Dear Reader,

The overall title of this blog of mine is ‘How to Avoid Knackering Yourself’ - what I have come to call 'Personal Ecology' coaching. I will focus my attention on two main areas:

1. Clinical depression - its meaning and its impact
2. Coaching - its relevance and its applicability.

I don’t pretend to be an expert in anything but knackering myself is something I am spectacularly good at – so much so that I ended up two years ago with a blunderbuss of a break-down. In the process I have learnt a few valuable lessons that I will share with you in this blog.

I cannot promise you that I will always be interesting, or even relevant, but I do promise you this: I will always be truthful, authentic, and slightly irreverent towards myself because, even if the subject matter is important and can have some very serious repercussions, I know that a good sense of humour underlined by the ability to not take oneself too seriously is indispensable to any lasting healing.

Format-wise I will keep each blog entry to the approximate length of a page of A4 text. My reason is two-fold:

1. I dislike what I call 'rambling blogs' myself, and I quickly lose interest in them
2. Not everybody can, or desires to, spend hours reading blogs every day. Therefore a few minutes reading-time is all that will be required for each entry.

The only exception is 'Shocked Back to Life' which was written as a supporting document rather than as a blog entry and which will eventually be moved from the front page.

I consider your comments to be part of what makes my blog in any way valuable. Please feel free to contribute openly and honestly. Thank you.

Lastly, I now wish to pay tribute to my husband Richard without whom this blog could never have been, for two reasons:

1. I would not have made it through the last two years without his constant love, understanding and support. My husband is my Heart on Legs. His very presence is soothing and reassuring to me.
2. This blog could never have been without his technical wizardry. Many people refer to IT specialists as ‘geeks’, often in a belittling tone of voice – I believe it is because they find genius unsettling. I have lived with my husband’s genius for twenty years now and I have always found it awe-inspiring.

So, thank you darling for being who you are.