Healthy Mind Psychology, 100 Drake Way, Reading (2026)

07/10/2026

Your brain doesn't wait patiently for all the information to arrive before deciding what you're looking at.

According to Anil Seth's explanation of predictive processing in Being You, it's constantly generating its best guesses about what's around you and comparing those predictions with incoming sensory information.

Most of the time, those predictions are good enough that we don't even realise it's happening.

But when something unexpected appears — an unfamiliar shape in the dark, a noise you weren't expecting, something that looks "wrong" for a split second — your brain has to update its prediction.

It gives a very different picture of perception.

Rather than your brain simply receiving information from the world, it's actively involved in creating the experience you have of it.

🧠 Have you ever been absolutely convinced you'd seen or heard something, only to realise a second later that your brain had got it wrong?

06/10/2026

Need a pick-me-up? Here's some positive news from the last month:

🧠 A brain-imaging study suggests people profoundly deaf since early childhood may develop enhanced peripheral vision, helping detect movement at the edges of their visual field.

🧠 Scientists have successfully grown human brain tissue inside mice, where it integrated with the nervous system and became electrically active. This could provide a new way to study conditions such as dementia, epilepsy and neurodevelopmental disorders.

🧠 A study in mice has identified a nose-to-brain pathway linking breathing with anxiety, offering new insight into why our breathing changes when we feel anxious — and why slow, controlled nasal breathing may help us feel calmer.

(Stories taken from sciencealert.com)

And some of my own positive news:

A haunting quote from Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire was, "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers," as she's shunned by her family and taken away to a new home.

Something about this quote kept coming up for me as we welcomed our new little warrior Lion.

A street cat who picked us on holiday to seek safety and shelter, she depended on the kindness of tourists for survival- and then underwent a likely traumatic journey to land thousands of miles away to a new place with strangers (and a very large dog).

I've reflected on what could have been her life experiences up to now, and can see the commonality of the trauma and safety responses that I see in my clients in this little animal also.

The good news is, she has now arrived to her new home, bonded with us well, and is showing softer fur, new energy, and even some playfulness as regular meals and security become her new norm.

It's a small gesture in this world of big problems, but if we could all rely more on the kindness of strangers, how much more safe, positive, and playful we too maybe could be!

That kindness is definitely out there, we sometimes just need a reminder.

05/10/2026

📚 BOOK OF THE MONTH: Being You by Anil Seth

What does it actually mean to be you?

This month, we're delving into Being You: A New Science of Consciousness by neuroscientist Anil Seth, a fascinating exploration of consciousness and how our brains create our experience of ourselves and the world around us.

The book explores some pretty big questions:
How does the brain create conscious experience?
Why don't we all experience the world in exactly the same way?
And what actually creates that familiar feeling of being you?

One of the central ideas is that our brains don't simply record reality as it happens. They're constantly interpreting sensory information, making predictions and constructing our experience of the world — while our bodies also play a much bigger role in consciousness than we might realise.

Over the month of October, we'll be sharing some of our favourite ideas from the book and exploring the science behind perception, the body, consciousness and our sense of self 🧠

Have you read 'Being You'? Or is this one you'll be adding to your reading list?

30/09/2026

The meeting is on Thursday, but apparently my shoulders think it’s happening right now.

It’s quite remarkable how something that hasn’t happened yet can create very real sensations in the present. You might notice your stomach tighten when you think about an upcoming appointment, your heart beat faster while imagining a difficult conversation, or find yourself lying awake rehearsing something that is still several days away.

Our brains are very good at imagining, predicting and preparing for what might happen next, and the body can respond to those predictions too.

It means that sometimes the tension we’re experiencing today isn’t only about what’s happening around us right now. We might also be responding to something we’re anticipating.

I think simply noticing this can be useful, because it gives us another question to ask when our body suddenly seems tense or unsettled: am I responding to what’s happening right now, or to something my brain is already preparing me for?

It’s amazing how far ahead of the diary our bodies can sometimes get.

28/09/2026

Have you ever wondered why one negative comment can somehow drown out ten lovely ones? Or why your shoulders can start reacting to Thursday’s meeting when it’s only Monday? 😅

There is so much happening between your brain, body and environment that you’re completely unaware of.

Our latest free guide, “Your Brain Is Doing That On Purpose?!”, explores 7 surprising things your brain and body do every day — from filtering out sensations and filling in gaps, to anticipating future events and getting thoroughly fed up with making decisions.

It’s a short, easy-to-read introduction to some of the fascinating processes happening behind the scenes of everyday life, with a few simple experiments along the way so you can notice some of them for yourself.

Because sometimes the things our brains and bodies do can seem a little strange… until we understand what might actually be going on.

🧠 Download your free copy here: https://www.healthymindpsychology.co.uk/healthy-mind-psychology-freebies/ #

25/09/2026

How often do we describe ourselves with statements like, “I’m just antisocial”, “I’m lazy”, “I’m terrible at making decisions” or “I’m too sensitive”?

Over time, these descriptions can start to feel like facts about who we are, but sometimes it’s worth looking at what else might be happening around us.

Perhaps you don’t want to socialise because you’ve had a week where everyone has needed something from you. Maybe the task you keep avoiding feels so overwhelming that you don’t know where to begin, or the decision you can’t seem to make feels particularly important and you’re frightened of getting it wrong.

Context doesn’t explain everything about us, of course, and sometimes a personality trait really is simply part of who we are. But I think it’s interesting how quickly we can turn a response to a situation into a judgement about our character.

Perhaps the next time you catch yourself saying, “I’m just the sort of person who…”, it might be worth getting curious about what else could be contributing.

Sometimes changing the context changes the version of ourselves that shows up.

23/09/2026

At 9am, I can carefully compare twelve different options and make a perfectly sensible decision.

By 6pm, please don’t ask me what I want for dinner. 😂

We make an extraordinary number of decisions throughout an ordinary day, and while some barely register, others require much more thought, attention and mental effort.

When we’re already tired, stressed or carrying a lot of information in our heads, even relatively simple choices can start to feel surprisingly difficult. It’s not necessarily that we’ve suddenly become indecisive; sometimes our brains are simply dealing with a lot.

This is one of the reasons routines and default choices can be so helpful. Knowing roughly what you’re having for breakfast, having a regular time for certain tasks or narrowing down the number of options available can remove some of those tiny decisions that quietly accumulate throughout the day.

We sometimes associate having lots of choice with freedom, but there are moments when fewer choices can actually feel like a relief.

So if choosing what to have for tea feels like one decision too many tonight, perhaps your brain has already done enough deciding for one day.

21/09/2026

There is far more happening between your brain and body than you consciously realise.

From the way your brain filters what you notice, to why your body can react to something that hasn’t even happened yet, our everyday experiences are shaped by a constant flow of information between brain, body and environment.

In my latest blog, I explore some of the fascinating ways this happens and why looking at the whole picture can help us better understand how we think, feel and respond.

Head over to the website to read our latest blog post: “You Experience More Than You Realise: How Your Brain and Body Shape Everyday Life”

https://www.healthymindpsychology.co.uk/blog/

18/09/2026

Can you tell exactly where your tongue is sitting in your mouth right now?

Chances are you weren’t thinking about it at all until you read that sentence, and now you’re suddenly very aware of it. Sorry about that! 😅

Our brains are constantly receiving an enormous amount of sensory information, but thankfully, we don’t consciously notice all of it. Instead, much of it gets filtered into the background so that our attention can be directed towards whatever seems most relevant at the time.

It’s why you can wear a jumper without spending the entire day thinking about how it feels against your skin, or sit in a room without continuously noticing every background sound.

Nothing about those sensations suddenly changed when you became aware of them; your attention simply moved towards information that was already there.

I think it’s fascinating to consider just how much our brains are quietly processing while we get on with our day, particularly when we think about the relationship between attention and the sensations we notice in our bodies.

And if you’re still thinking about where your tongue is now… I promise I’ll stop mentioning it. 😂

16/09/2026

Have you ever closed your eyes and still known exactly where your hand is without having to look at it, or noticed your heart beating faster, your stomach rumbling, or that feeling that tells you your bladder is definitely not going to wait much longer?

Your brain is receiving information from inside your body all the time.
Proprioception helps you sense where your body is in space, while interoception helps you notice what's happening inside your body, such as hunger, temperature, heartbeat, breathing and tension.

Most of this happens quietly in the background without us giving it much thought, but I think it's a lovely reminder that we don't experience life through our thoughts alone.

We're constantly sensing, interpreting and responding to information coming from within us too.

Your body and brain are having an ongoing conversation, even when you're not consciously listening to it, and sometimes, becoming a little more curious about those signals can help us understand ourselves in a completely different way.

What have you suddenly become aware of in your body just from reading this? 😄

Healthy Mind Psychology

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