To ask what your best investment in yourself has been?

Learning to drive. It's so freeing!

Being single and living alone.

To improve my time usage - lens replacement surgery- I had so many different pairs of glasses as my brain can’t do varifocals or bifocals . was wasting so much time looking for the right glasses.
Volunteering in my skill set in Thailand making a real difference in several ways - reminded me I am very good at what I do. This is something I plan to make a regular gift to myself the ability to make a significant difference in the world. I will mix it up Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It was a one health project.

Therapy (marriage and solo)

Peloton treadmill at home

Getting my awful gappy teeth fixed (crowns)

Teeth flossing. Seeing the daily trapped gunk come out each night makes me see why I had a bunch of root canals before I started this.

Use counsellingdirectory.co.uk and input your postcode to find a therapist close to you so you don’t have to do online

forcing myself to take up hobbies that get me out the house (work from home). Getting dogs so again I get out every day and get my vitamin D and steps in.

Botox and Aesplla (I can’t have fillers so Aesplla is polylactic acid injected under the skin, has taken years off me)

My Australian visa and passport.

Another one for weight loss injections and therapy. Found a therapist by googling what kind if therapy I might want, then finding a group practice near me that offered it, then had an assessment session and clicked with that therapist. I now look back on decisions I made in the first 40 years of my life and think they were made effectively with blinkers on, especially the two men I married and the jobs I chose. Maybe that's youth,and I don't regret some of those decisions, but at least now I understand some fundamental things about how I tick.

Losing 2.5 stone has been absolutely great and I have normal blood pressure.

Botox.

I was honestly one of those women who swore they would grow old gracefully without any tweakments. Then I caught myself in the mirror a few times looking really angry and a bit haggard because of my 11s and forehead lines, so after much deliberation, I had botox at 40.

It's made me look so fresh. Not younger, but fresh.

Now if I ever had to choose between botox and eating, I'd happily starve!

Going to vocational school in 2023/2024 (investment in time rather than money as it was free) and retraining in a new career. Now have a job I love.

Also, schema therapy about ten years ago when I was suffering with depression and anxiety, really helped and turned things around for me.

I went on life changing psilocybin retreats in the Netherlands, some in a group and 121, they have been truly transformative.

I have been able to connect with my feelings in ways that I just couldn't in therapy. I'm a better parent, partner, friend, colleague and I am so much nicer to myself. I can say that now I love myself and I love the parts of me that I disliked before.

I am so thankful that I was able to go and couldn't have done it without the mushrooms and therapist(s)/facilitators.

I stopped buying throwaway fashion in favour of high-quality pieces that fit better, that I actually wear

@PluckyCheeks no not thyroid but severe vitamin deficiencies due to malabsorption - my IBS was diagnosed as IBD I’ve been gluten free for years but now lactose intolerant and trying FODMAP to see what else affects me
NHS have now agreed that I have long covid but private think it’s more auto immune and a rarer form of connective tissue disorder

Counselling, private full medical, sessions with a functional practitioner.

Part time work! Work life balance is so important!

Looking after my teeth. Private dentistry.

Another one for psychotherapy. Needs to be a clinical psychologist not counsellor. Both have their own positives but clinical psychologist have years of extensive training, a PhD, usually a specialism and a clinical evidence based extensive and in depth understanding of human behaviour/neuropsychology etc

Neither, an autoimmune disease, although I am now under investigation for a thyroid issue as well.

My education - incurring my student loan to pay for uni, and then post grad qualifications. (And then being able to pay it back with the career I got as a result).

My degrees.

Wow that is mega interesting. I find standing really hurts my hips but if I started doing it more maybe it would help - did you find it uncomfortable to begin with?

Weightloss surgery, here in the UK, not cheap but worth every penny as I got rid of health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and improved my mobility and quality of life .

Pair of Doc Martens. Empowering. I can do anything in my Docs. Have given instructions I'm to be buried in them. Not dying btw, just making sure my children are clear.

“She IS a little girl” I meant!

£400 back in 2006 on a private on the day amniocentesis in Harley Street done by the doctor who invented the procedure. He strode in holding a huge needle which he plunged into my womb announcing that all the miscarriage risks are down to doctor error, but that it wouldn’t happen there.

I was pregnant at 42 with my second child and had a very stressful full-time job, and I just needed to know it would be safe with quick results. I’ll never forget the phone call three days later to say it was all ok and in a strong Greek accent that “she was a little girl”. My heart melted.

Private HRT specialist. Amazing, changed my life after two years of being fobbed off.