Washing Up is Good for You

When you let yourself focus on any activity, however mundane, when you feel the warm water running over your hands and each dish as you make it clean, your mind begins to settle, and stress levels come down. You are in the moment. Everything is as it should be.

In the morning when you make your bed, you set the tone for the day. In the evening as you chop vegetables, you create a rhythm. And as you clear clutter from the surfaces of your home, so you create space in your mind.

When we open ourselves up to seeing it, suddenly there is beauty everywhere in our daily lives. One of the five ways to well-being identified by the New Economics Foundation and utilised by the major mental health charity Mind is simply 'taking notice'.

Reminding ourselves to take notice broadens our awareness of ourselves and our surroundings. And studies have shown that being aware of what is taking place in the present directly enhances our sense of wellness. It promotes appreciation and making the most of everything that we have.

Tend your mind, tend your world.

Department Store for the Mind is the exciting new creative venture by Sophie Howarth, cofounder of the School of Life. The Department Store for the Mind is a place to explore the world inside your head: a vast and unique terrain of thoughts, ideas, emotions and memories.