Gut Brain Glow Up

In the final part of my relationships series, I'm ending on what are probably the most formative relationships we have: family. Family can either be something that is your biggest supporter, or part of your issue; for me it's a bit of both. I wouldn't say there has been a seismic shift in the relationship with my family, but I feel the biggest alteration is that I've become a 'worry' in more than a simple familial bond way. There's also this sudden pressure that I feel to be constantly improving, and when I'm not, or I've taken a step backwards, it feels as though I've let them down and I'm not getting better fast enough for them. Part of this maybe true, as they just want me back to 'me', but a lot of the time it's also pressure from myself to get better. There's also the inevitable questions of 'when are you going to do x, or why aren't you doing z' that come with complicated feelings and I just find myself autom...

Friends are a huge part of life; they come in many forms, some are actually aquaitances who will fizzle out, some are found through joint experience, you may find some who are simply there for a good time until life gets serious, and then there are true friends. True friends are the family we choose, they're there when you need them, they're honest with you, and you know that no matter what you can always count on them, even if it's been a while since you last caught up. True friends are those friends you don't see often, let alone regularly message with, but when you do it's as though no time has past and you're picking right up where you left off. I'm very lucky in that I have a core collective of true friends who have stuck with me through the good and bad, the poor boyfriend choices and the years I had an awful fringe; they've also unknowingly got me through and made life worth living when I've had my darkest times.  In this day and age where eve...

 Last week I mentioned how I've had to take a step back from work and career in order to focus on my health, so it seemed fitting to talk about our relationship with work/colleagues and how putting your health first can impact you in more ways than one.  I imagine that most people reading this have had a moment of realisation that perhaps their work life balance isn't the best. Work life balance seems to be something that alot of us talk about and are aware of but aren't always that motivated, or perhaps able, to do something about. For me, I figured this out a little too late when my body was already trying to warn me (cue losing my voice for 3 years and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), and my husband trying to encourage me to finish on time more often than I did. Now, before anyone gets the wrong impression, work was not the cause of my issues, this was already long embedded in my system, but the associated stress (normally created by myself for being a perfectionist and people...

Anyone who knows me will know that I've never really had much self confidence, especially in terms of my capabilities and body image, aka my self esteem has never been that high. Before I became unwell though, I was finally getting somewhere with it; I was happy with my body in a way I hadn't been before, I had a good job and was newly married to a man who is completely out of my league (though he would disagree!). However, with everything else that changed when I became Ill, any self worth I'd managed to build up after many years of work disappeared, hence this week's chapter in my 'relationship' series: the relationship with myself. Now, I will do my best to prevent this from being a 'woe is me' installment, as that's the opposite of what I want to put out into the world, but no promises!  So, what do I mean by the relationship with myself? I'm sure anyone on social media will know that it's becoming more widely accepted and promoted for pe...