The Flourishing Institute

We've teamed up with Jane from the The Flourishing Institute to bring you a whole new program! Jane is just one of the many inspiring people we've partnered with in 2018 and we're so excited for what's to come 🔜

Jane works in providing learning experiences founded on positive psychology, neuroscience and the psychology of change.

This program seeks to improve participant access to simple, practical strategies and techniques which build resilience and increases flexibility 🙋‍♀️

Interested? Get in touch with us today!

There is little doubt that our physical health feels the direct consequences of large quantities of fast food. Just as we fill up our cars with premium fuel to ensure best functioning, our brains function best when we feed them premium fuel. Premium fuel for the brain contains many vitamins, minerals and amino acids that nourish and are protective. However, if the brain is deprived of these good quality nutrients, this will have direct consequences on its health. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/2wsgU1f hashtag hashtag hashtag

Eat Your Way To A Healthy Brain | The Flourishing Institute A consistent diet of fast food can directly rob the brain of crucial nutrients that it needs for optimal functioning. Whilst fast food is often seen as the easy or quick option, these foods deprive your body of essential minerals and vitamins.

Before recent developments in science, it was believed the brain was static and reached its peak in adulthood. That is to say, the brain we are born with – after a certain age and neural circuitry developments – is the only brain we will deal with in our lives. However, recent research has challenged this idea, and argues the brain is designed to adapt. Everything we do and experience changes the brain. Scientists now know the brains we have today reflect the demands and challenges we place on it. Continue reading here: https://bit.ly/2MviIRn

Change Chaos to Calm | The Flourishing Institute Before recent developments in science, it was believed the brain was static and reached its peak in adulthood. That is to say, the brain we are born with – after a certain age and neural circuitry developments – is the only brain we will deal with in our lives.

We may dismiss Facebook, Instagram and gossip as a waste of time, and they can be when they are put to the wrong use. However, these forms of social interaction also serve the function of a basic human need — social connection. For humans, social connection is as important to our survival as food, water and shelter. This predisposition of humans to be social explains our desire to constantly interact and surround ourselves with others. For example, we turn to smartphones and social media to achieve this online and virtually. So it is no surprise that being socially connected to others is part of our brain’s operating system that makes human beings who they are.

Compared to other primates and mammals, the human brain and in particular the neocortex — the outer layer of the brain — is considerably larger. This area of the brain is involved in higher level cognition, such as social behaviour, language, emotion regulation and empathy (the ability to understand the feelings and intentions of others). The prime functions of this area support the notion of humans being biologically hard-wired for interacting with others. Read more here: https://bit.ly/2vTvZJd

The Social Brain | The Flourishing Institute We may dismiss Facebook, Instagram and gossip as a waste of time, and they can be when they are put to the wrong use. However, these forms of social interaction also serve the function of a basic human need — social connection.

Life is not always a sea of calm, but rather, at stages we will find ourselves in rough sea and challenged by what is thrown at us. These difficulties could come in the form of our relationships with others, speed bumps in our career path or physical and mental health ailments. We all experience such struggles at different points in our lives. However, recent research has found that one thing makes the difference between staying down when we are knocked down and giving up or working to overcome what life throws at us. This difference is resilience.

Resilience is the ability to adapt and perform well in the face of adversity. Those displaying higher levels resilience have an ability to embrace life and flourish in the face of such difficulties, are flexible, adapt to new circumstances and expect to bounce back. Simply put, resilient individuals create good luck out of situations that others tend to see as bad luck. Whilst some people are born with more resilience than others, resilience is a skill we can all benefit from cultivating to better deal with life’s challenges. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/2vFoyF9

The R Word: Resilience | The Flourishing Institute Resilience is the ability to adapt and perform well in the face of adversity. Those displaying higher levels resilience have an ability to embrace life and flourish in the face of such difficulties, are flexible, adapt to new circumstances and expect to bounce back.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and instantly felt tuned in or on the same wave length? Well, this clicking is not just a manner of speech we use to describe a conversation when it is particularly productive and easy flowing, nor is this something that only occurs in romantic films. Rather, clicking in is a real, measurable and validated experience supported by neuroscience.


Clicking speechlessly as is often the case when people report being on the same length is called interpersonal synchronisation. Synchrony refers to matching states between you and the person you are talking to, in terms of speech rhythms, body language, what draws your attention, feelings and thoughts inside the brain. This is more than just showing empathy and putting yourself in their shoes. It is about sharing information through the mind without speaking, making a mental connection and truly understanding where the other person is coming from.


But how is it possible for our brains to literally be tuned in to each other through having a simple conversation? Learn more here! https://bit.ly/2vw2bSx

Harness Those Magic Moments | The Flourishing Institute Have you ever had a conversation with someone and instantly felt tuned in or on the same wave length? Well, this clicking is not just a manner of speech we use to describe a conversation when it is particularly productive and easy flowing, nor is this something that only occurs in romantic films.

With the creation of technological devices, came the creation of entirely new words. A few years ago, words such as selfie, hashtag and ghosting were non-existent in the everyday vocabulary. However they are now engrained and typical features in our vocabulary.

The average person spends over 4 hours a day mindlessly scrolling through social media feeds, replying to messages or using their smart phones. Similarly, it has become commonplace for the majority of communication to take place via technology virtually. Unfortunately, whilst technology has allowed human beings to communicate in ways never thought imaginable, this obsession with smartphones comes at a cost to social relationships.

Phubbing – the combination of ‘phone’ and ‘snubbing’ — is a term coined to describe being ignored by someone using their phone. It is likely we are all culprits of being both the receiver and giver of phubbing at some point. Ask yourself to remember the last social interaction you had — did you pick up your phone when you got a notification, choosing to devote your attention to that instead of the person next to you?

Read more here: https://bit.ly/2OapFDA

Are You A Member Of The Bowed Head Tribe? | The Flourishing Institute The average person spends over 4 hours a day mindlessly scrolling through social media feeds, replying to messages or using their smart phones. Similarly, it has become commonplace for the majority of communication to take place via technology virtually.

With it almost being the middle of winter already, many people will be very aware of how cold it has been this year. However, this coldness should not discourage you from spending time outside in nature. So wrap up in some layers and head outside to experience nature, proven to be one of the most reliable boosts to both mental and physical wellbeing. Take a look for yourself:


1. Experience a mental boost

We are constantly bombarded by information that can lead to mental fatigue, constantly demanding our focus and attention. Think of all the billboards, crowds of people, and traffic you experienced just on your way to work today. All of these are incredibly taxing mentally. Our brain needs energy to function and just like muscles, the brain can run out of energy if it is constantly in use. It is likely we have all experienced this feeling of mental fatigue — where your brain just does not seem to want to cooperate or work the way you want it to?

Learn more here: https://bit.ly/2KbN9Gg

Enjoy Nature’s Healing Powers | The Flourishing Institute With it almost being the middle of winter already, many people will be very aware of how cold it has been this year. However, this coldness should not discourage you from spending time outside in nature.

16 years ago, only 10% of the world’s population used cellphones. Compare this number to the 46% that owned cellphones by 2005, and the dramatic increase in cellphone ownership to 91% in 2013. Given these numbers, it’s not surprising — but rather expected — that cellphones are completely transforming our culture. However, whether the presence of such cellphones is for the better when it comes to face-to-face communication is a question at the centre of many issues today. Little by little, technology has become an integral part of communication, with their advent making it both easier and more efficient to reach others. However, as smart-phones increasingly take the place of face-to-face communication, is their effect on society doing more harm than good?


A correlation has been found between time spent on online interaction and social anxiety felt when individuals engage in physical interaction. Similarly, individuals report feeling that with increased time spent online, they are much less nervous to meet new people online than in person. Are these findings really that surprising?

Learn More here: https://bit.ly/2mHb1YL

Reclaim The Conversation | The Flourishing Institute Conversation is the most human thing we do as a species, and is one of the things that differentiates us from other animals. Animals can use basic language, for example Kanzi, the chimp who used hand gestures and symbols to communicate.

Every single organism on earth engages in some form of sleep. Whilst we humans are not faced with the threat of predators to the same extent as an antelope being vulnerable and fearful of being eaten by a lion when they close their eyes, sleep is a crucial component of life for all living creatures. The restorative mechanism of sleep is a necessity for all, and the assumption that it wastes precious productive time is a lie that needs to be dismantled.

In the 1950s, most people regularly participated in approximately eight hours of sleep every single night, however, since the 1980s, this view of sleep has changed drastically. From Margaret Thatcher claiming ‘sleep is for wimps’ and Thomas’ Edison’s invention of the light bulb allowing us to work in the darkness at night, believing ‘sleep is a criminal waste of time and heritage from our cave days,’ became commonplace and accepted. So it comes as no surprise that the concept of needing sufficient sleep every night has become lost. But how can the simple act of closing our eyes have such a drastic impact on our overall health and wellbeing?

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2unb2pe

The Drastic Impact Sleep Can Have On Our Health And Wellbeing | The Flourishing Institute Sleep is as essential to survival as food, shelter and water, with lack of sleep heightening mortality and can cause early death. And if you need any more reason to believe in sleep’s power, lack of sleep is one of the greatest risk factors in obesity…

Whether we are aware of it or not, we engage in habits on a daily basis – be it, from having our morning coffee to reading a book before bed. These engrained habits are often completed easily and without conscious awareness, we just do it because we do. However, when we start to put more thought into the matter of habit forming, for example, we have just read a health magazine telling us we should go for a run every day, or telling us that in order to live a better life, we need to stop drinking coffee, people often encounter difficulties. Read more here: https://goo.gl/GqPEsq

HOW DO WE GO ABOUT CHANGING OR FORMING NEW HABITS? | The Flourishing Institute Whether we are aware of it or not, we engage in habits on a daily basis – be it, from having our morning coffee to reading a book before bed. These engrained habits are often completed easily and…