Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog. In truth I've written that a few times over my life. I've started and abandoned a number of blogs in my time. I'm probably not alone in that fact. Will this time be different? I don't know. All I know is that this time I have a project that I suspect …

Stress versus Anxiety

I spoke this week to Dietetics students about to head out on their final year of work placements. The focus of the presentation was looking after themselves.  It is common for someone like me (psychologist) or one of my Health, Counselling and Disability Service colleagues to speak to students heading out on placement, because of …

Time blocking in my first week back at work

This week just past was my first work week for 2021.  I had a very productive week.  Some of that can be attributed to the energy I had for getting back into it. I was a bit bored during the holidays and was keen to get back into my projects.  But a decent chunk of …

Mental Fitness stuff is still happening!

Not a long post, but one to indicate that my work on mental fitness is still happening. In fact, I just recently ran a couple of 90 minute Mental Fitness Workshops for students at Flinders. These workshops provide an introduction to my Mental Fitness model and explain how to apply it in everyday life. At …

See me interviewed

I was very fortunate recently to be interviewed as part of a podcast series set up by a friend and her colleague. They had, relatively recently, finished their PhDs and they were interested in the different pathways people take after a PhD. Drawing on their professional network, they pulled together a diverse range of academically …

Goal setting and why it is important

In my day job, I've started making videos. Instructional videos for students on different aspects of the study experience. I'm being guided by a very capable colleague who knows the ropes of creating video content. This is good, because I suck at it. One of the hidden benefits of making video content is that it …

Developing efficient workflows

A couple of weeks back I came to the conclusion that I simply had too many things to do and not enough time 🧑‍💼 This is an experience I hear many people describe.  My first reaction was to look at what I could remove from my life. However I hit the uncomfortable place of not …

My experience of Brain.fm

I’ve been using Brain.fm for a few weeks now, with a paid membership.   I am using it right now. I have it on one of the ‘focus’ playlists.  Brain.fm is an app (web and mobile) that plays music that is intended to help elicit certain psychological states: focused (for work), relaxed, meditative and sleep.  There …

People can be awesome

I’m not prone to noticing or being affected by touching human interactions. It is because I have blackened charred heart. But I noticed one this week. We were running an online wellbeing session for students. As part of the session, participants were asked to identify someone in their social network that could help them make …

Pathways to wellbeing

Over the past month I’ve been lucky to have been involved in the delivery and refinement of the Be Well Plan - https://www.bewellplan.com/, a facilitated mental health and wellbeing program developed by the Wellbeing and Resilience Centre at SAHMRI, in collaboration with Flinders University and the Orama Institute. The program teaches participants how to develop …

Impermanence

This week I have been contemplating the concept of impermanence. To be honest it has been on my mental radar for a couple of years now. I think it started when I commenced thinking and writing about self-improvement. The more I explored the topic, the more confident I got that we could improve upon ourselves …