It’s great to invest in Christmas, but the holiday season also brings its own pressures, not least the pressure to be happy. Last week's Your Mental Health column in the Southern Star offered some tips on how to cope with Christmas stress. The column is reproduced below. The old song says Christmas is “the most wonderful time of the year”, but it can also be a stressful period where a combination of pressures – financial, familial, psychological – mean many people approach the holiday...
The old song says Christmas is “the most wonderful time of the year”, but it can also be a stressful period where a combination of pressures – financial, familial, psychological – mean many people approach the holiday season with a sense of foreboding rather than joyful anticipation. In this week's Southern Star, I offer some advice on coping with Christmas stress. The column will be reproduced on this blog next week.
Does the idea of cultivating gratitude via gratitude diaries and the likes make you squirm? It shouldn’t – far from being touchy-feely do-gooderism, practising gratitude helps people live happier and more objective lives. Most of us are much quicker to notice what goes wrong in our everyday lives whilst ignoring or forgetting about what goes right. Think of it this way – when you’re running or cycling into a strong wind, you’ll focus on how you’re being blown back and frustrated by...
Last week's 'Your Mental Health' column in the Southern Star looked at what people can learn from happiness research, particularly the findings of 'Professor Happiness', psychologist Daniel Gilbert. The column is reproduced below. All of us can imagine scenarios that seem nightmarish, just as we can picture idyllic lives where we don’t have a care in the world. But what if the nightmarish scenario turned out to be more manageable than you thought, and the blissful scenario wasn’t actually...
All of us can imagine scenarios that seem nightmarish, just as we can picture idyllic lives where we don’t have a care in the world. But what if the nightmarish scenario turned out to be more manageable than you thought, and the blissful scenario wasn’t actually that blissful? I explore such matters in my 'Your Mental Health' column in this week's Southern Star, drawing on the research of 'Prof. Happiness', psychologist Daniel Gilbert. As always, the column will be reproduced on this blog...
In last week's Southern Star, I discussed how when things go wrong in life, CBT can help us see that things may not be as black as they seem. The column is reproduced below. 'Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it'. That line comes from cognitive psychologist Daniel Kahneman, author of the bestselling book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Kahneman’s observation applies to all kinds of situations, both good and bad. However, it’s particularly relevant...
All of us will experience seemingly major disappointments in life, but it's important to keep a sense of perspective on what is really meaningful, as I discuss in my column in this week's Southern Star.
I had a short piece in last week's Southern Star where I outlined six tips for positive ageing. The piece is reproduced below. Stay connected The Grant Study, the world’s longest-running study into adult happiness, has followed hundreds of people over a 75-year period. It found you could predict people’s subsequent physical health not by looking at cholesterol levels, but by assessing how satisfied they were in their relationships. “The people who were the most satisfied in their...
In the Good Life supplement accompanying this week's Southern Star, I have a short piece outlining six tips for positive ageing.
In last week's Southern Star, I explored one of the key messages of CBT: the idea that emotional distress is caused more by how we see events than the events themselves. If you disagree, please read the column, which I hope will give you some food for thought! Here’s a question to ponder: are your emotions guided more by events and situations, or by how you see the events and situations? One of the key messages of CBT is that people ‘are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they...