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The Importance of Physical Activity on Your Mental Health: An interview with Michael Watson, MBE In my life, I have battled a gambling addiction and a brain tumour — and alongside these I experienced depression. Exercising through those tough times has helped me focus and keeps me moving forward. The British ex-boxer Michael Watson, who uses exercise as a tool to manage his mental health, was a hero of mine as a youngster. Seeing how he has dealt with adversity encouraged me

One More Reason for a Healthy Lifestyle: Exercise might increase vaccines' effectiveness The COVID-19 vaccine holds great promise for...

Chasing Happiness After the week-long hustle in the office, sitting with a cup of masala tea on a Sunday morning always feels delightful...

Recognising empathy as a cornerstone for making a meaningful impact in a post-COVID world: The Shepley Parkin Empathy Award Emerging from...

I’m writing this for anyone who is currently overwhelmed or feeling like they need to take a step back. From anything. From the internet, from your work, from your social life, from your family situation. It’s okay. Sometimes it can be hard to take a step back from things, because it means making a commitment to look after your mental health. But these commitments are important and are not in any way a reflection on you being a bad friend, partner, or person. It is important

I’m tired of feeling guilty for being a working mother. It’s something I’ve been dealing with for a long time, ever since I got back to my laptop six weeks postpartum. Going back to work wasn’t an easy decision for me , but it was a vital one, because my family needed the money, and we couldn’t make the rent on my maternity pay. We often focus on mothers who stay at home to care for their babies, not working. Which is also a valid decision to make, and one that is not easy. B

Animals to the Rescue — Assisted Therapy & Unconditional Love Over the years, I relocated several times for education and work in India....

How everyday activities can allow our brains to be flexible and adaptive across the lifespan Often, people report that their cognitive...

I’ve been writing personal essays ever since I first entered the world of journalism. Personal essays are pieces I enjoy writing, because I lose myself in the words. Throughout my career in journalism, I’ve focused on topics including mental health, sex and relationships, body image, and parenting. I’ve written features and reported on different subjects, but personal essays are something that I focus my work on, because it feels like telling a story. In all honesty, sometime

13 Self-care Tips to Help You Achieve Good Mental Health Mental health has been an increasingly pressing problem in recent years....

The Healing Power of Nature Therapy Ever wondered why you suddenly feel so calm whenever you are in nature? Be it at the park when you...

It’s 2021, and finally, people are loving their bodies, exploring being body positive, and sharing that self-love advice with other people. I have to admit, as a plus-sized woman, it makes me feel better. It makes me feel like it’s okay to be totally and authentically me, and I love seeing other people showering themselves in self-love. But, is it okay not to feel positive about your body all of the time? Does that make me a fraud? Sometimes, I ask myself this question. I liv

I have been a journalist since I was 17 years old. I’m nearly 26. So, that’s a long time for someone who’s still young. It started with writing for free for a well-known music magazine, and after blogging about my experience with inflammatory bowel disease through my own platform, I landed a job at Metro.co.uk. Metro.co.uk was my home for five years, I worked with some wonderful editors and met many talented writers who have gone on to do incredible things. I am so lucky that

I’m tired of people telling me to get therapy. There, I said it. This might sound odd. Surely, people are trying to help, right? They’re trying to be thoughtful. They’re noticing that something’s up and that you need support (as long as it isn’t said in a spiteful way, of course). But it’s not that simple. Because therapy isn’t accessible to everyone. Unfortunately, especially during the time of Covid-19, therapy is harder than ever to get. I’ve been on a waiting list for psy

Giving away everything in search of something more I tossed my backpack into the back and climbed into the passenger seat. It was a...

The Proof is in the Pudding: How Western diets increase our risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease The food we eat can...

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Coach App: Relief comes at your fingertips In early 2020, at age 38, I was diagnosed with Borderline...

When I’m not playing video games, I am a research assistant on the eBRAIN study, researching adolescent brain development and mental...

Bans Off Our Bodies: A Californian’s perspective on abortion rights Trigger warning: The following blog contains discussions about...

Those of you who have read my previous two blogs for Inspire the Mind, first on “Glass Delusion” and then on the physician Francis...

“It doesn’t matter, we all know what we’re getting at”, I see strangers say online as they discuss the difference between mental health and mental ill health, and the way we speak about it on social media. I see people say that discussing mental health terms correctly isn’t an issue, because it’s all one and the same — but it’s not. Language around mental illness matters. It matters because mental health and mental ill health are not the same thing. We all have mental health,

I am a big “smiler”. I smile at strangers in the street. I smile when entering a shop. I smile every time I make eye contact, no matter...

I was diagnosed with postnatal depression six months after having a baby. It took this long because I didn’t open up about it until this point; during a chance phone call with my health visitor when everything came spilling out all at once. I had been suffering in silence for every month before that point, feeling low, like a failure of a mother, and scared that if I told anyone, my baby would be taken away from me. A year on from giving birth, and six months on from first op

COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the nature in which we have been interacting with our friends and reaching out for support. As the...