“As self-isolation expands, domestic violence victims at heightened risk,” says Australian survivor and domestic violence speaker Jas Rawlinson.

‘Covid-19.’ ‘Social distancing.’ ‘Self-isolation…’

These are the words that have taken over our vocabulary in just a matter of weeks.

In some ways, it’s hard to pinpoint just what it is about the coronavirus that is most frightening. Is it the physical effects we most fear? Or is it the fact that it’s a silent, invisible epidemic; something that has the potential to kill us before we even realise what it is?

Regardless, it’s evident that many Australians have slipped into mass panic (the toilet paper…

Newsflash — it doesn’t matter how talented you are, you won’t write your book until you do this one thing.

“Wow, you’re writing a book? You must be super talented!”

Sidling up to a set of kettlebells, I look over at the gym junkie beside me — a woman whose face is alight with a newfound sense of ‘awe’ as she takes in what it is I do for work.

“I don’t think I could ever write a book, I don’t think I’d be good enough,” she quips, slipping on a pair of boxing gloves and patting in place the velcro strips.

Although I smile politely at her comment, inwardly, I feel a little sad as she says this. You see, the ‘talent’ reference is something I tend to…

‘It’s the stigma from the inside that hurts most, and we need to start talking about it’ — Jas Rawlinson, Best-Selling Author of ‘Reasons to Live: One More Day, Every Day.’

Stigma.

It’s such a small word, and yet one that creates an unimaginably powerful ripple-effect.

When it comes to mental health, most of us know that stigma remains one of the largest contributors to untold suffering, heartache, distress, and pain for millions around the world.

As someone with a lived experience of depression, anxiety, and PTSD, I know this too well. Even today, I am still shocked by the level…

“When stress literally makes you sick” — Childhood abuse & the body’s response

‘Every child deserves a safe and happy home.’

As a 10-year-old girl, those 8 words haunted me. Every day I was confronted by them, as they stared tauntingly from the colourful sticker pressed to the brick wall behind my childhood bed.

Those 8 words were a constant reminder of the nightmare I lived every day. As I sat by the wall, tracing my fingers across that sticker, the depression nestled deeper into the pit of my stomach.

For so many years, my childhood and teenage years were spent in fear. Anxiety and stress were my best friends, and walking on eggshells was my art. I never knew what…

“When you’ve been conditioned to believe you’ll never achieve anything, stepping up can feel terrifying.”

As someone who lives with anxiety, and is also a survivor of family violence and sexual assault, I guess you could say that stepping out of my comfort zone doesn’t come naturally.

Fear of failure… Years of being told by my dad that I was stupid and should ‘be sent away to live in a girl’s home…’ Those things tend to stick with you…

Yet, even in those lonely, terrifying early years where I spent every day in fear of my dad’s emotional and mental abuse, there was a little voice stirring within my soul, urging me to dream bigger.

‘One day, you’ll use all this pain to help someone else,’ it said. ‘One day, you’ll make sure other people don’t have to feel so alone and hopeless.’

Sitting on my bed…