Do you ever feel like you’d do something if only you felt braver about it? Things like… I’d speak up in a work meeting if I knew that no one would think I was stupid/annoying. I’d say no to my child if I didn’t think it would cause a tantrum. I’d set a boundary with a family member or colleague if I didn’t feel so scared of displeasing them. These are all real-life examples for me! And my most recent one: I’d start sharing consistently on my mailing list and via social

Do you ever find yourself wondering why… “Why am I like this?” “Why can’t I handle life as well as other people can?” “Why do I need more rest, sleep or downtime than other people?” “Why am I so affected by other people’s moods?” It looks to me like when we are wondering these sorts of things (as I definitely have), there are a few places it can be really helpful to look. 1. Our experience is thought-created You’ve probably heard that we don’t see the world as it is, we s

A few years ago, in a fun exercise, a friend of mine identified one of my qualities as “fizz”. Intuitively I knew what he meant, but it was hard to put into words and felt a little uncomfortable. Fizz was something positive and yet it was somehow anxiety’s cousin, which my mind had some negative judgements about. Around the same time, I came across a quote shared by Jeff Foster on his Facebook page. I cannot find the exact quote now, but I can share the meaning I heard in it,

I don’t know about you, but there are a lot of ideas about how Christmas “should” be that have been learned by my mind, over the years. Which is fine, and exactly what a mind will do, but then that mind also goes and forgets that these are ideas and starts judging itself when not all of these things happen in reality. It’ll say things like: "Why have I not been more organised this year?" "I should have had all the presents wrapped by the end of November." "I wish I could ho

Let’s take sitting exams at school as an example (it’s topical in our house right now and a great example). “Anxiety” is a label your brain has learned to put on sensations that arise within the body. These sensations are completely normal and it’s not surprising for them to come up when thinking about sitting an exam. The intensity of the sensations that your brain labels as “anxiety” is not an indication of how you will perform in the exam, nor of how you will feel in

Do you or someone you care about ever feel nervous, especially before performing in any way or trying out a new experience? Me too. Minds love to make up “what if” scenarios and get lost in them. Here’s a different sort of “what if” – something to get curious about. What if… “Nervous” is a label our mind might give to certain sensations in the body – things like butterflies in the tummy, a quicker heart rate, and so on. And as soon as that label is slapped on, off t

If you struggle with anxiety or have been diagnosed with an anxiety related disorder, do you ever have moments where you don’t feel anxious? Even for a few seconds? Maybe it’s that brief, fleeting moment when you first wake up in the morning and don’t even know who or where you are, or what day it is, yet. Maybe it’s when you cuddle a baby or watch your children at play. Maybe it’s when you see a beautiful sunrise. But what if the feeling of peace and wellbeing doesn’t come f