Little Loves Wellbeing

04/09/2025

🌸 Little Loves Wellbeing Library 🌸

In my Little Loves home office, I’ve created the Little Loves Wellbeing Library.

It’s filled with books on:
• Wellbeing and mental health
• SEND and neurodivergence
• Child development and parenting
• Grief and big life events
• Self-help and personal growth
• Trauma and recovery

This emoji-👧 next to a book title means the book is suitable for children.

These books are available for you to borrow at any time, for as long as you need (within reason). Many are brand new, and the rest are in excellent condition.

Mental Health & Wellbeing books:
•What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing – Bruce D. Perry & Oprah Winfrey
•The Power of Letting Go: How to Drop Everything That’s Holding You Back – John Purkiss
•How Not to Be a D*ck: An Everyday Etiquette Guide – Meghan Doherty
•The Anxiety Solution – Chloe Botheridge
•Stalking the Soul: Emotional Abuse and the Erosion of Identity
•👧 Not My Fault - Cath Howe
•👧 Why Your Parents are Driving You up the Wall and What to do About it – Adam Kay
•👧 When I’m Feeling Angry – Tracey Moroney
•👧 How to Train Your Amygdala – Anna Housley Juster
•👧 Daisy’s Dragons: A Story About Feelings – Frances Stickley
•👧 Breathing Makes It Better – Christopher Willard & Wendy O’Leary

Books about Neurodivergence and different abilities:
•Your Child Is Not Broken: Parent Your Neurodivergent Child Without Losing Your Marbles – Heidi Mavir
•My Child’s Different: How Positive Parenting Can Unlock Potential in Children with ADHD and Dyslexia – Elaine Halligan
•The Anxious Generation – Jonathan Haidt
•How to Raise Happy Neurofabulous Children – Katy Elphinstone
•Stop the World I Want to Get Off: A Guide to Understanding and Supporting the Recovery of Autistic Burnout in Children and Young People – Jodie Clarke
•👧 Amazing Me, Amazing You – Christine McGuinness
•👧 Wonderfully Wired Brains – Louise Gooding
•👧 Sign About Play Time - The signing guide for and deaf children

Child Development & Parenting books:
•Good Inside – Dr Becky Kennedy
•The Whole-Brain Child – Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson
•The Anxious Generation – Jonathan Haidt
•Why Love Matters – Sue Gerhardt
•Parenting from the Inside Out – Daniel J. Siegel
•No-Drama Discipline – Daniel J. Siegel
•How to Talk So Kids Will Listen – Adele Faber
•The Explosive Child – Ross W. Greene
•The Out-of-Sync Child – Carol Stock Kranowitz
•Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers – Gabor Maté & Gordon Neufeld
•Brain-Body Parenting – Mona Delahooke

Books for Self-Help & Personal Growth:
•The Let Them Theory – Mel Robbins
•The Chimp Paradox – Dr Steve Peters
•The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fck* – Mark Manson
•The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
•The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
•Happy: Finding Joy in Every Day and Letting Go of Perfect – Fearne Cotton
•Happy: Why More or Less Everything Is Absolutely Fine – Derren Brown

Books about Autism:
•The Autistic Brain – Temple Grandin
•The Reason I Jump – Naoki Higashida
•Young, Autistic and Burnt Out – Jodie Clarke
•Stop the World I Want to Get Off: A Guide to Understanding and Supporting the Recovery of Autistic Burnout in Children and Young People – Jodie Clarke
•Can You See Me? – Libby Scott & Rebecca Westcott
•Perfectly Autistic: Post Diagnostic Support for Parents of ASD Children – Emma Kendall
•👧 A First Look At: Autism – I See Things Differently – Pat Thomas
•👧 My Brother Charlie – Ryan Elizabeth Peete, Holly Robinson Peete & Denene Milliner
•👧Learning About Autism with Suzie and Cruzie - Charlotte Olson
•👧 The Secret Life of Rose – Jodie Clarke
•👧 My Awesome Autism – Nikki Saunders
•👧 I am an Aspie Girl: A book for young girls with ASC - Danuta Bulhak-Paterson

Books about ADHD:
•Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder – Gabor Maté
•Smart but Scattered Teens: The “Executive Skills” Program for Helping Teens Reach Their Potential – Colin Guare, Richard Guare & Peg Dawson
•ADHD 2.0 – Edward M. Hallowell & John J. Ratey
•👧 Ady and Me: The Sunday Times Bestseller – Rich Pink & Rox Pink
•👧 All Dogs Have ADHD – Kathy Hoopmann
•👧 The Adventures of Lady Mouse and Wolfy – Beach Day Bother – Kayleigh Smith

Trauma-Informed books:
•The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog – Bruce D. Perry
•The Body Keeps the Score – Bessel van der Kolk
•What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing – Bruce D. Perry & Oprah Winfrey
•The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture – Gabor Maté
•It Didn’t Start with You – Mark Wolynn

Books about coping with Grief & Loss:
•The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion
•It’s OK That You’re Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand – Megan Devine
•👧 Suzie Goes to a Funeral – Charlotte Olson
•👧 The Invisible String – Patrice Karst

Everyone is welcome to browse and borrow. Whether you’re looking for practical strategies, comfort during tough times, or ways to support children and families, the Little Loves Library is here for you.

04/09/2025

I just wanted to share this that I made.
It’s laminated - You colour the batteries in and you wipe the colour out from top to bottom if you’re feeling your battery draining.
It’s a good visual to see how everyone in your house is doing and whether they need some space or building back up.

04/09/2025

Monthly mood/habit tracker

04/09/2025

❤️

03/09/2025

Amazing couple of hours with Becky Richens - Independent Mental Health Nurse and some other lovely ladies.
A lot learned and a lot to think over.
Also, the The Zen Den is a beautiful space.

02/09/2025

If you’d like any of these or anything similar please pop me a message 🫶🏼

02/09/2025

Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences.

Gardner, a developmental psychologist, proposed in 1983 that intelligence isn’t just one single ability (like an IQ score suggests). Instead, he believed people have different kinds of intelligences- unique ways of learning, solving problems, and expressing understanding.

It can be really powerful to share Gardner’s 8 types of intelligences with our children. Schools often focus mainly on linguistic and logical-mathematical skills, but Gardner reminded us that all types of intelligence are valuable and deserve to be nurtured.

This shifts the question from “How smart are you?” to “How are you smart?”

For Children: Your Intelligence Superpowers🦸🏻‍♂️

Everyone has their own mix of superpowers, and yours shine so brightly!

✍️ Word Smart (Linguistic)
Superpower: Using words, stories, or writing to share ideas.

🔢 Number Smart (Logical-Mathematical)
Superpower: Solving puzzles, spotting patterns, and figuring out problems.

🎨 Picture Smart (Spatial)
Superpower: Seeing things in your mind, drawing, designing, building.

🤸 Body Smart (Bodily-Kinesthetic)
Superpower: Learning by moving, doing, and creating with your hands or body.

🎶 Music Smart (Musical)
Superpower: Feeling rhythm, making music, remembering songs, or hearing details in sound.

🤝 People Smart (Interpersonal)
Superpower: Understanding others’ feelings, making friends, being a good teammate.

💡 Self Smart (Intrapersonal)
Superpower: Knowing yourself, your feelings, and what makes you strong.

🌱 Nature Smart (Naturalistic)
Superpower: Noticing animals, plants, weather, and how nature works.

The truth is, nobody has all their superpowers at the same strength. Some shine brightly, while others are still growing, and that’s exactly what makes each person wonderfully unique.

02/09/2025

To all the children starting a new school year today - you’ve got this! May this year bring you courage to try new things, confidence to believe in yourself, and kindness to share with others.🫶🏼

And to the parents- be proud of the seeds you’ve planted. Watching them grow isn’t always easy, but it’s always worth it. Here’s to a year of learning, growth, and beautiful new chapters ahead 💚

01/09/2025

Examples of Sensory Triggers:

Credit to
for the graphic 👏

26/08/2025

Next week I will set aside a day or two to create some personalised resources for anyone that wants them.
I can email you the final pdf or I can print, laminate and keep here for you to collect if you don’t have a printer.
I can make whatever you like and I have lots from over the years that you can take as is or I can tailor to suit your child.
I have posted some examples below.
This is free of charge and with back to school approaching these can be very handy.
Just pop me a message of what you would like and I’ll make a list of who would like what ❤️

26/08/2025

🌟Social Anxiety🌟

Many people feel nervous in social situations. Its totally normal to feel anxious about giving a speech at a wedding or delivering a presentation to work colleagues. That’s an expected part of life and doesn’t necessarily mean you have an anxiety condition.

Social anxiety disorder (also called social phobia) is when you experience intense anxiety about any social situations - You might fear being judged, criticised, laughed at or humiliated in front of others, even in simple everyday situations such as eating in front of others at a restaurant. Meeting new people or having to go places is likely to cause intense fear and distress.

Those with social anxiety will do their best to avoid any sort of exposure to social situations and this can have a massive negative effect on work & personal life.
In pregnancy this can become a problem due to needing to attend hospital clinic’s, scan’s, midwife appointments and other health care environments.
After a baby is born parents with social anxiety are likely to avoid going out with the baby, interacting with other parents and long-term this can impact on the child’s social development.

Its important to get help if you feel this is something you struggle with – help is out there!

Social anxiety disorder can be treated with psychological therapies (talking therapies). These strategies can help to change your underlying thinking patterns, which helps to keep anxiety under control.

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is a type of psychological treatment which can be used to help identify unhelpful thinking patterns and reprogram them. It also helps with relaxation and breathing to manage anxiety.

Most people with mild social anxiety disorder can be treated successfully with psychological therapies only, but if the anxiety is moderate to severe, medications may be needed.

If you are struggling – please reach out for help.💜
Speak to your GP or access local and online support services such as those listed below. And if you struggle to do that ask someone you trust and love to help you.
https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/social-anxiety/
https://www.vitahealthgroup.co.uk/nhs-services/nhs-mental-health/basildon-and-brentwood/
https://inclusionthurrock.org/
https://www.mypossibleself.com/
https://sidebyside.mind.org.uk/
https://www.anxietyuk.org.uk/

25/08/2025

Thanks for being a top engager and making it on to my weekly engagement list! 🎉

Ruby Bees ❤️

25/08/2025

22/08/2025

☀️Badbury Park Summer Festival☀️
📅 Bank Holiday Monday – 25th August
🕦 11am–4pm
📍 Outside Badbury Park Library & Park
Join us for sunshine, street food, ice cream, drinks, games, music & more!
Free fun for all ages — come celebrate with your community!

21/08/2025

Local meats, drinks, live music, facepaints.

Gather your favourite people, get a table, bring a blanket.

Let’s see out Summer ‘25 together ☀️

19/08/2025

There’s still lots more happening for the remainder of this month, in and around Swindon. I’ve updated the post again to delete old dates and add some more events to future dates.
Please let me know if I’ve missed anything going on and I will add it in.