The Missing Peace Presents : The Thought Trap

This week on The Thought Trap , we explore how quickly the mind makes life personal. Why can two people experience the exact same moment so differently? Why do neutral situations suddenly feel loaded? And what happens when we begin to notice the stories the mind automatically creates about “me”? A warm, funny, reflective episode about the personalising mind, survival wiring, and seeing life with a...

This week on The Thought Trap , I’m joined by a special guest, Vicki Montague, a wellbeing and possibility coach. We explore parenting, societal pressures, and all the ways we can get pulled into thinking we need to figure everything out… or get it right. But underneath all of that, there’s something much simpler. A quiet knowing that’s always there, even when the mind gets loud. This conversation...

This months trap talk speaks to a very relatable question Becca, I will often feel really clear about doing something… like it’s a yes… and then I end up talking myself out of it. I usually take that as a sign that I shouldn’t do it, but then I just feel stuck. How do I know what to listen to? 👉Join my mailing list 👉 https://www.beccagardner.com/free-audio 👉 Find out about HOME, my 1:1 space ht...

What if the feeling that something is missing… is just something we’ve learned? In this episode, I share a moment from my own journey of trying to fix myself, and how that led me to see something very different. Through children, emotions, and the way we’re conditioned to relate to our experience, we explore what happens when we stop trying to fix… and start to see 👉Join my mailing list 👉 https:...

Do you remember when sleep was just… sleep? I do. And then somewhere along the way it became something to be tracking, analysed and talked about. In this episode I get honest about my own experience of the sleep spiral and what I started to notice on the other side of it. What I share isn't a sleep hack or a bedtime routine. It's something quieter — and when you see it, it changes far more than ju...

One year into the podcast, and I’ve been reflecting on consistency…and the idea that we should always finish what we start. For a long time, I believed I wasn’t a finisher — and that meant something about me. But what I see now is something much simpler… and much more freeing. This episode is an invitation to look at what’s really going on when we start, stop, change direction… and what we make th...

This episode is going live on April Fools’ Day…which felt like the perfect timing. In this episode, I explore something we don’t often notice…the quiet trickery of the mind…and how easily something can look and feel real even when it’s being created in the moment. And it’s not random. There’s a reason the mind does this. A really understandable one. But what’s even more interesting…is what’s avail...

Why do I make such a big deal out of things that aren’t that important? This week’s Trap Talk question felt perfectly timed, landing right in the middle of my own recent Thought Trap . This episode is sparked by a slightly chaotic couple of days involving a very weird cold, a podcast recording, and a missing phone. A simple situation quickly started to feel urgent, personal, and overwhelming… espe...

A family gathering, a questionable tiramisu, and a fresh look at perfection. In this episode, I explore how perfectionism can keep us stuck in our heads, chasing a moving target, and what opens up when we let things be a little more real. 👉Join my mailing list 👉 https://www.beccagardner.com/free-audio 👉 Find out about HOME, my 1:1 space https://www.beccagardner.com/new-page-2 👉Follow me on ins...

You've heard me talk about PEEP. Now let's do it, together. This week on The Thought Trap I'm guiding you through a live PEEP — Play, Explore, Experiment, Play — an invitation to turn toward your own experience with curiosity and simply look. 👉Join my mailing list 👉 https://www.beccagardner.com/free-audio 👉 Find out about HOME, my 1:1 space https://www.beccagardner.com/new-page-2 👉Follow me on...

You felt something. Your mind grabbed it. And before the feeling had even passed, it had already become evidence — evidence about who you are. That's the trap. Identity isn't built from who we are. It's built from what the mind concludes about how we feel. In this episode we're getting under the surface of emotion — what it actually is, why it's impersonal, and why nothing you've ever felt has mea...

Trap Talk is the monthly segment where I get to speak to YOUR questions. This months question............. “Hi Becca, I’m really disciplined with food and exercise. I follow plans, I stay consistent, but it feels like I’m constantly managing myself. It’s exhausting, and I still don’t feel settled in my body. I thought doing all the right things would make this easier. What would you say about this...

In this episode, I’m joined by Lindsey Elliott, a Certified Change Coach, to explore the self-esteem and insecurity trap. That quiet sense of not being quite enough. The comparing. The measuring. The pressure to improve the image of who we are. We commonly question the whole idea of self-esteem. What if “enough” isn’t something to earn? A simple, honest conversation about the freedom that can come...

“How are you?” is a question we ask all the time and one that often gets answered automatically. In this episode, I explore where our answers really come from and how easily they are shaped by thought, memory, or imagined futures rather than what is actually happening now. This is not about answering differently, just a gentle inquiry into where we put our attention and what we might notice when w...

I’ve been reflecting on the incredible guests I've had here on The Thought Trap — and honestly, every single one of them is a "Changemaker". Not because of titles or roles, but because of how they show up in the world and make a difference to others. I’ve known todays guest for a good chunk of my adult life, he’s built a business that quietly brings people together and, unexpectedly, into presence...

“I’m trying to stop smoking, or at least I’m playing with not doing it, and I’m noticing a really strong physical pull in my body. Sometimes it feels uncomfortable, sometimes intense, almost like withdrawal. How do I get through that? Surely that the physical pull is different?” I take a Gentle Approach to change. This episode takes a gentle, zoomed-out look at or experience — what’s showing up in...

In this episode, I speak about being in the thick of a habit — when there’s no room to peep or be curious. Peeping usually becomes more available when there’s a bit of distance from the habit. 👉 The Gentle Shift Habits Course https://www.themissingpeacecotswolds.com/want-to-shift-a-habit 👉Join my mailing list 👉 https://www.beccagardner.com/free-audio 👉 Find out about HOME, my 1:1 space https:/...

In this episode, I explore something subtle but deeply human — how psychology can quietly pull a fast one on us. Using a simple phone metaphor, I invite you to notice the difference between thoughts and feelings showing up… and who you are beneath them. 👉 Course - The Gentle Shift 5 day Audio Habit Course https://www.themissingpeacecotswolds.com/want-to-shift-a-habit 👉Join my mailing list 👉 htt...

I’m making January all about habits. Emotions and feelings are at the heart of how habits really work, so it felt like the right place to start. This episode opens a month of gentle conversations around habits — without willpower. 👉 Course - The Gentle Shift 5 day Audio Habit Course https://www.themissingpeacecotswolds.com/want-to-shift-a-habit 👉Join my mailing list 👉 https://www.beccagardner.c...

“I’ve had lots of physical back pain and I’ve noticed how it always seems to flare at the most inconvenient times. I’ve done lots of physio work and my back is probably the best it’s been, but there’s still this constant worry in the background that it might come back. How do I stop living like that?” 👉 Course - The Gentle Shift 5 day Audio Habit Course https://www.themissingpeacecotswolds.com/wa...

This is a personal share episode. As we come to the end of 2025, I was invited to do something that hadn’t occurred to me to do. I’m so glad I did — and I couldn’t think of someone more perfect to do it with. 👉Join my mailing list 👉 https://www.beccagardner.com/free-audio 👉 Find out about HOME, my 1:1 space https://www.beccagardner.com/new-page-2 👉Follow me on instagram https://www.instagram.c...

It’s December, and it feels very on theme to talk about presents. Not the kind you wrap — something even better :). In this episode, I explore why Christmas can feel harder than it needs to, how we quietly disappear into our heads, and why trying to control or quiet the mind never really works. We look at where our attention goes at this time of year, why that makes such a difference, and what bec...

In this episode of The Thought Trap , I sit down with former certified change coach Juliet O'Rourke for an honest, refreshing conversation about ADHD—beyond the labels, beyond the noise, and deep into the lived experience. We talk about Juliet’s personal journey: the confusion, the clarity, and the unexpected ways she found relief and resilience. Rather than focusing on strategies or fixes, we exp...

This week is your December habit taster — a tiny bite of what habits really are before our big January 2026 deep dive. We look at why habits kick in before you even notice, how your brain thinks it’s helping, and why none of it is personal. All I want you to do is peep at your own loops with Christmas-Eve child like curiosity. Listening after January? Yey, you are in for a treat....head straight t...

“I work 9 to 5 but I think about work all the time. How do I stop?” In this month’s Trap Talk, we’re not trying to “switch off” or control the mind. Instead, we explore why the mind keeps talking about work when you’re not even at work — and what happens when we simply peep at thought rather than follow it. Not to fix thinking, but to see it as mechanical, impersonal, and not our responsibility to...