Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2026 i Psychologies

Sometime this month, I’ll quietly pass a milestone: 23 years since I started my first job in journalism. It doesn’t sound especially momentous, but as I was 23 at the time, it means I’ve now been a professional journalist for half my life. And if I’m being completely honest, that journey hasn’t always felt straightforward. From my early days as a little baby news reporter, through national newspapers and then onto magazines, I haven’t always felt entirely comfortable calling mysel a journalist. I’ve loved the work, and it’s always suited my slightly chaotic brain, but there have been moments when I’ve had to stop and ask whether I was doing the right thing. That question matters deeply to me — so much so that I’ve tried to leave the industry…

Caz spent the first 10 minutes of our coaching session asking about me — where I lived, what I liked about being a coach, how I had written my books. I answered Caz’s questions politely but succinctly. I guessed she might be anxious about being here and was stalling for time before I asked her some questions. I also wondered whether these first minutes of our session were an insight into how much Caz put others’ needs before her own. When I sensed her relaxing a little, I said with a smile that perhaps it was my turn to ask about her, as she was the one paying me and so far I’d had the benefit of some excellent free coaching from her. Caz laughed. ‘You’ve rumbled me! I find…

I’ve been thinking a lot about the word wealth over the last few weeks. Maybe it’s the time of year, a month or two after the end-of-year spendathon when we’re suddenly looking at our bank balance and wondering where it all went. February can feel like a lean month, a ‘counting pennies again’ kind of month. And for some reason, even though I’ve been wanting to write about money for ages, now finally feels like the right moment. This past Christmas, I did something different. I didn’t splurge on expensive presents. Instead, I chose time, real, meaningful, memory-making time with the people I love. One crisp Sunday evening, I went with my daughter and my sister to see the Christmas lights at Kew Gardens. Within minutes, we were dancing to…

1 When faced with a major decision, you typically... ♦ Sit with it and wait for clarity. ♣ Trust your inner knowing. ♠ Panic, overthink, or delay deciding. ♥ Research, ask others, and weigh every angle. 2 How often do you say ‘yes’ when you really mean ‘no’? ♠ Often, but you’re becoming more aware. ♦ You feel torn and say yes to avoid disappointing others. ♥ Rarely — you have clear boundaries. ♣ Almost always, even when exhausted. 3 In moments of stress or uncertainty, you typically... ♦ Trust things will unfold as they should. ♥ Overthink and search for logical answers. ♣ Listen to your body for guidance. ♠ Feel anxious and seek reassurance from others. 4 How comfortable are you with letting others down or saying ‘no’?…

For me, theme parks are one of the places that spark joy — I’m able to mostly forget everyday responsibilities, my emails go unread, and deadlines don’t matter when you’re on a rollercoaster. They’re a place that remind me that letting my hair down can be such a good thing to do, and something I’d love to make more time for. Being honest, 2025 was a difficult year for me, and as we settle into the new year, I feel its weight still lingering. But what if this new year, I get in touch with what brings me awe and wonder, rather than focusing on a long list of resolutions and things I feel I ‘should’ be doing? What if we move forward with a hope of gently cultivating a…

Your brain isn’t fully adult until your thirties Adolescent phase lasts decades longer than previously believed Think adolescence ends at 18? Think again. New brain scan research shows that our brains stay in ‘teen mode’ far longer than we thought. In fact, the adolescent phase could last until you’re 32! Scientists from the University of Cambridge dove into the brain’s wiring, mapping out how our neural connections evolve over time. What they found might surprise you: the brain keeps growing, reshaping, and adapting through five distinct phases — and adolescence doesn’t end just because you hit adulthood. The transition from childhood occurs at around age nine, while early ageing begins at 66 and later ageing at 83. The adolescent phase, which starts with puberty and is marked by the brain…

I never thought that as an adult many years later, the appeal of hiding away in the wardrobe might reappear. Yet in a world that feels increasingly chaotic and scary, questions of how to preserve some sense of control and wellbeing seem more urgent than ever. So did my child self know something adult me needs to remember? Or is it better to face the pain and stress of life head on, finding strategies to cope beyond simply burying my head in the sand. (Blankets.) The truth is, I do think there’s value in retreat and protection sometimes. I’ve found comfort in building and defining my own safe spaces, my own ‘worlds in miniature’, where things can be as I wish them to be, not as they maybe are. I’ve…

A few years ago, I realised I no longer trusted myself — over something as simple and unremarkable as choosing an oven. I researched obsessively, compared specifications, read every review and asked for multiple opinions before settling on the most sensible option. It was efficient, well-reviewed, a good deal, and objectively the ‘right’ choice. And I hated it. Within days, the oven was returned and replaced with a bright red, slightly impractical model that made me smile every time I walked into the kitchen. It wasn’t logical. It wasn’t optimal. But it was right. What lingered wasn’t regret about the money or the inconvenience — it was the unsettling recognition that my first instinct had been correct all along. But I hadn’t trusted it. Psychotherapist Natasha Page says moments like…

For much of our adult life, we are taught to privilege the mind over the body. Think it through. Be rational. Push past discomfort. Make it work. The body, meanwhile, becomes something to manage — energised when productive, ignored when inconvenient. Midlife often exposes the limits of this approach. Many women begin to notice that the clearest information about what is right or wrong doesn’t come from analysis, but from sensation. Tightness in the chest. A sinking feeling in the stomach. Sudden fatigue after agreeing to something. A calm, grounded sense of ease when a decision aligns. These signals are not abstract. They are the language of the nervous system. High-performance mentor Charlotte Carter works with women who appear successful on paper but feel chronically dysregulated inside. ‘Your nervous system…

As a full time carer, I spend a large proportion of my time caring for someone else. The someone else is my daughter, so alongside the caring, there is also mothering. I have four daughters, and if you add up all of the minutes I spend caring and mothering, it’s a lot. It doesn’t leave much time for me to care for myself. I try to go to the gym frequently, grab a coffee with a friend, light candles and read a book, but these acts of self care are often rushed, or take the place of other important things that I must then rush to do at a later date. My own self care often comes at a cost that makes me think perhaps it is not worth it,…

This is not a crisis,’ Dr Mindy Pelz says. ‘It’s a metamorphosis.’ It’s a framing that underpins Age Like a Girl, Pelz’s latest book and the culmination of decades of clinical work with women in midlife. A US-based women’s health expert, Pelz has spent years listening to women describe the same bewildering experience: sudden emotional volatility, cognitive fog, collapsing tolerance for roles they once carried effortlessly, and a growing sense that their inner lives are shifting faster than their outer worlds can keep up. Rather than pathologising those changes, Pelz argues they reflect one of the most significant neurological transitions of a woman’s life — one that reshapes identity, priorities and power. ‘We’ve been taught to see menopause as loss,’ she says. ‘But biologically, it’s a reorganisation. Your brain is…

Away from the track though, stress has historically been unwieldy and unpredictable. Over the years, life and work have periodically tipped me into overwhelm. And people, places, and things have caused the kind of slow burn stress that’s imperceptible at first but systematically causes havoc. It’s this kind of negative stress (also called distress) that typically hits the headlines — along with its implications in all kinds of physical disease. It can loom large in our psyches, making us doubt our ability to perform. But its opposite, eustress (the term for positive, or good stress) rarely gets a look-in. When in fact, just like my 200m race, stress is an ally when it’s a sprint. Rising to the challenge ‘When stress becomes prolonged, unrelenting, and out of our control, then…

Here we highlight some of the best ideas being shared on the Barefoot Coaching blogs on psychologies.co.uk. We select pieces published by Barefoot alumni to bring you fresh coaching insights. This month, writing coach Rachel Knightley shares her most useful writing advice — and why it applies to more than just writing. I’d written many times my piece’s recommended word-count, and didn’t know which were the ‘right’ words. I was frozen in the perfectionism-procrastination of trying to make my piece contain, and be, everything it possibly could. As a result of trying to be everything, it had lost all sense of who or what it was. Then I heard the three most significant words in my professional life (and gradually, as I sat with them, probably my personal life too)… ‘Say…