The Mindapples blog has been our outlet for our thoughts, inspirations and company announcements since 2008. It’s actually how Mindapples started, just blogging about mental health and wellbeing, and inviting people to share what they do that’s good for their minds.
Now we use it in two ways: for occasional announcements and updates about what we’re doing, and to post articles about psychology and health research that could help people get to know their minds better. Browse the recent posts below, and get in touch if you find something interesting that you think we should be reading.
Blog
A curious mind is an active mind
Curiosity means being open to the unfamiliar, and to whatever emotions may result, then arguably any strategy for achieving happiness – for guaranteeing happy feelings, rather than sad ones – is intrinsically incurious. Train yourself to be curious and seek the unfamiliar.
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Young and ambitious, time for a quarter life crisis then?
A quarter life crisis happens shortly after a young person – usually an educated professional – enters the “real world”. I don’t know about anybody else, but the “quarterlife crisis” is as real as anything for me. I’m 29, with two degrees, £20,000 of debt, and two part-time jobs to pay it off. Neither earns […]
Continue reading → Mind Orchards
The gardeners at Mindapples have been thinking about ‘mental spaces’. We want to turn Mindapples into a physical community by tagging places in cities and offices as ‘Mindapples zones’. Basically, places that make you feel more mentally healthy, like a park, a great view, or a really relaxing cupboard. We want to find really beautiful, […]
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Get well in the garden
We’ve always known that fresh air does you good, but now it seems that getting up close and personal with gardening can improve your overall well being. Studies from the University of Bristol indicate that simply touching “friendly bacteria” in soil may alter behaviour in a way similar to that of taking antidepressants. Meanwhile, research […]
Continue reading → Relationships are the only things that matter
For the first time, a journalist, Joshua Wolshenk, has been given access to the archives of one of the most comprehensive longitutudinal studies in history. For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been following 268 men who entered college in the late 1930s through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age. […]
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Psychology and the Economy
I’m currently sat in the RSA lunchtime lecture with Robert Shiller about how human psychology drives the economy. John Maynard Keynes famously used the term ‘animal spirits’ to refer to the animating forces that drive people to action. He argued that economists were wrong to model human behaviour as rational, an emphasized that no-one can […]
Continue reading → Sing your way to happiness
Singing is not only fun, it offers an antitode to stress, illness and depression. “When you sing, you breathe in a different way so you use more of your total lung volume. This means there’s a tendency to increase the airflow so your blood is more oxygenated. When that happens, you are more alert. Singing […]
Continue reading → One in Four
One in Four Magazine is published by Social Spider. They want the magazine, wherever possible, to be available free to the core group of people it is written for – those with mental health difficulties, their friends and families. Read an excellent interview with the editor here -his mission is to challenge our stereotypes.
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Get excited and make things
Here’s some beautiful advice from my friend Matt Jones for anyone who’s feeling flat or powerless in these times of economic downturn:
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