When the conference director of Happiness and Its Causes asked me to host a panel discussion between experts on deepening our mind-body connection so that we can lead healthier lives, I was delighted. It’s a topic I’m dedicated to raising awareness about and the lineup was terrific. There was Michael Mosely – the famed English doctor and BBC presenter known for self-experimenting in the name of science, Elissa Epel – an American psychiatry professor and stress expert, who co-authored the bestselling book The Telomere Effect about healthy ageing, Amit Bernstein – an Israeli mindfulness professor who is doing extraordinary work... Read full article »

This year I set myself an ambitious goal to be eating a completely whole-food diet by the end of the year. At a time when experts are increasingly concerned about the impact of junk food on our health, I wanted to see if was even possible to learn to cook everything from scratch while leading a busy life as a working mother of two young children.With the customary zeal that accompanies every well-intentioned “New Year New Me” resolution, I signed up for an intensive cooking course, gave my pantry a makeover, planted seeds for a fledgling herb garden and invented... Read full article »

As a 38-year-old, socially minded, mother and health journalist living in Australia, you wouldn’t expect one of my all-time heroes to be a conservative former president of the United States. But Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th US president, is exactly that, so much so, that my first child is named after him. Roosevelt inspires me because despite being plagued by constant health issues, including severe childhood asthma, partial blindness and deafness, multiple bone fractures, tropical fevers, rheumatism, and a gunshot wound in the chest, he still led an extraordinarily active life. In his 60-year lifespan, Roosevelt climbed mountains, became a cattle... Read full article »

I was inspired to write this week’s blog after I had an email from a regular reader who is a physiotherapist-turned yoga instructor, and who wanted to know how I’m finding time to take care of my physical body whilst juggling full-time work, parenting, wife-ing, whole-food cooking, and all the mindfulness meditating that I’m committed to as part of my new film project. As a health journalist who lives with an autoimmune disease (the most recent diagnosis is Sjogren’s disease) I’m all-too aware of the importance of moving my body regularly. I’ve interviewed leading experts, written a ton of blogs,... Read full article »

I remember the first time I saw someone working at a stand-up desk. It was 2009 and a colleague had rearranged the furniture in her office and needed some help reconnecting her printer. I noticed that her office makeover involved putting her computer on top of a stack of boxes so that she could work standing up. To be honest, I thought she was a little peculiar. It seemed rather impractical, perhaps even a little silly. I now realise, given that I was spending hours and hours each day sitting in edit suites and at computers, that I was the... Read full article »

Regular readers of this blog will know that although I’m a health journalist, and am really really excited by finding new ways to find balance and stay healthy in this crazy-busy age of information overload, I’m not the gym-junkie, bikini-body, abs-of-steel type. In fact, as I wrote about on my blog a short time ago, I’ve always found getting into a regular exercise habit exceedingly hard. Sure, I’ve been on health kicks, and done a bunch of different exercise “challenges.” Sometimes I’ve even had a good time and noticed good results. But the whole weight-loss, big-biceps, toned-tummy thing has just... Read full article »