Reading is Medicine
Hiding in a book for my mental health
Friends and Readers,
It seems I'm sending these fortnightly rather than weekly at the moment. I hope you don't mind?
If I zoom out from all my activities, duties, and daily tasks, dropping this letter to every other week makes complete sense, as I've stepped up in other areas.
I often have to remind myself, or others have to remind me, that I'm only one person. As I try to do the work of a team; multiple jobs. This I'm accustomed to, as an ex blogger I was the writer, researcher, PA, editor, stylist, semi-often model, photographer, marketer and tech/IT tweaker.
To be honest, I still do most of these things. I obviously work with an editor and book cover designer now, but the DIY/punk/ADHD part of me is always there ready to jump on something that feels urgent.
Now the writing and the books are the most important. If I haven't got a book, the rest of those “jobs” don't matter.
I've had to take a step away this past week as the situational anxiety over bringing out my next book was finally beginning to show itself physically. Sleepless nights, low appetite, sobbing episodes, and a painful eczema flare up. I lay in bed one night, catastrophising, and finally put two and two together. Until then, I hadn't even realised I was anxious.
Even my Fitbit was telling me something was wrong. It was nice to have the validation, it wasn't in my head after all.
Anyway, I took a two day break during the week when I have the house to myself. I needed it. I've restarted the work over the past couple of days, it's been hard not to press the accelerator, as is my tendency.
Something I've also done is begin my re-read of The Historian. Let me tell you, this is a balm. This is my medicine!
I'm still not going to do a full Read-Along, but I'm definitely in the world of the book. It's soothing, like a massage for my brain 🧠
Let me know if you are reading it too, if there's a number of you I may do something where we can discuss.
Details below 👇
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (this is not a read along)
You guys… In classic ADHD fashion, I planned and wrote the below at the start of the year. As 2025 has progressed, I’ve realised that I actually don’t want to make one of my favourite books into a ro…
If you’ve somehow missed it, The Dark Beneath Us is the stand-alone prequel to Earthly Bodies. So Earthly Bodies needed a new cover to match.
I talk about this over here if you are curious. Instagram video.
I hope what readers get from these stories is that everything *is* connected.
We, as bodies, are residents on this planet. We are wildly connected to it. But that connection has become othered and gnarly. We see ourselves as separate from this Earth, rather than of this Earth.
Click below to get on the wait list.
