Self-Centred: Consider This a Beginning

my grubby but indispensable journal

I’ve been circling the edges of this Substack since January – writing when something was alive, going quiet when work got busy. I’ve been watching the subscriber count tick up, thanks in part to generous cheerleading from others (Alice Bramhill, Jenny Alexander and Morgan Clementine – thank you) while I pondered what I was actually doing here.

I think I now know.

So here’s what Self-Centred is, as clearly as I can say it.

The personal essays are the heart of it. Once a month, roughly – sometimes more if something won’t leave me alone. They’ll be about whatever is genuinely alive to me: late diagnosis and what it keeps revealing, walks on Exmoor, what I’m reading, what I’m resisting, the gap between the compassion I offer in my practice and the compassion I withhold from myself. Not so much lessons – more dispatches.

The notes will be shorter, more frequent, less polished. Observations from facilitation and life. A poem that cracked something open. A question I don’t have an answer to yet. The kind of thing I’d say to a colleague or friend over coffee.

Wednesday Write-Together is a weekly space – 5:30–6:30 pm UK time – where I offer a prompt and we write alongside each other. No performance, no sharing required. Just an hour to turn toward yourself. Some weeks I’ll be there with a full session, some weeks I’ll offer a light prompt and hold the space. You can take inspiration from what I offer, or write on what most matters to you. I’ll let you know when I’m away.

Everything stays free for now. In September I’ll introduce a paid tier – for people who want more: a monthly themed workshop session, additional pieces, community space. I’ll tell you what that looks like well before it happens.

What I won’t be doing: posting to a schedule I can’t sustain, manufacturing content to feed an algorithm, or performing consistency I don’t feel.

What I can promise: writing when something feels true. Showing up for Write-Together most weeks (barring holidays and illness). Building something I actually want to be part of – and share with you.

If that sounds like your kind of thing – please pull up a chair.

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First Wednesday Write-Together: 20th May, 5:30 pm UK. Free to join. Zoom link | Meeting ID: 833 4751 2590 | Passcode: 012406

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One other thing: my next Compassion Journalling course runs across four Tuesday evenings – 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd June, 7–9 pm UK time. Small group, 8 places, (3 already taken). We’re exploring self-compassion through writing. If you’ve been curious about the practice, or want to return to it, booking and details are here. And as always, reach out if you have any questions.