Welcome to my blog
There is a lot of information around on the importance of looking after our health, like maintaining a healthy diet and plenty of exercise. This is all well and good if your aim is just to keep your body healthy. But what about your brain?
From chocolate to coffee and sleep, to sharper smarter thinking, join me for an article or three as I share insights, tips and ideas on what it takes to keep your brain operating at full speed, so you can wake up feeling refreshed, happier and healthier every day.
Welcome to my blog
There is a lot of information around on the importance of looking after our health, like maintaining a healthy diet and plenty of exercise. This is all well and good if your aim is just to keep your body healthy. But what about your brain?
From chocolate to coffee and sleep, to sharper smarter thinking, join me for an article or three as I share insights, tips and ideas on what it takes to keep your brain operating at full speed, so you can wake up feeling refreshed, happier and healthier every day.
Why Experiencing Happiness at Work Matters
It’s The International Week of Happiness at Work. Let’s Celebrate!
If you happen to be in Paris, Germany, or the UK you may have noticed one of the 800 screens around reminding you it’s the International Week of Happiness Sept 20th to 26th.
Does this matter?
Beyond Resilience: Creating Post-traumatic Growth
Do you remember where you were on September 11th 2001? The events of that day are etched as clearly in my mind today as they were twenty years ago. Dealing with times of adversity of challenge is hard and can test our resilience to its limit.
But we are far more resilient than we give ourselves credit for and that resilience coupled with adversity can lead to something called post-traumatic growth.
Here you emerge, not having merely survived and learnt a few of life’s lessons, but stronger, more creative, more determined, more purposeful and with a far clearer perception of how you will choose to live your life.
Why the Key to Greater Mental Wellbeing is The Strength of our Relationships
Studies have shown that having a strong positive intimate relationship and a couple of good friends you can call on when times are tough is vital to our health and happiness. But’s it also those micro-moments of connection with people we know or recognise or are strangers to us that also count towards creating greater social cohesion and wellbeing.
Why the Key to Mental Wellbeing is Showing We Care
This year’s message for RUOK Day is “Are they, really, OK? Ask them today, and show you care.”
While the message is great, the problem is our mental health system is not OK. At. All.
Let’s get real. The mental health system as we know it, has been broken for a long time and was already in strife well before the arrival of Covid-19. Chronically underfunded and understaffed, access to timely and appropriate help has been and continues to be a nightmare.
Just ask any parent of a child suffering a mental health crisis or partner deeply concerned by their spouse’s suicidal ideation.
With one in two of us likely to experience some form of mental health challenge at least once in our lifetime, this is clearly not OK.
It’s time to reimagine what we need and to develop a new approach founded on providing care at the grass roots level in our communities, our schools and tertiary institutions and the place we call work.
When you feel cared for and care about others EVERYTHING gets better.
I care. Do you?
Mental wellbeing. What’s empathy got to do with it?
What has been happening in Afghanistan is truly horrible. Watching the news bulletins of the chaos, the fear and an increasingly desperate situation, it’s hard not to be touched by the human suffering.
Are you an empath?
Are you a person highly sensitive to the emotions of others that, courtesy of your mirror neurons enables you to feel what they feel as a shared experience?
Or do you see it as just another example of woo-woo, irrelevant touchy-feely stuff and found only in “Petals.”
Empathy matters because it is essential to your mental wellbeing, and studies have shown how empathetic leaders are seen as more trustworthy, and fair.
The problem is, our ability to show empathy is becoming endangered courtesy of a hostile environment and even some of the medications we use.
But like other aspects of wellbeing, empathy can be learned and strengthened.
What do you do to stay empathetic to the needs of those around you?
Burnout and Depression Are Not the Same. Here’s What You Need to Know.
Are you worried you’re burning out but not sure what to do about it?
Or, maybe you’re beyond exhaustion but you’re being told by family and friends, it’s probably depression.
Burnout is real, it’s becoming increasingly common but it’s inherently preventable and very manageable. In this article I examine what burnout is and why it’s not the same as depression.