When I worked at a design agency in Notting Hill, I hosted “A Thinking Women’s Club” in the studio once a month. As far as I was aware, the qualifications for landing the role of ‘chosen agency representative’, was an ability to put out a few chairs, check the tech was working, and be capable of locking up the studio. Being a polite and welcoming woman probably helped too.
These Monday nights allowed me exclusive entry into the club, gave me the opportunity to mix with an impressive group of women and listen to fantastic speakers sharing ideas and inspirations from the worlds of arts, science, politics, economics and philosophy. On balance, worth the tired chair lifting arms and sore smiling cheeks.
It was there that I first heard anyone speaking aloud about mental health.
It was around 2013 and Ruby Wax, the comedian and writer, was now a mental health campaigner and launching her first book ‘Sane New World: Taming the Mind’. With experience from her own periods of depression and having just graduated with a Masters from Oxford in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy, she discussed how our self-critical thoughts drive us to anxiety and stress, and how we can rewire our thinking to calm ourselves in a frenetic world.
I was fascinated but sadly at the time, not self-aware.
However, this encounter meant I have read many of Ruby Wax’s books since, and having written in my latest article that we need to start looking at the environments that cause our anguish to help improve our mental health, I was reminded of her book ‘And Now For The Good News…’ which was published in 2020.
And Now For The Good News, Ruby Wax
We are constantly bombarded by bad news, a drip feed of disasters that can become addictive for our minds to follow and ruminate.
In one of her talks promoting this book, Ruby states, “where you focus your attention defines who you are in that moment, and you start to get habits of seeing the world through that lens.” For this book, she wanted to see if she could start to “pull away from the bad and start to focus on the good news.”
So, over three years, Ruby searched for inspiring people who are creating a brighter future for humanity. She discovered innovators across business, education, technology and food, all united by one common thread - we will only make it if we work together, as a community, as a team. She says after all, “the point of us as humans is to mingle.”
And mingling she did. To research and write this book, Ruby spent time living in communities being designed to eradicate loneliness, speaking with companies putting their employees’ happiness first, and discovering schools teaching children empathy.
Ruby generously shares her learnings with an optimism that is both frank and funny, guiding us to take control of our over-stressed, over-critical minds and look forward to the future. Because green shoots are sprouting, it isn’t all doom and gloom.
So, do you want the good news? Find out more or buy the book here.