Being mindful about pain reduces its intensity and severity. It sounds counter-intuitive – why would you want to be mindful about pain? And yet your relationship with your pain – what you think about it, what you tell yourself, what…
Depression is one of the most common mental health problems. It is more common in women than in men and is the second leading cause of years lived with disability worldwide (back pain is number one). Relapse after an initial…
Hands up, who is their own worst critic? Do you judge yourself more harshly than others would? Or are you surprised, sometimes, by how much more forgiving and generous others can be? It is easy to think that to achieve…
This article is for everyone in pain. Especially pain that has gone on for more than three months. The truth is that pain is largely in the mind. I’m joking – right? No. Regardless of tissue damage, only your brain…
Do you relate to getting angry about something, then realising you had misunderstood the situation? Or reacting with more forcefulness and emotion than was necessary. Maybe you find yourself assuming the worse, sometimes lashing out at someone you care about.…
Winston Churchill once wrote that ‘success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm’. He could have been describing resilience, the ability to remain calm in the face of problems and challenges, and…
Can you think back to a time when something you were stressed about went much better than expected? Or when something that seemed like a mistake, turned out for the best? These are both examples of stress being generated by…
Mindfulness and meditation often appear used interchangeably. But are they really the same thing? They are related – but not identical. Mindfulness is a quality, an experience. It is a way of being, of relating to yourself and your environment.…
Many people come to learn mindfulness with a specific aim in mind. Reducing anxiety is one of the most common. Acceptance is one of the attitudes of mindfulness that can help with anxiety – but perhaps not in the way…