Thrivergy - The Thriving Mindset

07/08/2026

07/08/2026

06/08/2026

23/07/2026

Lately it feels like we spend more energy sorting each other into boxes than actually talking to each other.

You’re this. I’m that. Left or right. In or out. Woke or not. The moment someone reveals a belief or identity that doesn’t match ours, we file them away — an “other” — and the conversation is over before it started.

There’s more othering happening than connection right now. We’re quick to judge, quick to write someone off, quick to defend our sense of self or our sense of right and wrong the second someone doesn’t match it. And underneath all of it is an assumption we rarely question: that the label tells us who someone actually is.

They don’t. A label is a shortcut, and shortcuts skip the parts of a person that actually matter — what they’re scared of, what they love, what they’re trying to protect. Strip away the ideology and most people want the same basic things: to feel safe, to be respected, to matter to somebody, to give their kids a decent shot.

So next time you feel that flash of “othering” — the urge to write someone off because of a label — try pausing before you react. Look for the sliver of common ground first. Ask a real question instead of firing back a rebuttal. Let them feel heard.

23/07/2026

Picked my daughter up from school today and she ran straight for the playground — jumping, spinning, completely free. Then she looked up at me: “Look at me, Mum!”

And I did. I really looked.

I have teenagers now. And raising them has brought me so much joy — genuinely, some of the best years — but if you asked me to hand you the *moments*, the specific ones, from when they were six, I couldn’t. I know I felt it. I know I loved it fiercely while it was happening. But the vividness is gone. What’s left is more like an impression — a warmth with the details worn smooth.

That’s the part nobody tells you. You won’t remember this. Not the way it feels right now. I tried to hold onto moments with my older two as well, back when they were little — I really did try. And still, so much of it slipped through anyway.

Having ten years between my oldest and my youngest has been a strange gift, because I get to know that in advance this time. I get to know, standing right here in it, that this exact moment will fade — and so I’m trying harder than I ever have to actually catch it. Not just feel it and let it go. Really save it.

This isn’t the first time I’ve felt this. It happens again and again — with my kids, with people I love — these moments where something in me just stops and pays attention, because I’m consciously choosing it for my highlight reel. If it’s true that at the end of a life you get to see your best moments played back, I want to be building that reel on purpose, as I go. Not hoping I remember. Choosing, right there in the moment, “this one. I want this one.”

Today it was my daughter’s face, mid-jump, yelling “Look at me!” — and me my heart swelling with love and awe actually looking - really looking

💕