The summer holidays aren’t a break for you…but you still matter

Summer brings longer days, school holidays, and, for many women, a silent pressure to carry even more. While the world paints it as a season of rest and ease, your reality might look very different: juggling work, childcare, logistics, and the emotional weight of keeping everything afloat. Mine certainly does.

There’s little space for stillness. And even less for you.

I work with women who are often the glue in other people’s lives. Women who quietly manage the invisible load: the meal plans, the playdates, the emails, the emotional support, the everything. And when the school holidays hit, that load doesn’t lessen. It grows.

So if fitness and self-care feel impossible right now, I want you to know: you’re not failing. You’re full.

But I also want you to remember that you matter too.

Why self-care feels like another task (but isn’t)

When you’re already stretched thin, even the word self-care can feel like a demand. One more thing to add to your list. One more thing you’re not doing well enough or often enough.

But I invite you to see it differently. Not as a luxury or indulgence, but as a quiet reclaiming of self in a season where your identity risks being swallowed by duty.

You don’t need a perfectly curated morning routine or an hour at the gym. You need permission to take five deep breaths without being interrupted. You need five minutes of movement to remember that you exist in a body…and that body is worthy of care.

Movement as a form of self-respect

At Mettle & Grace, I don’t push transformation. I don’t glorify exhaustion. I honour the small, steady acts of strength that often go unseen.

Movement, to me, isn’t about chasing a version of yourself you don’t recognise. It’s about returning to the one who’s already here. The one who shows up, every day, even when no one sees how hard that is.

In the thick of summer chaos, movement can become your tether. Not a task, but a homecoming.

Tiny acts of resistance (and worth)

You don’t need a plan. You don’t need a programme. You need something that fits into your life, not something that competes with it.

Start here:

• Five minutes of stretching while the kettle boils

• A short, breath-led flow before bed

• Dancing in the kitchen to one song that makes you feel alive

These are not small - they are bold. Each are acts of resistance in a culture that rewards your silence and your self-sacrifice.

You deserve to take up space — even now

There’s a story many women carry that says: “I’ll come back to myself when things quiet down.” But the truth is, things rarely do. There will always be something, someone, some reason to wait.

So here’s my invitation: don’t wait. Choose you now: in the noise, in the mess, in the middle of the madness. Your worth is not seasonal. Your needs are not an afterthought. You are not a machine.

You are a woman with mettle. And you deserve grace.

If this season feels too full to leave the house, but you still want to move, I offer in-home sessions designed for this exact moment in life. No performance. No pressure. Just you, as you are.

Rain or shine: on daughters, dance, and the spaces we keep safe

It’s been a hectic few weeks: full of milestones and mascara, dresses and disbelief. Lucy’s finally finished school, A levels are now a distant memory, and we’ve had prom and the school leavers’ ceremony… all of it arriving faster than I expected. There’s been pride, of course, but also a quiet ache. A sense that something is shifting.

Because it is.

We wait. Not just for results, but for the subtle unravelling of childhood and the quiet shaping of what comes next.

A season of change

I’ve watched her work steadily for 14 year. Never noisily, never looking for applause, just showing up day after day with grit and grace. That quiet determination is something I deeply admire. It’s something I recognise too. In her, I see the same fire that has carried me through the seasons of my own life.

As I find myself looking outward - towards the world, towards places she’s yet to explore - I’m reminded that our journeys can stretch far and wide, but the spaces we hold for one another remain. However far we go, however grown our children become, it matters that they know; you always have a place to return to.

That’s what I hope Mettle & Grace offers women too. A space that says: come as you are, start where you are, this is yours.

Moving together, come rain or shine

Also this weekend, Kenilworth Carnival returns. Rain or shine, it draws us out. Families lining pavements, children dancing in sequins and face paint, generations waving from floats. It’s an event that has always meant something to me. Not because it’s grand, but because it brings people together. I’ve walked and danced in it as an adult, alongside Lucy and her dance school, year after year. It’s stitched into our story.

It reminds me that movement isn’t always a solo act. Sometimes it’s shared. Sometimes it’s joyful. Sometimes, it’s simply a way to keep going—one foot in front of the other, even when the skies are grey. And in that, movement becomes more than physical - it becomes a quiet resilience. A return to self. A reminder that strength doesn’t always roar; sometimes it simply continues.

To all the mothers watching their daughters take flight, and all the daughters carrying a little of their mothers with them - I see you.

And whether you’re moving forward or circling back, know this: Mettle & Grace is here. A place to come home to, rain or shine.