<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:googleplay="http://www.google.com/schemas/play-podcasts/1.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[The In-Between Times]]></title><description><![CDATA[A letter for the in-between times — when you've left one version of yourself and the next one hasn't quite arrived. Tools for your body, your mind, and your emotions. Written for thoughtful people navigating quiet transitions.]]></description><link>https://betweentimes.substack.com</link><image><url>https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XBiO!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb4cf5883-278b-4b84-9c31-be681b831ac0_512x512.png</url><title>The In-Between Times</title><link>https://betweentimes.substack.com</link></image><generator>Substack</generator><lastBuildDate>Sat, 15 Aug 2026 17:33:39 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://betweentimes.substack.com/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><copyright><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></copyright><language><![CDATA[en]]></language><webMaster><![CDATA[betweentimes@substack.com]]></webMaster><itunes:owner><itunes:email><![CDATA[betweentimes@substack.com]]></itunes:email><itunes:name><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></itunes:name></itunes:owner><itunes:author><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></itunes:author><googleplay:owner><![CDATA[betweentimes@substack.com]]></googleplay:owner><googleplay:email><![CDATA[betweentimes@substack.com]]></googleplay:email><googleplay:author><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></googleplay:author><itunes:block><![CDATA[Yes]]></itunes:block><item><title><![CDATA[Why self-discipline is an emotional wound for some people]]></title><description><![CDATA[A newsletter for the in-between times - Issue 11]]></description><link>https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/why-self-discipline-is-an-emotional</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/why-self-discipline-is-an-emotional</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 23 Jul 2026 08:07:37 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LiIg!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad6dab7c-c719-451f-bc80-d827fb2550a8_1600x896.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LiIg!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad6dab7c-c719-451f-bc80-d827fb2550a8_1600x896.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LiIg!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad6dab7c-c719-451f-bc80-d827fb2550a8_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LiIg!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad6dab7c-c719-451f-bc80-d827fb2550a8_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LiIg!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad6dab7c-c719-451f-bc80-d827fb2550a8_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LiIg!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad6dab7c-c719-451f-bc80-d827fb2550a8_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LiIg!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad6dab7c-c719-451f-bc80-d827fb2550a8_1600x896.png" width="1456" height="815" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/ad6dab7c-c719-451f-bc80-d827fb2550a8_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:815,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1065052,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/i/208170570?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad6dab7c-c719-451f-bc80-d827fb2550a8_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LiIg!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad6dab7c-c719-451f-bc80-d827fb2550a8_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LiIg!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad6dab7c-c719-451f-bc80-d827fb2550a8_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LiIg!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad6dab7c-c719-451f-bc80-d827fb2550a8_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LiIg!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad6dab7c-c719-451f-bc80-d827fb2550a8_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>For some people, self-discipline is a neutral tool. Something they pick up when they need it and put down when they don&#8217;t. A means to an end, unremarkable, uncomplicated.</p><p>For others it is something else entirely.</p><p>For others it is the strategy that kept them safe. The thing that earned the approval, avoided the punishment, maintained the peace. The child who learned that being good enough, working hard enough, achieving enough, was the price of being loved, or at least the price of not being in trouble, carries that equation into adulthood. And then wonders why rest feels dangerous. Why stopping feels like failure. Why the inner voice that drives them sounds less like encouragement and more like a threat.</p><p>This is not a productivity problem. It is an emotional one.</p><p>For your body</p><p>Try resting without having earned it.</p><p>Not after the work is done. Not as a reward for completing the list. Just rest, now, for no particular reason, with nothing justified and nothing pending resolution. Sit down. Put the phone away. Do nothing useful for ten minutes.</p><p>Notice what arrives. The restlessness, the guilt, the low-grade sense that something is being neglected or that you are somehow falling behind. That discomfort is not laziness. It is the body carrying the old equation: rest is not safe unless it has been earned. That belief lives in the nervous system, not in the diary. And it can be gently, incrementally, updated.</p><p>For your mind</p><p>Ask this, on paper and without rushing to answer it: what do I believe will happen if I stop?</p><p>Not slow down. Stop. Even briefly. What does the mind produce when you hold that question? Falling behind, perhaps. Being seen as lazy or lacking. Losing ground that can&#8217;t be recovered. Becoming someone who isn&#8217;t enough.</p><p>These are not conclusions about the present. They are memories of a situation in which stopping had consequences. The work is not to argue with them but to notice that you are no longer in that situation, even when your nervous system insists otherwise.</p><p>For your emotions</p><p>The Inner Critic that drives the overachievement is not your enemy. It is a frightened part that learned, very early, that performance was protection. It has been working extraordinarily hard on your behalf ever since, running the same programme long after the original threat has passed.</p><p>Ask it, with some genuine warmth: what are you afraid would happen if I slowed down? The answer will almost certainly be something tender. Something about not being wanted, or not being enough, or being left. That fear deserves compassion rather than argument. It formed in a real situation. It did real work.</p><p>You don&#8217;t have to dismantle it. You just have to let it know that you are safe now, and that its job, while heroic, is no longer required at quite this intensity.</p><p>That is a conversation that takes time. It is also one of the most worthwhile ones you will ever have with yourself.</p><p>the difference between being alone and being lonely.</p><p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p><p>If this landed somewhere useful:<br>Follow Between Sessions on Substack so you don&#8217;t miss the next one.</p><p>Not sure where you are right now?<br>The Self Check is a free self-assessment tool that maps eight areas of your inner life. It takes about ten minutes and tends to clarify things.<br>Try it here: <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/check-in-questionnaire/">https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/check-in-questionnaire/</a></p><p>If you&#8217;d like to work together:<br>You can find out more about therapeutic coaching at New Roots Coaching (<a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-landing/">https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-landing/</a>) or book a free discovery call to see if it&#8217;s a fit.<br>Book here: <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-generic-discovery-call/">https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-generic-discovery-call/</a></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Grief that doesn’t have a name]]></title><description><![CDATA[A newsletter for the in-between times - Issue 10]]></description><link>https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/grief-that-doesnt-have-a-name</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/grief-that-doesnt-have-a-name</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 05 Jun 2026 16:13:48 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YVUD!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F057bb3b2-fbb6-4fcb-a8b2-e3c03db00b84_1600x896.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YVUD!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F057bb3b2-fbb6-4fcb-a8b2-e3c03db00b84_1600x896.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YVUD!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F057bb3b2-fbb6-4fcb-a8b2-e3c03db00b84_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YVUD!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F057bb3b2-fbb6-4fcb-a8b2-e3c03db00b84_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YVUD!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F057bb3b2-fbb6-4fcb-a8b2-e3c03db00b84_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YVUD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F057bb3b2-fbb6-4fcb-a8b2-e3c03db00b84_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YVUD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F057bb3b2-fbb6-4fcb-a8b2-e3c03db00b84_1600x896.png" width="1456" height="815" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/057bb3b2-fbb6-4fcb-a8b2-e3c03db00b84_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:815,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1065052,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/i/200730940?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F057bb3b2-fbb6-4fcb-a8b2-e3c03db00b84_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YVUD!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F057bb3b2-fbb6-4fcb-a8b2-e3c03db00b84_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YVUD!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F057bb3b2-fbb6-4fcb-a8b2-e3c03db00b84_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YVUD!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F057bb3b2-fbb6-4fcb-a8b2-e3c03db00b84_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YVUD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F057bb3b2-fbb6-4fcb-a8b2-e3c03db00b84_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p>Here it is.</p><p>Grief that doesn&#8217;t have a name</p><p>A newsletter for the in-between times</p><p>Not all grief arrives with a reason the world will recognise.</p><p>Some of the heaviest grief is for things that never happened. The childhood that should have been but wasn&#8217;t. The parent who was present in body but somewhere else entirely in the ways that mattered. The relationship that almost became what you needed before it didn&#8217;t. The version of yourself you set carefully aside somewhere in your twenties and haven&#8217;t quite found your way back to.</p><p>This grief is real. It is also, for many people, entirely unacknowledged. Because it has no event. No date. No socially legible loss that gives others permission to ask how you&#8217;re doing. It simply lives there, unnamed, taking up space in a way that&#8217;s hard to explain even to yourself.</p><p>This issue is for that grief.</p><p>For your body</p><p>Grief tends to have an address in the body. For many people it lives in the chest, a heaviness that sits just behind the sternum. For others it&#8217;s the throat, a fullness that arrives without warning. For others still it&#8217;s a tiredness that sleep doesn&#8217;t touch.</p><p>Place one hand on the place where you feel it, or where you sense it might be if you stopped moving long enough to notice. Don&#8217;t try to shift it or release it or breathe through it. Just stay with it for a moment, with your hand there, with some warmth. The body has been holding this quietly for a long time. It doesn&#8217;t need fixing. It needs witnessing.</p><p>For your mind</p><p>Try naming the loss, even imprecisely. On paper, slowly, without editing yourself.</p><p>I am grieving the feeling of being truly known. I am grieving the mother I needed and didn&#8217;t have. I am grieving the years I spent making myself smaller. I am grieving the relationship that almost worked.</p><p>Naming doesn&#8217;t resolve grief. Nothing resolves it quickly and anyone who suggests otherwise is selling something. But naming dignifies it. It takes something that has been living in the shadows, formless and therefore impossible to hold, and gives it enough shape to be acknowledged. That matters more than it might seem.</p><p>For your emotions</p><p>Grief rarely arrives alone. It tends to bring company: relief and grief together, love and grief together, anger and grief together, gratitude and grief together. Sometimes all of them at once, which is exhausting and also entirely normal.</p><p>Whatever is here alongside the grief: it is allowed to be here. You don&#8217;t have to organise it into something coherent or feel it in the right order or arrive at acceptance on any particular schedule. Grief is not a process to be completed. It is an experience to be moved through, at your own pace, in your own way, with as much gentleness toward yourself as you can manage.</p><p>That is enough. It has always been enough.</p><p>Next issue: why self-discipline is an emotional wound for some people.</p><p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p><p>If this landed somewhere useful: Follow Between Sessions on Substack so you don&#8217;t miss the next one.</p><p>Not sure where you are right now? The Self Check is a free self-assessment tool that maps eight areas of your inner life. It takes about ten minutes and tends to clarify things. Try it here: <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/check-in-questionnaire/">https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/check-in-questionnaire/</a></p><p>If you&#8217;d like to work together: You can find out more about therapeutic coaching at New Roots Coaching (<a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-landing/">https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-landing/</a>) or book a free discovery call to see if it&#8217;s a fit. Book here: <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-generic-discovery-call/">https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-generic-discovery-call/</a></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The beliefs you didn’t choose]]></title><description><![CDATA[A newsletter for the in-between times - Issue 9]]></description><link>https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/the-beliefs-you-didnt-choose</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/the-beliefs-you-didnt-choose</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 27 May 2026 13:41:54 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qado!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff784c0f7-c9bd-4955-ab2c-f3b35c55bb3b_1600x896.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qado!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff784c0f7-c9bd-4955-ab2c-f3b35c55bb3b_1600x896.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qado!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff784c0f7-c9bd-4955-ab2c-f3b35c55bb3b_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qado!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff784c0f7-c9bd-4955-ab2c-f3b35c55bb3b_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qado!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff784c0f7-c9bd-4955-ab2c-f3b35c55bb3b_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qado!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff784c0f7-c9bd-4955-ab2c-f3b35c55bb3b_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qado!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff784c0f7-c9bd-4955-ab2c-f3b35c55bb3b_1600x896.png" width="1456" height="815" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/f784c0f7-c9bd-4955-ab2c-f3b35c55bb3b_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:815,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1065052,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/i/199462891?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff784c0f7-c9bd-4955-ab2c-f3b35c55bb3b_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qado!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff784c0f7-c9bd-4955-ab2c-f3b35c55bb3b_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qado!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff784c0f7-c9bd-4955-ab2c-f3b35c55bb3b_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qado!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff784c0f7-c9bd-4955-ab2c-f3b35c55bb3b_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qado!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff784c0f7-c9bd-4955-ab2c-f3b35c55bb3b_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Somewhere inside most of us, running quietly in the background, is a set of conclusions about who we are.</p><p>Not thoughts exactly. Something more settled than that. More like facts, the kind that don&#8217;t get questioned because they don&#8217;t feel like beliefs at all. They feel like reality. I am too much. I am not enough. I am fundamentally difficult to love. Other people manage things I can&#8217;t. I have to earn my place.</p><p>You didn&#8217;t reason your way to any of these. They were constructed for you, early, in circumstances that made them make sense at the time. A child who is criticised consistently enough doesn&#8217;t conclude that the adult is critical. They conclude that they are criticisable. It&#8217;s a more manageable explanation. It keeps the attachment intact.</p><p>The belief took hold. And it has been running the show ever since.</p><p>For your body</p><p>Beliefs don&#8217;t only live in the mind. They live in posture, in the way you hold your shoulders, in the speed at which you apologise, in the slight contraction that happens when you&#8217;re about to ask for something.</p><p>Try this: stand or sit tall, shoulders back, weight evenly distributed, gaze level. Then say aloud, or under your breath if that feels like too much: I am enough. Notice what happens in the body. Does something brace? Soften? Feel faintly absurd? The body&#8217;s response to that sentence is information about where the belief actually lives, and how much of it has been absorbed beneath the level of thought.</p><p>For your mind</p><p>Take one belief that feels like a fact about yourself. One of the quiet ones, the kind you&#8217;d be mildly embarrassed to admit you still carry. Write it down.</p><p>Then ask: when did this first make sense? Not when did it start, which is hard to know, but when was there a situation where this conclusion was the most logical available response? What was happening? What did it help you do or endure?</p><p>You are not looking to dismantle it. You are looking to see it as a conclusion rather than a truth. That small shift in perspective, from fact to interpretation, is where the work begins.</p><p>For your emotions</p><p>The part of you that holds the belief has been doing so for a long time. It formed around something that needed making sense of, and it has been faithfully carrying that interpretation ever since, even as the circumstances changed, even as you grew, even as the evidence began to point elsewhere.</p><p>It deserves some genuine acknowledgement before anything else. Not agreement. Just recognition: you made sense of something hard. You did the best you could with what you had.</p><p>Beliefs don&#8217;t shift through argument. They shift through compassion, through accumulated counter-evidence, through the gradual, patient discovery that the original conclusion, however intelligent it was, is no longer the only one available.</p><p>That is slow work. It is also the most important work there is.</p><p>Next issue: grief that doesn&#8217;t have a name.</p><p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p><p>If this landed somewhere useful: Follow Between Sessions on Substack so you don&#8217;t miss the next one.</p><p>Not sure where you are right now? The Self Check is a free self-assessment tool that maps eight areas of your inner life. It takes about ten minutes and tends to clarify things. Try it here: <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/check-in-questionnaire/">https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/check-in-questionnaire/</a></p><p>If you&#8217;d like to work together: You can find out more about therapeutic coaching at New Roots Coaching (<a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-landing/">https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-landing/</a>) or book a free discovery call to see if it&#8217;s a fit. Book here: <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-generic-discovery-call/">https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-generic-discovery-call/</a></p><p>&#57430;&#57403;&#57595;&#57593;</p><p>&#57550;</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[What safety actually feels like in the body]]></title><description><![CDATA[A newsletter for the in-between times - Issue 8]]></description><link>https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/what-safety-actually-feels-like-in</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/what-safety-actually-feels-like-in</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2026 14:44:13 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!h4AP!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552a3dc6-368d-491f-8625-682e0254e02b_1600x896.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!h4AP!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552a3dc6-368d-491f-8625-682e0254e02b_1600x896.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!h4AP!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552a3dc6-368d-491f-8625-682e0254e02b_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!h4AP!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552a3dc6-368d-491f-8625-682e0254e02b_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!h4AP!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552a3dc6-368d-491f-8625-682e0254e02b_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!h4AP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552a3dc6-368d-491f-8625-682e0254e02b_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!h4AP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552a3dc6-368d-491f-8625-682e0254e02b_1600x896.png" width="1456" height="815" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/552a3dc6-368d-491f-8625-682e0254e02b_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:815,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1065052,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/i/198716395?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552a3dc6-368d-491f-8625-682e0254e02b_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!h4AP!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552a3dc6-368d-491f-8625-682e0254e02b_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!h4AP!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552a3dc6-368d-491f-8625-682e0254e02b_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!h4AP!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552a3dc6-368d-491f-8625-682e0254e02b_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!h4AP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F552a3dc6-368d-491f-8625-682e0254e02b_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Most of us know what danger feels like in the body.</p><p>The chest that tightens. The breath that shallows. The jaw that sets itself. The low-grade hum of readiness that sits just below the surface of an ordinary day. We have learned, often very well, to recognise the signals of threat.</p><p>Safety is less familiar. Not the absence of danger, which is a different thing entirely, but the actual felt presence of ease. The body that has permission to settle. For some people, that sensation is so unfamiliar it registers as suspicious. If nothing is wrong, something must be about to go wrong.</p><p>This issue is about learning to recognise safety when it arrives. Which first requires learning what it actually feels like.</p><p>For your body</p><p>Safety doesn&#8217;t announce itself. It whispers.</p><p>Find somewhere to sit where you won&#8217;t be interrupted for a few minutes. Let your feet rest flat on the floor. Let your hands open in your lap. Don&#8217;t try to relax, because trying to relax is its own kind of effort. Just stop organising yourself for a moment and notice what&#8217;s already there.</p><p>There may be a small softening somewhere. A slight release in the shoulders, the jaw, the space behind the eyes. It might be almost imperceptible. That is safety making itself known. Not the dramatic arrival of peace, just the quiet withdrawal of bracing. Notice it without grabbing for it. It tends to stay longer when you don&#8217;t.</p><p>For your mind</p><p>The nervous system learns safety the same way it learns everything else: through repetition, through evidence, through accumulated experience that slowly updates the internal map.</p><p>One small practice: at the end of each day this week, identify one moment when you felt, even briefly, that things were alright. Not perfect. Not resolved. Just alright. Write it down. The mind on high alert filters for threat as a survival strategy. You are deliberately introducing counter-evidence. Over time, and it does take time, the filter begins to adjust.</p><p>For your emotions</p><p>For some people, safety has not historically been reliable. It arrived and then it didn&#8217;t. Someone was present and then they weren&#8217;t. The environment was calm and then it wasn&#8217;t. The body learned, quite reasonably, not to trust the quiet.</p><p>If this is familiar, it&#8217;s worth knowing that the distrust of safety is not a malfunction. It is an extraordinarily intelligent response to an environment that didn&#8217;t hold. The work is not to force yourself to feel safe. It is to build, incrementally and at your own pace, enough evidence that safety can sometimes be trusted. That it doesn&#8217;t always leave. That the quiet is occasionally just quiet.</p><p>That takes time. It is also possible. Both things are true.</p><p>Next issue: the beliefs you didn&#8217;t choose.</p><p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p><p>If this landed somewhere useful: Follow Between Sessions on Substack so you don&#8217;t miss the next one.</p><p>Not sure where you are right now? The Self Check is a free self-assessment tool that maps eight areas of your inner life. It takes about ten minutes and tends to clarify things. Try it here: <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/check-in-questionnaire/">https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/check-in-questionnaire/</a></p><p>If you&#8217;d like to work together: You can find out more about therapeutic coaching at New Roots Coaching (<a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-landing/">https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-landing/</a>) or book a free discovery call to see if it&#8217;s a fit. Book here: <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-generic-discovery-call/">https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-generic-discovery-call/</a></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[When helping others is how you hide from yourself]]></title><description><![CDATA[A newsletter for the in-between times - Issue 7]]></description><link>https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/when-helping-others-is-how-you-hide</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/when-helping-others-is-how-you-hide</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 13 May 2026 13:37:50 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I0y6!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6b48fc63-be37-4bba-8424-70cbd0f5dfe8_1600x896.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I0y6!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6b48fc63-be37-4bba-8424-70cbd0f5dfe8_1600x896.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I0y6!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6b48fc63-be37-4bba-8424-70cbd0f5dfe8_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I0y6!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6b48fc63-be37-4bba-8424-70cbd0f5dfe8_1600x896.png 848w, 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I0y6!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6b48fc63-be37-4bba-8424-70cbd0f5dfe8_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I0y6!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6b48fc63-be37-4bba-8424-70cbd0f5dfe8_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I0y6!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6b48fc63-be37-4bba-8424-70cbd0f5dfe8_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I0y6!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6b48fc63-be37-4bba-8424-70cbd0f5dfe8_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>There is a particular kind of person who is always available.</p><p>Always the one who listens, who shows up, who knows what to say. Always more interested in your pain than in their own. Always fine, or at least always fine enough to focus on you right now. The helping is genuine. The care is real. And underneath it, quietly and without much examination, is someone who has become very good at not being the one who needs something.</p><p>This is not generosity. Or rather, it is not only generosity. It is also, for some people, a very sophisticated way of staying safe.</p><p>For your body</p><p>Try this as a small experiment this week. When someone asks how you are and actually means it, notice what happens in your body before you answer.</p><p>The slight impulse to deflect. The urge to say fine, or good, or busy. The almost automatic redirect toward them, toward something external, toward anything that moves the attention away from the inside. That impulse is not politeness. It is a reflex, and it has a history. The body knows it before the mind does. You just have to be paying attention when it arrives.</p><p>For your mind</p><p>Write this down and see what your mind does with it: what would happen if I needed something today?</p><p>Not what you know should happen. What you actually believe would happen. The relationship that might not survive it. The image of yourself that would have to change. The fear of being too much, or not enough, or simply visible in a way that feels unsafe.</p><p>You don&#8217;t have to act on any of it. Just let the question sit on the page and see what arrives. The answers tend to be more illuminating than comfortable.</p><p>For your emotions</p><p>The Helper part, the one that keeps the focus outward, is not the problem. It developed for very good reasons, most of them having to do with learning early that your needs were less welcome than your usefulness. It kept you connected. It kept you safe. It did its job extraordinarily well.</p><p>What it might be worth asking, with some genuine warmth rather than frustration, is what it&#8217;s afraid would happen if you let yourself be helped. If you let yourself be the one who doesn&#8217;t have it together today. If you took up the space that you so readily offer to everyone else.</p><p>The answer to that question is usually where the real work lives.</p><p>Next issue: what safety actually feels like in the body.</p><p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p><p>If this landed somewhere useful:</p><p>Follow Between Sessions on Substack so you don&#8217;t miss the next one.</p><p>Not sure where you are right now?</p><p>The Self Check is a free self-assessment tool that maps eight areas of your inner life. It takes about ten minutes and tends to clarify things.</p><p>Try it here: <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/check-in-questionnaire/">Self Check</a></p><p>If you&#8217;d like to work together:</p><p>You can find out more about therapeutic coaching at <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-landing/">New Roots Coaching</a> or book a free discovery call to see if it&#8217;s a fit.</p><p>Book here:<a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-generic-discovery-call/">Discovery Call</a></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The story you tell yourself at 3am]]></title><description><![CDATA[A newsletter for the in-between times - Issue 6]]></description><link>https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/the-story-you-tell-yourself-at-3am</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/the-story-you-tell-yourself-at-3am</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 06 May 2026 12:28:17 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!E_aP!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbe2d0f54-8dfc-44ef-a412-1123f391670f_1600x896.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!E_aP!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbe2d0f54-8dfc-44ef-a412-1123f391670f_1600x896.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!E_aP!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbe2d0f54-8dfc-44ef-a412-1123f391670f_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!E_aP!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbe2d0f54-8dfc-44ef-a412-1123f391670f_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!E_aP!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbe2d0f54-8dfc-44ef-a412-1123f391670f_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!E_aP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbe2d0f54-8dfc-44ef-a412-1123f391670f_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!E_aP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbe2d0f54-8dfc-44ef-a412-1123f391670f_1600x896.png" width="1456" height="815" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/be2d0f54-8dfc-44ef-a412-1123f391670f_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:815,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1065052,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/i/196650375?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbe2d0f54-8dfc-44ef-a412-1123f391670f_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!E_aP!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbe2d0f54-8dfc-44ef-a412-1123f391670f_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!E_aP!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbe2d0f54-8dfc-44ef-a412-1123f391670f_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!E_aP!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbe2d0f54-8dfc-44ef-a412-1123f391670f_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!E_aP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbe2d0f54-8dfc-44ef-a412-1123f391670f_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p>There is a particular kind of thinking that only happens at 3am.</p><p>It has its own logic, its own momentum, its own cast of characters. It revisits conversations that ended weeks ago. It drafts responses to things nobody said. It takes a small uncertainty and builds it, carefully and methodically, into something that feels like certainty about the worst possible outcome.</p><p>By morning it will look different. You know this. At 3am, knowing it makes no difference whatsoever.</p><p>For your body</p><p>The 3am mind is a nervous system event before it is a thinking problem. The body is activated, scanning for threat, running its emergency protocols in the dark. Reasoning with it directly tends not to help, because reasoning is not the language it&#8217;s currently speaking.</p><p>Try this instead: open your eyes if they&#8217;re closed, and let your gaze move slowly around the room. Take about ten seconds to look from one side to the other, letting your eyes rest briefly on whatever they find. This is the orienting response, the same mechanism your nervous system uses to scan the environment and register that it&#8217;s safe. You&#8217;re not tricking your body. You&#8217;re speaking to it in a language it understands.</p><p>For your mind</p><p>Get it out of your head and onto paper. Not to solve it, not to analyse it, just to move it from the inside to the outside where it takes up considerably less room.</p><p>Write down everything that feels urgent, everything that feels unresolved, everything your mind keeps returning to. Then close the notebook. The things on that list will still be there in the morning. They will also, almost without exception, look smaller in daylight than they did at 3am. The notebook doesn&#8217;t fix anything. It just gives your mind permission to stop holding everything at once.</p><p>For your emotions</p><p>The 3am story is rarely about what it says it&#8217;s about.</p><p>Underneath the replayed conversation, the rehearsed catastrophe, the inventory of everything that could go wrong, there is usually a feeling that didn&#8217;t get its moment during the day. Something arrived and there was no space for it, so it waited. 3am is when it stops waiting.</p><p>It&#8217;s worth asking, quietly: what is the feeling underneath all of this? Not the story. The feeling. You don&#8217;t have to resolve it or do anything with it. Just naming it honestly, even imprecisely, tends to take some of the pressure off. Feelings that get acknowledged at 3am are considerably quieter than feelings that get argued with.</p><p>Next issue: when helping others is how you hide from yourself.</p><p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p><p>If this landed somewhere useful:</p><p>Follow Between Sessions on Substack so you don&#8217;t miss the next one.</p><p>Not sure where you are right now?</p><p>The Self Check is a free self-assessment tool that maps eight areas of your inner life. It takes about ten minutes and tends to clarify things.</p><p>Try it here: <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/check-in-questionnaire/">Self Check</a></p><p>If you&#8217;d like to work together:</p><p>You can find out more about therapeutic coaching at <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-landing/">New Roots Coaching</a> or book a free discovery call to see if it&#8217;s a fit.</p><p>Book here:<a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-generic-discovery-call/">Discovery Call</a></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Boundaries: the word everyone uses and almost no one means]]></title><description><![CDATA[A newsletter for the in-between times - Issue 5]]></description><link>https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/boundaries-the-word-everyone-uses</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/boundaries-the-word-everyone-uses</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:34:41 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nFbt!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F432bd4b6-0d2c-4eb9-bc8f-0b00d92ff57c_1600x896.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nFbt!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F432bd4b6-0d2c-4eb9-bc8f-0b00d92ff57c_1600x896.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nFbt!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F432bd4b6-0d2c-4eb9-bc8f-0b00d92ff57c_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nFbt!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F432bd4b6-0d2c-4eb9-bc8f-0b00d92ff57c_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nFbt!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F432bd4b6-0d2c-4eb9-bc8f-0b00d92ff57c_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nFbt!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F432bd4b6-0d2c-4eb9-bc8f-0b00d92ff57c_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nFbt!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F432bd4b6-0d2c-4eb9-bc8f-0b00d92ff57c_1600x896.png" width="1456" height="815" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nFbt!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F432bd4b6-0d2c-4eb9-bc8f-0b00d92ff57c_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nFbt!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F432bd4b6-0d2c-4eb9-bc8f-0b00d92ff57c_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nFbt!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F432bd4b6-0d2c-4eb9-bc8f-0b00d92ff57c_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nFbt!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F432bd4b6-0d2c-4eb9-bc8f-0b00d92ff57c_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Somewhere along the way, boundaries became a wellness buzzword.</p><p>We talk about them constantly. We recommend them to friends, post about them, nod along when someone mentions them in a podcast. And yet, for many of us, the actual felt sense of where we end and someone else begins remains genuinely unclear. We know the word. We&#8217;re considerably less certain about the thing itself.</p><p>That&#8217;s not a personal failing. It&#8217;s what happens when the concept travels faster than the experience.</p><p>For your body</p><p>The body knows about boundaries before the mind catches up. It registers the crossing before you&#8217;ve had a chance to think about it: a slight tightening in the chest, a held breath, a jaw that sets itself just a fraction more firmly. A low-grade sense of something being off that you can&#8217;t quite name yet.</p><p>This week, pay attention to those signals. Not to act on them immediately, just to notice them. When does your body brace? When does your breath shorten? When do you feel yourself becoming slightly smaller? The body has been tracking your edges all along. It just hasn&#8217;t always been listened to.</p><p>For your mind</p><p>Try this question on paper: what do I believe will happen if I say no?</p><p>Not what you know intellectually. What you actually believe, in the place where decisions get made before you&#8217;ve had time to reason them through. Disapproval, perhaps. Conflict. The withdrawal of love. Being seen as difficult, selfish, not enough.</p><p>Those beliefs are not conclusions you reached. They are conclusions that were drawn for you, early, in situations where saying no carried a genuine cost. The fact that they still run the show is not a character flaw. It&#8217;s information about what your system learned in order to stay safe.</p><p>For your emotions</p><p>The part of you that says yes when it means no is not weak. It is protecting something: connection, approval, the sense of being wanted and welcome. That intention is not the problem. The method has simply outlived its usefulness.</p><p>It&#8217;s worth asking that part, with some genuine warmth: what are you afraid would happen if I held this line? Listen to the answer without rushing to argue with it. The boundary doesn&#8217;t become available until that fear has been heard. Not solved. Heard.</p><p>Next issue: the story you tell yourself at 3am.</p><p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p><p>If this landed somewhere useful:</p><p>Follow Between Sessions on Substack so you don&#8217;t miss the next one.</p><p>Not sure where you are right now?</p><p>The Self Check is a free self-assessment tool that maps eight areas of your inner life. It takes about ten minutes and tends to clarify things.</p><p>Try it here: <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/check-in-questionnaire/">Self Check</a></p><p>If you&#8217;d like to work together:</p><p>You can find out more about therapeutic coaching at <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-landing/">New Roots Coaching</a> or book a free discovery call to see if it&#8217;s a fit.</p><p>Book here:<a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-generic-discovery-call/">Discovery Call</a></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[What you learned about love, and what it costs you]]></title><description><![CDATA[A newsletter for the in-between times - issue 4]]></description><link>https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/what-you-learned-about-love-and-what</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/what-you-learned-about-love-and-what</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2026 10:14:52 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5Uf0!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6fc24bd5-6a65-4f28-954a-34bb670b89b5_1600x896.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5Uf0!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6fc24bd5-6a65-4f28-954a-34bb670b89b5_1600x896.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5Uf0!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6fc24bd5-6a65-4f28-954a-34bb670b89b5_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5Uf0!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6fc24bd5-6a65-4f28-954a-34bb670b89b5_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5Uf0!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6fc24bd5-6a65-4f28-954a-34bb670b89b5_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5Uf0!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6fc24bd5-6a65-4f28-954a-34bb670b89b5_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5Uf0!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6fc24bd5-6a65-4f28-954a-34bb670b89b5_1600x896.png" width="1456" height="815" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6fc24bd5-6a65-4f28-954a-34bb670b89b5_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:815,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1065052,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/i/195016681?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6fc24bd5-6a65-4f28-954a-34bb670b89b5_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5Uf0!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6fc24bd5-6a65-4f28-954a-34bb670b89b5_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5Uf0!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6fc24bd5-6a65-4f28-954a-34bb670b89b5_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5Uf0!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6fc24bd5-6a65-4f28-954a-34bb670b89b5_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5Uf0!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6fc24bd5-6a65-4f28-954a-34bb670b89b5_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Most of us didn&#8217;t get a say in our first lessons about love.</p><p>They arrived before we had language for them, before we could question them, before we understood they were lessons at all. Someone was available or they weren&#8217;t. Someone stayed or they left. Someone saw us or looked through us. And from all of that, quietly and without our consent, we drew conclusions. About what love feels like. About what it requires. About what we have to do to keep it.</p><p>Those conclusions became the template. And we&#8217;ve been working from it ever since.</p><p>For your body</p><p>The learned cost of love tends to live somewhere specific. For some people it&#8217;s the chest, a slight bracing against the possibility of disappointment. For others it&#8217;s the throat, the words that don&#8217;t quite make it out. For others still it&#8217;s the stomach, the low-grade readiness to perform.</p><p>Place one hand on the place where you feel it. Don&#8217;t try to explain it or release it. Just notice it with some warmth. That place in your body has been working very hard for a very long time. It deserves a moment of honest attention rather than another request to do better.</p><p>For your mind</p><p>Try this on paper, slowly: what did I learn that love required of me?</p><p>Not what you know intellectually about healthy relationships. What you learned, in your body and your early experience, that love cost. Effort, perhaps. Smallness. Performance. Cheerfulness. Not needing too much. Being useful. Getting it right.</p><p>You don&#8217;t have to answer it all at once. Write what arrives and leave the rest. The question is worth returning to over several days, not resolving in a single sitting.</p><p>For your emotions</p><p>The part of you that learned to earn love was not wrong. It was doing something extraordinarily intelligent in a situation it didn&#8217;t choose. It found a way to stay close to the people it needed. That deserves some genuine recognition before anything else.</p><p>What it might be worth asking, gently and without pressure, is whether the strategy is still necessary. The conditions that made it essential may no longer exist. The part that learned to earn love may not yet know that.</p><p>Next issue: boundaries &#8212; the word everyone uses and almost no one means.</p><p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p><p>If this landed somewhere useful:</p><p>Follow Between Sessions on Substack so you don&#8217;t miss the next one.</p><p>Not sure where you are right now?</p><p>The Self Check is a free self-assessment tool that maps eight areas of your inner life. It takes about ten minutes and tends to clarify things.</p><p>Try it here: <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/check-in-questionnaire/">Self Check</a></p><p>If you&#8217;d like to work together:</p><p>You can find out more about therapeutic coaching at <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-landing/">New Roots Coaching</a> or book a free discovery call to see if it&#8217;s a fit.</p><p>Book here:<a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-generic-discovery-call/">Discovery Call</a></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The part of you that keeps saying no]]></title><description><![CDATA[A newsletter for the in-between times]]></description><link>https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/the-part-of-you-that-keeps-saying</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/the-part-of-you-that-keeps-saying</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 08:31:16 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7mDy!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc763f65-4d5b-41fa-8710-102f43d6042f_1600x896.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7mDy!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc763f65-4d5b-41fa-8710-102f43d6042f_1600x896.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7mDy!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc763f65-4d5b-41fa-8710-102f43d6042f_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7mDy!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc763f65-4d5b-41fa-8710-102f43d6042f_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7mDy!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc763f65-4d5b-41fa-8710-102f43d6042f_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7mDy!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc763f65-4d5b-41fa-8710-102f43d6042f_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7mDy!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc763f65-4d5b-41fa-8710-102f43d6042f_1600x896.png" width="1456" height="815" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/dc763f65-4d5b-41fa-8710-102f43d6042f_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:815,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1065052,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/i/193552561?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc763f65-4d5b-41fa-8710-102f43d6042f_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7mDy!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc763f65-4d5b-41fa-8710-102f43d6042f_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7mDy!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc763f65-4d5b-41fa-8710-102f43d6042f_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7mDy!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc763f65-4d5b-41fa-8710-102f43d6042f_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7mDy!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc763f65-4d5b-41fa-8710-102f43d6042f_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p>You said yes. You meant it when you said it.</p><p>And then something in you quietly, persistently started pulling in the other direction. You feel resistance without a clear reason. Procrastination where there used to be motivation. A low-grade reluctance that you can&#8217;t quite explain, even to yourself.</p><p>This is not laziness. It is not self-sabotage, at least not in the way that phrase usually implies, as if some darker version of you is working against your interests. It is more likely a part of you that has concerns, that has learned something from experience, that is not yet convinced this plan is safe.</p><p>Parts of us don&#8217;t file objections in writing. They just go slow.</p><p>For your body</p><p>Resistance lives in the body before it reaches the mind. Notice where you feel it: a tightness across the chest, a heaviness in the limbs, a subtle bracing. This is not obstruction. It is information.</p><p>Place one hand on the area where you feel the resistance most. Don&#8217;t try to move it or release it. Just stay with it for a moment, with some curiosity rather than frustration. Often the body is holding something it hasn&#8217;t been invited to express yet. The act of noticing, with genuine interest rather than irritation, is frequently enough to begin to shift it.</p><p>For your mind</p><p>Ask a different question. Not why am I not doing this, which tends to produce self-criticism, but: what would I need to feel in order to move forward easily?</p><p>Safe, perhaps. Supported. Certain it won&#8217;t cost too much. These answers are worth taking seriously. They tell you what conditions your system needs, and sometimes those conditions are actually createable, if you&#8217;re willing to look at them rather than override them.</p><p>For your emotions</p><p>Behind most resistance there is a need that hasn&#8217;t been met, or a fear that hasn&#8217;t been acknowledged. It&#8217;s worth asking, quietly and without pressure: what is this part of me trying to protect?</p><p>It will have a positive intention, even if its methods are inconvenient. The part that keeps stalling before a difficult conversation is protecting you from conflict. The part that won&#8217;t commit to the new plan is protecting you from disappointment. When you can meet that intention with some understanding rather than frustration, the resistance often softens. Not because you&#8217;ve overcome it, but because it finally felt heard.</p><p>Next issue: what you learned about love, and what it costs you.</p><p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p><p>If this landed somewhere useful:</p><p>Follow Between Sessions on Substack so you don&#8217;t miss the next one.</p><p>Not sure where you are right now?</p><p>The Self Check is a free self-assessment tool that maps eight areas of your inner life. It takes about ten minutes and tends to clarify things.</p><p>Try it here: <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/check-in-questionnaire/">Self Check</a></p><p>If you&#8217;d like to work together:</p><p>You can find out more about therapeutic coaching at <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-landing/">New Roots Coaching</a> or book a free discovery call to see if it&#8217;s a fit.</p><p>Book here:<a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-generic-discovery-call/">Discovery Call</a></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[When your nervous system won’t switch off ]]></title><description><![CDATA[The In-Between Times &#8212; Issue 2]]></description><link>https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/when-your-nervous-system-wont-switch</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/when-your-nervous-system-wont-switch</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 19:45:26 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9_6K!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb368c000-554b-4ecb-b7a5-b7ba95df8f15_1600x896.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9_6K!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb368c000-554b-4ecb-b7a5-b7ba95df8f15_1600x896.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9_6K!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb368c000-554b-4ecb-b7a5-b7ba95df8f15_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9_6K!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb368c000-554b-4ecb-b7a5-b7ba95df8f15_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9_6K!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb368c000-554b-4ecb-b7a5-b7ba95df8f15_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9_6K!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb368c000-554b-4ecb-b7a5-b7ba95df8f15_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9_6K!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb368c000-554b-4ecb-b7a5-b7ba95df8f15_1600x896.png" width="1456" height="815" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/b368c000-554b-4ecb-b7a5-b7ba95df8f15_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:815,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1065052,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/i/192886659?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb368c000-554b-4ecb-b7a5-b7ba95df8f15_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9_6K!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb368c000-554b-4ecb-b7a5-b7ba95df8f15_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9_6K!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb368c000-554b-4ecb-b7a5-b7ba95df8f15_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9_6K!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb368c000-554b-4ecb-b7a5-b7ba95df8f15_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9_6K!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb368c000-554b-4ecb-b7a5-b7ba95df8f15_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p>A newsletter for the in-between times</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">The In-Between Times is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>You know the feeling. The day is over, the children are in bed, the emails are answered. By any reasonable measure, you can stop now.</p><p>Your body didn&#8217;t get the memo.</p><p>There&#8217;s a hum that won&#8217;t quiet, a low-grade readiness for the next thing, a jaw that stays slightly clenched even when nothing is wrong. You&#8217;re tired but wired. You lie down and your mind starts filing things.</p><p>This is not a character flaw. This is a nervous system doing its job with rather too much enthusiasm.</p><p>For your body</p><p>The nervous system speaks in sensation, so the most direct response is also a physical one. When you&#8217;re stuck in high alert, the body needs a signal that the threat has passed, not a command to relax, which it tends to ignore.</p><p>Try this: stand with your feet hip-width apart, let your arms hang loose, and slowly turn your head from side to side, letting your gaze travel with it. Take about ten seconds each way. This is an orienting response, the same movement your nervous system uses to scan the environment and declare it safe. You&#8217;re not tricking your body. You&#8217;re speaking its language.</p><p>For your mind</p><p>The mind on high alert generates urgency. Everything feels pressing: the thing you forgot to do, the conversation you need to have, the decision still waiting. This urgency is not information about the actual world. It is your nervous system borrowing your thoughts to justify staying switched on.</p><p>One practice: write down everything that feels urgent right now. Every last thing. Then close the notebook. The point is not to solve any of it but to tell your mind that these things are held, recorded, not forgotten. It can let go of them for now. The list will still be there in the morning, somewhat less catastrophic.</p><p>For your emotions</p><p>Underneath the hum, there is often an emotion that didn&#8217;t get its moment during the day. Irritation, sadness, low-level worry</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!UevE!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5445718f-b457-413f-a1d8-4cfc0646ab80_1600x896.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!UevE!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5445718f-b457-413f-a1d8-4cfc0646ab80_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!UevE!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5445718f-b457-413f-a1d8-4cfc0646ab80_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!UevE!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5445718f-b457-413f-a1d8-4cfc0646ab80_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!UevE!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5445718f-b457-413f-a1d8-4cfc0646ab80_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!UevE!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5445718f-b457-413f-a1d8-4cfc0646ab80_1600x896.png" width="1456" height="815" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/5445718f-b457-413f-a1d8-4cfc0646ab80_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:815,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1065052,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/i/192886659?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5445718f-b457-413f-a1d8-4cfc0646ab80_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!UevE!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5445718f-b457-413f-a1d8-4cfc0646ab80_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!UevE!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5445718f-b457-413f-a1d8-4cfc0646ab80_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!UevE!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5445718f-b457-413f-a1d8-4cfc0646ab80_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!UevE!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5445718f-b457-413f-a1d8-4cfc0646ab80_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>, feelings that arrived but had nowhere to land while life was happening around them.</p><p>Give it a minute now. Not to analyse or resolve it, just to acknowledge it. Sometimes that&#8217;s enough. The nervous system doesn&#8217;t need you to fix the feeling. It just needs to know you noticed.</p><p>Next issue: the part of you that keeps saying no.</p><p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p><p><strong>Ready to look a little closer?</strong></p><p><em>The Check-In</em> is a free tool that explores eight dimensions of your inner life. Ten minutes, and often something becomes clearer. &#8594; <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/check-in-questionnaire/">Take the Check-In</a></p><p><strong>Want to go further?</strong></p><p>You can explore therapeutic coaching at <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-landing/">New Roots</a>, or book a free discovery call to see if it&#8217;s the right fit for you right now. &#8594; <a href="https://therapeuticcoachingportal.com/new-roots-generic-discovery-call/">Book a call</a></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">The In-Between Times is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[When life pulls the rug]]></title><description><![CDATA[The In-Between Times &#8212; Issue 1]]></description><link>https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/when-life-pulls-the-rug</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/when-life-pulls-the-rug</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 25 Mar 2026 12:00:48 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yjju!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e06f6d1-d792-4e67-90f3-2aec2335e828_1600x896.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yjju!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e06f6d1-d792-4e67-90f3-2aec2335e828_1600x896.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yjju!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e06f6d1-d792-4e67-90f3-2aec2335e828_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yjju!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e06f6d1-d792-4e67-90f3-2aec2335e828_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yjju!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e06f6d1-d792-4e67-90f3-2aec2335e828_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yjju!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e06f6d1-d792-4e67-90f3-2aec2335e828_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yjju!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e06f6d1-d792-4e67-90f3-2aec2335e828_1600x896.png" width="1456" height="815" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yjju!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e06f6d1-d792-4e67-90f3-2aec2335e828_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yjju!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e06f6d1-d792-4e67-90f3-2aec2335e828_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yjju!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e06f6d1-d792-4e67-90f3-2aec2335e828_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yjju!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e06f6d1-d792-4e67-90f3-2aec2335e828_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://betweentimes.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><h3></h3><p>You didn&#8217;t necessarily see it coming. Or perhaps you did, and knowing it was coming didn&#8217;t make it any easier to land.</p><p>Either way, something has shifted. A relationship, a role, a place, a version of yourself you&#8217;d grown comfortable inhabiting. And now you&#8217;re in that strange suspended space &#8212; the old thing gone or going, the new thing not yet here.</p><p>This is a transition. And transitions are not problems to solve. They are passages to move through.</p><p>The difficulty is that we live in a culture with very little patience for passages. We want the before and the after. The in-between is just the bit to get through as quickly as possible. Which is, unfortunately, exactly the wrong approach &#8212; because the in-between is where the important work actually happens.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>For your body</strong></p><p>The body keeps score of transitions whether you ask it to or not. Disrupted sleep, a low hum of tension, appetite that&#8217;s gone quiet or become insistent &#8212; these are not signs that something is wrong with you. They are signs that your nervous system is working hard to recalibrate.</p><p>One thing that helps: rhythm. Not a rigid routine, just small anchors of predictability in the day. The same cup of tea at the same time. A short walk before anything else demands your attention. The body finds its footing again through repetition, not willpower.</p><p><strong>For your mind</strong></p><p>The mind in transition tends toward two unhelpful habits: replaying the past to find the moment things went wrong, and projecting into a future it&#8217;s trying to control before it arrives.</p><p>Neither is useful. Both are understandable.</p><p>A simple redirect: when you notice the mind doing either, ask it one question. <em>What do I actually know to be true right now, today?</em> Not tomorrow. Not six months ago. Today. It&#8217;s a smaller question than the ones your mind is busy with, and that&#8217;s precisely the point.</p><p><strong>For your emotions</strong></p><p>Transitions carry grief, even when they&#8217;re chosen. Even when they&#8217;re welcome. You are leaving something behind &#8212; a self, a story, a set of assumptions about how life was going to go. That deserves acknowledgement.</p><p>You don&#8217;t have to name it precisely or understand it fully. You just have to let it be there without rushing it toward resolution. Grief that gets hurried tends to resurface later, with interest.</p><p>Give it a little room. It won&#8217;t stay forever.</p><div><hr></div><p><em>Next issue: when your nervous system won&#8217;t switch off.</em></p><p><em>If this landed, forward it to someone who&#8217;s in the middle of something.</em></p><div><hr></div><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading The In-Between Times! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Welcome to The In-Between Times]]></title><description><![CDATA[There&#8217;s a particular kind of difficulty that doesn&#8217;t have a clean name.]]></description><link>https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-in-between-times</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://betweentimes.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-in-between-times</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Janine Gratrix]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 25 Mar 2026 11:55:49 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!D-Ie!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff617c79e-ce45-497a-a06a-7c798354d74d_1600x896.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!D-Ie!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff617c79e-ce45-497a-a06a-7c798354d74d_1600x896.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!D-Ie!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff617c79e-ce45-497a-a06a-7c798354d74d_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!D-Ie!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff617c79e-ce45-497a-a06a-7c798354d74d_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!D-Ie!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff617c79e-ce45-497a-a06a-7c798354d74d_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!D-Ie!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff617c79e-ce45-497a-a06a-7c798354d74d_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!D-Ie!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff617c79e-ce45-497a-a06a-7c798354d74d_1600x896.png" width="1456" height="815" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/f617c79e-ce45-497a-a06a-7c798354d74d_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:815,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1065052,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/i/192075210?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff617c79e-ce45-497a-a06a-7c798354d74d_1600x896.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!D-Ie!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff617c79e-ce45-497a-a06a-7c798354d74d_1600x896.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!D-Ie!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff617c79e-ce45-497a-a06a-7c798354d74d_1600x896.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!D-Ie!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff617c79e-ce45-497a-a06a-7c798354d74d_1600x896.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!D-Ie!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff617c79e-ce45-497a-a06a-7c798354d74d_1600x896.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://betweentimes.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><h2>There&#8217;s a particular kind of difficulty that doesn&#8217;t have a clean name.</h2><p>Not a crisis, exactly. Not depression, not burnout &#8212; though it can borrow from both. More like a quiet dislocation. The life you built no longer fits quite right. The person you were doesn&#8217;t feel entirely accurate. And the next version of yourself hasn&#8217;t shown up yet.</p><p>That space has a name here: the in-between.</p><p><em>The In-Between Times</em> is a letter for people navigating exactly that. Each issue takes one theme &#8212; a feeling, a pattern, a moment of stuckness &#8212; and approaches it from three directions: something for your body, something for your mind, something for your emotions.</p><p>No programmes. No transformation promises. Just honest, grounded tools for the stretch between who you were and who you&#8217;re becoming.</p><p>If that sounds like where you are, you&#8217;re in the right place.</p><p><em>&#8212; Janine Gratrix, Therapeutic Coach</em></p><div><hr></div><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://betweentimes.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading The In-Between Times! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>