Girlbooker's Tea and Toast

The other day, I emerged into the sunshine, energised and inspired from a fabulous talk organised by the lovely crew at Creative Mornings. The speaker, Yassmin Abdel-Magied , is such a delightful, articulate, intelligent and warm individual, that it's difficult to grasp why so many people have spent the last few months attacking her so assiduously ... I don't want to focus on that, but rather on the main content of her talk. It's something I badly needed to hear this week, so I took careful note: "Don't underestimate the power of the stories you tell yourself" Abdel-Magied recounted her time working as a mechanical engineer on offshore oil rigs. Apparently, she genuinely saw herself as exactly like her colleagues, which in this case meant "middle aged white guys with random neck tattoos".  It didn't even occur to her that other people may look at her and think she might look out of place. In this instance, the story Yasmin was telling herse...

I once read, somewhere or other, that eating an apple will do a better job of waking you up than a cup of coffee. So why don't we have any apple shops, with exposed brick walls, industrial-hipster lighting, and queues of apple-deficient people snaking out the door waiting for their fix each morning? Well, for whatever reason(s), we are stuck with the cafe. But it just so happens that there are plenty of benefits to grabbing a quick coffee in the morning, completely aside from whether or not the beverage in question can make you feel more awake and alert. Here are my top 5: 1. Getting Some Fresh Air Stepping out of the office for a quick coffee run is a very good thing. Being outside and exposed to direct sunlight can help lift your mood. There are proven links between lack of sun exposure and anxiety and depression. The sun will also give you a (probably much needed) dose of vitamin D, which is imperative for bone strength. There are apparently a whole heap of other amazing ...