Sara Harris from Living Stillness and founder of Follow Your Flow explains how our body has a cycle which has different seasons just like the seasons around us. If you want more information about the different quality and stages of the cycles, check out Sara's amazing and programs through Follow Your Flow. She also has audios and blogs that can support a deeper relationship with your cycle - enjoy all the website has to offer!

Parents can be full of helpful advice, yet it can get heard by adolescents as criticism. Listen to Gabe, Annette and Lucy for some insights into how we develop the way we hear words and how intention and reception can be very different. This two part series is an incredible opportunity to consider the impact of the way we communicate in relationships, in our families. Gabrielle Caplice, Annette Baker and Lucy Dahill consider what criticism looks, sounds and feels like and how that plays out for children, teens and adults alike.

This interview is a game-changer for me. Kate shares her experience of treatments around cancer, of the rollercoaster of healing and hope for a cure, of surgery, of chemo and of making decisions that are right for her.

I have no doubt this episode will be one that supports people with cancer, but also, those who are carers. We cannot know what it is like to walk that path but we can listen and understand so we can be better companions.

This interview may bring up conversations or thoughts you have not wanted to address. Please ensure you get good support for yourself. Numbers for support services are in the resource section of this blog.

Katie Walls and Donna Gianniotis share with us the details of their one day retreat offering a fresh way to approach breast cancer care. Other presenters on the retreat are past interviewees on the show Jean Gamble and Michelle Crowe so the quality of this retreat is assured! In this episode we consider how we speak to and treat women with a diagnosis of breast cancer and if the sympathy they get is really what they want or if there is a different way to support them. Also, who do we ask for support? Have we considered who has capacity to support emotionally and physically - it may be a mixture of services, friends and family rather than all in one person. Further resources and links available below.

Is that too big a statement?? I don't think so...in my experience the outside is a worryingly accurate reflection of my inside and perhaps we need a little support with the why, where and how of decluttering. 

Have you considered that the extremes of clutter start with the small stuff getting out of hand? At what time do we consider the small stuff to be big enough to do something about? Join Jenny Hayes from Bright Blue Sunshine and Lucy Dahill talk about decluttering your home, your wardrobe even, perhaps, your life!

Where does abuse come from? Is it always someone else's problem or are there parts of our own lives that could be contributing to the global picture because we are taking a level of normal that is not normal at all and yet we are not calling it out for fear of standing out?

This episode is a bit of soul searching and asks us all to consider the impact of what we did and what we do.

Check this out - the latest show with Jean Gamble talking about relationship breakdowns. It is full of examples to bring understanding of how to deal with the hurts we feel when we are not understood and practical ways to ensure we do not carry those hurts from one relationship to another.

Key points to remember - 
No-one wins when we go into naming, shaming and blaming
Decency must be the bedrock for the way we behave in every interaction.

Do we have a picture of what intimacy is or isn't? Do we measure how intimate we are with different people depending on their relationship with us? "Of course!" I may hear you say but I would like you to suspend that indignation for an hour and listen to us unpack the possibility that we may have more to learn and understand about intimacy and it is so much more that sexual intimacy.  

Join Lucy Dahill as we delve into the intimate world of bipolar and breast cancer with Victoria Brown. Are there changes we can make to our way of living that would have an effect on how we feel in our life? Do we need to understand mental and physical illness better in order to reduce the stigma attached to the label? All this and more on this weeks' Up Close and Personal episode of Stay in the Loop with Lucy