Trailblazers’ Stories: not-your-average Blog
Here you’ll find more than 450 full-lenght articles, most 4000 words+, about subjects that would interest people who are navigating huge life changes, challenges and crises and are starting the next chapters in their lives. Most articles feature the story of someone who had to cope with a life-altering crisis. Maybe you’ll find the story of someone who survived the exact same crisis as you are facing? You can use the search function below to find inspiring stories:
Here are the main themes:
1. Retreats – Stress Dissolvers & Direction Finders – The transformative power of retreat experiences for people navigating major life transitions, career pivots, and personal crossroads. Explore how stepping away creates space for clarity, renewal, and intentional next chapters.
2. Horses – Partners in Transformation – How equine-assisted learning can accelerate emotional healing, build self-awareness, and guide stressed professionals toward their next chapter with wisdom that only horses can provide.
3. Navigating Life Changes, Challenges & Crises – Practical strategies and emotional support for weathering life’s storms—from unexpected upheavals to planned transitions. Learn to navigate uncertainty with resilience and emotional adaptability during pivotal life moments.
4. Burnout & Stress Management in Transition – Understanding why life transitions amplify stress and burnout risk. Science-backed approaches to managing acute and chronic stress when you’re already navigating significant personal or professional change.
5. Life Purpose – The Foundation of New Beginnings – Discovering and reconnecting with your deeper purpose during times of change. Explore why clarity of purpose is essential when reinventing your life, career, or identity.
6. Emotional Intelligence, Empathy, Self-Awareness & Mindfulness – Developing the inner resources that make transitions smoother. Cultivate emotional maturity, self-compassion, and mindful practices that support you through life’s most challenging passages.
7. Reinvention and Reconstruction after a Major Life Change – Navigate relationship shifts, empty nests, health scares, career pivots, redundancies, retirement, relocation, professional success without fulfillment, and find clarity for your next chapter.
8. Grief, Loss & Legacy – Honouring what’s been lost while creating meaningful legacy. Process grief from death, relationship endings, or life chapter closures, and discover how loss can transform into purposeful living.
9. Nature, Sustainability & Slow and Solo Travel – Reconnecting with natural rhythms as an antidote to modern overwhelm. Embrace sustainable, intentional living that supports well-being during life transitions and beyond.
10. Writing, Reading & Storytelling – How words heal and transform during major life changes. Explore writing your story, reading for solace and inspiration, book reviews, and storytelling circles as powerful tools for processing transition.
Margaretha Montagu
What this post is about: I've been intermittently fasting for nearly 7 years now. The concept is beautifully simple (don't eat for x hours, then eat for x hours), but actually doing it? That's where most people face-plant into a...
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Margaretha Montagu
What this is: A deep dive into why telling your story, out loud, to other humans who've been through it, matters more than you think. This is about the neuroscience, the heart science, and the practical magic of storytelling during...
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Margaretha Montagu
December 24, 2025 - Christmas Eve Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships during Life Transitions Today's Story: The Novel Unwritten Louise sat at her desk on December 19th, staring at a blank document titled "Chapter One—Draft 47" while her cursor...
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Margaretha Montagu
December 23, 2025 - 2 days to Christmas and before-last post in this series Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships during Life Transitions Today's Story: The Lighthouse Elise sat on her living room floor on December 23rd, surrounded by thirty-seven...
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Margaretha Montagu
Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships December 22, 2015 - 3 days to Christmas Today's Story: Les Dolphins Argentés Monique stood at her kitchen window on Christmas morning. It was 9:47 AM. The Biarritz Bain de Noël—the traditional Christmas Day...
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Margaretha Montagu
Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships December 21, 2025 - 4 days to Christmas Today's Story: The Last, Late Harvest André sat in the vineyard office, a generous term for a stone shed with a desk and a filing cabinet...
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Margaretha Montagu
20 December 2025 - 5 days to Christmas! Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships Today's Story: An Alternative Christmas Letter Donna sat at the wooden table in her rented ski cabin, laptop open, staring at a blank document titled "Christmas...
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Margaretha Montagu
December 19, 2025 - 6 days to Christmas! Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships Today's Story: Christmas Punch (Recipe Included) For Penny. Eleanor had been hunting for the nutmeg—surely she'd bought nutmeg at some point in the last two decades—when...
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Margaretha Montagu
18 December 2025 - only 7 days to Christmas! Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships in Difficult Times Today's Story: Walking Wednesdays Harold stood in the car park of the Plage de Messanges, watching a group of men mill about...
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Margaretha Montagu
Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships December 17, 2025 - 8 days to Christmas Today's Story: One Step at a Time For Rosie. Céline had officially decided that life could take its unwanted diagnosis and kindly shove it into a...
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Margaretha Montagu
December 16, 2025 - 9 days to Christmas Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships during Life Transitions Today's Story: The Thirteen Desserts of Christmas Lisa stood just inside the barn door at 5:45 AM on December the 2Oth, squinting into...
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Margaretha Montagu
Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships December 15, 2025 - 10 days to Christmas Today's Story: The Hailhe de Nadau Julien sat at his kitchen table, staring at his Hailhe de Nadau list, while his father shouted at the television...
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Margaretha Montagu
Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships December 14, 2025 - 11 days to Christmas Today's Story: Margaux stood in Henri's farmhouse kitchen at 4:47 AM on December 24rd, drinking coffee that could strip paint and wondering why she'd agreed to...
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Margaretha Montagu
Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships during Life Transitions December 13, 2025 - 12 days to Christmas Today's Story: The Sorano Revival For Sue T. Sophia had been standing in front of the Christmas ornament stall at the Bordeaux Christmas...
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Margaretha Montagu
December 12, 2025 - 13 days to Christmas Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships Today's Story: Lost in Time Camille stood in the arched stone doorway of Jean-Luc’s wine cellar, convulsively clutching a dust-covered journal from 1847 like it was...
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Margaretha Montagu
Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships December 11, 2025 - 14 days to Christmas Today's Story: The Plum Pudding Rebellion Isabelle sat in her car outside the Agen Christmas market, watching people buy things they didn't need with money they...
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Margaretha Montagu
Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships December 10, 2025 - 15 days to Christmas Today's Story: Chocolate, Sausage, and Salvation Pierre stared at the email on his phone screen with the particular despair of someone who'd just watched their dreams...
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Margaretha Montagu
9 December 2025, 16 days to Christmas! Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships Today's Story: Ste Suzanne's Crèche Vivante Sophie stood at the kitchen window of the ancient half-timbered farmhouse. Vineyards stretch across the rolling hills, their geometric rows precise...
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Margaretha Montagu
8 December 2025, 17 days to Christmas! Theme: Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships Today's Story: The Cardamom Conspiracy Maya stood in her minuscule apartment staring at the empty cardamom jar like it had personally betrayed her. Which, in a way,...
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Margaretha Montagu
December 7, 2025 - 19 Days until Christmas Theme: The Importance of Making Friends and Maintaining Friendships during Difficult Times Today's Story: Au Café des Platanes Friends as Chosen Family The air outside the Café des Platanes smelled like caramelised...
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Margaretha Montagu
High-Functioning Burnout Symptoms Are Easy to Miss when you're still "holding it together": A doctor's guide to rebuilding after burning bright for too long. Additional feature: High-Functioning Burnout Symptoms at Christmas: Why this season reveals the cracks in your carefully...
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Margaretha Montagu
December 6, 2025 - 19 Days to Christmas A Christmas Gift A Christmas Story: The Spa Day That Went Sideways For Lesley By the time Claire Dubois signed her divorce papers on December 18th, she felt as if she had...
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Margaretha Montagu
December 5, 2025 - 20 Days to Christmas Relocation to Paris Today's Story: Priya's Paris Relocation The moment Priya stepped into the "3ème Soirée Annuelle de Networking & Canapés de Noël"—an event title that sounded like a hostile takeover of...
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Margaretha Montagu
December 3, 2025 - 22 Days to Christmas Today's Story: Elsie’s "Mistake.” Château de la Garde had rough-hewn limestone walls that rose from the damp earth like a sleeping giant. Elsie pulled her wool scarf higher, the fabric scratching her...
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Margaretha Montagu
December 4, 2025 - 21 Days to Christmas Today's Story: Marie's Wig Collection For Harriet The text arrives at 6:47 AM on December 10th: Chemo brain strikes again. Forgot to buy eggs. Also forgot what eggs are for. Send help....
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Margaretha Montagu
What this is: A practical exploration of how your brain responds to life's curveballs, and why understanding the difference between reactive and responsive thinking is the single most important skill for anyone ready to write their next chapter (especially when...
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Margaretha Montagu
December 2, 2025 - 23 Days to Christmas Life transitions can be isolating, especially during the holiday season when everything seems to revolve around togetherness. But even in the darkest times, we don’t have to face challenges alone. Our friends...
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Margaretha Montagu
December 1, 2025 - 24 Days to Christmas It's the 1st of December 2025 and time to start my annual Countdown to Christmas Calendar! The theme is friends and friendships and the format this year includes a story and a...
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Margaretha Montagu
Author: Julia CameronRating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 out of 5 stars)Read if: You've been telling yourself "I used to be creative" for longer than you'd like to admit. The Backbone of the Book According to Julia Cameron, your creative self isn't dead—it's...
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Margaretha Montagu
The Simple Writing Practice That Clears Mental Chaos so You Can Finally Start Your Next Chapter What this is: A practical exploration of morning pages, the brain-clearing writing practice that helps you process the mental chaos of major life transitions....
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