what a joy doing the Wee Stories with People podcast! I will be forever grateful to all the generous guests and listeners~ but it is time to start something new.

Sharing stories of:
-painful neuro-divergent assessment
-the need for post diagnosis support/therapy
-the journey to embrace my experience of dyslexia
-learning how to learn 

-the impact of dyslexia, esp. late diagnosis 
-ALWAYS feeling “not academic enough”
-leaving school with no qualifications, to learning how to learn, develop self trust and completing MSc/BA/diploma etc.

It feels strange to release a podcast without acknowledge the pain and heaviness that is so active in the world right now. There are no words to soothe the devastating realities. Acknowledging this makes me wrestle with sharing things however, creativity in all its forms has been used as a salve for pain, a release valve, that is not to say this podcast will do that for you, but I hope from listening to this wee blether for 30mins gives you some form of connection and shared understanding.

“I can’t meditate because I can’t clear my mind” how often do we hear this... what about if we were curious and compassionate about what comes up in the stillness rather than thinking we were failing at an almost impossible task whilst being alive…. “I think therefore I am”.

This wee episode has themes of winter dread, how we can almost loose parts of our year depending on our relationship with the seasons, unconscious responses, how awareness without compassion can create more angst/pain and more.

labas again: a wee episode about momentum, cringe culture, fear around sharing your full self, connation and getting out of our own way....

The way we heal pain is not by transmitting, it’s about transforming it.

This podcast was a dream to record. It was one of those conversations that leave you feeling uplifted for ages afterwards.

We talked about a range of different topics from:

-James’s trans experience, including when he first knew and how people in his life reacted & the person who really gave him an opportunity to feel supported during that confusing & challenging time

-The relatively small issue of gender neutral bathrooms and the more important issues that need to be discussed around support for talking therapy and medical care

-We are more than one label

-The joy and love that shines through from the LGBTQIA community

-Mental health and the seasons of life & depression

-Leaning in to your genuine, authentic self on social media

-Inclusive sex education in schools and how that can better support LGBTQIA young people

-Creating open and safe spaces for LGBTQIA young people to have conversations in schools and youth groups across Scotland

-The lack of LGBTQIA role models in leadership potentials and how much of difference it would make for young people in Scotland

-Being a lighthouse for people you love when they need support back to shore

-Politics and the lack of representation and lived experience 

& so much more

Burnout is something I have wanted to talk about on the podcast for a long time. It seems to be a pattern that I can look back on in my life. I tend to go ALL in on things. From casual creative hobbies, to work, to exercise, to supporting people in my life, I go all in, usually balancing all of these things at the same time. 

Burnout:

-What is burnout? The definitions and symptoms

- Vilius and I share our different experiences of burnout 

-Burnout being different from chronic fatigue or depression, but can have very similar symptoms

-Compassion fatigue wow! It is a thing. To all my empaths out there, we can get drained from emotionally investing energy into others.

-Toxic positivity

-The “grind” our society perpetuates the idea of grinding and then some of us, I would include myself in this category, just go all-in on things until we reach a stage of burnout.

Finding balance:

-We share our experiences

-& Practices we try and have tried to find more balance 

Good Shit: 

We share a podcast/book/thing we have been enjoying recently- inspired by The Self-Helpless Podcast 

Vilius and I usually have different experiences and views on things, and it was great to explore burnout and balance in an open and honest way.  

Some links we mentioned:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00284/full

https://www.positive.news/society/positive-news-stories-from-week-27-of-2021/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4911781/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/mental-health-in-the-workplace/202008/burnout-is-real-the-rise-and-retractable