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Comfy Business Chronicles

Origin Story

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Context:

I live with two chronic health conditions (one neurological, one vascular), which means I experience pain, physical symptoms, and unpredictable fluctuations in energy, mood, and cognitive function.

I share this background for context, not to invite pity or advice.

The Universe has been smacking me across the head with encouragement to share more of my experience of running an online business while living with chronic health conditions.

I’m willing to share but struggling to figure out the what, where, when, and how of that.

This blog post shows the thought process of how I came to figure out those things.

I do want to share – I don’t know what, or how, or when, or where

This morning, while out walking off a headache, I listened to this episode of the Like Mind, Like Body podcast, and the guest said ‘I cannot let this pain go to waste’ – and I felt that in my heart. That is exactly how I feel.

(Side note – I have mixed feelings about that podcast and the Curable app it promotes, that’s a topic for another day, but the guest on this episode has a lot of overlap with those feelings, so it was an interesting listen.)

Things I have considered and instantly binned off:

Instagram Stories
Reflection posts at the end of each day or any (or all) social media platforms
An online journal
Another Substack
Another book

Considerations:

I don’t want to keep interrupting my life to document my life.
The time I have available to focus on and complete tasks is precious – is this how I want to spend it?
Social media is not good for me – it triggers checking behaviors that spill out beyond social media use, and screws up my already deeply unstable dopamine balance.
My life is very repetitive
During the great and shit bits, the bits that would be most interesting to others, is when I’m way less likely to remember to share.

The Popcorn Problem-Solving Method

To solve this dilemma of being willing, and even excited, to share more of my life but having no clue how to put that into practise, I did what I always do….

…asked my brain to figure it out, then turned on the TV.

I’m not consciously thinking about the problem.

I’m able to watch and enjoy whatever program or film I’m watching (this morning it was the film Carol).

Then, occasionally, my brain pushes a suggestion or a question into my awareness, I write it down, and get back to the film.

✅ Where

When the film finished, I did not have an answer of the what, where, how or when, but I did have the urge to write. So I picked up my iPad and started writing this text you’re reading out by hand – knowing that even if nobody read it, I did need to write it out.

I could just write about this more in my Comfy Business Newsletter, but I don’t want to have to squish my thoughts into 200 words, and not all my subscribers are going to be intersted in this.

I could start a Substack for people to follow along the behind-the-scenes of my business and brain.

But it feels weird to send my existing Comfy Business newsletter subscribers over to the Substack and ask them to subscribe to that too.

It would be easier to link to a blog post…. and gosh darn it – isn’t this what blog posts were 25 years ago? Before they were used to ‘add value’, ‘demonstrate credibility’ or ‘drive search traffic’, they were just ways to share ourselves, our lives.

So the simplest solution is to create a new category of blog posts, dedicated to sharing my experience as someone who lives with chronic conditions and runs an intentionally-comfy business, then share the link with my existing subscribers so they can choose if they want to click through to read it or not, and honestly this is so obvious it’s kinda embarassing I haven’t thought about it before.

I very possibly may also use this content as a Substack newsletter and/or book – but those are 2026 decisions.

✅ When + What

So I’ve got as far as WHERE I’m sharing it…. still haven’t decided the WHAT – and that is a 2025 decision. Or the WHEN – that’s important too.

Let’s start there because it’s easier to answer and it’ll help inform the WHAT.

Weekly.

It needs to be weekly.

Because if I do it less often, I’ll forget. I’ll forget to do it. And I’ll forget what’s happened in my life/business that I wanted to share.

The idea of committing to reflecting back on the past 7 days feels do-able – but boring.

A huge chunk of my week, every single week, is:

The sorting, cleaning, and putting away of laundry
The acquisition, storage, and cooking of food (especially the weekly pilgrimage to secure a bag of Morrison’s sausage rolls for Son#2)
Choosing when is the best time to render myself unconscious with a combination of triptan and naproxen vs pushing through to get shit done.

So what if each week I sit down at some point on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday (whenever I feel in the mood) and pick a topic, or theme, or event, or idea or something that came up that week and write about it.

That’ll give some insight into my experience, without being repetitive.

Like Carrie’s column in Sex and the City – but with fewer shoes and men, and more painkillers and hot water bottles.

Ok… let’s give this a shot.

So this is the first post – the origin story of my Comfy Business Chronicles.

What do you want to see me write about? (Answer in the comments)

And if there’s anything else you want to tell, ask or share with me, use the comments for that too – I’m not really on social media so this our space to chat.

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