The fan has been humming in the background all morning, and there’s a glass of iced water with mint sweating gently on the bureau beside me. The light comes in differently in June, longer, softer, more forgiving, and I’ve been sitting here thinking that I wanted somewhere to gather it all. The month. The words. The conversations. The things ending and the things only just beginning.
So here it is. The first Notes from The Nest.
If the name feels familiar, that’s because it used to live tucked inside the old format of The Midlife Edit, a little monthly round-up of what had been happening. I’ve decided to give it a proper home of its own now. Once a month, on the last day, I’ll gather everything in one place: what’s been on the podcast, what’s been on the blog, what’s worth a second look, and what’s changing around here. A nest, really. Somewhere everything comes home to.
Pour something cold. Let’s catch up.
On Midlife by Design this month:
On the Podcast this month
The Midlife by Design Podcast continued its weekly rhythm through June.
If you’ve fallen behind, this is your gentle nudge to press play on the one that calls to you. No need to listen in order. Start where you are.
On the Blog & in the Summer Edit
The Summer Edit has been arriving weekly over on the website; small, sensory pieces for living this season more fully.
A Summer Morning Ritual: Embracing Lightness and Vitality in Midlife
The Midlife Summer Mindset: Choosing Aliveness Over Obligation
Midlife Summer: The Season of Pleasure, Presence & Visibility
Pleasure Is Not Frivolous: Why Midlife Women Need Joy on Purpose
And if you only read one thing this month, let it be that one. It’s the whole philosophy in miniature: you don’t have to wait for your life to get bigger before it’s allowed to feel better.
85 Weeks to Fifty Interviews this month
‘5-minutes with…’ Interviews this month
From the Atelier
This month, I’ve been pointing women towards the Midlife by Design Workbook Collection, a gathering of the journals and workbooks I’ve created for exactly this season of reflection and redesign. If you’ve been wanting somewhere to think on paper, start there.
What’s changing around here
I’ve been doing a lot of quiet thinking lately about what I actually want to create going forward. Not what I should make, or what everyone else is making, but what still feels true. And a few things are shifting as a result. I wanted you to hear them from me, here, first.
Here’s the thing I’ve come to understand about this work: it isn’t separate from me. Midlife by Design is a personal brand, which is really just another way of saying it’s a living thing, shaped by the woman I am at any given moment. And I’m not the same woman I was in February. I’ve learned things. I’ve grown. I’ve let some old ideas fall away and grown quietly more sure of others. So it follows, naturally, inevitably, that my work will keep changing too. As I evolve, so does my calling. The purpose doesn’t shrink when something retires; it deepens and finds a truer shape. I used to think consistency meant never changing, but now I think it means staying honest about who you’re becoming and letting the work keep pace.
So none of what follows is me abandoning anything. It’s me growing, out loud, and letting you grow alongside me.
The Midlife Circle and The Midlife Edit will be published biweekly, on alternate weeks.
The ‘5-minutes with…’ series is retiring. Its final post will land on the 30th of August. It was the first interview series I ever started, back in February, and I’ve loved it, but it has done what it came to do. A proper farewell is coming.
‘85 Weeks to Fifty’ is drawing to a close, too. The final farewell post will be published on the 18th of October. When I started it, it was a beautiful idea I had almost on impulse, a way to walk myself towards fifty in the company of other women. But so much has grown here since then, and I’ve realised the conversations I most want to have are ones that are better spoken than written. So rather than let the series quietly fade, I want to close it with intention, gathering a line from each woman who took part. An archive of truth, properly honoured.
‘Tea with Self’ is coming back. Some of you have been here long enough to remember it. It’s the thoughts I share when I’ve actually sat down long enough to let one land. It won’t be regular. It’ll simply appear when I have something real to say. Which feels, honestly, like the only way it was ever meant to exist.
And something else is changing, something I want to be honest with you about, because you deserve to hear it from me directly.
The Midlife Circle is evolving. And so is what I charge for it. I’ve spent over a year writing, creating, recording, and showing up, and I’ve finally come to understand, without apology, that this work has real value. The hours behind it are real. The care behind it is real. And it’s time the pricing reflected that honestly.
From the 1st of July, the Midlife Circle moves to a new structure:
→ Monthly: £19/month. Full bi-weekly Midlife Circle and The Midlife Edit essays, the Midlife Circle Private Podcast, and the full Starter Library: Reinvention Starter Kit, Gut Health & Metabolism Tracker, Menopause Symptoms Tracker, and Confidence Boost Journal.
→ Annual: £149/year. Everything above, plus a monthly personal video from me, behind the scenes, honest, and unscripted.
→ Midlife Inner Circle: £297/year. Everything above, plus the Midlife Manifesto Audio Training, full access to The Midlife Reset course, and four quarterly 1:1 calls with me.
If you’re already a paid member, I’m honouring your current rate until October, and I’ll be in touch personally before then.
If you’ve been thinking about joining and have been waiting for the right moment, this is it. The door is open, and I’d love to have you inside.
And if you want to go deeper into the why behind all of this, the philosophy, the five life areas, the expert voices I’ve gathered, the Midlife by Design Manifesto is waiting for you. It’s one of the pieces I’m most proud of, and it’s free to read.
Midlife by Design: A Manifesto for Women Who Are Ready to Live Differently
This post is best read on Substack. If it appears cut off in your email, click here to read the full piece.
That’s Notes from The Nest for June. Tended, gathered, a little fuller than I expected when I sat down.
If something here stayed with you, tell me. Leave a comment, tap the ♡, or simply reply and let me know how your June has been, what you’ve stopped, what you’ve started, what you’re letting yourself enjoy.
I’ll see you back here at the end of July.
Kiran x