It has been a while, I know. 

And I missed you. 

If you are wondering where I have been for the last 6 months I wrote a post for World Mental Health day on Linkedin and Facebook which I also share in the PS at the end of this piece. 

I am just delighted to have found the space to be writing again... and I hope you are too! There are many things that curated the space for me to be able to write again including questions from readers of my emails and blogs telling me that they had missed these reflections and posts - thank you for all your messages and in person nudges! Every communication has been welcome and has been needed to build layer upon layer which means I am here again... and that is something for me to celebrate. 

The thing that has particularly caught my attention in the last week has been how we perceive people... If you are in the UK one of the TV programs of the year is BBC Celebrity Traitors. I am not one for watching reality game shows but a few years ago my sister told me how good it was so I watched a few episodes to see what it was about - and I have to say I find the mix of how people treat each other, lie to win, and game strategy fascinating! The concept of 'celebrity' is interesting for me because I have never been awed by the rich and famous and treat every human being as I meet them. However, what piqued my curiosity was the fact that we (I) know (most of) the celebrities in this series of Traitors and I never expected some of them to agree to do a show that would give us an insight into who they are and how they really are in 'real life' without the airs and graces of hair, make up, and directors. 

It is just brilliant to watch... I won't go into any spoilers here in case you haven't caught up with it yet but let me just say that Alan Carr, Stephen Fry, Tom Daily, Celia Emrie, Nick Mohammed (Nate in Ted Lasso), Mark Bonnar (Line of Duty baddie) are all fascinating to watch! 

I am learning more about humanity through watching these interactions — the pressure that people put themselves under when they want to outdo others and win something... this also happens in the workplace.

More to come...

A couple of other things that caught my eye — or ear as it may be — were:

Whats up Docs - podcast on nature. I mean, who knew that even plants in the home/office can improve wellbeing, and eating your lunch in the park is great for mental health! 

How someone used Chat GPT to give them accountancy advice!

I am so pleased to be here with you again, and I invite you to read the PS below and to use the question that struck me as being very helpful in letting you know where I have been for the last six months. 

Until next week, all my best,

Saiyyidah

The Space

PS — 

This isn't another World Mental Health day post... This is about me... indulge me for a minute 🙂 

The picture above is me standing outside Druim Bothy where we pitched a tent on a wild camping trip to Knoyart, Scotland in June 2024.

A couple of weeks ago I listened to a 15 second snippet of Stephen Bartlett (Diary of a CEO) interviewing Louis Tomlinson (One Direction singer). I don't usually watch these things, but something caught my attention, so much so that I watched it several times.

It was one question...

'To understand you, what is the earliest context that I need?'

Wow!

It made me think of you... and my recent context... and how that changed.

Allow me to use that question to help you know where I have been for the last 6 months.

Right now, the background to 'the context to understand' is that sometimes life has a way of throwing something your way which is sooo unexpected that you are not sure if you have the ability or resource to handle it. And then you find a way... and that way is through patience, courage, determination, faith, and a whole load of good friends, colleagues, and time.

I won't go through all the details here but for those of you who know and helped — thank you for your care. And to everyone else, know that I wanted 2025 to be my year of 'integration' — after 6 degrees and multiple qualifications I took a sabbatical from formal learning so that I could spend time harmonizing various knowledge, skills, and experiences into my practice and research.

Little did I know that the primary source of that 'integration' would be a very unexpected event in March 2025.

And 6 months later here we are, with me as a better (whatever that means!) coach, advisor, leader, tutor, and researcher... and more importantly a better human being.

I describe that event as a Ctrl+Alt+Delete reboot!

I have been agonising on how I 'come back' to the world of social media and start sharing thoughts and reflections again in public posts, emails, and courses.

And it seems apt to do so on World Mental Health day.

I am lucky, I knew what support I needed and what I didn't. I had almost immediate clarity on what to do — #1 thing was to shed anything that wasn't a real priority so I was able to take time to deal with what I needed to.

My question to you is what do you need to do to support your own mental health? World Mental Health can only happen when you look after your own. And for me some of that starts with asking yourself good questions and taking time to reflect — alone and with someone. So, let me ask you a slight adaptation of the question I shared at the start:

To understand you, what is the most recent context that I need?

What comes up for you?

What does that mean for you?

What have you learned about yourself?

...