Is caffeine a cognitive enhancer?
I don’t drink coffee. I never have. Late in my PhD, I did have a rather unhealthy addiction to energy drinks, but I managed to […]
Lifehacks
How to be a 'good' student - the academic stuff
You might be aware from previous posts that we are putting together a Mental Fitness Course for 2019. The course will consist of a series […]
We're developing a Mental Fitness Course!
I’ve talked a bit about Mental Fitness on this blog, and the concept of Mental Fitness underpins a number of the guides that I have […]
Wellbeing for Academic Success FLO topic is live
I like this blog. It is a nice home for me to talk about student health and wellbeing. However, it is not necessarily the easiest place […]
Dr G's guide to self-care
Update: we now have a new Self Care Mega Guide with extra strategies and our service pamphlet attached to the back. A nice upgrade on the […]
Become A Behaviour Change Expert: Part 3 - Social Support
Welcome to Part 3 of Becoming a Behaviour Change Expert. In this series I am looking at the skills you can develop, so you can […]
The Cognitive Behavioural Model and how you can use it in your own life
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT – which has many variants) is a widely used evidence-based model of therapy that is helpful in addressing a range of psychological […]
A quick guide to self-care for mentors
Note 19/4/19 – an updated self-care guide can be found here. Last week a colleague of mine and I ran a mental health/self-care workshop for […]
Is the idea of 'finding your passion' unhelpful?
The phrases “Find your passion” or “Follow your passion” are so ingrained in western culture that I’m confident that most people have heard them at […]
Become A Behaviour Change Expert: Part 2 - Monitoring and Feedback
In Part 1 of my series on “Becoming a Behaviour Change Expert”, I looked at how to set better goals when attempting to make a […]
Become a Behaviour Change Expert: Part 1 - Setting Goals
Most people I’ve known, or come into contact with as part of my work, have at some point in time wanted to make some kind of […]
Improving your exam performance when under stress
Many of us know the unsettling experience of memory failure under stress. It is particularly well known to students who find themselves ‘going blank’ during […]
Use grounding techniques to deal with strong emotions
In a previous post I tried to describe strong emotional reactions in a way that would facilitate dealing with them more effectively. In this follow-up […]
Struggle with insomnia?
I sleep well. I sleep really well actually. Have never really struggled with sleep. If those sentences piss you off, it might be cause you […]
Assignment schedule calculator
One of the counsellors just forwarded me a very cool resource that helps you schedule all the tasks you need to do to complete an […]
An exercise to build self-compassion
Two of the areas of mental fitness I’ve described previously include being able to build positive emotions, and also better manage distressing ones. The ability […]
Could using your smartphone in a more focused way help you focus?
In today’s mental fitness post, we consider the relationship between daily inattention and smartphone use, thanks to a study by Marty-Dugas et al (2017). I’ll […]
What do I mean by mental fitness "techniques"?
If you’ve had a look at my previous mental fitness posts (introduction, and domains of mental fitness), you are probably saying to yourself – “when […]
The fine art of self-experimentation
There’s no shortage of people telling you how to live your life. Let’s face it, I am one of them. As you are sifting through […]
What are the domains of mental fitness?
Update 6/8/18 – This post has been updated a couple of times since it was originally written. This is because I have added and reorganised […]
1.2..3...Yoga
Heading into the weekend or the upcoming semester break, you might be thinking you have all your relaxation options already sorted – good times with […]
Let's talk mental fitness
To date I’ve been using this blog to focus mostly on directing you to useful health and wellbeing related resources and opportunities. That won’t stop. But […]
Boost memory with periods of rest
An interesting article over at BBC.com suggests memory can be improved with regular periods of rest/quiet contemplation. The author David Robson cites research stretching back to […]
Actual stuff you can do to build well-being
Building well-being is something you have to work at. It is why I use the ‘mental fitness’ analogy when speaking about well-being nowadays, because like […]