Kiera Lawlor-Skillen - Feel Good Club: A guide to feeling good and being okay with it when youre not

Contents

William Collins

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This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2022

Copyright Aimie Lawlor-Skillen and Kiera Lawlor-Skillen 2022

Aimie Lawlor-Skillen and Kiera Lawlor-Skillen assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Information on previously published material appears here.

This book has been written by the authors based on their own experiences and knowledge, the advice in it should be used to complement, and not replace, medical advice. If you are suffering from any mental health issues always seek professional medical advice.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins

Source ISBN: 9780008546526

Ebook Edition August 2022 ISBN: 9780008546533

Version: 2022-07-01

To our parents,
without whose love, support and acceptance,
we wouldnt be on this journey.

Dear Human,

Welcome to Feel Good Club: A Guide to Feeling Good and Being Okay With It When Youre Not.

Were not claiming that this book will fix everything. In fact, were actually not claiming itll fix anything at all, but something brought you here and were glad that it did.

We want you to know that however youre feeling right now is valid between these pages. This book is a safe space to feel your feelings, be inspired, laugh, cry, and remind yourself that although not every day will be a good day, you still have so many good days to look forward to.

This book is about reminding you that you are only human and humans have good days and bad days.

People forget to text back and they make mistakes but, most of all, at some point in life, everyone needs a little help along the way and we need to normalise talking about that.

If you follow us on Instagram, youll be familiar with our reminders. We write and post them each day, based on how were feeling. Sometimes its things we need to hear ourselves, and at other times its something weve learnt in the past.

This book will dive deeper into the meanings and experiences behind these posts, with the focus constantly on our general mental health.

What we really hope is that, in some way, our words will make you feel less alone with how you feel.

We dont have all the answers. Were a work in progress too because, guess what nobody ever really has it all figured out.

Each chapter is dedicated to a particular area, or feeling, that we have struggled with ourselves, and each follows the same format to help you with easy navigation. There is a Menu at the start showing the topics covered; Dear Human sections addressing the reader directly about the problems at hand; Feel Good Tips offering practical exercises to help you along the way; and finally, some Takeaways, summarising the main points of each chapter.

The book is designed to be kept with you in your bag, or in your pocket, so you can flick through to a relevant page or quote wherever you are, whenever you need it.

Thank you for letting us be part of your journey and thank you for being part of ours.

Love,

Aimie and Kiera

Wow! Were actually here, writing our own book, and youre here reading it.

If someone had told us seven years ago when Kiera was recovering from an eating disorder, and trying desperately to start a business to keep herself busy while Aimie was at work that wed be here now writing this book and running this business, wed have told them to p*ss off.

And if someone had told us that all we needed to do was to actually start believing in ourselves, wed have probably told them to f*ck off instead.

But thats what happened as soon as we stopped worrying about what could go wrong, focused on what could go right, and believed that wed figure it out along the way, things started to happen for us.

In under two years wed secured investment to open our first Feel Good space (mid-pandemic, might we add!), launched our merchandise line, and now reach over 300,000 people every single day with our positive messages.

But contrary to what the world of social media tells us, things dont just happen overnight. Okay, maybe some things do like the afternoon before we went into the second lockdown when we posted 5 Things you should hear as we go into the Second Lockdown on our Instagram page, while making avocado toast in our coffee shop ourselves, because we couldnt afford any chefs. Then we received hundreds of messages and notifications, and saw that our Instagram page had grown by 100,000 followers in twenty-four hours! But the truth is that most things do not happen overnight.

When we reflect on Feel Good Club, we realise now that so much of our lives led to this moment: the heartaches, the failed ideas, the Monday mornings stuck in traffic wondering whether we were actually cut out to do that for the next fifty years, and especially our own struggles with mental health all these things played a part in us giving birth to this business.

The contribution of all those things, and because its our baby, is why its so personal to us. Those things are also the reason that starting Feel Good Club was never about creating the most financially successful business in the world, but about being the voice we needed to hear when we were struggling most.

We Aimie and Kiera are the wives behind Feel Good Club. We met at university in 2009, and were constantly doing something: starting businesses, putting on club nights, or organising (the best) house parties Stafford had ever seen. Aimie was the organiser and Kiera was the musician working towards a record deal that she later turned down, to prioritise her mental health.

Neither of us were at uni for very long before we realised that we definitely werent there for the lectures. But looking back, we now understand that what we learnt there taught us so much about what we needed in our journey to starting Feel Good Club. Nope, it wasnt business we didnt study anything like that but the freedom to create and find ourselves, as well as the people we met, who later became good friends, all gave us the tools and passion we needed.

After a whirlwind first year together, we decided to take a break in our relationship. It was around this time that an eating disorder really started to take hold of Kiera. It spiralled out of control and the pounds began to drop off her. Shed always been the fixer in our various ventures the one who was always okay, the one people went to when they needed help. So, she felt she couldnt possibly be the one to ask for it. Its only now that we both realise how much support she would have had if only shed allowed herself to open up.