Friday Finds and Feelings

This week’s emotional highlights, pop culture discoveries and lingering thoughts.

Hi there,

How are you feeling this week?

I’m feeling…

happy, because the sun just does that

confused about Sabrina Carpenter’s new album cover (like it seems everyone else on the internet)

excited to see my name in Psychologies magazine for the first time. I’m talking about mindful travel for their summer issue! And my first piece in The Simple Things Magazine just arrived! I wrote about one of my favourite things to do, “Explorer Days”, for this month’s edition.

anxious about how to pull together summer, with work and travel, kids and life

accepting that my kids are who they are, and I am who I am

probably insecure about what these middle years are doing to my body.

and utterly overwhelmed, so much so that the piece I meant to write this week on overwhelm is coming next week as the last few days has been all the things, all at once, in all the ways.

What about you? Here’s your invitation to check in emotionally this week. You can use these same emotions or bring your own. So..

I’m feeling happy about…

I’m feeling confused about…

I’m feeling excited about…

I’m feeling anxious about…

I’m feeling accepting about…

I’m feeling insecure about…

I’m feeling overwhelmed about…

Onto this week’s finds…

Reframing uncertainty

The very idea of uncertainty can bring up so much for us: fear, anxiety and overwhelm. But recently I attended a talk at Tedx Salon Bath by entrepreneur Margaret Heffernan who argued that uncertainty can also come with excitement, learning and positive change.

The key to this shift: creativity. It can be the antidote to just how uncomfortable we can feel with uncertainty.

Some of the key learnings from the talk were:

• Uncertainty is the default but our gift too is that we are also sense makers, constantly scanning the horizon for meaning

• We often hold ideas from school that we’re not creative or not a visual thinker, but that’s often not the case. We hold the capacity for creativity in ways that we’ve often forgotten. Play is essential for bringing back how we can think like an artist again.

• Learning to be observant again, to notice what’s around us and to look up from our phones, is critical for helping us see how to navigate uncertainty.

• Trying new stuff, getting a little uncomfortable and engaging with the world, are all ways of becoming (and also helps our brains).

• Many of the things in life can’t be measured. How can we measure how much we love our kids? Or how good the Mona Lisa is?

• We need everybody as we navigate uncertainty - not just the experts, but all the ways that people have of thinking and being and feeling.

• There is no way to know but to try.

How do you feel about uncertainty? Do you fall on the anxiety/ fear/discomfort side or the excitement/curiosity/anticipation one?

---

All the ways to walk

I’ve been thinking about why women walk. As I’m been researching this, I’ve compiled a list of favourite books - from Cheryl Strayed’s Wild to Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path.

You can browse this Walking Cure on Bookshop here.

What would you add? And if you walk, why do you do so? My reasons are here.

---

Seeking out rural coworking spaces.

We often think of coworking spaces as urban hubs — but there’s a growing movement to bring creative and connecting workspaces to rural settings. While countryside living has its charms, working from home in remote areas can sometimes deepen our feelings of isolation and disconnection.

Over the past few months, I’ve been exploring the rural coworking spaces where I live, including Distil, Lifeworks and The Glove Factory for our guide to life.

Share any rural coworking spaces that you love so I can add them in too.

---

Link Love

How do you feel about getting angry? This is fascinating on the link between anxiety and anger, and how we’re socialised to see anger as aggression rather than a valid emotional response.

Are you crashing out? A new word for a tired feeling?

Do you believe in love at first sight? More and more people do.

The one emotion we might get stuck in that also destroys our relationships (eeek)

These describe perfectly the gap between how we’d like to see our lives and how we actually live them:

carlaafreeman

A post shared by @carlaafreeman

carlaafreeman

A post shared by @carlaafreeman

---

Substack love

I just discovered there’s a Sunday Shelfie series! What a brilliant idea. Currently spending way too long with other people’s shelves.

Anna Wharton

Sunday Shelfie with David Whitehouse

---

And some pop culture love

This interview with Miley Cyrus from Every Single Album (I recommend watching the video version).

And Dua Lipa has a book club!

Let me know what you’ve loved over the past week that helps you make sense of the world, or even just escape it for a while.

Until next time,

Claire

---

---