I love my collection of quotes. There’s something magical about the words of great people, who’ve been there, done that. Here are some of my favourite:

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” —Gandhi

There’s nothing like living in the moment. But it’s just as important to build your knowledge piece by piece, as if you’ll have it for the rest of your life. Read: Zen in a cup of tea

“Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.” —William Butler Yeats

You won’t learn by waiting for things to fall into your lap. You have to go out and get it yourself. Read: Why Showing Up Is Not Enough

“Learning is not a spectator sport.” —D. Blocher

Nobody perfected their swing just by watching TV. If you want to get good, you have to be a part of the game.  Read: How running taught me the value of persistence

“It is wiser to find out than to suppose.” —Mark Twain

Don’t assume anything. Does ‘dihydrogen monoxide’ sounds dangerous to you? It’s a real chemical, 100% of the people who consume it die. Surprise! It’s just another name for water. Read: Why Minimalists Live Happy Lives

“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” —B. F. Skinner

You won’t remember every fact that you memorise. But you don’t learn it for that, you learn it to remember the story that it tells you. Read: 5 Ways to Strengthen Your Spirit – A Minimalist’s Guide

“I think, therefore I am. (Cogito, ergo sum.)” —René Descartes

Your brain’s ability to remember the past and imagine the future is what separates you from other animals, and other people. There isn’t another human being in the world with the same thoughts and memories as you. Read: How to create memories that will make you smile

“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.” —C.S. Lewis

Sometimes things go wrong before they go right. Put it down to experience and learn from your mistakes. Read: 5 lessons learned from repeated failure

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” —Albert Einstein

It’s never too late to change your life. There’s always hope that tomorrow will be a better day, it’s up to you whether or not it turns out that way.

“The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as long as we live.” —Mortimer Adler

The more you put yourself out there, getting out of your comfort zone and expanding your horizons, the more your mind gets stronger over time. Read: Zen in a lotus flower

“The best way to predict your future is to create it.” —Abraham Lincoln

Take control of your life, don’t let others control you. Read: Minimalist Meditations — On Control

“The journey is the reward.” —Chinese Proverb

Often, life is not about the destination, but what you learn and do on the way there. Read: Life is the journey

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” —Goethe

As children, we’re told too often that things are ‘impossible’. The truth is, if we can dream it, it’s probably doable. Think big and do big. Read: On the Shortness of Life – Part III – Desire and life goals

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” —Will Rogers

You literally won’t get anywhere in life by staying still. Even if you’re not sure, going somewhere is better than nowhere. If it turns out to be wrong, at least you have one more direction you know not to go towards. Read: The most important thing you need to know about completing your bucket list

“Learning is like rowing upstream, not to advance is to drop back.” —Chinese Proverb

Yes, it’s hard. But anything worth having is worth working hard for. If you’re not moving forwards, then you’re falling short of the best person you can be. Read: Live life like water

“Be a student as long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life.” —Henry L. Doherty

Never stop learning. The world is a fascinating place, with an infinite amount to learn about. To live is to learn. Read: On the Shortness of Life – Part IV – Learning

Bonus! Top 3 Inspirational Books for Students:

The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Mindset: Changing The Way You think To Fulfil Your Potential

In such a short time, I’ve learnt more about life and other people than I have in the past ten years. In fact, I’ve probably learnt more about myself than I have in my whole life. Coming home has given me a chance to reflect on a few of the things I’ve learnt during the last couple of months at university.

1. People don’t magically become mature upon arrival. I was really disappointed to find that people don’t automatically become responsible adults when they go to uni. I naively believed that people would know how to take care of themselves once they left home. But I can’t help feeling a little disheartened when I think about the massive pile of dishes people leave in the sink and bits of food on the counter-tops thinking their mothers are right around the corner to clean up after them.

2. Not everyone is considerate of others. On the same note, I’ve found out that a lot of people don’t realise that some of the things they are doing are making others suffer. Perhaps ‘suffer’ is a bit strong, but I mean it in the sense that they are making other people’s lives a little harder to live. The dishes are one example. Another would be the loud drum and bass that goes on until 4am on weekdays when some other people (*cough) have early morning lectures almost everyday.

3. Some people come to go to uni, but don’t go. I’ve seen a lot people put the education that they are supposed to be getting from university at the bottom of their priorities. For some reason, they’ve have decided to pay thousands of pounds and travel miles and miles away from home just to party or sleep in late. I’ll be honest and say that it’s difficult for me to empathize with these people, I know people can’t be perfect all the time, but it’s still hard for me to understand the thinking that goes behind these decisions.

4. There’s still peer pressure out there. Another hard lesson I learnt is that peer pressure doesn’t disappear after high school. It’s just become less obvious. Instead of directly asking people if they want to try something, there is just a general feeling that you’re not cool or ‘living like a proper student’ if you don’t try everything or suffer from crippling hangovers every other morning.

5. I can’t change who I really am. So enough bashing of other people, lest you think I’m on a high horse. Before going to uni I really believed I could become a hip, cool, laidback person that looked great and had a fantastic time. But uni isn’t like that in real life. In real life, there are deadlines, budgets and limited time. I can’t spend entire evenings going out and I can’t avoid all my lectures and assignments. In the first couple of weeks I really tried being a party-loving student, but after a while it just got too repetitive, too expensive and too tiring. In the end, I realised what was important to me and became myself again, someone who loves to party – but also someone who is driven and loves learning.

6. There’s no substitute for elbow grease. In my course, if you don’t prepare, you don’t know the answer. And if you don’t know the answer, you’re buggered. There’s no getting away with it, and you can’t waffle your way through a question or skim read material you’re supposed to have memorised. I’ve learnt the importance of proper preparation and revision techniques through experiencing the consequences of not doing it. Sometimes, there’s just no getting away from the un-glamorous-ness of pulling on a hoody and hitting the library.

7. You get back what you put in (and more). I’ve learnt that any experience becomes as good as what you put in. If you put in lot’s of passion and effort you’ll be greatly rewarded with good grades and have a fantastic time. If you constantly expect things to be boring, difficult or not up to your standards then it will inevitably turn out that way. But if you give things a chance, who knows, it might turn out better than you expected.

I learnt all of these lessons outside of the classroom. The fact that most of them are negative is actually a massive positive. I really feel I’ve gained some valuable life experience that they don’t teach you in books. I can take all of these difficulties and complain about them, or I can use them to learn about others and about life. Here’s hoping I’ll learn many more difficult lessons in the years to come.

With the advent of blogging, there’s certainly been a flurry of self help, self development and self improvement blogs. There’s so many, and some of them are really quite brilliant. I once heard a saying that getting information from the internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.

However, a lot of the stuff isn’t related to younger people. There’s some really great information for almost everybody, from business people, working mothers, people who used to be in debt, people who travel, people who are self-employed, people who want to be self-employed, people who want to lose weight, single parents etc. etc.

But where is the info for students? It’s definitely there, but it’s buried. Luckily, I have managed to dig them up for Minimal Student.

Almost all of the blogs say that it’s never too late to change your life. Not a lot of them tell you that it’s never too early either.

Now is a really great time to start this ‘self development’ baloney because university is a nice fresh start for many of us. The majority of people who start college or uni are moving away from home for the first time, away from family and old friends. An opportunity like this may never arise again, there is no better time to change for the better.

If there’s ever a time to start good time management skills, it’s probably when you’re a student. If there’s ever a time to learn about money management, it’s probably when you’re a student. And if there’s ever a time to discover the wonders of being an independent human being, it is right now.

University and college is ultimately all about learning, not just about your chosen course but also about yourself – your own thoughts, views and opinions. Being a student isn’t the be all end all but it does greatly influence how you will live the rest of your life.

It’s never too late, or too early, so start right now.

When I first came to university, I strove really hard to be a positive and friendly person. Everyone does, because that’s how to make friends, which is especially important since you are going to be spending a lot of time with some of the people you meet, at least a year, perhaps even more.

My immediate social response to almost everyone was automatically positive, because I wanted to be friends with everyone I met. But after a while, I began to discover new things about people that weren’t so positive. I found certain people to complain too much, or to be unreliable, arrogant or untrustworthy.

So what do you do when the honeymoon is over and you’re stuck with people that irk you?

You realise you can’t change them. I know, it’s not a fix, but it’s the truth. People aren’t going to change just because you disapprove.

If you really can’t take it, just drift away. You may find that people are much more tolerable in small doses. If you continue to have negative feelings, they may get a bad vibe off of you, which means that they come to think of you as you do of them. In that case, move away completely, it may not be the easiest task, but it’s better than allowing conflict to bottle up.

Another approach is to lead by example. Not that people will necessarily begin to copy you, but if you act like the kind of people you would love to be surrounded by, eventually you will attract those kind of people.

I heard once that you are the sum of your five closest friends. It’s up to you to decide what you add up to.

It’s that time of year when thousands of students return home for the spring holidays. Most will take large suitcases, maybe even two, so that they can take home all of their old clothes to wash, books they’ll never get around to reading and a few ‘just in case’ outfits.

The other night, I finished watching Up in the Air, starring George Clooney. It’s become one of my favourite films of all time.

The film is about a man that travels. A lot. In fact, he travels so much that he has become a pro at airport checking and at carrying as little as possible. The overall message of the film is that constant moving means that it was difficult for him to build lasting relationships. However, I am much more interested in the part about ‘fitting everything you own into a backpack’. If I had to move everything in my life at a moment’s notice, would I be able to do it? If I simply had to go home for the holidays, can I do it without breaking my back? Hell yes.

For this holiday, I will be going home for just over a month. I have quite a long way to travel to get home, and I will be using public transport, so I have decided to set myself the challenge of taking just a single suitcase and a shoulder bag, in which I will pack:

• Laptop and charger
• Two books
• Mobile phone, purse.
• A pair of jeans
• A skirt
• 4 tops
• A pair of shoes
• Make-up

I will already be wearing a pair of jeans and shoes, a shirt, a coat (and of course underwear ;)).

The books that I am taking home are for my course. They are very specialised and expensive, and aren’t available in my local library.

Because of my minimalist mindset, I didn’t take everything I owned with me when I came to university.  I left a few things that I can use when I go home, such as a pair of pyjamas and spare underwear. As for various toiletries, obviously they will be available when I go home.

The challenge is about thinking about what you really need. It’s about planning ahead; what will you be doing? What will you wear? Decide and commit, so you don’t have to take anything ‘just in case’. I’ve done all of my washing in advance, because there’s no way I’m going to drag it across the country.

A few months ago, I wrote a post ‘Can Minimalism be Measured?‘ in which I said that, in my opinion, minimalism is subjective. So, what if you need to take two suitcases? Well, I say that’s fine, there’s nothing stopping you, as long as you’ve decided that you are really likely to use almost everything in those suitcases. I still stick by what I said, it’s up to you how ‘minimalist’ you want to be. For me, in this case, the magic number is one suitcase.

It’s not until you make a temporary move like this you realise that you if you can survive a whole month without X, you probably don’t need it.

How much does your life weigh? Here’s the full trailer to Up in the Air:

Ahh, high school. Thinking back to those years brings both a smile to my face and a tear to my eye. Even though it hasn’t exactly been years since I left, it certainly feels like it. I learnt a lot of things in high school that I thought were ‘the law’ at the time, and I don’t mean physics laws in the classroom. Little did I know, I would be debunking those laws myths pretty soon.

1. Popularity is vital. At school, popularity was like currency, there were the rich, and there were the poor. For some reason, the rich deserved more respect (or fear) than the poor. As a kid, I didn’t even realise that popularity wasn’t even real! It was just a self perpetuating thing that people made up in their minds, projected onto others, who lived up to expectations. It blew up people’s egos and made others feel inadequate. Luckily, I wasn’t on either end of the scale and I lived those years manoeuvring myself around the middle of it. If only I could go back now and tell everyone to stop being so silly and just be themselves.

2. You will only have ‘made it’ when you have a house/car/pool etc. The process goes like this. Go to school, get a degree, get a good job, earn good money, buy a big house, buy a big car, then buy as much as you can = live a good life. Well, that’s what we’re taught. I don’t want to criticise the school system (too much) here, but that’s exactly what it is, a system. Like a factory, we go through one end and come out the other. They tell us all the same thing and hope we get on with it. Then they measure their success by how much we can buy fifteen years later. I guess that’s how there are many more (over-)consumers in the world than there are minimalists. Luckily, we’re here to change all that.

3. Grades are everything. Yes, grades do matter, but they’re not the be all end all of everything. You need good grades if you’re planning to go to university and get a degree, which, even in this internet centered, entrepreneurial world, I still think is relevant. However, you don’t need to burn yourself out and sacrifice everything to get top grades (I was guilty of this) and you don’t need to bring your self confidence down if you don’t get what you want either. Just doing your best and keeping a balance is enough.

4. The lone star shines bright. We used to be told that it was important to stand out whenever we can. That’s when you see head cheerleaders, class reps, student body leaders, sports captains and the lot. A lot of this is a good thing, we learn to be independent and we build up our individuality.

However, in western society (compared to societal perceptions in eastern cultures I’ve studied) the idea of individual merit is pushed so hard that teamwork, humility and fairness is often forgotten. Even when we have to work in teams, a lot of us still strive to either take over, lead the team, or take as much credit as possible. When we’re older, we toot our own horns as loud as we can to show others what we’ve accomplished. It’s not our fault completely, but sometimes we care more about ourselves than the project at hand or the bigger picture. I think there’s something we can learn from eastern cultures here in that sometimes, the product of a team is much more than the sum of all the individuals, no matter how great they think they are.

5. This is how life is going to be. I remember coming out of several boring years of high school thinking, “oh my goodness, my life is going to suck”. But, I quickly realised that high school has basically nothing to do with real life. Yes you learn a couple of things, but most of the academic stuff you learnt you’ll never use again. Plus, high school doesn’t foreshadow how you’ll perform for the rest of your life. Once you leave for university, you’ll have a chance to start again, to be whoever you want to be. You can debunk all these myths and change the way you live and think.

Okay okay, high school wasn’t all that bad. Yes, it seemed to drag on but most importantly, I made some great friends, some of whom I have a feeling I will still be having occasional catch-up chats with twenty years from now.

High school, and university for that matter, is what you make of it, and after debunking these negative myths from high school, I wish you have the best university years to come.

Do you have myths to debunk? Or anything you wish you told your high school self? Please share in the comments!

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• 15 Inspiring Quotes for Students

Whenever I fill in a form that asks for my occupation, the answer I always put is ‘student’. That’s because being a student is a full time job. Unlike a ‘real job’ where you do what you’re paid for within set hours, as a student from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed almost everything I do is somehow related somehow to university.

My job as a student comes with a job description. Part of my job as a student is to socialize, to make friends and connections with dorm-mates, course-mates and professors. Another requirement is being frugal, (depending on your financial circumstances) since most students don’t have piles of money under their beds. Finally, it is also my job as a student to do all of the assignments and reading and attend of lectures and so on. These requirements can create pitfalls that keep me from being as healthy as possible.

obstacles to great health

1. Drinking too much. For some reason, it has become a cultural rule that the best way to make friends is to have a drink with them. Personally, I am not opposed to this, and actually I think it’s a great way to bond with people. However, I do think there is a line between just a social ‘drink’ and a social ‘binge’. Of course, there are some special nights where it’s sometimes nice to drink ourselves silly, but most of the time is that really necessary? There was once a time when I would have gone past the line far enough that I would barely remember the entire night. Looking back at it now, not only was that extremely dangerous, as well as expensive, I probably would have had way more fun if I knew what I was doing and perhaps didn’t make such a moron of myself.

2. Giving into peer-pressure. Now, this may sound like something we were told not to do in high school, but unfortunately I still see it happening at college level. It may be disguised as a ‘suggestion’ or whatnot, but it is what it is. Sometimes when we’re trying to impress people, we do what they say against our better judgement. I’m all for the ‘try-everything-once’ mantra, but for me there are just a few things that are a little too risky, and I don’t think I’ll gain much ‘experience’ from trying them anyway.

3. Buying cheap food. I can’t speak for everyone here but I would say I fit into the usual ‘student’ financial bracket if there is such a thing. I’m not exactly loaded, but I’m not struggling either. There shouldn’t be much reason for me to skimp on food, even though it is tempting. The cheapest food, especially cheap meals, most of the time aren’t good for you. They are filled with additives and flavourings to make up for their lack of real taste and nutrition.

4. Not cooking at home. Every now and again there comes a time when you are absolutely swamped with work and you just don’t have time. Occasionally ordering a take-out is fine, but having three or four a week is bordering on lazy. Not cooking at home is a pitfall to good health because unless you’re ordering salads etc. it’s unlikely that what you get in a polystyrene box is good for you.

Most of these pitfalls can be helped. Almost all of these aren’t forced on you, you can choose the better alternative if you want to. All you need is a little willpower plus the want to be a healthier, more productive and happier person.

3 ways to great health

1. Get enough sleep. Getting enough sleep is crucial to your success as a student. Even a 20 minute nap will boost your concentration and therefore your understanding and retention levels. At night, try to calm your mind down before going to bed by doing some meditation or light stretches. Alternatively, drink a cup of camomile tea or listen to some soothing music. Make sure you’ve packed everything you needed for the next day so that you’re not tossing an turning at night in the vain hope you’ll remember to grab something in the morning. Try to go to bed at the same time every night, even if you only have an afternoon lecture the next day. By maintaining a routine, your body will be able to relax easier when it comes to bedtime and you’ll be able to sleep deeper and wake up feeling more refreshed.

2. Eat a minimalist diet. A minimalist diet doesn’t mean you don’t eat much. It means that instead of choosing processed ready meals or fatty takeaways, replace them with fresh and simple ingredients in a home-made dish. A lot of minimalist recipes only require a few minutes to prepare. Even the cooking process is quick and minimal, such as just steaming or quickly boiling, which means that it shouldn’t take you a lot of time to prepare even the most satisfying meals. A minimalist diet can also save you money, especially if you spend a few bucks each week on junk food. On top of that, it can help you boost your concentration and energy levels throughout the day.

3.  Plan exercise time and do it. Eating healthily is only half of the battle. The other half is exercising, and there’s no getting away from it. Student life means that your body can spend hours at a time sitting at a desk. If you don’t really do any exercise, don’t start out with something extreme like jogging everyday. Instead, just take a walk or do some stretches. Schedule time out to do exercise and actually do it. If you can’t find the time to fit it in, don’t give up. There are many exercises you can do even whilst at your desk. You don’t have to aim to have a model’s body or to be able to run a marathon. Just getting your heart pumped a little releases happy hormones which will lift your mood and make you more willing and able to learn.

Depending on your academic course, you could have it easy. You could have a few days off a week, long weekends and generous deadlines. Or you could be on the other end of the spectrum, the one with library marathons and late-night cramming. Either way (or if you’re somewhere in between) it’s easy for your mind to be full about your job as a student, instead of thinking about what you are apart from that.

Above the outer label, you are a human being, with a real body that hopes and dreams. But without your body, can you accomplish those dreams? You may not want to be a pro-star athlete, but essentially in order for you to achieve your best, your body needs to be at it’s best. Without it being at optimum levels, it becomes something that can hinder your potential. Think about any time when you didn’t get enough sleep, your body probably felt tired and you might have found it difficult to concentrate. Because you didn’t take care of it, your body stopped you from doing your best. Take good care of your body, and it will take care of you.

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When I first began my minimalist journey, one of the first places I began ‘decluttering’ in my life was my diet. It wasn’t until I moved away to university and was able to take full control of what I bought and ate that I really got things started. I’ve always been interested in food, cooking, and nutrition and since I’ve studied Food technology for just over five years, it’s been a big part of my life for a long time.

I’ve talked about minimalist diets in a previous post in detail, but here I want to talk about what I do specifically to stick to it:

1. Eat simply. Despite my dedication to food, when it comes to actual cooking, sometimes there’s not enough time or I just get a little bit lazy. This doesn’t mean I should pick up the phone and call in a takeaway straight away, instead, I’ll just throw together some simple fresh ingredients and make a meal out of that. I think one of the advantages I have is that I am not in the least bit fussy about what I eat, and I am perfectly happy eating the same thing three nights in a row. For example, if I don’t feel like cooking, I’ll just make a salad out of some spinach and rocket, and flavour it with a spicy dressing and some butter beans. Total time 2 minutes.

2. Cook simply. On the same note, I don’t enjoy excessive cooking as I can be a little bit impatient sometimes. I prefer to only eat things that can be cooked either in less than 10 minutes or by steaming or boiling (or microwaving). This is one of the reasons why I became pescetarian as meat took too long to cook (except when making burger patties). It’s not all to do with laziness however, because by cooking simply and quickly you preserve more of the goodness in the food as heat destroys a lot of the vitamins and washes out the minerals in it.

3. Drink simply. I almost never drink fizzy drinks, mostly because I don’t feel they quench my thirst! Also, they are completely full of empty calories and processed stuff, I just don’t feel comfortable fuelling my body with dirty oil so to speak. However, I do have the occasional alcoholic drink every now and again (I am a student after all) but only occasionally. Normally, I drink water, but I also have a collection of teas that I like to make everyday, including green tea, jasmine tea, orange tea, pomegranate tea, white tea, lotus leaf tea(!), and camomile tea for night time. Tea has almost no calories, is refreshing and is full of anti-oxidants.

4. Eating less. About three times a week, I try intermittent fasting. I found out about it through my research about diets about a year ago. I read some of the studies and to me, the results sound credible. Now, I don’t intend to give anyone dietary advice here, this is post is about what I feel works for me. Intermittent fasting, in short, is going through short periods of not eating. At first, I was skeptical, but then I realised that by doing so, one can reduce the amount of calories they eat in a day, and basically it’s another way of saying eat less.

5. Simplify the kitchen. The kitchen is one of the places where mess and clutter can build up quickly if you’re not careful. I share a kitchen with my flatmates, so there is limited space which fits me all the better. I don’t buy equipment I don’t need, I have just enough plates and cups that I use all of them and I only buy ingredients I know I will use before the expiry date. The last point is really important because that where a bunch of money can be saved. I don’t write it out or anything, but I tend to have a plan in my head about what I will eat during the following week and I shop accordingly so I use up everything before it goes off.

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During this academic year, I noticed that more and more I felt like I had to be doing something productive at every waking moment, otherwise I would be ‘wasting time’. I became impatient, and gained bad habits like looking at flashcards whilst walking and murmuring lists to myself whilst cycling (kinda like a crazy person, huh?).

As people, we have been trained to believe that doing something is always better than doing nothing, like mindlessly flipping through a hundred channels is better than doing nothing…better than sitting still.

When did it become a bad thing to sit down and do nothing every now and again? When it became ‘lazy’ to do so? But the thing is, sitting down only looks lazy, because you’re not physically moving. But if you stop moving on the outside, you will be able to see that inside your mind there’s a storm going on.

how to reclaim your mind

After a few weeks out of practice, I forgot just how fascinating the process can be. This is usually how I go about it.

Find a quiet place, sit down in a comfortable position for you and close your eyes. Notice how your mind instantly turns on and flips through thought after thought in an attempt to occupy itself. Memories, regrets, expectations, stories, worries… the mind will make anything up in order to not be still.

Why is that? Why is the mind afraid of being empty?

Just observe it without doing anything, no judging, no telling yourself off. After a while, your mind will calm down a little. If you’re finding it difficult, Eckhart Tolle (author of The Power of Now) recommends watching your mind for the next thought to pop up like a cat watching a mouse hole. Or, take a few deep breaths and concentrate on inhaling and exhaling slowly. This will help you focus on being present in the moment.

A lot of people that try meditation for the first time get very frustrated at not being able to clear their mind. They get angry at themselves or say things like ‘mediation doesn’t work’. I think a lot of the time this is because they realise just how little control they have over their own minds, which scares them. But that’s ok, because it scared me too, I mean, if you can’t control your own thoughts, what else can’t you control? But the point of meditation is not necessarily to devoid your mind of any thought, but to simply be aware of the thoughts that do come. When you see yourself drifting off, just breathe deeply and gently steer your mind back to centre.

If you actually try it, you’ll see why I like to call sitting still and art. It looks easy, (it’s just sitting down after all, right?) but it requires learning, skill and practice. It can be a bit difficult if you’ve never done it before, but it can also be a very enlightening experience. You’ll learn a lot about the way your mind works and about yourself – the kind of things you think about all the time, the things make you worried and anxious, and the things that make you smile.

It’s the most minimal of activities, you don’t need any money or equipment, just a little time, patience and a place to sit.

Go on, try it today.