Helen Burgess Newsletter Feed

The Cost of Being “The Strong One"

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 16:55:00 +0000

The Cost of Being “The Strong One”

When continuing to function stopped being proof that I was okay

Two days before a two-week break I desperately needed, I was told that the Diploma of Web Development couldn't continue in the way we had been running it. There weren't enou…

Women Veterans in Australia: The Invisible Service

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 17:45:00 +0000

Rain swept across Kings Park more than once during the Commemoration of Women in the Armed Forces of Australia.

It came and went as the service continued. Around the State War Memorial stood banners representing every branch of service - visible reminders that women belong to the history o…

Mid-Year Reset

Sun, 19 Jul 2026 16:08:00 +0000

July does not arrive with the clean confidence of January.

January has a shine to it. New pages. Fresh intentions. That slightly dangerous belief that if I just choose the right system, the right word, the right set of goals, the year will behave itself.

By July, the year has usuall…

Resilience Is a Practice

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 01:00:00 +0000

I recently completed the Veterans Resilience Mentor Program and became an accredited Resilience Shield Mentor. That sentence still feels slightly strange to write—not because I doubt the achievement, but because of where the journey started.

Before stepping into that mentoring role, I also…

The Code Was the Container

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 01:00:00 +0000

There are evenings when I sit down at my computer carrying more noise than I realise.

Not external noise. Internal noise.

The kind that comes from an unsettled nervous system, unfinished thoughts, old memories that have resurfaced, or simply one of those days where everything feels …

The Table I Know I’ll Be At

Mon, 25 May 2026 01:00:00 +0000

There’s a table I go back to every week.

Mostly the same faces. The same corner of the same café. The same low hum of conversation that doesn’t go anywhere in particular.

Someone asks how the dog is. Someone complains about parking. Someone mentions what their child or grandchild ha…

The Inner Dialogue of Trauma

Mon, 11 May 2026 03:02:00 +0000

I remember the exact shape of the feeling.

A good review. Genuine words from people I respected - words that said I was doing the work well, that I was valued, that I was on the right track. And then: the promotion that went somewhere else.

What followed wasn't disappointment, exact…

The Rules Were Written Down: AuDHD, Structure, Service, and What Came After

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 01:00:00 +0000

This is the second in a series of reflections on AuDHD, identity, and lived experience through service and beyond. The first piece is What I Finally Have Words For.

There's a particular cruelty in being harmed by the thing that first made you…

What I Finally Have Words For: Understanding Myself Through an AuDHD Lens

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 11:25:00 +0000

There's a particular feeling that comes when something you've carried for decades is finally given a name.

It's not relief exactly. It's not grief, though there's some of that too. It's more like standing in a room you've lived in your whole life and suddenly noticing — for the first time …

Piece by Piece: Building Something That Holds My Attention

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 10:49:00 +0000

There's a particular kind of quiet that settles in when I sit down at the table with a ROKR model kit.

The pieces are laid out in front of me — thin wooden sheets, small components waiting to be pressed free. The instructions sit open beside me, not demanding, just present. There's no urge…

365 Days of Turning Inward — Daily Journal Prompts

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 01:00:00 +0000

A rolling resource for anyone who wants to think more clearly, feel more honestly, and live more intentionally — one prompt at a time.

I've never been someone who journals neatly. My pages don't look like a wellness in…

Holding My Shape in a Shared Space

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 10:30:00 +0000

The tablecloth was pressed and white. Someone was making a toast. I was smiling in the right places — and somewhere underneath all of it, quietly calculating.

That pattern has followed me for years.

Not obvious from the outside. I can hold a conversation. I can participate. I can ap…

The Quiet After Usefulness

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 12:09:00 +0000

There's a specific kind of quiet that settles in when no one needs you urgently. It's not peaceful. Not at first. It sits in your chest like a question you can't articulate, a low hum of unease that follows you from room to room.

I notice it most on Sunday afternoons. The inbox is answered…

Containment vs Motivation: Regulate Your Nervous System

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 10:32:00 +0000

Why Motivation Falls Short

There was a morning last year when I sat at my desk with a mug of coffee going cold and a list of things I'd written the night before—reasonable things, small things, things I genuinely wanted to do. I stared at that list for twenty minutes. My body felt heavy.…

Knitting as Cognitive Anchor

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 09:56:00 +0000

My hands know the rhythm before my mind catches up.

Yarn over, pull through, slide off. Repeat.

The motion is automatic now—muscle memory built through thousands of stitches, hundreds of hours of repetition. Yet it wasn’t always.

When I first learned to knit, every stitch req…

Permission to Stop: The Quiet Relief of Letting Go

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from carrying things you never agreed to hold.

Permission to stop isn’t about quitting. It’s about noticing what you never chose—and setting it down long enough to see what returns when you do.

Not the weight of genuine responsibili…

Closing the Year Gently: A 2025 Reflection

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I'm not ending this year with a list of achievements, milestones, or bold declarations for what comes next.

This final post is quieter than that.

2025 asked me to slow down, pay attention, and tell the truth—especially to myself. It was a year of recalibration, not reinvention. Of n…

A Quiet Christmas

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I hope today finds you gently—whatever shape your day is taking.

Christmas can hold so many things at once: warmth and weariness, connection and solitude, joy and grief. Sometimes all of them in the same afternoon.

If your day is full and bright, I hope you savour it.

If it's…

Returning to Myself

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 01:00:00 +0000

December always feels like a threshold — part closing chapter, part quiet reckoning. Not the shiny "new year, new me" kind. More the gentle sorting of what stayed true, what slipped away, and what I'm finally ready to release.

This year, healing has been less about breakthroughs …

Walking the Line: How Freemasonry and Stoicism Shaped My Moral Compass

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Walking the Line: How Freemasonry and Stoicism Shaped My Moral Compass

“Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.”

— Marcus Aurelius

Gro…

Catching My Breath: Learning to Let Go of Guilt

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Catching My Breath: Learning to Let Go of Guilt

It’s September already. I blinked and August vanished somewhere between a hospital bed, a hand brace, and a pile of things I didn’t do.

I’d hoped to “use the time well” after my thumb surgery—ma…

What I Wish I’d Started Sooner: Learning to Be on My Own Side

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

What I Wish I’d Started Sooner: Learning to Be on My Own Side

Not long ago, I found myself sitting on the couch, a cup of tea cooling beside me, knitting the border of a shawl while the dog snored nearby. Nothing dramatic was happening—no bre…

Beyond the Needles: Exploring Continental, Norwegian, and English Lever Knitting

Sat, 07 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Beyond the Needles: Exploring Continental, Norwegian, and English Lever Knitting

When people ask me what kind of knitter I am, my answer is always simple: English Lever. It’s the style my hands kno…

When Code Meets Emotion: Exploring AI Art as a Tool for Self-Expression

Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It started with a simple message from my friend JF: "Have you tried AI art yet?" Little did I know this casual introduction would open up a whole new world of creative expression for me. JF, always at the forefront of exploring new …