In Balance

22/02/2026

The moment you swap the statement 'I can't handle this' for the question 'what is the immediate next move?', you manually override your brain’s default settings.

You effectively reroute energy from the amygdala’s alarm system to the prefrontal cortex’s command center.

That is the definition of neuroplasticity: thinking a new way to build a new brain.

17/02/2026

Curious isn’t it? How, as women, do we all do a number on ourselves? Working at 110, trying to show the world that we’ve got it all together, meanwhile doing the same number on each other!
Perpetuating a life that’s unachievable, a standard that cannot be met, an expectation that climbs higher each day, the golden benchmark always just out of reach.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DB9Wbh2MpXV/?igsh=MXB0cDh6ZDM0aWlqbg==

13/02/2026

Autoimmune diseases are a class of illnesses that occur when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks its own healthy cells and tissues.
There are over 80 different types of autoimmune diseases including lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and type one diabetes, and they represent the third most common cause of chronic illness.
Today’s generation of women tend to experience higher levels of stress than men due to societal expectations and responsibilities, such as caring for children, keeping up appearances, suppressing emotion and making parents all while also maintaining a career and household.
Research shows women may also be more likely to internalize stress maintaining the “everything is fine” mentality which can lead to chronic inflammation and immune dysfunction. Women also tend to hold back anger more than men for fear of being labeled “crazy” or “irrational”.
Overtime, cortisol, the stress hormone builds up in the blood and has no release and this can make a woman quite sick with chronic symptoms and ultimately lead to an autoimmune condition if left untreated.
I personally suffered with extreme weight gains, no libido, chronic fatigue, insomnia, rage/overstimulation, anxiety, depression, brain fog, headaches, hair loss, morning nausea, excessive cravings and so much more for over 8 years until I learned this was all being caused by too much cortisol in my blood.
Since I am like most women, I could not remove any of the stress I was facing every day so I leaned wholeheartedly on the herb Rhodiola which is a hormone regulator and a stress reducer, actually fighting your stress internally when you cannot reduce it externally.
After about 6 months on Rhodiola, my cortisol was regulated to such an extent, I was down 60 pounds and healed all of those symptoms in myself. I am going on 41 and look and feel better than I have in my whole life!

08/02/2026

Clinical psychologist on Aberdeen’s longest sunless period — and how to cope ☁️

With Aberdeen breaking records for days without sunshine, Inverurie psychologist Emma Hepburn explains why we all feel so exhausted.

Read more here: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0ryqkR0

06/02/2026

04/02/2026

03/02/2026

The power of life and death is in the tongue for sure. Not just the words you speak out but the words your inner voice tells you. 

YOUR WORDS ARE MAKING YOU SICK (LITERALLY) TW THE SCIENCE OF THE "NOCEBO EFFECT" THAT SUPPRESSES YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM

Are you the type to constantly repeat "I feel bad," "I'm exhausted," or "I'm old"? There's a "neurobiological programming" that science is validating in 2026. Your cells don't have ears, but they have chemical receptors that pick up every signal sent by your brain. When you speak out of scarcity or disease, you're not just describing a reality; you're sending a direct order to your system to execute it. Your body is the most loyal soldier: it simply obeys your voice.

The phenomenon is known as the Nocebo Effect. Just as positive thinking can heal, constant negative affirmations release an immediate cascade of Cortisol and Adrenaline. These stress hormones, at sustained levels, inhibit the production of lymphocytes and T cells, leaving your immune shield "deactivated" and vulnerable in minutes. Negative language is, in practice, a self-administered poison that withers your vitality from within.

THE MISTAKE OF THE MAJORITY: Using language as a simple outlet mechanism without understanding its physiological impact. By normalizing phrases of defeat or weakness, you train your nervous system to operate in a state of constant survival. Ignoring that your internal and external dialogue is the software that runs on your biological hardware is why so many treatments fail: you're trying to heal the body while language keeps bombarding the mind with signs of deterioration.

TECHNICAL SOLUTION: Neuroplasticity

demonstrates that we can 'rewire' our biological response by changing the narrative. By replacing limiting labels with process and possibility affirmations, we reduce tonsil activation and allow the parasympathetic nervous system to initiate cellular repair functions. Research from Harvard University has confirmed that using constructive language not only improves mood, but optimizes heart rate variability and strengthens inflammatory response, demonstrating that words are biological engineering tools.
PROTOCOL TO REPROGRAM YOUR BIOLOGY:

Identify the Poison: Become aware of your "sickness crutches" (e.g. "I'm sleepy," "this is going to kill me"); whenever you say them, you're reinforcing a stress neural pathway.

Conscious Substitution: Change "I'm sick" to

"my body is working on healing"; the first is a static identity, the second is an active biological process.

The Wake-Up Window: Your first words of the

day program your morning chemistry; avoid complaining as soon as you open your eyes so you don't shoot an unnecessary cortisol spike.

Listen to your Environment: Surround yourself

with narratives that add vitality; the nocebo effect is also contagious and the words of others can affect your own internal chemistry.

Source 📚: Harvard Medical School / Journal of Psychosomatic Research (2025). "The neurobiology of the nocebo effect: How verbal suggestions and negative narratives impact immune function and endocrine response".

03/02/2026

Depression is real. It is biological. It is not weakness and it is not something you can talk yourself out of. Your brain is responding to overload and imbalance across entire systems.

Depression is not caused by a simple chemical imbalance and the new science is reshaping everything we thought we knew.
For decades people were told depression comes from low serotonin. It sounded clear and comforting but it was never the full story. New brain imaging research shows that depression is far more complex. It involves disrupted brain circuits, altered communication between regions, and changes in how the brain processes stress and emotion. It is not just one chemical. It is a network level shift.
Modern scans reveal that areas like the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus behave differently during depressive episodes. Some regions become overactive. Others go quiet. The pathways that help you regulate fear, motivation, and decision making start misfiring. This is why depression can feel like losing control over your own thoughts. Your brain’s wiring is struggling to keep balance.
This does not mean serotonin plays no role. It means it is only one piece of a much bigger biological puzzle. Treatments work because they help the brain reconnect circuits, not because they simply raise one chemical.
The takeaway is powerful. Depression is real. It is biological. It is not weakness and it is not something you can talk yourself out of. Your brain is responding to overload and imbalance across entire systems.
Understanding this brings hope. It means new therapies can be designed to repair circuits, retrain patterns, and give people more precise and effective paths to recovery.

29/01/2026