So you’ve heard a lot about the need to be kind to yourself. You have no idea how to actually do it. It’s not your fault. You’ve learnt from the culture we live in to blame yourselffor being lazy and undisciplined/wasting time on social media/not taking enough chances with your career/being a lousy parent/insert the many other failings you […]
What If This One Question Can Always Make You Feel Better?
It’s funny how the things we avoid the most — like moving our bodies, eating whole foods and finally doing our taxes — can help us the most. We tend to think of work as a burden and vacations as a reward. Our chores and to-do lists are to be tackled as quickly as possible, […]
The Mathematical Theorem That Also Serves As Fantastic Life Advice
If you’re surprised to hear that maths can be used as a tool to teach self-help, don’t be. I believe so deeply in its powers that I’ve written a book about it. So let’s turn to the theory in question. In his excellent book ‘Man vs Maths’ Timothy Revell puts Bayes’ theorem in simple terms: for any […]
It Pays Not To Do Your Best. Just Do.
A fellow tutor I deeply admire* said something to me a few weeks ago that has since stuck: anything worth doing is worth doing badly. It reminded me of some wise words my husband shared with me: 20 minutes of doing something is more valuable than 20 hours of thinking about doing something. Imagining you […]
How To Find Fun Everywhere You Go
In his book Indistractable, Nir Eyal make the point that we can reimagine the concept of fun. Eyal explained that Ian Bogost, who studies fun in great depth (as we all should), says fun doesn’t have to have be enjoyable. He defines fun as: ‘the aftermath of deliberately manipulating a familiar situation in a new […]
Stress Can Be Your Ally
Try showing some appreciation for it If there’s one thing that strongly impacts the quality of your life every single day: it’s the stories you tell yourself. Changing the soundtracks that play in your head each day can help them serve you instead of bring you down. Storyplay brings you fresh idea to help you […]
The Beauty of Diving Deep
It’s 7pm on a Thursday night. Right now, you could be watching a hilarious YouTube video. Or reading a book that makes you smarter. Or working on the side hustle you keep saying you’ll start. What about finally writing in that journal or cooking a healthy dinner? The number of choices available to some of […]
How To Keep Your Ego In Check
You don’t owe it all to yourself In a world where you are constantly encouraged to work on yourself and make your dreams come true, it’s easy to forget this truth: Absolutely everything you have has been given to you. Your ideas arguably come to you rather than from you. The capacity to create anything […]
The Real Lessons that Take Place in a Classroom
Why it feels strange to be called a teacher when you’re always the one being taught As a Maths teacher, I’m not supposed to have favourites, but I’ll admit: eight is my favourite number. There’s a reason for this – some of my most memorable students have been eight-year-olds. While training to be a teacher, […]
A scientific reason why you shouldn’t compare yourself to others
Instead, try celebrating with them Any student of science knows that in an experiment, comparisons are only valid if you control all the other variables that could affect the outcome. If you are studying the effect of physical exercise on heart rate, you need to control for things like caffeine consumption, age, previous heart conditions, […]