Lara Rust Counselling - The Compassionate Couch

31/08/2026

𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗲. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺.

Have you ever looked at someone else's life and suddenly felt that yours wasn't quite enough?

Their holiday. Their home. Their relationship. Their career. Their achievements.

We rarely see the whole story yet we can still find ourselves comparing our ordinary lives with someone else's carefully presented moments.

In Part 2 of The Loneliness of Modern Life, I explore why we compare, why it can make us feel behind, and what our envy might actually be telling us about what we want.

Maybe the question isn't “Why don't I have what they have?” but “What does this tell me about what matters to me?”

Read Part 2 here:

We live surrounded by carefully curated versions of other people's lives. Their success, relationships, homes, bodies and achievements can quietly become a measure of our own. But we rarely see the whole story. This article explores why comparison can make us feel behind, what our envy might be tell...

28/08/2026

Friday reminder:

As we head into the weekend, take a moment to acknowledge yourself for making it through another week.

Perhaps it was a good week. Perhaps it was a difficult one. Maybe you’re feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, proud, relieved or a mixture of all of it. Whatever you’re carrying, you don’t have to carry it perfectly.

This weekend, remember that your mental health deserves a place on your to-do list too.

- Rest without feeling guilty.
- Step away from what can wait.
- Spend time doing something that brings you joy.
- Give yourself permission to slow down.
- Be gentle with the voice inside your head.
- Remember that your worth isn't measured by how much you accomplish.

You don’t have to have everything together before you’re allowed to rest.

Take care of you. You deserve it.

Wishing you a peaceful weekend, with a little less pressure and a little more breathing space.

24/08/2026

We're More Connected Than Ever and Somehow More Lonely

We have never had more ways to reach one another.

Our phones are always within reach. Messages arrive instantly. We can keep up with friends and family across the world without being in the same room. And yet, so many people still experience loneliness.

That contradiction prompted the first piece in my new five-part series, The Loneliness of Modern Life.

Perhaps the problem isn't simply that we don't have enough people around us.

Perhaps we have become very good at contact without necessarily experiencing connection.
We can know what someone did at the weekend without knowing how they're really doing. We can speak to people every day without feeling able to share the things that matter most.

This first article explores why having people around us doesn't always protect us from loneliness — and what it means to feel genuinely known.

Where do you feel genuinely known?
And if you can't think of an answer, what might that be telling you?

Read Part 1 here:
https://www.lararust.com/post/we-are-more-connected-than-ever-and-somehow-more-lonely-part-1

You can have hundreds of people in your life and still feel completely alone. Why? The first part of The Loneliness of Modern Life explores what we may really mean when we say we feel connected.

21/08/2026

**𝐀 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞**

We live in a world where it has never been easier to connect.

We can message people instantly, keep up with friends and family from anywhere in the world, follow hundreds of people and fill almost every quiet moment with conversation, information and entertainment.

And yet, many of us are struggling with loneliness, comparison, exhaustion and the feeling that somehow everyone else is doing better than we are.

Over the next five weeks, I'm going to explore some of these quieter struggles and ask some bigger questions about the way we live now.

We'll look at why we can feel lonely even when we're surrounded by people, why everyone else's life can seem better than ours, the loneliness of always being the “strong one”, the mental health cost of constant comparison, and finally, whether our phones sometimes give us a way to avoid being alone with ourselves.

This isn't going to be a series of “5 things you should do to improve your mental health.”

It's more of an invitation to pause.

To recognise some of the things we may be experiencing but don't always have words for.

And perhaps to realise that some of what we struggle with isn't a personal failure at all. It may simply be part of being human in a world that asks a great deal of us.

*The first piece, “𝑾𝒆'𝒓𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒍𝒚”, is coming Monday.*

I hope you'll read it, think about it, and perhaps share it with someone who needs the conversation too.

20/04/2026

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝒂𝒏𝒙𝒊𝒆𝒕𝒚 𝒊𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒂 𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒂𝒍?

We’re often taught to get rid of anxiety as quickly as possible.�But sometimes, it shows up when something really matters, a decision, a change, or a moment of uncertainty.

Not always as a warning to stop,�but as something asking you to pay attention.

When anxiety shows up for you, do you tend to push it away, or try to understand it?

If you’d like to understand anxiety in a different way, not as something to fight, but something to listen to, you can read more by clicking below:

Anxiety isn’t always a sign that something is wrong, it’s often a response to uncertainty, meaning, and what truly matters. This piece explores a more compassionate way to understand anxiety, not as something to eliminate, but as something to listen to.