Spoonie Pyjama Party

Do we need to bring back the lost art of convalescence? | Did you know that in the founding constitution of the World Health Organisation, health is defined as:“A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.” As someone who's lived with chronic conditions since I was a child, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what recovery can mean. A little while back, I stumbled across a teeny tiny book called Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence. I read the whole thing in one very short sitting, and then messaged my producer Philly telling her I must interview its author, Dr. Gavin Francis. The book is a meditation on recovery and that’s what we’ll be exploring in this week’s episode The Rest Room podcast. It asks the question: if recovery doesn’t have to be a total absence of ill health, what should we actually be thinking about?We hear from Dr. Francis about what recovery means to him, what n