Said With Courage

Category: Atomic Essay

  • For You: Shipped 30 And Still Feel Like You Aren’t Good Enough

    For You: Shipped 30 And Still Feel Like You Aren’t Good Enough

    In 30 days of writing I’ve published around 9,000 words… I should be proud, right? It was grueling at times and a total breeze at others. At one point I had ten (!) Atomic Essays scheduled and ready to fire. On other days I was scrambling around like a headless chook wondering whether I’d publish.…

  • 3 Tips For If A Friend Answers ‘No, I’m Not Okay’

    3 Tips For If A Friend Answers ‘No, I’m Not Okay’

    I still remember the first time I said ‘no, I’m not ok’. I took a risk and put myself out there. My friend looked at me weirdly, told me they were sorry and awkwardly escaped… Hopefully these 3 tips help you out if you’re in their shoes. 1 >> Listen to your body. Sometimes we…

  • Understand Empathy And 10X The Depth Of Your Connections

    Understand Empathy And 10X The Depth Of Your Connections

    Empathy is imaginative. I think of empathy like painting a portrait in my mind’s eye, using only the words I’m listening to. The emotions I hear are the colours that inform this or that part. The background, the foreground. If I’ve been listening, this painting creates the empathy between us. I can tell when I’ve…

  • 3 Ways To Support In The Present Moment

    3 Ways To Support In The Present Moment

    Years of suicide support has shown me trauma finds relief in the present moment. These are the best tips I have to help you relieve people in distress. 1 >> Listen To Apply Your Imagination If I can’t picture what someone’s life is like, right now, I’m not doing it right. Maybe I’ve heard about…

  • 3 Sentence Stems To Bring People To The Present Moment

    3 Sentence Stems To Bring People To The Present Moment

    Acknowledge with empathy and validation first. Only then will attempts at bringing focus to the present moment become meaningful. 1 >> What impact has that had on you recently, like this past hour? I’m trying to draw attention to the present. I might start by asking how it’s affected things in a wider way, like…

  • I Have A Big Dream But Don’t Let That Get You Down

    I Have A Big Dream But Don’t Let That Get You Down

    I want to help 1,000,000 people learn suicide support. Kinda scary, kinda stupid. I want to spread life saving skills to heaps of people. Imagine the impact! Imagine a million people who can make their family, friends, colleagues and clients feel truly heard and seen. It’s big, hairy and audacious… But so am I! I…

  • Grow Your Why To Gain Resilience & Overcome Quitting

    Grow Your Why To Gain Resilience & Overcome Quitting

    Firstly, it’s ok to quit. I would know, I’ve quit on all my dreams, even this one. I was burnt out by many things. My relationship, mental health and addictions were all a mess. I had good intentions to show up and provide support for people, but soon saw I wasn’t showing up well enough…

  • 3 Lessons For Younger Me To Keep Writing & Keep Trying

    3 Lessons For Younger Me To Keep Writing & Keep Trying

    1 >> Starting again is the proof, both now and later. Drifting off course or quitting might feel disheartening, but that pain will lead you to know yourself. Knowledge compounds. The more times you start again, the more you learn. The more you write, the better you get. The better you get, the more rewarding…

  • Understand These 2 Modes To Be Better In A Crisis

    Understand These 2 Modes To Be Better In A Crisis

    Urgency requires response, but triggers reaction. Reactions like: Your heart rate spikes Your breathing gets shorter Your stomach plummets Your thoughts start racing (oh shit is this really happening right now) After many years, my heart rate still jumps when urgency comes knocking. I have to remind myself it’s ok! These feelings are there to…

  • I Burnt Out Providing Suicide Support For These 3 Lessons

    I Burnt Out Providing Suicide Support For These 3 Lessons

    1. Self care gets easier the more you increase your self worth. To start with, self care was hard to justify! Sitting in a group supervision or with my trainer, talking about self care was easy. Yes, of course I see how important it is. Easy to talk about, not so easy to follow up.…