Small research insights & news for a healthier, happier you.
Welcome from Nigel
Hi there! Each week I pull together a few inspiring research insights, practical tips and simple ideas to help you feel better, live a little brighter an make the most of your weekend.
My aim is to bring you credible insights, distilled into every idea for a healthier, happier life.
Look out for my challenge below – Nigel
Could strength training help your brain as well as your body?
New research suggests resistance exercise could have benefits for thinking and memory during midlife.
We normally associate strength training with stronger muscles, better mobility and keeping physically active as we get older. New research suggests there could be benefits for the brain too.
A study published this week looked at women aged 45–60 who were going through perimenopause or early postmenopause. Participants either took part in supervised resistance training twice a week for nine months or joined a waiting-list control group.
The researchers found improvements in memory among the perimenopausal women doing resistance training, while women in early postmenopause showed improvement in one measure of executive function – the mental skills we use for things such as switching between tasks and adapting our thinking.
There is an important word here: promising.
This was a small pilot study involving just 35 women, so it would be far too early to claim that lifting weights will prevent cognitive decline. The researchers themselves say larger studies are now needed.
What it does give us is another interesting reason to think about strength exercise as part of looking after ourselves as we get older — and not simply as something we do to change how our bodies look.
“Looking after our muscles may have benefits that go beyond physical strength.”
Try this weekend:
You don’t need to suddenly become a weightlifter.
Think about whether strength-building activity currently has a place in your week. Depending on your fitness and circumstances, that might include resistance bands, suitable bodyweight exercises, weights or a supervised class.
If you’re starting from scratch, make your first step simply finding an activity that you would feel comfortable doing regularly.
Mindfulness isn’t necessarily about switching off
A new study suggests a short daily practice may help us control where our attention goes.
When people hear “mindfulness”, they often picture relaxation, closing their eyes and trying not to think.
But mindfulness can also involve something very practical: attention.
A study published in npj Science of Learning on 23 September examined what happened when healthy adults practised a breathing-based mindfulness meditation for 15 minutes a day over 18 days.
After the training, participants became faster on a task requiring them to deal with conflicting information without becoming less accurate. EEG measurements also showed changes in brain activity which the researchers interpreted as more efficient processing.
This doesn’t prove that 15 minutes of mindfulness will suddenly give everyone better concentration. It is one experimental study and needs to be considered alongside the wider research.
But the idea behind it is useful in everyday life.
Every notification, message and interruption competes for our attention. Even without our phones, our own thoughts can pull us away from whatever we’re trying to do.
Mindfulness isn’t necessarily about stopping those distractions.
It can be about noticing that your attention has wandered – and deliberately bringing it back.
“You don’t have to stop your mind wandering. The skill may be noticing when it has.”
Try this:
Try the five-minute attention test.
Choose something ordinary – drinking a cup of tea, walking, preparing food or simply sitting somewhere quiet.
For five minutes, concentrate on what you are actually doing.
Every time you notice yourself thinking about something else, don’t criticise yourself. Simply bring your attention back.
At the end, ask yourself:
How often was I somewhere else without actually going anywhere?
Are we giving our minds enough time to switch off?
New workplace research highlights the potential benefits of regularly stepping away from the mental pressure of the working day.
For many of us, finishing work doesn’t necessarily mean our mind has finished working.
We may stop answering emails and close the laptop, but we’re still thinking about what happened today, what needs doing tomorrow or the problem we haven’t quite solved.
Recent workplace research offers another reminder of why deliberately making time to quiet the mind could matter.
Employees who followed a regular meditation programme over six months reported lower perceived stress. Researchers also found improvements across measures including burnout, sleep quality and general wellbeing.
The study tested a particular form of meditation, so we shouldn’t assume that every relaxation technique will produce exactly the same results. But it adds to wider evidence suggesting there can be real value in regularly giving our minds a break from constant demands.
And that doesn’t have to mean becoming an expert in meditation.
It could mean mindful breathing, sitting quietly, taking a peaceful walk, listening to relaxing music or simply creating a few minutes when nothing is demanding your attention.
“We give our bodies time to rest. Perhaps we need to become just as deliberate about resting our minds.”
Try this:
Give yourself ten minutes with no objective.
No emails. No scrolling. No jobs. No need to achieve anything.
Choose whatever helps you mentally slow down – sit somewhere quiet, walk, breathe slowly or simply enjoy some music.
Then notice how you feel afterwards.
The challenge isn’t finding ten minutes.
It’s allowing yourself to believe those ten minutes aren’t being wasted.
Weekend Fun
A few feel-good extras to round off your read
Challenge Yourself This Weekend
Try Something Different
Do one small thing you wouldn’t normally do – or experience something familiar a little differently.
Take a walk if you don’t normally walk. Feel the grass under your feet in the park. Stop and feed the fish at a lake. Or simply take two quiet minutes at home, close your eyes and notice the sounds, smells and rhythm of your breathing.
The challenge isn’t to achieve anything — it’s to step outside your normal routine and properly experience the moment.
You might discover something you enjoy, something that helps you switch off, or simply something you’d forgotten to notice.
And if it feels good? Perhaps do it again.
Something to Make You Smile
Apparently, adulthood is mostly saying:
“I’ll do that at the weekend.”
Then spending the weekend doing all the things you didn’t have time to do during the week.
Need Help Putting Plans Into Action?
Knowing what to do is often the easy part.
Actually doing it – and keeping going – is where most plans fall apart.
Inside Wellness Within Club you’ll find practical exercises, templates, guided challenges and training to help turn good intentions into action.
Try the Club free and explore what works for you.
P.S. The answer to the Challenge is B – slow jogging
