I passed my driving test a few weeks after I turned 17.

I still remember the feeling of pride at being able to offer my friends a lift to the cinema that night, in my maroon coloured 1L Citreon AX that stalled if I tried to get it up the driveway with a full passenger load.

I recognised early into motherhood that if I was to transport sometimes screaming children around the place with a head full of stuff I really had to work on feeling focussed and calm when driving.

And so I’ve now been driving for over half my life and until last weekend had never had any mishaps.

The bump is small, I don’t think the kids even noticed what had happened, but it’ll be a faff and probably expensive to fix.

The main thing I struggled with is that I am no longer someone with a bump-free record, which I now realise was a real source of pride for me.

So afterwards I recognised the urge to create a whole story around this, and what it means about me.

What I found, and am finding in other areas of life too, is that there is huge strength to be gained in being able to hold the good and bad all at once. And to not make either of these mean something about me.

I was able to direct my energy into giving myself some space, figuring out what would help me calm down and feel ok about the situation.

And coincidentally, this links really well into this week’s podcast episode where I’m talking to Dr Gulara Vincent about nurturing the relationship with ourselves first of all in order to impact our relationship with others.

The conversation spans a variety of topics all centred around the relationship with ourselves and others. I trust there is something in there for everyone so let me know what you think. Tune in to listen at buff.ly/3iz4AES