Welcoming in February

This is a reader supported newsletter. If you are able, please do consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps fund my writing here but also all of the free-to-access support we provide daily at The Women’s Health Hub.

Our Mindful Bookbinding course began on February 1st for paid subscribers too - you can read more about it here, it’s a beautiful course designed to support you in your mental wellbeing whilst showing you how to hand sew your own 2024 journal.

You can also make a one off payment of support here.

I am so hugely grateful to you for being here.

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Hello loves,

How are you? How is 2024 playing out? I’d love to hear from you in the comments or via email. One of the things I have really been enjoying about having this newsletter on Substack is the community feel to it - the app, in particular, allows a lot more connection to you all and so it feels a lot less like just shouting into the void.

If you are here to keep up to date with The Women’s Health Hub, you can find our monthly timetable here. We have so many amazing, free-to-access sessions there and they have really began to take off. This last month has seen us support women with their perimenopause symptoms, hold them in their addiction recovery, guide them in their postpartum days with infant feeding support and so much more. We have held our monthly empowered girls club, had a lovely social for LGBTQIA+ folks and allies, and continued to grow and reach and support more people in our local community.

It has been so beautiful to see the space thriving and so full of love and energy and care.

I opened the space in April 2023 with my friend and business partner, but since November, she has stepped down and I have been left holding it all by myself . As well as navigating the fall out of our friendship and the financial demands she has placed upon us as a company. It has been a lot. In the daytime I can see how glorious and beautiful it all is and can feel proud. I talk to all of our amazing volunteers, and continue to build and grow our community. I have also slowly began paying people to support me, including the amazing , who’s support as a virtual assistant has just been phenomenal and has saved me in so many ways this past month. At night, however, I am just wracked with anxiety and am really struggling to sleep. The stress of single-handedly holding the financial burden is overwhelming. What if we don’t get more funding and I can’t afford to pay people? How can I possibly ever earn the 50% revenue needed to pay everyone, and myself and cover our bills? How do I earn more money when I’m burnt out with the level of work expected of me already?

It’s hard. And it’s beautiful. All at the same time.

Last year, running the CIC really took over almost every minute of my day, leaving many other commitments suffering - often including my family. I’m trying really hard to step back from that in 2024. I have implemented better boundaries around the social media marketing and been stricter on the workshops I offer myself up for. But even then, I’ve still been working almost every single day of this year so far and constantly feel like I’m struggling not to fall behind. Setting up a venue has been way harder than I ever imagined. There are so.many.meetings. And paperwork hurdles and timetabling and marketing to actually get people to use the service we have so lovingly created.

I can look forward to five years time and see a beautiful, thriving business that serves the community and the people who work for it - including myself. But in the present, I have little clue of how to make that achievable, besides pure faith and taking tiny baby steps forward.

But look at what we’re building though ✨

For those of you further away from home, or that may struggle to get out to a physical space, I wanted to remind you of the beautiful online offerings we have here. Firstly, there is the brand-new Mindful Bookbinding course, all of which can be accessed here. And secondly, we have our community connection circles, the next of which is to be held on March 3rd - 6pm GMT| 10am PST| 1pm EST. You can read more about what to expect here . Our last one was all the way back in October but it was so beautiful. Here is what some of the attendees said about it ~

Come along mid-bedtime, come along just woken up in your pj’s, come along with candles and your favourite journal and all the craft supplies. Come along wanting to share and chat, come along with your camera off - it’s all so welcome.

We’ll read some poetry, we’ll do some journaling, there will be space to share and we’ll end with a lush meditation or relaxation practice. It’ll be magic.

All of the above is part of my paid subscription offer, but you can grab yourself a free month via the button below if you’d rather try it out first.

Try 30 days free

Below, I am also attaching a link to a complementary/ free subscription for 90 days for those who cannot financially afford to support me right now but who would like to join in - I wanted to offer a whole year but 90 days is as long as Substack will allow currently.

I have gone back and forth over whether to offer this, as I really do need the income from paid subscriptions to support my efforts in making the CIC and The Women’s Health Hub financially viable. However, when I unpack why I feel scared to share such a long free offer, it comes down to trust. Being scared that those who could and should pay will take advantage. And that mistrust is a learnt belief from capitalism and is not how I wish to run this space or how I wish to lead this company. I also think, there are so many barriers to people requesting a complementary subscription, no matter how nicely you word it. Meaning that people who really wish to receive this membership and need it for free may not be able to access it, and that also doesn’t sit right with me.

So I’m adding it here, you can get 90 days free by clicking the button1 and I am trusting that those of you who can afford not to do that, will choose to pay me for my offerings here. Thank you so much for helping me run my business in such a beautiful and open way.

90 days free

This last month also saw me attend my first birth as a full spectrum doula and so I will be taking lots of time this month to support mum & baby as they find their feet and recover. I feel so incredibly blessed to be doing this work and I still don’t have the words to adequately describe the experience. Women+ are just pure magic warriors and my heart breaks that we don’t honour that enough.

Please know that you are pure light and wonder, no matter what the world reflects back at you.

Altogether, I just feel so proud of myself & all of the other wonderful people who are helping me to keep this thing going and growing. And I am so grateful to all of you who are joining in and creating community with me here, online too.

Thank you so much for being here,

a few of my favourite January captures…