This week I tested 3 viral morning routines from an English woman, an American woman, and an Australian woman to see whether any of them could make me feel more energised, productive, and less like I’m running on fumes.

The problem?

I’m doing this with:

• a toddler who wakes up at 4:30am
• broken sleep
• a massive family bed
• and a deep resistance to bouncing on a Peppa Pig trampoline with coconut oil in my mouth

So this is a very scientific experiment.

In this episode

• my current chaos-morning routine
• Mel Robbins-style 5-4-3-2-1 habits
• oil pulling, electrolytes and gratitude
• Chinese lymphatic movements
• making the bed like a functional adult
• whether morning routines are modern madness… or actually quite anthropological

Timestamps (ish)

0:00 Intro – today’s experiment

1:00 My current morning reality

7:00 The American morning routine

10:30 The British morning routine

17:30 The Australian “hot girl” morning routine

25:00 Have We Lost the Plot? Morning routines through an anthropology lens

Join the book club

Actually Trying Book Club:

https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/freetrial

Ask Guru & Granny

Send in your dilemmas, chaos, family drama and questionable life choices for Guru & Granny.

DM me at:

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

Coming Friday

I’ll report back on which bits of these morning routines actually survived contact with real life.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s field report: I tested some of the internet’s favourite luteal phase advice.

That meant eating a suspicious number of carrots and sweet potatoes, attempting to “rebalance” my hormones, and keeping a list of everything that annoyed me during PMS week.

Some of the advice helped.

Some of it involved heavily salted vegetables and blind optimism.

Here’s the honest verdict.

Timestamps

0:00 Field report: testing internet luteal phase advice

1:00 My accidental vegetable discovery

2:00 The luteal phase irritation list

3:00 The real household tension revealed

5:00 Honest thoughts about the podcast and time pressure

7:00 A possible PMS supplement experiment

8:30 Ongoing trials: hormone hacks & brain headset

9:00 Next week: morning routines

Experiments this week

• luteal phase awareness
• PMS mood tracking
• sweet potatoes & carrots for hormones
• magnesium & sleep support

Coming next

Next week I’ll test morning routines — the topic you actually voted for.

Follow along

Instagram:

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

Join the book club

Actually Trying Book Club:

https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/freetrial

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We cover:

• what the luteal phase actually is
• why you feel more sensitive, irritable, and withdrawn
• whether it’s hormones… or your life being out of alignment
• practical ways to support your mood (from Instagram, obviously)
• and a slightly chaotic Guru & Granny segment involving vegans and king prawns

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS (ish)

00:00 Intro – why we’re ignoring the poll and talking PMS

05:30 What the menstrual cycle actually does to your brain

10:30 Why the luteal phase feels like low power mode

12:30 Have We Lost the Plot? (evolutionary take)

14:00 “You’re not moody, your life is out of alignment”

16:00 Luteal phase survival tips (food, magnesium, sleep)

19:00 Guru & Granny: vegan boyfriend chaos

📩 ASK GURU & GRANNY

Got a dilemma?

Relationships, family chaos, existential crises…

DM your questions to:

👉 @rosehoneymorgan

👉 @field.notes.pod

(You can stay anonymous)

📚 JOIN THE BOOK CLUB

If you want deeper dives, experiments & slightly more structure:

👉 Join the Actually Trying Book Club:

https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/freetrial

🎧 IF YOU ENJOYED THIS

Follow the podcast, leave a review, or send this to someone who:

• becomes a different person before their period
• has ever thought “why is everything suddenly awful?”
• or needs a luteal phase survival plan

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

two from a Harvard-trained life coach and two from Old Ma.

The methods:

• orgasm (did not happen)

• contemplating death (surprisingly helpful)

• building a “sanity quilt” (tiny habits that actually regulate you)

• visualising your perfect day (emotionally risky)

Some worked. Some absolutely did not.

Main takeaway:

👉 You don’t fix anxiety with one big breakthrough

👉 You fix it with small daily things that make life slightly more bearable

Also:

• no one is thinking about you as much as you think

• you will be forgotten (freeing, not depressing)

• and stroking your dog is genuinely medicinal

If you feel constantly slightly on edge, overwhelmed, or like your brain is doing too much…

this episode is for you.

🧠 What you’ll get:

• realistic anxiety coping strategies

• small daily habits that actually help

• a brutally honest test of popular techniques

• a reminder that your life doesn’t need to be perfect to be good

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Testing 4 anxiety techniques

01:00 Why orgasm didn’t make the list

02:00 Thinking about death (and why it helps)

04:30 The “life in weeks” reality check

05:00 The sanity quilt (best one)

08:00 Tiny habits that improve your day

10:00 The perfect day exercise (spiral warning)

11:30 Final thoughts + what actually worked

📲 Follow me on Instagram:

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

🔔 Subscribe for more:

Weekly experiments in:

• anxiety

• self-improvement (without the cringe)

• modern life

• and trying to function like a normal person

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So today we’re trying something different.

This is a Mother’s Day anxiety special, featuring:

• two anxiety techniques from my mother (Old Ma)

• two techniques from a Harvard-trained life coach

• and a conversation that includes orgasms, existential philosophy, and a surprisingly detailed death plan.

In other words: a fairly normal episode.

The Four Anxiety Techniques

In this episode we explore four very different ways of dealing with anxiety:

1️⃣ Old Ma’s technique #1: orgasm as emotional regulation

2️⃣ Old Ma’s technique #2: contemplating death (memento mori)

3️⃣ The “Sanity Quilt” method from Martha Beck

4️⃣ The Perfect Day exercise

Some of these are more sensible than others.

The Sanity Quilt

The Sanity Quilt idea comes from Martha Beck.

Imagine a patchwork blanket where each square is a small activity that reliably calms your nervous system.

Not big life changes.

Just tiny stabilisers you can rely on when things feel overwhelming.

Examples might include:

• a quick walk outside

• dancing to one song in the kitchen

• lighting a candle

• listening to music

• texting a friend

• reading a few pages of a book

• making a cup of tea

• eating a tiny cheeseboard (personal favourite)

The idea is to build a toolkit of small things that help you regulate before you spiral.

The Perfect Day Exercise

The Perfect Day exercise asks a different question:

Instead of chasing big life goals, what does a good ordinary Tuesday actually look like for you?

You imagine a realistic ideal day — from when you wake up to when you go to bed.

Not a fantasy billionaire life.

Just the kind of day your nervous system would actually enjoy living in.

Because life is basically thousands of Tuesdays in a row.

Also in this episode

• how worrying brains invent problems that never happen

• why modern life might be fuelling anxiety

• why remembering death can sometimes make life easier

• Old Ma’s surprisingly detailed end-of-life plan

Ask Guru & Granny

If you want Old Ma and I to attempt to solve your life problems, send us your dilemmas.

Relationship chaos, family drama, existential crises — we’ll take it all.

DM your questions to:

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

You can remain anonymous if you like.

If you enjoyed this episode

Please follow the show, leave a review, or share it with someone who:

• worries about things that never happen

• enjoys slightly unhinged mother–daughter conversations

• or might benefit from a sanity quilt and a small cheeseboard

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In simpler terms:

I’ve started plugging my forehead into a charger.

This Friday Field Report is the week one update.

I talk through:

• What the headset actually feels like to wear

• The slightly alarming wet electrode pads situation

• Whether the electrical stimulation hurts (spoiler: mildly… but in a “strong skincare” kind of way)

• The surprisingly good therapy app that comes with it

• Why the behavioural therapy modules are actually better than a lot of therapy I’ve paid for

• Whether the experiment is making me feel even slightly more motivated

So far the results are… inconclusive.

But I do feel a bit more like “come on then, let’s be having you.”

Which is something.

Inside the Flow app

One thing that genuinely impressed me was the built-in therapy courses.

The headset isn’t just about the electrical stimulation — the app includes:

• behavioural therapy modules

• mindfulness and meditation sessions

• sleep support

• habit-building exercises

• diet and lifestyle guidance

All delivered through a chat-style interactive course, which is surprisingly engaging when you’re struggling to focus.

It’s a bit like a choose-your-own-adventure therapy conversation.

Find of the Week

The therapy format inside the Flow app — genuinely useful behavioural therapy exercises delivered in a way that actually keeps you engaged.

If I find similar tools that don’t require a brain-electrocuting headset, I’ll link them here. Ok so there's one called Youper but it's not available in the UK annoyingly. Abby - your AI therapist looks good. Or Wysa the app looks good too. Haven't tried any of them though so... just going off the App Store sales pitch!

Fail of the Week

I currently have around 200 unanswered messages across email, WhatsApp and DMs.

The longer I leave them, the more awkward the replies become.

Classic.

The experiment continues

I’ll report back again once I’ve used the headset for the full three-week protocol to see whether it actually improves:

• mood

• motivation

• executive function

• anxiety

Or whether I’ve simply been mildly electrifying my forehead for no reason.

Join the conversation

If you’ve tried anything that actually helped your mental health, motivation or executive function — send it my way.

DM me on Instagram:

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

Join the Book Club

We’re currently reading Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway inside the Actually Trying Book Club.

Join here:

https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/freetrial

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I’m trying the Flow Neuroscience headset — a non-invasive medical device that uses tDCS (transcranial Direct Current Stimulation) to stimulate the part of the brain linked to depression.

In simpler terms:

I am, apparently, going to start plugging my forehead into a charger.

And honestly? At this point I’m open to it.

In this episode I talk about:

• My long history of low mood, dread, anxiety, and general internal gloom
• Everything I’ve already tried:
• CBT
• EMDR
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• medication
• exercise
• water
• sleep
• trying really hard not to lose the plot
• What the Flow headset actually is
• How it’s meant to work
• Why the NHS uses it
• The statistics that made me willing to strap an electrical device to my head
• Whether this is cutting-edge science or a sign that modern life has gone badly wrong
• Why our ancestors may have had lives that were more naturally protective of mental health than ours are now

Also in this episode:

A new Ask Guru & Granny segment on beauty, Botox, fillers, lipstick, tailored clothing, and why my mother believes a teaspoon of botulism could kill the human race.

So, as usual, it’s a mixed bag.

What happens next?

I’m starting the headset experiment now.

On Friday I’ll report back on:

• what it feels like
• whether it hurts
• what the app is like
• and whether I feel even slightly less like I’m permanently treading emotional water

The bigger results, apparently, take a few weeks — so this is just the beginning

Send in your dilemmas for Ask Guru & Granny

If you want me and Old Ma to attempt to solve your problems, send them over.

DM me on Instagram:

• @rosehoneymorgan
• @field.notes.pod

And if I ignored your last one by accident, just bump it and send it again.

Join the book club

We’ve just started Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway inside the Actually Trying book club.

https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/freetrial

If you enjoyed this episode

Please follow the show, leave a review, or share it with a friend who:

• is hanging on by a thread
• has tried everything
• or would absolutely try electrically charging their forehead if it meant feeling a bit more perky

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

turning your phone to gray scale (black and white).

The theory is simple: remove the bright colours that hijack your brain’s dopamine system and suddenly your phone becomes far less addictive.

Did it cut my screen time in half?

Well… not exactly.

But it did reveal some interesting things about how our brains react to colour, stimulation, and the endless scroll.

In this week’s Field Report we discuss:

• Whether gray scale actually reduced my screen time
• Why social media becomes weirdly less appealing in black and white
• How the experiment accidentally pushed me into a ChatGPT rabbit hole
• Why real life suddenly looked much more colourful and vivid
• A brief “Have We Lost the Plot?” anthropology segment on humans and colour stimulation
• The unexpected downside: trying to play phone games in grayscale

Plus:

Find of the Week

Appreciating colour again (and the joy of bold interiors)

Fail of the Week

Spending another two hours helping June solve a murder in June’s Journey

Links & Things Mentioned

Join the Actually Trying Book Club

👉 https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/freetrial

Lucy’s interiors Instagram

👉 https://www.instagram.com/lucycollierinteriors

Follow the Show

Follow the podcast so you don’t miss next week’s experiment.

If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend who is also trying (and occasionally failing) to reduce their screen time.

Next Week

Next week’s topic may or may not make brands even more nervous about working with me… but at this point the damage is probably already done.

See you then.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If your phone feels impossible to put down…

If the real world is starting to look a bit dull by comparison…

This week I’m testing a free, surprisingly simple method that claims to reduce doomscrolling fast.

No apps.

No discipline hacks.

No expensive “digital detox” retreats.

Just one setting change.

In this episode we discuss:

• How color and contrast hijack your dopamine system
• Why overstimulation can make the real world feel flat
• The “gray scale” method and how to set it up
• And why I realised I needed to fix this — urgently

I’m committing to a full week of gray scale to see if it genuinely reduces screen time.

If you try it too, let me know what happens.

The Instructions 

To enable grayscale on an iPhone, navigate to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Color Filters, then toggle "Color Filters" on and select "Grayscale"

To turn on grayscale on Android, go to Settings > Digital Wellbeing & parental controls > Bedtime mode and enable "Grayscale"

📲 DM me on Instagram:

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

I’ll report back with the results.

⭐ If this episode helps:

Follow the show, leave a review, or send it to the friend who says “I don’t go on my phone that much” but somehow knows every trend

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next month’s book: Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway

Link in show notes.

Join us so I can reject brands with confidence.

ANYWAY

I’m back from the front lines.

Four whole days.

Zero processed food.

Planned, chopped, cooked, washed up.

Repeated.

Never again.

In this episode we discuss:

• The emotional toll of planning three meals a day like a Victorian housewife
• Whether chopping board dinners are secretly genius
• Why cheeseboard dinner is an elite parenting hack
• The M&S “non-UPF” range (sausages, buns, ketchup — full review)
• Migraines, morale, and missing Biscoff
• Being dropped by my first big brand deal and spiralling publicly
• Whether I should sell my soul for a podcast editor
• And if early death from crisps is simply a trade-off I’m willing to make

The experiment verdict?

Did I feel superhuman?

No.

Did I feel morally superior?

Briefly.

Did I miss ready meals with my entire being?

Yes.

🧀 FIND OF THE WEEK

Cheeseboard dinner.

Elevated picky bits.

Zero guilt.

Highly recommend.

❌ FAIL OF THE WEEK

Everything else.

If you’ve cracked the code on eating well without turning it into a full-time job, tell me.

📲 DM me on Instagram:

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

⭐ If you enjoyed this episode:

Follow the show.

Leave a review.

Send it to a friend but pre warn them about which episodes are shite.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I lasted one day.

Then I got violently ill.

Was it the chicken?

Was it soft play?

Was it karma for mocking chopping-board influencers?

Unclear.

This week is Take 2.

Because the real question isn’t “Is processed food bad?”

It’s:

How on earth are we supposed to avoid it if we can’t cook and don’t have a private chef?

In this episode we discuss:

• My catastrophic attempt at roasting a chicken
• Why I owe chopping-board people an apology
• Cottage cheese and berries (I’m still not convinced)
• The alarming bacteria situation on cutting boards
• The new M&S “UPF-free” range
• Why modern health advice quietly assumes unlimited time
• Whether there’s a realistic middle ground between crisps and grinding your own flour

I’m trialling:

• The single-ingredient chopping board approach
• The M&S UPF-free range
• And whatever I can manage without poisoning myself again

I’ll report back properly in Friday’s Field Report.

If you have:

• Healthy ready meal recommendations
• Low-effort meal hacks
• Or thoughts on whether I’ve lost the plot

Tell me.

📲 DM me on Instagram:

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

I read them. I respond. I occasionally take your advice.

Private chef reel link : https://www.instagram.com/reel/CteX-QfMvkD/?igsh=cjR4bzNlOHM2eGU3

⭐ If you enjoyed this episode:

Follow the show, leave a review, or send it to a friend who owns a chopping board but still eats waffles daily.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After confidently declaring I would attempt a week of ultra-processed-food-free living, I made it:

👉 One day.

And now I am recording this hunched over a sick bowl in what can only be described as the pink fluffy gown of shame.

Is it norovirus?

Is it food poisoning?

Is it my body rebelling against actual vegetables?

We do not yet know.

What we do know:

• Cooking is dangerous

• My stomach muscles are shot

• The commitment to this podcast remains intact

Full debrief on Monday — assuming I survive.

—

📚 Join “Actually Trying” for the proper breakdowns (when I’m upright again): https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/freetrial

📲 Follow along for live chaos:

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

Like. Subscribe. Send electrolytes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

According to certain very serious doctors on the internet, UPFs are now:

“The leading cause of early death on planet earth. Ahead of tobacco.”

Cool.

Not dramatic at all.

So naturally, I’ve decided to test whether cutting them out for a week will:

• Improve my migraines
• Reduce my exhaustion
• Fix my yo-yo weight history
• Or simply make me feral and resentful

Because unfortunately… most of the things listed as “ultra-processed” are the things I actually eat.

🥪 In This Episode We Discuss:

• What actually counts as Ultra-Processed Food (and how inconsistent the definitions are)
• The claim that UPFs are worse than tobacco
• The inflammation / microbiome argument
• The counter-argument from registered dietitians
• Whether the research is observational or causal
• Food anxiety vs legitimate health concern
• My chaotic personal diet
• Growing up on enforced raw spinach
• Cheese-based GCSE breakdowns
• Yo-yo weight cycles and hyper-palatable food
• Ozempic changing the household food dynamic
• Whether non-UPF eating is realistic with children
• Why I eat like a 19-year-old boy with a student loan
• And whether “whole foods” are actually practical in real life

🍽 Personal Context (Aka Why This Is a Problem)

My current diet includes:

• Fistfuls of turkey
• Salt & vinegar crisps
• Tuna pasta
• Mushroom coffee
• Minimal fruit
• Suspiciously little fibre

Meanwhile the internet is telling me my gut lining is dissolving and my liver is weeping.

So this week I attempt to go:

👉 UPF-Free (or as close as I can manage)

And we’ll see whether:

• My energy changes
• My migraines shift
• My mood improves
• Or whether I simply miss crisps

🧠 Bigger Questions

• Are we pathologising modern food?
• Is this another wellness panic?
• Or is the hyper-palatable environment genuinely wrecking us?
• Can a busy parent realistically cook everything from scratch?
• And why does cutting processed food feel so emotionally loaded?

👵 Guru & Granny Returns

This week’s dilemma:

“I’ve narrowed it down to three husband contenders. How do I choose?”

Featuring:

• The Strong Stomach Theory™
• The Chap Olympiad
• Escape room testing
• Vomit resilience
• And a brief detour into secret families

You’re welcome.

📚 JOIN “ACTUALLY TRYING”

If you’d like to improve your life without becoming insufferable:

Join the book club / self-improvement group chat over on Substack.

This month:

👉 Atomic Habits by James Clear

You’ll get:

• Weekly practical breakdowns
• Private podcast episodes
• Cheat sheets
• Knowledge topics
• And a place to collectively sort ourselves out

Join here:

https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/subscribe

Or sign up free for the weekly notes.

📲 Follow & Share

Follow on Instagram:

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

Share this episode with someone who:

• Owns at least three types of oat milk
• Is suspicious of emulsifiers
• Or eats crisps in the car and calls it “lunch”

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I tested the homework:

Ice water dunk.

Breath work.

Humming (unfortunately, in public).

Links Mentioned

• Vagus nerve stimulation device - https://shorturl.at/Q0YQQ
• Breath work app - https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/breathwrk-breathing-exercises/id1481804500
• Gospel Sunday Service Choir track - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qre8LJVd3o (wait for SIA to come out and sing with them, it gets me every time. Also look up 'sunday service choir' on youtube or spotify and enjoy the full album. I love 'rain' and 'father stretch' the most.

📚 Join “Actually Trying”

Private podcast episodes, book breakdowns, and practical self-improvement without becoming unbearable.

https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/subscribe

Follow on Instagram:

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

New episodes every Monday (deep dive) and Friday (Field Report).

In this episode we discuss:

• Full head ice dunk attempts (and whether they calm you down or just make you feel mildly feral)
• Why breath work felt surprisingly effective
• The school gate humming incident
• The still-face experiment and why scrolling in front of your kids hits differently
• Why regulation starts in the body, not the brain
• Whether overthinking (and over-ChatGPT-ing) makes stress worse
• The new vagus nerve stimulation device you can clip to your ear
• The gospel choir soundtrack that fuelled my public “moment”
• Why humans used to regulate naturally (and now need calendar reminders to breathe)

💀 Fail of the Week

Public humming.

Misread eye contact.

A minor wellbeing check from one of the two hot dads.

We move.

💡 Find of the Week

Regulation is physical.

You cannot reason your way out of stress when your heart is racing.

Long exhales > spiralling thoughts.

Unclench your jaw > rewrite your narrative.

Body first. Brain second.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week I force you to join in with whatever the mad reels tell us to do - so concentrate.

My algorithm is obsessed with vagus nerve regulation: calm your nervous system, soothe your vagal tone, stop being on edge, stop snapping, stop doom-scrolling and just… relax.

So naturally, I decided to look into it.

In this episode I unpack why modern life feels so dysregulating, why scrolling feels calming but actually isn’t, and whether humming, cold water, jaw unclenching and breathing like an ancient human might help — or whether we’ve officially lost the plot.

You may need to unclench your teeth while listening.

🧠 What We Cover

• Why “just calm down” doesn’t work

• The Still Face experiment — and why blank-facing kids backfires

• What the vagus nerve actually does (without wellness nonsense)

• Why your body has to feel safe before your brain can think

• The most common vagus nerve tips from Instagram

• Which ones felt useful, which felt weird, and which I’ll actually keep

🧪 The Internet Advice I Tested

Including:

• Humming & singing

• Breathing out longer than in

• Jaw and tongue relaxation

• Cold water on the face

• Slow movement instead of checking out

No ice baths. No candles. No pretending we live in a monastery.

🏺 Have We Lost the Plot?

Probably not.

Humans have always regulated themselves through:

• movement

• rhythm

• cold exposure

• shared calm

We just used to do it naturally — now we have to remember.

🔁 Field Report Coming Friday

I’ll report back on whether any of this helped in real life, or whether it joined the long list of things that sounded promising and didn’t survive a weekday.

📚 JOIN “ACTUALLY TRYING”

If you want help actually applying this stuff (without becoming insufferable):

👉 https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/subscribe

This month’s book:

Atomic Habits – James Clear

You’ll get:

• Weekly breakdowns you can actually use

• Private podcast episodes

• Cheat sheets & summaries

• Anti-brain-rot knowledge topics

You can also join free for the notes via email.

📲 STAY IN THE GROUP CHAT

Follow along on Instagram:

• @rosehoneymorgan

• @field.notes.pod

And come back Friday for the field report.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This month’s book:

👉 Atomic Habits by James Clear

You’ll get:

• Weekly breakdowns you can actually implement

• Private podcast episodes

• Cheat sheets & summaries

• Anti-brain-rot knowledge topics

Or sign up free for the notes part in your email.

Field Report: Psychic Signs, Spirit Messages & When “Woo-Woo” Gets a Bit Much

This week’s Field Report is the follow-up to Monday’s episode on signs from the universe, mediumship, and whether humans secretly need meaning to function.

I promised to test it myself.

So naturally, I:

✔ Went to a celebrity psychic

✔ Asked the universe (and possibly my dead dad) for a very specific sign

✔ Emotionally spiralled slightly

✔ Learned an unexpectedly useful life lesson

This episode contains psychic predictions, Ocado logistics, grief anthropology, and the first ever Guru & Granny agony aunt segment — which immediately descends into curtain-related chaos.

You’ve been warned.

🔮 PART 1 — The Psychic Visit

I revisit the psychic reading I had while pregnant and unpack:

• The eerily accurate pregnancy and birth prediction

• The very weird pocket watch story

• The food/content creation prediction that aged… suspiciously well

• The possibility my mum believes psychics just hire private investigators

• The big question: coincidence, cold reading, or something stranger?

👻 PART 2 — Asking the Universe (and My Dad) for a Sign

I tested the theory properly by requesting one specific sign:

👉 The name “Tim”

👉 Offline only

👉 Within three days

The results include:

• Stick-based desperation

• Ocado driver Timothy (plum van edition)

• The Reticular Activating System explained in real life

• Why looking for signs made grief feel… louder, not lighter

💔 FAIL OF THE WEEK

Why deliberately searching for spiritual reassurance actually made my mental state worse — including:

• Emotional dwelling

• Grief resurfacing

• Incense-fuelled crying sessions

Not exactly the influencer wellness journey promised.

💡 FIND OF THE WEEK

Turns out:

👉 Asking actual living humans for support works surprisingly well

Featuring:

• Asking Old Ma for help

• Adult children still wanting their mum to tidy their room

• The emotional science of support vs isolation

👵 NEW SEGMENT — Guru & Granny

Our first listener dilemma arrives:

“How do I persuade my husband to fund bespoke home renovations without murdering him?”

Expect:

• Alarmingly traditional advice

• Weaponised porridge window insulation

• Manipulation strategies that should absolutely not be peer reviewed

🧠 Bigger Takeaway

Looking for signs might comfort some people.

But this experiment raised bigger questions about:

• Grief processing

• Pattern-seeking human brains

• Why meaning matters psychologically

• And when “self-help spirituality” quietly becomes avoidance

✉️ WRITE INTO GURU & GRANNY

Send your dilemmas, chaos, or questionable life decisions via DM or to my instagram @rosehoneymorgan or @field.notes.pod

You can remain anonymous. Highly encouraged after this episode.

🎙 ABOUT FIELD NOTES

A self-improvement podcast for people who are:

• Chronically online

• Mildly overwhelmed

• Trying to improve their lives without becoming insufferable

Each week I test internet advice so you don’t have to.

⭐ If You Enjoyed This Episode

Please follow, rate, and share with someone who has either:

• Googled angel numbers at 2am

• Booked a psychic once “just for fun”

• Or owns at least three types of incense

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I’ve started Actually Trying - a private Substack podcast + newsletter for people who are sick of collecting advice and never applying it.

Each month includes:

• A realistic book club (starting with Atomic Habits by James Clear — no perfection required)
• An Anti-Brain-Rot Club to relearn things we probably should already know
• Weekly private podcast episodes
• Cheat sheets, summaries, and notes delivered straight to your inbox

New private episodes drop every Wednesday.

You can listen in your normal podcast app.

What if asking for signs from the universe isn’t unhinged… just very human?

In this episode of Field Notes, I go somewhere my family would deeply prefer I didn’t: signs from the universe, communicating with the dead, near-death experiences, and whether any of this is actually real — or just a very effective placebo.

This all started after I listened to neuroscientist and psychiatrist Dr Tara Swart on Diary of a CEO, where she calmly (and alarmingly confidently) explained that she believes it is possible to communicate with people who have died — not as a spiritual guru, but as an Oxford-educated medical doctor with a PhD in neuroscience.

So naturally, I had to investigate.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why humans have always searched for signs, meaning, and messages from “elsewhere”
• Dr Tara Swart’s experiences after losing her husband — and the science she believes supports them
• Near-death experiences that are genuinely difficult to explain (including the red MG story)
• Whether consciousness might exist beyond the brain
• The placebo effect — and why “even if it’s not real” doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t work
• Famous placebo studies (fake knee surgery, antidepressants, pain relief)
• The reticular activating system (RAS) and why asking for “signs” might simply train your brain to notice more
• Manifestation, meaning-making, and why modern life feels spiritually hollow
• Whether looking for signs can help with grief, loneliness, and uncertainty — even if you remain deeply sceptical

My own experiment (starts now):

I’m going to ask for a specific, offline sign — not from Instagram, not from scrolling — and I’ll report back on Fridaywith what happened.

If you’re not into the idea of signs from the dead, I also talk through an alternative:

connecting with future you — the older, calmer version of yourself who already survived whatever you’re panicking about now.

Have we lost the plot?

Probably not.

For most of human history, we’ve consulted gods, oracles, ancestors, rituals, astrology, omens, and stories to make sense of the world. When societies lose shared meaning systems, anxiety and loneliness tend to rise — which might explain why manifestation, astrology, and “signs from the universe” are having such a moment.

This episode isn’t about convincing you to believe anything.

It’s about asking whether meaning itself might be useful — even if it’s a little bit made up.

Coming up next:

• Friday: Field Report — what happened when I asked for a sign (plus a story involving a psychic)
• Next week: Ask Guru & Granny — the new listener Q&A segment with:
• a chronically online take (me)
• a chronically offline take (Old Ma)

Send your questions to: rosefieldnotespod@gmail.com

Or DM me on Instagram: @rosehoneymorgan

(Anonymous is absolutely fine.)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So naturally, I committed to the ultimate test:

I dressed as a Clean Girl.

And so did Old Ma.

What followed was… humbling.

Scraped-back buns. Stark white activewear. An identity crisis involving my hairline, forehead, and general facial geography. Turns out Clean Girl Dressing is not for the faint-hearted — or anyone with a large skull, ginger hair, or a low tolerance for belts.

In this episode, I report back on:

• What Clean Girl dressing actually feels like in real life
• Why scraped-back buns are basically a humiliation ritual unless you’re a 9 or 10
• Whether wearing white really does change behaviour (spoiler: it does, slightly)
• Why clothes can affect confidence, posture, and how willing you are to steal your children’s snacks
• The unexpected psychological impact of feeling “seen” vs wanting to disappear
• Why everyone needs a symbolic power item (boots, hat, gilet, etc.)
• The problem with buying “nice pieces” instead of full outfits
• Why belts are medieval torture devices
• And what Clean Girl taught me about hygiene, confidence, and hand-washing (sad but true)

Finds & Fails

Find of the week:

• The concept of a power outfit — clothing that lets you walk into places like you own them (post office, returns desk, life in general)

Fail of the week:

• Wearing nicer clothes under the coat
• Belts
• Stiff blouses
• Thinking I could style “mid-range” outfits without buying the full mannequin look

Accidental Life Hack

• How to get a workout done without creating a third outfit or extra laundry (sports bra under pyjamas = elite behaviour)

📬 Ask Guru & Granny — Coming Next Week

From next week, we’re officially launching Ask Guru & Granny — the new listener segment where we tackle your problems from two perspectives:

• Chronically online (me)
• Chronically offline (Old Ma)

If you’ve got a dilemma, spiral, life question, or quiet panic — send it in.

📩 Email: rosefieldnotespod@gmail.com

📲 Instagram DM: @rosehoneymorgan

Tell us if you want to be anonymous or named.

Neither of us are licensed therapists.

My mum’s main qualification is “a life well lived” and decades of being deeply unimpressed by nonsense.

📸 Extra Bits & Visuals

You can see:

• Old Ma’s Clean Girl attempt
• Aesthetic references
• Power item discussion

Over on the podcast Instagram:

👉 @field.notes.pod

I’ll be back on Monday with another experiment — and yes, it may cause a domestic incident.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

That if we change how we dress, we’ll change how we feel.

That confidence, motivation, discipline, and even happiness might be hiding in a blazer, a slicked-back bun, or a pair of cowboy boots.

But… is that actually true?

Or is this just another internet reinvention fantasy dressed up as self-improvement?

In this episode of Field Notes, I look at main character dressing, aesthetic identities, and the idea that clothes can function as behavioural cues — through humour, cultural anthropology, and lived experience.

This one is for anyone who:

• feels permanently scruffy, flat, or half-alive
• knows they care about how they look, but can’t seem to follow through
• suspects there’s something psychologically real going on here… but also something deeply ridiculous

What we cover

• Main character dressing — what it actually means, and why it’s everywhere

• Dressing for the life you want vs dragging yourself around in leggings and a fleece

• Why clothes can genuinely affect mood, confidence, and behaviour (without becoming delusional about it)

• A gentle roasting of men in tracksuits (you can sit with us — just behave)

• The aesthetics currently doing the rounds online:

• Clean Girl
• Tomato Girl
• Mob Wife
• Cottagecore
• • Why switching aesthetics can feel like trying on identities
• • Whether “rehearsing” a version of yourself helps — or just makes you overthink everything
• • The anthropology of adornment, status, and signalling (including a Copper Age man buried with a solid gold penis sheath)
• • Why Old Ma is always dressed properly — and why she might be onto something

Introducing (soft launch): Ask Guru & Granny

This episode also sets up a new weekly segment starting next episode:

Ask Guru & Granny

Each week we’ll answer listener questions using:

• a chronically online take (me)
• and a chronically offline take (Old Ma — archaeologist, control group, deeply unimpressed by nonsense)

You can ask about:

• identity
• work
• confidence
• relationships
• motivation
• or anything you’re quietly spiralling about

Send questions to: rosefieldnotespod@gmail.com

Or DM me on Instagram: @rosehoneymorgan

Tell us if you’d like to be anonymous or named.

(Neither of us are licensed psychologists or counsellors. My mum’s main credential is “a life well lived” and decades of not indulging bullshit.)

What’s coming next

I’ll be actually trying this in real life:

• testing different aesthetics
• seeing whether clothes change behaviour, mood, or self-control
• and reporting back honestly — including whether it’s worth the laundry, the sensory overload, or the effort

Photos, visuals, and Old Ma’s homework will be shared on the podcast Instagram.

Follow for clips, extras & deleted scenes

📸 Podcast Instagram: @field.notes.pod

(behind-the-scenes chaos, visuals, and things that didn’t make the edit)

If this episode made you laugh, think, or feel mildly called out — share it with someone who’d enjoy being part of this group chat.

See you on Friday for the Field Report.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You send in your problems.

You get:

• a chronically online take (me)
• a chronically offline take (Old Ma)

Questions can be about:

• work
• relationships
• identity
• confidence
• decision paralysis
• ....anything

Send questions to:

📩 rosefieldnotespod@gmail.com

Or DM me on Instagram: @rosehoneymorgan or @field.notes.pod

Tell us if you’d like to be anonymous or named.

(Neither of us are licensed psychologists or counsellors.)

Spacedust discount code - https://www.spacegoods.com/ROSE18621

(they actually give one to anyone. still... I think it's 20% off)

This Episode

This week I went all in on mushroom coffee - far beyond the recommended daily allowance - and flirted with the idea of ayahuasca.

Not at a retreat.

A workshop.

Which is very much the pre-retreat.

I went in curious, sceptical, exhausted, and - unfortunately - deeply distracted by a fit shaman, which immediately ruled out any future scenario involving vomiting, purging, or losing control in front of an attractive man.

So: ayahuasca is crossed off the list for now.

Mushroom coffee, however? Fully in the running.

What this episode covers

We’re all knackered.

Properly frazzled.

Running on broken sleep, caffeine, and whatever scraps of energy are left after bedtime.

And yet Instagram and TikTok cannot agree on what we’re supposed to do about it for more than eleven seconds.

So this field report looks at what actually helped — and what absolutely did not.

In this episode, I cover:

• What ayahuasca actually involves (spoiler: buckets, purging, and zero dignity)
• Why psychedelic “healing” feels wildly incompatible with my personality
• A deeply unsettling mushroom horror story involving horses, Marmite, and sixth form
• Why I don’t buy the idea that neuroplasticity + strangers + vomiting is the answer
• Mushroom coffee vs normal coffee — how it actually feels in the body
• Brain fog, focus, and that rare feeling of being mentally “on”
• Why mushroom coffee feels more like:
• a full night’s sleep
• peak flow
• a few days before ovulation
• Coffee side effects (yes, including that one)
• The creatine variable (and why it complicates the experiment)
• Sleep deprivation, parenting, and surviving on medium-to-go energy
• Why mushroom coffee works brilliantly before midday and terribly after
• How to make mushroom coffee taste genuinely good (no grim watery nonsense)

Mushroom coffee & ingredients mentioned

We talk about:

• Mushroom coffee
• Functional mushrooms
• Nootropics and adaptogens
• Lion’s Mane
• Cordyceps
• Chaga
• Reishi
• Maca
• Creatine and cognition
• Brain fog, focus, and fatigue
• Coffee alternatives

Brands mentioned (not ads):

• Spacegoods
• DIRTEA / Dirty

How I actually drank it (the non-feral version)

• Full mug of oat milk (yes, the whole mug)
• Microwave for one minute
• One tablespoon mushroom coffee
• Stir
• Drink

Optional (if you’re feeling fancy):

• Hazelnut or pistachio crème (M&S)
• Do not bother with water
• Do not add washing-up admin to your life

Find of the Week

Mushroom coffee made properly — creamy, hot, and not vaguely punishing.

Fail of the Week

Drinking it after midday.

Absolutely wired.

Absolutely no sleep.

Do not recommend.

What’s next

I’ll be back on Monday with:

• the first proper Ask Guru & Granny
• another thing I’m actually trying
• and a report on whether any of this is helping or just rearranging the exhaustion

See you then.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

•Bargain Hunt: British daytime TV where people buy antiques and act like it’s a pension strategy.

•Wordle: a daily five-letter word game we all got hooked on in lockdown.

New listener segment starting next week: Ask Guru & Granny

From next week, we’ll be answering listener questions — anything you’re stuck on, spiralling about, or quietly panicking over.

You’ll get:

•a chronically online take (me)

•and a chronically offline take (Old Ma)

Send your questions to: rosefieldnotespod@gmail.com

Or DM me on Instagram: @rosehoneymorgan or @field.notes.pod

Tell us if you’d like to be anonymous or named.

Neither of us are licensed psychologists or counsellors. My mum’s main credential is “a life well lived” and several decades of being unimpressed by nonsense. Mine is that I'm now a guru.

We are all exhausted. Properly frazzled. Brain-fogged. Running on caffeine, habit, and whatever scraps of motivation are left after bedtime.

And then you open Instagram or TikTok and get hit with the most infuriating contradiction imaginable:

Drink coffee for energy.

No — coffee is ruining your nervous system.

Try mushroom coffee.

No — you need to microdose psychedelics.

Actually, you just need perfect sleep, perfect routines, and zero stimulants (good luck with that).

So today, I’m trying to work out what we’re actually supposed to do when we’re tired, overwhelmed, and drowning in wellness advice that can’t agree with itself for more than eleven seconds.

This episode looks at energy, focus, and brain fog through the lens of:

•coffee vs no coffee

•mushroom coffee / nootropics / adaptogens

•microdosing psychedelics

•and why optimisation culture often collapses in real life

I react to some of the most common reels doing the rounds right now — doctors, nutritionists, biohackers, and internet experts all offering wildly conflicting advice — and try to slow the whole thing down enough to make sense of it.

What we cover

•Why so many of us feel permanently tired and mentally scattered

•Coffee on an empty stomach: cortisol, hormones, gut health — fearmongering or fair warning?

•Mushroom coffee explained (what it is and what it definitely isn’t)

•Common functional mushrooms and adaptogens you’ll hear about online, including:

Lion’s Mane, Cordyceps, Chaga, Reishi, Maca, and other “brain-boosting” blends

•Nootropics vs stimulants: focus without the crash?

•Brian Johnson, extreme optimisation, and the fantasy of total nervous-system stability

•Psychedelics and microdosing: potential benefits, real risks, and why this conversation has gone so strange online

•The Stoned Ape Theory (and why archaeologists absolutely love an unprovable idea)

This episode also introduces my mum — Old Ma — an archaeologist, lifelong observer of human behaviour, and proudly chronically offline control group. She brings a very different perspective on psychedelics, energy, and the idea that modern life can be “fixed” with powders and protocols.

This is not medical advice. It’s an honest attempt to translate modern wellness culture for tired people who don’t have the bandwidth to fact-check every reel.

⸻

Follow for clips, extras & deleted scenes

•Podcast Instagram: @field.notes.pod (deleted scenes, extra bits, behind-the-scenes chaos)

Next up: I’ll actually test some of this advice in real life and report back.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It may not get you any more of a discount that you can get yourselves (I haven't clicked it yet), and they may request that I take it down after listening to this episode. But hey ho. The show notes are looking professional this week.

Field Report of the dopamine detox experiment. I tested three “highly scientific” methods in my most dangerous scrolling window: 7–10pm after the girls are asleep.

What I tried:

• Night 1: full raw-dog detox (no phone, no TV, no music, no book… just vibes and existential dread)
• Night 2: reading instead (Kindle + a dangerously moorish fantasy romance)
• Night 3: TV without the phone (feat. the Bonnie Blue documentary and a sudden moral debate I wasn’t prepared for)

We also cover:

• why “doing nothing” is a rich man’s hobby
• the weird way scrolling has ruined reading
• why watching a whole film now feels like personal growth
• sex being transactional across human history (lightly… then not lightly)
• Flatmate’s Field Notes: my husband’s unhinged business analysis of Bonnie Blue
• Find of the Week: Brick (a physical gadget that blocks apps unless you walk to it)
• Fail of the Week: realising I’m not enjoying reading like I used to (rude)

If you tried a dopamine detox too, I want your results. And if you’ve used Brick, please report to the group chat (my DMs).

Follow: @rosehoneymorgan

Podcast IG: @field.notes.pod

New Monday episodes + Friday Field Reports.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So naturally, I decided to make it everyone else’s problem too.

From raw-dogging flights (no phone, no music, no water, no joy) to promises that cutting out dopamine will magically fix motivation, laziness, and modern life in general — dopamine has officially entered its villain era.

In this episode, I’m not trying anything yet. I’m circling the idea, poking it, and asking some basic questions first, like:

• What actually is dopamine and why has it suddenly become the enemy?
• Are dopamine detoxes sensible… or just dry January for your phone?
• Is scrolling ruining our brains, or are we just terrible at stopping?
• Why can I listen to podcasts endlessly but can’t watch a full TV episode without grabbing my phone?
• And at what point does “self-control” turn into sitting on a plane staring at the flight map like a Victorian orphan?

I also dig into:

• Healthy vs unhelpful dopamine (effort vs passive flooding)
• Why modern life makes everything feel simultaneously overstimulating and boring
• How screen culture is quietly reshaping films, TV, and attention spans
• And whether completely removing stimulation actually helps… or just makes life grim

By the end, I set up this week’s experiment:

• One day of doing nothing (true detox, unfortunately)
• One day replacing scrolling with reading
• One day watching a full film without touching my phone (pray for me)

This is Field Notes — where I test modern self-improvement ideas in real life, outside of perfect conditions, and report back honestly on what actually happens.

🎧 Friday: I’ll be back with a Field Report on whether any of this helped, or whether I just became deeply annoying to live with.

If you enjoy the show, please leave a review or subscribe.

Find me on instagram: @rosehoneymorgan

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After launching the podcast and immediately developing a brief but intense sense of delusion, I realised I’d slightly abandoned the entire premise of the show. Instead of calmly testing a saved bit of advice and reporting back, I panicked, went semi-guru, and tried to convince everyone (including my family) that vision boards absolutely, definitely work.

This episode is me correcting course.

I talk about:

• my delusions of grandeur
• why outcome-based vision boards can feel motivating and then quietly ruin your life
• how “process pictures” are supposed to work in theory, and why they’re surprisingly hard when your goals involve screens, editing, or admin
• and the growing realisation that naming a podcast without Googling it first may have been… optimistic

We also establish two recurring Field Notes features:

• Fail of the Week (there were many)
• Find of the Week: if your perfume doesn't smell great, leave it for 4 years then come back to it

If you like self-improvement in theory but struggle with it in real life, you’re in the right place.

Links & Extras

• Follow me on Instagram: @rosehoneymorgan
• Podcast clips, experiments & visual chaos: @field.notes.pod

If You’re Enjoying the Show

You can:

• follow / subscribe so you don’t lose it in your apps
• leave a review (even a short one, I will screenshot it for my lame folder)
• or send this to someone on the same wavelength

Next Episode

On Monday, I’m testing another widely saved piece of internet advice to see whether it actually survives contact with real life.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

• Personal: @rosehoneymorgan
• Podcast: @field.notes.pod

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review — even a short one. It genuinely helps this show find the people it’s meant for.

New episodes every Monday, with short Friday Field Reports.

Why Vision Boards Fail (And How to Fix Them)

Most of us don’t have a motivation problem.

We have a too-much-advice problem.

If you’ve ever saved hundreds of self-improvement posts, understood all of them, and still felt overwhelmed, guilty, and no closer to actually changing anything — this episode is for you.

In the first ever episode of Field Notes, I explain the premise of the podcast and put our first experiment to the test: vision boards. Not the fantasy, yacht-and-linen version — but the kind that might actually work in real life.

I talk through:

• why modern vision boards often backfire
• the neuroscience behind why visual cues can work
• where self-help goes wrong when it focuses on outcomes instead of process
• how humans have used imagery for survival and behaviour change across history
• and why cave art might be a better model for self-improvement than Pinterest

I also bring along my 2024 and 2025 vision boards as the first (and most humiliating) guests on the show, including the one goal that accidentally did work thanks to a Sarah Connor lock-screen.

This podcast isn’t about becoming a new person overnight.

It’s about filtering advice, testing one small idea at a time, and figuring out what’s actually worth doing, outside of perfect conditions.

On Friday, I’ll be back with a short Field Report on what happened when I made a process-based vision board and whether it helped or just gave me another thing to judge myself by.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Each week, one idea is filtered and tested in real life, outside of perfect conditions, then reported on honestly.

This short trailer explains the premise of the podcast, the format, and what to expect from the weekly Monday episodes and Friday Field Reports.

Follow along on Instagram: 

@rosehoneymorgan

@field.notes.pod

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.