Mindful Musings

You Are Not Too Much
If you ever think you are too much, come sit here a minute. Maybe you’ve spent years trying to take the edge off yourself. Lower the volume. Soften the laugh. Edit the story halfway through telling it in case you’re taking up too much space. Because somewhere along the way, you learned that being noticeable was dangerous. What If Your “Too Much” Is Actually Leadership? What if some people have so much social anxiety that they’re relieved when someone else leads? Someone who breaks the silence. Someone who carries the... Read more...
Why Journalling Matters When Grief Is Still Fresh
  Grief has a way of arriving without instructions. One minute you are functioning. The next, you are staring into space at 2am, wondering what you are meant to do with yourself now that everything feels different. Fresh grief is foggy. Heavy. Disorientating. It comes with a strange mix of numbness and overwhelm, and an unhelpful pressure to cope in a way that looks acceptable from the outside. If you are here because things are still raw, I want to say this first: journalling is not another thing you have... Read more...
Writing It All Down: Grief, Creativity and Community
Today is a mixed bag. It is my late mum’s birthday, and it is also the day after I hosted an incredibly moving scrapbook and journalling session. Holding both grief and joy at the same time feels uncomfortable, but it is also deeply familiar. Journalling has taught me that two things can be true at once. Last night was one of those moments where everything I believe about creativity, healing and writing things down came together in one room. Why Journalling Matters After Loss When I started journalling, it was... Read more...
What Helped When I Felt Socially Lost
A gentle reflection on reconnecting, perspective, and grounding when social anxiety creeps in. Last weekend, I felt socially lost. Not in a dramatic way. Not in crisis. Just that subtle, uncomfortable sense of being out of sync with people. The kind of feeling where your brain starts filling in gaps with unhelpful stories and quiet assumptions. I wanted to write about what actually helped me feel more grounded again. Just the things I did that gently shifted the spiral. 1. I Reached Out Anyway Even though my instinct was to... Read more...
When Everything Feels Like Too Much: What To Do When You’re Spiralling
There’s a particular kind of overwhelm that doesn’t come from one big thing. It comes from lots of small hurts, disappointments, and quiet absences piling up at once. It feels like death by a thousand cuts. You’re functioning, but only just. You want to do everything and nothing at the same time. If you’re reading this because you feel like you don’t quite fit anywhere right now, you’re not alone. And you’re not broken. First, Name What’s Happening When we’re spiralling, our brains tell us stories. Big, heavy ones. “I... Read more...
Books That Changed Me: A Bucket List to Mend a Broken Heart
In June 2023, I read A Bucket List to Mend a Broken Heart. I was coming out of postpartum psychosis, living with an OCD diagnosis, and deep in PTSD treatment. Life felt small and fragile. Carefully managed. Quiet in a way that wasn’t peaceful. The book wasn’t profound. It was a bit silly, actually. And that was exactly why it worked. The list wasn’t about achievement The book made me think about lists. Not goals. Not milestones. Just things. Things that reminded you that you were still alive. That curiosity... Read more...
I Was Diagnosed With OCD After Postpartum Psychosis - And It Wasn’t What I Expected
Postpartum mental health conversations often miss the quieter realities. This is what OCD actually looked like for me after postpartum psychosis. When most people think about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), they imagine excessive cleaning, rigid routines, or a need for perfect order. That version never fit me. Which is exactly why my diagnosis came as such a shock. After experiencing postpartum psychosis, I was later diagnosed with OCD. Not the stereotype. The invisible kind. The kind that lives in your thoughts, disguises itself as responsibility, and quietly drains your energy.... Read more...
Read this when being resilient feels like a trap
For the days when “staying strong” feels more like being stuck. Somewhere along the way, resilience stopped being a compliment and started feeling like a life sentence. You were praised for coping. For pushing through. For getting on with it. And now everyone expects you to keep doing exactly that. Being resilient becomes the role you’re cast in. The dependable one. The calm one. The one who can handle it. Even when you’re tired. Even when you’re fraying at the edges. When resilience turns into emotional burnout No one really... Read more...
Read This When You’ve Done Something Completely Out of Your Comfort Zone and Are Now Spiralling
Read this when you had a perfectly fine, quiet life and then - for reasons you cannot now explain - decided to do something wildly out of your comfort zone. Read this when you’ve said yes to hosting an event, launching a thing, putting your face or voice or ideas in front of people… and now hyperventilate about it daily. Read this when your partner has lovingly but firmly said: “You are only allowed to talk about this on Thursdays.” Because otherwise you will combust. This is the predictable part... Read more...
Read This When You Think You Can’t Look After Yourself
Read this when everything feels like too much and you’re convinced you are, somehow, uniquely bad at being a person. Read this when eating feels optional, water feels like admin, and making a phone call feels emotionally equivalent to being chased by a woolly mammoth down a hill, through a stream, and directly into your own nervous breakdown. I’ve had enough therapy to know this state very well. And I’ve had enough therapy to tell you - confidently - that this is not a personal failure. Here’s the unsexy truth... Read more...
The Workshop I Planned in My Head Long Before I Booked a Room
The Workshop I Planned in My Head Long Before I Booked a Room Once I get an idea, it doesn’t arrive quietly. When we were planning our wedding, my then-husband-to-be eventually introduced a rule. I was only allowed to talk about weddings on Thursdays. Not because he didn’t care, but because I can obsess. Fully. Thoroughly. Relentlessly. This workshop followed the same pattern. When Planning Is Not Optional Being diagnosed with OCD means my brain automatically plans for every possible scenario. It’s not something I switch on, it’s something I... Read more...
One Year Without You
It has been a year since my mum died. That sentence still feels strange to write. Not sharp anymore, but heavy. Like a stone I’ve learned how to carry, even if I still don’t know where to put it down. In the early days, grief was everywhere. Loud. Consuming. It took up the whole room. I couldn’t see past it or around it, and I didn’t try to. Survival was the only goal. Now, a year on, grief has changed shape. It’s no longer the only thing in the room,... Read more...

Made for moments like this

I don’t write these things to sell notebooks.
But these are the kinds of moments my notebooks were made for.
A place to document experiences, not improve them.
Forests & Rivers

Forests & Rivers

Half-Feral, Fully Fabulous

Half-Feral, Fully Fabulous

Mountains & Glens

Mountains & Glens

Seas & Sunrises

Seas & Sunrises

Cosmic Beyond

Cosmic Beyond

Half-Feral, Fully Fabulous

Half-Feral, Fully Fabulous