06/06/2026
When life is too full to feel
My niece called me this week.
She's had a year that would floor most people. Her dad died suddenly — traumatic, no warning, no goodbye. She got a new job. She bought her first house. And in the middle of all of that, she's been holding her mum up through the kind of shock and grief that doesn't have a floor you can find yet.
So she hasn't had time to meet her own grief. Not properly. It's there — she knows it's there — but there's always been something more urgent in the way.
On top of all of that, there are the complications that come with wills and step-parents and money and family systems doing what family systems do under pressure. Layers on layers on layers.
We talked for a while.
We didn't resolve anything — there is no resolving most of it, not yet. What the conversation held was something else: the weight of being seen. Of having it named. Of not having to perform okayness, just for an hour.
That matters. Even when it isn't the whole answer.
Here's what I know from years holding space for people:
we are not good at noticing how much we are carrying.
Not because we're weak or unaware. Because life keeps moving and we keep adjusting to the load, and at some point the load becomes the background noise we've stopped hearing.
The question worth asking isn't am I coping?
Most of us are coping.
The question is: what is coping costing me?
Some common signs it might be worth reaching out:
A big loss — death, relationship, a version of your life that's ended — that you haven't had time or permission to actually feel
A major transition where you've had to hold yourself together for everyone else (new job, new home, family illness, a difficult year)
A legal or financial complication — wills, separations, disputes — that carries emotional weight no-one talks about because everyone is focused on the practical
Physical symptoms that tests keep coming back clean on — palpitations, fatigue, persistent tension, sleep that doesn't rest you
The sense that you're functioning fine on the outside, but something underneath has gone quiet
A background flatness or low-grade exhaustion that's been there so long it no longer registers as unusual
Caring for someone else's grief or wellbeing while your own sits in a waiting room
The feeling that if you stopped moving, even briefly, something would catch up with you
You don't have to be in crisis to reach out. In fact, the best time to reach out is before the thing becomes a crisis.
A single conversation can do more than you'd expect. Sometimes what the body needs isn't answers. It needs to know it's been heard.
If any of this landed for you, a clarity call might be the most useful thing you do for yourself this month.
50% Discount $150 (normally $300)A private one-to-one conversation for when something in your life or relationships feels confusing, heavy, or difficult to navigate alone.This 60-minute session provides a calm, supportive space to slow down and look clearly at what’s happening beneath the surface.