The work I produce is unoriginal, meaningless tripe…I’m a terrible mother, who’s always too tired for her kids…I can’t cook…All this, according to the voice in my head, is fact. Fortunately, of late, I’ve been learning not to believe everything I think.I first began taking notice of the mean voice in my head after meeting social scientist and self-compassion pioneer Kristen Neff, a clinical psychologist from the University of Texas, who developed something called the Self-Compassion Scale in 2003, which paved the way for a new field of psychological research. Since then almost 1500 articles or dissertations have been written... Read full article »

I stuffed up this week. I was in my supermarket doing a last minute shop before my son’s first birthday. An endless list of urgent work matters and birthday party arrangements were stretching beyond a foggy and indistinct horizon in my mind. I had a persistent, gnawing, anxious feeling that I was forgetting something. Something important.  Then a text message appeared on my phone from a friend:Are you on your way?My friend was fresh out of hospital after a major surgery and was politely enquiring if I was about to arrive, as we’d agreed, to deliver her and her family... Read full article »