Thrive with Nicky Bartley

14/07/2025

Pluto was removed from the list of planets in 2006 because the International Astronomical Union (IAU) established a new definition of “planet” that Pluto did not meet. Specifically, Pluto failed to “clear its neighborhood” of other objects in its orbit, unlike the eight recognized planets according to Britannica.

Too often, ‘science’ is quoted as an absolute, but science is a viewpoint, a perspective, no more certain than any other perspective.

The difference with science is that the scientist has studied viewpoints, gained a qualification in viewpoints and now works with viewpoints for a living.

Science shifts and changes because it’s built on hypothesis not fact. And that’s perfect. So many innovations, life saving treatments and life changing policies have been developed from science (viewpoints).

And still it’s not an absolute.

As humanity rollercoasters into an existential crisis, it’s worth taking some time to really consider what viewpoints are worthy of our own individual time, effort and money and discarding those that aren’t.

In fact, I’d bet that one day, science will discover that self reflection, alignment and honesty, are crucial ingredients to peace of mind.

Not fitting a criteria changes nothing, but can offer clarity around the criteria itself and its restrictive nature.

09/06/2025

If every coping mechanism was removed from your life, what do you think would happen?

Here’s the shortened version:

You’d be forced to realign and begin to heal.

Coping mechanisms prevent healing by allowing your nervous system to stay in, defend, attack and/or avoid.

We cannot be in fight and flight, and in healing, at the same time.

They are biologically, psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually, opposit states.

I’m not suggesting that you remove every coping mechanism by the way. I’m not here to increase suffering.

But I do reccomend that each of us takes a deep dive into the very things, fear, insecurity, anxiety, that are keeping us tied to coping mechanisms and begin to remove them one by one. Gently. With patience. With compassion.

Coping mechanisms keep you stuck.

Removing coping mechanisms brings about freedom, choice and growth.

03/03/2025

You can be whatever you want to be, you just have to really want it - Barbara Banks

It’s true. And by the same token, only you can discover how true that is, by exploring what you have that you love having, verses what you have that you wish you haven’t.

Today we launch the Bessie software. It’s taken over 5 years to get here. Plenty of time to practice patience, detail, and repeat data drills……all of the things that I thought I was rubbish at and all of the things I hated.

I spent time reflecting on what and why I hated those things. I questioned whether this hatred, this intense belief and all of the stories I had, were true. I spent time being curious as to whether I could rewrite those stories. And I did, because what I wanted was at the other end of the spectrum from the things that I was doing. What I wanted was waiting for me to fall in love with every step of the way, not just some of the steps.

It isn’t that I now love detail. It’s that I find ‘myself’ in the detail. I find me. I find my imperfections, my idiosyncrasies, my impatience, my 5 year old child that throws a tantrum because she’s bored.

And I learned to love her to completion. I took her on a journey, holding her hand and showed her the safety in the detail. She learned to look more carefully and consider what was needed without self critisism. The detail became more interesting, full of opportunities rather than fear.

Today is launch day and I’m going to take my 5 year old child along for her to gaze into the miraculous space that she never thought could be created from her hands and mind ❤️

What do you believe you can’t do because it involves things you don’t currently enjoy?

Perhaps do it and make friends with your inner child!

10/10/2024

More and more people are coming to the conclusion that work is a waste of their time!

And businesses who respond to their employees deepening yearning for meaning, are those who over the next 5 years, will thrive.

Work is a social construct. Homosapiens only ventured into ‘work’ around 7.5k years ago. Considering that our species is thought to be around 200k years old, it’s obvious that work isn’t necessarily what we are born to do.

Work arose from our desire to settle in one place. To do that, we had to til the land. Enter the agricultural revolution. Then of course, the Industrial Revolution, and now, the digital revolution 🤷‍♀️

What homosapiens do seem to be made for, is sharing stories and narratives. No other species of homo had managed to do that. Or so we believe from the evidence so far unearthed.

But work? It’s optional, which is why each human has a different, rather than a standard, tolerance. There isn’t a universal principle that governs just how much work a person can tolerate, but what does appear to make a difference, is the meaning and purpose a human makes of the work.

As more and more people are opting out of the workplace, it’s clear that meaning and purpose is going through its own cultural revolution. It’s being shaped and being shifted at an extraordinary speed and is I suspect, behind the recruitment crisis, not to mention the ‘mental health crisis’, which is in fact, an existential crisis.

Personally, I feel that becoming a workplace of choice, is not an option but a necessity if you don’t want your workforce to feel that work is a waste of their time.

With more and more humans waking up to the fact that they can find meaning and purpose in other ways, our workplaces have to evolve in order to provide an environment and work, where meaning and purpose can be cultivated ❤️

Because business owners are so passionate about what they do, it’s easy to believe their employees will be just as passionate, but in reality, this doesn’t always translate. Each employee though, really would love to be inspired, feel motivated and would love to be busy doing something that matters to them. We believe there are reasons to be hopeful and we love helping businesses get this right.

It was really good to share insights with businesses today at Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce business expo, ‘Let’s Do Business’ and to hear some success stories from people who are running their businesses and managing work and employees as best they can ❤️

29/09/2024

Your purpose in life is to be you ❤️

23/09/2024

I’m prepping for Write & Thrive today, ready to take some humans deeper into their remarkable self.

Will you be doing our 4 week Journaling program?

If you do, you’ll discover a process of self reflection that you’ll never want to let go of.

It isn’t the questions that are powerful, it’s that the questions require you to get to know yourself on a whole new level ❤️

29/07/2024

It’s 5 years to the day since I set up Thrive & Shine. 5 years since I made a decision to focus resources into employee wellbeing, invent an algorithm that accurately measures stress within the workplace and to rewrite a paradigm.

I haven’t given our IG account half as much attention as it deserves. Over the next few months I’m going to change that. So many people come on this platform to relax, escape the hamster wheel and to find ways to tap into their creative potential. We are here with you ❤️

Here’s to the next 5 years 🥰

12/06/2024

If you want to understand your suffering, here’s what you can do:

Sit quietly with a pen and paper and begin to imagine a person who you don’t like.

List all of the qualities that you see in them that you believe they’d be better without.

Read through the list, one by one.

Take a deep breath.

Realise that you’ve just wrote a list of all of the qualities that lie within you that you’re most afraid of.

You’ve just met your shadow ❤️

The most challenging aspect of ourselves, is that which we don’t acknowledge, see, bring into the light, recognise, and accept.

We are everything that we most fear, as well as everything that we most revere. And everything in between 🥰

14/05/2024

Zucks is unlikely to show you this, because yer know, it requires you to move off the book of faces and on to YT, but I will pop it here anyway.

It was a webinar recorded in 2018 and is an hour chat designed to point you back to the place that your own healing is already happening, if you care to look there.

Mental Health Awareness Week isn't about spreading the word, its about spreading the fact that YOU ARE THE WORD

If you are wondering how you can begin to live a deeply satisfied life, free of stress, worry and anxiety, this is for you. Discover the one thing that is ge...

18/04/2024

What’s in a name?

Well, absolutely everything!

Whilst it’s useful, to know the names of some things, it’s not as useful to know the name of living things, until that is, you know that they live within you, not without you!

We can include in this, feelings and emotions ❤️

16/04/2024

We create ideas, stories and concepts about our emotional pain, whilst the pain gets more intense to try to stop us creating the ideas, stories and concepts around our emotional pain.

Read.That.Again.

12/04/2024

The fundamental misunderstanding right now, when it comes to our mental health, is that of emotional regulation.

We don’t need to regulate our emotions.

Emotions are the regulation happening within the system known as you!