This book helped me make sense of SO many things Hello lovely people. Wow, it was almost two months ago when I last wrote to you! I hope the summer is treating you well and you are being kind to yourselves. I have been reading lots, taking things at a slower pace and nurturing myself and my bump as much as possible. Only three months to go until I meet my daughter, time is flying! A book recommendation for you One of the books that was recommended to me several times by therapist colleagues,...
about 2 years ago • 2 min read
Helping ourselves feel good again - using occupational therapy I was trying to articulate how I’ve been feeling lately to a friend but was struggling with it. When I remembered to plug my OT (occupational therapy) brain back in, it all made perfect sense. In occupational therapy and occupational science, one of the underpinning beliefs is that taking part in the things that are meaningful, important and necessary to us (as complete individuals in our own unique lives) is crucial to our...
over 2 years ago • 3 min read
Self-love, chocolate and confessions Hey you, Perhaps you’ve worked really hard on mastering your inner thoughts and now you don’t talk to yourself like the school bully picking on the nerdy kid. Yey, you have gained self-compassion! This is an amazing milestone on the way to pure self-love! But what’s the difference between self-love and self-compassion, and do we really need both? Well, yes, if we want to live a life we are passionate about, that allows us to thrive and be satisfied and...
over 2 years ago • 1 min read
Hey look, I’ve always said I’m not good at small talk! I like to get straight to the point. Do you know what you need? And do you know if you’re getting your needs met? If we don’t have a clear idea of our needs and how to get them met, we can end up over-relying on others to meet them for us OR having emotional explosions like we talked about last week. For my readers who’ve raised young children, imagine expecting your toddler to be fuss-free whilst they’re hungry, tired and have a full...
over 2 years ago • 1 min read
Happy Thursday! This week I’m continuing the theme of emotional mastery, and I really want to stress that WE SHOULD ALL HAVE LOTS OF EMOTIONS! ALL EMOTIONS ARE VALID! Emotional mastery isn’t about limiting our emotions, it’s just equipping us with the tools to ride the waves. So I sent you the feelings wheel and cycle of action and today is about TOOLS for managing emotions when they take hold. Ironically, I write this as a person who has cried in probably every public place, to nearly every...
over 2 years ago • 2 min read
Hello my dear, I hope you enjoyed last week's email. Did you get a chance to look at the feelings wheel and check in with your complex but fabulous cocktail of feelings? Today I’m building on from last week, so if nothing makes sense from here onwards, make sure you read last week’s intro to emotional regulation here! We started by noticing our feelings. Hopefully NONJUDGMENTALLY, just noticing and writing them down. Next, we need to understand that our feelings aren't just things that happen...
over 2 years ago • 2 min read
Introducing the feelings wheel: Hello you, Today I have a freebie resource for you and I wanted to talk about self-regulation/emotional regulation. The tool helps with this! Mastering self-regulation (or emotional regulation) is to be able to acknowledge our emotions and be conscious about how these impact our behaviours. We don’t have to be calm and zen-like, but we have to understand what sets us off and know how to recover from it when something does. I help people in this area because...
over 2 years ago • 2 min read
No more missing out! Art: Henck van Bilsen One of my client’s goals last week was to create more moments of mindfulness in her busy life, to help with feelings of overwhelm and distractability. With mindfulness, instead of feeling like we have to add something NEW to do, on top of our existing pile of responsibilities, we just change the way in which we do something, and then we somehow seem to free up more time. It doesn’t sound like it makes much sense, but the magic of mindfulness is just...
over 2 years ago • 2 min read
I was back in England last week helping sort through all my grandparents' old belongings. My Grandma kept EVERYTHING, every report card from school, every notebook, every piece of memorabilia.Something that struck me was just how much incredible potential they both had. My grandma was a talented artist and musician. She had notebooks full of artwork that nobody ever saw. She framed her degree certificate from the Royal College of Music but rarely let anybody hear her play.My grandad was an...
over 2 years ago • 2 min read
