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.

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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, especially when the world feels overwhelming.

About Claire Fitzsimmons

Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here, a company on a mission to get people to a better place, sometimes literally. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps women navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all their feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to joy. Claire writes on Substack at MoreGoodDays. For personal coaching, reach out to Claire here.

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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, especially when the world feels overwhelming.

About Claire Fitzsimmons

Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here, a company on a mission to get people to a better place, sometimes literally. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps women navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all their feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to joy. Claire writes on Substack at MoreGoodDays. For personal coaching, reach out to Claire here.

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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, especially when the world feels overwhelming.

About Claire Fitzsimmons

Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here, a company on a mission to get people to a better place, sometimes literally. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps women navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all their feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to joy. Claire writes on Substack at MoreGoodDays. For personal coaching, reach out to Claire here.

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Sometimes it isn’t a dramatic breaking point that tells us something needs to change. It can be quieter than that. Maybe just a sense of disconnect, or a feeling that the story we’re living no longer quite belongs to us.

In this episode of A Thought I Kept, I talk to Hilary Salzman about what happens when you start to notice that misalignment — between who you are, how you’re seen, and the roles you’ve learned to inhabit. We talk about voice, self-trust, and the emotional weight of trying to stay inside stories that once made sense, but now feel confusing, limiting, or quietly exhausting.

Hilary and I explore why telling our own stories can feel both risky and necessary, especially for women. We talk about emotional overwhelm, anxiety, and the pressure to turn our lives into neat, polished narratives rather than staying with what’s messier and often more honest. 

The thought Hilary brings to this conversation — "If you don’t tell your story, someone else will" — stays with us as we talk about authorship, permission, and what it means to couragously reclaim your voice without needing to perform, explain, or fix yourself.

Hilary Salzman is a business storyteller, writer, speaker and founder of She Roars Club who helps women in business stop playing small with their voices.

She's the author of The Roar of Her Story (shortlisted for Business Book Awards 2025) and founder of She Roars Club, an accountability community for women entrepreneurs. She spent 20 years in corporate marketing at major tech brands before launching her storytelling consultancy.

Hilary doesn't teach women to be louder or more polished. She shows them how to use their real experiences, even the messy bits, to build genuine connections and close the gap between the impact they've made and the stories they're telling.

Instagram | Substack | LinkedIn | 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, especially when the world feels overwhelming.

About Claire Fitzsimmons

Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here, a company on a mission to get people to a better place, sometimes literally. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps women navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all their feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to joy. Claire writes on Substack at MoreGoodDays. For personal coaching, reach out to Claire here.

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This week’s thought I kept comes from Edwina Jenner, and it’s one that fundamentally reshaped how she thinks about responsibility, self-trust, and the way we move through midlife. It’s a thought that can feel confronting at first but, when given some space, can open up a surprising sense of clarity and freedom.

In this episode of A Thought I Kept, I talk with Edwina about what happens when we stop waiting and start listening to ourselves more closely. We explore moments many listeners will recognise: feeling overwhelmed by expectation, navigating identity shifts in midlife, carrying responsibility for others, and learning how to rely on your own body, instincts, and decisions.

Our conversation moves between emotional and physical strength: we talk about consistency when motivation wavers, how trust is built through action, and how caring for your body can become a way of caring for your future self. Throughout, we return to the question of agency: what changes when you realise you are already more capable than you think?

Edwina shares how strength training became part of this wider shift in her life — a way of grounding herself, building resilience, and creating a steadier relationship with her body during her 40s and through moments of upheaval. This episode also touches on visibility, confidence, and what it means to take up space as a woman in midlife.

As always, I’ll leave you with a question: will this be a thought you carry into your week and maybe even beyond?

About Edwina Jenner

Edwina Jenner is an online PT specialising in strength training for women at home. She helps women in their 40s and 50s learn to lift weights with short, effective dumbbell home workouts. Women worldwide of all fitness levels follow her online programmes to improve their metabolic health, manage their weight, and build a strong and toned body they can rely on as they age, through her online strength training membership.

Website and membership | Instagram

In this episode Edwina also mentions James Clear's Atomic Habits

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, especially when the world feels overwhelming.

About Claire Fitzsimmons

Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here, a company on a mission to get people to a better place, sometimes literally. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps women navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all their feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to joy. Claire writes on Substack at MoreGoodDays. For personal coaching, reach out to Claire here.

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In this episode of A Thought I Kept, I’m joined by Nicky Denson-Elliott for a conversation about the beliefs many women carry without ever consciously choosing them and what can shift when we begin to let those beliefs go.

We talk about the emotional weight of comparison, competition, and feeling like we have to stay small or agreeable just to feel safe. About confidence not as a personality trait, but as something that changes across the different life contexts. About money, worth and the subtle ways women are taught to doubt themselves — often in the name of being good, likeable, or successful.

Nicky brings a simple but powerful thought to the table: "In order for me to win, no one else has to lose". From there, we explore what it means to unlearn internalised ideas about scarcity, competition between women, and self-worth and how crafting a more generous belief system can change not just how we relate to ourselves, but how we relate to other women too.

This conversation is for anyone who has ever noticed themselves comparing, under-charging, holding back, or feeling uneasy when someone else succeeds. It’s about self-trust, emotional awareness, and creating more room — for rest, confidence, and connection — without needing to push or prove.

About Nicky Denson-Elliott

Nicky Denson-Elliott is a serial entrepreneur, founder of The Wilder Collective, host of the Women’s Business podcast, and a mum of two. 

Everything Nicky does is about lifting the voices of female founders, and she empowers her community of women to break down conventional norms and become free to explore the lives and careers they want. 

Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | Podcast

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, especially when the world feels overwhelming.

About Claire Fitzsimmons

Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here, a company on a mission to get people to a better place, sometimes literally. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps women navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all their feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to joy. Claire writes on Substack at MoreGoodDays. For personal coaching, reach out to Claire here.

Like what you heard?

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In this episode, I talk to Matthew Bellringer about what it can feel like to move through a world that doesn’t always seem to be made for you and how impactful it can be to realise that other people may be experiencing that same world in fundamentally different ways.

We talk about neurodiversity, but always through lived experience rather than labels. About overwhelm, burnout, boredom, joy, and curiosity. About what happens when you’ve spent years mistrusting your own responses, your own pace, your own needs and how self-trust can begin to rebuild when you understand that difference isn’t failure.

Matthew shares how a later diagnosis of autism and ADHD helped them make sense of patterns they’d carried for a long time, from emotional intensity and exhaustion to creativity, insight, and the pull toward unconventional thinking. We explore rest that doesn’t look like stillness, wellbeing that doesn’t come from forcing yourself to fit, and the relief that can come from finding spaces — and people — where you don’t have to explain yourself quite so much.

Matthew Bellringer is a neurodiversity and innovation specialist who believes it takes an unconventional perspective to engage with some of the trickiest problems we face. They work with neurodivergent professionals, executives and business owners; organisations which want to support neurodiverse innovation; and organisations delivering innovative services to a neurodiverse audience.

Matthew specialises in supporting work that addresses problems from a unique perspective, co-production, and regenerative working practices. Alongside their private practice, Matthew is Chair and Co-founder of NeurodiverseIT, a group for neurodivergent IT professionals within BCS, the Chartered Institute of IT and the organiser and founder of Curious Being. Matthew is a late-discovery autistic ADHDer.

Website | LinkedIn | Socials

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, especially when the world feels overwhelming.

About Claire Fitzsimmons

Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here, a company on a mission to get people to a better place, sometimes literally. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps women navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all their feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to joy. Claire writes on Substack at MoreGoodDays. For personal coaching, reach out to Claire here.

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In this episode, I’m joined by Isabelle Fielding for a conversation about our emotions — the ones we try to manage, the ones we push down, and the ones that keep resurfacing when something important is at stake.

We talk about what it’s like to live in a world that often asks us to be happier, calmer, more confident, while quietly struggling with anxiety, self-doubt, overwhelm, or a sense that we’re holding it all together by our fingertips. Isabelle brings a grounded, compassionate perspective to what our emotions are really doing for us, and how relating to them differently can change the way we move through our lives.

Together, we explore why emotions aren’t problems to be fixed, but signals worth listening to. We talk about what happens when we get caught up in our feelings or withdraw from them altogether, how self-doubt can sit alongside self-compassion, and why change so rarely follows a neat A-to-B path. 

This is a conversation for anyone who wants to feel a little more at home with their emotions not by mastering them, but by making space for them. 

About Isabelle Fielding

Isabelle is a Researcher and Coaching Psychologist who helps purpose-driven organisations make a meaningful difference. With 25 years of experience across psychology, research, and leadership development, she works with individuals and teams to navigate challenge and change, so that they can take purposeful action in complex and unpredictable environments. Isabelle loves questioning assumptions, challenging well-worn narratives, and exploring emotions at work, helping people uncover internal and external barriers to change and take bold action towards the things that matter most.

Website | Instagram | LinkedIn

Show notes:  Atomic Habits | Emotions Coaching 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, especially when the world feels overwhelming.

About Claire Fitzsimmons

Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here, a company on a mission to get people to a better place, sometimes literally. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps women navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all their feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to joy. Claire writes on Substack at MoreGoodDays. For personal coaching, reach out to Claire here.

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This is a great episode to start the year with as well as a new season of the podcast. I sit down with wellbeing writer Rebecca Frank to explore how curiosity might offer a way of beginning when we might not be quite ready.

Rebecca and I talk about what curiosity looks like when life is full, messy, and changing. We explore how it can soften judgement, widen our view of other people, and help us stay open during moments of uncertainty or transition. Our conversation moves through everyday experiences many of us will recognise: parenting and letting go, the pull of restlessness alongside the need for anchoring, the comfort of familiar places and the quiet aliveness that comes from noticing something new.

The thought that Rebecca brings this Monday — the one she’s kept — is curiosity. Not as a trait you either have or don’t have, but as a practice you can return to. We talk about curiosity as a way of relating to the seasons of the year and the seasons of a life, of approaching wellbeing without overwhelm, and of staying connected to ourselves, others, and the world around us. Along the way, we touch on nature, creativity, friendship, and why starting small often matters more than getting it right.

Rebecca Frank is a journalist, author and podcast host with 25 years experience writing about women's health and emotional wellbeing, nature and travel for national monthly and weekly magazines. She's currently wellbeing editor for The Simple Things, as well as co-hosting the magazine's weekly podcast, Small Ways To Live Well. She's the author of two books, A Breath of Fresh Air and Just Add Nature, published in association with The National Trust.

In this episode we also talk about: Flourish | The Silent Book Club. Our own Reading Retreat is this Spring. Details here.

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, especially when the world feels overwhelming.

About Claire Fitzsimmons

Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here, a company on a mission to get people to a better place, sometimes literally. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps women navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all their feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to joy. Claire writes on Substack at MoreGoodDays. For personal coaching, reach out to Claire here.

Like what you heard?

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What does it really mean to feel held – not just by others, but by ourselves, our bodies, and the rhythms of everyday life?

In this episode of A Thought I Kept, I’m joined by Lauren Barber for a conversation about anxiety, aliveness, self-trust, and the quiet practices that help us come back to ourselves when life feels loud or overwhelming. Together, we explore what it means to hold space – for others, for our emotions, and for the parts of us that are tired, tender, or still becoming.

Lauren shares openly about her lifelong relationship with anxiety and panic, including the experience of mistrusting even “good” feelings, living in a state of hyper-vigilance, and learning how to rebuild a sense of safety from the inside out. We talk about somatic support, nervous system regulation, motherhood, seasonal living, and the small, everyday acts of self-tending that can gently replenish our energy.

We also explore change – not as a dramatic before-and-after, but as something subtle, lived, and deeply human. From human design and creative work to sacred space, self-compassion, and choosing work that truly nourishes us, this conversation is an invitation to soften, to listen, and to trust your own unique rhythms.

At the heart of this episode is the thought Lauren has carried with her for years: life is too short to do work that you do not enjoy. Whether you’re navigating anxiety, burnout, motherhood, creative transitions, or a quiet sense of longing, this is a conversation to return to when you need reminding that it’s possible to feel held again.

About Lauren Barber

Lauren Barber is a Mentor and Sacred Space Holder for Mystical & Magical women who are walking the path of their Heart and Soul work. She is a Mother of two daughters, a Soulful Branding & Website Designer, Writer, Speaker, Human Design Guide, Women’s Circle Facilitator, Yoga & Meditation Teacher and all round multi-faceted human being 

Find Lauren online:
Website | Substack | 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, especially when the world feels overwhelming.

About Claire Fitzsimmons

Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here, a company on a mission to get people to a better place, sometimes literally. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps women navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all their feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to joy. Claire writes on Substack at MoreGoodDays. For personal coaching, reach out to Claire here.

Like what you heard?

Subscribe to A Thought I Kept. Follow the podcast on Instagram. Sign up for our newsletter. Shop Season 1 poster

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