The Positive Pants

25/06/2026

I decided to write a letter to newly diagnosed version of me. This might help someone you know going through something hard. Or maybe it's you. It's the hope I needed so desperately. I read a longer version at my talks but this is a shorter version for this post.

Dear Amy 🩷

I know you’re scared. Your world has just changed with the three words. YOU HAVE CANCER.

Right now, you’re wondering how you’ll get through this. How you’ll tell the people you love, and whether life will ever feel normal again.

I wish I could sit beside you and tell you this. You’re going to be okay. 🩷

Not because this journey will be easy. In fact it's the hardest thing you may ever face . There will be tears, surgeries, scars, and days when you won’t recognise yourself.

But there will also be strength you never knew you had. 🩷

One day, you’ll stop seeing your scars as something you’ve lost and start seeing them as a reminder of everything you’ve survived.

You WILL laugh again. You WILL find joy in ordinary moments. You WILL love more deeply and live more intentionally. God will reveal himself to you in ways you couldn't have dreamed of. 🩷

And the pain you’re feeling today will one day become hope for someone else.🩷

So be gentle with yourself. Take one day at a time. Let people love you. Say yes to the help. It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to ask for help. I’m writing to you from the other side of this journey.

I’m healthy now. 🩷

I’m more grateful for everything I have 🩷
I’m living a life filled with purpose.🩷

And I promise you this Amy, the woman you’re becoming is stronger than you can possibly imagine.

You have GOT this 🩷

Love Amy 💗 ( future you) 🩷🩷🩷

25/06/2026

Today I had the privilege of speaking with an incredible group of local not for profit organisations about the workshops I deliver in our communities.

Every time I stand in front of a room to share my story, I’m reminded WHY I do this work. My journey through breast cancer, trauma, and healing has taught me that hope is powerful and when we share practical tools for resilience, confidence, and wellbeing, we can create real change in people’s lives.

I believe every community deserves access to conversations that inspire, encourage, and empower people to move from simply surviving to truly thriving. 🩷

It was cool to be amongst organisations who working tirelessly to support our communities. I would love to collaborate with more groups who are passionate about making a positive difference.🩷

If your organisation, school, workplace, or community group is looking for engaging workshops on resilience, mindset, wellbeing, or creating positive cultures, I’d love to connect.

Together, we can help people discover just how strong they really are.
Together we RISE 🩷

20/06/2026

Let us all find a place at the table for sadness too. 🩷

I’ve been feeling a lot of sadness recently. And, please know I'm not looking for sympathy at all. I just would love you to hear me out. 🩷

Part of me doesn't want to share this at all but I do have a feeling that God wants me to share it. 😃 There is some wisdom in this for us all. The sadness came last week when we lost my husband, Nigel's Dad. 🥲

What I’ve noticed is that the grief has touched an old wound in me.

A part of me still believes that I can only be around people when I’m happy, positive, inspiring, or doing well. That if I’m sad, I should quietly disappear for a while until I can return as the upbeat version of myself. It's a wound I've had probably all of my life. And many of us have that too I know. It's soooooo ridiculous! Yet it's so real!
And the funny thing is, I teach mental health first aid so I do know better.😅

I know that true connection isn’t built by sharing only our highlight reels. It’s built in the moments when we allow ourselves to be seen exactly as we are. Yet I still find myself putting on a brave face. Going to work. Smiling. Carrying on. Wearing the mask 😅because it feels easier than letting people see the sadness underneath. And I hate making others feel uncomfortable.

Lately though, something has shifted. And this is why I'm sharing this with you.

Maybe it’s age? 😅Maybe it’s menopause? 😅Maybe it’s all the healing work I’ve done over the years.

Whatever it is, the veil seems to be getting thinner and I can’t hide my feelings as easily as I once could, and honestly, I don’t think I want to. It's just too exhausting. I don't have the energy for it anymore. I'm ok with the sadness being here. I think it's other people that feel the discomfort. It's natural right? We want those around us to not suffer. 🩷

But sadness isn’t wrong. It’s not weakness. It’s not something to be fixed or rushed through. It’s part of being HUMAN!

We celebrate happiness, excitement, gratitude and joy, but sadness deserves a place too. It shows us what mattered. It reminds us that we loved. It asks us to slow down and honour what has been lost. That's ok. In fact it's more than ok!

I think sometimes people struggle to hold space for sadness because it touches something in them. It can feel uncomfortable. We want to cheer people up, find the silver lining, make it better. But often what someone needs isn’t fixing. They just need to be seen and to be heard. To be allowed to feel what they’re feeling without apology. That word sorry always comes when we cry in public doesn't it?

Over the last few days, I’ve cried more than usual. And I’m okay with that. I’m not worried about the tears.

What I’m know for sure is that sadness is just as welcome as happiness. Both belong here and I won't resist it anymore. Both are part of this beautiful, messy human experience. 🩷

So I guess the point of this looong as post is to say that if you’re carrying sadness today, for whatever reason, this is your reminder that you don’t NEED to hide it. You don’t have to rush through it. You don’t have to pretend you’re okay for the comfort of others.

Give yourself permission to feel it.🩷

Because healing doesn’t happen when we avoid our emotions.

It happens when we allow them.🩷🩷

06/06/2026

Today I had the privilege of delivering another Mental Health First Aid course, and it reminded me exactly why I am so passionate about this work.

Years ago, after my first radiation treatment, I sat alone in a cafe feeling completely overwhelmed. I broke down and cried. People looked away. No one came over. It felt awkward, embarrassing, and incredibly lonely.

In a contrasting moment, on another occasion, an 80 year old beautiful man saw me upset in a cafe. ( It seemed to be a pattern for me 😅) He walked over, sat down, and simply talked to me. I have never forgotten that moment. It wasn’t that he had all the answers. He just cared enough to connect. 🩷

That experience taught me something powerful. We don’t need to be therapists to make a difference. Sometimes we just need the confidence to start a conversation. This is why I love teaching Mental Health First Aid. 🩷

Today my husband organised a course through the company he works for NZMA and the feedback from the team was incredible. The conversations were honest, meaningful, and brought people together. You could literally feel the bonds forming as people shared, listened, and learned. What's amazing is the ripple effect this course will have with work colleagues, family, friends and strangers on the street.

Mental health challenges touch every workplace, every family, and every community. Yet many of us still don’t know what to say or how to help when someone is struggling. Mental Health First Aid helps break that stigma. We still have the "She'll be right" mentality

Participants walk away with practical tools to be able to recognise when someone may be struggling and have supportive conversations with confidence. They can build resilience in themselves and others, create healthier workplace cultures and know how to respond when someone is in crisis

The reality is that one conversation can change someone’s day, and sometimes even their life. 🩷

If your workplace, organisation, or community group is looking for a meaningful way to support wellbeing, I’d love to help. You can book in at Meditrain. They also offer credits now for this course too. https://www.meditrain.co.nz/first-aid-courses/

Loneliness is a real thing and with these courses , we can create more moments of connection and fewer moments where people feel alone.🩷🩷🩷

03/06/2026

Having a double mastectomy and no reconstruction meant I had to truly become comfortable with my body once and for all. Having struggled like so many with body image and an eating disorder most of my life this was a huge learning curve. We are not defined by our body's. It's the light within that shines bright 🩷

02/06/2026

The Universe has a great sense of humour 😃

This came up on my Facebook memories and I wanted to share a bit of fun with you. So a few years ago I took my daughter out for a FREAK shake. The most mammoth Milk shake I have ever seen 😅 just about put me into a sugar coma 😅

Anyway with all that sugar I lost my mind a little and left my bag at the cafe. A good twenty minutes later we arrived at Sylvia Park and that's when I realised that I had left it at the cafe 🙈. So we had to immediately go back and honestly you couldn't make this part up, I let a car out in front of me and that was the first rego I saw in the picture. Then a couple of minutes later this car pulled out in front of me- see the next rego!! 😅

The Universe is always giving us signs and it also seems to have a very good sense of humour too 😅😅😅

01/06/2026

Last week, I stepped into a new chapter of my journey and completed my training as a Mental Health First Aid facilitator with Meditrain. I have been teaching first aid with them for a year now.

Only a couple of years ago, I was the one struggling. The one trying to navigate a mental breakdown while carrying the weight of life’s challenges. There were moments when I felt lost, overwhelmed, and unsure if I would ever feel like myself again.

Back then, I needed someone who understood. Someone who could listen without judgment and remind me that there was hope, even when I couldn’t see it myself. Luckily I was surrounded by people who could help me. 🩷

That’s why this training means so much to me. For me, it's not just another qualification, it feels like another way I can turn my pain into purpose.

Mental health challenges can affect anyone. They don’t discriminate based on age, gender, career, or how strong someone appears on the outside. My hope is that through this work, I can help create more conversations, more understanding, and more support for those who may be struggling silently.

If my journey has taught me anything, it’s this, asking for help is not a sign of weakness. It’s one of the bravest things you can do.🩷. I’m excited to see where this new path leads and grateful that some of my hardest experiences are now helping me support others.

I truly believe that together, we can make it okay to talk about mental health. We do group bookings from 6 people

https://get.meditrain.co.nz/auckland-first-aid-courses/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20737234700&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2_TQBhCnARIsAF3-XhzkefP9NDATkHYPyKlp7hpVCt3gbvskBX9vVoF_JLgRGm-bqXs_W3gaAj-cEALw_wcB -pom-block-262

28/05/2026

Cancer Free But Falling Apart.

I have just written another chapter in my book, Still I Rise, and I wanted to share a tiny wee nugget with you.

One of the most confusing moments of my cancer journey wasn’t hearing you have cancer, It was hearing,
you are cancer free. And I was not expecting my reaction. At all.

Everyone expected celebration, relief and joy, Including me. But instead, I fell apart.

I remember reading all the beautiful Facebook comments from people celebrating my recovery, and secretly thinking, why don’t I feel what everyone else is feeling? I didn’t feel relief. I didn’t feel excitement. I felt numb, exhausted and quite frankly broken.

What I understand now is that sometimes the body survives before the soul catches up.

I had spent so long in survival mode that the moment the danger passed, my nervous system finally collapsed under the weight of everything I’d been carrying.

And I want people to know this because healing doesn’t always look the way we think it will. Sometimes healing looks like joy. Sometimes healing looks like falling apart. And both are valid.

If you’ve ever judged yourself for not bouncing back after trauma, please know that there is no right way to heal. 🩷🩷🩷

26/05/2026

26/05/2026

Burnout doesn’t happen overnight. It happens when you keep pushing through exhaustion, ignoring stress, carrying everyone else, and pretending you’re okay when you’re not.
I learned the hard way 😅, that rest is not weakness. Your body whispers before it screams. Your mind gives signs before it breaks. If you’ve been feeling tired, overwhelmed, emotional, disconnected, or constantly on edge, this is your reminder to slow down before life forces you to.
Protect your peace. Protect your energy. Protect YOU.🩷
# burnout prevention