It happens in life, perhaps especially at the moment, that we experience stress and anxiety about issues we can’t fix. For instance, none of us can dictate the course of the pandemic or make it go away. If your job […]
Acceptance, as I keep saying, is the second half of mindfulness (the first is awareness). It means not rushing to judgement, pausing to take in the reality of situations and increasing your tolerance for experience. By helping you to avoid […]
In 2014, Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield interviewed me on Good Morning Britain on ITV about mindfulness following the publication of Mindfulness on the Go. At the time, interest in mindfulness was taking off in Britain. The video is […]
We are often urged to practise gratitude to improve our well-being?
I once noticed that I felt happy when I was walking through the rain on a cold autumn day. That’s illogical – I don’t like cold rain – but I accepted it as a mysterious bonus and enjoyed the happiness. The experience taught me that when I’m in a good mood it’s probably not because life got better; when I’m in a low mood it’s probably not because life got worse.
We live in an era in which we see the contents of the mind as more important than the state of the body. For that reason we can over-emphasise the “mind” in “mindfulness” by paying too much attention to our […]
We all have behaviours we want to change – even that we ought to change. Let’s call these ‘unwanted behaviours.’ In setting out to change unwanted behaviours, bear in mind the distinction between a true friend and an abusive critic. […]
A key aspect of self-preoccupation is the tendency to judge everything in reference to ourselves. I call it Radio Me Me Me. Suppose you hear that it’s going to rain for a day and a night in your city of […]
Burnout is usually associated with work. When you arrive at burnout you no longer derive pleasure from your work, you can become rather cynical about its value, and about the workplace and what you see as the lack of support. […]
In practising mindfulness we learn to take our thoughts less seriously. Our thoughts are often less important than we think they are and as we all know their predictions are often wrong. So while some thoughts are valuable or entertaining […]
