I last wrote a Pog Blog post on June 15^th 2018.  I added some posts to document lockdown in Covid last year, but I stopped as….well, it turns out not much happens in lockdown and it went on and on and on…

You might be wondering why I’m turning up like a bad penny now.  You might not be giving it a second thought.  Or – most likely – you might not even be reading this and I’m just sitting here tapping the keyboard in a little bubble on my own.  And that’s ok.

Because there are two reasons I am back:

1. I never really wanted to stop writing the blog but someone told me to
2. It helps me find smiles

So yes, back in 2018 I was training as a hypnotherapist.  Someone pointed out to me around that time that I should ‘be careful’ with the blog as if people connected my future therapy work with my life on the blog, nobody would ever come to me for therapy as I was…well, too ‘me’ in their eyes,  I guess.  That thought stuck and I played it over and over in my head and in the end decided that person was right and just stopped.

It turns out they were wrong.  I now have a full time therapy business with a waiting list.  And I may have started out trying to be a ‘therapist’ (I may have even bought long floaty dresses thinking I needed to look a particular way), but I discovered that actually, my clients like having a very human human to work with, so should any potential future, present or past clients find this, if I am the right therapist for them, I don’t think they will be particularly bothered…

And it helps me find smiles.  Things have changes in the last few years.  Let me do a quick recap:

• I was made redundant from company I’d worked at for 20 ish years
• Started part time at another company
• Qualified as a hypnotherapist
• Set up a part time hypnotherapy clinic
• Himself was made redundant
• Himself got another job
• Covid hit
• Part time corporate job went piff paff poof!
• Started making the part time hypnotherapy clinic full time and online
• Mum diagnosed with leukaemia
• New member of the family added – Percy the working cocker (Norman cat not terribly impressed)

.

 

 

 

• Mum started delayed Chemo (thank you, Covid)
• Sister 2 diagnosed (after lots of fun and games) with achalasia
• Mum finished initial chemo and started maintenance chemo
• Mum had a stroke
• Sister 2 had operation to enable her to eat again
• Himself asked me to marry him. With a Haribo ring

(I’m not entirely sure the order is right, but you get the idea.) There’s been a lot of ups and downs.  And I’ve really missed having this place as somewhere to reframe things into a positive – because that is what I always used to do here.  And that is a great thing to do, but you have to make space for it.  So now, I am back and making space, because it turns out some things are not as easy as they look, like:

• Being a (not quite) step mum – People said I’d be good at it because I am generally good with kids.  I thought I’d be good at it because I am generally good with kids.  Folks, it turns out that step-mumming is like some sort of mind game played while walking a tightrope over a pit of fire that is designed to make you question Every. Single. Thing.  It’s bloody tricky.  And mostly people don’t tell you that and anyway, how hard can one evening a week and every other weekend be?…

• Looking after your Mum post stroke.  One day a week I drive down a couple of motorways, shower mum, help her dress and take her on an outing to give Dad a bit of time out.  Firstly, showering your mum is weird.  It’s a complete role reversal of 40 plus years ago.  Secondly, Mum isn’t the Mum she used to be anymore and while she has made some amazing steps forward, sometimes one or both of us ends up crying or shouting.  But actually, there are some fun and some funny moments.  And I want to be able to focus on those for me, for Dad and for my sisters.

• And then there is running your own business.  Now I love my job – it’s blimin’ amazing.  But I work entirely online now – and have clients all over the world, so even if I was willing to do all the risk assessment stuff insurance now requires in relation to Covid, there is no single geographic place for me to see my clients.  And the downside of this is the fact that I don’t get to talk much anymore.  I really miss that desk and kitchen chatter in the office.  That catching up with a colleague.  So, lovely ones.  You are now taking the place of that catching up.  I will chatter and chatter and chatter on here.  I’m sorry about that.  You’re allowed to walk away from the metaphorical office kitchen though; I wont judge. I mean I wont know, so you really can just wander away…

And one other thing:

The entire time I blogged before I was wary of what I said.  Quite early on in the blog I had a boss who was…well, she was a bit of a bitch really.  To cut a long story short, she threatened to sack me over the blog. Twice. (I mean, she’d also threatened to sack me for forgetting to tell her I had a dentist appointment in my lunch break, so she was quite sack happy, but I never questioned her power.). It was silly really, as she was followed by a procession of AMAZING managers who read my blog, commented on it and made my life a much more smiley place.  But I was still wary.  But not anymore.

The Pog Blog is back.  No filter. Just unapologetically me. I’d love you to stick around – it’ll be different, but the same too.  Because that’s how life is, isn’t it? :o)