A Thought I Kept

When Self-Help Becomes Something We Do Together with Toni Jones

This week, I talk to Toni Jones about all things self-help. Toni is the founder of Shelf Help, the world’s first self-help book club and over the last decade she has read 1,000 self-help books while building a global community around reading, reflection and connection. We explore the difference between trying to optimise yourself and actually learning how to care for yourself. Toni shares why she thinks curiosity, experimentation, and connection can shift our approach to endless self-improvement culture. We also talk about emotional avoidance, self-trust, and the experience of becoming more visible to other people after years of keeping parts of yourself hidden. There’s a beautiful conversation here too about friendship, community, relationships that deepen over time, and the vulnerability of letting yourself be seen. Toni Jones is a journalist-turned-bibliotherapist and the founder of Shelf Help Club. She hosts The Bibliotherapists podcast and has spent the last decade exploring how books, reflection, and shared conversation can support emotional wellbeing and personal growth. Her new book, You: A Beginner’s Guide, brings together many of the ideas we explore in this episode. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by wellness culture, exhausted by trying to hold everything together, or wished someone would just say, “you don’t have to figure this out on your own,” I hope this conversation keeps you company. Shelf Help [https://shelfhelp.club] | You (A Beginner's Guide) [https://www.poundproject.co.uk/you] | The Bibliotherapists Podcast [https://thebibliotherapists.substack.com/podcast] Books, authors, podcasts and talks mentioned in this episode • Paul McKenna, Change Your Life in 7 Days [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9780857509567] • Brené Brown, Rising Strong [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9781473501553] • Brené Brown, TED Talk: The Power of Vulnerability [https://youtu.be/iCvmsMzlF7o?si=XW0Eidp9iKeqBdYK] • Brené Brown, TED Talk: Listening to Shame [https://youtu.be/psN1DORYYV0?si=z-71Mb61qIzdjXzk] • Glennon Doyle, Untamed [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9781785043352] and the podcast We Can Do Hard Things [https://open.spotify.com/episode/4d1NMTJaBxOzmBUmBHer0r?si=449d753e5b2d4990] • Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9780747585664] and Big Magic [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9781408866757] • Amir Levine, Attached [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9781529032178] and Secure [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9781529976168] • Alexandra Elle, The Company We Keep [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9781398555846] • Shahroo Izadi, The Kindness Method [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9781509881833] • Will Bowen, A Complaint Free World [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9780753513460] • Suzy Reading, Self-Care for Tough Times [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9781783253753] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/support/athoughtikept] This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week. About Claire Fitzsimmons Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here [https://www.ifloststarthere.com/]. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection. Find out about working with Claire here [https://www.ifloststarthere.com/emotions-sessions]. Claire's first book is out now here [https://www.amazon.co.uk/If-Lost-Start-Here-Wellbeing/dp/191708319X/].  Like what you heard? Subscribe [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2521342/supporters/new], rate or review this podcast. Follow on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/a_thought_i_kept/]. Sign up for our newsletter [https://iflost.myflodesk.com/ge9axhtvis]. Shop Season 1 poster [https://www.ifloststarthere.com/shop-products/a-thought-i-kept-museum-quality-matte-poster-1]. For full video episodes become a member on Substack at MoreGoodDays [https://moregooddays.substack.com/]. Made with Descript [https://get.descript.com/xde23ggbyljl] & ... [https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2463478]

How We Live Between Belief and Doubt with Hiroko Yoda

In this episode of A Thought I Kept, I talk to Hiroko Yoda about grief, Japanese spirituality, uncertainty, ritual, belonging, and what it means to live somewhere between belief and doubt. We explore the idea of “half belief, half doubt” — the Japanese concept of hanshin hangi and how it can offer a more spacious way of relating to uncertainty, spirituality, and even ourselves. Hiroko shares how the death of her mother became the beginning of a deeper spiritual awakening, not through certainty or doctrine, but through noticing. A walk in the park. A shrine glimpsed through the trees. A feeling that perhaps we are less alone than we think. Together we talk about the everyday rituals that help us feel connected when life feels overwhelming: making coffee, eating a meal, taking a walk, speaking kind words aloud. We explore how Japanese ideas of kami — spiritual presences that exist in nature, objects, and everyday life — can shift the way we think about grief, anxiety, happiness, emotions, and connection. We also talk about anger, darkness, feminism, ghosts, belonging, and why playfulness can sit alongside spirituality rather than oppose it. This is a conversation about learning to live with uncertainty without rushing to resolve it, and about finding comfort in what cannot always be fully explained. Hiroko Yoda, a Japanese cultural historian and journalist whose work has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, The New Yorker, CNN and PBS, offers a path to joy and peace through the peculiar flexibility of Japanese spirituality. In her new book Eight Million Ways to Happiness: Wisdom for Inspiration and Healing from the Heart of Japan Hiroko takes readers on a journey to her homeland’s sacred core, revealing an essential part of Japan rarely experienced by outsiders – yet has much to offer those on their own quest for meaning and resilience, wherever they are.  Website [https://www.hirokoyoda.com] | Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/hi_yoda_1/] | Eight Million Ways to Happiness [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9781526672162] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/support/athoughtikept] This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week. About Claire Fitzsimmons Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here [https://www.ifloststarthere.com/]. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection. Find out about working with Claire here [https://www.ifloststarthere.com/emotions-sessions]. Claire's first book is out now here [https://www.amazon.co.uk/If-Lost-Start-Here-Wellbeing/dp/191708319X/].  Like what you heard? Subscribe [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2521342/supporters/new], rate or review this podcast. Follow on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/a_thought_i_kept/]. Sign up for our newsletter [https://iflost.myflodesk.com/ge9axhtvis]. Shop Season 1 poster [https://www.ifloststarthere.com/shop-products/a-thought-i-kept-museum-quality-matte-poster-1]. For full video episodes become a member on Substack at MoreGoodDays [https://moregooddays.substack.com/]. Made with Descript [https://get.descript.com/xde23ggbyljl] & ... [https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2463478]

Hope, Hulp and Human Tricky Things with Jacky Power

In this episode, I talk to Jacky Power about feelings — the ones we hide, the ones we soften, and the ones we’re not always sure we’re allowed to have. We explore what it means to be seen, and why that can feel both deeply wanted and quietly risky. There’s something here about the tension between expression and protection — how we might say things sideways, through poetry or humour or busyness, and hope someone understands anyway. We talk about loneliness, and the difference between being alone and feeling emotionally unseen. About anxiety and overwhelm, and what happens when we start to understand our emotions not as problems to fix, but as signals from a nervous system trying to find its way back to safety. And we spend time with the idea of “hulp” and why it can be so hard to ask for help, even when we need it most. Jacky Power is a therapeutic poet, trauma therapist, and transformational speaker working at the intersection of psychology and performance poetry. With an MSc in Addiction Psychology & Counselling and advanced EFT training, she has spent years helping "cycle breakers” - people interrupting intergenerational patterns  - find language for what they've been taught to swallow. She is the creator of the HULP to HOPE framework, host of the Words in the Wilderness podcast, and has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe with her one woman show ’Stop the world I want to get off’ and has a poetry collection out under the same name. Her next book, From Hulp to Hope, is due out this summer 2026. Substack [https://jackypower.substack.com] | Website [https://www.jackypower.com] | Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/the_therapeutic_poet/] We also mention: The work of Dan Siegel [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9781912854714] | Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9781786898555] | Deb Dana, Polyvagal Theory bk [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9780393712377] | Brené Brown’s Atlas of the Heart [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9781785043772] | We’re Going on a Bear Hunt  [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9780744523232]| Charles R. Snyder's hope theory Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/support/athoughtikept] This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week. About Claire Fitzsimmons Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here [https://www.ifloststarthere.com/]. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection. Find out about working with Claire here [https://www.ifloststarthere.com/emotions-sessions]. Claire's first book is out now here [https://www.amazon.co.uk/If-Lost-Start-Here-Wellbeing/dp/191708319X/].  Like what you heard? Subscribe [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2521342/supporters/new], rate or review this podcast. Follow on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/a_thought_i_kept/]. Sign up for our newsletter [https://iflost.myflodesk.com/ge9axhtvis]. Shop Season 1 poster [https://www.ifloststarthere.com/shop-products/a-thought-i-kept-museum-quality-matte-poster-1]. For full video episodes become a member on Substack at MoreGoodDays [https://moregooddays.substack.com/]. Made with Descript [https://get.descript.com/xde23ggbyljl] & ... [https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2463478]

When You’re Here and Not Quite Here with Cathy Rentzenbrink

There are days when you’re here, fully in your life, in your conversations, in the small, ordinary moments, and days when part of you feels somewhere else entirely. That's what I get into with Cathy Rentzenbrink this week. We explore what it means to live a life that feels both grounded and slightly unreal at the same time. We explore the tension between being present and being pulled elsewhere and how easy it is to lose sight of what’s right in front of us. We talk about anxiety and emotional overwhelm, about the loud pressures of modern life, and the small things that can tip us over the edge. We explore creativity as a way back to ourselves, reading as a kind of refuge, and the idea of “selfing” — trying to be who you are without turning that into another thing to get right. At the heart of the conversation is the thought Cathy has kept since childhood: that moment of realising how easily our attention can be pulled away from the people and lives we love, and how, in hindsight, we wish we had stayed closer to what mattered. Cathy Rentzenbrink is an amiable bookworm, a writer of fiction and non-fiction who chairs literary events and speaks on life, death, love, and literature. She is best known for her memoir The Last Act of Love, as well as Dear Reader and Write It All Down. Unusually extravert for a writer, she likes talking to strangers, is a lover not a fighter, and is determined to cling onto her faith in humanity. Twice divorced, she lives in Cornwall with her son and cat. She has been extremely keen on Agatha Christie since she was nine years old and her next book The Agatha Christie Cure will be out in September.  Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/catrentzenbrink?igsh=NHo2cGpmN2EzbHE3&utm_source=qr] | Website [https://cathyreadsbooks.com/] | Cathy's Sunday Sessions [https://cathyreadsbooks.com/sunday-sessions/]: A monthly work-out for your writing self | Books by Cathy [https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/a-thought-i-kept-books-by-my-guests?&new-list-page=true] | Also mentioned: Dr Gavin Francis: The Unfragile Mind [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/2541/9781800819757] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/support/athoughtikept] This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week. About Claire Fitzsimmons Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here [https://www.ifloststarthere.com/]. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection. Find out about working with Claire here [https://www.ifloststarthere.com/emotions-sessions]. Claire's first book is out now here [https://www.amazon.co.uk/If-Lost-Start-Here-Wellbeing/dp/191708319X/].  Like what you heard? Subscribe [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2521342/supporters/new], rate or review this podcast. Follow on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/a_thought_i_kept/]. Sign up for our newsletter [https://iflost.myflodesk.com/ge9axhtvis]. Shop Season 1 poster [https://www.ifloststarthere.com/shop-products/a-thought-i-kept-museum-quality-matte-poster-1]. For full video episodes become a member on Substack at MoreGoodDays [https://moregooddays.substack.com/]. Made with Descript [https://get.descript.com/xde23ggbyljl] & ... [https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2463478]

How We Learn to Trust Things Will Be OK with Tanya Lynch

In this episode, I talk to Tanya Lynch about hope, resilience, and the ways we hold ourselves through change. We explore what it means to believe that things will be OK, not as a forced positive mindset, but as something lived and felt over time. Through stories of heartbreak, midlife, motherhood, and starting again, Tanya shares how this trust has been shaped not just by ease, but by everything she’s had to move through. We talk about the emotional reality of life’s harder seasons—grief, uncertainty, anxiety—and how those experiences can sit alongside beauty, connection, and even moments of calm. There’s something here about being in nature, about looking up instead of down, about the small, everyday ways we find steadiness again. We also explore journaling, creativity, and the spaces Tanya creates through her retreats, where women can feel held, seen, and a little lighter. Tanya Lynch is a mother, a ridgeback owner and the founder of Ease Retreats [https://www.easeretreats.com/]. Tanya collaborates with authors and creatives, hosting retreats in beautiful venues across the UK. A year ago she became a certified bibliotherapist offering book prescriptions and launched The Bibliotherapists [https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-bibliotherapists/id1780808816?i=1000677637558]podcast with her co-host Toni Jones. Tanya is also a therapeutic journalling coach and through her programme ‘Rage on a Page’, she helps midlife women channel their emotions into something more positive and creative in less than 60 days. Each Thursday Tanya hosts an online journalling club ‘Journal with Ease’. She’s usually near a beach walking the dogs, hosting retreats, writing in her journal or hanging out on Substack. Website [http://www.easeretreats.com/] | Instagram at Ease Retreats [https://www.instagram.com/easeretreats/]and Tanya Lynch [https://www.instagram.com/tanyalynchpin/] If you’re in a moment that feels uncertain, or you’re learning how to trust yourself again, this is a great episode for you. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/support/athoughtikept] This is A Thought I Kept — Weekly conversations about the ideas that stay. Listen every Monday morning for a new thought to hold onto this week. About Claire Fitzsimmons Claire is the host of A Thought I Kept, a wellbeing writer and the co-founder of If Lost Start Here [https://www.ifloststarthere.com/]. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach and a certified Emotions Coach Practitioner, Claire helps people navigate the everyday lost moments of their lives and all the feelings, from anxiety to grief, overwhelm to disconnection. Find out about working with Claire here [https://www.ifloststarthere.com/emotions-sessions]. Claire's first book is out now here [https://www.amazon.co.uk/If-Lost-Start-Here-Wellbeing/dp/191708319X/].  Like what you heard? Subscribe [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2521342/supporters/new], rate or review this podcast. Follow on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/a_thought_i_kept/]. Sign up for our newsletter [https://iflost.myflodesk.com/ge9axhtvis]. Shop Season 1 poster [https://www.ifloststarthere.com/shop-products/a-thought-i-kept-museum-quality-matte-poster-1]. For full video episodes become a member on Substack at MoreGoodDays [https://moregooddays.substack.com/]. Made with Descript [https://get.descript.com/xde23ggbyljl] & ... [https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2463478]