rachaelnewham90.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

submitted 14 hours ago • 133 comments

People being on benefits is not the problem. The problem is we have created a society unfit for human flourishing. Rates of mental illness have risen - and so have the costs - but that off the back of austerity, covid and relentless cutbacks to services. t.co/xJYvpmJjTK

submitted 1 hour ago • 0 comments

No one told me six year olds get teething pain. Are you joking?? I thought we’d left that hell in 2020?! #parenting

submitted 30 days ago • 1 comment

Mental illness does not just reside in your mind, it shows up in shattered nervous systems, stressed bodies and crushed spirits. There is no magic bullet - but I have to believe there is hope.

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

Why we Can’t Talk About Mental Health Awareness Without Talking About Benefits Cuts - and why we need a new conversation. open.substack.com/pub/rachaeln...

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

With the conversation around welfare and mental health in the news again - it seems a good time to re-share this piece from last year. open.substack.com/pub/rachaeln...

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

Sunday reflections.

submitted 44 days ago • 0 comments

Why do we talk so much about benefits fraud and so little about tax fraud (which is more prevalent and costs more)? The endless talk of PIP reform is anxiety provoking and destabilising for disabled people and it has a ZERO percent fraud rate. #PersonalIndependencePayments #PIP

submitted 49 days ago • 0 comments

Your regular reminder: claiming PIP doesn’t put disabled people at an advantage. Disability costs on average £975 extra per month. Repeated evidence from think tanks shows PIP fails to cover these costs. Disability is expensive.

submitted 51 days ago • 7 comments

My first book 'Learning to Breathe' is in rhw @scmpress.bsky.social winter sale! t.co/ERZqPVxWf8

submitted 58 days ago • 2 comments

Writing a piece on #BlueMonday on the mondayest Monday of the year feels somewhat apt… even if it is a myth!

submitted 65 days ago • 0 comments

I don’t want to brag (well I kind of do) but I’ve just filed my tax return and I’ve got 0 unread emails. This won’t last long as my to-do list is wild but I’m enjoying the feeling whilst it lasts!

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

My third book publishes THIS YEAR! #authorlife

submitted 69 days ago • 0 comments

Word of the Day is one I keep posting at the end of the year, hoping its time will come. ‘Respair’, from the 16th century, is fresh hope, and a recovery from despair. Here’s to a few drops of respair in 2025.

submitted 70 days ago • 208 comments

Inbetwixtmas and I’m reading, my husband is doing a puzzle and my 6yo is playing with his hot wheels. These are the days we dreamed of when he was three and would not do an activity for longer than 60 seconds! #parenthood

submitted 73 days ago • 0 comments

When the song of the angels is stilled...the work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner, To rebuild the nations, To bring peace among others, To make music in the heart. - Howard Thurman

submitted 74 days ago • 18 comments

The presents are opened, the food ‘for Christmas’ is eaten and adrenaline is draining. And yet these things are still true: Jesus was still born. Hope is still real. God is with us, our Immanuel, so when all around and below, behind and before us is overwhelming, let us look up to our Saviour.

submitted 75 days ago • 0 comments

My latest substack open.substack.com/pub/rachaeln...

submitted 80 days ago • 0 comments

A Prayer for #WinterSolstice.

submitted 81 days ago • 0 comments

The Rwandan genocide, I was about five and saw it reported on newshound.

submitted 84 days ago • 0 comments

Today is the Feast Day of St John of the Cross, the Spanish poet and mystic…

submitted 87 days ago • 0 comments

Pacing is sometimes (often) boring, but I’m learning that for those of us with chronic illness is it as honouring to God to use the energy we have wisely as it is to have a sabbath. #chronicillness #disabilitytheology

submitted 87 days ago • 1 comment

Going through my edits for book three and realising that yet again I’ve managed to write some sentences that last an entire paragraph. There’s been growth since ‘Learning to Breathe’ but I still need to work on my tendency to write Dickensian sentences. #Editing #AuthorLife

submitted 98 days ago • 1 comment

Please remember that mental illnesses are not adjectives. #languagematters

submitted 98 days ago • 1 comment

We want the throne of power. God arrives in a manger. We want generals. Angels call shepherds. We want religious uniformity. Magi come. We want political uniformity. Foreign kings gather. We want a warrior prince. Jesus comes as the prince of peace.

submitted 100 days ago • 17 comments

Wishing our American friends a Happy Thanksgiving - and hoping these words from ‘And Yet’ challenge and encourage us all. #ThanksGiving

submitted 104 days ago • 1 comment

What do you think?

submitted 106 days ago • 0 comments

I’m going to have a six year old in the morning and I don’t think I’m ready for it!

submitted 107 days ago • 2 comments

6 years ago today I went into labour with our boy. I find it so emotional how wild these first years of his life have been with lockdowns and me being unwell. I hope and pray for calmer years ahead but I’m so thankful for the boy he’s becoming. Birthdays make so so sentimental!

submitted 109 days ago • 0 comments

Mental illness and mental health - whilst of course intimately related- are different. Everyone has mental health, it fluctuates and we have good days and bad days. Mental illnesses are conditions that can disable, that can kill people and we must get a handle on our language around it.

submitted 111 days ago • 0 comments

On international men’s day today we must do more than simply tell men to talk about their feelings- We must consider what makes them desperate and suicidal- -Lack of community, -An education system not geared to the needs of boys -Very poor job security, pushed to do the most dangerous work

submitted 113 days ago • 0 comments

My book about finding joy in lament, ‘And Yet’ is 3 today!

submitted 113 days ago • 0 comments

Being wide awake at 3am has a strange dream like quality that, whilst I despise, I am getting used to. I have managed to read and film a reel so it’s not all bad I guess. 🤷🏻‍♀️

submitted 114 days ago • 0 comments

I’m not opposed to it - but I think I’ve seen more pictures of owls in the last few days on this app than I have in my whole time online!

submitted 115 days ago • 0 comments