Music Myths: Can music make you smarter? What about happier?

August 28, 2017August 13, 2018Leave a comment

Having spent a weekend doing my best impressions of a noughties teenager at Reading Festival 2017 (leaving me with a neck that can barely move from my flailing attempts at hairography), it’s no surprise that my brain has been percolating on some ideas around music. Because you might be rocking headphones whilst you read this, but does music help with productivity? Does your favourite song really lift your mood? Is it true listening to music can make you smarter? Learn languages faster? Boost your memory? There are dozens of myths about the power of music. Here are some of the ones I find most interesting.

Virtual Reality: What’s The Brain Got To Do With It?

March 27, 2017March 27, 20171 Comment

The other evening, I experienced virtual reality for the first time - and it got me thinking about the physical, psychological, and philosophical (and specifically ethical) questions have and will emerge from this technology.

Hearing the Voice: Storytelling with Juliet Conlin

February 24, 2017September 6, 2017Leave a comment

"Subject your senses – all five of them – to a wide range of different experiences. Challenge your preferences and dare to be uncomfortable. I think that if we always stay inside a narrow comfort zone, this weakens our ability to perceive and understand the world around us. Make your brain work!"

On Silence & Speaking Up (Or Why Our Voices Matter)

June 29, 2016June 30, 20161 Comment

The way we react and talk about trauma has changed thanks to the rise of social media and 24-hr news cycles. Recently, we saw this following the massacre in Orlando, the murder of MP Jo Cox, the EU Referendum more generally. All very different events. All followed by outpourings of grief, condolence, anger, support that went viral and … Continue reading On Silence & Speaking Up (Or Why Our Voices Matter)

Monogam-ish: What’s the real deal with our relationships?

June 8, 2016July 4, 20166 Comments

Choosing what is right for you in terms of the openness of your relationship is entirely between you and the other(s) involved. There's no right or wrong kind between consenting adults. But is monogamy natural in the first place? That's a different question.

You Suck: The Thing About Negative Inner Voices

May 22, 20166 Comments

When most of us think about it - we all have inner voices. Not in a weird, scary way like you might think of certain psychoses. Just in a perfectly normal, everyone-has-them kind of way. However, there can exist a voice in our heads that is simply cruel. One that is critical, defeatist, sneering, vicious. The eternal party pooper of the anxious mind. This blog is about these "inner trolls" and how we can overcome them.

Recline, Refresh, Rethink : 10 thoughts from 10 days on a boat

April 24, 2016April 24, 2016Leave a comment

Holidays. Sweet, sunbright holidays. Glorious free time: carved out of the calendar in pink highlighter, counted down to with glee, finally arriving with a sense of smug satisfaction as you set your out-of-office email and flee for the hills or the sea. Here is an excellent video by my brother about where we went and … Continue reading Recline, Refresh, Rethink : 10 thoughts from 10 days on a boat

PERSONALbrand IDENTITYcrisis: Risk Taking, Self Making

March 14, 2016March 14, 20164 Comments

Every so often I have these days where I slightly freak out and panic. Not in an anxiety way. No, no, no. It’s not sinister. It’s kind of the opposite. More like excitement. Intense. Scary. Exhilarating. Excitement. Like a ‘holy shit the world is so big and how did you pull that off and how … Continue reading PERSONALbrand IDENTITYcrisis: Risk Taking, Self Making

Crazy = Genius: Why is creativity associated with madness?

February 18, 2016February 17, 20165 Comments

I’m a little bit fixated on the dynamics between inner and outer worlds at the moment. The concept of duelling of polarities within one entity. The Scots call it 'Caledonian Antisyzygy'. I don't know what you call it when you're from London.

Writing: Of Music and Minds

January 22, 2016January 23, 201624 Comments

Humans are a musical species. Or so argued the British neurologist, humanist and author, Oliver Sacks, in his book, Musicophilia. Sacks, who passed away in August 2015, liked to explore some of the brains weirdest and most wonderful pathways, using his patients’ case studies as starting points for ‘eloquent meditations on consciousness and the human … Continue reading Writing: Of Music and Minds

The Scribble Bug

The Musings of a Twenty-Something with an Incurable Love of Words

Tag: neuroscience