In the midst of a global mental health crisis, millions of people have turned to mindfulness. But does it actually make us happier and healthier? For my most recent project, I participated in a world-first experiment, in which a team of scientists to put mindful meditation to the test. But after a 30,000 kilometre journey from the bright lights of Manhattan to the dusty refugee camps of the Middle East, what began as a self-experiment, transformed into a life-changing experience. The resulting documentary and book inspired a high-school teacher to get in touch recently to see if I could help... Read full article »

Every once in a while someone says something that challenges you to the core and forces a rethink of what you thought to be real and true. One such moment occurred for me recently when a friend offhandedly remarked that a mutual acquaintance of ours doesn’t believe mental illness exists.How bizarre, I thought at the time. How old fashioned. How ill-informed they must be to not believe in mental illness, as if it were nothing but a personal choice like believing in fairies, or the Paleo Diet, or a higher spiritual power. But in the days since, the idea has... Read full article »

In the two-week window leading up to the end of the 2020 school year, I noticed a frightening phenomenon in my seven-year-old son’s school bag. He had amassed a small mountain of junk food.From play dates and birthday parties, to after-school-care and team sport, it seemed everyone and anyone had deemed it a special occasion to be celebrated with gifts of cookies, chocolate, chips, and candy.I haven’t always been the kind of person who pays close attention to junk food. Six years ago, when I was writing my first book, which is about my efforts to live well, despite being... Read full article »

In 1993 author Peter James caused a global outrage when he published his thriller Host on two floppy disks. The first “electronic novel,” which is about a scientist who downloads his brain into a computer and has his body frozen, was considered the beginning of the end of literature as we know it, not because of its plot, but because it was thought to be a sign that printed books would soon join clay tablets as relics of our technologically primitive past. Fortunately predictions about the book apocalypse have not yet manifested and when it comes to my endless pursuit... Read full article »

It had been 20 minutes of mental agony and as my meditation practice came to an end on the third day of what was supposed to be a year-long commitment to meditate every day, there was only one thought on my mind… it’s going to be a long year.Was I missing something? Far from being “like a bubble bath” for my mind in order to “fight stress,” “think better” and “feel happier,” I was finding mindfulness training really difficult and rather unpleasant. No sooner did I follow the teacher’s instructions to direct my awareness to a point of focus (be it... Read full article »

As a journalist who makes documentaries intended to spark conversations about our health and wellbeing, I’m very aware of the power of the majority. I believe that good old water cooler conversations and word of mouth are the crucial first step to creating positive, meaningful change. So when the third person in a week asked me if I’d seen the new Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, I knew I had to see what all the fuss was about.The film features interviews with social media entrepreneurs as they lament their role in developing an industry model that they believe has polarised... Read full article »