Reconnecting to a purposeful life with Jessica Huie

No news is good news with Rolf Dobelli

Blue Therapy With Keri - Anne Payne

Pandit Dasa spent fifteen years living as a monk – not in a remote retreat but in the heart of New York City. When he emerged from his monastic life, he became a speaker instead, inspiring others to live more mindfully. He gives us some tips on how to re-emerge into the busy world, including ‘closing the apps’ in our minds to quieten busy thoughts, and accepting that the world and what it throws at us are constantly changing.

Closing the apps in our minds with Pandit Dasa

While working in stressful jobs, Anastasia Dedyukhina realised that smartphones, and the pressure to be ‘always on’, were doing her harm. She tried an experiment: giving up her smartphone altogether and going back to a more offline way of life. The experience inspired her to found Consciously Digital, a network of coaches who help others to find a better balance between their online and offline lives. Anastasia describes what the constant switching of tasks does to our brains, and gives us some helpful advice for those who would like their families to spend less time on screens.

Anastasia Dedyukhina

Facing the future with John Sanei

Lisane Basquiat, the founder of Shaping Freedom, grew up in an immigrant Haitian family in Brooklyn. She and her siblings — including the artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat — were expected to succeed in conventional ways. Her brother took his own creative path. Lisane, who is an entrepreneur and a life strategist, followed a conventional corporate route for a while but now also helps others to define what they want from their lives. She says that families and their legacies to us are central. She tells us we need to work out how to be accountable to ourselves and not to put the responsibility for our own happiness onto others, whether that means members of our family or those outside.

Family Matters with Lisane Basquiat

Arnaud Collery: bringing happiness to work

Hear some of the inspiring people who've spoken to Head Talks:
Lisane Basquiat, life strategist
John Sanei, author, speaker, strategist
Keri-Anne Payne, Olympic swimmer
Dasho Tshering Tobgay, former Prime Minister of Bhutan
Mark & Maddy Austin, journalist and daughter recovered from eating disorder
Sir Ian Cheshire, senior businessman
Kristin Neff, psychologist

Head Talks Greatest Hits

Dasho Tshering Tobgay is the former Prime Minister of Bhutan, the Himalayan country once isolated from the rest of the world, but which in recent decades has been pursuing the idea of measuring ‘gross national happiness’. This idea goes beyond the traditional pursuit of economic growth and takes into account the country’s environment and culture. Dasho Tshering talks to us about how his country has changed and how he himself has coped with the ups and downs of political life, learning to question the nature of both failures and successes along the way.

Tshering Tobgay Podcast

Sir Anthony Seldon
Co-founder of Action for Happiness

Fed up with our education system, which he calls target-oriented and 'sick', Sir Anthony set out to teach children how to 'lead lives full of meaning and love' instead. Seldon, a prominent political historian and commentator, took his Buddhism-meets-school philosophy and successfully applied it to Wellington College, even introducing 'stillness sessions' at the top school. Seldon is co-founder of Action for Happiness, which passionately promotes happiness and the development of the 'all-round child.'

Happy Heads - Headmaster Visionary in 60 seconds by Sir Anthony Seldon

Ingrid Betancourt
Held Hostage by the Columbian FARC

Ingrid Betancourt became headline news when she was kidnapped by the Colombian guerrilla movement FARC in 2002. The Columbian presidential candidate was held in the jungle, mistreated and tortured, until she, and 14 other hostages, were rescued by the Colombian military six years later. Betancourt, who has a son and daughter, wrote a book about her ordeal and received international bravery awards. 'It was a battle, not only with the guerrillas, but with our inner selves.'

Guerrilla Hostage: Mental Survival by Ingrid Betancourt

Lord Carey
Former Archbishop of Canterbury

Our communities are fragmented, so there is no natural support system for mental illness anymore, says Lord Carey. Instead, this former Archbishop of Canterbury supports 'taking out pews' to create 24-hour churches, functioning as community centers. Outspoken Carey, once leader of 70 million Anglicans worldwide, also supported the ordination of female priests. He was the first former archbishop to write an autobiography, saying he's 'familiar with the knocks of life.'

On God, Community, and Mental Health by Lord Carey

Ben Barnett, who gave a Head Talk for us earlier this year (link at end), has provided our community with a mini meditation to clear your head and open up your mind to wonder. Ben said: "This is a perfect meditation when you are feeling jaded, or if the constant stream of bad news and negativity is weighing you down. Take ten minutes, pause, press the reset button, and awaken a positive energy to face the rest of the day."
Link to Head Talk - http://bit.ly/2uqxmeV
Ben's other mini meditations - https://htbb.bandcamp.com

Mini Meditation To Clear Your Head And Open Your Mind Wonder

Thomas Stimpson MBE
War Hero Living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Twenty-six years in the Royal Air Force. Falklands, Iraq, Afghanistan. But when Tom Stimpson (MBE) started collapsing with mysterious seizures, he had no idea what it was. Eventually he was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Since then, Tom has heroically regained much of his health and was one of the first to compete as a mental health patient in the 2016 Invictus Games for wounded service personal. He is also a highly inspiring speaker, aiming to lift the stigma on mental health, especially within the military.

Battle Trauma By Thomas Stimpson MBE

Andrew Wallas
The Modern Day Wizard

Disconnection from ourselves is the biggest ailment of our time. Andrew Wallas, a former financial whizz-kid-turned-psychic counsellor, has made it his mission to reconnect us with those parts of ourselves we are running away from. 'Too often mental health treatment deals with the symptoms and not the root,' says Wallas, who underwent 13 years of psychotherapy, before becoming one of the most well known spiritual psychotherapists himself.

The Modern Day Wizard by Andrew Wallas

Anne Shewring
Cancer Survivor

It wasn't until after her operation, chemo and double mastectomy that Anne Shewring started to struggle with anxiety. 'You think: how am I going to survive this?' It's been five-and-half years now, and with the help of counselling Anne, whose sister died of breast cancer twenty years ago, learned to cope with 'life afterwards.' Though she still occasionally feels the tug of panic. With this interview Anne hopes to 'give some light to people struggling with cancer.'

The Panic Of Cancer - A Survivors Story By Anne Shewring

Nadya Khokhar
Cognitive Behavioural Therapist (CBT)

Unhelpful thoughts; we’ve all got them. Over the past decade, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has become the go-to way to tackle our muddled thinking. 'We are helping clients to become their own therapists,' explains Nadya Khokhar. UK-based Khokhar participates in a government-run scheme improving access to therapies. CBT can successfully help those suffering from a range of conditions, including depression and anxiety. Here Khokhar explains how.

Reset Your Thinking - The CBT Therapist By Nadya Khokhar

*CONTAINS EXPLICIT SEXUAL CONTENT*

Mike Lousada

Mike Lousada is a Psychosexual Somatic practitioner who works alongside his wife, therapist Dr Louise Mazanti. In this interview, he looks at society’s views of sexuality through history. Mike argues that we should move away from a view of sex that’s about control and fear towards one where the emphasis is on freedom of expression, pleasure, intimacy and love.

Sex & Society by Mike Lousada (Chapter 1)

After a successful career as a professor of art and design, Dr Louise Mazanti had a spiritual awakening that took her in a new direction. She wanted to learn more about her body, sexuality and spirituality. She now works alongside her husband, Mike Lousada, as a therapist. She sees sex as an energy, a kind of life force that flows through our bodies. Spirituality, she says, is a sense of feeling ourselves as part of something bigger than ourselves alone. Louise’s advice starts with feeling real, breathing, and being aware of your body and its energy.

Sex & Spirituality by Dr Louise Mazanti (Chapter 3)

Paul Gilbert
Founder of Compassion Focused Therapy

Paul Gilbert is a pioneer of compassion-focused therapy. He’s a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Derby. In his work, he has drawn on insights from Buddhist tradition as well as evolutionary psychology. His compassion training teaches people to quieten critical or hostile inner voices in order to treat themselves more kindly. That can mean working on breath, posture and tone of voice. Learning to feel compassion towards ourselves is a skill that can be taught.

Cultivating the Compassionate Mind by Paul Gilbert

Lucy O’Donnell
Cancer Wellness Advisor

When Lucy was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer in November 2011, she spent most of the next eighteen months in radical cancer treatment. Through her continuing treatment and experience, Lucy channels her energies into helping other people in and outside the cancer world.  She is a Cancer Counsellor, Holistic Therapist, Inspirational Speaker and author of Cancer Is My Teacher.

Love, Hope and Cancer by Lucy O’Donnell

Healing And Letting Go - A Meditation Gude by Meg James

A guided meditation to help you to surrender and release painful emotions

Healing And Letting Go By Meg James for Head Talks

Josh Dickson is a therapist who works with EMDR -- eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing -- therapy to help clients overcome past traumas. He says he has both experienced and witnessed its effects. Josh tells us the theories about why stimulating the brain helps it to file away old, painful memories and explains how he uses it in practice. After treatment, he says, many are able to say their trauma has gone.

Moving the mind beyond trauma by Josh Dickson

Richard Layard is an Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics where he is also Director of the Wellbeing Programme, as well as a member of the House of Lords and the co-founder of Action for Happiness. His books include Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, and Thrive. Lord Layard began his career as an economist and was one of the first to study the economic and social importance of happiness. Once we measure what makes people happy, he argues, we can develop policies to improve the happiness of our society. Our first priority should be to improve mental health services, particularly those from children. He says he’s seen profound cultural change in recent years as we have learned to talk more about these issues, but warns of the risks that social media can pose to our happiness.

The Value of Happiness by Richard Layard

How to be authentically charming by Dr Raj Persaud

The electricity of the mind by Dr Rahul Jandial

Scarlett Curtis: Learning to trust my brain again

Psychotherapist Susie Orbach has long studied our relationships with food and eating. ‘Life is full of challenges,’ she says, ‘the question is how to make them interesting.’ Susie is concerned about how parents’ preoccupations with bodies, food and fitness are transmitted to their children, sometimes using food as a substitute for genuine emotion. We have to work out both our desire to belong, and our desire to stand out.

Our authentic bodies and authentic feelings by Susie Orbach

Looking for silver linings with Susanna Newsonen

Barry McDonagh started experiencing panic attacks as a student, until one day he dared the panic to do its worst, and found that he came through it. Barry has now developed a method that he calls DARE, based on his own experiences. He describes the method as breaking ‘the fear of fear’ and ‘riding the wave’ of panic and anxiety disorders.

Nothing to fear but fear itself with Barry McDonagh

Head Talks is a home for informative and inspiring talks on mental wellbeing and the mind.

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