And hello to you and welcome to the Richard Nichols podcast, the Personal Development

podcast series that's here to help inspire, educate and motivate you to be the best you

can be.

I'm psychotherapist Richard Nichols, and this is episode 169.

It's titled, It's The Thought That Counts.

And if you're ready, we'll start the show.

How are things, folks? Have you had a good month?

We had a bank holiday last week and another one next week.

And another one at the end of May, so if you're lucky enough to get the bank holiday last week and another one next week. And another one at the end of May.

So if you're lucky enough to get the bank holiday Mondays off, then it's a great time right now.

We just need to take advantage of it.

So it's the thought that counts.

That's the title of today's episode.

And I don't mean other people thinking about you. That's not what I mean

by it's the thought that counts. And I mentioned this to somebody recently. I said,

I think my next episode is going to be called it's the thought that counts. You said,

oh, is that about presence and accepting gifts and things? I thought, no, I just wanted to capture

your attention with a title that was a familiar phrase.

What I'm interested in is about how your thinking is what counts towards whether an experience

is a good one, a bad one, or simply just is. And with some really quite extreme situations, too,

which I might give you a trigger warning about.

And I've been thinking about this topic for quite a long time, actually, and I've been a bit wary about it because I don't want it to come across as if it's your own fault if we feel bad

...