As going on holiday is somewhat restricted this autumn, we revisit what happens when we go on holiday in the living-room… Staying on Holiday at Home It’s half-term. You have a week booked in Devon. You are, frankly, desperate for it. But your child, or flat-mate, has a persistent cough. It’s Friday night, your Read more
‘It’s late and I’m feeling so tired,’ sings Corinne Bailey Rae. ‘Having trouble sleeping…’ It’s a sentiment familiar to many. A King’s College London study finds that two thirds of us have experienced some negative effect on sleep since the pandemic began, with a disproportionate impact on women, young people, and those facing financial difficulties. Read more
This week, I had a mind to make a crumble. Here’s my recipe. I hope you enjoy. An Apple Crumble in a Pandemic Ingredients 1 large windfall from Grange Road Cemetery Sweet eaters (and a stray pear) from your veg box A handful of pre-lockdown raspberries 350g emergency plain flour 1 Read more
One of the things people who come to a mindfulness class say is how mindfulness exposes their experience of time. ‘How long was that?’ they ask at the end of a thirty minute body scan, surprised to hear that they have spent a whole half-hour attending to the ebb and Read more
This week’s MindLetter is about autumn, and stores of nourishment for hard times. A Matter of Preservation The American writer Tara Westover, whose bestselling memoir Educated chronicles her journey from home-schooled rural Idaho to a PhD at Cambridge, grew up in a family preparing for the End of Days. ‘My Read more
Your inbox is full of emails. All the emails contain links. You are supposed to follow the links, which will take you to webpages. You have to read, and sometimes watch, the webpages. There is stuff in them that you are meant to know. There is even some stuff that Read more
This week, we take a look at a particular reaction of the mind under stress… The Escape Artist: Avoidance and Other Disappearing Acts You have a meeting first thing, and you’re thinking about the email that came in at 6am. ‘Ready for school?’ you say to your child in the Read more
Today we are looking to what is wild with the 3-step breathing space: https://soundcloud.com/hachetteaudiouk/meditation-8-the-three-minute-breathing-space?in=hachetteaudiouk/sets/mindfulness-a-practical-guide-to-finding-peace-in-a-frantic-world A Wild Remedy Emma Mitchell, who has suffered from persistent depression for over a decade, is a naturalist who regularly appears on Countryfile and Springwatch. Her Twitter and Instagram pages are alive with photographs, drawings, and Read more
When Zoom Fatigue Becomes Zoom Burnout Many of us are at the point of digital exhaustion that goes beyond fatigue. People are finding it hard to look at faces on the screen, or feeling the urge to sit on the floor rather than a chair. Some struggle to sit still, or Read more
Tiny Beautiful Wild Things In 1995, the writer Cheryl Strayed hiked a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, aged twenty-six, alone. Four years earlier, Strayed’s mother had died of cancer at forty-five, just seven weeks after her diagnosis. The young woman’s life, marriage, and family fell apart in the wake of her sudden loss, Read more