About Me

Who Am I?

A girl with a dragon tattoo

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Who Am I?

That’s a loaded question for just 3 simple words, but here goes:

• I am from the soggy part of the Great White North, otherwise known as Vancouver, BC, Canada.
• I am a daughter. A motherless one now, since my mom passed away about 5.5 years ago in December 2015 from alcoholism.
• I am an older sister to my brother (and technically, a younger one, to a brother I never knew who died 19 days after birth).
• I am a wife (and childless by choice). Happily married for 19 years in October 2021 and a mom to my fur baby senior rescue dog that we’ve had for almost 2 years after losing our 15 year old Border Collie 2 summers ago.
• I am an adult (?). Even though at 42 in September I don’t feel any older than I did at 15, and 25 and 35, and I assume I won’t feel any different at 50, 60, 70 and onwards. Strange. Do we all feel like we’re Peter Pan and never really growing up?
• I am a yoga and meditation teacher. I have been doing daily yoga since January 1st 2016, to help me cope after my mom died. And after about a year of daily practice I decided to become a yoga teacher which I teach part time at my day-job to other colleagues.
• I am a fantasy writer. Since childhood I’ve loved fantasy stories with dragons. I grew up writing mainly fantasy — with dragons, wizards and other fantastical monsters. But now I mostly write Steampunk, stories that makes our world just a little bit more interesting, with the ability to mask the humdrum days we all have — those cold, grey, rainy, depressing days. The days you accidentally sleep in, lock yourself out of the house, battle morning rush hour and realize your still wearing your slippers. You can find my stories and writings on my website.
• I am an art lover. I had artistic people in my family — my grandfather who was a fantastic watercolour artist and my aunt, who I lost in January 2021 to cancer, was an amazing abstract oil painter who also taught art classes. Unfortunately, I didn’t inherit their talents to the same level. I used to draw all the time when I was younger, and I was okay, but it wasn’t something that I stuck with. So now I’m just an appreciator of art of all sorts — whether that’s paintings, comic books or tattoos (of which I currently have 3 — the first was a dragon, because I’ve always loved dragons from the moment I discovered the Dragonlance series of books as a kid, the 2nd was a barn owl memorial tattoo for my mom who loved collecting owls, and the 3rd is a symbol to represent yoga and meditation. I do have ideas for at least 9 more but I’m indecisive so it’ll take a long time to decide what piece of art I want on me next).
• I am a article writer and editor. I contribute to the mindfulness website Elephant Journal where I write about mindfulness, gratitude, Stoicism, Grief/Death, Buddhism, and Positive Psychology/Psychology among other topics. And recently also for Vocal.Media . I’m also a script editor for the popular YouTube channel Psych2Go that helps bring psychology and mental health to a wider/younger audience.
• I am a lifelong learner. I have a BA degree in Criminology, a Certificate in Forensic Medicine and Science, and various diplomas in Positive Psychology, Human Behaviour, Neuroscience, Stress Management and Mental Health Studies and certificates in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, Metacognitive Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
• I am a proud introvert. I love nothing more than getting up early to enjoy that magical time of the day before the world wakes up with a delicious cup of coffee, and my senior rescue dog, Penny.

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Copyright Caitlin McColl 2021, all rights reserved.