Blog
World Mental Health Day
In the approach to World Mental Health Day on October 10th, I thought a lot about my Aunty Ruth. It would have been her birthday. Both my aunt and my godmother, Ruth was a hugely influential figure in my life, I was extremely close to her. When she took her own life,...
Developing Resilience Through a Sense of Purpose
'Mental resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats and sources of stress.' American Psychological Association To put this another way, resilience is all about having the mental strength to deal with whatever pressures...
The Long-Term Impact of Lockdown on Mental Health
There is no question that the pandemic and, more specifically, lockdown is going to have a long-term impact on mental health. Research by Mind illustrates the scale of the effects: 65% of adults over 25 and 75% of young people (aged 13–24) with an existing mental...
How to Shift Your Mindset
Like it or not, we all have our own mindsets. You may not be aware of yours, or how it impacts your day-to-day interactions and behaviour, but it’s there. It’s there in the shape of the way you think, formed by a combination of attitudes, values and beliefs. There are...
Managing Your Return to Work
As lockdown restrictions are gradually eased and we are encouraged to resume more of our regular activities, this stretch of working from home or being on furlough is likely to be coming to an end for many. Whether you’re returning to work in the newly opening up...
Hack Yourself
There seems to be a hack for everything nowadays, but I want to talk to you about something a bit different from tips on how best to store your power cables! Biohacking is essentially the practice of changing our chemistry and our physiology through science and...
Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing
The capacity for forward thinking is a wonderful element of the human experience. It opens up the joy of planning for your future and gives you the benefit of problem-solving abilities. Unfortunately, it also welcomes in thoughts of all the worst-case scenarios you...
Why We Should Listen to Our Bodies
I’ve talked before about how stress is not just experienced at a psychological level – the physical and emotional effects are just as important. Too often, our bodily responses are overlooked in favour of a more intellectual focus on what we are thinking. The somatic...
Show Yourself Some Self-Compassion
We’ve just had Mental Health Awareness Week, and this year the theme was kindness. So I thought I’d take this opportunity to write about self-compassion, which is the biggest kindness we can show ourselves. In its literal definition, compassion means ‘to suffer with’....
Find Your Flow
Do you find yourself struggling to stay focused? At the end of the day do you feel like you’ve been busy but not really accomplished the tasks you needed to get done? Whether you are used to working from an office or from home, your work environment has certainly...
Thinking Skills and How to Develop Them
I talked in my last post about cognitive distortions, or thinking errors, particularly the concepts of catastrophizing and ‘should’ thoughts. In this post I wanted to look more at the tools I help people develop to challenge these unhelpful thoughts – thinking skills....
Thinking Errors and How to Combat Them
Cognitive distortions, or thinking errors, and how to manage and overcome them are a key focus of my coaching. Cognitive distortions are simply ways that our mind convinces us of something that isn’t really true. These inaccurate thoughts are usually used to reinforce...
The Importance of Routine
We’re currently faced with a time of great upheaval, uncertainty and, for many, anxiety. With as many people as possible staying at home across the country, everyday rhythms and patterns will undoubtedly be disrupted. To help with this, I’d really recommend putting a...
It’s OK to Feel This Way
Given the unprecedented situation we are all facing now, I wanted to take this opportunity to reassure you that all of the feelings you are experiencing right now are entirely valid. It is not dramatizing the situation to say that we are all, each and every one of us,...
How to Beat Insomnia
Who else has been experiencing some sleepless nights recently? According to the National Sleep Foundation, most adults need 7–9 hours’ sleep a night to help them to function at their optimal level. Now, more than ever, proper sleep is really important for all of us....
Some Physiological Stress Management Strategies
I take a holistic approach to stress management and resilience but I’d like to focus on some key physiological strategies here. As I’ve explained, there are a range of behavioural, psychological and physiological symptoms to watch out for when under pressure. Here are...
What are the Symptoms of Stress?
Stress is unfortunately an unavoidable fact of modern life. Whether through pressures at work, relationships at home or just the constant ‘noise’ of today’s 24-hour news culture, we all experience stress to some degree in our day-to-day lives. There are a multitude of...
Why You Should Listen to Your Gut
That gut feeling There is a reason your gut is often referred to as your second brain. In fact, there are more than 100 million reasons; that’s how many nerve cells line your gut to make up the enteric nervous system (ENS). Primarily responsible for digestion within...
The Importance of Community
No man is an island/Entire of itself/Every man is a piece of the continent/A part of the main. John Donne wrote these words in the Seventeenth century but I think the sentiment still firmly holds. It is impossible to stand entirely alone and live a successful,...
Unlock the Door to Better Mental Health
Around 1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health problem each year. And the number of people struggling to cope with these issues is rising, demonstrated by the increase in cases of self-harm and suicide. As I mentioned in my first blog post, stress is a...