Stress Monkey Solutions

27/05/2026

Honestly the most advanced outcome.

Transformation is not always dramatic. Sometimes it looks like slowly, quietly becoming someone who is at peace with being exactly what they are.

That's the work. That's all of it.

Credit:

27/05/2026

The body does better when you give it a moment before the day takes over.

Even five minutes. Even just a few of these. The nervous system responds to gentle, consistent signals — and a slow morning stretch is one of the clearest ones you can send.

Not to perform wellness. Just to arrive in yourself before the world arrives at you.

My Wednesday classes in Stornoway include movement that does exactly this — yoga and Qigong, paced to suit where you actually are, not where you think you should be.

Book at https://bookwhen.com/stressmonkey

27/05/2026

Dave's face here says everything about what a good walk does.

This is near Skipton — a proper scramble to get there, completely worth it.

Getting outdoors and moving with someone you enjoy spending time with is one of the simplest and most effective things available to us. No programme required. Just good company, decent boots, and something worth walking toward.

25/05/2026

Oubaitori. A Japanese concept I keep coming back to.

Each flower blooms in its own time. The cherry, the plum, the apricot — none of them hurry to be what another is. None of them look across at a neighbour and decide they're behind.

So much suffering comes from measuring our progress against someone else's timeline.

Healing has a rhythm. Growth has a rhythm. It's yours alone — and it cannot be rushed into someone else's shape.

Honour the rhythm that's yours.

25/05/2026

You are allowed to be interested in many things.

You are allowed to feel several contradictory things at once. To be healing and still struggling. To be making progress and still having hard days. To want connection and also need solitude.

The nervous system is not simple. You are not simple.

One of the most unhelpful things we do is demand a clean narrative from ourselves. One thing at a time. One feeling. One story.

But that's not how humans work. And it's not how healing works either.

Holding complexity — learning to stay present with more than one truth at once — is one of the most sophisticated things a nervous system can do. It's also one of the things good therapy helps you practise.

If you'd like support with that, I'm here.

Book at https://bookwhen.com/stressmonkey

Welcome to the virtual hub for Dance, movement and rehabilitation both in the Western Isles and Glasgow. Moving is good, moving in the right way for you is even better! with over 20 years’ experience in Dance, postural alignment, pain-free movement, stress reduction, rehabilitation and neurologica...

24/05/2026

This is something that comes up in almost every therapeutic relationship at some point.

The weight we carry that was never ours to begin with. The guilt. The hypervigilance. The constant scanning of another person's mood and adjusting ourselves accordingly.

Learning to distinguish between empathy and absorption — between caring about someone and taking responsibility for their emotional state — is some of the most important work I know.

It doesn't make you cold. It makes you free.

24/05/2026

Solitude is not antisocial.

For a lot of people — especially those carrying stress, anxiety, or a nervous system that works hard in company — time alone is not a luxury. It's maintenance.

The snail knows.

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23/05/2026

The Money Tree. On a walk near Skipton.

A fallen tree, every inch of exposed wood hammered with coins by passing strangers over what must be years. Hundreds of people stopping, finding a coin, pressing it in.

Nobody asked them to. There's no sign explaining why. They just did it — because others had, and because something about it felt right.

I kept thinking about it afterwards. The quiet human impulse to mark a moment, to leave something, to be part of something without needing to know what it means.

That's ritual. That's exactly what ritual is.

23/05/2026

Sometimes things work out for someone you weren't expecting.

The universe has a sense of humour. Occasionally it's even helpful.

Credit: Li Chen / Exocomics

22/05/2026

Something in this landed for me — with one gentle edit.

The Fire Horse doesn't ask permission. But it also knows when to rest.

Courage right now doesn't have to mean speed. For a nervous system that has been through a lot, courage sometimes looks like taking one small step you've been avoiding. Starting the thing. Sending the message. Showing up for the class.

The friction is real. So is the momentum available to you on the other side of it.

Credit: Collective World