Guilty, as charged. I am bound to my phone. I like to have this little piece of technology close to me and if I don’t, something is missing, I feel on edge, not quite right. What the heck is going on?! Less than twenty years ago, I didn’t even own a mobile phone. Once I finally purchased one (a true late adopter!) I owned the simple Nokia 1100 with no functionality to do anything beyond making phone calls and sending the odd prepaid text message. And I was very happy with that…in fact, I was strongly devoted to that Nokia phone for a long time, even after most of my friends and family had upgraded. I didn’t know what I didn’t know….and now I know.

With the festive season fast approaching, you’ll no doubt be attending end of year functions and decorating your Christmas tree. But do you notice the rituals you have consciously (or unconsciously) created for yourself? By increasing our awareness of the little things that we incorporate in our daily life to help us relieve stress, we can really amplify their benefits, which we all know we can do with right now after a challenging year on all fronts.

Living and working in your ‘bubble’ for over a month means you will be well on your way to hardwiring some new habits. Are your new habits providing instant gratification or long-lasting satisfaction?

As we face this crisis together, it is more important now than ever to prioritise our social wellbeing and foster quality connections with our family, friends and colleagues. But how can we increase connection, with lockdown and other physical distancing measures in place?