Jo Usmar's Blog, page 5

BOOK LAUNCH DAY! Our new books are available to buy NOW

Our new books onmindfulness and body image are available to buy RIGHT NOW (nudge nudge, wink wink, shove shove). Please form an orderly queue at your local run-down bookshop (or at the online tills) to get some no nonsense,practical advice on how toimprove your self-esteem and how to make the most of every day.

This Book Will Make You Mindful:

We live increasingly busy lives and can often struggle to cope with the pressure we’re put under by external factors and, most importantly, by ourselves....

The only New Year’s resolutions you should be making this January

Ooh, would you look at that – it’s the first week of January and you’ve already broken your resolutions to stop smoking, to go to the gym nine times a week and to stop eating cake. Now you feel a bit coughy (from all those roll-ups), lazy (because walking past the gym doesn’t count as going) and full (from all that delicious ginger cake). But, worst of all, you feel massively guilty about everything. God, you’re such a monumental FAILURE. 2015 is pretty much ruined, right?

WRONG.

You’re not a f...

Our two new books are now available to pre-order!

Our two new books, This Book Will Make You Mindful and This Book Will Make YouBeautiful, are available to pre-order now (in the UK) onvarious excellent websites.

Get yours now at Waterstones, Foyles and Amazon for delivery in early Jan and, while you wait, read our most recent blogs onwhy Christmas is an excellent time to be mindful and also how to battle body image blues.

(Please note that Amazon Kindle iscurrently showing the incorrect Feel Beautiful book cover (as is Foyles) and also incorre...

Battling the body image blues at Christmas

T’is the season when even the most curmudgeonly Grinch will drag themselves out of their cave and force themselves to be social. If it’s not your neighbour’s slightly awkward annual mince pie afternoon, it’s the fizz-soaked office bash or Uncle Horace’s Christmas charades evening. It’s a time for merry-making, for catching up…and for looking your best.

Everyone wants to look good and there’s nothing wrong with that.Problems only arise when you dislike how you look (or certain aspects of your a...

Christmas: the perfect time to be mindful

So yep, December is finally here. Although you’d be forgiven for thinking it arrived three months ago with Noddy Holder’s gleeful bellow of “It’s Chriiiiiiistmas!” having taken over radio airwaves from September.

In the run-up to Christmas it can be easy to get lost in your head. What do I buy everyone? How will I have time to go shopping? Who’s going to pick up Aunt Maureen on the 24th? All the planning and worrying can mean you forget to actually enjoy what you’re doing; to be present in the...

Our two new books! This Book Will Make You Mindful and This Book Will Make You Feel Beautiful

We’re delighted to announce that we have two new books coming out inour series: This Book Will Make You Mindful and This Book Will Make You Feel Beautiful.

This Book Will Make You Mindful:

We live increasingly busy lives and can often struggle to cope with the pressure we’re put under by external factors and, most importantly, by ourselves. But help is at hand: THIS BOOK WILL MAKE YOU MINDFUL shows you how to stop worrying about the future and dwelling on the past. You’ll learn how your mind wo...

Our two new books! This Book Will Make You Mindful and This Book Will Make You Feel Beautiful

We’re delighted to announce that we have two new books coming out inour series: This Book Will Make You Mindful and This Book Will Make You Feel Beautiful.

This Book Will Make You Mindful:

We live increasingly busy lives and can often struggle to cope with the pressure we’re put under by external factors and, most importantly, by ourselves. But help is at hand: THIS BOOK WILL MAKE YOU MINDFUL shows you how to stop worrying about the future and dwelling on the past. You’ll learn how your mind wo...

Come to our talk on procrastination at Birmingham University

I (Jo) will be speechifying at my old haunt Birmingham University this Saturday (18 October) as part of the annual Book to the Future Festival. I’ll be chatting abouthow to beat procrastination…RIGHT NOW! (See what I did there?)

Taking place inroom 201 in the Arts Building from 4 – 5pm, I’ll be going throughwhywe procrastinate, how it affects us (our mood, body, thoughts and behaviour) and the best ways of beating it. All the info, tips and insight are taken from our books.

Please come alongand...

Our books in Greek!

Check out this snap one of our friends sent us of our books in Greek taken in a Greek bookshop! Very exciting to see translated versions hitting the shelves already.

If youcome across any on yourtravels pleaselet us know.

“UK needs four day week to tackle stress,” says top doctor

A top doctor (i.e. someone who knows what they’retalking about and not justsomeone who loves a bank holiday), has recommended the UK phase out five day weeks to combat work-related stress, anxiety and depression. Prof. John Ashton, the leader of the UK’s 3,300 public health experts working in the NHS, government and academia,says a four day week would also help address medical conditions associated with overwork or lack of work, such as high blood pressure.

He focuses on ‘the maldistribution o...