Martha Beck explains how rhino tracking crystallised her thinking on how our culture's focus on the logical and rational has led to us ignoring a huge, vital chunk of our brains' capabilities. It's by learning to befriend and respect our irrational, sensational selves that we can get to a healthy balance which allows us to flourish. And we need to ( Read more... )

On 12th July, news that gang members are more likely than others to suffer high levels of mental illness, with a third surveyed having attempted suicide ( Read more... )

I'm thinking that this is something well worth watching and sharing. You can buy the dvds or download it for free.

Philip Zimbardo has spent decades researching evil, and is now focusing on how to teach heroism:

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Well worth checking out Zimbardo's work. It's always fascinated me that he has learned how to make most good people do bad things, which totally undermines the idea that a person must be innately weak or evil to do bad; now his research on heroism is ( Read more... )

I know. Lissa Rankin again. It's because she keeps identifying and providing good perspectives on things that affect me. And, let's face it, a lot of us don't know the difference between "just do what you reasonably can at this moment" and "do it perfectly or you will be struck by lightning, you will be marked with a scarlet F for Failure, and ( Read more... )

Everyone:

Go and borrow or buy Lissa Rankin's Mind Over Medicine, and get as well as it's possible for you to be.

Practice radical kindness towards yourself, because you genuinely are worth it, whoever you may be.

And then tell everyone else the same.

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I woke up this morning with a banging headache, and haven't settled in to my regime of meditation and journalling because I feel so out of sorts.

And then I begin to worry:

• What if I don't get all the gardening stuff done by the end of the week?
• What if I don't go to the meeting I need to attend tomorrow evening because I'm recovering from feeling ( Read more... )

This is an hour-long interview, and it's worth it. Lissa Rankin talks through how she went from frustrated, depleted OB/GYN to writing books on the placebo effect and how to foster the conditions for the body's self-healing:

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This is a re-post because I reckon it bears repeating.

It gives me immense pleasure and hope to consider that there is good scientific evidence to support the idea that I can recover from multiple chronic conditions after 28+ years.

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Rankin also has a 4-part discussion of how the mind heals the body and why blaming anyone for their illness doesn ( Read more... )

Dr Brene Brown researches vulnerability and shame, and has discovered that they are the source of strength, power, and creativity.

Here's her talk on vulnerability:

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After that talk went viral, Brown did another - this time on the difference between guilt and shame:

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And then she talks about how to determine a safe space for speaking about your ( Read more... )