Anna Barwick Coaching

🐾 Conrad and Betsy’s Big Strides for Little Legs — Dachshund Walk 2026 🐾

Hello, sausage friends! 🌭

Our little duo, Conrad and Betsy, are lacing up their (very tiny) walking boots and heading out on a very special 2-mile walk around Upton Country Park on Saturday 6th June at 11am, and they would absolutely love some fellow dachshunds to join them!

The walk is in support of the wonderful DMT Dachshund Rescue and Support Group (Registered Charity SC051269), and forms part of a series of sponsored walks taking place across the country on the same day, so we’ll be waddling in solidarity with sausages nationwide! 🇬🇧

For those who don’t know Conrad’s story, he’s a brave little IVDD warrior who also lives with Cushing’s disease, so 2 miles is his perfect distance. Just enough to feel the adventure without overdoing it! He and Betsy would love nothing more than to be surrounded by their fellow long, low friends for this one.

📍 Upton Country Park, Poole Road, Upton, Poole, BH17 7BJ
🕚 Meet at 11am in the car park by the shelter
☕ Coffee and tea in the café afterwards for the humans (and biscuits, hopefully, for the dogs!)

Scan the QR code in the poster below to find out more, and do share this with any sausage lovers in your lives. The more the merrier!
We hope to see you and your wiggly little ones there 🐾💛

Anna, Conrad and Betsy 🌼

Wishing you the happiest Easter Sunday! 🐣

Whether you’re surrounded by loved ones today or simply enjoying a quiet moment to yourself, I hope it’s filled with warmth, rest, and plenty of chocolate.
Easter always feels like a gentle nudge to slow down, look around, and appreciate what’s good and after a busy start to the year, a long weekend to do exactly that is very welcome.

Sending warm wishes to you and yours. 💛

“In any given moment, we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.” Abraham Maslow

Safety is comfortable. Familiar. And when life is already full and demanding, choosing it can feel completely reasonable. But there is a difference between rest and staying stuck. And many of the women I speak to already know, somewhere deep down, that the life they are living is not quite the one they want.

Coaching does not push you into anything. It helps you understand what is holding you back, reconnects you with what genuinely matters to you, and helps you take steps forward that feel grounded and true to who you are.

Growth does not have to be dramatic. Sometimes it is simply a quiet shift in how you see yourself and what you believe is possible.
If you have been standing at that crossroads for a while, feel free to get in touch. The link to book is in my bio.

When life gets busy and overwhelming, joy can quietly slip off your radar. But here’s what positive psychology teaches us: joy doesn’t have to be earned through big moments or dramatic change. It can be woven back in through the smallest of actions.

Here are 3 micro-habits that can genuinely shift how you feel day to day:
1. Notice one good thing before you pick up your phone in the morning. It doesn’t have to be profound. The light through the curtains, your warm duvet, the sound of birdsong. Training your brain to scan for the good first thing rewires your focus over time.
2. Do one thing each day purely for pleasure. Not productivity. Not ticking a box. Just because it brings you joy. A walk, a good book, a cup of tea in the garden. These small acts of intentional pleasure matter far more than we give them credit for.
3. End your day with three specific things you appreciated. Not just “I’m grateful for my family” - get specific. The more detail you add, the more deeply your brain encodes the positive experience.

Micro-habits work because they’re sustainable. You don’t need a complete life overhaul, you just need a few gentle anchors to bring you back to what feels good.
Which of these could you start today? I’d love to know in the comments. 💛

Positive psychology has a lot to say about nature, and it is well worth paying attention to.

The PERMAH model identifies six pillars of a flourishing life: Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Achievement, and Health. Nature supports every single one of them, often without us making any conscious effort at all.

Time outdoors lifts mood, restores mental energy, deepens connection, offers perspective and meaning, and delivers measurable physical health benefits including lower cortisol, better sleep, and improved immune function. The concept of biophilia tells us this is no accident. Humans evolved embedded in the natural world, and our nervous systems still respond to it at a deep biological level.

Reconnecting with nature is not an indulgence. According to positive psychology, it is one of the most evidence-backed routes to genuine flourishing that we have.

If you have been feeling depleted or disconnected, stepping outside might be exactly where to start.

I have a small number of spots available for free coaching sessions on Zoom, and I would love to hear from you if you have been thinking about getting some support but haven’t yet taken the step.

As part of my coaching recertification, I need to record a small number of sessions which will be reviewed only by my assessor and kept in the strictest confidence. In return, you receive a completely free coaching session with me.

The only thing I ask is that you come with a topic you would like to be coached on. It doesn’t need to be anything huge, it could be something you’ve been going around in circles with, a decision you’ve been putting off, or something you’d simply like more clarity on.

If this sounds like it could be for you, send me a message and we can have a quick chat to find out more. I’d love to help. 💛

Self-compassion is not soft. It is not self-indulgent. And it is definitely not an excuse to stop trying.

The research actually shows that people who are kinder to themselves are more resilient, more willing to try again after failure, and better able to sustain their performance over the long term. Self-compassion does not lower the bar. It keeps you capable of reaching it.

Positive psychologist Kristin Neff describes self-compassion as treating yourself with the same kindness and understanding you would offer a good friend who was struggling. And for many high-achieving women, that simple reframe is genuinely revolutionary, because the way we speak to ourselves in moments of difficulty is often something we would never dream of saying to someone we care about.

For women who run on self-criticism, this can feel counterintuitive. That inner voice that holds you to impossibly high standards can feel like the thing that keeps you sharp and driven. But chronic self-criticism activates the same threat response in the body as external danger. It keeps cortisol elevated, depletes emotional resources, and over time contributes to the very burnout and anxiety it was trying to prevent.

Self-compassion, by contrast, calms the nervous system and creates the kind of felt safety that allows us to think clearly, take risks, and bounce back quickly from setbacks. It is not a consolation prize for underperformers. It is a strategy for people who want to sustain their success without paying for it with their health. Being kinder to yourself is not a weakness. The science is very clear on that.