We all know we should exercise, eat healthily, get enough sleep and take regular breaks from the pc. And yet . . . the things we know we should do are the very things we don’t do when we are feeling pressured. The thing that goes first for many of ...
Read More

Neuroscience and gene mapping have confirmed what many of us have suspected – some people are hardwired to be resilient, and some people are hardwired to experience the same situation as more stressful than others.  However, it is also confirming that genetics only explains 30% of our variability , the ...
Read More

You feel tired, you can’t wait for the pressure to reduce but are you really burnt out, or just in need of a break. The distinction is important because burn-out is recognised by psychologists as a very particular condition, which is the result of the toxic combination of individuals who ...
Read More

Hearing of Maya Angelou’s death reminded me of a trip to Chicago 20 years ago. As I wandered along a main street, I saw a queue of people outside a bookshop. There was a sense of excitement about the crowd that drew me in. I squeezed through the mass, curious ...
Read More

The response to the death of Stephen Sutton has been profound.  The inspirational 19 year old, who with a diagnosis of terminal cancer, decided to use every day he had left to him to live to his mantra of “it’s not how long you live, it’s the experiences you have” ...
Read More

Recently I listened to Elizabeth Gilbert on TED talks.  Gilbert is the author of Eat, Pray, Love a book which gave her phenomenal success and which spawned a film of the same name. In the talk she spoke about the impact of the book on her life.  She had known ...
Read More

As a 9 year old I walked to school past a house where a large boxer dog stood outside on guard. It barked loudly as I walked towards it, and when I crossed the road to escape  it would follow me. I came to be petrified of the dog, and ...
Read More

If you tuned into the TV coverage of the 2014 London Marathon you would have heard broadcaster Brendan Foster berating Mo Farah, before he had even finished the race.  His advice was that he  should give up on marathons and get back onto the track where he is indisputably the ...
Read More

What is it that makes us stick at something when the going gets tough, when at another time we may give up on exactly the same thing?  Think diets, smoking, exercise or a career goal. I ask this questions because it is one I have been asking myself.  25 years ...
Read More