Ruby Wax's Guide to Saner Living

“I know what you're thinking - what if I don't want to stare at a butterfly wing or hear the single ting of a wind chime? My definition of mindfulness isn't about sitting erect on a hillock, legs in a knot, humming a mantra that's probably the phone book sung backwards, it's something that can help us all: learning to notice your thoughts and feelings so you can truly experience life.”

Join Ruby Wax – actress, broadcaster and expert on the science of mindfulness – as she presents a guide to staying sane in a mad world.

We are frazzled. Constant stress is flooding our nervous systems with cortisol and adrenaline, making it impossible for us to focus – and ultimately leading us to burn-out. Ruby Wax knows this first hand: as an actress and broadcaster she reached the top of the Royal Shakespeare Company and became one of our most beloved television stars, until she crashed, burned and spent a spell institutionalised with depression. She used success as an armour to cover the chaos inside her. Mindfulness came to the rescue – and not one to do anything by halves, she trained in the technique at Oxford and got a Masters degree in the process, ultimately ditching showbiz for a new career teaching people how to have good mental health. She joins us at the School of Life to share her story and her techniques with the rest of us.