I need some motivation so I’m just going to try writing and see where it takes me this morning. I am about 70% through my latest assignment for the MAPP and its tough going. I am lucky enough that I have been able to take a few days to try and just get it finished. But now I’m flagging. The piece of work is challenging in lots of different ways. Like a lot of study on the course so far, it’s a unique combination of academic focus on positive psychology as a growing social sci

I just want to write to capture what I am feeling today...in case it changes. Read on... I've just got back from a half term holiday, in the company of family and doing activities that although exhausting, I enjoy. Perhaps for the second or third time in my adult life, I've had a holiday without being dogged by persistent symptoms of anxiety and depression, they seemed to lift as I assume most people's mood lifts when they engage in things they find enjoyable. However today,

I am feeling ok at the moment. There, I have said it. It’s been almost 6 weeks since I last posted and although today I don’t feel much about writing, here I am. Hello. How have you been? We’ve had the whole build up to Christmas, the day itself, New Years and now some of us are back to school. I’ve been feeling well for the past 5 days I think, maybe about a week or so. I’m not sure when it started, or how it crept up on me. I haven’t felt this well and a real participator o

I write this today off the back of leading a walk for our local Mental Health Mates group, which I am so glad to have set up as being involved in this stuff (and writing to you) helps me each and every day. My brain sabotages me everyday these days. And hilariously the advice is to use my loaf about it! How exactly?! Accept I need to take my meds...remember take my meds...practice meditation...practice CBT to challenge my problem thinking...show myself compassion by choosing

Yes. I have tried pulling my socks up I have tried to stop thinking about myself so much I have tried to stop being selfish I have tried to keep myself busy I have tried not thinking those thoughts I have tried to think about others worse off than me I have tried to understand that everyone gets anxious I have tried to be more positive I have tried to just stop worrying I have tried to be more grateful for what I have I have tried to consider others feelings I have tried to p

Two weeks or so ago I started reporting on social media the things I was looking forward to each day. #theartoflookingfwd was my way of looking at gratitude for those like me who struggle with counting their blessings and seeing the positive in their life. By identifying small pleasurable or meaningful experiences we intend to have in advance, I thought, this could help us pay more attention to the small stuff we take for granted sometimes and help us feel more gratitude whi

When I was pregnant I developed a painful condition given a name which doesn’t really do it justice – symphysis pubis dysfunction (SPD) or pelvic girdle pain (PGP). The ligaments holding my pelvis together became too relaxed and the resulting movement of my joints caused pain daily from around 5 months antenatally until around 3 months post-partum. In seeking help and advice, I spoke with my midwife, a chiropractor, numerous obstetrics registrars and several physiotherapists

(...it would be something else. -Elizabethtown) Life is funny. Just as I find myself tackling, and I mean really tackling, and coming to terms with a painful experience in my past it comes back to test me in more ways than one. In the perfectly timed way that only the randomness of life can deliver, my (very) new-found resolve to accept my shortcomings and try and build positive and more optimistic responses to what life throws at me is being challenged. An old injury has fla

Well. Haven’t the last few weeks been eventful. My heartfelt apologies and regret for the lack of positing, it has been quite a tough time. Our dog Maddie has been really unwell, which at only age 10 months has been worrying to say the least. She was so unwell she has been at points unable to eat and was admitted first as an inpatient to our local vets and then into doggy hospital at a specialist centre. Being told it due to an unlucky complication of her first (routine surge

What’s on my mind today: Will I ever feel I am (good) enough? Will I ever be healthy and well? We’ve just come through another school half term holiday, probably the most straightforward to date. We made it through two birthday parties, sports camp, a cinema visit, and even made some jam tarts along the way. And all this with both H and me feeling under the weather and me making progress on my MAPP assignments, so all in all a good week. But last night, after a good weekend a

Earlier this year I read a great book about writing as therapy. Let it Out by Katie Dalebout is about the benefits of journaling, keeping a diary or doing writing exercises to help access and organise your thoughts. The guide takes you through some really great journalling exercises which can help get your thoughts, dreams (and fears for the really brave out there) into reality in a safe way - on paper. "Holding a mirror up to your face" and 'journalling both the good and the