Start Where You Are: An Illustrated Journal For Self Exploration – Meera Lee Patel

A sucker for pretty books, a passion for scribbling, and an endless curiosity mean that I’ve tried plenty of journals over the years, but Meera Lee Patel’s Start Where You Are: An Illustrated Journal For Self Exploration has got to have been one of the most beautiful. Small and unassuming, this notebook focuses on embracing

Making marks – Mindfully

An evening of drawing is a particularly intimidating prospect. What starts off as something that all children will do on any piece of paper/wall/treasured white shirt becomes something to be revered and separated for only those who can. There’s not doubt that some people are blessed with exceptional creative or detailed skill, but everyone can

Is seeking wellness making us ill?

First published on Alt Magazine At the Battle of Ideas 2015, run by the Institute of Ideas, I went to a talk entitled ‘Mindfulness: empty minds for an empty society?’ I was expecting to hear the usual criticisms as to how mindfulness is just a way of justifying not thinking, an over marketed money making scam,

5 Mindfulness Apps to Help You Stay Centred

Approved by the NHS and even trialled in Parliament, mindfulness is everywhere lately. The buzz around it makes it seem like a revolutionary new concept. Based on ancient Eastern meditation practices, mindfulness simply refers to the ageless idea of being fully aware of the now moment instead of fretting about the past or the future. Sound like

Mindfulness for Black Dogs & Blue Days: Finding a Path Through Depression

Author: Richard Gilpin As a counsellor, cognitive behavioural psychotherapist and meditation instructor, it’s fair to say Richard Gilpin is knowledgeable about the workings of the mind. But as a sufferer of depression – the ‘black dog’ that hounds one in five of us – he has also had first-hand experience of the mind’s ability to mould, meddle