Ruby waxes lyrical over modern living at Oswestry event

Ruby Wax regaled a sell-out audience of 450 people about everything from why she left TV for a new career in academia – and why her current passion is for mindfulness and finding ways to cope with the stress and pace of the modern world.

Wax took to the stage at Lion Quays Hotel, near Gobowen, Oswestry, to talk to author and editor Cathy Rentzenbrink, as the latest in a long line of high profile authors bagged to come and talk in the north Shropshire town in recent years by Tim and Carrie Morris of Booka bookshop.

Those attending got signed copies of her latest work, A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled, as part of the ticket price.

Wax herself has struggled with depression which in turn prompted her return to the field of psychology in her 60s.

She said mindfulness was helpful with clinical depression, and in her own case it had meant the difference between being out of action for a couple of weeks rather than months.

"It's the ability to observe your thoughts rather than believe them, and you can choose whether to hook into them – and they are different when you are ill. It's like checking the weather outside," she said.

She said all in all, learning about mental health had been a huge relief.

"I know I'm not alone anymore – everybody is nuts. Everyone is vulnerable under their fronts," she added.

At one point Ruby was was best known for her wit and cynicism as a comic, TV presenter, interviewer and writer. But she said: "There's a point where one chapter ends in your life and if you don't do something else it gets pathetic – you're going 'do you know who I was?'.

She said appearing on ITV reality TV show Celebrity Shark Bait was a low point after which she decided maybe she didn't want to do TV work anymore.

"I was always interested in psychology. I went to Berkeley (University of California) and I always said I would return."

She returned to study and got into Oxford to read a masters degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, which she said was "a miracle" as when she was a child she was rated as "below a house plant" for smartness.

But, she said, she got smarter as she got older – due to simple, ongoing curiosity. She has now been involved in academia for three years and is currently a visiting professor in mental health nursing at the University of Surrey, as well a campaigner on mental health issues.

Her first book on the topic, Sane New World: Taming the Mind, went on to be a number one best seller, as has her latest which was released in paperback in December.

She said the her new career was busy but she was more interested in it than TV work.

"People say 'why did you leave TV?' and I say because I just couldn't get my mojo up any more."

One of her latest initiatives is to start "Frazzled Cafe" meetings which have begun with just a couple, but will be rolled out around the country. People can find out when and where they will be happening by registering on: rubywax.net/frazzled-cafe she said.

The idea is to have a place where people with mental health concerns such as stress and anxiety can meet and share experiences.

"Part of the insanity is that we can't really speak about what is going on – everything is supposed to be fine," she said.

Though she said it wasn't intended as a replacement for therapy for people with serious conditions.

"If you're mentally ill, that's a disease, but if you're frazzled, that's all of us.

"Depression is depression and that shouldn't be confused," she said.

Asked what she thought the problem might be with the modern world, she said: "I get so bored of people pointing the finger and blaming someone – we put it there, we 'voted for the guy'," in a sly allusion to Donald Trump whom she famously interviewed in 2000.

But she, maintained, it was a matter of attitude.

"The bully isn't out there, it's in here," she said, pointing at her head.

"Understand what you are doing in your mind and then you can go and save world."

She said one of the issues facing us was that fact that we had not adapted to a global world where we were not just comparing ourselves to neighbours down the road, but to people on the other side of the planet – and the same went for our sense of threat and danger.

Even living a simple life in the country away from the TV was not a fool proof solution, as ideas spread simply through human contact, she said.

"You're still going to be infected by the world. But I'm not knocking technology. I don't want to be ungrateful that you can get a husband at 2am in the morning.

"We've invented bubble wrap, that's an accomplishment but we have no insight.

"But I don't think we should be too hard on ourselves – I guess we were busy," she said.