Think of these as a friendly companion for the part of self-care we don’t talk about enough — what happens after you follow healthy advice.
The Field Notes show the bit that normally gets edited out.
Most health and self-care content gives us the useful conclusion: I tried this. I discovered this. This helped.
But real life contains all the bits in between.
Is this actually helping? Did I just make things worse? I’ve gone off track. Why did that happen? Maybe I need to change something. Oh… that’s interesting. I hadn’t noticed that before.
Those little uncertainties, slips, detours and discoveries are a normal part of learning what works for you. But when you’re in the middle of them, they can easily make you wonder whether you’re getting it wrong.
That’s what I want to share in the Field Notes.
Not a polished version of my self-care, but the little behind-the-scenes moments as they happen — what I noticed, what I wondered about and what I decided to try next. Sometimes it will work out. Sometimes it won’t.
And perhaps, when things feel messy or unclear for you too, the Field Notes will remind you that you’re not doing it wrong. You’re not the only one figuring it out as you go.
So each Friday, I’ll share one of those moments with you.
That’s the question Make Self-Care Simple was created to help you answer.
Most healthy living advice tells us what to do.
Walk a certain number of steps each day. Add or remove particular foods. Take a recommended supplement. Try a new health or wellbeing product. Follow a specific sleep routine or relaxation technique.
And that can be really helpful.
Someone has done the research, worked something out or found an approach that helped them. We have somewhere to begin.
Sometimes we follow the advice, feel better and think: brilliant.
Keep doing it. You’ve found something that works for you.
But sometimes it isn’t that simple.
You follow the advice and the improvement you expected doesn’t appear.
Perhaps you rarely notice much difference when you make healthy changes and are left wondering whether anything is happening at all.
Or perhaps something has changed, but you’re not sure whether it’s enough.
One thing improves while something else gets worse.
You feel better some days but not others.
Something helps at first and then seems to stop.
Now what do you do?
Do I keep going?
Should I change something?
Is this actually helping?
Or is it time to let it go?
This is where Make Self-Care Simple begins.
A lack of obvious results doesn’t mean a lack of useful information
For more than 20 years, I worked with hundreds of people who had done their research and were trying very hard to look after themselves.
And I kept seeing the same thing.
They weren’t necessarily following bad advice.
They just weren’t getting the simple, obvious results they had expected.
I know that feeling myself.
It’s very easy at that point to assume the advice hasn’t worked, wonder whether you’ve done something wrong or go searching for the next answer.
But when I looked more closely at what was happening, I often found something else.
The way their bodies were responding contained useful clues about what they needed at that particular time.
Perhaps something was improving, but not where they had expected.
Perhaps their body needed something else first, or more support alongside it.
Perhaps the advice needed adapting to suit them.
And sometimes their response really was showing that something simply wasn’t right for them — or wasn’t right for them now.
Because once you follow the advice, another source of information becomes available: your response to it.
Your body is always responding — and that response can help guide you.
The feedback doesn’t look the same for everyone, and it isn’t always obvious.
I think of this as your Body’s Guidance Style — the individual way your body gives you feedback as you make changes.
Learning to recognise that feedback can help you decide whether to give something more time, make an adjustment or let it go.
Good advice gives you somewhere to start. Your body’s response helps you discover what you need next.
That’s the part of self-care I want to help you with.
Making self-care more personal
Make Self-Care Simple isn’t another health plan.
I’m not here to tell you what to eat, which supplements to take, how to exercise or which morning routine you should follow.
There are already plenty of people doing that very well.
Instead, I’ll help you learn to notice how your body responds to the changes you make.
To recognise what seems to support you.
To adapt good advice when it needs adapting.
To give something more time when the early signs are encouraging.
And to recognise when it may be time to let something go.
Over time, those small discoveries help you build a more personalised approach to self-care — one based not only on what should help, but on what you discover actually supports your body and your life.
You don’t have to stop following healthy advice.
You just learn how to make it your own.
And this doesn’t need to be complicated.
Learning to notice your body’s feedback and use it to decide what to do next is a simple skill that anyone can learn.
The more you practise, the better you get at working with your body rather than simply following instructions and hoping for the expected result.
And over time, you build a skill you can draw on whenever your body, your circumstances or your needs change.
If you’d like to learn more, choose whichever next step feels most useful to you.
Where would you like to begin?
🧭 Your Body’s Guidance Style Your body has its own way of showing you how it responds. Learn why recognising your body’s feedback can make it easier to judge whether healthy advice is actually helping.
📖 Learn alongside me Follow my weekly Field Notes, where I share the small things I notice and learn as I use this approach in my own everyday self-care.
A simple first step in the Make Self-Care Simple Method
The Feedback Finder helps you discover your body’s guidance style.
When you follow healthy living advice and don’t see the improvements you expected, one of two things normally happens.
You give up too soon, before the early signs of improvement have had chance to become clear.
Or you continue long after the body has been indicating that something isn’t helping.
Both can leave you feeling confused and doubting the advice or product, your body, and even yourself.
This was exactly what I saw with new clients who had done their research and were doing almost everything right, but still weren’t seeing the improvements they expected.
And yet, when I assessed them, I found that the body had often been offering guidance all along.
The Make Self-Care Simple Method is based on the idea that your body isn’t just the problem – it’s also a messenger.
Because once you begin to recognise your body’s guidance, you have a much better idea of what’s happening and what to do next.
The Feedback Finder is a simple DIY way to discover your body’s guidance style and learn how to use it.
Most healthy living advice focuses on what to do.
The Feedback Finder helps you understand what happens when you do it.
As a therapist, I quickly realised that two people following the same advice could experience very different results.
Sometimes the advice was helping both of them.
But their early feedback looked completely different.
One person might notice obvious improvements.
Yet another might notice very little at first.
And a third might experience mixed or confusing results.
That’s why the next step isn’t always the same.
Sometimes you need to continue.
Sometimes you need to make a small adjustment.
And sometimes it’s time to try something different.
The Feedback Finder helps you recognise your body’s feedback patterns, so when improvements feel unclear, you know what to do next.
Discovering your body’s guidance style is usually quick and surprisingly obvious – one of those insights that, once someone points it out, you can’t unsee.
But the real value isn’t simply discovering your style.
It’s learning how to use that information in real life.
Based on over 20 years of working with clients, I’ve included practical guidance to help you understand what your body’s feedback may be telling you and how to respond.
Inside the Feedback Finder you’ll discover:
how your body naturally gives feedback
the common ways you may have misunderstood that feedback
what helps your feedback style make clearer progress
what to do next when you’re not seeing the improvements you hoped for
My wish is that you don’t simply discover your body’s guidance style.
My wish is that you learn how to use this information, so you know what to do next.
Because every time you understand your body’s feedback, you make better self-care decisions.
And over time, those decisions become your personalised Menu of Self-Care– a practical guide to what supports your body, your life and your wellbeing.
