Small steps lead to big changes

Most of us don’t become people-pleasers because we’re weak. We do it because, at some point, it felt safer. Safer to keep the peace than risk being misunderstood. Safer to carry more than to disappoint someone. Safer to be liked than to be real. But that kind of safety has a cost. You say yes when everything in you says no. You shrink to stay agreeable. And eventually, you wonder why life feels so disconnected, even when it looks fine on the surface. Why People-Pleasing Snea

We don’t talk enough about the moment your body quietly stages an intervention. For me, it wasn’t a dramatic collapse. It was six weeks of being unwell the constant exhaustion, the tests, the biopsies, the appointments and the slow realisation that my mind had been overriding my body for far too long. I’d been rushing around and then suddenly, my body said: No more. What surprised me most wasn’t the illness itself. It was how much clarity came with being forced to stop. Midli

Bad news: I have microscopic colitis. Good news: I finally know what’s going on and there’s treatment. The past six weeks have been rough. Chronic diarrhoea. Multiple blood tests. A colonoscopy with biopsies. The slow, unsettling wait for answers. And then the confirmation: microscopic colitis, a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) that inflames the colon and shows up as persistent watery poo, abdominal pain, and cramping. It’s not glamorous. It’s not dramatic. But it ha

Self-doubt has a convincing voice.It sounds practical, even protective: “ Maybe you should wait until you’re more ready.” “Other people are better at this.” “Don’t embarrass yourself. ” It disguises itself as logic but what it’s really doing is keeping you safe. Safe from judgment. Safe from failure. Safe from standing out. The problem is, the longer you obey that voice, the smaller your life becomes. Why Self-Doubt Isn’t a Sign of Weakness Many women reach midlife believing