Everyone has a story. Everyone has something that is uniquely their life experience that can help others in some way. So that is where we begin.

Here is what I know about getting older: it actually gets good.

Autumn is the season that gives you permission to come home. The shorter days mean the evenings start earlier and I stop feeling like I should be out doing things and start feeling like I'm allowed to just be in. To draw the curtains a little sooner. To light something. To stay. It's the season I feel most like myself.

Because while things might feel uncertain, and they may well get harder, many of us are still living with a level of comfort and safety that is easy to overlook. A warm home. A shared meal. A cup of tea in a quiet moment. These are small things, but they are not insignificant.

…there’s something grounding about acknowledging the people who were part of your life at different times. The ones who saw you through certain seasons, who shared in moments that, at the time, felt like everything.

I think we underestimate how much that still matters.

Use what you've got, grow as much as you can, support local, buy seasonal. In a time when the cost of living is biting, it's also just a smarter, cheaper way to cook.

The smallest daily interactions can bring warmth when the world feels a little heavy. Much like pausing to soak up a patch of sun on a cold day, receiving a moment of kindness can feel unexpectedly glorious, no matter how fleeting.

“If you want to go for a run, go for a run. Don’t look for company. Sooner or later, on your fifth run or your twentieth, like-minded people will find you themselves.”

None of us cares whose boot scored the goal. We are on the same team, and when it works, everyone wins.

…if giving it an acronym means I can lie down in the middle of the day and call it performance enhancement rather than “having a little nap,” I am willing to lean in.

Sometimes a friend’s reaction to your new chapter is not about judgment at all. It is about what they’ve held for you. The nights they stayed on the phone while you cried. The moments they picked you up off the bathroom floor of heartbreak. The times they nursed you through endings and watched you piece yourself back together.

Everyday Big Magic is about responding to those nudges. It is about acting before you feel entirely prepared.

There is a quiet temptation at the beginning of any year to believe we must overhaul our entire lives. Become more disciplined. More organised. A more impressive version of ourselves.

But perfection is a heavy place to begin.

It started on long, cold nights when the television no longer felt like rest. Instead of disappearing into a book or retreating to a screen, I found myself drawn to the table, a cup of tea, and the steady rhythm of a difficult jigsaw puzzle. I remember giggling at myself as I realised this was the ultimate confirmation that I was officially in my granny era.

Local Naturopath, Samantha Bolitho shares her 5 lesser-known tips to help rebalance digestion beyond hydration, wholefoods and movement- the wholesome backbone of all her holistic advice.  

For years I assumed balance meant doing everything well at the same time. A perfect week where work flowed, relationships flourished, the body was steady, routines were solid, home was tidy. I am still waiting for that week.

My daughter’s latest obsession is an animated film called K-Pop Demon Hunters.
At first, I thought it was just another catchy soundtrack on loop in the car. But somewhere between kinder runs and dinner prep, I realised I was still singing one of the songs long after she’d gone to bed. What It Sounds Like has well and truly worked its way under my skin.

Someone very special to me recently remarked how resilient I am, and said I should write a column about resilience.
Which sounded simple enough… until I sat down to write it.

If you told me a year ago that I would be going to bed each night with tape across my mouth, I would have assumed we were heading into a very different kind of lifestyle column. But no, this is not bedroom bondage. It is called mouth taping, and believe it or not, it is one of the simplest, strangest and most effective little wellness habits I have tried.

We talk a lot about sustainability these days. Sustainable living, sustainable business, sustainable growth. But lately I’ve been wondering: is simply sustaining enough?