Ruby Wax - Sane New World

Lo lo, I said I would give you an overview of this show. I believe she has a book that accompanies this tour but it's been out for over a year now. So Ruby has completed the MSc in Mindfulness Cognitive Behaviour Therapy at Oxford. I looked at that and you have to have a degree in neuroscience or psychology or something related before you can do that.

Anyhoo, back to the show. As usual Ruby Wax was her scathing humourous self. She posted a few questions if I can remember the Q1 was Why are we busy? Q2 Why are we screwed Q3 What are hormones Q4 was ummm not sure...

"Why are we busy" was a monologue on why our culture seems to worship busyness, i.e. even if you are woman who "lives of the fat of your husband" as she says you have a completely full schedule - coffee, pilates, coffee, yoga..and then she said what is the benefit of being able to kiss your ass from the front and behind...that is typical Ruby. She explained a bit about her battle with depression and that the last time she was depressed she was unable to get out of a chair for 5 months. It was after that that she started to investigate ways of trying to prevent this.

She also went through a bit of simple science about how the amygdala is stimulated through thoughts and then the insula is strengthened by observing our senses - feeling, looking, smelling, tasting, hearing. Interesting. She talked about a few hormones/chemicals, cortisol and dopamine in the main - cortisol being the hormone produced when we are stressed and dopamine which is the reward and pleasure neurotransmitter (I had to look that up). She suggested that to reduce cortisol levels we should practise mindful moments when we get a chance.

She did say throughout the show that we can change our mind using these techniques but they take practice and training.

Before the break we did a mindfulness exercise of sitting with our backs off the seats, and then just focusing on our feet, then sounds, then the breath.

The second half was a QA session. Was quite interesting but there were some bizarre and detailed questions - one was about a woman's 9 year old son who was anxious and fearful. Another was about raging hormones during peri-menopause and the final question was from the guy next to me - how can you keep motivated to practise after (I presume) going on a mindfulness course - he said that the very next day he didn't want to do it.

Loads of fun, and my friend really enjoyed it too.

Ok off to see how I can do neuroscience with the OU.....