She naps, I read, her older sisters are happily playing. For a moment I enjoy the still. No one asking when breakfast, lunch or dinner is ready. No one asking where socks are or how to work some technological gadget.

A voice inside tells me to ‘relax’ and enjoy this moment. After weeks of preparing to move countries and now, having moved, waiting to move into our house and for our container of belongings to arrive, I need moments like this to relax. To stop and hear my own breath over the sounds of my three children.

In the late afternoon, when my husband returns from the office, I am given the opportunity to head out for a jog. I hear my breath stronger than ever. I feel free, so alive, so calm inside and return with a smile. My muscles are quickly soothed with a plunge in the pool and I feel the most relaxed I can be, soothed from the core.

Yet, on other days – when moments to relax are rare – I reach the evening and take a different tonic to relax – just a little, to wash away the tension from within…