Musings on creativity, oomph, getting unstuck, playfulness and living a more joyful life.
Let’s start at the beginning in defining what I mean by a glimmer.
The term “glimmer” was first coined by social worker Deb Dana in 2018 in her book The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy. Her work centres around complex trauma and glimmer was a term she created to reflect the opposite of a trigger.
It’...
Growing up I was a very creative kid, always making something or other. But it was a continual exercise in frustration as the ideas in my head never quite matched up to what I made in reality. Undeterred, I continued to make stuff until I had a bit of a crisis of confidence and felt like it was al...
I still catch a reflection of myself and have a moment of surprise.
It happens every morning when I briefly glance in the mirror. I immediately think "oh! I'm bald! I forgot that" and then I smile and say (often out loud) to myself "hello baldy!"
I feel extremely lucky those moments of surprise a...
“Thank you so much for your honesty, your vulnerability and your practical advice”
This was one of the many very lovely bits of feedback I received last week from one of my free How to Make an Online Course webinars. It wasn’t the only comment about my honesty, which has led, through various ponde...
This is a sentence opener I’ve found to be super useful when I get asked “so what is it you do?”.
That question used to freeze me in fear, especially when asked by someone who wasn’t in the creative sector. “Well, I do a few things…” I’d mumble.
Fast forward a few years and I now confidently say,...
When you’re freelance or self employed, properly going on holiday is a hard thing to do. There’s a worry that, as you do everything in your business, things might fall apart if you’re not keeping on top of messages and emails. There’s also the more uncomfortable thing that you get validation and a...
I often catch people staring when I’m out and about without a wig. I don’t mind it at all - I’d stare too; it’s just human to be curious about difference and diversity. On the whole, I find that humans are lovely and they don’t want people to get upset by knowing they are being stared at, so when ...
Tricky question right?
If you follow me on Instagram or LinkedIn, you'll have seen that I've been musing on that a bit recently, especially in relation to creativity.
There are, what I would consider to be, healthy distractions and unhealthy ones.
Healthy distractions would include reflective tim...
It's been nearly 3 months since I braved the shave at the end of January. One most definite thing I've learned is that January is a poor time of year to go bald. It's been a voyage of discovery in that respect, including testing out lots of different options until I've finally found the right ha
...
So many days asking “Why is my hair falling out” have come to an end.
Yesterday was the first day in nearly 4000 days when my hair didn’t fall out. I didn’t check the bald patches to see what was worse, what was growing back, what was turning pure white. I didn’t sigh as a handful of hair came ou...
In one of the last face to face meetings I had just before the pandemic massively changed our lives, someone said to me “the only way forward is through radical generosity”.
We were talking about the arts sector and how it could withstand the year on year eroding of funding and support. But the ph...
Let me put my cards on the table (next to a chai latte and a bit of baking goodness): I blooming love Christmas!
This isn't because every Christmas I've ever had has been idyllic. Far from it. 10 years ago, my brother passed away suddenly right before Christmas day. Then we had that incredibly d...
“What, in this situation, can you control?”
That question comes up a lot in coaching. As a client tries to untangle something they feel unclear about which is complicated by lots of external factors: other people’s behaviour and choices, society at large, the weather, etc. There’s a common thread...
My best ideas come one of two ways. One is the lightning bolt where an idea arrives, brilliant in it’s fully formed wonderfulness. The other, which happens far more frequently, is a slow burn: one where an idea emerges from the depths of my mind, vague and indistinct.
I feel it’s taken me far too...
I’ve often said that facilitation is an art form in itself.
The beginning of my career was mainly focused around drama workshops. I delivered these up and down the country with people of all ages and a huge variety of backgrounds. They took an energy I’m not sure I could muster several times a we...
