Start (and keep) your mindfulness practice going Mindfulness is everywhere in the news these days. It’s all over the place and you can’t seem to attend even the driest of corporate strategy planning sessions without hearing about it. We all know the value of mindfulness practice. It can lower blood pressure, decrease stress and increase happiness. It can […]
Depression — End the stigma
What this article is This is the story of how I recovered from Major Depressive Disorder, anxiety, and addiction, built my life back up from scratch, and found happiness. I hope that this article can help to inspire the thousands of people out there who suffer in silence, who feel afraid to talk about these […]
How mindfulness is helping me with a debilitating illness: my story
It is a strange fact of life that the things that affect us most are often those that are out of our control. Four months ago I fell ill, suddenly and cripplingly. Over night I went from being a busy, active young woman to barely being able to stand. My body seemed to quadruple in […]
The city and mindfulness
Beside my bed I have a set of prayer beads that I bought when I was in Rishikesh in northern region of India on an environmental project along the Ganges. The beads are called japa mala, and they are meant for meditation. Whenever I look at them it invokes silence, solitude and calm. It sits there […]
How important is the ‘perfect proposal’?
Yesterday I went for lunch with some colleagues in Cambridge, and after some initial chit chat about how annoying person X is and how busy it’s been at work – the usual precursor for the more interesting conversation which will hopefully follow – we went on to discuss that I was going to be writing […]
What is mindfulness?
What is mindfulness? The term “Mindfulness” seems to be cropping up everywhere as a new concept increasing positivity and wellbeing. Deemed as a relatively new concept; its foundations are rooted within the traditions of Buddhism and other Eastern religions. Essentially, it is an amalgamation of Western science with yoga and meditation. Why mindfulness meditation […]
5 inspiring and practical tips for going back to School
Experiences and tips on studying down the line Last year I made what felt like a very big but very natural decision to start postgraduate studies. As I work full time in what can be a quite a pressurised job I wasn’t sure how I would manage both my work and study in terms of […]
Lucky Dip!
What’s important? What’s your priority? Funny how the little things in life can take on too much importance, can niggle us, affect our whole waking day. We sometimes fail to realise what is truly important in our lives. I was certainly affected by working long hours and to use that well worn phrase couldn’t see […]
What is success?
What is success? In the distant sea-sick days of career ambition, I lived and breathed success. Problem was I never stopped to ask myself precisely what form that success should take. Never having excelled at school, I had time to make up. All those hours doing my art work when mum thought I was practising […]
What is consciousness?
What is consciousness? The straight answer to this question is that no one knows for sure, which is not surprising since the brain is the most complex object in the Universe. Philosophers have pondered and probably thought very hard about what consciousness is but they didn’t do many experiments. Today we have powerful instruments for […]