How New Life Portugal Turned my Scepticism into Awe and Gratitude
I almost didn’t go to New Life Portugal. My friend asked me to come along. He works for them remotely and was booked to go there for a week in September. Even though I said ‘yes’ pretty much instantaneously and based on a gut feeling, I was very reluctant, to say the least. My body […]
Transitions Without and Within
When staff selected Transitions as the theme for our very first week at New Life Portugal in December, 2021, we suspected but had not yet experienced just how perfectly that concept would fit. There were so many overlapping transitions to consider! The move of staff to New Life’s new home, followed ten days later by […]
A moment that changed me – After years of crippling anxiety, I found my way in a community on the other side of the world
I was 27 when I had a nervous breakdown, almost exactly 10 years from the first. I should have seen it coming. I grew up on Dartmoor, and had a typical middle class upbringing. I remember very little of my childhood, but from time to time when I visit, memories erupt like little volcanoes from […]
Late-Pandemic Mental Health: The Healing Power of Community
All of us have felt it, even though we may not quite know what we feel. There is the creeping realization that even though the latest viral variant may have run its course, life as we knew it is not returning. The delayed sense of loss and grief made all the more complicated by the […]
The Importance and Benefits of Intentional Travelling
Have you ever gone on holiday, returned home and felt strangely unfulfilled by your travels? You might have escaped your daily grind for a couple of weeks, chilled on a beach, seen the sights or tried a couple of dishes from a foreign cuisine but somehow feel that you have barely scraped the surface. If […]
The Power of Community and Communication for Mental Health
The term ‘community’ is used a lot in our contemporary vocabulary and its definition is rooted in shared experiences. “A community is typically a group of people who share values, beliefs, experiences and norms,” explains psychologist and New Life Portugal Program Director, Karin Bleecker, M.S. “It is someplace you feel others ‘get’ you, and where […]
