Today’s Friday episode reflects on the small, often unnoticed things that helped during the week. A gentle invitation to recognise what made life feel even slightly lighter, without turning it into a rule or a task.

Key themes:

• Reflection without judgement
• Small helps over big fixes
• Pace, encouragement, and permission
• Ending the week gently

Listener takeaway:
What helps doesn’t need to be dramatic or repeatable, noticing it is enough.

Daily Think:
“What helps doesn’t have to be big to matter.”

Today’s episode gently explores the quiet absurdity of how much seriousness we carry into things that often resolve themselves with time. A light, reflective invitation to notice where pressure has turned into habit, and where a softer grip might be enough.

Key themes:

• Gentle absurdity
• Over-seriousness and habit
• Letting go without forcing
• Perspective through noticing

Listener takeaway:
You don’t have to care less, just notice what may no longer need carrying.

Daily Think:
“Not everything deserves the seriousness we give it.”

Today’s episode explores how much of the tiredness people feel comes not from personal failure, but from the systems they move through every day. A reflection on pressure, emotional labour, and recognising when exhaustion is structural rather than individual.

Key themes:

• Systems and invisible effort
• Structural vs personal tiredness
• Pressure without blame
• Recognition as relief

Listener takeaway:
If you’re feeling drained despite doing everything “right,” it may not be you, it may be the system.

Daily Think:
“Not all tiredness is personal.”

Today’s episode explores why stories often help more than advice. Through a simple, honest anecdote, Keith reflects on the power of recognition, presence, and shared experience, and why being heard can be more relieving than being helped.

Key themes:

• Stories vs strategies
• Recognition over fixing
• Presence as support
• Shared human experience

Listener takeaway:
You don’t need to turn how you feel into a solution straight away. Being recognised can be enough.

Daily Think:
“Advice ages badly. Stories age like wine.”

Today’s episode is about grounding, arriving into the week without rushing, bracing, or self-judgement. 
A gentle reminder that Mondays don’t need conquering, only entering.

Key themes:

• Arrival over performance
• Letting go of Monday pressure
• Orientation and steadiness
• Beginning without readiness

Listener takeaway:
You don’t need to feel ready or energised to begin the week, arriving gently is enough.

Daily Think:
“You don’t need to meet the week at full speed.”

We’ve all been in rooms that suddenly feel heavier.

Not because anything has gone wrong.

Not because someone has done something deliberately.

Just… heavier.

In today’s Sunday episode, Keith reflects on a phrase he heard recently,  “mood hoover” and gently explores what it reveals about how sensitive we are to the emotional weather other people bring with them.

This isn’t about blaming or labelling anyone.

It’s about recognising that most people who arrive heavily are simply carrying something unseen, and that, at different moments in our lives, we’ve probably all been that person.

A quiet reflection on presence, awareness, and the difference between intention and impact, and an invitation to notice what we’re carrying before we hand it to everyone else.

Daily Think:
“We all change rooms — sometimes without meaning to.”

If this episode helps you arrive into the week a little more gently, then it’s done its job.

Today’s Saturday episode is about community, the quiet, shared understanding that brings people into this space.

It’s a reflection on belonging without performance, recognition without fixing, and the reassurance of knowing you’re not alone with what you’re carrying.

Key themes:

• Community and shared space
• Belonging without contribution or performance
• Recognition as relief
• Quiet connection over commentary

Listener takeaway:
You don’t need to show up with answers, energy, or explanations to belong here.

Daily Think:
“Belonging doesn’t require performance.”

Fridays aren’t for verdicts, they’re for noticing.

In this episode, Keith reflects on the small things that helped this week. Not the things that fixed everything or changed the outcome, but the modest moments that softened the edges and made the days a little easier to live inside.

There’s a gentle reminder that help doesn’t always arrive loudly, and that simply not getting worse can sometimes count as progress.

A kind, unpressured way to end the week, and an invitation to notice what helped you too.

In this episode of Lighter Than You Started, Keith steps back to gently explore the absurdities of modern life, our devices, our habits, and the way seriousness has quietly attached itself to things that don’t always deserve it.

With wry humour and perspective, this is an invitation to loosen your grip just a little, to smile at the world we’ve built, and to remember that not everything needs your full emotional attention.

A lighter episode, without becoming flippant.

Most of our days are shaped by systems we didn’t design and rarely think about, until we feel worn down by them.

In this episode, Keith reflects on what it feels like to be human inside modern systems: work, healthcare, bureaucracy, and the quiet exhaustion that comes from navigating processes that weren’t built with full humanity in mind.

This isn’t about blame or fixing anything. It’s about recognising a particular kind of tiredness, and reminding ourselves that feeling drained by systems doesn’t mean we’ve failed, it means we’re human.

A calm, reflective pause in the middle of the week.