
Being Like a Mountain
It came as a surprise to me initially that the ongoing work we do in mindfulness training involved so much bodywork or embodiment (why is it called mindfulness? I found myself asking). This kind of training comes on the back of the settling the mind practices and this “somatic descent” is akin to touching the ground or being earthed -or touching earth-literally allowing our awareness to drop down into our body and explore what we find within the field of our experiencing. So,

Managing Pain: The Case for Compassion
For most of my career I have worked as a Clinical Psychologist in Pain Management, trying to help people with long term pain to respond in a way that allows them to live as well as they can. This is rewarding, challenging and at times very difficult work, because long-term pain would challenge every one of us. One of the problems is that long-term pain is different from the kind of short-term pain that most of us are familiar with. A lot of strategies that work for short-term

Mindfulness and the Trouble with Tribbles
Star Trek and mindfulness? Is that really logical? A few nights ago, I was flicking restlessly through the Freeview channels on my TV when I came cross the original series of Star Trek. I guess most of us over a certain age might have fond memories of this series; how Jim Kirk got to kiss beautiful women from alien civilisations every episode, how many times Spock said “illogical” or Bones implored “I’m only a doctor” and Scottie cried out “I canna hold it captain!” ahhhh, t.

Top 3 Tips to beat exam stress
As exam season approaches it's natural to feel anxious. Exams, or other forms of stress can have a real impact on health and wellbeing. Stress can enhance your performance if managed well, but could also get in the way of being able to do the best that you can. Try following these 3 tips to manage the stress as well as possible, stay healthy and make sure that you do the best you can do on the day. 1. Prioritise Self-Care. It can be easy to forget the basics, but the fact is