A Thought I Kept

Epizódok

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  "Be Brave Enough to Suck at Something New" — Sadia Ghazanfar 20.07.2026 51p

  What if confidence isn't where we begin? What if courage comes first? This week on A Thought I Kept, I'm joined by women's leadership and career development coach Sadia Ghazanfar, founder of Slay Your Dragons, to explore the thought she has carried with her for years: "Be brave enough to suck at something new." Together we unpack why so many of us wait to feel confident before we start, how perfectionism keeps us stuck, and why learning, making mistakes and asking for help might be the very t...
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  How We Learn to Matter Too with Lois Jackson 13.07.2026 46p

  What happens when you spend so long supporting everyone else that you begin to lose sight of yourself? In this episode of A Thought I Kept, I talk to coach and charity co-founder Lois Jackson about caregiving, identity, emotional wellbeing and learning to matter in your own life too. In 2017, Lois’s fiancé, former professional rugby player Ed Jackson, suffered a life-changing spinal cord injury. Lois threw herself into supporting his recovery, repeatedly telling herself: “It’s not about me.” ...
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  How Mothering Becomes a Radical Act with Elinor Cleghorn 06.07.2026 1ó 7p

  Motherhood is often talked about as something instinctive, natural, or inevitable. But what if the stories we've inherited about mothering tell only part of the story? In this episode of A Thought I Kept, I sit down with feminist cultural historian and bestselling author Elinor Cleghorn to explore the hidden history of motherhood and the women whose experiences have so often been left out of the historical record. Together, we talk about caregiving, identity, freedom, resilience, and what hap...
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  How We Reclaim Movement in Everyday Life with Wendy Welpton 29.06.2026 53p

  What happens when movement stops being something we measure, earn, optimise or squeeze into a busy day, and becomes something much simpler? In this episode, I’m talking to Wendy Welpton about the idea that everyday movement matters just as much as exercise. It’s a conversation that begins with movement, but quickly becomes one about trust, self-compassion, ageing, wellbeing, and our relationship with our bodies. Wendy shares her own experience of living with chronic pain, the fear and frustra...
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  When Being Good Is Exhausting with Alice Bramhill 22.06.2026 1ó 2p

  There are times in life when trying to be a good person can become exhausting. A good daughter. A good mother. A good friend. A good employee. A good partner. A good citizen. So much of our lives can be shaped by trying to meet expectations, keep the peace, and make other people comfortable. But what happens when being good starts pulling us away from ourselves? In this episode, I talk to Alice Bramhill about the thought she has carried with her from Carl Jung for decades: "I'd rather be whol...
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  How We Stay Creatively Conscious with Claire Venus 15.06.2026 51p

  In a world that often feels noisy, fast-moving, and full of other people's expectations, how do we stay connected to ourselves? How do we know what's truly ours, what lifts us up, and what might be shifting us into someone we were never meant to be? This week, I’m joined by Claire Venus, writer, mentor, Substack strategist, and founder of Creatively Conscious. Claire is someone I turn to often for encouragement and guidance on creativity, community, and showing up online in ways that feel mor...
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  How We Find Our Way Back From Burnout with Dr Jillian Bybee 08.06.2026 56p

  Burnout is often described as being too busy, working too hard, or having too much on our plates. But what if it has as much to do with how we relate to ourselves as it does with how much we do? In this episode of A Thought I Kept, I talk to Dr Jillian Bybee, a paediatric intensive care physician, certified coach, writer, and host of the Humans Leading podcast. Having experienced burnout twice herself, Jillian brings a thought that completely changed the way she understands wellbeing: wellnes...
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  When Wanting Something Is Reason Enough with Rachel Hartigan 01.06.2026 51p

  What happens when wanting something is reason enough? In this episode of A Thought I Kept, I’m joined by writer and journalist Rachel Hartigan to explore a thought that has stayed with her for years: “I do it because I want to.” This opens up some surprisingly big questions: How often do we feel the need to justify what we want? How do we separate our own desires from expectations, responsibilities, fear, or the stories we’ve absorbed about who we should be? And what changes when we stop look...
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  How People Pleasing Stops Us Choosing Ourselves with Natalie Lue 26.05.2026 1ó 7p

  My guest this week Natalie Lue is known to many people for her groundbreaking work on people pleasing, boundaries, emotional baggage, and relationships through The Baggage Reclaim Sessions and her book The Joy of Saying No. We talk about the emotional roots of perfectionism and over-responsibility, the pressure to keep proving yourself, and the exhausting belief that you have to “earn” permission to change. We explore what happens when you realise you’ve over-identified with being usefu...
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  When Self-Help Becomes Something We Do Together with Toni Jones 18.05.2026 1ó 6p

  This week, I talk to Toni Jones about all things self-help. Toni is the founder of Shelf Help, the world’s first self-help book club and over the last decade she has read 1,000 self-help books while building a global community around reading, reflection and connection. We explore the difference between trying to optimise yourself and actually learning how to care for yourself. Toni shares why she thinks curiosity, experimentation, and connection can shift our approach to endless self-improvem...
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  How We Live Between Belief and Doubt with Hiroko Yoda 11.05.2026 48p

  In this episode of A Thought I Kept, I talk to Hiroko Yoda about grief, Japanese spirituality, uncertainty, ritual, belonging, and what it means to live somewhere between belief and doubt. We explore the idea of “half belief, half doubt” — the Japanese concept of hanshin hangi and how it can offer a more spacious way of relating to uncertainty, spirituality, and even ourselves. Hiroko shares how the death of her mother became the beginning of a deeper spiritual awakening, not through certaint...
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  Hope, Hulp and Human Tricky Things with Jacky Power 04.05.2026 58p

  In this episode, I talk to Jacky Power about feelings — the ones we hide, the ones we soften, and the ones we’re not always sure we’re allowed to have. We explore what it means to be seen, and why that can feel both deeply wanted and quietly risky. There’s something here about the tension between expression and protection — how we might say things sideways, through poetry or humour or busyness, and hope someone understands anyway. We talk about loneliness, and the difference between being alo...
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  When You’re Here and Not Quite Here with Cathy Rentzenbrink 27.04.2026 1ó 6p

  There are days when you’re here, fully in your life, in your conversations, in the small, ordinary moments, and days when part of you feels somewhere else entirely. That's what I get into with Cathy Rentzenbrink this week. We explore what it means to live a life that feels both grounded and slightly unreal at the same time. We explore the tension between being present and being pulled elsewhere and how easy it is to lose sight of what’s right in front of us. We talk about anxiety and emotiona...
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  How We Learn to Trust Things Will Be OK with Tanya Lynch 20.04.2026 59p

  In this episode, I talk to Tanya Lynch about hope, resilience, and the ways we hold ourselves through change. We explore what it means to believe that things will be OK, not as a forced positive mindset, but as something lived and felt over time. Through stories of heartbreak, midlife, motherhood, and starting again, Tanya shares how this trust has been shaped not just by ease, but by everything she’s had to move through. We talk about the emotional reality of life’s harder seasons—grief, unc...
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  When Trying is Enough with Imogen Partridge 13.04.2026 59p

  What if trying — in your work, your parenting, your creativity — was already enough? There are time when it can feel like you’re doing everything you can, and still wondering if it’s enough. The days where you’re holding work, parenting, and life all at once, trying to build something, care for others, and look after your own mental health in the middle of it all. In this episode, I talk to Imogen Partridge about what it means to try, and how we begin to recognise that effort as enough. We ex...
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  Why Life Feels Better When We Do It Together with Laurence McCahill 06.04.2026 54p

  There’s something that changes when we stop doing life on our own. Maybe that's an idea that only makes sense once it’s shared, a feeling that softens when someone else is there to hear it, or the magic that comes from being a room of likeminded people singing Queen. In this episode, I talk to Laurence McCahill about connection in its most everyday form and what it means to gather, to listen, and to create spaces where people can be themselves. We explore why life can feel lighter, clearer, a...
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  When Grief Changes You But Doesn’t Define You with Rachel Hart-Phillips 30.03.2026 53p

  In this episode, I talk to Rachel Hart-Phillips about grief, suicide, and what it means to be there for someone in the hardest moments of their life. We explore that quiet, often uncomfortable space where words feel inadequate and yet, where they can matter most. We talk about the fear of saying the wrong thing, the silence that can grow around loss and mental health, and how even the simplest gestures — a message, a card, a “love you mate” — can open a door. Rachel shares her experience of l...
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  Making Space for All That We Feel with Dr MaryCatherine McDonald 23.03.2026 52p

  In this episode, I talk to Dr MaryCatherine McDonald about what it means to make space for all that we feel, especially the emotions we’ve been taught to push away. We explore anxiety, grief, joy, and all the ways our nervous system tries to protect us, even when it leaves us bracing against life rather than living it. MaryCatherine shares how her understanding of emotions shifted from something to manage or control, to something to sit with and relate to. We talk about anticipated loss, the ...
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  How We Break Free from Alcohol with Ellie Nova 16.03.2026 58p

  Sometimes the things we reach for to cope slowly become the things we feel trapped by. A glass of wine at the end of a long day. Something to take the edge off anxiety. Something that promises connection, relaxation, or a moment of relief from the noise of everyday life. In this week’s episode of A Thought I Kept, I talk to sober coach, sober mentor, and writer Ellie Nova about our relationship with alcohol, emotions, and the stories many of us carry about coping. Ellie shares the thought tha...
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  How to Find Beauty in Everyday Life with Josephine Dolan-Dufourd 09.03.2026 55p

  What if the way to feel better isn’t about doing more but learning how to notice what’s already here? In this episode, I talk with occupational therapist Josephine Dolan-Dufourd about what it means to find beauty in everyday life, especially when you're not quite where you thought you'd be. We explore burnout, the pressure to keep producing, and the curious way our attention can get pulled away from the lives we are actually living. Josephine reflects on her years working in forensic psychia...