A Thought I Kept

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

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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.

About Claire Fitzsimmons

Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer, author and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As a Certified Coach and Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments 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. 

The music for all episodes from August 10th was made by Leon in the Wilderness.

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, author and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As a Certified Coach and Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments 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. 

The music for all episodes from August 10th was made by Leon in the Wilderness.

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, author and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As a Certified Coach and Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments 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. 

The music for all episodes from August 10th was made by Leon in the Wilderness.

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, author and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As a Certified Coach and Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments 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. 

The music for all episodes from August 10th was made by Leon in the Wilderness.

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, author and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As a Certified Coach and Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments 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. 

The music for all episodes from August 10th was made by Leon in the Wilderness.

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, author and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As a Certified Coach and Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments 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. 

The music for all episodes from August 10th was made by Leon in the Wilderness.

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, author and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As a Certified Coach and Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments 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. 

The music for all episodes from August 10th was made by Leon in the Wilderness.

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 Rhona

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, author and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As a Certified Coach and Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments 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. 

The music for all episodes from August 10th was made by Leon in the Wilderness.

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
LinkedIn

Laurence 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, author and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As a Certified Coach and Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments 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. 

The music for all episodes from August 10th was made by Leon in the Wilderness.

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, author and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here. As a Certified Coach and Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments 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. 

The music for all episodes from August 10th was made by Leon in the Wilderness.