Forty’s fun isn’t it? I’ve never worked harder in my life or had more on my plate. With a full-time career, two young daughters who think sleep is a mug’s game, a money-pit house renovation and a punishing fitness routine in a bid to ward off the middle aged spread, I consider self-care as five minutes alone in the car, with my forehead resting against the steering wheel.

I’d love to be that mythical super relaxed, go-with-the-flow person but the truth is I’m not. I like scheduled plans and organized fun. I like writing to-do lists and I like ticking off items on those lists more than anything, ice cream included. On the occasions when I have my sh*t together I feel like I’m flying, like I’m acing life and being the best version of myself. More often than not, that’s how I felt when I was taking the LYMA Supplement - popping four capsules every day without fail.

I’d been taking LYMA for around nine months and it was doing a great job; I was sleeping every night and those eight hours felt deeply restorative. I was dreaming right up until waking and, although not exactly springing out from under the sheets, I wasn’t dragging my weary carcass out of bed either. I wasn’t snapping at the girls too often, I listened to the convoluted monologues of their busy days, I answered all their questions sincerely, sometimes even being ready with a coin for whatever ad hoc charity event school was hosting the next day. At work, my mind was sharp and I stayed impressively calm even when projects changed without warning or deadlines had to be brought forward.

So why on earth would I kick a good habit like LYMA? Maybe I got complacent, maybe I thought I had everything so comfortably in-hand, maybe it seemed a tad far-fetched that a health supplement was single-handedly keeping me afloat. But with a skiing holiday to pay for, a seventeen year old car about to give up on me and all the family’s other monthly subscriptions we’d somehow unwittingly amassed, the bank balance wasn’t altogether thriving. A significant investment on a monthly supplement subscription felt like one lifestyle above my pay grade. So I pressed pause on LYMA. What’s the worst that could happen I thought?

For a week or so, nothing.

Then, slowly and barely perceptibly, we started gently sliding into chaos. And not the fun kind they tell you to embrace - I felt like I was always one day away from saturation point. I would lie awake for hours past bedtime, reeling off all the things I forgot to write on my jobs list that day, along with all the new things that I needed to add tomorrow. I was constantly distracted and impatient with everyone at work, at home and in every shop queue. I started wildly overreacting when plans changed last minute and I became inexplicably, eighteen minutes late for absolutely everything.

Finally, one morning I woke up and the first thing that came out of my mouth was, “What fresh hell do you think today will deliver me?” Supine beside me, my husband remarked that that was some extreme negative chat, even by his standards. He was right, if I was starting my day off with that kind of defeatist mindset, how on earth did I expect to achieve anything of any good?

I reignited my LYMA subscription that day and haven’t stopped since. Turns out I had no idea what anxiety creep was until I clocked it in the nick of time. I now realize that adaptability is a superpower, not a natural quality for me - LYMA is what gives me the calmness and clarity to be open to change. Something didn’t work out the way I expected? No big deal, let’s try something else or switch it up. Swift, restful sleep has also returned and I am beyond grateful for it every single night.

Most people hold as much belief in supplements as they do star signs. We all trust medicines completely because they come directly from doctors and they’ve been through rigorous medical trials. LYMA has equally been developed by doctors and every ingredient has proved itself through clinical trials. It’s been independently proven to work at the exact dosage in those four daily capsules. What’s the real difference there then?

There is no doubt in my mind that LYMA works, the independent studies and patented ingredients have proven that for me. But only if all four are taken every day, which I now do both unquestionably and religiously. It seems like the smallest of tasks when all the hard science has been done but still, it’s a conscious daily effort that for me has proven entirely worthwhile.

Turns out we’re not really ‘ski people’ after all but the car is somehow still limping on - I suppose that’s life’s beautiful balance right there.