Episodes
-
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 frustration that came with it, and how it led her to rethink everything she thought she knew about movement and exercise. Together, we explore what happens when we become disconnected from our bodies, why so many of us have absorbed limiting messages about ageing, and how we can begin to rebuild confidence in ourselves through small, everyday acts of movement.
Whether you’re navigating chronic pain, feeling disconnected from your body, wondering how to stay active as you get older, or simply tired of wellbeing becoming another thing on your to-do list, this conversation offers a gentler way of thinking about movement, health, and everyday life.
Wendy Welpton is the founder of Reclaim Movement, host of the Make Movement Matter podcast, and author of Move Well for Life: Unlock the Life-Changing Power of Everyday Movement. Through Wendy's coaching, writing and teaching, she helps people rediscover movement as something that supports wellbeing, confidence and freedom throughout life.
So if you've spent the morning sitting at a desk, if your shoulders are somewhere near your ears, or if you've ever wondered whether movement could feel less like a task and more like a companion, I hope you'll stand up, walk around and join us.
Mentioned in this episode
• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
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 whole than good."
Alice is a psychotherapist, mental health nurse, writer, podcaster, and advocate for deep feelers and big-hearted people pleasers. Together, we explore the hidden cost of constantly trying to get things right, and the relief that can come when we stop treating parts of ourselves as problems to solve.
We talk about people-pleasing, self-trust, sensitivity, boundaries, burnout, and the long process of learning to listen to ourselves again. We explore why so many of us struggle to know what we really want, how assumptions shape our lives and relationships, and why acceptance may be far more powerful than perfection.
Along the way, we discuss late-diagnosed neurodivergence, creativity in midlife, visibility, rejection sensitivity, motherhood, and the everyday work of becoming more fully ourselves.
What I loved about this conversation is that it isn't really about self-improvement. It's about self-acceptance. About letting go of the exhausting performance of being who we think we should be, and making room for who we actually are.
Alice Bramhill is a registered mental health nurse, psychotherapist, writer, podcast host, and creator of a thriving community for deep feelers and big-hearted people pleasers. Diagnosed with ADHD at 47 and autism at 50, she specialises in supporting late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults around relationships, boundaries, self-trust, masking, rejection sensitivity, and burnout. Her first book, I Need My Space But I Like You Too, is out later this year.
Whether you're navigating anxiety, emotional overwhelm, people-pleasing, or simply wondering how to feel more at home in yourself, I hope you'll find something in Alice's thought that stays with you too.
Pre-Order I Need My Space (But I Like You Too!) | Community & Newsletter | You Tube | Podcast on Spotify | Podcast on Apple | Instagram | Website
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
Missing episodes?
-
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 more human, more intentional, and more like ourselves.
The thought Claire brings to the podcast is to stay creatively conscious. Together, we explore what that means in practice and how creativity can become more than something we do. We talk about building a life that feels like our own, the freedom that comes from questioning the rules we’ve inherited, and the importance of paying attention to what uplifts us rather than what leaves us feeling depleted. Along the way, we touch on self-trust, visibility, nervous system awareness, burnout, creative expression, motherhood, and the challenge of staying open and curious in a digital world that can sometimes feel overwhelming.
Claire Venus is an award winning Engagement and Audience Development Consultant, author, Substack Expert and Mentor. She lives on the Northumberland Coast in the UK with her husband, two children and dog; a blue whippet called Stella. In 2015, Claire left the city and followed the call to live rurally, buying a 100 year old home that needed renovation, stepping into her lifelong vision to live by the sea. After a twenty year career in worldwide festivals and events, she pivoted to start her company ‘Creatively Conscious Ltd’ and expanded her brand to work with artists, writers and female founders globally online.
Claire is the author of 6 books including How to Build a World Class Substack, an Amazon bestseller, and Invisible Trust. She has been featured in The Telegraph, The Sunday Times and ipaper. She writes to an email audience of over 19,000 subscribers and has popular social and YouTube channels too.
Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
Leonie Dawson
Emma Gannon
Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale
Creative Health Alliance
Brené Brown's TED Talk on vulnerability
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
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: wellness is not a state of being, but a state of action.
Together, we explore what happens when we stop thinking of wellbeing as a destination we eventually arrive at and start seeing it as something woven through everyday life. We talk about the difference between stress, overwhelm, and burnout, why so many of us keep pushing through long after we've run out of energy, and what it means to build small moments of restoration into busy lives.
Along the way, we discuss emotional suppression, self-compassion, nervous system regulation, perfectionism, motherhood, leadership, and the challenge of caring for ourselves in cultures that often reward self-sacrifice. Jillian shares why five minutes can sometimes be enough to begin, how burnout can disconnect us from joy as well as difficult emotions, and why rest is about far more than simply taking time off.
This conversation is full of gentle reminders that wellbeing doesn't live somewhere beyond our lives, waiting for us to finally get everything right. It is something we practise, imperfectly, in the midst of work, family, grief, responsibility, and ordinary days.
Whether you're feeling emotionally exhausted, navigating stress, recovering from burnout, or simply wondering how to care for yourself in a more sustainable way, I hope you'll find something here that stays with you.
Dr. Jillian Bybee is a busy pediatric intensive care physician, toddler mom, certified coach, and creative who uses what she’s learned from recovering from burnout twice to help other ambitious women live less stressed, more satisfying lives. Her Substack publication and podcast, Humans Leading, aim to remind us that, although we can do amazing things, we are not machines (and even machines get regularly scheduled maintenance). She believes that we all need and deserve rest, joy, and time away from work. If you are looking to make a change in your own life, Dr. Jillian offers 1:1 coaching, group coaching for teams, and workshops.
You can find Dr. Jillian in the following places:
Substack: Humans Leading | Jillian Bybee, MD | Substack
Instagram: Jillian Bybee, MD (@lifeandpicu)
LinkedIn: Jillian Bybee, MD | LinkedIn
Website: Jillian Bybee, MD- Physician Leader, Coach, Speaker
Podcast: Humans Leading
Books and papers mentioned in the podcast:
Burnout: Solve Your Stress Cycle by Emily & Amelia Nagoski
Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown
Rehder K, Adair KC, Sexton JB. The Science of Health Care Worker Burnout: Assessing and Improving Health Care Worker Well-Being (2021).
Duke Well-Being Toolkit Resources
Forty-five Good Things — Sexton et al.
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
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 looking for a better reason?
Rachel’s thought comes from Amelia Earhart, the pioneering aviator at the centre of her new book, Lost: Amelia Earhart’s Three Mysterious Deaths and One Extraordinary Life. As we talk, Amelia’s story becomes a way into a much broader conversation about curiosity, self-trust, adventure, identity, and the unfinished stories that continue to hold our attention.
Together, we explore the tension between doing what feels comfortable and doing what feels alive, the challenge of knowing what we really want, and the ways curiosity can help us navigate uncertainty when we don’t know what comes next. We also talk about visibility, creativity, midlife, motherhood, freedom, and the vulnerable experience of releasing something deeply personal into the world.
Along the way, Rachel reflects on the years she spent researching Amelia Earhart, the pull of unanswered questions, and why some stories stay with us long after they should have faded.
Rachel Hartigan is a writer and journalist who spent more than a decade at National Geographic and previously worked for The Washington Post Book Review. Her latest book, Lost: Amelia Earhart’s Three Mysterious Deaths and One Extraordinary Life, explores both the enduring mystery of Earhart’s disappearance and the people who continue searching for answers nearly ninety years later.
This is a conversation about curiosity, courage, self-trust, and what it means to follow the things that call to us, even when we can’t fully explain why.
Lost | Website | Instagram | LinkedIn
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
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 useful, successful, capable, or needed and how frightening, freeing, and vulnerable it can feel to let some of that go.
There’s so much in here about anxiety, control, people pleasing, emotional patterns, self-worth, and learning to trust yourself even when you don’t fully know what comes next. We also talk about art, midlife, changing careers, the stories we inherit about work, and the difference between striving and actually feeling alive.
Natalie Lue is a writer, artist and podcaster best known for The Joy of Saying No and her long-running platform Baggage Reclaim, which has helped many people navigate relationships, boundaries, emotional unavailability, and people pleasing over the last two decades.
Website | The Joy of Saying No | Let Go | Baggage Reclaim Sessions
Also mentioned in this podcast:
Financial Recovery by Karen McCall
My episode with Gabrielle Treanor
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
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-improvement culture.
We also talk about emotional avoidance, self-trust, and the experience of becoming more visible to other people after years of keeping parts of yourself hidden. There’s a beautiful conversation here too about friendship, community, relationships that deepen over time, and the vulnerability of letting yourself be seen.
Toni Jones is a journalist-turned-bibliotherapist and the founder of Shelf Help Club. She hosts The Bibliotherapists podcast and has spent the last decade exploring how books, reflection, and shared conversation can support emotional wellbeing and personal growth. Her new book, You: A Beginner’s Guide, brings together many of the ideas we explore in this episode.
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by wellness culture, exhausted by trying to hold everything together, or wished someone would just say, “you don’t have to figure this out on your own,” I hope this conversation keeps you company.
Shelf Help | You (A Beginner's Guide) | The Bibliotherapists Podcast
Books, authors, podcasts and talks mentioned in this episode
• Paul McKenna, Change Your Life in 7 Days
• Brené Brown, Rising Strong
• Brené Brown, TED Talk: The Power of Vulnerability
• Brené Brown, TED Talk: Listening to Shame
• Glennon Doyle, Untamed and the podcast We Can Do Hard Things
• Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love and Big Magic
• Amir Levine, Attached and Secure
• Alexandra Elle, The Company We Keep
• Shahroo Izadi, The Kindness Method
• Will Bowen, A Complaint Free World
• Suzy Reading, Self-Care for Tough Times
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
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 certainty or doctrine, but through noticing. A walk in the park. A shrine glimpsed through the trees. A feeling that perhaps we are less alone than we think.
Together we talk about the everyday rituals that help us feel connected when life feels overwhelming: making coffee, eating a meal, taking a walk, speaking kind words aloud. We explore how Japanese ideas of kami — spiritual presences that exist in nature, objects, and everyday life — can shift the way we think about grief, anxiety, happiness, emotions, and connection.
We also talk about anger, darkness, feminism, ghosts, belonging, and why playfulness can sit alongside spirituality rather than oppose it. This is a conversation about learning to live with uncertainty without rushing to resolve it, and about finding comfort in what cannot always be fully explained.
Hiroko Yoda, a Japanese cultural historian and journalist whose work has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, The New Yorker, CNN and PBS, offers a path to joy and peace through the peculiar flexibility of Japanese spirituality. In her new book Eight Million Ways to Happiness: Wisdom for Inspiration and Healing from the Heart of Japan Hiroko takes readers on a journey to her homeland’s sacred core, revealing an essential part of Japan rarely experienced by outsiders – yet has much to offer those on their own quest for meaning and resilience, wherever they are.
Website | Instagram | Eight Million Ways to Happiness
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
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 alone and feeling emotionally unseen. About anxiety and overwhelm, and what happens when we start to understand our emotions not as problems to fix, but as signals from a nervous system trying to find its way back to safety. And we spend time with the idea of “hulp” and why it can be so hard to ask for help, even when we need it most.
Jacky Power is a therapeutic poet, trauma therapist, and transformational speaker working at the intersection of psychology and performance poetry. With an MSc in Addiction Psychology & Counselling and advanced EFT training, she has spent years helping "cycle breakers” - people interrupting intergenerational patterns - find language for what they've been taught to swallow. She is the creator of the HULP to HOPE framework, host of the Words in the Wilderness podcast, and has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe with her one woman show ’Stop the world I want to get off’ and has a poetry collection out under the same name. Her next book, From Hulp to Hope, is due out this summer 2026.
Substack | Website | Instagram
We also mention: The work of Dan Siegel | Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird | Deb Dana, Polyvagal Theory bk | Brené Brown’s Atlas of the Heart | We’re Going on a Bear Hunt | Charles R. Snyder's hope theory
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
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 emotional overwhelm, about the loud pressures of modern life, and the small things that can tip us over the edge. We explore creativity as a way back to ourselves, reading as a kind of refuge, and the idea of “selfing” — trying to be who you are without turning that into another thing to get right. At the heart of the conversation is the thought Cathy has kept since childhood: that moment of realising how easily our attention can be pulled away from the people and lives we love, and how, in hindsight, we wish we had stayed closer to what mattered.
Cathy Rentzenbrink is an amiable bookworm, a writer of fiction and non-fiction who chairs literary events and speaks on life, death, love, and literature. She is best known for her memoir The Last Act of Love, as well as Dear Reader and Write It All Down. Unusually extravert for a writer, she likes talking to strangers, is a lover not a fighter, and is determined to cling onto her faith in humanity. Twice divorced, she lives in Cornwall with her son and cat. She has been extremely keen on Agatha Christie since she was nine years old and her next book The Agatha Christie Cure will be out in September.
Instagram | Website | Cathy's Sunday Sessions: A monthly work-out for your writing self | Books by Cathy | Also mentioned: Dr Gavin Francis: The Unfragile Mind
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
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, uncertainty, anxiety—and how those experiences can sit alongside beauty, connection, and even moments of calm. There’s something here about being in nature, about looking up instead of down, about the small, everyday ways we find steadiness again. We also explore journaling, creativity, and the spaces Tanya creates through her retreats, where women can feel held, seen, and a little lighter.
Tanya Lynch is a mother, a ridgeback owner and the founder of Ease Retreats. Tanya collaborates with authors and creatives, hosting retreats in beautiful venues across the UK. A year ago she became a certified bibliotherapist offering book prescriptions and launched The Bibliotherapists podcast with her co-host Toni Jones. Tanya is also a therapeutic journalling coach and through her programme ‘Rage on a Page’, she helps midlife women channel their emotions into something more positive and creative in less than 60 days. Each Thursday Tanya hosts an online journalling club ‘Journal with Ease’. She’s usually near a beach walking the dogs, hosting retreats, writing in her journal or hanging out on Substack.
Website | Instagram at Ease Retreats and Tanya Lynch
If you’re in a moment that feels uncertain, or you’re learning how to trust yourself again, this is a great episode for you.
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
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 explore the emotional weight of trying — how it can go unseen in busy lives, especially in motherhood, business, and everyday wellbeing — and how powerful it can be to pause and give ourselves credit for it.
We talk about creativity as a practical wellbeing tool rather than something reserved for artists — a way to regulate emotions, ease anxiety, and reconnect with yourself. Imogen shares what she’s seen in her creative workshops, where people often arrive believing they’re “not creative,” and what shifts when they allow themselves to begin anyway. We also explore how creativity can sit alongside other mental health practices — from walking and journaling to community and conversation — as part of a more personal, flexible approach to wellbeing.
This conversation is for anyone who is looking for more ways to support your mental health, reconnect with creativity, or navigate the overlap between work, parenting, and wellbeing.
Imogen Partridge is a watercolour illustrator and creative workshop host based in the UK. Before illustration, she spent over a decade as an interior designer, a background that shaped her belief that creativity is a tool for storytelling, connection, and meaning. She now works with both individuals and businesses, running workshops for corporate teams and events, and creating live illustration and bespoke commissions. She's also a mum of two, keen (but chaotic) allotmenteer and currently training for the London Marathon in aid of Mind.
Website | Instagram | Linkedin | Substack | Photo of Imogen was taken by Katie RhonaSupport the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
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, and more alive when we do it together, and why so many of us are quietly craving that kind of connection now.
We talk about friendship across decades, the difference between being around people and truly connecting with them, and the subtle shift from doing things alone to letting other people in. There’s something here too about midlife — about reaching a point where success or productivity matter less, and being with the right people matters more.
Laurence shares the thought he has kept: that he is the glue that brings people together. Not by being the loudest voice in the room, but by listening, noticing, and helping others feel at ease. It opens up a wider question of how we each bring people together in our own lives, often without even realising it.
This episode is for anyone wanting more connection in their lives and hoping for places where it might be found.
Laurence McCahill is co-founder of The Happy Startup School, an alternative business school and thriving community of purpose-driven entrepreneurs and leaders. He's a designer, coach and community builder, and the creative force behind their legendary gatherings Summercamp and Alptitude. He spends much of year mentoring founders towards a more fulfilling path on their flagship Happy MBA program.
The Happy Startup School | Summercamp | Alptitude | Happy MBA
LinkedInLaurence also mentioned How To Know a Person by David Brooks and we talk about this episode from Georgina Jones
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
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 losing her first husband to suicide, and the thought she has carried with her since: don’t let it define you. Together, we explore what that looks like in real life and over time.
This is a conversation about the many emotions that sit inside grief — anger, guilt, love, even moments of joy — and how they move through the body. We touch on how we support each other when someone is struggling, what it means to stay rather than fix, and how we begin to trust that life can hold both loss and aliveness at once.
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering what to say, or how to show up for someone you love, this episode is for you.
Rachel Hart-Phillips is the Co-Founder of LoveLossDiscoballs, a vibrant greetings card company creating colourful, honest messages of comfort for people navigating grief and all of life's moments. She is also the founder of Afterglow Grief Coaching, where she supports people through loss, including those impacted by suicide loss, and the complex realities of grief with compassion and lived experience. Rachel is passionate about suicide prevention, open conversations, and firmly believes that even in the darkest moments, life can still hold colour and light.
Instagram at @lovelossdiscoballs and @theafterglowspace
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
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 way fear can interrupt connection, and why joy isn’t something we reach after the hard parts, but something that often arrives in the middle of them.
We mention The Guest House by Rumi, Leslie Jamison’s The Empathy Exams, and MaryCatherine’s books The Joy Reset and Unbroken.
Dr. MaryCatherine McDonald is a trauma researcher, author, and educator who has spent nearly two decades helping people reframe the way they understand grief, resilience, and joy. With a PhD in philosophy and a knack for turning complex neurobiological concepts into practical tools (and surprisingly good metaphors), she’s made it her mission to help people find light in the darkest moments. Dr. McDonald has written four books, many academic papers, delivered countless workshops, and created an online community where members geek out about trauma and joy.
Website | Tik Tok | Instagram
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
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 that changed everything for her: there is nothing wrong with you.
For years she believed that struggling with alcohol meant she was broken. But through a different way of understanding addiction, emotions, and self-compassion, she began to see something else entirely. Not a personal failure, but a human response to pain, loneliness, and the ways many of us learn to numb what we feel.
Together we explore why alcohol can become intertwined with everyday emotional life from anxiety and overwhelm to loneliness, shame, and the longing to belong. We talk about the cultural stories that tell us drinking helps us relax, connect, and cope, and what happens when those stories start to feel less true.
About Ellie Nova:
Ellie is a sober coach, sober mentor, writer and mother who lives in Lewes, East Sussex. In 2018, after more than a decade feeling trapped by alcohol and full of shame, she discovered a radical new approach to recovery that changed her life. Now six years free from alcohol - with no desire to drink - Ellie supports courageous women to reclaim their power and break free from alcohol for good.
Website | Substack | Instagram | Women's sobriety support circle
Show notes:
This Naked Mind — by Annie Grace
The Little Book of Big Change — by Amy Johnson
Alcohol Explained — by William Porter
The Biology of Desire — by Marc Lewis
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
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 psychiatry, the moment she realised she was burned out, and the unexpected shift that came from leaving London and rebuilding a life in rural France.
Along the way we talk about the neuroscience of attention, why our brains are wired to look for the negative, and how small acts of noticing — a cup of coffee, a walk outside, the quiet satisfaction of meaningful work — can slowly reshape how we experience everyday life.
We even get into the limits of happiness culture. Josephine shares why she now thinks more about contentment than constant positivity, and how living with illness, uncertainty, and change can sharpen our appreciation for the ordinary moments we often overlook.
If you’ve been feeling the pull to slow down, pay attention, and find a steadier way to live well, this conversation offers a good place to begin.Josephine Dolan-Dufourd is a British-trained and French-registered Occupational Therapist (ergothérapeute)—a profession defined by the use of purposeful activity, or “ the art of meaningful doing,” as a therapeutic tool to helping individuals to live a life of value, meaning and purpose. Based near Pézenas in the south of France, Josephine blends 26 years of eclectic experience to run a local clinic for children and their families, alongside a specialised practice in English providing online support for those navigating Cancer and Parkinson’s. She also serves as the In-house Therapist for heiter magazine and its community, The Heiter Society, where she hosts online workshops helping adults find joy and intentionality in their daily lives.
Website
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
There are moments in life when everything looks fine on the outside, but something inside you is wondering, is this it? In this episode, I talk to Erica Moore about career change, rest, tea, and the small, pivotal moments that can shift the direction of a life. The bath before work. The cup of tea. The sudden clarity that life is short and this isn’t a dress rehearsal.
Erica shares what happened when she left her career in law to build a tea company rooted in wellbeing and conscious pause. We explore what it means to wake up to your own life, to recognise burnout or quiet dissatisfaction, and to choose differently without losing yourself in the process. We talk about mental wellbeing, perserverence, self-trust, and the subtle pressure to keep growing even when growth no longer feels like freedom.
If you’ve ever followed the path you thought you should take and found yourself questioning it, this conversation may feel familiar. It speaks to that moment when you realise that something needs to shift, and then you act on that.
At the heart of this episode is Erica’s thought: life is short, and we might as well enjoy it. Not in a reckless way, but in the steady, everyday sense of allowing rest, pleasure, and presence to matter now. We reflect on how small daily tea rituals can support the nervous system, create space for mental wellbeing, and help you come back to yourself in the middle of busy work and family life. This is a conversation about change, but also about returning. About not waiting until everything is done before you let yourself rest.
About Erica Moore
Erica Moore helps people slow down just enough to live and lead well, using tea, presence, and simple daily practices to support clarity, balance, and better choices.
She is the founder of eteaket tea and creator of The Tea Mind, a practical philosophy that turns everyday tea rituals into moments of clarity, presence, and care.
eteaket | The Tea Mind | LinkedIn | Instagram | Podcast
If you’re thinking about change, craving rest, curious about tea rituals, or simply wondering how to feel more present in your own life, this episode is a great place to start.
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
This week I’m joined by writer, ADHD coach and founder of The Quiet ADHD Club, Gabrielle Treanor. Together, we explore what it means to feel fully here in your own life, especially if you’re a quiet woman in midlife who has spent years trying to be smaller, more consistent, or more “together” than you actually feel inside.
We talk openly about ADHD in midlife, including the experience of late diagnosis and what it can mean to discover in your forties or fifties that your brain works differently. Gabrielle shares how recognising quiet ADHD helped her make sense of anxiety, procrastination, fluctuating motivation and years of self-doubt. We explore what self-trust looks like when your energy shifts, when consistency feels hard, and when traditional wellbeing advice simply doesn’t fit your nervous system.
Gabrielle Treanor is a coach, writer, author and podcaster living in Wales, UK. She supports introverted, sensitive women who discover they have or think they have ADHD later in life, to understand, accept and love themselves, to work with their brain and build inner calm and confidence, so they can experience more peace, fulfilment and joy every day. Gabrielle was diagnosed herself with ADHD aged 48. She hosts the Quiet ADHD Club online membership and works one to one with coaching clients.
Gabrielle has an MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and her first book, The 1% Wellness Experiment, was published December 2023. Gabrielle hosts the Pressing Pause podcast and she has spoken on podcasts, at bookshops, festivals, and wellbeing shows.
Website | The Quiet ADHD Club | The 1% Wellness Experiment | Podcast | Newsletter | Instagram
The Better Read Book Fest: Website and Instagram
Mentions: Natalie Lue, host of The Baggage Reclaim Sessions.
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
-
What happens when the life you carefully built no longer feels like it fits? When the version of success you were chasing leaves you anxious, or strangely unfulfilled? In this episode, I sit down with Ray Martin to explore what it really means to live in surrender without losing yourself.
Ray shares the story of a year that unravelled everything he thought he knew — his marriage, his business, even his sense of who he was meant to be. What began as a six-month sabbatical turned into fourteen years of travel, self-inquiry, and learning to listen to something other than ambition. Together, we talk about the fear that can come when you let go of what’s expected of you, and the possibility that can open up when you follow what genuinely interests you instead.
This conversation moves through anxiety and aliveness, identity and self-trust. We reflect on the pressure to keep playing a role that no longer feels true and the difference between chasing goals and responding to inner nudges. Ray speaks about rewriting his rules of success, learning to feel more deeply, and trusting that life might have his back, even when the path ahead isn’t clear.
Ray Martin, aka The Daily Explorer, is an entrepreneur and award-winning business leader. As a coach, mentor, facilitator, speaker, writer, and mindfulness teacher, he is a torchbearer for greater human consciousness. Ray is also a marathon runner and fundraiser. He’s on a mission to empower people to live authentically and to bring more joy and happiness into the world.Website
The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer
The Five Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware
Manhood by Steve Biddulph
Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement speech
The film Yes Man starring Jim Carrey
Support the show
This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week.
About Claire Fitzsimmons
Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection.
Buy Claire's first book, If Lost Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain here.
Subscribe to Claire's Substack newsletter here.
Find out how to work with Claire here.
Like what you heard? Follow, rate or review this podcast.
- Show more
