered that the children responded very well to the stories being read to them by unconsciously relating their lives to the works she was reading. She describes herself as ‘a complete bibliophile and [I] have eaten books and words like bowls of warm nourishment from a very early age!’ Reading is not just something that children benefit from, and groups are starting up all over the country for people from all walks of life.

Rachel, author of Black Rainbow, a writer and bibliotherapist, who, amongst other workshops, works with prisoners at Wormwood Scrubs, knows first hand the value of using poetry and prose as an aid to psychological healing and wellbeing. When faced with depression, suicidal thoughts and hospitalisation, ‘an illness that left me inconsolable and tormented by pain and fear’ her mother began to read to her. The poems and passages she read became props for Rachel. ‘I clung to particular lines and phrases as if they were carefully constructed life rafts: a particular favourite was an excerpt from Corinthians: “My grace is sufficient for thee; my strength is made perfect in weakness” which I repeated to myself in the style of a mantra or prayer. As I began to recover, I grew to rely more and more on the healing power of consoling poetry and prose. As I gradually re-learnt how to focus my attention and read for myself, I sought out texts with a compassionate voice that helped me feel less alone; as well as pieces of writing that transformed my perspective.’

Experiments by Professor Philip Davis from the School of English at the University of Liverpool suggests that complex prose and poetry increases electrical activity in the brain. Rachel believes that ‘We can draw a relationship between reading poems and increased focus plus the ability to engage in something outside of oneself, thereby separating oneself from the ‘ego’: an important component of mental health. ‘ Reading is a personal endeavour using internal processes but featuring external voices, and therefore useful in focusing the reader on examining their ‘self’ and coming to terms with their emotions and challenging accepted but unhelpful thoughts, via prompts from others in a safe and contained environment.

Samuel Crothers, the man who coined the term bibliotherapy described its stages as Identification, Catharsis and Insight.  Essentially, the reader identifies with some aspect of the story, finds release in sharing with the character’s feelings, and gains insight into how to apply that to dealing with their own emotions.

There can be no doubt that literature transforms us and the process of reading is a very healing process, but the way in which it does so can vary significantly. Words can help people realise emotions, and the result can be that emotions deep inside are then able to be expressed and shared. Books can help to provide different perspectives and the suggestion of an alternative course of action. They may be inspiring, through the story or character. For some it is the actual doing, the practice of devoting half an hour a day to a regular activity, which can help provide a sense of solidity for some people, as a safe place unchanging and apart from difficulties faced in the world and a place of escapism. Others may simply respond to the rhythm of the words and the flow of sentences, finding themselves absorbed and in an almost meditative state.

The exact benefits may not be rigidly defined, and we may never be able to conduct laboratory experiments or collect reams of data to prove the case for bibliotherapy being of medical assistance, but it certainly is another tool in the world and an asset to support mental health. As Rachel writes in Black Rainbow – ‘Words were what I knew, what I had always relied on.’

The creators of FloVibe – Jason Pooley (The House of Yoga) and collaborator Lou Wellby of Jam Sandwich Live – have brought together all the things they love in one place, for a weekend of what they term ‘soul-nourishment.’

Starting from their five values of community, empowerment, connection, play and celebration, they’ve manifested them in a sparkling event that will take place on 2-4th June 2017 at the idyllic Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire.

There’s yoga masterclasses, dance and movement workshops, inspiring talks, storytelling, live music spanning folk, jazz, roots & reggae (including Cristobal & The Sea), incredible DJs, nutritious, delicious wholesome food and treatments in the woods. Rather than exhausting you, this is a weekend of revelry that aims to inspire and restore.

Tickets start at only £75 for the day, and are available here, with weekend and camping options available.

There is something wrong if we feel unable to cope with life, but it’s not necessarily that there is something wrong with us in a physical or fundamental sense, just that we do not have the tools or resources to manage.

I left still very much convinced that mindfulness as the practice of paying attention, on purpose, moment by moment and without judgement, nicely explained by Dr Tamara Russell, is something that offers value and support for individuals and society as a whole. Learning how to be with oneself and regulate emotions is a valuable skill and experience. But there was one point raised that really did make me think. What is our culture of wellness doing to us? A gentleman in the audience spoke of how his employees were asking for yoga and meditation at work to help make them ‘well’ – but he didn’t see them as ‘ill.’ Quite the contrary, he believed them to be bright, capable, interesting and thriving people. Is our focus on making ourselves well convincing us that we are ill? Is the drive to become better reinforcing the idea that we are somehow inadequate?
The focus on wellness puts the onus on each of us to create a healthy and balanced life. There’s nothing wrong with that, but some people are more able than others, through the resources available to them. The poor, sick or depressed are somehow posited as inadequate for not living a flourishing life. If illness, or being unwell, is posited as an individual problem that can be remedied through mindfulness, this removes the onus on changing social structures that perpetuate the causes of that illness; the fast paced life, stressful working environments, and lack of community support. There is something wrong if we feel unable to cope with life, but it’s not necessarily that there is something wrong with us in a physical or fundamental sense, just that we do not have the tools or resources to manage. It’s an unintended consequence that many end up feeling that they just don’t measure up to the standards that the wellness industry – because it is an industry – demand.
The 1 in 4 statistic from MIND’s Time To Change campaign is often bandied about, but the danger of everyone thinking that they know someone with or themselves have a mental health concern undermines the experience of those severely debilitated by illness. The person who responds to a decade long battle with anorexia with the comment, ‘oh I once didn’t eat biscuits for a week after I split up with my boyfriend’; the flippant comments about being ‘so OCD’ with no knowledge as to the restrictive and suffocating nature of the illness;’ or the belief that someone’s depression that means they can’t get out of bed is cured by a cup of coffee and a stretch – after all, you feel sad as well.
Generally speaking throughout history people have been considered healthy, or well, and then they fall ill, before being treated and becoming well once again. This changing presentation of wellness (or cult as it has been called on numerous occasions) suggests that being unwell is the default position, and that through hard graft we rise up to enlightened wellness. The well/ill, happy/unhappy and good/bad dualism becomes laden with moralising, which is what industry and advertising thrive on. If we believe that we are inadequate we are more likely to be depressed, stressed and unhappy – and thus need to seek out their help to change things.
It’s not mindfulness that is the problem, but the way that an industry has grown up around it that preys on insecurities. I still love mindfulness. I find it bloody hard, but the idea of being here, in my body and the world, right now, observing the vicissitudes of life but not becoming overwhelmed by them, is one that appeals and I can see has huge benefits. But I think it’s worth considering the danger of putting ourselves in the position of ill people who must become well, and who are failing if we are not zenned out, lithe and glowing individuals.
Perhaps it is about getting back to the root – we’re all human, and mindfulness, true mindfulness, lets us accept that.