Practice Makes Progress

Trigger warning: self-harm, suicide, suicidal thoughts, anti-semitism, anti-semitic bullying, depression.

Neither Elliott nor myself would recognise the people we were 18 months ago, and we credit a lot of that growth to changing our mindset. Once you're open to good things happening and you create little habits for yourself that help keep you on track, life just feels that little bit easier. Elliott has created a fantastic platform that normalises poor mental health, by documenting the days that are good. I think even I had fallen into a headspace where everything felt pretty overwhelming, but Elliott is a fantastic reminder that small progress is still progress. We don't have the magic recipe, but we're willing to try as many as we need to, to figure out what suits us best. We can't always control what happens to us, but we can control how we respond.

Trigger warning: self-harm, suicide, suicidal thoughts, anti-semitism, anti-semitic bullying, depression. 

Neither Elliott nor myself would recognise the people we were 18 months ago, and we credit a lot of that growth to changing our mindset. Once you're open to good things happening and you create little habits for yourself that help keep you on track, life just feels that little bit easier. Elliott has created a fantastic platform that normalises poor mental health, by documenting the days that are good. I think even I had fallen into a headspace where everything felt pretty overwhelming, but Elliott is a fantastic reminder that small progress is still progress. We don't have the magic recipe, but we're willing to try as many as we need to, to figure out what suits us best. We can't always control what happens to us, but we can control how we respond. 

Trigger warning: self-harm, rape, sexual assault, addiction, PTSD.

Journalist and public speaker, Jaz Khan, is one of the most intelligent, inspiring, eloquent and all-round beautiful human beings I've ever met. From an incredibly early age, Jaz learnt to put others first and themselves second. A survival technique and trauma response to their upbringing, Jaz became as small and quiet as possible as a way of avoiding pain or sparking big reactions. Believing you were strong because you hid all the mental pain you were enduring, is something that really resonated with me from Jaz's story. It wasn't until an incident at university, Jaz was able to identify their anger as PTSD. Through therapy, painting, writing and self-reflection, Jaz has begun to understand their behaviour and place the often people-pleasing tendencies in the context of their childhood trauma. Jaz is a phenomenal speaker and will no doubt validate the experiences of so many.

Trigger warning: self-harm, rape, sexual assault, addiction, PTSD. 

Journalist and public speaker, Jaz is one of the most intelligent, inspiring, eloquent and all-round beautiful human beings I've ever met. From an incredibly early age, Jaz learnt to put others first and themselves second. A survival technique and trauma response to their upbringing, Jaz became as small and quiet as possible as a way of avoiding pain or sparking big reactions. Believing you were strong because you hid all the mental pain you were enduring, is something that really resonated with me from Jaz's story. It wasn't until an incident at university, Jaz was able to identify their anger as PTSD. Through therapy, painting, writing and self-reflection, Jaz has begun to understand their behaviour and place the often people-pleasing tendencies in the context of their childhood trauma. Jaz is a phenomenal speaker and will no doubt validate the experiences of so many. 

Pain is uncomfortable, but inevitable, and often it’s these experiences that teach us most about ourselves, our resilience, and our strength. Pain also enables us to grow, as we overcome things we previously never thought we would. In less than a year, Jack has taken on and succeeded in physically demanding challenges that he never thought possible. Exercise has been his therapy and become almost a measurement for his mental progress. 

Like a lot of us, Jack had his world turned upside down in 2020, which caused a lot of the issues he had been dealing with in recent years to hit the surface. Trying to give people an honest insight into managing his mental health with exercise, self-help tips, and a positive mental attitude, Jack has created a wonderful community on Tiktok to show others that change is possible.

I had the pleasure of chatting to 34-year-old Ana Caroline from Brazil. Teacher, basketball podcaster and all-round gem. Those who struggle with low self-esteem will relate to never feeling 'enough'. Pretty enough, smart enough etc. But 'enough' based on the colour of your skin is a privilege so few of us ever questioned. Ana and I talk self-love, self-acceptance and the commitment to loving yourself unapologetically, even on the days you don't want to.

It’s incredibly difficult when love becomes entangled with pain and the person we thought cared about us most, causes us to suffer. Kate takes us through an incredibly turbulent time in her life during a toxic relationship that destroyed her mental and physical health.