We’re soon all going to be pitched against one another in a very public way — here’s how to make sure it doesn’t get personal. — It was some time around last Summer I first saw someone in my local shop without a mask on. A young man, casually dressed, strolled in and started looking along the shelves at the back of the store. At first I couldn’t work out what it was that was wrong…

How to understand what your boundaries are and to get better at standing by them, for less stress and a more creative life. — Being boundaried is not just about pushing back on the things you can’t accept. When we have a clear sense of our own boundaries, we have a clear sense of who we…

A few months ago, I wrote a blog post that developed a life of its own. …

When we’re triggered we feel urged to act immediately. But those actions often come with unintended, unhelpful consequences. Here’s how to change that. — (This is part two of a series on how to engage in healthy conflict, as taught in my practice of How to fight well — you may like to read Part One first). Your heart rate’s up, your mind is racing, you’re feeling angry or scared. Someone else — a…

When we fight, it’s so easy to make things worse just by the language we use. This is how to change that. — Think about a fight you had that still has a bit of a sting in it. What did that other person do or say? How strong was the feeling that they were ‘wrong’ or needed to know how their actions had hurt you? Maybe, after it had all settled down…

You’d have to either be a psychopath or superhuman to not feel overwhelmed by the volume and scale of the climate stories we’re being exposed to — so here’s a guide to staying sane for the rest of us. — When I’d written “Why we need to stop worrying about climate change (and what to do instead” we’d already had the UN report that told us one million species are at risk of extinction and the paper that prophesied outright social collapse in the near-term future.

We are told that uncertainty is hard for people to cope with. But what if it’s certainty that’s been killing us? And what if we have no other option? Once upon a time I had a sort of map for my life. It only existed in my head —as unquestioned…

I’m writing this from my little desk in my children’s ‘reading room’ (where we also keep the xbox). I’m surrounded by their books, piled up on shelves, scattered on the floor. …