And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me”

Martin Niemöller

I watched the Manningtree Witches at Mercury |Theatre on Saturday. It was outstanding. Really good and really awful at the same time. Really good because it was a powerful performance, with an important message, and really awful because it was dark, depressing, and deeply disturbing. The worst thing is it’s a true story.

It’s the true story of how the Witch Finder General, Matthew Hopkins, decided that certain women were witches and had them put to death. He accused them of being devil worshippers, whereas in fact they were widows and their only crime was being a bit outspoken.

A few things struck me. First of all, it’s easy to think that things like that don’t happen these days. And yet, on the one hand we see the demonisation of immigrants and Muslims and on the other we see the demonisation of the far right.

I saw a post on X a few weeks ago calling for an end to division. The irony of it was that it was a repost about march against the far right by a group calling themselves Together Unity. How can a march AGAINST anything stop division and create harmony. I posted as such and suggested to Together Unity that they do a march for unity instead, but they didn’t respond.

The late President Ikeda, former president of the SGI, suggests that world peace will come through dialogue. This means talking to each other with a goal of really understanding each other’s point of view, instead of trying to prove the other person wrong.

I have been told I’m an idealist. Yes, I am an idealist. And if everyone was an idealist, wouldn’t the world be a better place? What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Another thing that struck me about the play was the parallels with my own life.

A couple of years ago, I shared with a friend how difficult I find it to speak my truth. My friend told me it was the witch wound. She explained that in a past life I was probably tortured or put to death for being a wise woman and speaking my truth. Therefore, now I am literally scared to death of speaking my truth. It really resonated with me.

In this life I was brought up as a Jehovah’s Witness. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that are the only true religion, and all other religions come from the devil. Especially the type of spirituality I practice these days. I feel this, along with past life issues, has blocked my power and my intuition.

I was also brought up to believe that sex outside of marriage was a sin. Now as a teenager, I was really f*cking horny all the time. Can you relate? Let me know in the comments.

There was a teenager in the Manningtree Witches play who was experiencing these strong sexual feelings and trying to suppress them because they were sinful. She was one of the women who was arrested for being a witch.

When I was 18, I was disfellowshipped from the Jehovah’s Witness religion because me and my boyfriend engaged in what they called “heavy petting”. It all came to a head when we tried to have sex. I say tried because it was very unsuccessful. We didn’t have a clue what we were doing.

We were brought in front of what they called a “judicial committee”. I had to sit in a room with three elders and go into explicit detail about what happened between my boyfriend and me.

After that I became estranged from my family and have been more or less for over 30 years. My Dad is 85 this year and it breaks my heart to know that I might not see him again before he dies.

I hope this post resonated with you and that it touched your heart. Speaking our truth is never easy, but it’s usually the right thing to do. It’s still a work in progress for me. What about you? Let me know in the comments.

This post was originally published on HappinessClub.co.uk and is also available as a vlog and blog post on the Happiness Club Substack page.

I was single for a looooong time before I met MSP. It was only when I started learning to love myself and started learning to be Happy that I was able to attract a Happy, healthy relationship. People used to say to me “It’s so great to see how Happy Andy makes you” and I would correct them and say “No, Andy doesn’t make me Happy. I have learnt to be Happy and as a consequence I have attracted a relationship. Andy is a symptom. He’s not the cause!”

For a long time I felt depressed on Valentine’s Day. I used to think I was fat and ugly and I would never find a boyfriend. Then I started hating on those Happy couples. After that I became defiant with “I don’t need a man” mentality.

The year I met MSP I did a lot of work on myself. I call it my year of transformation. I spent Valentine’s Day with my good friend Cristina. We celebrated our friendship. We wrote letters to our soulmates, placed them in empty beer bottles and let them go in the sea. I bought myself a cute teddy bear.

What can you do to love yourself this Valentine’s Day? Notice how quickly things start to shift when you change your perspective.

This is the kind of thing I talk about in the online course Happiness Club for Unlimited Self-Esteem and the free guide.

Hmmm. Good question.

When I recovered from the audacity, absurdity, and arrogance of the question, I could see that it was indeed a good question. The short answer is no, of course the route to Happiness is not to get a man! In reality, it’s not as simple as that. Many women, although they may not admit it, do they think they will be happy when they’ve found a man. (Boy are they in for a shock!) For many years, I was one of those women!

Most, if not all, of us think we’ll be happy when we’ve reached or acquired some external goal or thing: a new job, more money, lost weight, a relationship, etc. My Facebook friend Chiara McHale calls it “destination addiction” – a phrase I had not heard of before.

What most people fail to realise is that Happiness is an inside job. Paradoxically when you get Happy you get what you want. Most people are going about it the wrong way around. When you get so Happy that you no longer want or need that thing, when you could take it or leave it, that’s when it comes along.

I spent many years desperately trying to find love. People used to say to me, “it will happen when you least expect it” and “you’ve got to love yourself first”. I got sick of hearing it. I thought if one more person says that to me, I’m going to punch them in the nose.

The most annoying thing is that of course they were right!

In 2015 I got Happy and on 30 December 2015 I started my relationship with Andrew Piotrowski, better known as Mr Sexy Pants (MSP). Side-note: as you know from my previous posts, I still have a long way to go to achieve happiness. It is an ongoing learning experience. I did get to the point where I was sufficiently Happy in myself to be able to attract and (this is important) maintain a Happy, healthy relationship.

When I got Happy and started to love myself, I found a relationship very quickly. People often made the mistake of thinking it was MSP who had made me Happy.

“It’s so good to see that Andy makes you happy,” they would crow in delight. I was quick to correct them, “No, Andy doesn’t make me Happy. I make myself Happy. He is a symptom not the cause.”

How do you learn to love yourself?

I soon realised that everyone was right, and you do have to learn to love yourself first. My next question was how do you learn to love yourself?

There are many ways to learn to love yourself. In this post. I share three techniques.

Affirmations

Affirmations, especially mirror affirmations, are very effective. My favourites for self-love are “I am enough” and “I love and approve of myself”. Looking in the mirror and saying “I love you” as you look into your own eyes is particularly powerful.

I recently read a book called “Stop Checking Your Likes: Shake Off the Need for Approval and Live an Incredible Life” by Susie Moore. Her book inspired me to look in the mirror and say, “You are hot stuff,” as I give myself a little pat on the bum.

Just after I started doing this, I said to MSP. “I am hot stuff!” “You ARE hot stuff babe!” he replied. I did look hot that day and not in a sweaty way.

The next day I said to him, “How does it feel to have a girlfriend who is hot stuff?” As I said it, I realised I was not looking my best. It was mid lockdown. I was still in my pyjamas (at dinner time), I hadn’t washed my face or brushed my hair or even my teeth!” He looked at me. Opened his mouth to say something. Shut his mouth. Then he looked at me again and we both burst out laughing.

Self-care

Self-care is key to loving yourself. Treat yourself as you would treat a lover or how you would want a lover to treat you! Cook yourself a healthy meal, go on a date with yourself, light some candles, and have a bath with Epsom salts and essential oils.

Spend Time Alone

From what I’ve seen and from my experience one of the best ways to love yourself, overcome loneliness, and achieve Happiness is to disconnect from the world and spend some time alone. Turn off your phone, computer and the TV for a couple of hours or even better a day and reconnect with yourself. Disconnect to reconnect.

Do you need a man to be Happy?

So, do you need a man to be Happy? As I’ve already mentioned Happiness is an inside job and it can’t be found in external things such as money, jobs, and relationships. If you do want to find a relationship, then becoming Happy and learning to love yourself first is key.

What’s your experience of Happiness? Does your Happiness depend on external things?

I’m Samantha Brook. Freakin’ Goddess at Happiness Club.

Helping neurospicy, midlife women overcome self-doubt, achieve unlimited self-esteem, learn to be Happy, and get what they want.

Amazon #1 bestselling author and award-winning coach.

Ps. If you’d like to work with me there are a few ways you can do that including:

1. Subscribe to Happiness Club on Substack to receive a regular dose of Happiness in your inbox.

2. Buy the book - Happiness Club: Learn to Be Happy and Get What You Want! https://amzn.to/49HGUXR

3. Get the free guide ‘Happiness Club for Unlimited Self-Esteem. https://mailchi.mp/3743db3801c7/self-esteem?fbclid=IwAR2Am0Aqm0OZ-BK10K63VnfKEyE0vc-oBuNcIrN_p3LWVJ0ht1wlbtZ1HZA

4. Buy the online course ‘Happiness Club for Unlimited Self-Esteem. https://happiness-club.cademy.io/happiness-club-for-unlimited-self-esteem

This post was originally written for Happiness-Club.co.uk in 2020 and I updated it for Valentines Day 2025.

Sam here from Happiness Club, aka the Freakin’ Goddess.

Today I want to talk about the importance of taking time to nourish your soul.

As you may know, if you’ve seen a couple of things I posted last week, I’ve been feeling pretty overwhelmed recently. My dear friend, Charlie Mackinlay, reached out to me after reading my posts and suggested meeting up over the weekend. I was sorely tempted as I love spending time with Charlie. Also, Charlie lives by the sea, and I absolutely love spending time by the sea.

However, when Charlie messaged me I was feeling so overwhelmed I couldn’t even think straight and I knew I had a lot on this weekend, so I asked her if I could let her know nearer the time.

As the week went on, I felt that seeing Charlie and spending time by the sea was exactly what the Doctor ordered. I was right. We had a great time catching up and eating delicious homemade butternut squash soup. After lunch we went for a walk by the sea. It was pissing it down and blowing a gale, but it certainly blew the cobwebs away.

I came away and my soul felt nourished. So I want to encourage you to take some time to nourish your soul. Who, or what, nourishes your soul? When are you going to take time to nourish your soul this week and what are you going to do? Let me know in the comments.

I’m currently running some special offers for Black Friday.

The book Happiness Club: Learn to Be Happy and Get What You Want is only £10, reduced from £11.99. And the Kindle version is £5.99, reduced from £6.99.

The Happiness Club for Unlimited Self-Esteem online course, which is great if you want to overcome fear and imposter syndrome and invoke your very own Freakin’ Goddess, is currently on 50% off, that’s £49 reduced from £99.

Sending loads of love and juju to you all for you to have a wonderful week. xxx

“Words are energy and they cast spells, that’s why it’s called spelling” – Bruce Lee.

How I Stopped Blocking My Ability to Attract Money

Twice this year, I had a realisation that I’ve written a book called Happiness Club: Learn to Be Happy and Get What You Want, and I needed to take my own medicine. Healer, heal thy self, as the saying goes.

The first time was earlier this year. I was unhappy in my day job and constantly complaining about it. I realised I wasn’t Happy, and I wasn’t getting what I wanted! At the beginning of March, I made a firm decision that I was going to resolve this situation once and for all. I used various manifesting techniques including Abraham Hicks’ Rampage of Appreciation and Focus Wheel exercise. I started a Buddhist chanting campaign and chanted to leave my job, leave on good terms, and earn enough money from Happiness Club that I no longer needed a day job. That was on Monday morning.

By Monday lunchtime, I was sitting in a meeting with my manager and director discussing redundancy. By Wednesday lunchtime they confirmed they were making me redundant. They agreed to pay me redundancy, even though I wasn’t entitled to it. I left on good terms, and the director even thanked me for my professionalism and for making a difficult process easier.

The second time was a few weeks ago. Once again, I had fallen into the trap of worrying about money. I was telling everyone I met about my money problems. I tend to do that. It’s as if I think that if I keep telling people my problems, someone will come up with an answer for me, whereas actually I am just giving that problem energy.

I replaced worrying about money with affirmations, visualisation, and other manifesting techniques to attract money. That week, I manifested nearly £600!

Can you relate to this? Do you find yourself worrying or complaining? What techniques do you use to attract money? Let me know in the comments.

About me

I’m Samantha Brook.

I’m a Happiness blogger and coach.

I am the Amazon #1 bestselling author of Happiness Club: Learn to Be Happy and Get What You Want.

At Happiness Club, I am on a mission to help 1 million people learn to be Happy and to make Happiness affordable and accessible for all.

ps. Do you know why it’s a no brainer to upgrade to paid? I make it so flipping easy for you to learn to be Happy and get what you want! Upgrade now! Only £11.11 per month.

Just over a year ago I set myself an impossible goal inspired by Michael Neill’s book, Creating the Impossible. My impossible goal is to help 1 million people learn to be Happy and get what they want.

After a couple of recent Buddhist meetings, I realised my goal, or determination as we call it in Buddhism, was a bit vague and sitting somewhere out in the future. I decided to bring it forward to November 18th, 2025. This clearly seems impossible but in Buddhism we believe that with the power of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, we can make the impossible possible. Or as Suzy Ashworth says in Infinite Receiving, “faith + action = miracles.”

However it has been difficult to keep the faith recently, especially as I’ve had a couple of huge obstacles blocking my path. In Buddhism we believe that obstacles are a sign we’re heading in the right direction and there’s a Gosho (Buddhist scripture) that says when obstacles appear, ‘the wise will rejoice and the foolish will retreat.’

It has still been difficult to maintain my faith though. I heard this experience this morning and for me it really demonstrated the power of faith, the power of determination, and the power of taking action. I hope you enjoy it.

If you’d like to learn more about Buddhism and the power of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, then please reach out to me. Alternatively, if you’re local to Ipswich, Suffolk in the UK, please visit the SGI stand at the One Big Multicultural Festival in Ipswich this Sunday (25th August, 2025).

Tip one: stop sending messages

Avoid sending unessential messages, because messages are likely to receive a reply, and then you feel obligated to respond to that message and so it goes on. Which brings me to my next point…

Tip two: there’s no obligation to reply to every message

You’re not obligated to reply to, or even read, every message. As a recovering people pleaser, the thought of not replying to a message feels very uncomfortable. All the more reason to try it! The more we practice things that feel uncomfortable, the easier they become.

Tip three: call instead

Can you call instead of text? Then you can sort everything out in one call and it saves going back and forth. I make calls when I’m in the car or walking to make efficient use of my time. I’ve found voice notes to be a great alternative. They seem to use less brain power, and you can listen to voice notes whilst driving, walking, or doing jobs around the house.

Tip four: turn off read receipts

Turning off read receipts takes the pressure off the need to respond immediately, because people don’t know if or when you’ve read their message. The only problem with that is, what if I forget to reply? Which brings me to my next point…

Tip five: mark messages as unread

Mark messages as unread so you remember to reply to them. You can use the unread messages filter to make this easier. The unread messages filter shows only unread messages, so you can see at a glance who you still need to reply to.

Tip six: mute, archive, or leave busy groups

WhatsApp groups are the worst offenders for causing WhatsApp overwhelm. I’ve woken up to over 100 messages at times, and sometimes that’s just in one group! One option is to mute busy groups. That doesn’t work for me because I can still see the notification sitting in my inbox, and the need to open it is like a scratch I need to itch!

I could also leave busy groups, but I get FOMO (fear of missing out). My preferred option is to archive them. I can still see when someone responds to one of my messages or tags me, so, most of the time, I don’t miss anything important.

Tip seven: avoid getting distracted by WhatsApp messages

Avoid getting distracted by WhatsApp messages or other things on your phone by activating silent mode. You can also turn your phone face down to avoid getting distracted visually when a notification appears on your phone.

Tip eight: be mindful when sending messages to others

Be mindful when sending messages to others. I know a lot of people who find WhatsApp overwhelming. Ask yourself:

· Is this message necessary?

· Am I asking unnecessary questions?

· Has this already been answered?

· Could I find the answer on Google?

If someone asks a question you’ve already answered, resend the original message, with a note saying, “Resending in case it’s helpful”. That saves retyping the messages and might encourage them to check before asking next time. But be kind, we all have so much going on, and it’s easy to miss messages.

Tip nine: to avoid WhatsApp overwhelm use a separate business WhatsApp

You can buy an e-sim so that you can have a separate telephone number and WhatsApp for your business. Set up an automatic reply with your working hours so that people know when they can expect a response. You can turn the e-sim off at evenings and weekends. It’s a great way to set boundaries.

I hope you found these tips helpful. How do you manage WhatsApp overwhelm? Let me know in the comments.

This post was originally published on Happiness-Club.co.uk.

About me

I’m Samantha Brook.

I’m a Happiness blogger and coach.

I am the Amazon #1 bestselling author of Happiness Club: Learn to Be Happy and Get What You Want.

At Happiness Club, I am on a mission to help 1 million people learn to be Happy and to make Happiness affordable and accessible for all.

If you’d like to work with me there are a few ways you can do that including 1. Subscribe to Happiness Club on Substack for *free*. 2. Buy the book – Happiness Club: Learn to Be Happy and Get What You Want! 3. Watch the *free* Design Your Dream Life masterclass replay. 4. Join the Happiness Club membership programme for only £11.11 per month. 5. Contact me for details of the Happiness Club workplace wellbeing programme.

I first came up with the idea of Happiness Club, in one form of another around 17 years ago, when I trained to be a life coach and joined Life Clubs. I went part-time and self-employed in order to set up shop as a coach. Until a friend that I had met who was a member of the Life Club I ran, suggested that I maybe I wasn’t ready to be a coach because I was “too f*cked up” or words to that effect. Harsh but fair! Read Putting My Big Girl Pants On to learn more about my journey.

I decided that maybe my self-help journey was better as a hobby than a business and shortly after that, I moved to Egypt. When I returned to the UK in 2011 I started writing a blog about my mental health journey entitled ‘Learning to Love Myself’, and around the same time I came up with the idea of the Happiness Club business. It’s taken me a long time to get the business off the ground due to fear and low self-esteem. But in late 2024 I was finally able to publish Happiness Club: Learn to Be Happy and Get What You Want and I launched the Happiness Club membership programme a few weeks ago in June 2025.

I am on a mission to help 1 million people learn to be Happy. I want to make Happiness affordable and accessible.

Right now, the Happiness Club membership programme has only just launched. It’s a raw idea and it still needs refining, but my vision is that you will learn how to live your dream life, achieve your goals, feel Happy consistently, learn how to manifest, and get what you want from life.

The Happiness Club membership programme includes:

* Design Your Dream Life Masterclass

* Weekly goal setting session, with accountability.

* Monthly book club (read Happiness Club: Learn to Be Happy and Get What You Want with me, the author, and complete the exercises with my support).

* Quarterly group coaching / Q&A session.

* Accountability and support from the Happiness Club community.

Anyone who joins before 31 July will get three big benefits. Firstly, the 30-day free trial has been extended until 31st July. Our first book club and group coaching session will be held on 26 July, so you’ll get to try every aspect of the membership before committing. Secondly, if you sign up during that time will receive the online course Happiness Club for Unlimited Self-Esteem for free and will have access to that throughout the duration of your membership. The third is impact. You'll help shape the direction of this community with your feedback as we build it together on our journey toward Happiness, love, abundance and success.

If this sounds like something you'd want to be a part of, hit SUBSCRIBE or UPGRADE TO PAID.

When I was younger, low self-esteem manifested as attracting the wrong kind of men and letting them treat me badly. My self-esteem is a hell of a lot better than it was but at the beginning of 2020 I realised these issues were still holding me back. This time it showed it up as fear, imposter syndrome, worrying about what other people thought, procrastination, judgment of myself and others and more. It was one of the biggest things holding me back with Happiness Club and it was also sabotaging my success in my day job.

I started researching ways to improve my self-esteem to help myself and others. Based on my learnings I have created an online course Happiness Club for Unlimited Self-Esteem and a free guide to Unlimited Self-Esteem.

As I mentioned, one of the ways that low self-esteem manifests is as imposter syndrome. Sometimes I feel that I don’t know what I’m doing and that one day someone will find out! Remember you only need to know a little bit more than your customers or your audience for them to see you as an expert.

In 2021 I received a promotion at work. In my new role I was dealing with bigger clients, including professionals such as accountants and lawyers. I often felt intimidated as I felt that I was not as good as them. I noticed I often put off calls with clients who I perceived were better than me. Shortly after I started the new role, I attended a webinar about fear with Actioncoach Nik Gray. Nik explained that we have three zones: a comfort zone, a performance zone, and a fear zone. We achieve the best results when we’re on the edge between our performance zone and our fear zone. He went on to say that if we do something we’re scared of for thirty days in a row, it moves us out of our fear zone and into our comfort zone.

As a result, I set myself a goal to make a call I was scared of making every day and to make it as early in the day as possible. I noticed that those calls started getting easier. In fact, I often amazed myself at how well I dealt with difficult questions. I knew more than I realised.

What have you been putting off due to fear? Can you set a goal to do it every day for thirty days? How would it feel if you could overcome that fear? How would your life be different? Let me know how you in the comments or in the Happiness Club Facebook Group and let me know how you get on.

I'm Samantha Brook.

I'm a Happiness blogger and coach.

I am the Amazon #1 bestselling author of Happiness Club: Learn to Be Happy and Get What You Want.

At Happiness Club, I am on a mission to make Happiness affordable and accessible.

I empower people who are fed up with feeling fed up to take action to feel Happier and Get What They Want.

If you’d like to work with me there are a few ways you can do that including 1. Subscribe to Happiness Club on Substack for *free*. 2. Buy the book – Happiness Club: Learn to Be Happy and Get What You Want! 3. Join the Happiness Club membership programme for only £11.11 per month. 4. Contact me for details of the Happiness Club workplace wellbeing programme. 5. Sign up for 1-2-1 intuitive Happiness coaching. 6. Buy the online course Happiness Club for Unlimited Self-Esteem or get the free guide.