the toolkit
Gentle, practical guides for hard days.
A growing collection of small, doable guides. How to start when you're overwhelmed, how to settle a racing mind, how to make one corner of your home feel calm. Free to read, written from lived experience, and always at your pace.
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When it all feels too much
How to start decluttering when you're overwhelmed
Gentle, practical steps for decluttering when you feel overwhelmed, anxious, or low on energy, from someone who has been there herself.
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Calming your nervous system
Grounding techniques for when everything feels too much
Simple grounding techniques you can use anywhere to settle a racing mind, including the 5-4-3-2-1 method, slow breathing, and a hand-on-something-cold reset.
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Calming your nervous system
Journaling for anxiety: how to start, what to write, and why it helps
A plain guide to journaling for anxiety from lived experience: what the research says, how to start when the page is too much, and three ways to journal.
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Calming your nervous system
Self-soothing: what it is and how to do it when your head is too full
What self-soothing means for adults, five ways to do it using your senses, why writing it down helps, and a journal made from lived experience.
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Calming your nervous system
30 journal prompts for anxiety, sorted by the moment you need them
Thirty gentle anxiety journal prompts grouped by moment: when the spiral starts, the middle of the night, after a hard conversation, and closing the day.
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Calming your nervous system
Journal prompts for when you cannot sleep because of worry
Short journal prompts for the night your head will not switch off, taken from the Self-Soothing Journal's own pages. Low light, a few lines, then close the book.
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Calming your nervous system
How to keep a worry diary (and why it quietens the worrying)
A worry diary is a page where you park each worry as it arrives and look at them together later, at a fixed time. The layout I use, and a copy-out template.
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Calming your nervous system
Can you learn DBT skills without a therapist?
A plain answer: the skills, yes; the therapy, no. What the four DBT skill areas are in everyday words, how to practise on your own, and when to ask for a clinician.
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Calming your nervous system
How to keep a thought diary (the CBT method, without the jargon)
A thought diary is five columns: what happened, what went through your head, what you felt, the evidence, a fairer thought. How to keep one, with a template.
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Calming your nervous system
How to keep a mood diary (and what to look for after two weeks)
A mood diary is one line a day: a score, what happened, what helped. The simplest layout, why two weeks is the useful length, and what to look for.
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Calming your nervous system
Best journals for anxiety in the UK: an honest comparison, ours included
Six anxiety journals sold in the UK compared on price, format, approach and who made them, including the one we sell. Which suits which kind of bad day.
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ADHD and getting started
Body doubling: why starting is easier with someone there
What body doubling is, why it helps ADHD brains start and finish tasks, and simple ways to try it at home, even on your own.
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Your home as a calm space
Setting up a calm corner at home
How to make one small corner of your home a place your nervous system can rest, with simple, low-cost steps and no big tidy-up needed first.
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Your home as a calm space
How to make a self-soothe box from things you already have at home
What a self-soothe box is, how to fill one using the five senses with things already in your home, where to keep it, and when to open it. No spending needed.
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longer reads
When you have a quiet half hour
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Why clutter feels so hard
Why a home fills up, and why it is not a character flaw.
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Why letting go is hard
Five reasons one object is hard to release: memory, guilt, just in case, identity, grief.
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What to declutter first
Five lighter places to begin that build confidence, instead of the usual top-ten lists.
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Glossary
Plain words for the terms that come up: doom piles, body doubling, executive dysfunction and more.
Want someone beside you?
Guides help, but sometimes you need a calm person in the room. The first consultation is always free, and we go at your pace.