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Lisa Hicks Youth Coach & Counsellor, Caldicot (2025)

30/07/2025

Love Yourself …

a little extra right now. You’re balancing so much, handling things no one sees, and doing your best.

Give yourself some grace.

And to those that don’t understand your struggles✌🏼

07/05/2025

STUCK - if you want something different, do something different!

Last night I was under time pressure, so I created this masterpiece dinner. Quick cottage pie with waffles haha
It raised eyes in the house, lot of skepticism, but hungry humans, they ploughed in. It was a success a) tasted good, better than looked and b) I competed it within time

Let me know if you’ve done anything differently and how it turned out!

PS if you give the waffle topped cottage pie a try DM me you pics

11/05/2024

Hard to be HONEST⁉️⁉️⁉️ Thoughts 💭

14/02/2024

Happy SELF LOVE day ❤️

Not even sure if this is even a thing ‘self love day’ but, everyday should be self love day - being kind to yourself should be #1 priority!

If you’re not in a relationship then this day is for you too - a day to bestow that little or a lot of LOVE on you Maybe it’s to treat yourself to that something extra you’ve been wanting or it could just simply be to take extra time for yourself today!

Be interested to know, what act of self love you do today?

I have been trying to love myself more recently, as I’ve been feeling like life is constantly derailing me. I can’t help others through difficult times and emotions, if I don’t have my own s**t together!
I watched a clip by Brene Brown (check her out she is amazing) about the importance of leaning into life, leaning into discomfort as opposed to challenge it!

Life is meant to move up and down, it’s a journey. Some days and weeks and even longer periods can be more than ripples, they can be great highs and crashing lows.

So how do we lean into those?

These are my top four things to do if your feeling life is derailing you or you want to lean into life more

▪️Accept your feelings - sit with the feeling and let it pass through your body

▪️Take deep breaths - breath in deeply through your nose and breath out your mouth, repeat until you feel a sense of calm return to your body

▪️Develop new skills - learning to sit with your feeling or breathing might be new skills but, like me it could be learning to take time for yourself or literally starting a new hobby

▪️Show yourself compassion - yes yes yes, charity starts at home, so start by giving yourself a hand, a clap when you’ve handled a difficult situation well or even if you don’t think you handled it well, you handled it. Speak kindly to yourself - give yourself a break

I’ve always enjoyed learning, academically mostly, but now I’m transferring those skills to life and self love. Being a mum, wife, sister and daughter and friend, it’s easy to lose yourself and for situations to derail you.

Self love TIP - you are doing your best and your best is good enough!

❤️

31/12/2023

A poem to ME from 2023 📗

As the year draws its final breathe
Into another year of hope, no less!

2023 has been another year of self- discovery
Learning new things, like
How to be without apology
Be kinder to my mind, kind to my heart and accepting things happen for a reason
Putting the past where it ought to go, behind
Learning the lessons it showed
Stay present - exercise, journal, meditation
and gratefulness

I build steps for those around me
I care and I am compassionate
I get things wrong, I’m not always right (haha don’t tell my husband that)
I fall and I stumble but, I keep at it
Its OK, it will be ok, I’m growing
Into the better version of me,
Thank you oh sweet twenty twenty three

Vulnerable is the new strong
Communication is the key
Knowing what you want, helps massively
Meeting new folk from different histories
- old or young
Opens and broadens the mind
It’s ok to say NO,
Without guilt or shame
Listen to the gut
The messages are invaluable -
Teach me what I need
To be the better version of ME

So 2024 I’m coming at you again!
More of the above
With heaps of patience
And a willingness to learn
Rekindle the love for a better version of ME

Happy New Year 🎉 May 2024 be the year you start to be better version of yourself. Where you start to be kinder to yourself and love the skin your in

Believe - Do - Achieve

14/11/2023

Affirmations and statements!!

This week has been one of those weeks, people are quoting statements at me left right and centre

‘Everything happens for a reason’ ‘Adapt and overcome’ and ‘Sometimes what didn’t work out for you, worked out for you’

I do love a good positive quote ‘rejection is projection’ is a fav of mine. I do love a good positive affirmation, ‘I am worthy’, is one of the greatest! We all need to realise our worth

Be great to hear if you have any positive affirmations or quotes, the things you like to say when the going gets tough or just to remind yourself who you are ❤️

20/10/2023

Throwback to warmer and brighter days!

Ok this weather has jumped from summer to winter in the blink of an eye. What happened to autumn! Looking back on my week and the many conversations I’ve had with various people. At the heart of them all is the emotion FEAR.

Fear has a multitude of disguises. It’s insidious, it lurks in our subconscious and it loves to derails us. Fear also keeps us safe, but it can also prevent us from doing things we need to do to excel in our jobs, in our relationships, in sport and education.

Many years ago when I was struggling to assert myself within my relationship, someone recommended a book ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway!’ By Susan Jeffers. It was amazing with great techniques to help move from passivity to assertiveness. My shift however was to learn to move from aggressiveness to assertiveness, although it did fluctuate between the two paradigms of assertiveness depending on the situation/ relationship.

Being aware of my fears, questioning my own feelings and thoughts was the first step to finding my assertiveness. I still need to use my internal navigation to keep me on my side of the street, to keep me from losing myself to others.

FEAR is tricky, it hides, it lurks and it creeps up. It’s normal to feel fearful, it’s part of the primitive part of our brains, linked to fight flight freeze and fawn.
In relationships it can allow us to take a back seat in our own lives, take foot of gas. Before you know it you are speeding along in life you don’t know. You’ve lost yourself and control.

So how do we stop the speeding car, how do we stop fear from taking control of our lives. Well, and this was especially important step for me, it was my awareness that I was giving too much of myself to others. FEAR was if I didn’t give to others then I wouldn’t be loved.

Today, whilst the rain pours down, take some time to be aware of areas of your life where you might be giving too much to others and see if it is linked to FEAR. Look at situations where you’ve said NO or even YES to things and see if it’s linked to FEAR. Be aware that fear is behind a lot of things we do or don’t do!

Have a blessed weekend 🙏🏼

13/09/2023

Variety is the spice of life!

Yesterday evening I was transformed back to a wonderful time when both my children danced. They were, at different ages both Latin and or ballroom champions at Blackpool. The experience taught them how to dance, which like riding a bike are skills you never lose. They got to listen to great music through big bands, which influenced my sons now chosen career in music.

BUT for me the biggest lesson I feel they learnt was the art of communication. Not just being able to talk to people of all ages but, to listen and appreciate others life stories. They both love their elders stories about the past and their sayings, so much so that the saying pop up in my sons songwriting.

“Remember the past, plan for the future and
live for today”

We had a lovely conversion last night as we ventured out into unknown territory to watch a big band perform. John on the doors was very welcoming and took the time to greet us during the interval. We all reminisced about the past, dancing and music, we talked about our future plans, cruising but, most heartwarmingly we all talked about the moment!

Much can be learnt from stepping out from your comfort zone, from the past and future but, so much can be enjoyed by living in the moment!

Happy hump day 😊

08/09/2023

Cooling off!

Wow it’s another hot and sticky day 🇬🇧 I’m not moaning, albeit my name is derived from the famous painting The Moaner Lisa. Hopefully, moaner in name only! 😉

Albeit I’m hot I am grateful too. Grateful for this warm weather, the heat because before long it will be memory.

What are you grateful for today?

Back in my days working within PE department, sometimes we’d use reflective practise. Each student would give themselves feedback on their performance and then peer review (each others). The focus was always focused on kindness. We can be our own worst critics at times! The young people (11-16) would give themselves two stars and a wish. The stars were things they did well and the wish was what they’d like to work on, effectively do better.

It got me thinking this could be transferred to my therapy or coaching sessions. Gratitude in therapy and performance analysis in sport. Effectively focused on positives psychology, what am I grateful for. It’s a great tool for sports coaches to use at any age, maybe change the terminology from 2 stars and a wish to two things you did well and one thing you’d like to improve on. That way the coach knows what your expectations are in training. It could be utilised after matches/ games to.

I could go on and on about gratitude and positive psychology but today it’s too hot.

Keep cool 😎

28/07/2023

Soul 🧡

Love a bright colour, it can really lift my mood and I feel more energetic

A lot of my posts involve colour - from the clothes I wear, the drinks and food I eat, to the flowers I see walking (see my other posts) Gosh, my first house when I was in my early twenties was bursting with bright bold colours

Colour feeds my soul! I don’t have a favourite colour, just love a bold colour over neutrals or watered down colours. It represents my boldness!

Last night, I fed my soul with something very new. I went to my first Open Mic Comedy night. I went to support a friend. Supporting my friends and loved ones is another thing that feeds my soul, as is laughter. WOW what an amazing experience and my friend aced her performance. Very proud of her for trying something new, standing on a stage in front of lots of new faces and doing what feeds her soul 🧡
Respect to anyone who stands in front of an audience, be it a presentation at work to entertaining audience 🙌🏼

Anyway enough about ME - drop me a comment about WHAT feeds your soul?

26/07/2023

Go 💚

Over the last few months I’ve been trying to focus my energies on my own well-being.

Since hitting the half century milestone, I began to feel tired, low motivation and anxiety (overthinking).

I started HRT (gel) a few months ago and thought I’d make an effort to live more consciously, look after my body and mind.

I use to record my weight daily. I know people say that’s a lot but, I’ve found it really helps. Yes, I do get bit down when the pounds stick but, the psychology that comes alongside makes me rationalise my thoughts. Turn the smile right way round 🙂

I’ve been smashing my walking each week, eating more calorie dense foods and the pounds are gradually coming off. I didn’t worry what I ate or drank on my holiday, cheese wine bread 🥖 Now I’m back to real life I’m back on the app, no guilt, just resuming my focus. Go get them goals!

I’m getting my 8-hours sleep again and invested in a neck roller (beat the stress I carry in my neck and shoulders). Whilst I roll I do a 10-minute meditation with Mountain Mediation on Spotify but, you can listen to whatever helps clear the mind.

Well-being for the body and mind has me excited! My next activity is wall Pilates. I tried it before but, my mind wasn’t committed then. As the saying goes ‘if at first you don’t succeed try, try and try again. Most importantly don’t guilt yourself if it didn’t work out, that’s cool 🫘 Just keep moving forward.

Smoothie - Tesco smoothie mix (spinach kiwi mango) with apple juice 😋

09/07/2023

Answers ⁉️

Watched a Netflix series over the last week ‘Keep Breathing’ - A young woman’s story of resilience during adversity (recommended watch)

One line that resonated with me (episode six) was the woman recalling a conversation with her dad about her profession (lawyer) - “you like answers!” Hence her trip to find her mum for much needed answers

I do! I definitely do like answers! I have an inquisitive brain, I question things, human behaviour, my behaviours especially within my relationships

Having little or no memories of how I was as a child, my behaviours, how I interacted within my relationships with my siblings or family and friends etc makes my brain hardwired to answers. Probably a big part in why I studied a degree in psychology and the field I work within

With my answers, unfortunately I feel the need to share my findings, share my thoughts. I get excited - eureka moments! BUT I am learning that not everyone wants to hear my answers or share my joy when I have an answer

Not sharing my answers can be very challenging for me, for my inquisitive brain, especially when you know or think you know the answer. We all had that one kid in class whose hand couldn’t get any longer, breaking their neck to be asked by the teacher the answer. Yep, you guessed it, that child was me. I loved to proffer an answer in class

Now I am learning to sit with my ‘findings’, not to offer my answers. It can be difficult to refrain but, I will get there. Journaling my answers has helped with this process. Having a conversation with my answers on paper is good, it allows me to off load my brain and break me from my thoughts

If you have an overactive, inquisitive brain and like answers try, like me to put down your thoughts on paper. I don’t carry a notebook with me so, I often use notes on my phone

Drop me a comment if you resonate with my overthinking, answer hungry brain or if you want support with journaling pop me a DM. Would love to engage with other inquisitive brains 🧠

Lisa Hicks Youth Coach & Counsellor

30/07/2025

07/05/2025

11/05/2024

14/02/2024

31/12/2023

14/11/2023

20/10/2023

13/09/2023

08/09/2023

28/07/2023

26/07/2023

09/07/2023

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