Healthy Boundaries #5: Somatic Boundaries: Teaching Your Body It’s Safe to Say No

We're at the final blog in this series on healthy boundaries. We've covered feeling responsible for everyone else, understanding what boundaries actually are, how to set boundaries without the guilt spiral, and maintaining boundaries when everything wants to let them slip. But there's one piece we haven't fully addressed yet. You can know intellectually that boundaries are important. You can have the scripts ready. You can understand why you need them. And still, when it comes to actually holding [...]

2026-04-09T13:20:58+00:009 April 2026|Categories: Healthy boundaries|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |Comments Off on Healthy Boundaries #5: Somatic Boundaries: Teaching Your Body It’s Safe to Say No

Healthy Boundaries #4: Maintaining Boundaries When Everything Wants to Let Them Slip

I'm still talking about healthy boundaries! The more I write, the more there is to cover. I hope you're finding this series about holding healthy boundaries useful (and there's still more to come). If you're just joining us, we've already covered feeling responsible for everyone else, understanding what boundaries actually are, and how to set boundaries without the guilt spiral. If you've been following along and giving boundaries a go, you've probably discovered something. Setting a boundary is one [...]

2026-03-26T20:11:04+00:0026 March 2026|Categories: Healthy boundaries|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |Comments Off on Healthy Boundaries #4: Maintaining Boundaries When Everything Wants to Let Them Slip

Healthy Boundaries #3: How to Set Boundaries (Without the Guilt Spiral)

So far in this series on healthy boundaries, we've explored feeling responsible for everyone else's emotions and understanding what boundaries actually are when you've never really had them. You might be liking the sound of these healthy boundaries, but still wondering how to put them into practice. Knowing you need boundaries and actually implementing them are two completely different things. Especially when everything inside you is screaming that setting a boundary is selfish, unkind, or will result in conflict [...]

2026-03-12T13:12:44+00:0012 March 2026|Categories: Healthy boundaries|Tags: , , , , , , |Comments Off on Healthy Boundaries #3: How to Set Boundaries (Without the Guilt Spiral)

Healthy Boundaries #2: Understanding Healthy Boundaries (when you’ve never really had them)

Last week, I wrote about feeling responsible for everyone else's emotions – that exhausting pattern of carrying weight that isn't yours, losing yourself while trying to keep everyone else happy. If that resonated with you, it's likely because somewhere along the way you never really learned what healthy boundaries look and feel like. And that makes sense. As children, we learn by watching adults set, respect, and communicate limits. Also, by practicing through interactions like sharing, respecting personal space, [...]

2026-02-26T20:28:39+00:0026 February 2026|Categories: Healthy boundaries|Tags: , , , , , , , |Comments Off on Healthy Boundaries #2: Understanding Healthy Boundaries (when you’ve never really had them)

Healthy Boundaries #1: Feeling responsible for everyone else’s emotions? Read this…

Do you tense up when you know someone's upset? Are you always scanning to check if everyone's okay, perhaps running through what you might have said or done wrong? Do you focus so much time on trying to keep the atmosphere happy or harmonious, that you always biting your tongue, and losing sight of what you really think and feel? If you're nodding, you're probably someone who feels responsible for everyone else's wellbeing, happiness, and emotions. Not in a [...]

2026-02-26T19:53:04+00:0012 February 2026|Categories: Healthy boundaries, People pleasing|Tags: , , , , , , , |Comments Off on Healthy Boundaries #1: Feeling responsible for everyone else’s emotions? Read this…

Find Your Glimmers: Tiny Moments of Joy and Calm in Difficult Times

If you’re anything like me, you might be finding world pretty sad and scary right now.  There’s an endless cycle of difficult, distressing news, exacerbated of course by a 24 hour news cycle, along with apps and social media pumping out endless fear alerts (my tip - ditch the apps and any app alerts!). And of course, here in the UK we’re in the midst of a very gloomy January.  I can’t tell you the last time I saw [...]

2026-01-29T17:42:35+00:0029 January 2026|Categories: Goal setting, setting intentions|Tags: , , , , , |Comments Off on Find Your Glimmers: Tiny Moments of Joy and Calm in Difficult Times

No More New Year Resolutions – Try Intentions Instead

Here we are again. January. The cold, dark belly of winter. And yet everywhere around us there's this frantic energy demanding we reinvent ourselves, smash goals, and become entirely new people. No wonder so many New Year resolutions crash and burn before the month is out. The Problem with January It’s a drum I beat regularly - January is probably the worst time to launch ourselves into ambitious new regimes. In Chinese Medicine, winter is the season [...]

2026-01-16T10:50:58+00:0013 January 2026|Categories: Goal setting, setting intentions|Tags: , , , , , |Comments Off on No More New Year Resolutions – Try Intentions Instead

A Christmas Survival Guide for Introverts and Anyone Who Finds Xmas Tough

At this time of year, it can be easy to forget that it's not the magazine spread of perfect, happy families for everyone. There's many people dreading this time of year. The introverts who find relentless socialising and "being on" exhausting. Those with "complicated" family dynamics, with love and hate and hurt and a million things left unsaid. The lonely and alone, made to feel like the odd ones out. And of course, there's many for whom this time [...]

2025-12-16T22:17:08+00:0016 December 2025|Categories: Emotional health, Healthy boundaries, Introvert, saying no, Self Care|Tags: , , , , |Comments Off on A Christmas Survival Guide for Introverts and Anyone Who Finds Xmas Tough

The Art of Wintering: Finding Treasure in the Depths

So, here we are again. Winter's back, with its familiar pull to slow down, retreat, and go inward. I used to hate this time of year, but now I've learned that winter isn't something to endure – it's something to embrace; an art to be practiced. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Winter is the season of ultimate yin – cold, dark, hidden, internal. And for many, it can be a difficult time. The cold, the dark, the winding down of [...]

2025-12-16T22:58:10+00:004 December 2025|Categories: Emotional health, Self Care, Winter|Tags: , , , |Comments Off on The Art of Wintering: Finding Treasure in the Depths

Going Deep: Why We All Need to Rediscover Deep Work

So last time, I was banging on about the benefits of boredom (read the full blog here). There's a flip side to giving our brains some wandering time – and that's giving it some proper focused, undistracted time too.  Different but similar, in it’s all about taking away those diversions and brain whirls that keep us distracted, unfocused, frazzled, inefficient… This week, I’ve come across the work of Cal Newport and his concept of "deep work". What is [...]

2025-10-30T16:05:34+00:0030 October 2025|Categories: Efficiency, Emotional health|Tags: , , , , , , |Comments Off on Going Deep: Why We All Need to Rediscover Deep Work