Author Archives: Jo Usmar

This Book Will Make You Mindful and This Book Will Make You Feel Beautiful

I’m delighted to announce that I have two new books coming out in the series I co-author with clinical psychologist Dr Jessamy Hibberd: This Book Will Make You Mindful and This Book Will Make You Feel Beautiful. This Book Will Make You Mindful: We live increasingly busy lives and can often struggle to cope with the pressure we’reContinue reading “This Book Will Make You Mindful and This Book Will Make You Feel Beautiful”

My two new books! This Book Will Make You Mindful and This Book Will Make You Feel Beautiful

I’m delighted to announce that my new books on mindfulness and body image with clinical psychologist Dr Jessamy Hibberd are out now! This Book Will Make You Mindful: We live increasingly busy lives and can often struggle to cope with the pressure we’re put under by external factors and, most importantly, by ourselves. But help is atContinue reading “My two new books! This Book Will Make You Mindful and This Book Will Make You Feel Beautiful”

Come to my talk on procrastination at Birmingham University

I’ll be speechifying at my old haunt Birmingham University this Saturday (18 October) as part of the annual Book to the Future Festival. I’ll be chatting about how to beat procrastination…RIGHT NOW! (See what I did there?) Taking place in room 201 in the Arts Building from 4 – 5pm, I’ll be going through why we procrastinate, how itContinue reading “Come to my talk on procrastination at Birmingham University”

What Facebook’s ’emotion study’ teaches us about mood

Facebook has just released the findings of a (pretty controversial) ‘emotion study’ it undertook in 2012. ‘A small percentage’ of emotional words were hidden from approx 700,000 people’s news feeds over the course of one week to see the effect on their online behaviour. The words and phrases chosen were generally considered to represent happy, sad,Continue reading “What Facebook’s ’emotion study’ teaches us about mood”

Tips to beat stress and anxiety

With new research finding a whopping one in five women experiencing symptoms of anxiety all day every day, it’s time to take action. Below are some articles we have contributed to ourselves and also other news reports we thought you’d find helpful. To get started, here’s one of the simplest strategies of all: if you notice your shoulders are upContinue reading “Tips to beat stress and anxiety”

New work for Stylist and Fabulous

Below is a selection of work I’ve completed over the last month or so for Fabulous and Stylist magazines. A mix of stuff: travel, news features and topical features.  Hope you like!  

Great article: why my generation of feminists is depressing me

Whoop! Just been directed to this article which articulates exactly how I feel about The Vagenda. *punches air* *punches wall* *punches own face* All I would add is that it’s also distinctly un-feminist to belittle female writers’ work in the name of feminism when you have no basis for doing so – when you just don’tContinue reading “Great article: why my generation of feminists is depressing me”

Genuinely inspirational quotes that’ll make you feel happier, motivated and less like punching a wall

We all have them – a friend who regularly posts supposedly uplifting mantras online or drops them into conversation, but more often than not they have no relevance to modern life or don’t make sense (you know the type: ‘the shilling is worth a pound to those with no wheat’ etc.). Obviously you’re allowed to ignore themContinue reading “Genuinely inspirational quotes that’ll make you feel happier, motivated and less like punching a wall”