When I was studying speech writing as part of my editing degree, I was excited to discover the Sophists of ancient Greek. They were paid teachers of philosophy and rhetoric and I loved the image of them as ancient speechwriters and, at a creative stretch, editors. More exciting was the fact that my business name was born; Sophist was taken so I went with the Latin term, Sophista.

I love word forms and learning about their derivation. I've yet to purchase it but one day will treat myself to a big hardback copy of David Crystal's Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, an exploration of the English language, its history and how it's evolved. Lots of Latin root-words and maps of ancient Rome. Glorious.

So I was curious to read about a wellness technique called sophrology, which dates back to the 1960s. My first thought was it must be related to the root-word soph, meaning wisdom, so that made sense to me—a wellness technique related to the mind. A definition from the Sophrology Center claims the name is actually made up of sos (harmony), phren (consciousness) and logos (study of), so emphasis is on so not soph.

You can become a fully qualified sophrologist by doing an online sophrology diploma. I'd do it just to have the letters after my name: DipSoph ? But the real bonus would be learning about this interesting technique that promises the opportunity 'to become fully present, fully alive and fully participating, comfortably and joyfully, in all areas of life'. Some of the key benefits are improved memory, concentration and decision making, as well as physical and emotional health.

Definitely a bit of soph in that sos.

Photo credit: Farsi C @clearsky