Anticipation has been described as “emotional rehearsal for possible future situations”. At the moment I am emotionally rehearsing for a holiday to Iceland, getting excited by imagining floating lumps of ice in frozen lakes and exploding geysers.

Research into anticipation shows that we get more excited about picturing a future experience than anticipating a future material purchase. People feel less excited about waiting to receive a shiny thing they have bought than waiting to have an experience they have paid roughly the same amount for. Continue reading →

I’ve been behind with posting on here recently so here are a few links of some things I’ve been up to:

Huffing about on Huffington Post on The NHS Bill here.

Chatting online for the Guardian with other health and social care professionals about the use of mindfulness here.

Blogging about how we can get a sense of perspective by thinking like an astronaut here.

I’m now away in Shropshire on a writing week, enjoying the sound of sheep and the English sun, working on a longer thing on child development. There’s a longform piece brewing too – with Mosaic Science later this month, so I’ll be sure to publish the link here when it’s up – the 21st of June I think.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) write guidelines which draw together available evidence and make recommendations for what treatments are best for different diagnoses. Continue reading →

Two posts on Huffington Post from me about The Psychology of Making a Change and The Psychology of Sticking to a Change.

Useful for trying to keep those New Year Resolutions…

A link here to an article I wrote for Prospect last month on who looks after the psychological wellbeing of overseas volunteers in Sierra Leone.