Did I miss the memo? Is the pandemic over? I ask not because life is slowly but surely creeping back to normal in much of Europe and the US. Nor because of the rising vaccination rates, the opening of borders or the fact that…
Inspired Mental health exercises New Sad Stressed Writing exercises
Writing exercises: Getting to know your inner critic
In last week’s post, I wrote about the inner critic and why it’s important to get to know yours. I’ve put together some writing exercises and prompts that I’ve used in the past to help me in the process of paying closer attention to…
What if I were to tell you about an insidious being that comes to you in the night and whispers hurtful things to you as you sleep? You’re not fully aware that it’s there, but you’re absorbing the awful messages it delivers to you,…
When I finally reached the top of the Mardi Himal viewpoint – the 4,500 metre peak of my three-day Nepal trek in October 2020 – I thought I’d feel something akin to elation. Instead, if I’m honest, I felt bloody cold. It was freezing…
2020 hasn’t been easy. Over the last six months, it has felt like the news cycle has been hitting us over the head repeatedly with a lead brick, one negative headline after the other. From the early days of COVID-19, through to the bush fires…
It’s now been a couple of weeks since the lockdown in Nepal started to be eased. As I reflect on the three months that have undoubtedly changed the course of world history, the first thing that strikes me is just how resilient humans are. …
I am sat writing at the dining table in my flat in Kathmandu on a sunny and sweaty afternoon in June. From my big windows, I can see a middle-aged man in a red and black check shirt tending to his rooftop garden, the…
Over the past two weeks I’ve been having a difficult time with fear. I’m in the process of making some fairly big life decisions, which have been long overdue and will lead me down some unexplored paths. Since the day that I made one…
Anxious Fear Happy Inspired Mental health exercises New Sad Stressed
Dear Me: Writing a letter of self-compassion to yourself
You probably won’t be surprised if I tell you that the writing process has helped me immensely throughout my journey to better mental health – I am a writer, after all. For example, just after my breakup four years ago, I signed up for…
I used to drink so much that, at times, I’d black out. If you’ve been through this before, you’ll know how awful it is to wake up and find that half of the previous night has seemingly been erased from your memory. A recent…