Last night, before falling asleep, I tried something that I don’t remember doing before. I asked for my dreams to bring me clarity on what to focus on the following day. Sure enough, when I woke up this morning, I recalled two significant indications that had arisen during my dream state.

One was not so surprising, it was to write in my journal first thing upon waking, a practice that I learned about recently from Benjamin Hardy, which I will say more about in a minute.

The other came more out of the blue and was a prompt to revisit…

Last week, I flew from Lisbon to London to take a pregnancy yoga teacher training course. It was the first time I had traveled without children in over ten years.
Here is what I wrote en route:

Apartment blocks look like they are made of Lego

A dry excitement mingled with traces of anxiety – the what ifs of lone travel.

Craving a conversation buddy.
But isn’t this what I’ve been longing for? To strike out alone with nobody to answer to but myself?

Listening to Resilient by Rising Appalachia on my borrowed headphones lets in a trickle of me…

My writing habits have changed recently. For years, my main focus has been on journaling as a means of working through my emotions and gaining clarity on both the large and small concerns of modern life.

I have also written many streams of consciousness, which have generated material for more refined pieces. As well as my personal writing, I have participated in a monthly writing group for many years. In response to writing prompts and exercises, I have written various pieces of poetry and prose.

Overall, the focus has mostly been on using writing as a tool for my own…

Arbitrary label or a point of connection?

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet.

Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

I have an interesting relationship with names. In 2002, at the age of 20, I was given a Sanskrit name by my then meditation teacher and felt as though a powerful gift had been bestowed upon me. Roshnii — meaning Divine Light or ‘the first ray of sun at dawn’. It seemed the name was imbued with an energy that elevated my mind.

In 2006, after living for 4 years with two names, I took the bold…

Two years ago, I made a radical step towards re-prioritising my creativity. As a mother of three home-educated kids, with no other day job, I had grown used to my days being filled up with meeting other people’s needs and the turntable of domestic tasks that roll along with family life.

At the time I was reading a book called ‘The Rainbow Way — Cultivating Creativity in the Midst of Motherhood’ by Lucy Pearce. I had attempted to read it a few years earlier but had been put off by one of the first chapters. …

Have you ever been in a situation of conflict with another person where you have so much you want to say but your thoughts and feelings are too messy to untangle or too barbed to speak aloud without causing harm?

Often we need a safe way to release emotions that have built up towards someone else, whether that is love, fear, anger, frustration, grief or a combination of any of these.

There may be a person or people, real or fictitious, in your present, past or even future that you want to say something to that you would never dare…

Soft, soft, collapse, relax
Don’t want to take care of anyone
Going to crumble in a heap
Let my muscles melt and fall

Don’t want to take care of anyone
I’m not gonna hold it together
Let my muscles melt and fall
Want to write, read and dream

I’m not gonna hold it together
Walk on walls, window shop and lounge
Want to write, read and dream
It’ll be alright

Walk on walls, window shop and lounge
Going to crumble in a heap
It’ll be alright
Soft, soft, collapse, relax

Tired Mother pantoum, Roshnii Rose (2013)

Several years ago, in…

Early morning musings on meaning

At 5 o’clock in the morning, lying awake in bed, pondering what important things I have to say to the world, this is what arose in my mind:
Life is ultimately about Connection.

As I saw it, while my body yearned for more sleep but my mind was suddenly active and lucid, there are four main ways in which us human beings find that sense of connection.

My life journey thus far has brought me to aspire to the following: (Note, I said ‘aspire’ as I am still working on it.)