Short and Sweet

Take a second, stay still, close your eyes and listen – what do you notice? Sandwiched between the beat of your heart and the rise and fall of your breath, do you hear bird song in the trees? A cool breeze tickling your skin? Perhaps it’s the smell of dinner in the oven?

Or maybe your senses are being drowned out by an inner monologue of stresses and strains, worries and fears.

Now more than ever, our minds are becoming clogged with everyday anxiety, which can make it hard to concentrate, relax or even get through the day, and finding a moment of calm is increasingly rare.

Mindfulness expert Sarah Rudell Beach knows only too well the pain of trying to quiet a busy mind, and she believes the secret to feeling better isn’t about distracting ourselves from the negative inner voice – it’s about noticing what it’s saying and turning your attention to the present.

“I became interested in mindfulness when I started taking prenatal yoga classes when I was pregnant with my daughter, who is now 13,” said Sarah, whose wellbeing book, And Breathe, was published earlier this year.

“I became more serious about practising mindfulness as I struggled with postpartum depression after her birth, and again after the birth of my son. As I began to learn more about mindfulness, and practice it more intentionally and consistently, I remember feeling like it was almost revelatory to discover that I didn’t have to get so

● Sarah Rudell Beach