Leighton Park’s Female Lead Society welcomed Christina Calderwood to their meeting, who led an inspiring Journaling and Mindset workshop. The session focused on building self-confidence from the inside out, encouraging students to develop healthier internal conversations and kinder relationships with themselves.
Christina is a certified Holistic Health & Wellness Coach and qualified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach by The Institute for Integrative Nutrition and promises coaching to help growth, embracing evolving oneself and navigating life with grace. She introduced journaling as a powerful tool for self-awareness, emotional clarity, and personal growth.
By regularly putting pen to paper, students can track their progress, notice patterns in how they feel, and celebrate their successes, big or small. Research also shows that writing down our thoughts helps us decompress and prevents feelings of overwhelm, giving the mind the space it needs to reset.
To guide the group into reflective thinking, the workshop included working with four journaling prompts:
These questions encouraged students to explore their sense of identity, recognise supportive relationships, and practise positive self-talk. Christina emphasised that self-kindness is essential for reaching our potential, reminding the group: “We don’t get the best out of ourselves when we’re not kind to ourselves.”
Christina expressed why she enjoys bringing these workshops to students: “I think it’s such a lovely opportunity to be able to speak to young women that are going through secondary school where there are so many changes and to really support them in that period where there’s so much transition where you can be finding yourself, your identity and really establishing yourself at that next stage of life. I think that supporting girls and building that relationship with themselves especially when confidence can really waver at that age, I think it’s just so important and I also think sometimes hearing it from someone totally external can be helpful, so that’s why I really like doing it.”
By the end of the workshop, students left with practical journaling strategies, a clearer sense of their internal dialogue, and a renewed understanding of how mindset shapes confidence. The session offered a valuable reminder that self-development begins with awareness and that thoughtful reflection, like Quakerism, can be one of the most empowering habits we build.
Female Lead ambassador, Cali (Upper Sixth) , found not only the session inspiring, but our Female Lead group and it’s consistent opportunities at LP: “I really enjoyed the session with Christina, as I’ve never done journaling before and it was so valuable to learn about the benefits of how I could use journalling to help me throughout my A levels to manage any worries. Our partnership with The Female Lead makes me future ready as it embeds empowerment, ensuring wherever life takes me I have the confidence to be myself and pursue my goals.“
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