You’ll never guess what happened last night! I’d finished working in time to watch Emmerdale (sorry, but I love it), and was settled quietly on the sofa. Suddenly, I heard the back door open and a tiny vole (or field mouse) shot across the lounge carpet in front of me! It was closely followed by...

If you’ve ever lost someone you love, you’ll be familiar with grief. Yet, have you ever felt it before that person dies? I didn’t notice any grief when my dad died, even though I loved him as much as a daughter could love her dad. He wasn’t remotely ill and passed away so suddenly from...

Let’s talk about something that’s been on my mind lately… How often do we find ourselves reacting in ways we later regret, especially when we’re overworked, tired, or stressed out? It’s like a switch flips, and suddenly we’re snapping at people, saying things we don’t mean, and just generally feeling irritable. There are times when...

“My love, my child. When you are sick, rest. When you are tired, lie down. When you are sad, weep. When you need nourishment, eat. When you are lonely, reach for people. And when there are no people, reach for me.” I came across these words today, in a ‘Letter from Love’, by Elizabeth Gilbert...

This weekend, Father’s Day falls on my dad’s birthday. Seven years ago, it was his birthday on the Saturday before Father’s Day, but I couldn’t come home to Wales that weekend because I was on duty at the Summer fete, at the school where I worked. Twelve days later my dad died. I can’t tell...

What a road trip!! Last weekend, I treated my fiancé to a birthday weekend at a forest retreat, just forty minutes from where we live in Mid-Wales. I liked the fact that it had no mobile signal or wifi, just a cottage surrounded by trees, birds and tranquillity. After half an hour on the main...

I have a thing about words. If I hear one I’m familiar with but I’m not exactly sure how to use it, I have to Google its meaning and read all the examples until I’m clear. The last two I heard were ‘hubris ’ and ‘detritus ’, thanks to Lucinda Riley novels. I learnt many...

General anxiety is not a mental illness. You are not weak, abnormal or going out of your mind. Anxiety is a lack of confidence in our own ability to handle our bodily sensations. Our symptoms are real but they’re not due to any physical illness. Our body is simply in ‘Fear Response Mode’ and we...

I just lost seven pounds in three weeks! I’ve been trying to lose weight between the ages of fifteen and fifty. Mainly to look slimmer and feel more confident about my body. Firstly, as a teen, I went along to Weight Watchers with my mum and enjoyed filling in little crosses on a tracker every...

I’m becoming increasingly aware of the ageing process and my own mortality. Possibly because my mum has now started to ‘try out’ care homes and my best female friend has just bought a mobility scooter. I’m only in my early fifties but catch myself working out how many years I might have left on this...

I don’t remember the first time I felt anxious. I experienced it from such a young age but only realised decades later that it was social anxiety. At the time, I just felt terrified. Often. To family and friends, I was just, “very shy and sensitive”. I’ve spent most of my adult life ‘fighting’ anxiety...

Did your week go as you planned? Or were there unexpected changes? On Sunday night I was all set for the week ahead but then I had a call to say my mum needed me. She’d had a fall the previous week and was in a lot of pain. So I’ve spent this week looking...

Ever been labelled ‘Lazy’? Have you ever been called ‘lazy’? Do you think of yourself as ‘shy’? I remember one afternoon as a young child in school. It was the last day of term when we were allowed to take board games in? Do they still do that? Everyone loved those afternoons it seemed, but...

Have you ever cried on your birthday? You’re probably too young to remember but there was a song in the eighties called, “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to”. Well, I was thinking about it last week, on my birthday. I’d had a lovely day, a quiet one, firstly sitting in the...

If you could be more compassionate, patient, relaxed, focused and wise, would you choose to be? ? If you could have more hours in the day, would you like some? I’m constantly discovering new benefits to practising meditation, so why are some people reluctant to even try it? The main reasons I’ve been given are:  “I...

STRUGGLING WITH ISOLATION? KIDS DRIVING YOU NUTS? However much we love our spouses, partners, parents and kids, spending lots more time together, at home, has its challenges.  Whether they are noisy, demanding, untidy, restless, stressy, or even aggressive, we have to interact with them SO much more now we are all being asked to stay...

Q. How can Mindfulness help during a pandemic? A. These two simple methods will help keep you calm and effective in whatever circumstance you find yourself. 1. Notice when you have a ‘WHAT IF’ thought. So much of the factual information that we read and see on the news and social media is clouded by...

Are you really sure about what is best for your children?  Do you feel that your son’s school fully meets his needs?  Have you considered home-schooling your daughter? If there was one question I would ask senior management when I was a Primary School Teacher, it was: “Is that what’s best for the children?!” This...

Sadness is a tough one isn’t it! ? An old friend of mine died last week, three days after he got married, leaving his wife, family and friends undoubtedly feeling immense sadness. I know you will have experienced it yourself and felt the sadness of a loved one as you empathised with them. Can Mindfulness help?...

Today I did my second session with a client who suffers from Anxiety and Panic Disorder and our theme was ‘Thoughts are not facts’. How can what we think be untrue? Surely we are honest with ourselves? Well, firstly we have to notice our thoughts in order to explore this idea and our feelings and...

Mindfulness Can Help You Sometimes one thought goes round and round in your head, making you feel increasingly upset or angry and stress hormones rage through your body. Result.. zero sleep. The other night just one thought kept repeating itself in my head, like a recording on a loop until my body felt so awake...