How are your New Year’s resolutions going? We’re not even 10 days into 2025 yet, but by this point I know a lot of people are already struggling to the lofty resolutions they set themselves. The problem is that we’re often setting these resolutions after a couple of weeks of disrupted routine, spent eating and drinking too much and generally lounging about. Don’t […]

Happy new year! I hope you had a wonderful break, filled with all the things you love, and without too much stress. Here we are at the beginning of a new year, a time when we often make resolutions and try to become a better version of ourselves. The thing is – and we all know this – hardly

Are you ready for Christmas? That seems to be the question we all ask each other at this time of year, doesn’t it? The other day I said this to someone, and she replied: I’m ready for a few days off! It made me think – Christmas seems to have become this massive festival of shopping, stress and social occasions

How has your 2024 been overall? I think for most of us, when we’re asked this question we’ll either default to “yeah, it’s been ok…” or we might list off some of the big things that have happened – usually the bad ones! Our brains are designed to look for threats to be avoided, in order to keep us alive. But

Advent has begun! Are you already stressed with all of the preparation and organising? The Christmas shopping, the parties, the school Nativities? Perhaps there are some family politics to navigate too? This time of year is supposed to be a time of “good will to all men” (and women, obviously) But often we’re so caught up in the stress of it all, we

As we’re almost in the season of “Quality Street for every meal” (I know it’s not just me), So I thought I’d share a really simple tip that can help to improve your mood. Ok, I was only joking (sort of!) about the Quality Street – but at this time of year we do seem to end up eating and drinking more.

When was the last time you learned something new? Yes, I know – this email is about Mental Sunshine and brightening your day, not going back to school! But bear with me! For many of us, once we’ve left school and perhaps trained in our chosen career, we don’t really learn new things any more Unless you count figuring out how to

I hope your day is going well so far. I’m just popping in with this week’s Mental Sunshine – a short email designed to help you to bring more mental sunshine into your life. This week I want to talk about the stories we tell ourselves. I bet you don’t even notice the amount of stories you tell yourself every single day – but we all do

This week’s Mental Sunshine is all about kindness. Next week (13th November) it’s World Kindness Day – so I thought now would be a good time to highlight the benefits of kindness. If you’re thinking, But John, surely kindness only benefits the person you’re kind to… you are mistaken! Yes, it’s true that if I do something kind for you, you

Well, the clocks have gone back; it’s Halloween… safe to say we’re heading towards winter fairly quickly! I know some people really struggle with the dark and the cold at this time of year. I like to think my weekly Mental Sunshine ideas provide you with a bank of ideas for ways to lift your mood a little. This week’s email is one of those ones that