when I was first asked to make a
contribution this evening I have to
admit I went straight to Google I had no
idea what future-proof meant and so I
typed it in and instantly linked upon
link comes up about how to future-proof
your business or future-proof your
career and I stumbled upon a document
produced by Microsoft and this was
titled ten inspiring jobs for the
graduates of tomorrow and it began with
the astounding statistic that 65% of
today’s students during their working
lives will be doing a job that doesn’t
even exist yet and they listed some of
these freelance bio hackers body part
designers and my personal favorite space
tour guide I found myself sat at my
computer thinking of one of my favorite
films of all time Blade Runner it was
released before I was born
so I can forgive a number of people in
the room for not knowing this film it’s
basically set in the dystopian future
where genetically modified human beings
have been created to go and do work on
other planets and if they come back to
earth which they’re not allowed to do
they get retired by a blader on a police
unit headed up by Harrison Ford which
basically is a polite way of saying they
get shot in the head anyway the reason
I’m thinking of this film is because it
begins with a cityscape in in darkness
and these huge towers and flames coming
out and a flying car shoots past and
another flying car shoots past and then
it says Los Angeles November 2019 and
I’m thinking of that film and Gattaca
and 28 days later and 2012 and I’m
thinking you know what the future
terrifies me really quite a lot I don’t
really know how to even begin to deal
with the possibility that the world
could be unrecognizable thankfully hope
not in 2019 but but near enough I mean
they didn’t get the dates right but if I
think about what’s changing the time
I’ve been on the planet every home
having access to a computer the internet
mobile phones social media it’s
unrecognizable I sometimes struggle to
relate to my students because they live
in a world I can’t understand staying up
all night playing computer games with
someone on the other side of the planet
not necessarily being able to use the
index of a book properly because they’re
so used to typing a question just like I
did in to Google and immediately getting
the answer why didn’t anybody warn me
and why doesn’t anyone warn them that
actually changes and keep coming and
keep coming and get more and more and
more significant well the obvious answer
is nobody could thirty years ago no one
could imagine what the world would be
like when they were having their
children but we have to deal with it we
have to cope with it the talks tonight
immense be from experts about an idea
that they believe is worth sharing
so I decided okay can I turn my
expertise to try and look at this what
do I know I’m a psychology teacher
psychology is my degree my Master’s my
career teaching education I know my
students I know I’m a sick film tutor I
know what they go through over the two
years that they are doing their a-levels
and applying for University um and on a
personal level I know change last summer
I came out of a ten-year relationship
had to leave my home had to leave my
gorgeous dog behind had to buy a new
home and started my new job here at
beaching cliff for months 16 weeks and
if you’d said to me and to my friends
that I would be standing here tonight
doing something that again terrifies me
relatively sane we would have laughed
you out the room but that’s when I
realized
there were five things I was doing
before all that happened that meant I
survived and not only survived but got
stronger and I found my talk five tips
for future proofing your mental health
to cope with change at the end of the
day we all think about changing the
world we all think about moving forward
but actually sometimes we need to start
at home the old toys they said every man
thinks of changing the world but no man
thinks of changing himself and that is
what I’m challenging you to do this
evening so straight on with it
tip number one when change is coming
embrace it take it is an opportunity to
shake things up and try something new
and the way you do that learn about it
learn everything you can about what is
coming and you will be less afraid of it
less intimidated by it and better able
to cope with it and there’s evidence
durla and wells in 1997 reviewed 177
behavior programs they’re designed to
help young people children adolescents
and young adults during traumatic
experiences in their lives and they
looked at a number of transition
programs children starting new schools
children with their parents going
through divorces first-time mums all of
these programs included sessions where
information was given about how things
were going to change and what was going
to happen and all of those programs had
a positive outcome for the people that
were involved last summer when I
suddenly realized I needed to know about
mortgages internet providers energy
suppliers and how on earth to travel
abroad on my own those lists of things
alone would normally completely
overwhelm me and intimidate me and
instead I sat down I made a list and I
started reading and I coped so learn
about the change that is coming you will
deal with it better kind of feeds into
point number two read a book
yes reading for knowledge is important
it helps us gain better understanding
but reading fiction helps us understand
people and reading is more than that
when we read a book we completely accept
that we’re about to go into a completely
different world from our own lives
sometimes vastly different and we enjoy
it so we need to harness that acceptance
of change and use it in real life and
that’s not the only thing that reading
does Bo Polly consulting in conjunction
with the reading agency in 2015
looked at the beneficial effects of
reading for pleasure recreational
reading beyond the literacy benefits you
can see behind me on this graphic the
number of things it positively impacts
just to pick out a few parent-child
communication empathy relaxation and
perhaps the real clinchers reduction in
stress reduction in depression symptoms
and reduction in dementia symptoms as
well all significant reading is good for
your mental health last summer
I needed the escape I needed time to
turn my head off and go somewhere else I
didn’t want to read new books because
everything was too new and too changing
already I went to my old favourites so I
read most of the Harry Potter’s because
you know I am still a kid I then read
the Martian by Andy weir and dune by
Frank Herbert vastly different worlds
but the familiar characters were
comforting and when I got to the end of
it I felt better I felt rejuvenated and
ready to come out and deal with all the
new stuff again if you read in your
everyday life then when you need it to
be an escape it will so find a book read
it number three maintain a support
network I’m convinced one of the only
reasons I’m still standing here today is
because I talk to the ears off my
friends last summer they just sat there
and smiled and nodded but you know
that’s all you need sometimes there is a
very well-established
area of research in this called the
stress buffering hypothesis this is the
idea that social resources help
ameliorate the potentially harmful
effects of a stressful
and more than that the idea that social
interaction during major life changes
and transitions makes you feel valued
makes you feel cared for and so you feel
better able to cope with it
interestingly it’s not the help that you
go and ask for that makes the difference
it’s the everyday social interactions
okay so what we mean by that is when
someone comes up to you and has that
conversation how are you and you go with
the classic British response of I’m fine
when underneath you’re really not well
those interactions are the ones that
will make the biggest difference for
your mental health and it is awkward
starting those conversations at the
beginning it’s really uncomfortable but
if while the going is good you find
someone who you can talk with easily and
comfortably then maybe when that person
comes up to you on that day and says how
are you
you actually feel comfortable enough to
go you know what actually not so good
and then you’ve started that
conversation and you have that support
so future-proof yourself by keeping your
social network active when the times are
good so that when the times are bad you
can turn on it for help another one that
we know plenty about is the beneficial
effects of exercise it makes us fitter
makes us stronger
makes us sleep better all of these
things are good for us but in particular
exercise has a very positive effect on
self-esteem and if you feel good about
yourself
you feel like you can have an impact on
the world around you that you have some
kind of control that you can cope and
make a difference dr. Kenneth Fox who’s
based over at the University of Bristol
reviewed all the literature and
confirmed what we probably all knew that
exercise has a positive effect on
self-esteem on self-identity and
perception of physical self now looking
back I had good weeks and bad weeks last
summer and it was only when I was
writing this talk that I realized the
good weeks were the weeks where I was
getting exercise and
I swam I rode my bike admittedly to the
pub or to a coffee shop where I
inevitably ate cake but I did ride my
bike
I even tried running but the jury is
still really out on how I feel about
running mmm not sure on the I wasn’t
doing it regular I wasn’t doing it
enough as much as I should but on the
weeks I did I felt better and they were
looking back my good weeks so the advice
is 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week
you look down that advice the things
that count as exercise are brilliant
going for a walk
cleaning the house you’d think it would
make my house cleaner but it hasn’t so
far but it doesn’t have to be Iron Man’s
and marathons it can literally be taking
the dog out just get some exercise be
active because it will make you mentally
more healthy and then you’ll cope better
with change last one’s my personal demon
switch off it is far more healthy to
accept that you are unique than to spend
all your time constantly comparing
yourself to someone else and the way we
do that now is social media
everyone projects their perfect little
life you don’t see the messy stuff and
then you’re comparing yourself to that
and it makes you feel worse actually
it’s not even just social media that’s
the problem I think this is terrifying
this study looked at four thousand
twenty to twenty four year olds over a
one-year period at the beginning of the
year they asked them about their mobile
phone use and at the end of the year
they looked at various mental health
outcomes those who were displaying
high-frequency mobile phone use were
significantly more likely to have
negative mental health outcomes I wrote
some of them down stress sleep
disturbances depression anxiety for men
and for women after adjusting for
relationships they just educate
level and occupation and high-frequency
mobile phone use 11 or more texts or
calls a day 11 I’m willing to bet
everybody under a 30 in this room gets
more than that it’s not good for you put
it down turn it off and it’s not even
just the communication side of it right
you think you’re harmlessly scrolling
down looking at videos of cats on
YouTube guilty then that’s not good for
you either
a year later looking at people that were
doing that reduced mental health
outcomes now I’m not saying for a second
this one’s going to be easy I was
addicted I literally had to be trained
like you train a small dog or a child to
not use my phone I had to be constantly
praised for not standing there vastly
increasing the muscular capacity of my
left thumb it took me a long time I can
now actually leave my room in my room my
phone in another room it’s in the office
down there I haven’t even got it with me
but it took a long time but once I got
off it I started to feel better and then
I noticed something else which means
there’s kind of a tip 5b get outside
Barton and pretty showed that every
green environment you can imagine has a
positive effect on your mental health
even better if there’s water so you can
now go home and tell your parents you
need a garden pond and the biggest
effect on the youngest participants we
need to get outside get off our phones
be in the moment not behind a screen
taking a photograph of it and then we
will be mentally more healthy I put it
to you that if you go and you do these
five things now while things are okay
then when things start to get tough when
things start to get difficult
you will cope with it better I’m here
now doing this under a year out from the
biggest period of change I could ever
imagine in my entire life and not only
am i sane and here I’m stronger and
better than I was before and I put it
down to those five things so try it
[Applause]
contribution this evening I have to
admit I went straight to Google I had no
idea what future-proof meant and so I
typed it in and instantly linked upon
link comes up about how to future-proof
your business or future-proof your
career and I stumbled upon a document
produced by Microsoft and this was
titled ten inspiring jobs for the
graduates of tomorrow and it began with
the astounding statistic that 65% of
today’s students during their working
lives will be doing a job that doesn’t
even exist yet and they listed some of
these freelance bio hackers body part
designers and my personal favorite space
tour guide I found myself sat at my
computer thinking of one of my favorite
films of all time Blade Runner it was
released before I was born
so I can forgive a number of people in
the room for not knowing this film it’s
basically set in the dystopian future
where genetically modified human beings
have been created to go and do work on
other planets and if they come back to
earth which they’re not allowed to do
they get retired by a blader on a police
unit headed up by Harrison Ford which
basically is a polite way of saying they
get shot in the head anyway the reason
I’m thinking of this film is because it
begins with a cityscape in in darkness
and these huge towers and flames coming
out and a flying car shoots past and
another flying car shoots past and then
it says Los Angeles November 2019 and
I’m thinking of that film and Gattaca
and 28 days later and 2012 and I’m
thinking you know what the future
terrifies me really quite a lot I don’t
really know how to even begin to deal
with the possibility that the world
could be unrecognizable thankfully hope
not in 2019 but but near enough I mean
they didn’t get the dates right but if I
think about what’s changing the time
I’ve been on the planet every home
having access to a computer the internet
mobile phones social media it’s
unrecognizable I sometimes struggle to
relate to my students because they live
in a world I can’t understand staying up
all night playing computer games with
someone on the other side of the planet
not necessarily being able to use the
index of a book properly because they’re
so used to typing a question just like I
did in to Google and immediately getting
the answer why didn’t anybody warn me
and why doesn’t anyone warn them that
actually changes and keep coming and
keep coming and get more and more and
more significant well the obvious answer
is nobody could thirty years ago no one
could imagine what the world would be
like when they were having their
children but we have to deal with it we
have to cope with it the talks tonight
immense be from experts about an idea
that they believe is worth sharing
so I decided okay can I turn my
expertise to try and look at this what
do I know I’m a psychology teacher
psychology is my degree my Master’s my
career teaching education I know my
students I know I’m a sick film tutor I
know what they go through over the two
years that they are doing their a-levels
and applying for University um and on a
personal level I know change last summer
I came out of a ten-year relationship
had to leave my home had to leave my
gorgeous dog behind had to buy a new
home and started my new job here at
beaching cliff for months 16 weeks and
if you’d said to me and to my friends
that I would be standing here tonight
doing something that again terrifies me
relatively sane we would have laughed
you out the room but that’s when I
realized
there were five things I was doing
before all that happened that meant I
survived and not only survived but got
stronger and I found my talk five tips
for future proofing your mental health
to cope with change at the end of the
day we all think about changing the
world we all think about moving forward
but actually sometimes we need to start
at home the old toys they said every man
thinks of changing the world but no man
thinks of changing himself and that is
what I’m challenging you to do this
evening so straight on with it
tip number one when change is coming
embrace it take it is an opportunity to
shake things up and try something new
and the way you do that learn about it
learn everything you can about what is
coming and you will be less afraid of it
less intimidated by it and better able
to cope with it and there’s evidence
durla and wells in 1997 reviewed 177
behavior programs they’re designed to
help young people children adolescents
and young adults during traumatic
experiences in their lives and they
looked at a number of transition
programs children starting new schools
children with their parents going
through divorces first-time mums all of
these programs included sessions where
information was given about how things
were going to change and what was going
to happen and all of those programs had
a positive outcome for the people that
were involved last summer when I
suddenly realized I needed to know about
mortgages internet providers energy
suppliers and how on earth to travel
abroad on my own those lists of things
alone would normally completely
overwhelm me and intimidate me and
instead I sat down I made a list and I
started reading and I coped so learn
about the change that is coming you will
deal with it better kind of feeds into
point number two read a book
yes reading for knowledge is important
it helps us gain better understanding
but reading fiction helps us understand
people and reading is more than that
when we read a book we completely accept
that we’re about to go into a completely
different world from our own lives
sometimes vastly different and we enjoy
it so we need to harness that acceptance
of change and use it in real life and
that’s not the only thing that reading
does Bo Polly consulting in conjunction
with the reading agency in 2015
looked at the beneficial effects of
reading for pleasure recreational
reading beyond the literacy benefits you
can see behind me on this graphic the
number of things it positively impacts
just to pick out a few parent-child
communication empathy relaxation and
perhaps the real clinchers reduction in
stress reduction in depression symptoms
and reduction in dementia symptoms as
well all significant reading is good for
your mental health last summer
I needed the escape I needed time to
turn my head off and go somewhere else I
didn’t want to read new books because
everything was too new and too changing
already I went to my old favourites so I
read most of the Harry Potter’s because
you know I am still a kid I then read
the Martian by Andy weir and dune by
Frank Herbert vastly different worlds
but the familiar characters were
comforting and when I got to the end of
it I felt better I felt rejuvenated and
ready to come out and deal with all the
new stuff again if you read in your
everyday life then when you need it to
be an escape it will so find a book read
it number three maintain a support
network I’m convinced one of the only
reasons I’m still standing here today is
because I talk to the ears off my
friends last summer they just sat there
and smiled and nodded but you know
that’s all you need sometimes there is a
very well-established
area of research in this called the
stress buffering hypothesis this is the
idea that social resources help
ameliorate the potentially harmful
effects of a stressful
and more than that the idea that social
interaction during major life changes
and transitions makes you feel valued
makes you feel cared for and so you feel
better able to cope with it
interestingly it’s not the help that you
go and ask for that makes the difference
it’s the everyday social interactions
okay so what we mean by that is when
someone comes up to you and has that
conversation how are you and you go with
the classic British response of I’m fine
when underneath you’re really not well
those interactions are the ones that
will make the biggest difference for
your mental health and it is awkward
starting those conversations at the
beginning it’s really uncomfortable but
if while the going is good you find
someone who you can talk with easily and
comfortably then maybe when that person
comes up to you on that day and says how
are you
you actually feel comfortable enough to
go you know what actually not so good
and then you’ve started that
conversation and you have that support
so future-proof yourself by keeping your
social network active when the times are
good so that when the times are bad you
can turn on it for help another one that
we know plenty about is the beneficial
effects of exercise it makes us fitter
makes us stronger
makes us sleep better all of these
things are good for us but in particular
exercise has a very positive effect on
self-esteem and if you feel good about
yourself
you feel like you can have an impact on
the world around you that you have some
kind of control that you can cope and
make a difference dr. Kenneth Fox who’s
based over at the University of Bristol
reviewed all the literature and
confirmed what we probably all knew that
exercise has a positive effect on
self-esteem on self-identity and
perception of physical self now looking
back I had good weeks and bad weeks last
summer and it was only when I was
writing this talk that I realized the
good weeks were the weeks where I was
getting exercise and
I swam I rode my bike admittedly to the
pub or to a coffee shop where I
inevitably ate cake but I did ride my
bike
I even tried running but the jury is
still really out on how I feel about
running mmm not sure on the I wasn’t
doing it regular I wasn’t doing it
enough as much as I should but on the
weeks I did I felt better and they were
looking back my good weeks so the advice
is 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week
you look down that advice the things
that count as exercise are brilliant
going for a walk
cleaning the house you’d think it would
make my house cleaner but it hasn’t so
far but it doesn’t have to be Iron Man’s
and marathons it can literally be taking
the dog out just get some exercise be
active because it will make you mentally
more healthy and then you’ll cope better
with change last one’s my personal demon
switch off it is far more healthy to
accept that you are unique than to spend
all your time constantly comparing
yourself to someone else and the way we
do that now is social media
everyone projects their perfect little
life you don’t see the messy stuff and
then you’re comparing yourself to that
and it makes you feel worse actually
it’s not even just social media that’s
the problem I think this is terrifying
this study looked at four thousand
twenty to twenty four year olds over a
one-year period at the beginning of the
year they asked them about their mobile
phone use and at the end of the year
they looked at various mental health
outcomes those who were displaying
high-frequency mobile phone use were
significantly more likely to have
negative mental health outcomes I wrote
some of them down stress sleep
disturbances depression anxiety for men
and for women after adjusting for
relationships they just educate
level and occupation and high-frequency
mobile phone use 11 or more texts or
calls a day 11 I’m willing to bet
everybody under a 30 in this room gets
more than that it’s not good for you put
it down turn it off and it’s not even
just the communication side of it right
you think you’re harmlessly scrolling
down looking at videos of cats on
YouTube guilty then that’s not good for
you either
a year later looking at people that were
doing that reduced mental health
outcomes now I’m not saying for a second
this one’s going to be easy I was
addicted I literally had to be trained
like you train a small dog or a child to
not use my phone I had to be constantly
praised for not standing there vastly
increasing the muscular capacity of my
left thumb it took me a long time I can
now actually leave my room in my room my
phone in another room it’s in the office
down there I haven’t even got it with me
but it took a long time but once I got
off it I started to feel better and then
I noticed something else which means
there’s kind of a tip 5b get outside
Barton and pretty showed that every
green environment you can imagine has a
positive effect on your mental health
even better if there’s water so you can
now go home and tell your parents you
need a garden pond and the biggest
effect on the youngest participants we
need to get outside get off our phones
be in the moment not behind a screen
taking a photograph of it and then we
will be mentally more healthy I put it
to you that if you go and you do these
five things now while things are okay
then when things start to get tough when
things start to get difficult
you will cope with it better I’m here
now doing this under a year out from the
biggest period of change I could ever
imagine in my entire life and not only
am i sane and here I’m stronger and
better than I was before and I put it
down to those five things so try it
[Applause]
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