Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2025 i Psychologies

In gratitude... When I read this magazine, it always makes me realise that I need to reset and refocus my self mentally. Then I can get back on track, with my goals and aspirations. This magazine keeps reminding me to think about my ‘Ikigai’, my core values and what ‘my calling’ in life is meant to really be. Reading this magazine always gives me a wake-up call and allows me to notice that staying on track, with my mental health and mindset, is very important to me. It makes me more aware of my happiness levels, bringing back my inner state of calm, balance and clarity. This allows me to grow my strengths and focus on my core values and identify what my priorities should be. My life keeps pulling…

Holidays are an interesting time and place. Whether we are planning to go away, or to stay at home, we look forward to holidays — to the time off, to seeing more of people we love, and to meeting new people; to visiting unknown places, or places which we long to see again. Holidays are exciting, and full of promise, yet, all too often, they fail to deliver. Too often we get to the end of the holidays with feelings of exhaustion, disappointment, guilt, frustration, and even relief that we are going back to normal life, at last. Perhaps holidays are more complicated than we believe. In my experience as a clinical psychologist, I believe there are five obstacles that get in the way of us having a good time.…

“I’m watching BBC News in a public space. More civilians dead, women and children. As the horror unfolds, I question: what right do I have to write about happiness? Then clarity strikes. In times like these, cultivating happiness isn’t selfish, it’s survival. Not escapism, but the foundation we need for resilience, compassion, and showing up meaningfully in a broken world. Here’s what happiness actually is: not constant joy or the absence of pain, but what former Harvard researcher Shawn Achor calls ‘a state of well-being encompassing meaning, satisfaction, and positive emotions while building resilience for life’s challenges.’ The research on happiness is stunning: happy people live longer, get sick less, earn promotions 40% more often, and experience less depression and anxiety. So when did you last feel truly happy? A…

1. BOX BREATHING (45 SECONDS) A Navy SEAL–approved technique that calms the fight-or-flight response. How: Inhale for 4 seconds Hold for 4 seconds Exhale for 4 seconds Hold for 4 seconds Repeat 3 times Why it works: This simple breathing pattern signals to your nervous system that you’re safe. It’s especially effective before high-stress moments — meetings, hard conversations, or the mental chaos of the 3pm slump. 2. SHAKE IT OUT (30–45 SECONDS) Yes, literally shake. How: Stand up. Shake your hands, arms, legs, shoulders. Bounce lightly on your feet. Why it works: Animals naturally discharge stress by shaking. Humans forgot how. This goofy-looking move releases tension, resets your posture, and boosts circulation. It’s surprisingly effective when you feel stuck or overstimulated. 3. NAME 5 THINGS (GROUNDING SCAN) Anchor yourself…

“I was a summer baby and my star sign is Leo. Both of these things make me happy, although I’m not really a star sign sort of girl. The lion reminds me that I can be fierce and powerful, and I like the fact that I was born under sunny skies. My mum tells me she remembers the early weeks of mothering in the garden of the little terraced house that was my first home. I enjoy the freckles scattered across my face and the way I notice that my skin is sun-kissed because there’s a white band on my wrist when I take my watch off. There’s a line in a St Etienne song — ‘she is the sunshine girl’ — that I like to claim as my own.…

Holidays are something many of us look forward to all year long, but when the time comes it’s natural to feel a few butterflies in your stomach. However, if your anxiety goes deeper than that — or if it feels like you’ve got more than just butterflies churning up in there, it might be time to consider how your gut health is impacting how you feel before you set off, both physically and mentally. ‘Travel can be a really good thing for the gut, but it can also be a really bad thing,’ explains Dr Megan Rossi, aka The Gut Health Doctor. ‘When we talk about the gut, we’re specifically focusing on those trillions of bacteria called our gut microbiome. ‘And stress can really impact that microbiome. We see through…

Fearne Cotton is redefining what happiness looks like in her 40s. ‘It’s just maybe a level of average contentment that I’m aiming for — I don’t even know if I’m needing to land on happiness,’ says the podcaster and author. ‘I’m pretty happy these days when I just feel even and average. I’m not looking for euphoria. ‘It’s about those moments where there’s a bit of mental peace and I just feel kind of balanced,’ the 43-year-old explains. ‘It’s not circumstantial. Before I’d think, [happiness is] being on a holiday with a beautiful beach and no laptop and having a nice cocktail. But actually I could do that and be going mad in my head.’ The former BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 presenter, who rose to fame first on…

Change is hard. We all know it. Whether you’re trying to get more exercise, eat healthier, use your phone less or go to bed earlier, it’s difficult to turn our good intentions into meaningful results. But despite what your inner critic tells you, that’s not because you’re lazy, or too busy, or just not good enough. ‘It’s mainly due to broken beliefs,’ says growth mentor and author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Robin Sharma. ‘A lot of us have these ideas that we’re not good enough, smart enough, fast enough or able enough to make the changes we want to make. ‘Any good positive psychologist will tell you that your personal story determines how you live in the world,’ says Sharma. ‘Therefore, our daily behaviour reflects our deepest…

Part Three Ruth and I had a bumpy start to our coaching sessions. She had forgotten one session, arrived late for another and had expected me to be grateful when she had moved her diary around so she could arrive on time for our last session. I was surprised to see her arriving early for our third coaching session. She looked calmer than she had before, and a bit subdued. ‘I’ve done the exercise you set me,’ she said straight away. ‘The one with the two parts of me — Courage and Fear. I’ve been journalling about these parts, listening to them talk.’ I asked Ruth what Courage and Fear had been saying. ‘Courage wants me to step off the hamster wheel, even if it’s scary. Fear made a good…

Twenty-five years ago, in my first job after university, I worked as a junior in a fashion PR consultancy. One day, my boss sent me to the office of an editor to present some client images to her. She gave me strict instructions of exactly what to say, to guide the editor to choose her preferred image. But the editor chose a different one and, despite my questioning, there was nothing I could do about it. ‘You stupid girl!’ my boss exploded on my return, and gave me a dressing down in front of the entire office. This type of behaviour became standard, and after three months of walking on eggshells, being ultra stressed, tearful, and dreading each day, I left, along with three of my colleagues. This wasn’t what…

A friend of mine was driving to work one morning, when a woman driving in the opposite direction started waving frantically at him. He was alarmed, and pulled to a halt. Partly he was worried because he’d seen this woman every morning on the way to work for years. They’d passed on the stretch of same road — if it was beyond a certain bend he was making good time, or perhaps she was running late. But they always saw each other, and had long since taken to giving each other a wave. And now she was waving at him again, but frantically. Was something wrong? It turned out it was nothing of the sort. She was getting married, and had come to value the acknowledgement, their little connection each…

Love makes a difference! Children who receive more warmth and affection from their mum grow up to be more open-minded and conscientious, a study suggests. Psychologists tracked more than 1,000 pairs of British identical twins from early childhood to near adulthood, asking their mums how they would describe each one. The University of Edinburgh team assessed her affection on a six-point scale, based on the language used, with phrases like ‘she is a delight’ marked near the top. By age 18, those who had experienced the most affection were more agreeable and creative, a bit kinder and marginally more organised, on average. The twin who received more affection from their mum also ended up with a different personality, despite sharing the same genes as their sibling. MPs launch sun screen…

“If there is one thing I wish I could drill into my brain it’s that I am not required to have all the answers. I think it comes from being a swot at school and taking far too much pleasure from being called smart, but when someone asks me a question I will always try to find an answer. The thought of simply saying, ’I don’t know’ fills me with anxiety. Despite knowing this is ridiculous and having spent over a decade trying to get out of automatically answering (or panicking that I should be able to answer), I still find simply shrugging my shoulders very hard. This regularly gets me into trouble. If I don’t know the answer but think I can take a good guess, I’ll do that.…

What do Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic have in common? Well, besides having enough Wimbledon trophies between them to fill Centre Court, and being possibly the two greatest tennis players of all time, they’re also both huge fans of mental fitness and visualisation We’re all used to the concept of physical fitness, but are we giving enough thought to our mental fitness? That’s the question being asked by coach and author Maya Raichoora. She is on a mission to make mental fitness and visualisation just as common as physical fitness, after going through a personal experience of chronic illness at the age of 17. ‘Visualisation is something that really helped me not only have hope and strengthen my mind, but it also helped me with pain during my illness,’ she…

Not everything that restores us comes in a bottle. Sometimes it arrives on the breeze, especially in summer, when the outside world feels more inviting, more generous. The scent of honeysuckle, the warmth of sun on skin, the distant sound of birdsong, these ordinary moments offer what modern life so often withholds: space to slow down, exhale, and reset. And this need for nature isn’t a luxury or a nice-to-have, it’s biology. We’re wired for nature, and that pull toward green spaces and fresh air is rooted deep in who we are. This connection to the natural world, what scientists call biophilia, is part of our blueprint. Humans didn’t evolve under fluorescent lights or on concrete streets, but in open landscapes, beneath trees, beside rivers. Even if modern life keeps…

As we settle into our routines, romance can sometimes fade into the background. Whether you’re 25 or 75, if you’re in a long-term relationship things can start to get, well, a little familiar, to put it kindly. But especially when you have been together a long time, or if you’re facing significant life changes, be they hormone-related, due to illness, or other issues, you may find your relationship starts to suffer. ‘When we live with people and have been with them for a long time, there is a lot of repetition in the things that we do and the structure that we have at the timetables in our lives, and if it doesn’t breed contempt, then it can certainly breed a bit of disillusionment,’ reflects Susie Masterson, British Association for…

The mental-menstrual link: why getting to grips with your cycle can help you live better Dr Cornelia Hainer, head of science at leading menstrual health and reproductive health app Clue shares three steps to supporting your mental health through understanding your menstrual cycle. 1. Track how you feel throughout your menstrual cycle The menstrual cycle is linked to many aspects of health, including mental well-being. Fluctuations in hormones like oestrogen and progesterone influence various bodily processes that can affect how we feel. Tracking your cycle, along with your emotions, mental state, and other experiences, can help you understand your personal patterns and what’s typical for you. This can be simply done in a paper diary or on your phone notes app, or through a tracker. 2. Use your insights to…

Christmas has a rather bad reputation when it comes to spending money. All those expensive pressies, fancy new outfits, decorations, Secret Santas, works do’s, nights out with the girls, Christmas markets, etc, etc... they sure add up. Summer, in contrast, seems to be one long, free beach day, with perhaps the odd ice cream thrown in for good measure. That’s what we think when we’re in mid-December spending fury, anyway. However, when it’s midsummer and your credit card is hot from use and not just the temperature outside, you remember it’s a rather different matter. Even if you choose not to spend a single night away from home, the cost of day trips, beach parking, meals out, picnics, afternoons in the beer garden and all the rest can quickly add…