Why are we so terrible at looking after ourselves? 🤷

Self-care, wellness, focusing on you, being selfish. These have become synonymous with our times. The global wellness industry, which captures everything from traditional medicine, mental wellness, wellness tourism, personal care, healthy eating, spas, all the things designed to help us care for ourselves, is worth $5.6 trillion. Yes, I

Grief: The emotion no one wants to talk about 🫢

While the world has gotten better at talking about its feelings, there is still at least one emotion where things remain a little tricky: Grief.  It’s that emotion that we never seemed prepared for. The one we see on TV and film, and say to ourselves, “oh yeah, I

Let’s talk about boundaries, shall we? 🙅

Boundaries are everywhere. They turn up in our politics, in our sports, and of course, it's a top trending topic on social media. But they make us feel weird. We don’t like it when they’re imposed on us, we’re uncomfortable about having to impose them

Where do you belong? 🧖

That’s an odd opening question, isn’t it? But it turns out, belonging is one of those topics that touches all parts of our lives, but yet it’s a word that never really turns up in those conversations.  I’m talking about things like loneliness, why everyone finds

The myth of the mid-life crisis 🧞

According to my newsletter analytics, many of you lovely, caring, thoughtful readers are in or around the midpoint of life. That is, you’re probably somewhere between the ages of 40-60. I know I certainly am.  As a result, you are a prime candidate for a mid-life crisis: that existential

A Brief History of Imposter Syndrome 📚

Imposter Syndrome, it’s everywhere. It’s in our schools, our colleges, our workplaces, and even in our relationships. In a review of 62 studies on the subject, wherever we looked, between 56-82% of people say they had it or are currently experiencing it.  And it’s not just us

Why your boss is a dick 🧑‍💼

We’re not very happy at work at the moment. Employers don’t trust employees, and job happiness is at an all-time low. Zoom out a little further and trust in institutions, and their leaders have stubbornly sat at historic lows.  In summary, there is a growing gulf between those

Why Money Makes You Miserable 😭

Does it? Does having a pit full of cash make us sad? For many of us seeing this headline, it may sound completely counter-intuitive, considering the cost-of-living crisis that is currently hammering people’s lives.  Why would having financial security be a bad thing? It isn’t, my pedigree chums.

Why we need to re-discover the lost art of ritual 🤲

In today’s polarised, angry, annoyed, frustrated world, there is one thing that unites us. And no, it’s not the sense of glee we see when bullies get their comeuppance, or when you find money in your jeans after not wearing them for a while - although they are

You’re already stumbling with New Year’s Resolutions, now what? 🤔

Happy New Year, Brinkers!  How are those New Year’s Resolutions going? Still holding strong, or are you beginning to look at them like that guy who gets on the train and starts singing at the top of his voice like it’s completely normal?  Yep, our 2023 selves have

The Christmas Effect: Why you feel weird during the holidays 🎁

It’s Christmas. That means digging out those traditions and rituals that for most of the year live in a bin bag in your attic. Rituals like fighting your way across the country to be with parents, or deliberately isolating ourselves to avoid the usual meltdown that happens around the

Dear anxiety, f**k you 🖕

Anxiety is everywhere. According to pretty much every statistic measuring anxiety, there has been a steady increase in people feeling a sense of dread or fear about their lives. And it’s global. It’s believed around 4% of the global population currently experience an anxiety disorder - more than

The strange new way we’re finding meaning in our lives 🧘

Continuing on the themes I’ve been exploring over the last two weeks. If you’ve missed them you can find part 1 and part 2 here. What’s the theme? Oh, how we find meaning and make sense of this dysfunctional world of ours.  Now traditionally, when the world

How to (and definitely how not to) deal with the end of the world 🤯

These are tough times. Come to think of it, I said the same thing three years ago during the depths of Covid, when I first started writing about mental health. And look at us now! We fell out of the pandemic frying pan and into the existential fire of war

Why you joyscroll when the world feels like it’s going to sh*t 🤷

The world isn’t great at the moment. Throw a digital dart at any news site, or your own social media page, and you’ll land on things talking about at least one of the following:  * The Israel-Palestine conflict  * The war in Ukraine  * Global warming  * The aboslute awful state of

Why oversharing is making us feel more isolated 🤫

Ah, the internet. The digital equivalent of your local tip or dump. The place where your thoughts and feelings go to die.  That may sound harsh, but sadly it’s true. On social media alone, every minute of every day, we share:  * 527,760 snaps on Snapchat  * 456,000 Tweets

Why are you so concerned about what people think of you? 🤔

Scenario: you walk into a crowded room. You’re late. Which means everyone hates you. Or does it?  It’s an idea that has plagued people since the invention of the crowd. The thoughts and feelings of people we don’t know play a huge role in defining how we’

Why do you choose the things you do? 🤷

Well, Matt, I look at something and ask myself, “I would like that, and then I have it.” While that all sounds incredibly simple on the one hand, and unnecessarily philosophical for a grim Friday morning on the other, it’s a question that has popped up a lot for

Why we can't stop lying to ourselves and everyone else. 😈

You are all a bunch of liars. And so am I.  Yep, I’ve been looking at some datasets this week - because I’ve got nothing better to do with my time - about how often we lie. And it turns out, we do it all the bloody time.

The rise and rise of eco-anxiety 😔

Anxious about climate change? Of course you are. We all are (I hope). Last month, the University of Bath published the results of its 2023 Climate Action Surveyand the results were bleak. Out of nearly 5,000 respondents, 19% of students and 25% of staff said they were “extremely worried”

Why do men keep dying? 🪦⚰️

There’s something weird going on in the demographic world. That’s not a sentence you thought you’d hear today! But there is, and I’m going to tell you about it. Figures around the average life expectancy of men and women in America have skewed. Women are living

Podcasts and Pandemics 😷

Happy Monday everyone! Another week, another round of content for you to enjoy. Over on the podcast, we have our long read on cultures of silence, and how they permeate into work, families and even governments. It’s all based on the Russell Brand story that has hit the headlines

Understanding the culture of silence around Russell Brand 🤔

I’m taking a bit of a left-turn this week, as there’s an issue that has become national news that touches upon the subjects I talk about here at The Brink. Last weekend, Russell Brand, the comedian and more recently, conspiracy theory peddling YouTuber was named in a four-year

The myth of Myers-Briggs 🧞

If you’ve ever worked in a corporate environment, chances are you would have stumbled upon the Myers-Briggs test. It’s a series of 93 questions, each one designed to prod and probe your personality. The goal? To put you, and everyone else into one of 16 different “types”. Those

How a botched bank robbery gave birth to Stockholm Syndrome 💸

🙋 BEFORE WE BEGIN 🙋 You can now listen to this newsletter on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts, or just press play below! There’s an odd anniversary being discussed in mental health circles this week: it’s been 50 years since the inception of the term “Stockholm Syndrome”. That’s odd,