What stories have you inherited about where you belong? This week's reflection uses art and psychology to help you revise your own narrative.

Join psychologist and researcher Leila Ainge for the first Reflection Room prompt, where psychology, art and curiosity come together to help you see yourself—and your work from a different perspective.

Inspired by Coral Woodbury's Revised Edition series and the work of artist Lubaina Himid, this episode explores how the stories we inherit shape our sense of identity, belonging and possibility. Drawing on ideas from social identity psychology, Leila reflects on why representation matters, how assumptions influence the way we see ourselves, and why some of our most meaningful insights arrive when we're walking, wandering or simply paying attention.

Listeners are invited to consider one simple but thought-provoking question: Where could your contribution be revised? Through a guided reflection and an optional creative activity, this episode encourages you to notice where you may have underestimated yourself, overlooked your own potential, or quietly written yourself out of opportunities before anyone else had the chance.

Perfect for anyone who enjoys reflective practice, psychology, art and evidence-informed personal development, this is an invitation to spend fifteen minutes looking again at the story you're telling yourself and whether it's time for a revised edition.

https://artuk.org/discover/curations/art-design-gcse-2026-theme-woman

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/seven-questions-with-coral-woodbury

https://vimeo.com/665634788?fl=pl&fe=sh - video interview with Coral Woodbury

Cover art credit : collage made by Leila Ainge, including Photo by Dan Farrell on Unsplash, Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash , Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash

When I think about reflection,

I try my best to let go of ideas about quiet spaces,

low lights and perfect conditions.

As I'm recording this, my dog is eating and drinking really loudly

in the background. So I often don't have the right conditions

or the ideal conditions to do everything I want to do.

And this is why I really believe that reflection can happen at a rock concert

in a gallery.

cooking supper or wandering the supermarket aisles.

Although it would be lovely to have a room of our own and a quiet space

to do some solid thinking. Psychologically speaking,

we could probably divide reflective thoughts into the practice of reflecting,

ruminating and mindfulness. And they all do different things,

but I don't want to get too technical because actually...

Research shows that it's not how much you reflect,

but what you do with the insights that brings you the greatest of benefits.

So one of the many ways in which the reflection room works is

by taking that insight and moving it into action,

often with a supportive and challenging nudge from somebody else

in the reflection room. So here's your invitation to spend one hour this August

in active reflection and to help.

I've recorded four weekly prompts to support just 15 minutes

of weekly reflective practice.

It's as simple as listening to the audios and there will be some activities

if you want to do them, but it's not essential.

So I always pair reflection with art and I have put

an image with the email that's gone out this week,

which you will find described in this audio.

So welcome.

to the reflection room. This is a tasting tour for August if you've been curious

about joining us. Every prompt is paired either with art or poetry or both.

And the first artwork I'd love to share with you is by British artist,

Coral Woodbury. So this is a portrait of another artist,

Ljubljana Himid.

And it's been painted directly into a page from something called Janssen's History

of Art. Now, I've not read this.

I've never even heard about it before today.

But apparently, it's one of the world's most influential art history textbooks.

I think all we need to know is that for decades,

books like this have largely, you know,

of overlooked women artists. So what Coral has done...

she created a series called Revised Edition and she quite literally painted women

back into the pages of these books where they should have been all along.

I love this from a feminist perspective.

And her inclusion of Ljubljana's Himmids work is really cool

in my sense because her artwork covers questions such as who gets remembered,

who gets represented and who's been deliberately overlooked.

So she's painted Ljubljana onto a page about another artist called Francisco

or Francisco Goya, who I've never heard of as well.

And the idea here is that both artists challenge the stories that powerful

institutions tell. So Goya's work,

apparently, I'm going to have to go and look at this now,

is often celebrated for looking beneath appearances.

And he painted kings and queens,

but he didn't always flatter them.

And his portraits were supposedly revealing things like power structures

and awkwardness that you'd see beneath the surface.

I think in real terms, I'd think about modern day kind of photos of

our royal family and how we like try to,

we get people on social media who like try to break down the hidden meaning behind,

I don't know, the way that somebody's walking or how things have been presented.

It's probably something very similar.

So, Ljubljana does something really similar with her own work,

her own artwork as an artist, her works asking stories,

asking whose stories have been left out,

but particularly the lives and contributions of black people.

And it invites us to think about the official versions of the past.

But mostly though, I just loved the idea that Coral's idea for this series,

didn't arrive in a studio or in a very quiet,

thoughtful place. She spoke about how it came to her while she was walking

in the woods. And I think that some of my best ideas come into me when

I'm out and I'm kind of paying attention to what I'm thinking about,

and that is reflection, rather than when I'm sitting trying to make something happen

at my desk. So as I looked at this piece,

I was thinking about the stories psychologically that we inherit and

the stories we tell ourselves.

and how actually they probably can be revised.

So from a social identity psychology perspective,

this artwork would ask, who do we see as belonging here?

And the stories we see repeated in books and galleries do shape our ideas about

who can be a leader or, you know,

an expert in a particular area in social media,

for example.

So when people are left out of those stories,

it also influences how other people see,

but how we see ourselves. Carol's work,

this revised edition then with this image of Ljubljana on top of the history book,

is an invitation to kind of say who else's story is missing.

And I thought you could do this as a reflection to think where is your story needing

some revision? Perhaps.

you've been overlooked or rejected.

In fact, I can guarantee we've all been rejected for something in our time.

But also, we're possibly guilty of leaving ourselves out

of history or digital footprints because we might not go for something that

we really want to do. We might think,

~ that's not for me, or perhaps we don't feel we have the confidence to do it.

Maybe you've had an idea that deserved to become a book.

Perhaps you could be featured in a magazine or shortlisted for an award

or exhibited somewhere or spoken about or speak on a stage.

Sometimes we dismiss all of these things before anyone gets the chance.

So this week's reflection is simply this.

Where could your contribution be revised?

And you know, you could take a broad brush to this.

You could look in the last year or you could look across your career.

and where have you become used to seeing yourself as a supporting cast member?

And I don't want you to think of this as just like kind of wishful thinking.

It's about, I suppose, noticing where your own assumptions might be sitting with

the evidence. So if you'd like to take this reflection a little further,

why not make your own revised edition?

It could be a collage or scrapbook page.

or even an activity you do with the kids.

You know, you could ask them if you were a character in any book,

which one would you be? And or,

you know, for yourself, which magazine would you feature your work in?

Which bookshelf would your book sit on?

Which exhibition would include you?

Which stage would have you as a speaker?

Sometimes imagining ourselves in those places helps

us notice the assumptions that we've been carrying about where we do and we don't.

below.

P.S. One of my favourite things to do is to share the things that spark

my own curiosity because they often become the beginning of a new reflection.

I discovered Coral Woodbury's work through a beautifully created collection

by Maggie Hills for Art UK, created to support the 2026 GCSE art

and design theme Women. It's a wonderful example of how following

one interesting idea often leads to another.