Welcome! Start Here
Everything you need to get started is in THIS POST!!
Hi! Thank you for popping by! I wanted to use this space to welcome you and tell you a little bit about what I’m doing here.
So, What Exactly IS ‘Great Little Insights’?
“A great little place to come and feel heard, understood and laugh often. Read insights from a midlife, chronic over-sharer, parent with ADHD, who is all out of fucks to give! An honest, kind, compassionate, calm, supportive, fun and judgement-free zone.” ♥️
Note: I am currently taking a break from writing to spend time with my family over the summer holidays 😎 I will be back in September and there may be a name change taking shape around then too. If you’d like to learn more about my reasons for this, you can read that HERE.
Introduction
I started this publication in January 2024 when I heard about Substack from the lovely
, who’s writing/poetry I absolutely adore. I was tired of all the hustle on mainstream social media and wanted somewhere more meaningful and inspiring to hang out.I also needed somewhere to publish my various musings/poetry/essays that I’d been writing (on and off) for over a decade - Since I divorced the “co-founder of my children” (copying
here 😉) and found my voice again.My Mission
Passionate about the importance of ours and our children’s mental wellbeing, I write fun and engaging stories for children. Drawing on my many years of experience as a parent and childcare professional, I create picture books for young children, which aim to support the healthy development of their emotional wellbeing.
Combining my passion for writing with my graphic design skills, I love creating poetry, personal essays and a monthly Newsletter for my readers. Through publishing insights from my own life as a midlife, perimenopausal mum with ADHD, I hope to support and inspire others to acknowledge and accept all the parts of themselves.
What I Write About
I write about the conflicting battles we face as we navigate through life's challenges, and the pressures we feel from family, society and the wider world. Particularly around topics such as; life balance, work, parenting, guilt, midlife and juggling ALL the things in an increasingly chaotic environment.
As a highly sensitive and observant empath, I share my own experiences and insights with raw honesty, compassion and a healthy dollop of humour.
Why I Write
I write because it helps me process my many, many thoughts and experiences; but also because I hope to inspire and bring more empathy and compassion into the world. To help people feel heard, understood, less alone and hopefully bring some joy and laughter too ❤️
Who is this space for?
Anyone who might be feeling overwhelmed, a bit lost, lacking in self-esteem or beating themselves up regularly.
Someone who is (or was) a people pleaser, over-achiever, perfectionist, any or all of the above… like me! 🙋🏻♀️
You might be craving a refreshing, re-assuring take on life and to feel seen and understood, valued and heard.
You are able to laugh at yourself and the shit life throws at us… or you WANT to be able to at the very least! 😉
You’d like insights, recommendations and links to (tried and tested) resources to help you navigate life as a parent, perimenopausal woman, self-sabotager and/or chronic-inner-critic-listener… Again… me! 🙋🏻♀️🤣
You’re a person who (also like me) thinks they might just be on the edge of running out of fucks to give!!
A Mini Directory!
🌿 To find out What Subscribers Get head HERE
🌿 Instructions on How To Manage What You Get From Me are HERE
Note: I’ve created different “Sections” of my Publication and here are the links to each of them… Do save this Post so you can refer back. 👍
🌿 The Monthly Newsletter - Read previous (highly entertaining) editions!
🌿 The Podcast - Listen to previous episodes HERE or on Spotify or Apple
🌿 The Archive of Previous Posts/Articles - Everything basically!
🌿 The Parent Pod - A Mini-Pod - Short, supportive voice-notes from me 🤗
🌿 Recommendations - These are shared in the ‘Notes’ section
🌿 Book Shop - Find my recommendations and support local bookshops 🥰
Why I (Finally) Started Writing
A very long time ago, some time in 2015, I woke in the early hours of one random morning and found words swirling around in my head about how I was feeling at the time. It turns out those words led me to writing my first poem. It just kind of came out, but then I found myself and others saying things like “that’s actually pretty good!” Here’s that poem…
At that time and for many years to follow, I dismissed any compliments I received, thanks to my very loud inner critic. She sounds a bit like this… “What makes you think you’re so good”, “why would anyone want to hear what you have to say”, “Oooo, you think you’re so great don’t you”, “get your head out of the clouds you idiot”, “be realistic for goodness sake”, “shut up and stop being silly”… etc, etc… you get the idea!
That voice, that harsh critical bully has always been there, for reasons I am still learning to understand. However, after years of living, growing, becoming a wife, a mother, a divorcee, surviving cancer and experiencing many many highs and lows… somewhere along the way I’ve learnt to quiet that harsh critical voice and slowly replace it with a kinder, more compassionate one.
With the help of some encouragement from my closest friends and family, that new kind and loving voice somehow got me here today. Maybe you’ll like my writing, maybe you won’t, but either way I’m here and feeling very happy and grateful that I have found a space where I can share my poems, thoughts, feelings and little insights and finally have the confidence to do so… and be proud… without cringing too hard… eeew! I’m still working on that one! 😆
An Important Reminder
Just a little reminder for anyone who (like me) is having a little trouble with that pesky inner critic. Be kind to yourselves! ❤️
Thank you for reading!
Yippee!! You're a flucking Queenager!😎
You go girl! 👏👏😘