5 things I did in 2024 that transformed my life

And made my brain feel less chaotic

Ok a slightly dramatic headline, but I can honestly say doing these 5 things this year has meant that I feel better physically and mentally than I have in my whole life.

I turned 38 this year and although society tells us that by that age we’re on the rubbish heap, I refuse to accept that.

I hope to live near to 80 and so i’ve still got half my life to live. I’ll be damned if I waste it feeling sluggish, tired and uninspired by my life.

Here’s what turned it all around for me:

Pilates

Without sounding like a wellness wanker ‘I fucking love pilates!’ For 3 reasons.

Firstly, I can do it at home while the kids eat their breakfast. I get Fluidform pilates up on my computer, roll my mat out on the kitchen floor and do my work out right there in amongst escapee cheerios and whatever liquid the 2 year old has poured on the floor in the last 5 minutes.

Secondly, it makes me feel so fucking strong! I can lug things around the garden and pick up a whiney toddler refusing to walk on the school run with no trouble at all. My body feels balanced and fizzing with energy for the rest of the day.

Thirdly, it helps me focus. I’ve struggled to do my daily 20 minute pilates sessions the last couple of weeks thanks to an ever lingering cold/ flu and I have noticed a real impact on my ability to focus. My ADHD brain likes to dart all over the place constantly which makes it very hard to get anything done. Committing to that daily movement, helps me to concentrate for more than 5 minutes at a time.

Making better food choices

Now I eat to nourish my body. I’ve dramatically reduced the amount of sugar I consume and have just one cup of caffeinated coffee a day. You can bet your bottom dollar that I really savour every single thing about that one cup though- it’s almost a mini ritual.

Since reducing my sugar intake I’ve noticed I don’t wake up at 3am feeling like I could write my entire memoir in one sitting. In fact now, if I eat something sugary late in the day I almost always return to those nightly wakings which throws me off track for the next day completely.

This hasn’t been easy. Trying to make nourishing food that my kids will eat is difficult. But the pilates app I mentioned above has a whole host of delicious recipes that i’ve been working my way through. Some firm favourites are a turmeric spiced chickpea stew and a cashew satay noodles. I also love the refined sugar-free sweet treat recipes for when I want something sweet once the kids are in bed.

I promise this is not an ad, it’s just really helped this busy, exhausted mum find her sparkle again and I do not want to gate-keep that!

Every day gardening

When I say every day. I don’t actually mean every day (although my very literal neurodivergent brain does struggle with this concept). I mean little and often. In years gone by, before I had the kids, I used to spend hours out in the garden at the weekend. But since my available time got dramatically shortened I know that this is completely unrealistic.

Which is why I advocate for short regular gardening sessions where you can get just one task ticked off your list and reap the benefits of clearing your busy mind while you do so. A membership to the Seed gives you the gardening tasks you can be doing week by week so you’re never stuck thinking ‘Now what the hell should I be doing out here’ again.

If you’d like something a more bespoke to your specific garden, that’s exactly what I offer in the Seasonal Sessions.

Intentional living

Before I had my burnout episode and to some extent whilst I was in the throes of early motherhood I felt like life lived me. Pulled from pillar to post, said yes to everything because I was worried I wouldn’t be liked or be invited again if I said no (maximum people pleasing vibes). It was exhausting. I spent so much time doing what other people wanted me to do and ignoring the inner voice screaming at me to advocate for myself.

I don’t think this is an uncommon theme for women and particularly neurodivergent women. From the minute we’re born, we’re told to prioritise other people’s needs over our own, our opinions silenced and shut down if they don’t fit in with what those around us believe. All of this leads to us living our precious lives on other people’s terms and wondering why we feel so shit and resentful about it all.

I started small, because I was terrified of being branded a trouble-maker or difficult. A name I now wear like a fucking badge of honour, because at least it means i’m not drifting through my life letting everyone else decide what is best for me. I started to claim 5 minutes for myself here and there in my garden. I had an innate sense that my garden held the key to me growing my strength to a point where I felt strong enough to make conscious decisions about everything I did in life.

Now when that ‘friend’, who always finds a sneaky way to put me down when we’re around others, suggests we do something I think twice about it. I ask myself is this really going to enhance my life or is it going to make me feel bad, and make my decision accordingly.

Journalling

I used to hate the idea of journalling. So much so that I resisted it until earlier this year. My brain would fly off on wild tangents meaning that what I wrote made no sense. The mentor that i’ve worked with for the last year encouraged me to give it another try, to just let the pen write whatever it wants and with no obligation to read it back or to try and make sense of it. If think i’d got stuck in that mindset of it needing to be good. Like I was somehow transported back 25 years and my english teacher was going to mark me on the ‘quality’ of my writing.

Just writing without any agenda felt strange, especially when I felt so pushed for time. That ever present need to be productive that is so toxic, rearing its ugly head. But giving myself the space to write out my feelings and thoughts means they’re not whirling around in my head (which feels amazing) and it allows me to process how i’m actually feeling about things. Rather than just ignoring them and crossing my fingers that they go away (spoiler, they never do).

There are days still when my brain is going so fast that I struggle to get started. On those days I use a prompt from the Head Plan journal cards. These usually help me unlock something and before long i’ve filled 3 pages of my notebook. Not that that’s something to aim for, I truly believe you’ll write whatever you need to write on any given day.

It’s these 5 things in combination that have made the real difference. I didn’t start doing them all at once- far from it. But instead layered them on. As one habit began to become part of my daily routine and like I didn’t even have to think about doing it anymore, I then had the headspace to make another small tweak.

It’s these small tweaks that you have entirely in your power to make. So I’d love to know, which of these are you most drawn to? Or perhaps you already do some of them? Let me know in the comments.

p.s. My big aim for 2025 is to make the Seed a real community space, as womanhood, solo business owner life, working from home, motherhood, hell even just life can feel really fucking lonely.

But I’ve been smacked round the head again this week with the reminder that when you talk about things, you always feel way less lonely. So lets start talking shall we?