My God it’s been a tough few years hasn’t it? We’re just over a pandemic and then we’re in a cost of living crisis plus navigating all these changes, hybrid working, readjusting to socialising and life opening up again but maybe not having the time or space to process what’s happened, let alone any personal challenges we may have had.

I’ve just completed Couch to 5K it’s taken me months, I don’t know how many but it certainly wasn’t the 9 weeks allocated. And actually it really doesn’t matter. I felt a bit of shame that something seemingly so small took me so long when others are out training for marathons but I’m learning to be kind to myself . It’s all about starting where you are start where YOU are not your super fit mate!

Whether it’s a fitness goal, an aim to write or create consistently, maintaining a meditation practice or regularly posting about your business on social media, here are some tips I’ve picked up on perseverance:

How can we mitigate the effects of this quarantine and all the stress, boredom and discombobulation it entails. I’ve curated my top 5 tips for coping, and perhaps even thriving amidst the madness as we continue into lockdown.

What do you do when you’re feeling really stressed and overwhelmed? Perhaps you reach for the wine or the biscuits? Perhaps you get tearful, you might shout at the people you love? Maybe you even suffer from full blown panic attacks?

Going to a therapist is becoming more mainstream which I’m personally very happy about BUT there is still a feeling among some circles that it’s a bit self -indulgent or only for people who have suffered deep trauma or maybe have acute anxiety or serious addictions. Sometimes the results aren’t so quantitive as say, ‘quitting drug use’ or ‘feeling less anxious and being able to function again’ so in quite a lot of cases how do we know therapy is working?