Amy Roullier is The Authentic Optimist. Part time writer, full time pro at oversharing. With a no BS approach to conversations around single life, mental health and wellbeing
Why am I still single?. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve asked myself this question. Often accompanied with the following: Am I not a nice person? Deserving of love? Have I not endured and suffered enough frogs? Am I too bossy? Too confident? Should I be less opinionated? Is it the way I look? Where I live? Am I not pretty enough? Perhaps I should be more …
You wake up early, to sunlight seeping in through your bedroom window and the sound of chirping birds outside. You’re in no rush, enjoying the peacefulness of the moment. Lazily unfolding yourself from the duvet in your own time. You fancy scrambled eggs and coffee so you make them both. Just the way you like them. It’s a blue sky morning, so you sit outside to enjoy the sunshine and …
Every aspect of life is impacted by mental health. Which makes it a bit silly when I think back on how uncomfortable I’ve felt admitting that mentally, I’ve experienced peaks and troughs. When pretty much every element of life impacts our emotions, feelings and state of mind. So here’s my admission. Throughout moments, phases, weeks and entire years of my life, I have not been okay It’s taken a really …
It sucks to even say that we might need to make more friends as an adult, doesn’t it? Somehow it emits a ‘desperate’ kind of vibe if we acknowledge that our friendship community might need a little growth plan. And surely we should have accumulated more friends as we’ve aged? That pool of buddies shouldn’t be dwindling. Then there’s the whole figuring out how to do it, and the social …
I used to see myself as all my shortcomings and held my many flaws against myself. I saw imperfection when I turned within. The inadequacies were all I focused on. We’re taught that we have to be perfect from a young age. Our minds, bodies, lifestyle, everything about us should be top notch. Like we’ve got to have an incredible body, be married to some insanely awesome person, raise two …
The amount of times I’ve thought to myself at work, ‘How have you got here?’. Followed by, ‘At what point will someone realize I shouldn’t be?’. If you’ve ever felt the same, welcome to imposter syndrome. A self-deflating little bugger of a mindset that makes you think you’ve somehow fooled everyone into believing you’re pretty good at your job, were worth promoting, actually know what the heck you’re doing and …
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the power of our words. Like how the negative ones can have a harmful effect, if someone said, ‘I hate you’ or ‘you are stupid’, that hurts. But the positive ones, well I think those guys do something really quite special. They can change a day, offer a glimmer of hope in a time of need, or encourage, support and create a connection. …
University is THE place to make lifelong friends, live your best life and create memories that last a lifetime. When I got my place at Nottingham Trent University 18 years ago, that was the dream. Well it was definitely the image I had in my head, the ‘real’ start of my life and an amazing few years ahead. Everyone said to me, “you’ll have the time of your life”. But …
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