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For a limited period Neil is offering membership of his online learning community at a discount of 2/3 rds off – just £40 for a full year! There is more information about the Programme at https://www.avenuemediasolutions.com/the-avenue-professional-development-programme/. Interested? Questions? Email Neil directly at [email protected].

Communication is so fundamental to most of the things we do in our work as well as in our private lives. One of the most potent forms of communication is body language, the subtle – and sometimes not so subtle – ways in which our body gives off signals or ‘messages’. Sometimes body language reinforces what we are saying – for example, when we say yes and nod at the same time. At other times, body language undermines what we are saying – for example, when, in response to being asked how we are, we say: ‘I’m fine’, but the look on our face says we are anything but fine. https://neilthompson.info/index.php/develop-your-body-language-skills/

Do you feel your age? In his wistful series "Mirrors," Dallas-based photographer Tom Hussey captures the discrepancy between how old we look and how young we feel with sharp tenderness. The phoographer arrived upon the concept for his bittersweet series after a conversation with an 80-year-old World War II veteran who couldn't believe how quickly time had passed. "He commented that he didn’t understand how he could be 80 years old as he felt he was still a young man. He just didn’t feel it was possible he could be 80 years old," Hussey told the American Society of Media Photographers. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/tom-hussey-mirror-series-shows-elderly-people-looking-at-younger-selves_n_2958505.html

Why do so many people with caring responsibilities feel forced to give up work? “When the call came in to say mum had had another emergency episode, my employer was concerned all wasn’t well. It had been another episode in short succession and I had already spent some time away from the office. Of course I rushed to her bedside, but in the back of my mind I knew that I had responsibilities and commitments in the workplace and a contract of employment to adhere to.” https://www.cipd.co.uk/pm/peoplemanagement/b/weblog/archive/2015/07/27/it-s-emotional-being-a-carer-and-an-employee-at-the-same-time.aspx?utm_medium=email&utm_source=cipd&utm_campaign=cipdupdate&utm_term=639989&utm_content=290715-3088-2916--20150729090232-Find%20out%20in%20People%20Management%27s%20article

Immigration is not a problem. How we deal with it is. And I don’t mean to suggest that talking about immigration is simply racist. Some of it is xenophobic too. We hear about enforcement, border controls, increasing numbers, a small island, and responses such as Go Home vans or Don’t Come to Britain Campaigns.  These are, some would say, phantom problems that are being addressed in often very costly ways, and it is the migrants who have to bear the brunt of illiberal policies that pay the highest price. Credible evidence about the impact of immigration, gathered by independent academics, media and advocates, tell a different story. In the last few years, as anti-immigration rhetoric has been on the increase,…

At Easter, Jenny McMurtary was given just days to live. At Christmas, she had been diagnosed with a sarcoma, a rare cancer, in her shoulder, and it had spread. But now she is making the most of the summer, with her husband, Michael. "We've been to garden centres, local villages and even made a trip to Hayling Island," says the 69-year-old. "You have to be careful not to push yourself too much, but I want to make the most of the time I have left." How has she defied medical opinion? Good care and personal determination have obviously played a key part. But so has the help she has received from the local hospice service. Jenny is one of 2,000…

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