Chapter 2 On the Go
OM-THE-GO
Eighteen months earlier
Jeremy sprang into her office with all the ball-bouncing energy of an entrepreneur on speed.
“Don’t be annoyed with me, but I made an executive decision — I hired that consultant to revamp our website.”
Catherine shot him a withering glare over her reading glasses. “I still don’t understand why we need to revamp our website at all.”
“To increase traffic and drive engagement. Things have gone a little quiet now that the post-pandemic flow has ebbed. Maybe we need to move with the times?”
“Do you honestly think psychotherapy needs to move with the times? People will always need the kind of help we offer, Jeremy.”
“Yes, but we rely on clients to find us, when really we could do more to put ourselves out there.” He kneaded the back of the leather chair opposite her desk, as if he were giving it a massage.
Catherine took off her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose. “And you think a sparkly new website will really help?”
“Yes, it will. But that’s not all.”
“Christ, there’s more?”
“This is the good bit!” Jeremy unhanded the chair and practically did jazz hands. “Colin—”
“Colin?”
“The consultant.” He gestured for her to keep up. “He’s going to set up a feed for you on our new site so you can publish your own micro-blog.”
“I only understood two of the words you just said.” She pressed her fingers into her eyes, trying to ease the pressure building.
Jeremy chuckled. “Come on, it’ll be fun. You’re always coming up with little life hacks to help people reduce their stress.” He picked up the paperweight on her desk and tossed it between his hands. She’d not seen him this wired about anything in a long time.
“This is exactly the sort of thing that could help to grow our reach,” he said.
“Grow our what?”
“Look, it’s just a daily thought from you.
One thought; I know you have thousands to choose from.
A two-minute hack — it could be a breathing exercise, a herbal tea blend to try.
” He threw his hands up, nearly dropping the paperweight.
“I don’t know, a bloody rain dance. Whatever. Just give it a try, will you?”
“Why don’t you do it?”
“Because it’d be better coming from you.” He shrugged. “You know it’ll be mainly women reading it, and they usually want to hear from a woman, don’t they?”
Catherine pinched her lips together.
“Go on. For me?” His brown eyes pleaded in the way that usually had her giving in to him. Oh, for Christ’s sake.
“Alright. Fine. But it had better not take up too much time; I’m already pressed as it is. And I can hardly see why we need to increase our…”
“Reach.”
“Yes, that.”
“Just trying to keep things fresh, Catherine. Alice thinks it’s a good idea too, don’t you, Alice?” Jeremy called out towards the door.
“Yep, whatever you say, boss,” Alice yelled back.
Catherine sighed. Two against one.
Despite her scepticism when Jeremy had suggested the blog, the following day she woke up buzzing with ideas and almost as excitable as he’d been when he was bouncing around her office.
After a morning of meetings, she found herself in Snoots, snaffling her favourite corner table by the window.
Armed with a pot of tea and a pen, she let her thoughts flow.
A lot of her clients were time-poor people, who struggled to squeeze a moment’s peace into their lives.
They usually scoffed at her suggestions about meditation and yoga classes — nice in theory, but just another thing to add to the heavy pile already weighing them down.
Perhaps if the time commitment were minutes, not hours, then they could create a little space for the calm they craved.
Mindfulness doesn’t need a mat; it needs a moment. She uncapped her pen and scribbled that down. That was it — her angle. A micro-blog of mindfulness moments; each post would be like a little pause.
Next, she brainstormed a list of names:
The Pocket-Pause? — too vague.
Zenlightenment? — too lofty.
The Daily Breath? — too frequent.
She stared into the distance, tapping her lip with the end of her pen. Her eyes widened as the perfect name presented itself — Om-the-Go. With a happy hum, she jotted it onto the page and crossed through the rejected candidates.
And with the premise formed, and the name decided, the ideas for content flowed from her pen.
Later that day, Catherine found herself eager to pitch her ideas back to Jeremy. This time, she was the one bouncing around his office.
“That all sounds great, but I don’t really understand the name.”
“Oh, Jeremy! Om is the sound of the universe…” She closed her eyes and hummed, “Ommm.” When she opened her eyes again, Jeremy stared at her with a blank expression.
Catherine called out for Alice, and seconds later their assistant’s blonde curls appeared around the doorway. “Alice, you know about Om, right?”
“Er, do you mean like, ommm?” Alice hummed.
“Yes, exactly.” Catherine smiled at the confused-looking woman and turned back to Jeremy. “But it’s more than just the sound. It’s about the vibration and breath. It’s tuning into an energy that’s bigger than ourselves.”
“Right… oohkay.” He bulged his eyes.
“I think you’re going to have to trust me on this one.”
“Of course I trust you.” He nodded slowly. “I guess just don’t make the blog too out-there.” He flared his fingers in the air. “Sure, we want to increase our reach, but we don’t want to alienate ordinary folk. I don’t want them thinking T the soft smile on her lips a reminder of her near-miss, almost-kiss with the very attractive, but very married, photographer.
She sighed. She’d done what Jeremy asked; it hadn’t taken long and, surprisingly, she’d enjoyed it. She even had a few ideas for the next blog. But what was the point? It wasn’t as if anyone would read it.
Life rushes past, but you don’t have to.
No mat or mantra required — just you, here, now.
Draw in a deep, luxurious breath. Let it unfurl inside you, filling your lungs slowly, deliberately.
Let your gaze wander. Name three things you can see, hear, and feel. Let them tether you gently to the present.
And then, gratitude. Think of one thing, however small, that you’re thankful for right now.
Mindfulness isn’t about slowing life down; it’s about showing up for it.
Catherine tidied her things away, getting ready to head home for the evening, when her computer chimed with a cheerful ding she’d never heard it do before.
She glanced back at the screen, and the cheerful ding pinged again. And again. And then she noticed it.
A little heart at the bottom of the blog post with a number three next to it. Three people had liked her blog, and twelve people had read it. She’d only posted it two minutes ago. Seriously, how are that many people on the T&D website?
She shook her head and flicked off the screen, but not before another ding chimed.
The next day, she logged in to see twenty-six likes, and nearly twice as many views. She promptly popped her head into Jeremy’s office to inform him that Colin must have wired up the website wrong because it was miscounting visitors.
Jeremy chuckled. “Colin connected your blog to another site, so it’s like a live feed. It’ll help pull traffic through to us. Didn’t I mention that before?”
Catherine shook her head.
“Don’t look so worried.” Jeremy waved a hand through the air. “Traffic tripled overnight, and Alice said we had two new inquiries this morning.”
“No pressure, then.”
“None at all, Trusty. Whatever you wrote is doing the trick. More of that, please.”