Ruby Wax will be teaching during Wisdom and Wellbeing Multi-Faculty Week 7: Stress & Trauma – Repair, Rewire, Rebalance | February 14 – 21, 2026 about the following topic:
Staying Calm in a Frazzled World
In order for us to survive in the future, we have to upgrade our minds, the
same way that we upgrade our iPhones. We need to consciously improve our
emotional intelligence, insight, awareness to help us deal with the weapons of
mass distraction that surround us.
At different moments in our lives, we all feel overwhelmed—running on empty
trying to keep up with the relentless pace of work, family, and the noise inside
our heads. We strive to be ‘enough’, yet our harsh inner critic tells us
otherwise. We’ll explore the neuroscience of mindfulness and why it
straightens our focus, compassion, the ability to lower your cortisol levels and
to become masters, not the slaves to our minds.
Mindfulness is learning to quieten down the endless spin cycle of critical
thoughts, so you can pay attention to where you want to pay attention, and
not get hooked by constant distractions. You learn to stand back and watch
your thoughts with kindness and compassion, without getting frazzled by
them. And when the brain fog lowers, you can finally come into that five-star,
ultimate destination: the present.
From the Royal Shakespeare Company to her own primetime TV shows on the
BBC; from a master’s degree in mindfulness based cognitive therapy from
Oxford University to best-selling author; from interviewing the president (who
shall not be named) as part of her BBC series spanning 25 years, to script
editing all series of “Absolutely Fabulous.” And from a mental health
campaigner to being awarded an OBE from the Queen for services to mental
health.
She is a Visiting Professor in the School of Mental Health Nursing at the
University of Surrey as well as holding an Honorary Doctorate from the
Regent’s School of Psychology, the University of East London, Bangor
University, Wales and University of Staffordshire. She has also been awarded a
City Lit Lifetime Fellowship, ambassador for the British Neuroscience
Association, MIND, SANE and was the president of Relate and Chancellor of
Southampton.
Ruby is the author of best-selling books Sane New World, A Mindfulness Guide
for the Frazzled and How to be Human, and I’m not as Well as I Thought I was.
She has sold over one million copies and is published in 40 countries. She has
toured her one-woman shows both internationally and in London’s West End.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Wax