The simplest and quickest way I know to get a bit of relief from stress goes like this: Take 3 deep breaths. Each time, breathe in deeply (without forcing it), then breathe out slowly and smoothly. How can this be so effective? Well, it’s having a direct effect on two parts of the brain
Why cavemen didn’t need mindfulness
The human brain evolved in stressful conditions – avoiding Sabre-Tooth Tigers, hunting just to eat, and lots of hard physical graft. And yet it’s now, in times of great luxury and abundance, that we need mindfulness. What’s going on? Well, our brains evolved some fantastic mechanisms to handle those tough conditions: A fight/flight system to […]
Don’t Forget to Thank Your Mind
I was just out for a walk on the common. I’ve been working hard all week on a big project, and I’ve still got lots more to do. I was rather hoping to enjoy the sunset. But my mind had other ideas – it kept on thinking about the project. I kept saying “no” to those […]
The “Negativity Bias” – and how to overcome it
Human brains have a built in “negativity bias” – the brain pays more attention to bad news than good news. How come? Well, it’s a brilliant mechanism for survival situations. Think of it like this – if the good news is a particularly delicious pineapple, and the bad news is an approaching tiger, you really […]
The mindfulness mistake almost everyone makes – and the magic answer!
Say you’re meditating on your breath. Then you realise that your mind is on something else. How do you respond? Almost everyone thinks they’ve failed, many people think they’re bad at mediation, some people even think there’s something wrong with them as a human being. None of this is true! To understand this, let’s take a […]
When are you most alive?
Mindfulness is about coming alive in the moment. To get a feel for what mindfulness is like, think about times when you already feel really alive, when you’ve experienced a really vivid and vibrant quality to life. For example, one of the things I like to do is to take photographs of beautiful landscapes. I […]
Listening to Life
Have you ever been talking to someone, and had the experience that they’re not really listening to you? Maybe they’re busy thinking their own thoughts, or distracted and daydreaming. How do you feel when that happens? The weird thing is, we do this to ourselves all the time. We’re doing one thing, but thinking of […]
Two Types of Relaxation
We normally think of relaxing by getting out of the situation – taking time out, chilling out, getting out of the country for a wonderfully relaxing holiday. That’s very important. We need it – and most of us need more of it. Time doing nothing is a valuable activity! But there’s another way: relaxing into activity. We do it naturally […]