I’m back *waves*
Hello everyone, how are you doing? After a couple of months away from all things Blue Jay, I’m slowly finding my way back. The time away has honestly been better than I could have imagined. I had time and space to rest, refuel and feel inspired again. I regained the spark of creativity that had been snubbed out by the pressure I was putting on myself to succeed as a…
Seedling Ep 10. Creativity as an act of self-care
On the podcast this week I’m talking about creativity – how it benefits our mental health and how it can become part of our self-care routine. I share some science behind why creativity is good for us, how it can get tricky when your job involves being creative and how to make creativity a bigger part of your life. If you always struggle to make time for creativity or don’t…
What I do on social media free Saturdays
Earlier this year I took a glorious five days away from social media – which may not sound like much, but for someone who spends almost every day without fail on social media (for work and pleasure), it felt revolutionary. I took a break from everything that week, including work, and it really helped to refuel me. It also sparked a change in my social media habits and I decided…
How self-care impacts your business
If you run your own business, whether full-time or on the side of a day-job, you’ll know how easily it can consume you. This business, this idea you’ve had, it’s just that – yours. And it’s tightly packed full of hopes and dreams. So it’s perhaps unsurprising that you want to spend a lot of time on it. But this time, is limited. In the beginning stages especially, chances are…
5 tips to fall in love with reading again
One of my goals for this year was to read more and it’s something I have really stuck to. I’ve gotten through 8 books so far, and while this may not sound like a lot to some people – keep in mind that my aim was to read 10 in 2019 (!!) so considering that was the level of the bar, I’m pretty damn pleased with my progress. I didn’t…
The importance of not working to refuel creativity
I took a break from work recently; 5 days away from social media and 12 days altogether with zero thoughts about work and… honestly? It’s been one of the best things I could have done, both personally and professionally. As you’ll know if you follow me online, I was beginning to feel exhausted by work, including my day-job, this blog and coaching work. Marketing myself, ‘showing up’ and being consistent…
Monthly mindscape – Unfinished
In my last monthly mindscape post I commented that February would probably be ‘just as cold and dark as January, but feel a little more bearable’. Well, how wrong was I! We’re currently enjoying balmy temperatures of 17 degrees and beautiful sunshine-y days. Aside from the slight frown of concern about what this means for climate change and global warming… I’ll admit it’s done wonders for my mood. The month…
Monthly mindscape – space
Just yesterday I was sat in a pub garden having lunch, today I’m on my sofa with a candle burning listening to the rain lash against the window. Autumn is being a little indecisive so far it seems, but I’m kinda loving it. After last month feeling full of energy but also a little tired, I took a few days off to reset before heading into October and it was…
How I got my Instagram groove back
The first half of this year has been full of change, from moving in with Dan to changing my working hours, it’s been pretty go, go, go. Which has been great in so many ways, but it took its toll on my creativity, especially Instagram (I know, first world problems right? But I feel like you guys will sympathise with me here). The flat is lovely, but actually quite tricky to…
Perfectionism vs productivity
Ahh perfectionism. A great way to procrastinate and an excellent way for self-doubt to manifest. How many times have you had a big, exciting or downright terrifying project ready to launch into the world but you keep holding back because it isn’t quite perfect? Or maybe you’ve had a great idea for something, but you can’t start it until you’ve done all the research and spent all your money on…