Dear Diary: how keeping a journal can bring you daily peace

Writing a diary is a great way to offload – and, if memory fails, it’s a wonderful window on the past

How to take the lead in dog walking – and earn unconditional love in return

Enhance your pooch’s wellbeing and your own by making daily walks an interactive, quality experience

Pores for thought: how sweat reveals our every secret, from what we’ve eaten to whether we’re on drugs

Just one drop of perspiration might soon be enough to identify a criminal or diagnose a cancer. But this fast-moving science could also pose a serious threat to civil liberties

How my farmer friend Wilf gave me a new perspective

It was a breath of fresh air after my turbulent city life, says Kiran Sidhu

Not all narcissists are grandiose – the ‘vulnerable’ type can be just as dangerous

The introverted narcissist is harder to spot and may be more sinister

How Islam conquered my mother’s fear of cats

She’d always found them evil and scary, but when I wanted a cat in lockdown I appealed to my mum’s faith

‘Be interested, be curious, hear what’s not said’: how I learned to really listen to people

Being a good listener isn’t just about shutting up and not interrupting – it’s about really taking in what someone is telling you

A new start after 60: ‘I was sick, tired and had lost myself – until I began lifting weights at 71’

Joan Macdonald faced growing health problems before she began lifting weights, shattering preconceptions about what’s possible in your eighth decade

Doggy dependency: how to break post-lockdown separation anxiety

Lockdown has been hard for all of us – even our pets. Now my dog wants my undivided attention

How ‘acne positivity’ is helping teens – and soothing the scars of a lifetime

Teenage spots can ravage not just skin but mental health, too. Martin Love considers the lasting issues that can still be triggered years later