Mel Wiggins - Assembly Community

January 2026, over and out. Best bits:
- new wooly jumpers ()
- late night walks & yaps with
- the snow - so magical for a few days ✨
- celebrating the big 75 for my oul da 🧡
- seeing Amy Grant at the Waterfront: nostalgic & special
- keeping my skin well looked after in the cold with the GOAT
- a night away at The Old Inn, Crawfordsburn
- gym gym and more gym with my hypegirl 💪🏻
- cozy weekends under blankets and dressing gowns. I heard a girl on TikTok share a granola recipe and she said “I only make this once a month or else I would eat it every day” and I thought to myself …. “Where is the problem….?”

Proof that Christmas 2025 happened ✨

We filled the house with food and the people we love multiple times - my favourite. The dishwasher deserves an OBE and I’m not sure my body clock will recover. I’ve gone nocturnal and I’ve got a date with Harry & Sally later.

Sending love to you all as the sun sets on another year. 🧡

NOVEMBER 🧣🧦

Giving it that last burst of autumn energy before real hibernation starts to kick in. Some highlights:
- very much recommend a night away with your business partner/bestie ( / ) for some dreaming for the next year of work (in the sauna) and eating cake and crying laughing at TikTok’s in robes on the hotel bed.
- winter light, soups, podcasting from bed (always)
- getting dolled up for a night out with the netball girls (the GD to my GA 😘)
- getting my uni certificates in the post!
- Belfast looking like a snack, the sky being a show off out our front window.
- the best visit with (who definitely did NOT wear her jammies to the gym)
- this is me peaking on our night out. It was 7.30pm.

Ready for December! If you need me this month, no you don’t. 🧡

Just back from a very special weekend down (up?) in the Wicklow Mountains (excellent driving conditions, wasn’t terrifying at all, thanks for asking).

A number of months ago, & I got connected in with a few others from down south who were keen to see if we could bring the wonderful over for some teaching here in Ireland. Fast forward through many zoom calls, democratic decision making, spreadsheets and a wing and a prayer and we () made it happen this weekend at the beautiful .demesne

Hillary’s work has been important both in my own journey of befriending my body but also in influencing the work Michelle & I do each week with where we connect with leaders, teams and organisations who are craving more opportunities to learn about leading from a place of noticing what’s happening inside them, being more self aware and present within their own bodies, and in turn in their work and relationships.

So to sit in a room full of others who value that level of teaching and be part of those conversations and experiences yesterday was moving and powerful. 🙏🏻

Add to that, I got the chance to finally meet some kindred clients that I have worked with online as a coach for many years but never met in the flesh - to hear about their lives and see them flourishing truly was so special and I’m feeling all mushy and grateful about it (and maybe even a bit weepy - hello luteal phase!)

Anyway, all of this to say - I’m glad this work exists in the world. Our bodies are places of such a myriad of complex and mind-blowing experiences. Our bodies are our companions through sorrow, delight, restriction, pleasure, loathing, hurt, joy, fury, awe and every other imaginable way it is able to experience life as a human being on planet earth. That feels like something to spend some time learning about and, when we can be, grateful for. I know I am.

Weekly snapshots. Kind of fun to play and document little moments again here. Not featured: putting out my back 🙄, tough cases at work, house a tip because of bathroom renovation and general familial arguments that make me want to squeal into a pillow 😂.

Half-term highlights. A week off that came at just the right time. 🧡

Normalise dicking about in farmers fields with your mates in midlife (including a full wardrobe change behind a hedge) 🤣

Really though, your friends are the loves of your life. They’ll maybe know you longer and deeper and wider and fuller than any lover. Romance them hard. Hype them up. Take the p**s out of them relentlessly.

It’s kinda what our podcast is about. Which was the excuse for doing these photos but really and I just wanted to hang out with each other and & play. Rach is the third member of MAE by now. You should hire her to take photos of you and your people.

The Making an Effort Podcast is available in all the places! And on all the platforms! We’re not out to do anything grand, but we hope our little hour of blethering each week is a soft place to land and be reminded that there are other women out there who also have no idea what they’re doing. We’re grateful so many of you still listen and hang out with us and include us in your weekly routines. Love you guys.

P.S. Iris says hi.