Below you will find a selection of the most recent entries from bloggers in our Family/Health section. To view the entries from individual bloggers, click on the links below:
- Lee Eldrige
The Athlete Tribe
- Dr. Michelle Wright
Dr Michelle Wright is a British-trained General Practitioner and Director of HealthFirst, providing physical First Aid training and Mental Health First Aid training, as well as Health Education, throughout Switzerland (www.healthfirst.ch). She also has a regular radio show about health on World Radio Switzerland. Believing that prevention is better than cure and that we should be treating the root cause of illness, Dr Michelle is also a Lifestyle Medicine enthusiast. - Birgit Suess is a Swiss-American who grew up between the US and Switzerland and speaks English, German and Swiss-German. Because of a worldwide shortage of Speech Therapists, she uses technology to connect special needs students around the world with English speaking Speech Therapists. With almost 20 years of experience as a Speech Therapist and 10 years experience with Teletherapy, she is a pioneer in the Teletherapy world. Her personal specialty is working on social language with high functioning children on the Autism Spectrum. Her passion is finding new and innovative ways to help children with special needs.
- Dr. Irina Schurov is a Nutritional Neuroscientist with a PhD from Cambridge University (UK) and over 20 years’ experience in science and health-providing services. She created and founded LiveRight, an initiative to help others through nutrition and wellbeing strategies. By building an educational platform around healthy eating habits, by restoring the relationships between people and food, by supporting your individual circumstances and through personalized coaching in nutrition, she wants to help you and your family achieve the optimal balance between help and life.
- Dr. Penny Fraser
Dr Penny is a British-trained Emergency Medicine doctor, who lives in Geneva. She is also the mother of two busy little skiers aged 7 and 8. Along with Dr Michelle Wright and her other colleagues at HealthFirst, she has a passion for delivering health education and First Aid training to the English-speaking community in Switzerland
By Jennie Delreeve, Peak of Wellbeing
We recently delivered one of our retreats in the Jura, and one of the topics that captured the imagination of the participants was “Worthiness”. So I decided that I would share my ideas on this throught-provoking topic here!
There's a general belief on the planet by extremely well-meaning parents that we should 'socialize' our children, help them to fit in, so others will like them. Unfortunately this idea in our opinion, can often create problems later in adulthood.
The idea that 'it's my job to please others so I'll be liked and accepted,' is flawed and can lead to a great deal of inner conflict and loss of self. The more we do to please others, molding our actions, beliefs and personality, the further away we get from who we really are. The result is that we end up feeling inauthentic, like a fraud, anxious a great deal of the time and never quite getting the approval we're seeking. It's an old cliche, but the only place we can ever truly achieve great self-esteem is within ourselves.
If someone criticizes us, it's never really about us, but their perception of us. We can't control or change others or make people like us, but we can like ourselves. The irony is that when we learn how to do this, others tend to like us too! When we're constantly on the search for approval from others as I was, we come across as needy and insecure and usually don't get the reaction we are seeking, no matter how good we are at masking ourselves as confident and independent.
By Hiba Samawi, Wiser Humans
Rejection hurts. Literally.
And like most human behavior, it makes sense.
It makes sense from an evolutionary perspective because back when we were cave men and women and we did something that was out of line with the social group, we were kicked out.
And being rejected meant social exile, which meant being left to fend for ourselves in the savanna.
And without the group, we wouldn’t have lasted very long on our own in the wild.
So the human brain became hardwired to be very sensitive to rejection.
To avoid doing anything risky which meant avoiding rejection which meant avoiding exile which meant avoiding death.
Or as a shortcut:
REJECTION = PAIN
And because we don’t especially enjoy pain, most of us learned ways of avoiding the possibility of rejection.
- By not taking risks.
- By avoiding social situations where we might not succeed or where others might be critical of us, like public speaking.
- By comparing ourselves to others to make sure we are not doing anything ‘wrong’.
- By avoiding situations where rejection is possible, like online dating.
- By trying to behave flawlessly - to reach a state of perfection where we are beyond reproach.
- By developing these amazing pro-social skills like empathy and compassion…for others - while simultaneously being really hard on ourselves. Because criticising ourselves before anyone else can is a sort of pre-rejection meant to help us avoid real rejection.
By Jennie Delreeve, Peak of Wellbeing
Are you somebody who wakes up determined to be in a good mood, but somehow by midday, you are back to feeling grumpy and irritated again?
Do you find that you are often worried and anxious by seemingly small things?
When you look around, does everyone else seem to be happier and doing better than you?
If the answer is yes to one or more of these questions, read on, this article is for you.
What is happiness?
Should we feel happy all of the time? How do we achieve happiness? We have all asked these three questions at some point in our lives and maybe many of us are still searching for the answer.
by Milena McRae, www.milenamcrae.com
I’ve been truly lucky to be working with some very special and unique people over the last few months. In that time it feels we’ve jointly moved a few mountains, making some important changes to not just one person's life, but also to many of the most important people who share the lives of each of us.
Lucy is one of those special people and she has asked me to provide some feedback on her experiences in the hope that her story will inspire others. We have worked together closely over three months completing my DreamBuilder program. The quotes below are written personally by her.
Lucy explained that “As a family we had been through a number of difficult challenges - infertility, behavioural problems with our children, and two international moves. Combined with giving up a career to become a full-time mother, I felt like I had given up all sense of me. Whilst my priority will always be with my children, I wanted to work out what I could do for me to give myself back a sense of pride in myself and to actually feel like I was achieving something again.”
She has now discovered her dream to “…run a small business doing something that I love, and that I'm quite good at!” Lucy, has also acted on her discovery. Her business is now operating, leveraging what she can do from where she stands today,…she had more capability and help at her disposal than she expected. “I now know that I want to "design" my life rather than just live it by "default"...and do what I believe is expected of me. I definitely feel a greater sense of enjoyment in my life now and I am excited for the future.”
By Tanya Jeannet, Rockmybaby
Many clients have questions regarding the differences between a Nanny, Aupair and Babysitter. We have outlined the main differences below, which may enable you to better understand your needs and requirements. To discuss your childcare needs, please don’t hesitate to contact Rockmybaby® on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Babysitter
A babysitter is someone who takes care of your child / children for a few hours on an ad hoc basis i.e. when you are going out for dinner or need to attend an appointment etc.
The main role of a babysitter is to care for your children in your absence, making them feel safe and secure and ensuring all their needs are met. In Switzerland, babysitters generally range from the age of 13 upwards, are paid hourly and hold a first aid certificate. All Rockmybaby® babysitter’s are aged from 18 years onwards.
Cost: Depending on age of babysitter anything from 10CHF/15CHF per hour for a teenage babysitter to 20CHF-30CHF per hour for a more experienced babysitter
Working hours: Flexible, ad hoc hours
