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Latest posts from Shannon's blog

What Is Mindfulness Anyway? My Year-Long Quest To Find Out

For some, mindfulness is a life-saving psychological tool that pulled them out of the depths of depression, for others it’s a way to disentangle from the grip of addiction. Some use mindfulness to face chronic pain or stressful emotions, while others use it to achieve peak performance at work. Some believe that mindfulness is an … Read full article »

How To Clear You Mind In A World Of Too Much

It was 5pm and I’d gotten nowhere. I felt as if all the information that had been uploaded into my brain over the last few days had fragmented across my mind and my brain’s neural pathways were jammed. I had writers block; the mental equivalent of the SWOD (Spinning Wheel of Death) that accompanies a … Read full article »

The Power of Purpose and Passion In Dark Times

This time last week I found myself weeping in hotel room in the Middle East. I had just spent my day filming in a dusty refugee camp on the border of Syria and Jordan where I had interviewed a single mother of six children who’s answer to my question, “If you could wish for anything … Read full article »

Mind The Hype: Is Meditation Really All That Great?

Around this time last year I found myself in the midst of a professional crisis of conscience. The credibility of my work as a health journalist was being put to the test after I read an academic paper in which a group of 15 well-respected neuroscientists, mindfulness researchers, and meditation teachers warned that mindfulness is … Read full article »

The Mindful Way Through Insomnia

It’s taken me an inordinate amount of time to string these words together. I’m unfocussed, inarticulate and foggy. In fact, in the course of writing this sentence I’ve also refreshed my inbox (twice), checked multiple news websites (again) and made (another) cup of tea. I’m in an unusually bad mood and looking for a distraction … Read full article »

Surprising Truth: Meditation Hasn’t Made Me Happier

I looked at the older, bald, robed man across from me and thought, whatever he’s on, I want some. I was interviewing Matthieu Ricard, the renowned Buddhist monk who normally lives in a monastery in Nepal but was in Australia as a keynote speaker at the Happiness and Its Causes Conference. It was eight in … Read full article »

5 Ways To Break Up With Your Phone

In the last five years, in my work as a health journalist, I estimate that I’ve read at least 2000 scientific studies. In all that time, with all that reading, there is one study that has left me utterly gobsmacked. The study involved more than 3000 people and looked at how they used their smartphones. … Read full article »

This Is What Happened When I Stopped Meditating

Throughout my life I’ve suffered from a terrible affliction experts call onychophagy. The disorder can cause deleterious effects on my fingers, my mouth and even my stomach. More commonly, the affliction is known as nail biting. I’m a stress-induced nail biter and right now it’s not the menacing bacteria lurking under my nubby nails that … Read full article »

I Had Major Health Setback, Here Is How I Coped

As a health journalist who shares my story of recovery from a chronic disease in hope of encouraging others, it can be tempting to only share the highlights of my whole-health life, and to engage in the hashtag-driven, insta-world where wellness icons and lifestyle gurus post moment-by-moment mythology about their unblemished lives. And although I’d … Read full article »

The Benefits of Everyday Mindfulness

I was standing at my kitchen sink, locked in battle with a determined frying pan unwilling to part with the remnants of the evening’s scorched rice paella. It was 9pm and I was exhausted, having been up since 5:30am, then worked a full day, only to face “witching hour” with my 4-year-old and 9-month-old sons … Read full article »

Why I Use a Sit-Stand Desk

I remember the first time I saw someone working at a stand-up desk. It was 2009 and a colleague had rearranged the furniture in her office and needed some help reconnecting her printer. I noticed that her office makeover involved putting her computer on top of a stack of boxes so that she could work … Read full article »

The Simple Mental Shift That Reduces Stress

I was standing on the side of the road while my three-year-old son was kicking his legs and screaming his lungs out. While Theodore usually loves walking to his childcare centre, on this particular Monday morning he did not want to go to school, and he felt that the whole neighbourhood should know about it. … Read full article »
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My Year Of Living Mindfully – Book

SHIPS IN AUSTRALIA IN 1-2 DAYS. SHIPS INTERNATIONALLY IN 5-7 DAYS. From the director of the internationally acclaimed documentary of the same name, MY YEAR OF LIVING MINDFULLY is a book filled with compelling stories, groundbreaking science, and unexpected insights that go to the heart of what it me Read full article »
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The Connection (DOWNLOAD-TO-OWN)

Download 'The Connection' to keep forever. WHAT YOU GET DRM free MP4 download of ‘The Connection’ (73 Mins) Free access to stream of 'The Connection' for 14 days via your downloads page. Please use this option for watching the film on any iOS devices. Subtitles: French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Read full article »
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My Year of Living Mindfully (DOWNLOAD-TO-OWN)

Download My Year of Living Mindfully to keep forever. WHAT YOU GET: • A DRM free MP4 download of My Year of Living Mindfully (98 Mins). • Free access to stream My Year of Living Mindfully for 14 days via your downloads page. Please use this option for watching the film on any iOS devices • Subtitles Read full article »
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My Year Of Living Mindfully (RENT STREAM)

Get a 14 day pass to stream My Year of Living Mindfully to your computer or smart device. Available in HD. WHAT YOU GET A 14 day pass to stream My Year of Living Mindfully (98 Mins) English Closed Captions are available with streaming Subtitles available in Italian / Portuguese / Spanish / Malay / H Read full article »
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