Maya Angelou is my 'power person.' When I need some encouragement or feeling anxious - yes, therapists can feel anxiety too - I call upon my inner Maya to support me. "What would Maya do?" I ask myself and I know she wouldn't take any rubbish! So I take a deep breathe, imagine Maya alongside me and I get on with it. She was a sassy woman with style, humour and talent. And she was kind. Love her!

I find this mesmerising! The swaying of the trees accompanied by the bird song. What an amazing world we live in - awe and wonder! Connect with the present, breathe slowly ensuring your out breath is longer than your in breath and let your body soften - relax your shoulders, your jaw, your tongue and your hands...

If you can catch a possible negative thought - especially before it escalates; assess, challenge and reframe then you will be creating positive neural pathways. Don't forget 6 positives for every negative. If that is difficult, start with 3. Don't forget it takes 60 times before it becomes a habit so keep at it! You don't have time for this!

I love the School of Life clips. Yes, this may have been better to post in February but kissing is important all year round! Regularly exchanging a kiss with your partner may seem a trivial matter, but in truth, it creates a vital point of connection which might help to save a relationship over the long term. Kissing, perhaps, should be taken seriously! Today, the most widely accepted theory of kissing is that humans do it because it helps us choose a quality partner. When our faces are close together, our pheromones mix — exchanging biological information about whether or not two people will make strong offspring. Women, for example, subconsciously prefer the scent of men whose genes for certain immune system proteins are different from their own. This kind of match could yield offspring with stronger immune systems, and better chances for survival. Still, most of us are satisfied with the explanation that humans kiss because it feels good. Our lips and tongues are packed with nerve endings, which help intensify all those dizzying sensations of being in love when we press our mouths to someone else's. Experiencing such feelings doesn't usually make us think too hard about why we kiss — instead, it drives us to find ways to do it more often.

Some things may be equally essential but nothing is more important than a healthy sense of self-esteem, or self-worth, and loving yourself. Why? 1. Life becomes simpler and lighter. When you love yourself more then things simply become lighter and easier. You won’t make as many mountains out of molehills (or out of plain air) as you used to or beat yourself up or drag yourself down over mistakes or temporary setbacks. 2. You’ll have more inner stability and self-sabotage less. When your opinion of yourself goes up then you’ll stop trying to get so much validation and attention from other people. You will set healthy boundaries. You become less anxious and find an inner stability even when your world might be negative or uncertain at times. The increasing self-esteem and self-love also makes you feel more deserving of good things in life and so you’ll self-sabotage less and go after what you deep down want with more motivation and focus than ever before. 3. You might just be happier.

Are you one of those people who dreads Valentine's Day? Whether you are single or in a relationship, we have all kinds of reasons for wanting to skip February 14th - there’s too much pressure to be romantic; it’s all about money and gifts; single people are made to feel like failures. It would be easy to say Valentine’s isn’t worth the trouble! But I think we can all make this an event we actually enjoy instead of dread. Here, Matthew Hussey talks you through some of the big mistakes people make when approaching the day (and their whole dating life). Avoid these 5 traps and you’ll be on your way to fulfilling love at any time of year...

Want to be a quarter more productive and get a positive boost while you're at it? Start setting smart goals! This fun video will not only explain what a smart goal is, but how you can set your own to work and live better.⁂ Produced by Flikli I often talk about setting SMART goals. Coming from a teaching background, I often find many people set themselves too challenging a goal, or it is too woolly or vague, or just not realistic or achievable. SMART is a way of checking your goals- make them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Defined! One of mine is: On Sundays and Wednesdays, I will have an early night. Is it SMART? Sure is!

It's great to set specific, achievable goals, but actor and martial artist Bruce Lee makes the point that sometimes, it's okay to not reach that goal. If you've worked hard and made progress, that goal has still served its purpose by giving you something to aim for. Is it better to be a little optimistic than overly realistic if you really want to achieve? Though if you want those goals to really work, it's best to create multiple milestones, or baby steps, along the way to help you out. As that other favourite quote of mine states "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Lao-tzu.

Jung was the founder of the idea of a collective unconscious. The collective unconscious is a group-mind that we all share; something we are born with that contains humanity’s shared concepts, called archetypes. Archetypes are things like having parents, finding a partner, having children and confronting death. Jung was also interested in the way we use myths to tell stories about these archetypes with a shared meaning. What we can gain insight about, what shifts from our unconscious to our conscious, can only serve us well. It gives us the opportunity to notice thoughts and feelings, make links and, consequently, make changes in our behaviours. Hopefully leading us towards a more authentic life.

I frequently suggest journalling as a way of recording feelings, drawing out thoughts and keeping a log of personal development activities. It can be as simple or as complicated as you like. It doesn't have to be done daily, can involve coloured pens or pencils, pictures or photos. It can be themed or just focussed on the moment. It can help with emptying the mind before sleep and a record of dreams. There are so many ideas for journals on YouTube. I have investigated 'bullet journals' but they seem a little complicated - perhaps I just haven't found a straightforward bullet journal idea yet. Let me know if you do! So what to start with? How about 3 good things in each day? What are you grateful for? Look for small things that have given you joy. Today I am grateful for the NHS for picking up a health concern, the bright crisp winter sunshine this morning and wearing my new stripy jumper. What are you grateful for?

Bessel van der Kolk is a Boston-based psychiatrist noted for his research in the area of post-traumatic stress since the 1970s. His work focuses on the interaction of attachment, neurobiology and developmental aspects of trauma’s effects on people. His major publication, the New York Times bestseller 'The Body Keeps the Score', talks about how the role of trauma in psychiatric illness has changed over the past 20 years, what we have learned about the ways the brain is shaped by traumatic experiences, how traumatic stress is a response of the entire body and how that knowledge is beginning to be integrated into psychotherapy.

I was shown this powerful Ted Med talk today as part of training on working with trauma. It's true to say, childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Paediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea for paediatric medicine to confront the prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on.