A little about me and how Mindamity came to be

I have always written, particularly during the more difficult chapters of my life. Through healing, pain, loss, and those times when I felt I had no one else to share things with.

Somewhere along the way, I accumulated more than 150 poems and countless journals, many of them still held together with old elastic bands, dusty and a little ragged around the edges.

Putting words onto paper became my ally in some of my hardest hours. It was a way of getting out what was inside, giving it some air and allowing myself to see it in front of me. Somehow, once those words were on the page, they felt safe. And there they stayed, held until I was ready to return to them.

Every now and again, I would look back through those pages and find myself pleasantly surprised by how far I had travelled since writing them. Sometimes I could see the healing that had taken place, sometimes the growth, and sometimes there was simply a quiet satisfaction in realising that something which had once felt so difficult no longer held me in quite the same way.

Since 2014, as I studied and worked with different therapeutic approaches, I continued writing. I wrote about what I was learning, what I was experiencing and what was genuinely helping me. Over the years, those writings grew into several books, although none ever made their way into the world.

Eventually, I decided to bring them together. I spent time revisiting what I had written, finding the pieces that belonged together and gently setting aside others that might one day find their home in the Mindamity Minis.

And slowly, Mindamity began to take shape.

This book now brings together the understanding I've gained through my therapeutic work, the practices that have supported me and the things I continue to return to in my own life.

I've loved exploring the science behind so much of what we experience, and weaving it together with my connection to the natural world. Living here among the mountains, woodlands and rivers of Snowdonia, nature has been both a companion and a quiet teacher.

And now, after all these years of writing, I find myself becoming an author. I'm still getting my head around that!

But perhaps that's rather fitting. What began as a way of finding my own way through life's more difficult moments has become something I can share with others.

And I hope that somewhere within these pages, you might find something that speaks to you, too.