I was the capable one. The one who held everything together, said yes before I’d checked with myself, and looked fine from the outside.

Underneath, I was exhausted. And I didn’t trust anything I felt.

I thought the problem was confidence. It wasn’t. The good girl had got very good at overriding me in real time. I’d feel something true in my body and talk myself out of it within seconds.

So I stopped trying to become someone new. I did something smaller. I noticed the override. I chose differently. Then I did it again the next day.

That’s how In Mel’s Mind started. Not from a plan. From practice.

Now I teach it. I work with women who are self-aware, capable and still running on empty. I help them prove to their nervous system that they can say no, leave the room, or want something, and be fine afterwards.

I’m not here to fix you. You already know what you know. I help you stop talking yourself out of it.

I’m in Adelaide, and I’m no longer the good girl. Every Sunday I send one story from my week: what I recognised, what I did differently, and how you can try the same thing in yours.