A comforting bath ritual will help send you into a deep healing sleep

She sank into the warm bath. Her head, shoulders and knees breaking the water’s surface. The flickering of a candle placed at the end of the bath gave the room an iridescent glow. Ambient music played in the background. The aroma of lavender oil permeated the room. She breathed a sigh of satisfaction. The day had ended.

Don’t you love bath time?

Lying in a warm cozy bath can be profoundly comforting and nurturing. It can mark the end of your day and the start of bedtime. …

Do you ever feel anxious? Anxiety is inherently human and can be our worst enemy.

A state of stress prepares us for danger. But panic can bring us to our emotional knees without reasonable cause. Creating a mindful holiday, rewriting our self-talk and reframing thought can help us manage our anxiety.

‘Im so stressed out I can’t do this anymore’

Can you relate to this statement? I know I can. As humans, we want to feel loved. We want to feel that we belong and feel safe. When we feel that any of these needs are not being met, we…

A self-guided meditation to help you cope in times of stress and uncertainty

My phone is under my left ear pinned there by my shoulder. I have been on hold to our internet provider for 38 minutes. Listening to hold-music, I stand in my kitchen. I’m stirring the pasta cooking dinner before the kids come home from school. We have basketball straight after school, so I need to have dinner ready for when we return. As I wait on hold, I text my daughter on the same phone, reminding her about her doctor’s appointment. As I do, so, she replies…

I pretended to be busy sorting out the kid’s clothes. I folded them in piles and moved the piles like chess pieces around the couch. I then marched to the kitchen, put on gloves washed a couple of dishes, then went back to my folding and sorting. I kept checking my text messages wanting to hear that familiar text-notification bell.

I was waiting for his text.

Ugh. How did I get to this place of desperation? This isnt me. Is it? I’m so much better than this. I don’t need a relationship to define me. Do I?

I love my…

I held her gently, her head nestled into my chest. I was sitting in Boxhill hospital’s NICU. The fluorescent lights were highlighting the hue of her yellow skin. She appeared smaller than her 6 pounds of birth weight. My first baby was born after 42 hours of labor. She had jaundice, but she was going to be ok. I expressed breast milk, and then I fed her with an eyedropper — a tiny wee little hand gripping my finger. I looked down on her beautiful face. A tear ran down my cheek, not of sadness but sudden clarity.

At age…

Do you ever feel lonely? I used to feel lonely.

Today Im trekking at the Organ Pipes National Park in Central Victoria, Australia. Im with my two girls. As I walk, I reflect. We’ve decided to start trekking together as our ‘thing.’ My sons and I have basketball as our thing (They play, I barrack). We each need a ‘thing’ Don’t you think? — Something we can do together to instill a sense of belonging. Building a sense of cohesion through ritual is essential.

My life has changed. I used to feel lonely and now rarely do. But loneliness is…

- How I meditated while fighting auto-immune illness.

When I fell ill, I realized it’s better to meditate imperfectly in the chaos of life than achieve the perfect meditation during a moment of stillness. It wasn’t until my life tumbled down like dominoes that I realized meditation was more than just a relaxing practice to help me sleep. Like opening a window and letting the sunshine into a dark space, meditation can open our minds and give us the room to be ourselves. And a regular practice can declutter thought and awaken us to the joy of being. When life does not run to plan the meditation we…

Growing a YouTube channel to over 100 thousand subscribers with four young children

I’m Lauren a single mum of four, a professional YouTuber and a writer. I’ve recently started writing for Medium, and I love the community. Today I’ll share my thoughts on how to achieve your dreams in impossible circumstance. I’ll describe how I became a successful YouTuber with over 100 thousand subscribers. And I will share my two methods for achieving impossible dreams.

I used to be a personal trainer with my own wellbeing studio. I had a picturesque farm and lived in beautiful regional Victoria, Australia. Then my marriage ended, and my life face-planted. Ouch! I moved house with four…