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have done, if that’s what you want to do. Mindfulness is about learning how to change your experience of that lifestyle. It’s about finding a way to live as you are, but with an underlying sense of fulfilment. And then, if you feel as though you want to make some changes, then of course feel free. The difference is, any changes you make will be sustainable.
    Stress
    The consequence of living such a busy life, with so many responsibilities and choices, is that our bodies and minds are constantly working overtime. Many people I know say that even when they’re asleep at night it feels as though the cogs just keep on turning. So it’s no coincidence that the rate of stress-related illness has increased at the same time as our lives have become more complicated. According to the UK National Office of Statistics, the prevalence of anxiety, depression, irritability, addiction and compulsive behaviour have all risen sharply in recent years, accompanied by all the usual physical symptoms of stress such as fatigue, hypertension and insomnia.
    People come to the clinic where I work for all kinds of different reasons, but the symptoms of stress are by far the most common. Sometimes people come along without prompting, at other times they may get a nudge from their partner, family member or friend. Occasionally the symptoms are so bad that their doctor refers them. But mostly these are ordinary people looking to find a way to cope a bit better in life. Perhaps they feel under pressure at work, overwhelmed by family life, tired of obsessive thinking or consistently acting in a way that is causing themselves or others harm. Most of them are simply looking for a little more headspace in their lives. In fact, at the end of the book you’ll find case studies for some of these individuals, who’ve generously agreed to share their experiences.
    Stress can make us do all kinds of funny things. It can lead to us saying things we wish we hadn’t, doing things we wish we hadn’t. It affects the way we feel about ourselves and the way in which we interact with others. Of course, a certain kind of stress or challenge can leave us feeling fulfilled, having achieved an objective. But too often it tends to spill over into the other (not so useful) kind of stress, and we are left wondering what life is about. This is where the importance of training the mind, of maintaining contact with this underlying sense of fulfilment and happiness no matter what’s happening in our lives, can make such a profound difference. This is what it means to have headspace.
    Relationships
    Mindfulness will undoubtedly help you get some headspace and make a difference to your life. That’s probably why you are reading this book in the first place. But there’s another good reason for training in mindfulness. Because, whether we like it or not, we share the world in which we live with other people and, unless we want to live as a solitary yogi or hermit in the mountains, we’re always going to have to interact with others. So who benefits most from your increased sense of headspace? Is it you, or is it the people around you? It’s safe to assume that if you’re in a better place because you’re practising mindfulness and doing your meditation each day, then you’re going to interact with others in a more positive way as well.
    This is perhaps the most neglected aspect of mind training. When meditation came from the East to the West, for some reason it quickly became about ‘me, myself and I’. While this was perhaps inevitable at first, it’s important that we now, as time goes by, have the intention to make it a more altruistic type of training. My guess is that you probably struggle most in life when you are focusing on your own problems, because that’s what we tend to do as humans. We like to obsess, ruminate and analyse endlessly. OK, so we don’t actually like doing it, but it can sometimes feel impossible to stop it. But what happens when you think