A coffee with...Gabrielle Treanor

This month sees the start of a brand new series for me - in which I’ll be having a virtual coffee with some genuinely fabulous folk. Some of whom I’ve known and followed for years and some I’ve recently got to know through this cosy, new Substack home.

In either case they are people who I find admirable, inspirational or entertaining (and sometimes all three) and I’m sure that you will too.

It seems really fitting that Gabrielle Treanor of The Haven Substack should be my first guest.

I’ve followed Gabrielle for many years on Instagram - where she has a lovely account and indeed it was one of her posts that introduced me to Substack in the first place.

When I saw that she was using this platform for her blog and to host some genuinely supportive and uplifiting conversations I couldn’t wait to join in and find out more. Gabrielle always manages to frame things in such a way that it adds a new perspective or layer of insight, and I never fail to find something in her words to make me ponder or reach for my journal.

So without any more preamble, I’ll hand over to Gabrielle and let you see what I mean.

1. It’s no secret that coffee is my favourite drink – what’s your favourite cosy beverage and why?

All year round it’s tea, decaf with milk, no sugar. I switched to decaf years ago after a couple of incidents of waking in the night thinking I was having a heart attack after drinking caffeine a few hours earlier. On weekdays I may have a caffeinated tea first thing and I do notice that it makes me feel a bit jittery but sometimes I need the jumpstart! 

As a child hot chocolate was a treat so in the colder months making myself a mug still feels like an indulgence.

2. You have a spare half an hour in your day – how do you relax and ‘fill your cup’?

Hmm, it varies depending on what’s emptied my cup and what I feel in need of. It usually involves time on my own, as an introvert that’s the key way to recharge my battery. So that could look like lying down on my bed in silence for half an hour, going for a walk across the fields, or reading a book or magazine. If I want to energise my cup I might put on a playlist of cheesy pop tunes and dance around the room!

3. Analogue or digital – when it comes to planners, diaries and journaling in general are you paper/pen or online?

Both and several of them! Often it’s whatever I have to hand if inspiration strikes me. I may type into the Notes app on my phone and then transcribe that to my Commonplace Book, or the Evernote app on my computer, depending on what it is. I have a journal specifically for the act of journalling and I like keeping that sacred for my thoughts. I have a separate gratitude journal in which I write three things I appreciate about the day every night before bed, I’ve done this for many years now so it’s as ingrained a habit as brushing my teeth. I’m a stationery fan (so much so I ran my own stationery business for several years) and I love collecting notebooks and planners. I have a habit of starting a planner or diary and losing steam witht it, I’ve yet to find the ideal-for-me planner that I stick to for a whole year. My writing is a scrawl so I’m also on a constant hunt for a pen that helps me to write more legibly, I use a fountain pen to journal with and that slows me down which seems to help.

4. What are you currently reading?

I’m reading journal articles for my MSc all the time but for fun I’m currently reading Sue Perkins’ memoir, Spectacles. Her writing is so funny I laugh out loud at almost every page which is tricky when my husband is falling asleep next to me in bed or I’m on public transport!

5. What piece of advice would you give to your younger self?

Oof, that’s a biggie. I’d tell her that who she is, just as she is in that moment, is absolutely enough, without doing anything more or different or better. That she doesn’t have to try to be someone she isn’t, she doesn’t have to be like anyone else, there’s nothing wrong with her that needs fixing, she has nothing to prove. I know she’d find it hard to believe but I’d tell her that future her learns how true this is so it’s okay if she doesn’t fully get it now, she will. I think what I’d do is as important as what I’d say. So I’d hug her, with all the unconditional love and acceptance I can possibly transmit in a hug.

6. What are you most excited about for the next 3 months (this is your cue for a bit of self promo)?

Well, in the next few weeks a long-held dream is coming true – my book is being published. The 1% Wellness Experiment has gone from an idea in my head to words typed on a screen to printed into a book and it is exactly as I wanted and hoped it would be. I’ve filled the book with ideas and tools to boost your mental and emotional wellbeing that take just ten minutes or 1% of your waking day, and which you can experiment with so that they work in your unique life. Making taking care of your wellbeing doable is essential in my opinion, or else it simply doesn’t happen. And, just as importantly, knowing that you don’t have to do it one specific way or else it’s wrong, and instead having the freedom to take tools and tweak them to work for you, is vital. Too often we’re told we have to do things a certain way, follow five steps for a perfect life, and when we inevitably don’t manage to do that because we’re each a unique individual with our own challenges and needs, we feel like we’ve failed. That’s so disempowering. YOU are the expert in your life so I give you lots of ideas and tools and suggestions for you to decide what you want to take on board and try for yourself. It took a little over a year from pitching the book to the publisher to publication but it has many years of my learning and experience poured into it.

The 1% Wellness Experiment is published on 21 December but you can pre-order it now so that it arrives on the day. Some folk have told me they’ve ordered it as a Christmas present for themselves (as well as for others) which I love. Pre-orders help a book to be found after publication so they’re incredibly important to authors. You can pre-order from your local bookshop or online at all the usual places (there’s a list of worldwide stockists at gabrielletreanor.com/book) and as a thank you I’m offering bonuses for everyone who pre-orders which you can find at gabrielletreanor.com/book

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