AMY'S BLOG

Space is an easy word to overlook. You might talk about needing space when you feel crowded or overwhelmed. Sometimes you mean physical space — the kitchen table finally clear of paperwork or the spare room that you can actually use again. More often than not though, it’s mental space that you find most elusive, hardest to name and hardest to reclaim. For Ingrid Pope, guest on this week’s episode of Focus on WHY, space isn’t simply the absence of clutter. It’s the foundation

When you think about crime and punishment, your mind might jump to headlines, courtroom dramas and lives forever altered on either side of the law. But beneath the surface lies an invisible layer—a sentence served not only by the convicted but by those who love them. In this week’s Focus on WHY podcast episode, 528 Become Part of the Solution. you get to peer behind the statistics and see the silenced suffering of a family caught in the storm of youth violence and the crimi

On 5 June, a very close friend replied to one of my Instagram stories where I’d marked 1,000 days sober, writing: “My counting friend. Proud of you. 👏🏻” It’s true. I'm a numbers girl! Not in the maths sense but in the marking of occasions. Counting days, years, episodes, newsletters. Today gives me another number to celebrate. Six years of Friday Focus! That’s 311 newsletters and reshared here as 311 blogs, each exploring a different theme but all centred around one

Today’s focus is on intent. Not intentions. Not intentional living. Simply... Intent. It's a small word but a powerful one. Intent is stronger and asks a deeper question: Why are you doing this? What is your intent? This is the exact point where the shift from achievement to meaningful success begins. It moves you beyond simply asking what you're doing and invites you to consider why you're doing it. It’s a question I’ve been reflecting on recently because there’s a subtle

Photo: New home, new view, new perspective Ten years ago, I handed in my resignation. I didn’t have another job to go to. I didn’t have everything figured out. I just knew that the life my husband and I were living wasn’t the life we wanted to keep living. At the time, my husband was in a job that was slowly destroying him. The stress was relentless and I could see the toll it was taking on his health and wellbeing. Something had to change but change needed options and opti

Identity is a funny thing. Most of the time we don't think about it. We simply wear the labels we've gathered over the years – professional, athlete, parent, friend. Then life changes. Sometimes gradually, sometimes overnight. Suddenly the roles that once felt so certain no longer fit in quite the same way. My Focus on WHY podcast guest this week, Natalie Hurdley, knows exactly what that feels like. Her story is one of strength in every sense of the word. A strengths coach, a

We often speak of awakening as if it’s a thunderclap, a singular moment when our purpose is revealed and the clouds part to bathe us in clarity. Yet, for many, awakening is less a dramatic transformation and more a gentle, persistent unfolding. This was the case for Nathalie Cordell, my guest in this week’s Focus on WHY podcast episode. Nathalie’s personal journey was not catalysed by one grand event but by a steady call from within. Decades spent in a well-trodden corporat

Awareness can seem like a small thing, an abstract concept reserved for therapists, philosophers or mindfulness coaches. But in reality, it can be utterly life-changing—a thread that quietly weaves hope and healing where once there was bewilderment or pain. Listening to the story of Marc McNeice in Focus on WHY podcast episode 523, it’s hard not to be struck by just how profound the impact of awareness was on his journey. For years, he, like so many others, was caught in a re