ARE you really reading this?

Or are you just skimming it as your mind races through countless other things like what you need to do at work, what's happening with your family, things you need to buy, what's happening in the next few days or people you need to contact?

If so chances are – like almost everyone else who is metaphorically spinning plates and trying to make ends meet – you are 'frazzled'.

That is the word Ruby Wax uses to describe our stressful 21st century lives.

The 65-year-old knows about it better than most.

Ruby graduated from Oxford with a Masters in cognitive therapy and was awarded an OBE in 2015 for services to mental health.

She started combining her stage work and experiences of clinical depression in 2010.

Her latest show at Parr Hall continued that theme in a routine that was like a cross between a mindfulness lecture and stand-up as part of the publicity drive for her latest book, A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled.

It certainly beat a book signing.

In between humourous rants about her mother, the quick-witted American performer demystified mental health stigmas and demonstrated how mindfulness can help us all when we're stressed.

In other words, it is not just for free-spirited people who like siting cross-legged in fields.

Stress and that feeling of always wanting more is a necessary part of life.

It gives us our get up and go but Ruby discussed how our busy lives compounded with intrusions through technology and advertising mean our creeping thoughts are always there and many of us barely get a moment's peace.

She also talked about our unhealthy attitude to stress – with some treating it as a measure of almost pride for their status at work.

So Ruby, who was a script editor for Absolutely Fabulous, talked about how the brain works and gave tips on how to cut out that 'noise' regardless of how busy we are while always ready to crack a gag to lighten the mood.

Due to the format of the one-woman show it was a very gentle introduction to mindfulness.

But it was good hearing people talk about the show and how it applied to them as they left the venue and it was great to hear mental health being talked about openly considering it is still sometimes thought of as a taboo.