My double life

Dunno who's noticed, but when I'm not devouring chick-lit, I'm pretending to be a research psychologist. Being an academic suits my binge-reading streak; I read everything and when my colleagues aren't looking, I delve into the world of pop-psychology.

The academic world is (harshly) snobby about pop-psych and self help - probably because they wouldn't be caught dead reading it and therefore know zilch about it. This is a shame, as there are plenty of great ideas to latch onto in this genre and the minds influence on the body is well documented in academic research (e.g. there are strong links between depression and heart disease, stress and colds and we all know an emotionally stressed chronic over-eater)

Like anything, there's good and bad in this genre but the pick of the bunch is 'Heal Your Body' by Louise L Hay The book is a handy compact handbag size and offers advice on how you can improve your health through changing certain thoughts. I referred to my copy today; I can barely speak thanks to these painful mouth ulcers and metaphysicist Louise suggests this is due to an inability to deal with fear. So true - the research project I'm working on has run into problems and I'm finding so fearful of how the team will get through and have become a stress junkie. Louise names the emotional cause of most common ailments, such as fever (anger), and chronic illness such as cancer (resentment). There's an A-z guide to the causes of nearly every illness, as well as advice on the kind of thoughts you should adopt to overcome the illness.

From my psychology training, I know that the brain will believe anything you tell it - whether it's true or not.

Anywhoo, just thought this book tip was worth sharing (: