Today’s theme is nature, but in writing I’m also mindful of the themes of our last few Mixing Bowl blogs: dance, connection, and gratitude. During lockdown, nature has been one of the things I have been most grateful for. Walks, listening to the birds, watching the trees wave in the breeze, observing the changing seasons […]

This blog is an ode to dance. It’s a bit of a weird time to be writing a blog about dance, theatres and clubs are closed, parties and weddings have been cancelled. The amount of dancing being done right now must be at its lowest in decades. I’m also not really the ideal person to […]

“Do you know why we have the sunflowers? It’s not because Vincent van Gogh suffered. It’s because Vincent van Gogh had a brother who loved him. Through all the pain, he had a tether, a connection to the world. And that is the focus of the story we need – connection.” Hannah Gadsby Having a […]

I’m involved in leading mindfulness sessions at the Northumbria University. At the moment the sessions don’t include gratitude exercises, but I’m working on it because research does keep showing up strong correlations between practices cultivating conscious gratitude and good mental health outcomes. Indicators of happiness tend to improve and incidence of and severity of depression […]