New Website and Features!

Hello Poppets,

How the dickens are we?

My word what a start to the year! I mean, I don’t really want to start the second blog post of the year on the same note but still, my word! I explained in my last blog post that it wouldn’t exactly be full steam ahead for those first few months due to me making some changes on my website and that has certainly been the case.

Despite everyones kindness, the slowness to the year actually came with some real guilt. I had already taken the first month or so off due to being in desperate need of a break after 2020’s shenanigans and then had to take the website down to make various changes which meant making things slower again. My blog has been such a huge part of my life now and for so long it was strange not just having it at the click of a finger. After expressing these feelings to a friend he noted that with growth does come more challenges. Initially I didn’t really understand what was being said. As i say, this blog has been part of my life for a large amount of time and I hadn’t really taken a step back to see how much we had truly grown and that in that might be the problem.

I set up this website thinking that 10+ people would be reading it. I mean, to be honest when I think of people reading my blog I think of those few readers that were first on my blogspot page that regularly visited. I see their names and that small display picture that used to show on the left hand side. I almost forget as I open a blank page and start writing that my audience has grown a lot over the years. After trying to figure out the problems that my website had been having through out 2020 it began to emerge that the website I had initially created wasn’t able to hold the vast amount of people now visiting it. I was blown away to see that monthly my website was hitting over 150,000 humans. As I write that, I, I mean, what? Hang on, stop. It’s just so surreal to think of as I think back to what this page started as and it’s purpose.

It meant I had to really upgrade things and step up my game and that meant taking some time out to do that. My website has been moved, it’s been upgraded, it’s been tweaked and it’s been updated. I don’t want to go too much into that as essentially and quite frankly, it’s boring. However I will just say, it’s better. In regards to what will directly benefit all of you as readers of my blog there are some new fandangled things from my newsletter to the recovery toolkit that I know will be more of interest.

Yes, a newsletter! Lots of people and for a long time now have asked me to create a newsletter for my blog to keep you all up to date with blog posts and what I have been up to. As you can see you can now sign up to that very newsletter via my homepage or in the footer at the bottom of the page.

I have also created a reel on my homepage which I like to call the ‘Recovery toolkit’. Here I have placed a selection of things from books, apps and memberships to key things in self care that I believe will be helpful in peoples recoveries. These are not sponsored placements, just things I love and truly believe will be helpful to people. As I explore more into my own recovery journey and work with more organisations, brands and explore what is out there helping people, I will update and add to this toolkit!

You will also see various pages including my ‘About me’ page has been updated (They hadn’t been updated since first starting my blog!) and if you read my last blog post you will know a little about the direction in which I want my blog to head in. Last year was the first year of me working for myself and mix that in with a pandemic I truly feel my mission and goals got a little waylaid. Im not ungrateful in any way, shape or form for being able to work through the pandemic and the wonderful opportunities that came my way I just took on a LOT. I really needed to just pull the reins a little and remind myself of the path I was initially going in.

This year and going forward I really want to go back to the roots of my blog. Sharing my story and the things I have learnt in the hopes to help others going through the same. With a sudden growth in 2020 which came with some ‘non believers’ on recovery, I found myself almost trying to prove recovery was possible. Don’t get me wrong I want to prove recovery is possible in fact, that is my whole mission. However, I want to do that by showing it, not by trying to convince singular people that they can get better. I want to show a different side and bring a different conversation to the table when it comes to trauma and mental health difficulties. I want to open peoples eyes and share a different viewpoint on the topic.

I also really want to connect with people more, hence the newsletter and bring people on this journey with me. Im going to be upping my content and realising more things as they year goes on.

Anyway, enough of me waffling. I just wanted to check in and say “IM BACK” a bit more officially.