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Latest posts from Shannon's blog

A Letter To Someone Just Diagnosed With A Chronic Disease

I’m writing this letter to you because I know how you feel. You may have just been diagnosed with one or more of the chronic diseases sweeping the world in what has been called an epidemic – heart disease, cancer, diabetes or an autoimmune disease like multiple sclerosis. Maybe you’ve suffered all your life with … Read full article »

What A Shark Attack Can Teach Us About Reducing Stress

If you’re anything like me and the 20 million other people who have now watched the YouTube video of Mick Fanning’s shark encounter during the J-Bay Open in South Africa, your heart started pounding when you first saw it. The huge dorsal fin of what experts estimate to be a 3.5-meter great white shark rises … Read full article »

Why Stress Is Surprisingly Good for You

My heart was pounding and the butterflies in my stomach were more like tap dancing elephants. I was at the Sydney premiere of The Connection about to stand up in front of seven hundred people and introduce a film that had taken me three years to make – a film I had given my heart … Read full article »

How I Learned To Get A Good Night’s Sleep

It was 2am and I was lying in bed wide-awake. I couldn’t get comfortable. I couldn’t settle my mind. I felt agitated and restless with thoughts about my ruined day ahead plaguing me. How on earth was I going to function?   Part of my concern was that I couldn’t identify the source of my … Read full article »

The Day I ‘Placebo-ed’ My Son

My two-year-old son was screaming. Lemon juice had gotten into a tiny cut on his finger and the sting in conjunction with a missed daytime nap meant he was feeling especially emotional and vulnerable. As far as he was concerned the pain in his finger signified the end of the world.   Luckily I’d just … Read full article »

The Amazing Health Benefits of Awe And Wonder

I was floating in the open ocean in the South Pacific Island Kingdom of Tonga. Twenty meters below me a giant humpback whale was singing. The harmony of his song vibrated through my whole body and in that moment I was brilliantly aware of the vastness and depth of the sea and the immense size … Read full article »

Why I Started Eating More Omega 3

Since I released my film in October 2014, I’ve had the privilege of attending countless screenings and speaking to people afterwards. After each screening people inevitably have questions. How has the medical community responded to the film? How do I learn to meditate? When will it all start working for me?   I am also … Read full article »

Can Breathing Exercises Really Change Your Health?

A couple of nights ago I found myself witnessing an interesting exchange between a meditation expert and an accountant. The meditation teacher was encouraging us to stop at the beginning of each day to do a simple breathing exercise. But the accountant (my Dad) wanted to know why. “What’s wrong with just launching into the … Read full article »

Crazy, Busy, Overwhelmed. Why You Don’t Have Time.

Last week I found myself caught up in an airplane boarding queue as my fellow passengers hustled and bustled to get settled in seats. The plane was packed full of corporate commuters traveling between Sydney and Melbourne, Australia’s two busiest cities. There was a sense of chaos in the air.   As harried passengers pushed … Read full article »

The Power Of Love: How 3 Micro Moments Change Everything

In the last few weeks I’ve been doing a social experiment unbeknownst to the people around me. My family, friends, colleagues and even total strangers have all been unwittingly drawn into the exercise. Inspired by the work of Professor Barbara Fredrickson, a leading researcher looking at the health benefits of positive emotions, I’ve been practising … Read full article »

Probiotics – The Good, The Bad and The Misleading

I recently found myself in a health food store handing over my credit card to buy over a hundred dollars worth of supplements and food products promising to boost the health of my gut microbiome. In my basket was kombucha (fermented tea), kimchi (fermented cabbage) and a jar of probiotics promising ‘a range of health … Read full article »

Is your microbiome the key to staying healthy?

When I was in the US last year for the tour of my film The Connection, people kept talking about the microbiome. It seemed to be a buzzword. In fact, Fortune Magazine declared 2015 “The Year of the Microbiome.” But before I started sculling kombucha, popping probiotics and fixating on a ‘microbiome diet’, I wanted … 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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