I have just returned from a glorious holiday spent with my in-law family. Nineteen Harveys aged 2 to 72 came together for a weekend of games, walks, shared meals and spontaneous congregations in the ‘cake corner’ of the hotel coffee shop. We were there for my mother-in-law, Alice’s 70th birthday, a major milestone for a woman who is at the heart of the Harveys and one we wanted to come together to celebrate.   Before the gathering we had secretly gone through decades of photographs that represent Alice’s life and compiled them into a book that we had published as... Read full article »

It’s been one year since my film The Connection was released, a project that has taken my heart and soul to bring to the world, and a project that has changed my life forever. As regular readers of this blog will know, I decided to make The Connection after I discovered the wealth of scientific evidence showing there was far more I could be doing for my chronic illness than my doctors were aware of and I wanted to share this information with others. Given that I was recently reading a research paper about the health benefits of reflection, I... Read full article »

As a journalist who spends her time writing and researching about health, I have a major confession to make. I loathe exercise. I’ve read countless studies about its benefits and am well aware of its power to build bigger biceps, tone my tummy and tune my heart. But all this information has never been quite enough to overcome the fact that I find it very difficult to put exercise anywhere near the top of my priority list when there are people to be interviewed, a child to care for and friends to catch up with.   When I was in... Read full article »

I’ve lost count of the number of conversations I’ve had with people on the topic of whether or not emotions can affect our health. Inevitably, anecdotal stories get used to make one argument or another - “My uncle was the angriest, meanest man on the planet and he lived to the age of 94” or “My auntie was told she had six months to live, but she’s the happiest, most positive person I know and is still alive and kicking five years later.”   As a journalist I love hearing stories like this. Stories form the glue that binds us... Read full article »

I recently received an email from the organiser of an initiative called Wake Up for Peace asking me if I'd like to participate in a meditation event for the UN's International Day of Peace. The idea was to invite Rabbis, Bishops and spiritual luminaries from all faiths, as well as leaders from politics, business, academia and healthcare to come together and meditate on peace for half an hour. She wanted to know if I'd join them.     I agreed, thinking what a wonderful idea it was. But part of me was also super skeptical. I couldn’t imagine all those... Read full article »

We’re coming out of winter here in Sydney. Spring is in the air. The birds are chirping and blossoming flowers scent the air with sweet fragrance, but rather than fully enjoying the beginning of the new season, my two year old brought home a cold from childcare as a final parting gift from the grey drudgery of winter. It came resplendent with a sore throat, dripping nose and watering eyes.   My son was miserable and pretty soon so was I. As we both sneezed and spluttered our way through our days, my husband valiantly trooped on looking after us... Read full article »