This week I've got an exciting collaboration with Shirley Myers. We're talking about cancer and mental health. If this is a difficult topic then take it steady, but we hope you can join us behind the cut to look at ways to manage your mental health when you have a cancer diagnosis.

If you have a chronic illness, you've likely heard about pacing. This week, I'm going to discuss pacing in detail - what it is, and how you can use it to manage your activity levels if you're struggling with pain, fatigue, or getting back to normal following illness or surgery.

It's mental health awareness week! This year's theme is "body image - how we think and feel about our bodies". This is a topic that comes up time and again in my work, and I wanted to use the opportunity to think about how we think about ourselves when something goes wrong with our body. When we feel like it's letting us down.

As I've previously mentioned on this blog, I'm a runner. I started running properly in 2017 after a couple of previous shaky attempts, and since then I think it's taught me a few things both about myself, and about mental health in general. This post is about what I've learned from running.

We all experience stress from time to time, as I've already discussed on this blog.  But sometimes, that stress can turn into something more. Today, I'm going to look at burnout - what is it, what are the signs of it, and what can you do about it.

This week I want to talk about abusive behaviour in relationships. Those of you who have been in abusive relationships and who are recovering might find discussion of this quite difficult, or triggering to your trauma symptoms, so everything else is going to be behind the "read more" break.

We all know that sleep is super important - try going a few days without it and see how you feel! But what can you do when you can't get to sleep no matter how hard you try? Poor sleepers buckle up - this one's for you (people who also struggle to sleep once in a while, it's for you too, I don't discriminate).

Over the holiday season this year I spent some time with one of my best friends. We've known each other for 25 years, and he is one of the kindest, happiest, most compassionate people I know (I often joke that I would like to be more like him when I grow up!)
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Something I didn't know until recently is that he's been trying to do more RAKs - Random Acts of Kindness. Part of the way he does this means he doesn't brag about it, so he wouldn't tell me exactly what he's been doing, but I managed to get some things out of him over coffee. He's done things like donate food to the local food bank, buy items for a children's hospice, and pay for a drink for the person behind him in the coffee shop. It got me thinking about RAKs in general, and how many of them require energy and money that so many people just don't have. This blog post is going to think about kindness in general, and also has some ideas for low-impact activities that make a difference.

As a clinical psychologist, I love working with people with chronic physical health conditions. It's interesting, frustrating, difficult, rewarding work - for both me and my clients! This week, I've been thinking about the things people say to me the most often, and how I usually respond.

We've all bought a new bag, or a new car, or a new shiny item that we thought would make us happy. So why does that "new object" shine never last? This week, I'm going to talk about hedonic adaptation, why it might be undermining your achievements, and what you can do about it.