Uitwaaien - the Dutch answer to stress

When I take my dog for a walk on a windy day, she goes bananas. And it's not the usual bananas. It's a very special type of bananas. A banana's bananas. While my dog is an idiot at the best of times, it turns

The quiet cost of living in noisy environments

While we've all been on lockdown, things have been, well a lot quieter. There have been fewer cars on the roads, fewer people (except when you go to buy food), and we've been exposed to less noise. While that has led to many of us feeling,

How loneliness quietly affects your health

Loneliness: the subject no one likes talking about, but everyone is aware of experiences in very private, and sometimes devastating ways. At the best of times, there are 1.2 million chronically lonely people in the UK, with 500,000 going five or six days without speaking to anyone. These

The places you go can change your personality

In a bad mood? Go for a walk. We all know that changing location is good for us. In my freelance days I would tour five coffee shops across a normal working day to "keep things interesting" (read: I couldn't stand the guilt of nursing one

Sorry, boredom is really good for us

I try anything to avoid being bored. My phone is the first port of call. If that doesn't suffice, I'll haphazardly try to reorganise what's on my desk. If that fails, I'll go annoy the dog. You get the picture. It'

How your inner child can help your adult anxiety

If there's a word that most aptly sums up the age we live in, it'd probably be "anxiety". That word has become common parlance for those moments we feel overwhelmed, uncertain, and out of control. In the NHS Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, it said

The rise of the anxiety economy

Everyone is really anxious right now. In the US, it's the most common mental health disorder, affecting 18.1 percent of Americans each year and nearly one-third of Americans over their lifetimes. In the UK, it's one in six people, according to the NHS Adult Psychiatric

Why do we keep seeing faces in everyday objects?

Ever seen the Virgin Mary in a slice of toast? Probably not. But a few years ago, Diane Duyser from Chicago was so convinced she'd found a woman in a cheese toastie, a casino paid her $28,000 to buy the sandwich and display it for the world

Why we're all 'doomscrolling'

Doomscrolling, one of those perfect words that explains itself without much thought. Yes, we're all doomscrolling these days. As the world looks worse by the day, people are endlessly scrolling through their smartphones confronting themselves with all that is wrong with the world. Aimless scrolling on smartphones is

Why we disagree with science when it jars with our worldview

Humans are a funny bunch. We don't seem to agree on very much, especially when it comes to scientific research. Among us are people that think global warming is a hoax, that vaccines are dangerous, and that putting fluoride in water and genetically modified foods is a form

We all need a good cry every now and again

How often do you have a ruddy good cry? For me, crying is like Christmas, it happens once a year and the build-up is always better than the aftermath. But, say psychologists, it should be a more regular part of our daily lives. It turns out our bodies three kinds

Can people change?

Here's something to chew on over the weekend. Can we change who we are? Sure, we can change our hair colour, our jobs, where we live, our friends. These are all fairly easy things to do. But can we change how we are in the world, how we