Category: advice
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Surviving Christmas: 7 Top Tips For a Calmer Big Day
In my house, Christmas means dragging, kicking and screaming, the young adults in my family who have inherited the Grinch gene from my husband. And though I understand and respect why some people don’t like Christmas, my response to that attitude is not on my watch, and definitely not at my Christmas table. Hence, despite…
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4 Important Life Lessons I Share With My Kids
That crazy decision was terrifying at the time but I do believe it made us stronger, more resilient, and gave us an incredible learning opportunity. It has given me more time to recover in the wake of family crises, more time for self-care and exercise – the best therapy for my brain – and the…
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7 Essential Truths About Ageing – and Why It’s Not That Bad
Western society expects women to challenge the ageing process at every turn, whilst other cultures embrace it. We celebrate youth, influenced by celebrities like the Kardashions, under-nourished catwalk models, older men who date younger women – but thank you, Keanu Reeves, for bucking the trend – and actresses who “have work” to remain employed.
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Modern Parenting: A Full-Time Job With No Off-Switch
Parenting needs a rebrand. With more of us working and the pressure to parent perfectly, “doing the best we can” seems much more achievable. With unacceptable behaviour escalating in classrooms and youth suicide on the rise, something must give.
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When The Worst Happens: Embracing Acceptance
Control isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are valid reasons we put certain people in positions of control. However, as we’ve seen in recent stories of coercive control in relationships and the fears many of us felt about Trump’s win, it can be dangerous when it is abused. Relinquishing control is something some parents also…
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Anxiety and The Hidden Power of Uncertainty
The worst advice someone can give people like me is to stop worrying. Not only is that reductive, telling me to stop worrying makes me worry about why I worry so much. I am an Olympian in overthinking, and controlling my spiralling thoughts is just not that simple. It is also exhausting.
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Dieting Disguised As Healthy Eating Is A Disorder
Losing weight isn’t rocket science. If you put too little into the body, it burns fat to compensate. I worry that what we are truly witnessing here is the progression of a disorder.
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The True Meaning of “Friends with Benefits”
If your friends don’t make the time to service their relationship with you, let them go to make room for the ones who invest A friend of mine who has an enviably wide circle of friends tells me she has an inner circle of only five special friends. Each represents a finger on her hand,…
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Do I Really Have To Give Up Drinking?
My choice to drink less has nothing to do with “seeing the light” in terms of my health, or because I’ve managed to avoid the dangerous lure of addiction that runs through my family tree. It is not even based on the advice of my doctor – although I’m sure she would back me wholeheartedly.…
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Ageing: Is 10 More GOOD YEARS Too Much To Ask?
The thing about the ageing process is that one minute you’re cruising along feeling relatively young for your years and the next you are using hand cream. And yet, despite my lifelong battle with health anxiety, death scares me somewhat less than the journey there and the “not knowing” exactly how and when my finale…
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Trusting the Journey: The Secret to Happiness in Middle Age
It is only now, in middle age, that I am finally accepting that I don’t possess the superpower (or indeed any superpower) to fix everything – no one does, not even those with the money to buy whatever they want or need. Money may be able to buy rockets, but it can’t buy you back…
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Here’s How I Overcome My Self-Doubt About Writing
My self-doubt is related to my fear of rejection – the curse of many writers – and after a decade in the industry, there are still many times I get the jitters when I file an article or publish a new post.
LOUISA SIMMONDS 