Leanne Barriball- The Devonshire Shepherdess

19/12/2025

Sunshine ☀️ and Rainbows 🌈
A little update from me as it’s been a while

I am still learning my limits my mind wants to go go go and my body is saying no no no!

Listening to my body is becoming easier because I don’t like the repercussions of not listen it usually involves pain in my joints, and this weird pain that I didn’t have the words for but now I see it’s to do with my nervous system it’s a funny pain I struggle to turn off.

My brain shuts off and zaps my energy as a form of protection and if I manage to get to sleep at night before 11pm I know the next day will be relatively ok.

Do I want rheumatoid arthritis no but this is a name for the situation I find myself in! Do I want to be on medication no but this is the situation I am currently in and the medication has given me a bit more of life back I didn’t have 6 months ago and it’s enabling me to continue doing my personal training sessions twice a week to rebuild my muscles in my legs.

Surrending to the process does not come naturally but the quicker I surrender to it and say this is where I am today and allow myself to feel the disappointments the struggles the less pain I get.

My emotions have a big part to play as does my central nervous system (cns) because basically it need retraining to not keep reacting and causing my immune system to keep flaring up.

I take one day at a time. I am so grateful I’ve been able to literally change my thoughts towards my health to enable me to rest more, organise my schedule so that if honours my body and be kind to myself in the process. This has been key.

I share more of how I’ve done this in my book The Life Reset I will put the link in the comments 😊

So today I am enjoying sitting in the sunshine because it’s good for me and seeing the rainbows everywhere which are a prophetic sign for me they have been since I was 30 so something is on the move today 💕🔥

17/11/2025

This is not my idea of a well balanced breakfast

However!

I waited nearly 7 months before finally going to the doctor because my body was swollen all of my joints were screaming at me, my knees the most meaning I was on crutches to walk around the house even, let alone outside.

I couldn’t drive, dress or wash myself and my beautiful mummy had to do everything for me and of course Hayley as well. Andrew stepped up with doing all the washing dishes and listening to me cry at 3am or scream that I was trapped in the duvet and needed rescuing.

2025 did not turn out as I expected and I shall probably remember this year forever as a defining moment.

In July I finally succumbed to my mum and dads pleas and went to the doctor. But it was going to take 3 weeks to find out what was wrong.

That night I woke up sweating and screaming in agony and just needed to go to A&E it’s funny what your brain will do to get the results it needed.

What it needed was a diagnosis, which was inflammatory arthritis, they gave me stronger anti inflammatories and put me on the waiting list for rheumatology. That night the pain eased because I had a name for the problem.

It was a further 3 months before I saw a consultant and that was private in the end because the NHS cancelled my appointment.

Now I have is concoction of things to take everyday to help with inflammation and pain and it’s working.

The key though is sleep! What these do is they calm everything else down during the day time to prepare my body to be relaxed enough to go to bed and go to sleep!

If I don’t sleep which happened yesterday I feel rough as anything and I struggle all day with increased pain.

If I sleep however I wake up fresher and can have a better day.

The next couple of months I am CHOOSING to cut my schedule down to 1 thing a day whether that’s going to my PT or meeting someone. This is so I can have lots and lots of REST as my body gets used to the new medication.

This bright yellow one my sunshine pill I am calling it is the one that we are hoping is going to stop my over enthusiastic immune system to stop producing so much inflammation, then there will be no more pain and my poor joints will stop being attacked!

My key aim though is to be off these within 2 years, if I keep sticking to taking my health seriously and putting myself first my body will heal and we won’t need synthetic help anymore.

This is the plan anyway and we shall see what happens.

Bacon sandwiches are my protein and carb and fat (butter) solution to help regulate my system in the morning as well.

It’s all about helping the body to stay calm, rested and peaceful and it can be done because I am a highly functioning, multi faceted, used to be busy person so if I can do it anyone can 🤩

11/11/2025

Let’s talk about judgment, actual and perceived!

Today I got to see a consultant to discuss my rheumatoid arthritis situation. This started last December I had: inflamed joints shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, hips knees( these were the worst and on a real bad day the feet would join in as well.

It prevented from going to sleep most nights and when I got to sleep I would wake around 3-4am sweating with the pain and quite often crying. I couldn’t walk without crutches even at home and I needed mum Andrew or Hayley occasionally to dress me and help me wash, there was no driving and there was no living normal life stuff which I love doing, so seeing people for coffees and play dates, meals at home all the extra stuff I do.

I struggled on with this until July so basically 8 months of this above 🤦‍♀️ because I was hopeful I would get better? Or more like I didn’t want to go to the doctors to be told that I was to fat and needed to loose weight which I knew wasn’t going to happen because I wasn’t sleeping and I was in pain every day.

In July I ended up in A&E one night because I couldn’t bare the pain anymore and they did the blood tests, x rays and diagnosis which actually helped me a lot just knowing what was going on. Stronger anti inflammatories were given and I was then put on the waiting list for the consultant until today.

Today the consultant asked me, “Why did you wait so long to see a doctor? Is it because you’re a farmer?” Admitted we are stubborn like that! To which I said no it was because I was afraid of getting judged for becoming so unhealthy. In other words gaining so much bloody weight. 😢

I am pretty sure no women has ever planned to gain 7 stones in 2 years and what made it worse I literally couldn’t stop it, I didn’t change my diet drastically or anything like that it just kept piling on.

Over the last 13 years I’ve gone from a fit and active farmers daughter to someone this year who is paying a personal trainer to help her to learn to walk again!

Anyway, the doctor didn’t respond to that comment at all instead he just asked me what I needed right now to get me back to normal.

Normal being pain free and able to move without aids.

Not one doctor has told me I needed to loose weight in the last 2 years ( with my kidney and adrenal gland scans situation) in fact a beautiful GP she really was beautiful said to me

“Right now you won’t be able to loose weight because your in to much pain and your body won’t let it” I could have cried!

I’ve learned so much about the central nervous system this year particularly in accordance to being in stress mode or fight or flight which it turns out I was stuck in. My body has stored all this energy in case of an emergency because to my brain which was always being triggered there was terrible things going on in the outside world.

But it wasn’t it was my own mind ( thoughts) creating scenarios to “keep me safe” but it wasn’t actually keeping me safe it was keeping me stuck and that’s what leads to burn out and the body needed to scream louder.

Hello auto immune condition 🤦‍♀️

But I trust God with the process of healing in this situation I know He created my body to heal one way or another and for me that started with renewing my thought life.

I no longer hate myself for example, in fact I love myself so much ( not in an arrogant way) that I am willing to do what ever it takes to get FULLY better from the inside out by the time I am 40 in 3 years time.

This includes cellular repair from any over hangs of catching Covid back in 2022 which interestingly is when the weight started going on 🧐 which is intriguing don’t you think now they are saying that this beast of a man made disease has been going into cells and shutting things down that should be working? I’ll leave you to ponder and do your own research on the one.

So here is the over arching message, don’t leave yourself in pain for months and months because your scared to go to the doctors in case they say your over weight, if your in constant pain and inflamed your body is not going to lose any excess energy storage because it wants to protect you.

And if you think your never stressed but your body is giving you symptoms like these more often than not I would question whether your stressed or not!

Don’t get stuck like I did there is no need. 💕

Head + Brain
• Headaches or migraines
• Brain fog
• Trouble concentrating
• Forgetfulness
• Dizziness
• Feeling spaced out
• Trouble making decisions

Eyes + Face
• Eye twitching
• Blurred vision
• Jaw tension or clenching
• Teeth grinding (especially at night)
• Facial tension

Neck + Shoulders
• Tight, stiff neck
• Frozen shoulders
• Upper back pain
• Feeling like you carry “the weight of the world”

Chest + Heart
• Racing heart
• Pounding heart
• Chest tightness
• Shortness of breath
• Shallow breathing
• Heart palpitations

Stomach + Digestion
• Bloating
• Stomach pain
• Nausea
• Indigestion
• IBS symptoms
• Cravings (especially sugar, carbs, salty snacks)
• Changes in appetite (eating more or less)
• Constipation or diarrhoea

Muscles + Joints
• Body aches
• Muscle tension
• Joint pain
• Stiffness
• Feeling older than your age

Hormones + Reproductive system
• Irregular periods
• Heavier or more painful periods
• PMS intensifying
• Fertility challenges
• Low libido

Skin + Hair
• Breakouts
• Dull or dry skin
• Eczema flare ups
• Hives or rashes
• Hair thinning or hair loss
• Itchy skin

Immune System
• Getting sick easily
• Slow healing
• Constant colds or infections
• Feeling run-down

Sleep
• Trouble falling asleep
• Trouble staying asleep
• Waking at 2–4am
• Night sweats
• Restlessness

Energy + Temperature
• Fatigue
• Afternoon crashes
• Feeling wired but tired
• Cold hands and feet
• Hot flushes

Hands + Nervous system
• Shaking or trembling
• Tingling sensations
• Numbness in fingers
• Feeling on edge

Other sneaky signs
• Feeling like you can’t take a deep breath
• Random aches that come and go
• A sense of heaviness in the body
• Feeling “inflamed everywhere”
• Increased sensitivity to noises or lights
• Emotional sensitivity (crying easily)
• Feeling detached or disconnected from yourself

Click the link in the comments for me free download 101 reasons women are stressed all proven and tested by yours truly 😂

Ps I don’t have jaundice this is the Tropic Electric Bloom brightening tightening mask for me self care session tonight!

Get yours here or DM me

https://tropicskincare.com/products/electric-bloom-brightening-tightening-mask?variant=41547122278596

10/11/2025

It hit me one day that my early parenting wasn’t rooted in connection… it was rooted in my own unhealed stress.

Hayley didn’t need a perfect mum. She needed a calm one.!She needed my nervous system regulated, not my voice raised.

Owning that truth was uncomfortable, but it set us free, because connection can rebuild what correction once damaged.
If you’ve felt the same, please know this: it is not too late.

Your home can shift. Your heart can soften. Your child can thrive again.

Healing starts with you, and the fruit grows in our children.

10/11/2025

Here’s dad ( the real farmer) sharing about our winter feed paddock which we thought at one point wasn’t going to grow!

But it grew, now we have mainly kale with a scattering of forage r**e and stubble as well!

We aim to out winter we as much as possible and then reseed in the new year using the cows hooves as the ploughs to create the seed bed.

07/11/2025

A p**p picking post 😂 poor granny drew the short straw! Because I am still struggling with mobility stuff, but this is normally my job I am quite an expert!

07/11/2025

Dad (The real farmer) doing his little video for our family what’s app group!

This is a field of kale and forage r**e and maybe turnips 🧐 I can’t quite remember we will use them to turn up the soil over the winter and then reseed in the spring.

Using hooves instead of a plough on our soil is proving to be more successful with soil regeneration.

05/11/2025

This picture popped up on my memories today! This was myself and 3 college friends we went up to a farm business planning competition in my 3 year or my Agricultural Business Management degree.

That’s when my love of the soil and plant health started to be birthed, and my realisation that the way we were farming the land was doing more damage than good. (Yes I admit it)

Why?

Because the 2 previous generations before me had been led to believe that the governments way of doing things was the best way and followed the money that went with it.
Intensive farming of animals, Ploughing, artificial fertiliser then you needed sprays to kill the pests because the plants were weak from lack of soil health and chemical fertiliser, killing the soil microbiology. Sick animals because of lack of plant minerals.

Financially they were the best times some would say, but the decisions made then are having more far reaching consequences now and that is why small farming families are struggling to make it work.

I won’t lie the last 12 years has been a fight to bring about change on our farm because change is scary and we have taken some big risks ( no artificial fertiliser) being one of them but it’s paying off.

I can see why we have to change the business plan or rather create one in the first place because many generational farmers don’t have one!! They just keep doing what they have always done and it’s going to crush them, and the only ones who win?

The Governement when they buy the land😭

Today mum and I attended a soil biology course organised by it was fascinating and gave me some of the missing peace’s to our soil health problems, or rather than animal health problems we have faced in the past.

I got to be a geek for the day basically and can now make a new plan for the farm based on my findings watch this space!

Healthier meat= healthier people

Stronger business plan = healthier farming family. 💕

05/11/2025

I always think this, we were sucked in by the supermarkets. They were the Temu of their day, they got us all believing it was easier and cheaper and that us the farmers had a better deal but it was all a load of crap.

The real cost isnt to our pockets it’s to our health, as I have really found out this year, if you don’t have your health you don’t have a lot really!

And the encouragement of quick highly processed foods is literally destroying us from the inside out 😭

The cost to society of Tesco 3 Billion profit.

The Labour Party and yet you are about to tax the Public ?

Let’s rewind to a simpler time, 1985. You’re on the high street, the butcher’s selling proper sausages, the greengrocer’s got apples you could see your face in and the baker’s turning out loaves that smell like heaven. Fast-forward to now, and it’s tumbleweed, charity shops, and the occasional v**e cloud. Who’s the villain? The supermarket giants, that’s who.

In 1980, independent shops handled 58%of UK grocery sales. Today? A measly 5% The big four Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons hoover up 67%of the market.

Between 2000 and 2020, 30,000 independent food shops shut their doors. The Centre for Retail Research clocked 1,800 butchers, bakers, and greengrocers vanishing in just five years (2016–2021). No wonder the high street looks like a ghost town.

How did they do it ? Easy. They built mega-stores on the edge of town with car parks bigger than your average village. Free parking, endless aisles, and prices that made independents weep. In 1998 Competition Commission report found the big boys could undercut locals by 15–20% on everyday staples. Farmers got squeezed too, milk prices paid to them dropped from 28p a litre in 1995 to 18p in 2005, while the supermarkets still charged shoppers a tidy sum not to mention all of the other goods farmers supply. Farmers have been systematically squeezed relative to retail over the past 15 years: retail food prices rose (especially through 2020–2024) while farmgate returns were often flatter or volatile, so the gap between what consumers pay and what farmers get widened for many staples. 

But it’s not just the high street that’s taken a hit. Oh no, supermarkets have been dishing out a side order of health havoc with their ultra-processed foods (UPFs) think chicken nuggets that are more breadcrumb than bird, cereals sweeter than pudding, and ready meals that last longer than a nuclear winter.

UPFs now make up 57% of the UK diet the highest in Europe. For kids aged 4–10 64% of their calories come from this stuff. Result? The NHS is creaking. Heart disease admissions climbed from 245,000 in 2000/01 to 312,000 in 2022/23. Type 2 diabetes diagnoses? Tripled from 1.4 million to 4.3 million That’s £6.5 billion a year on heart disease and £10.9 billion on diabetes – nearly a fifth of the NHS budget.

And the kiddies’ teeth? Brace yourself. In 2022/23, 43,771 children aged 5–9 had multiple teeth yanked out under general anaesthetic – the highest ever, up 17% since 2016/17. Why? Sugar overload. Kids are scoffing 50g of free sugars a day, double the 25g limit. A bowl of supermarket cereal can pack 11g of sugar; a carton of flavoured milk, 20g. No wonder 23.4% of five-year-olds have decay, averaging 3.4rotten teeth each.

Supermarkets have tried a bit of window dressing cutting sugar in cereals by 13% since 2015 – but UPF sales still rose. And those checkout sweets? Still there, winking at toddlers in 78% of stores.

So, next time you’re wheeling a trolley the size of a small tank through the aisles, think about how we got here and how these retailing giants have changed our lives.

We would be very interested to hear your views.

03/11/2025

A slow day doesn’t mean you are failing It means your nervous system is whispering, “Let me breathe.”And I’m listening today.

03/11/2025

Quiet strength season over here, friends. 🍵

Taking life steady, one soft morning at a time. Sleep is still a journey, so if my body asks for a lie-in… I listen. Rest used to feel like weakness, now it feels like wisdom.

Steroids helped settle the flare and gave me a window to rebuild strength (hello glutes + core!). As I taper down before my appointment next week, the aches creep back, and wow pain is energy-hungry. But I’m trusting the process, honouring my body, and staying hopeful. 💚

Hydrotherapy, swimming, gentle training… and faith that I’ll be off crutches by Christmas. Peak slopes and stairs training incoming!

This year has humbled me. Survival mode for 13 years finally caught up, and my nervous system yelled “enough.” When your body has fought for you that long, you love it back by slowing down, nourishing it, and saying “no” without guilt.

I used to sprint through life like the sky was falling. Now I protect my peace like a precious seed. If my diary starts buzzing like a caffeinated chipmunk, I prune it. Simplicity is medicine.

Because survival mode ages us, drains us, steals joy from motherhood and life. And we deserve more than just pushing through.

I wrote The Life Reset to help women like us go from burnout to overflow. If even one woman avoids the year I’ve had, it’s worth it. ✨

Paperback + eBook in my shop.
Local collection available.
Link in bio.

If you feel like you’re stuck in survival mode, DM me. I’d love to help you find calm again. 💕

☕💚