This week we talked about a bedtime ritual, thirty-three miners, a garden, a hug, a Paralympic champion and porcupines looking for the right distance. Different stories, one common thread: small, concrete gestures, repeated with care, that help us feel better with ourselves and with others. Here is the recap, day by day.
12 October — The Bedtime Ritual at 3 and Health at 15: What a Study on Routines Says
A study published in 2024 by Duh-Leong and colleagues in the American Journal of Health Promotion followed 2,943 children from age 3 to 15, in families facing socioeconomic disadvantage. Those who had a bedtime routine at 3 were more likely to still have one at 15 and to report excellent health in adolescence. These are associations in observational data, not proof that the ritual produces health. The practical step: choose one simple ritual, always at the same time.
13 October — Sixty-Nine Days Underground: What the Story of the 33 Copiapó Miners Teaches Us
On 13 October 2010 the last of the thirty-three Chilean miners returned to the surface after sixty-nine days at about seven hundred metres underground. The article tells the choices that helped them: a routine, roles and autonomy, the bond with their families and with the team on the surface. It also reminds us that resilience does not mean the absence of pain, and that asking for help after a hard ordeal is part of strength.
14 October — Cultivating Our Garden: Voltaire and the Art of Starting Again from What We Can Tend
In 1759 Voltaire ended Candide with the invitation to cultivate our garden. The article reads it as a way to start again from what we can tend, even in one small corner of life, and recalls a meta-analysis by Soga, Gaston and Yamaura covering 22 studies: gardeners showed less depression and anxiety and more life satisfaction, with the caution of a possible publication-bias effect.
15 October — Does a Hug Really Help? What a Large Meta-Analysis Says About Affectionate Touch
A large meta-analysis by Packheiser and colleagues (Nature Human Behaviour, 2024), covering 137 studies on adults and newborns, finds a medium-sized effect of touch-based interventions (g = 0.52 in adults, g = 0.56 in newborns), especially on pain, anxiety and depression. The authors point out possible biases and measures taken right after the intervention. The practical message: closeness, when welcome and respectful, is a low-cost resource.
16 October — Francesca Porcellato, the “Flying Redhead”: Changing Road Is Not Giving Up
The story of Francesca Porcellato, hit by a truck at eighteen months and later a Paralympic champion in athletics, cross-country skiing and handcycling, with a career of more than thirty years. Changing discipline is not giving up: it is a way of continuing to run with different tools. A note of rigour: this is a story told by journalistic and encyclopedic sources, not by a scientific study.
17 October — The Porcupine’s Dilemma: How Close Should We Stand to Others, According to Schopenhauer
Schopenhauer’s parable of the porcupines, from the Parerga and Paralipomena (1851): too close and we prick each other, too far and we feel cold, and the middle distance is courtesy. The practical advice: notice the signal and ask kindly, “How much closeness do you need today?” It is a philosophical image, not an experimental result.
If one thread ties these six stories together, it is care: in habits, in people, in distances. Each one holds a small, doable gesture. For the week ahead I leave you a question: what small gesture of care do you want to try, for yourself or for someone you love? Write it in the comments, I enjoy reading you.
Sources
The articles of the week (full scientific sources are listed in each one):
- The Bedtime Ritual at 3 and Health at 15: What a Study on Routines Says
- Sixty-Nine Days Underground: What the Story of the 33 Copiapó Miners Teaches Us
- Cultivating Our Garden: Voltaire and the Art of Starting Again from What We Can Tend
- Does a Hug Really Help? What a Large Meta-Analysis Says About Affectionate Touch
- Francesca Porcellato, the “Flying Redhead”: Changing Road Is Not Giving Up
- The Porcupine’s Dilemma: How Close Should We Stand to Others, According to Schopenhauer
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