INTERVIEW: Irish radio presenter takes stress-busting mindfulness show on tour this month

Laughter may not be the best medicine in our modern world full of advanced pharmaceuticals, but it certainly makes the medicine easier to swallow. And nobody believes it more than author and radio presenter, Dermot Whelan, whose mental health book Mind Full became an instant bestseller upon its release in 2021. 

Inspired by an incident over a decade ago whereby he arrived - panic attack in full swing - at a comedy festival in an ambulance, Dermot turned to meditation and mindfulness to manage his mind. Now a stress-busting expert, he’s bringing his skills to the stage with a show marrying fun and science to help the nation lead happier lives. 

We spoke to him about what to expect ahead of the first of two dozen live shows. 

“I didn’t change my life straight away.” 

Dermot speaks buoyantly over the phone about discovering mindfulness and meditation, his voice and manner upbeat. 

He says, “I didn’t suddenly shave my head and move to India, you know, or rush to do the Camino. Quite by accident I met a woman who wanted me to MC her book launch. She’d just written a novel and I found out she taught meditation to the guards, and I was like, ‘They’re pretty stressed so this stuff might actually work!’ 

“I guess like a lot of people I had preconceptions that it was for hippy Californian types who wore flowy white clothes and said ‘Namaste!’ to everyone they met. I thought it was very spiritual, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way if you’re not into that. I quickly learned there’s a load of science behind it and that’s what I try and share with people is the science, and I do it through stand-up comedy. My two loves.” 

Dermot says people often have the wrong idea about mindfulness, stating, “A lot of us feel like we have the vague idea that it’s about being calm, but mindfulness is anything that brings you into the present moment. So that when you’re in the present moment you’re not in the past worrying about the stuff that’s happened, and you’re not in the future worrying about the stuff that might happen. And they’re usually the two spaces that make us feel unhappy. 

“It’s very hard to be anxious if you’re really in the present moment, if you’re really aware of what’s happening in the now, you know. And science tells us the more time we can spend in the present moment, the happier and more fulfilled we'll be. Meditation is a form of mindfulness. It's a tool that will bring you into the present moment. But there are many others. 

He says, “It could be playing with your dog or playing a musical instrument or singing, or going for a mindful walk where you’re aware of what’s happening in your surroundings. Or having a great conversation with a best friend or having a belly laugh. These are all forms of mindfulness that help us to keep us in that present moment. 

“When we can’t be in the present moment all the time, because it’s just very hard to do that, our brain bounces all over the place and our minds get full. But even if you can bring yourself into that present moment for just a few times a day, that can have a huge ripple effect into the rest of your day.” 

Dermot believes comedy is a great way to help mindfulness seem more relatable for people, particularly men. 

He says, “Humour is an amazing tool for making people feel comfortable and making them feel safe, and sometimes the world of meditation, of mindfulness, can seem a little bit unrelatable for people and particularly for men. We don’t naturally gravitate towards this stuff, sometimes we need a gentle nudge in the right direction and for me that’s what humour does. 

“Obviously it lets people have a really good time and we all feel better when we’re laughing, but also you know it helps open the door to areas we maybe were a bit hesitant about and that’s what’s so lovely about the night is that it’s not a serious event. Everybody’s laughing, but they’re also learning some seriously cool things that will help them far beyond the show.” 

“A lot of people might think that they’d have to take time out and go get a meditation cushion and put it in a room with some incense,” he continued. “Don’t believe what you see when you Google meditation, it’s not just for beautiful people sitting on mountain tops in the lotus position, which by the way is really uncomfortable and quite dangerous. 

“I believe you can do it anytime anywhere, and that’s the whole point because we have busy lives, we can’t be asking people to suddenly take up another hobby or go and meet a load of people in the parish hall to do this. I believe in doing it in your car, in bed, at work at your desk, in airports, in traffic, wherever you find moments to get into that present moment, that’s where you can do it.” 

According to Dermot, a quiet mind is not necessary to engage with mindfulness. 

He says, “This is one of the things that people ask because they may try a technique and they sit down or they go try and focus their mind and they realize that their mind is bouncing all over the place and they go, ‘That's it, I'm doing it wrong or my brain is too busy, I can't do this!’ 

“We have between 60 and 80,000 thoughts every single day in our heads and we're not expected to get rid of all those thoughts. In fact, it's impossible to do it and we don't want to because those thoughts are literally keeping us alive. 

“It's okay to have thoughts, and I love to bust that myth. You know sometimes in movies you hear [that] you're expected to clear your mind of all thoughts. It's impossible! But the more we practice these techniques - in which we focus our mind, our mind wanders off, we realize it's wandered, and then we bring it back - the more we train that muscle and we will experience less mind wandering over time. 

“We're not expected to get rid of all our thoughts. That's one of the key things that makes people think that we're doing it wrong, you know. It's a tennis match where the ball bounces from attention to distraction, and attention to distraction, and that's perfectly normal. The goal is to simply sit with your thoughts and get to a point where the thoughts don't feel as intrusive as before, and where you can spend more and more time in that present moment.” 

Dermot believes utilising mindfulness techniques on a regular basis is “a bit like going to the gym”. 

He says, “The important thing with meditation or any of these mindfulness techniques is regular usage. You wouldn't rock up to your personal trainer two days before a wedding and show him a dress and say, ‘I need you to get me into this by Friday’, he'd say maybe you should have come here a few weeks ago. So, it's just like any muscle that you train. The more you do it, the more benefits you see.” 

He hopes people all across Ireland can benefit from attending the tour, which begins on January 29 at The Helix in Dublin. 

“I'm just so proud of the show,” he says. “I want to bring it to as many people as possible because people just get so much from it. 

“God knows the world is throwing new stresses at us every day. If there's people who feel that when something happens they feel a bit more confident they can reach for something in the moment that helps them, or somebody tells me that they're sleeping better or that they feel more like themselves, that's really what I want to get out of this. 

“I want more people to feel comfortable in their own skin and confident that they can take on whatever challenges life throws at them.” 

Tickets for Dermot’s tour, as well as information on other dates and venues, can be found by clicking here.