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 »

Introduction One of the most frequently asked questions after people have seen my feature documentary My Year of Living Mindfully is: How do I get started on my own mindful experiment? Before you continue reading this guide though, the first thing I’d like to ask you in return is: Do you actually want to start meditating regularly? If your answer is no, then stop reading now and plan to spend your precious time on something that you would like to do for your health and wellbeing. If your answer is yes, read on. The reason I ask this important question is... Read full article »

A friend of mine recently had a particularly nasty gastro bug that landed her in hospital. She sent me a link she’d found after googling her ongoing post-hospital symptoms. The online article was written by a blogger who had experienced a very similar illness to my friend’s and whole-heartedly prescribed a recovery path for others, which involved a restricted diet plan and special probiotics. I totally understand why my friend had turned to Dr Google. She’d been pronounced “better” and booted out of hospital after consulting with a specialist doctor for a grand total of eight minutes. Two weeks later,... Read full article »

Imagine being given an opportunity to ask the woman who will soon (likely) take charge of your nation's healthcare system anything you liked. What would you say? I recently unexpectedly found myself in exactly this position when I was invited to a lunch at the National Press Club of Australia where the Federal Shadow Minister for Health, Catherine King was giving her inaugural address. We’re a few months off an election here in Australia and if the blustering winds continue in the same direction, it’s likely Ms King will be in charge of our nation's health system in a few... Read full article »

If you’re anything like about half of the population, the chances are you started out the new year with the best of intentions. Perhaps you resolved to sleep more, or party less. Maybe you decided to loose weight, save money or donate time. Whatever it is that signifies your particular “New Year New Me” pledge, if you’re anything like up to 90 percent of your fellow resolvers, the chances are you’ve already failed, and possibly didn’t even make it through the first week.I’m no exception. I’m a health journalist who’s job is to stay on top of the latest health... Read full article »

371 days ago things weren’t pretty. I was an anxious insomniac and I never felt as though there was enough time in the day. There were also some troubling signs that my illness, which causes arthritic chronic pain and fatigue when I let my stress get out of control, was going to flare.It’s ironic that the final chapter in my book was called Lasting Change because the single most important change that I had made in order to live well despite my illness was the one that I had allowed to slip. My daily meditation and yoga practice had made... Read full article »