I sat on the stage looking out at an audience of psychologists, mental-heath workers, educators, academics, and everyday folk looking for reliable ways to live better in this crazy, busy, mixed-up world. The event, which was called “Mind The Hype: Is Meditation All It’s Cracked Up To Be?” was hosted by the University of Melbourne as part of Melbourne Knowledge Week and was billed as a panel discussion about whether mindfulness has rightfully earned its place on the top of the global health trend charts.  Although the subject matter was the focus of substantial debate, the enthusiasm for the event... 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 »

This year I set myself an ambitious goal to be eating a completely whole-food diet by the end of the year. At a time when experts are increasingly concerned about the impact of junk food on our health, I wanted to see if was even possible to learn to cook everything from scratch while leading a busy life as a working mother of two young children.With the customary zeal that accompanies every well-intentioned “New Year New Me” resolution, I signed up for an intensive cooking course, gave my pantry a makeover, planted seeds for a fledgling herb garden and invented... Read full article »