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She Writes, She Says

Explore a featured selection of my writing work below.
She writes, she says. •

Two Years Later, Again…

It’s interesting to notice when when I get the urge to revisit this blog. It seems to be in two year intervals. I seemingly get “caught up” in life and neglect the what-I-know-to-be very cathartic hobby that brings me a lot of peace, reassurance and clarity.

A pattern I’ve noticed: the last two times this has happened over the last four years, it’s when I’ve entered toxic relationships where my needs have felt compromised and like I’ve detached from the truest version of myself. Of course, my p
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Lonely Years To Golden Smiles

This morning I asked my grandad what his highlight of his week away in Poland was. It was just him, myself and my aunty who went on a last-minute break to our family cottage in the wilderness – a destination my mum’s side of the family have been visiting for decades. We had nothing planned, no-one to see or nothing in particular to do. It was a week filled with cold water lake swimming, forest walks and bike rides off the beaten track. We ate pierogi (a delicious polish delicacy), read books, an
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Unconditional Rest

Something I’m learning to appreciate this year, as foreign as it may seem to most of us, is the importance of unconditional rest. One of my good friends, who I’ll refer to as Ted, is the epitome of the opposing idea – that rest must be earned. He’s an energetic, ambitious, and high-flying young man, who I know will succeed in anything he chooses to pursue. He is constantly striving to be better, do more and work to his greatest potential. I don’t believe this necessarily comes from a place of fe
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Visualisation – in Grief & Life

I’ve been thinking s lot about visualisation this week. The weekend just gone, I participated in a weekend-long Early Years Yoga Teacher training online with BEAM Academy – a school which introduces yoga and mindfulness to babies, children, teens, and young people with special educational needs. If you know me at all, or read any of my blogs, you’ll appreciate how ‘up my street’ this is! I love yoga, and I adore working with children…What more could I want? I’m privileged to be joining BEAM’s te
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I’m Overcoming Diet Culture.

If you’ve read other of my blogs, you’re most likely aware of how actively anti-diet culture I am. If you’re not familiar with the term, diet culture refers to a system of beliefs that puts your level of health and wellness down to how you live and what you look like. For example, in the world of diet culture, thinness equates to optimal health and weight loss is glamorized. Fitness freaks are drooled over, and rest is frowned upon. ‘Diet’ drinks, snacks and low-calorie meals are normalized, reg
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A Month Away in The States: Week 4

And what a week to end the…Trip? Vacation? Intervention? Honestly, I’m trying to work it out myself. What I’ve realised, as I’m sitting here in Boston Logan International airport gazing nostalgically out of the window as the sun sets behind the city, is that this was exactly where I needed to be. I flew out to The States, a month ago today, completely open-minded. I didn’t know specifically why I felt the need to escape the rat-race for a while, but I knew I’d have a good idea by the time I left
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A Month Away in The USA: Week Three

This week was a blast from the past, but with a twist. Three years after what felt like a lifetime of change, growth and wisdom gained, I returned to my home-away-from-home, Hidden Valley 4-H Camp (Watkins Glen, NY).

I enrolled with an organisation called Camp America when I was 18 years old (6 years ago now). They led a program, primarily for university students, to go off and spend a summer in The States at a kid’s summer camp. I was actually inspired to partake in the program after hearing s
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A Month Away in The USA: Week Two

Since my last blogpost, it’s been a very uninteresting, yet interesting, week. Unfortunately, since I arrived in Upstate New York, I’ve been pretty sick. The chesty cough started on the six-hour drive from Boston, where I lost my voice to the extent it was impossible to blare out all the words to ‘Welcome to New York’ by Taylor Swift as we crossed the border. For the past seven years, Upstate New York has always been my safe space. A place a call home. Therefore, it was no surprise to me that I
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A Month Away In The USA: Week One

30 days to clear your mind. No pressure, or a ton of pressure? I’m not sure what the outcome of this trip will be, or even what my intention for coming was. All that I know is that I felt an urge to make this trip happen, and even though it might not make sense now, I know it will at some point. One day I will look back at my 24-year-old self, sat at London Heathrow with fist-clenching period pains and a hangover from hell after a 4-day bender, and it’ll all become clear. Clear as to why I’m pay
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Calorie Bullsh*t

As I’m sure everyone in the UK will is, or will soon be, aware, the government have recently implemented a new law that enforces big-chain restaurants to display the calories contents on their menus. This is in the hope to tackle obesity – a condition characterised by abnormal or excessive fat accumulation. There are a number of issues I’d like to address here; the first being the nitty gritty science behind calories themselves – and how irrelevant they are.

We’ll start with the hypothetical id
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Two years later…

I haven’t updated this blog for almost two years, since just after my dad died. It’s been a rollarcoaster of a time and I’ve learnt, achieved and overcome, a lot. One book, a holistic health qualification and a few heartbreaks endured later, I’m finally ready to start writing again. I want to use this blog as a platform to share my ideas, options and views of the world – good and bad. I feel more open, and responsive to what’s going on around me now. I’m ready to connect with others who share, a
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Enjoy the ice-cream, before it melts.

From what I’ve experienced so far, grief is a paradox. One minute you can feel intensely happy; the next you can feel intensely sad. One day you may feel nothing but grateful for the things and people around you; others you may feel like the universe has it in for you and your happiness. Sometimes you may look through pictures and videos and letters experiencing joy; others times you might feel a gut-wrenching longing for that person you’ve lost to still be here. There’s no rhyme or reason to an
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We’re not Superhuman.

From what I’ve observed, in my (eventful) twenty-two years of life so far, is that a large proportion of us think we’re indestructible. We like to be thought of as ‘strong’, and able to put up with anything. We bend but don’t break. We’re encouraged to be resilient in the face of adversity, whilst having the ability to turn anything into a positive. In every situation we should find a silver lining, and every opportunity should act as a stepping stone to our strong-headed dreams and ambitions. T
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His Last Chapter.

It would make sense to start at the beginning. But since my brain is currently defying all logic, I’m going to go with what feels right. The fact I felt an urge to write this, the day after my Dad’s funeral, leads me to believe that he’s guiding me to articulate his last chapter in whatever I feel fit. So, I’m going to start at the end.

The two weeks between the day Dad died and the day of the funeral was surreal, to say the least. Tributes read, poems shared, and lanterns released, we’ve now o
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Together, We Fly.

I believe that the universe is sending us signals, all the time. Whether you’re in tune with them or not is a different matter, but all the same, our lives are full of meaning.

The vibe of our household over the past few months has been nothing but positive. Sure there have been hard days, but I’d say 90% of the time the six of us are happy. The relative joy we’ve experienced as a family is like nothing I’ve ever felt before, and the impact that’s had on my life already brings me so much hope f
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A simple man, with a simple plan.

Most of us will have pondered the hypothetical question “if it was your last day on earth, what would you do?”. It’s interesting to think about. Who would you really want to spend your last 24 hours with? What would you really like to do, or eat, or see?

Of course then there’s the ‘bucket list’. If you were told you have a limited time left on earth, what would you like to experience? Where would you like to go? What would you like to achieve?

Over the past few months questions like these have
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The Daisychain Effect.

This morning I sat, in my garden, amongst a bed full of daisies. Two months into lockdown, it’s safe to say I’ve got a lot more time on my hands, and am beginning to get used to the idea of purposefully ‘doing nothing’. I’ve been daydreaming a lot more, spending time reminiscing happy childhood memories, and generally piecing my thought processes together. Today’s mental wandering took me back in time to the countless lunchtimes my friends and I spent creating daisychains in the corner of the pl
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Resilience

From my experience, I’ve noticed that resilience seems to correlate with adversity. The more adverse circumstances you are subject to in your life, the more likely you are to be able to recover from difficulties later on. As a ‘resilient person’, you may be blessed with a naturally ‘thick skin’, able to cope with whatever has come your way from a young age. However, it is more so likely that the circumstances you’ve faced in your life has forced you to reevaluate how you navigate yourself throug
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Knowing Your Worth

Personally, I’ve never been one for mental health labels. I think they can put an individual into a box and have negative knock-on effects if an identity is built around on having a certain condition. That’s not to say it isn’t useful for diagnosis, but in many cases I feel like it solidifies the unhealthy behaviour as something that can’t be changed. They can create a ‘this is who I am’ mindset. That being said, I’m an advocate for raising awareness and reducing the stigma around mental illness
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Life as an Identical Twin

Firstly, I would like to stress how much I love my twin sister, Katy. She is an inspirational human being, who has been through hell and back to get to where she is today. I’m grateful she’s alive, and to this day is the older (by 15 minutes) sister that I’ve always looked up to. For those of you who know us, you’ll know that we can get through anything. For those of you who don’t, I’m about to tell you a story that may enlighten you about the ups and downs of being a twin. If you relate to the
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One Day at a Time

In the words of Kelly Clarkson, I am a great believer in the idea that ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’. No matter how cliche the phrase may sound, from my personal experience I am 100% certain that every ‘bad’ experience that has happened in my life has contributed tremendously to my personal growth. For example, experiencing a feeling of emotional neglect during my teenage years pushed me to be independent and self-sufficient; my sister dipping in and out of psychiatric units for eig
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Lacking Purpose

During a time where the majority of us are unable to work, socialise or connect why our loved ones face to face, we may feel like we lack ‘purpose’. This might manifest as feeling bored, empty, or like the world is turning against you. I know this feeling all too well, and it’s something I tend to overcompensate for in my ‘normal’ day-to-day life pre-COVID-19, by pushing myself to the limit of my abilities. However, as we’re all forced to slow down and take a step back during this time of uncert
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Why write?

Hi. My name’s Lara, and I guess I should start this with a little intro. I’m a 21-year old (22 in a month!) Falmouth Fine-Art Graduate from Brighton. However, my passion lies in the field of Positive Youth Development and Mental Health. My most treasured experience yet has been working at a summer camp in Upstate New York since I was 18 – I owe a lot of my growth to this place. I have a twin sister called Katy (who will most likely feature a lot in this blog), an older brother (Chris), younger s