.png)
Conscious But Grounded
Conscious but Grounded is a podcast about spirituality: high vibe living in the real world. I ask questions like: how do we connect to the magic, spirit, source, the universe - but with our feet firmly planted on the ground? How do we show up in a conscious way and harness that to make big paradigm-busting change in the day to day of our lives?
Conscious But Grounded
S2 Ep 1: Self Care FIRST - how in midlife I prioritise myself before everything else
Yay! Season 2! Expect the same chatty vibe, but less experimenting, more focussed subjects. This season is all about MIDLIFE WOMEN! This epside is all about how I manage to prioritse Self Care and my OWN wellbeing over all else. It starts with me. If I am well, the house is well, it's like a freaking Disney movie! LOL!
Enjoy! Here are some links that I mentioned:
Supply Life food intolerance test
Hey! I'm Rachel! I am a qualified Holistic Life Coach and Mind Body Practitioner, Embodiment Coach, Yoga 500hrs (plus lots more extra yoga quals). I'm also an award winning content creator and have 20 years' experience in digital. I'm a mum of 3 kids and I live in the Peak District - oh and I have ADHD and I am sober. My passion is helping midlife women turn meltdown into magic!
Offerings:
My luxury retreat for midlife women! (free workshop in the pop up too)
Book a coaching taster spot with me half price
Goddess Codes Chakra Masterclass (GODDESS7 to get for £7)
Find me here:
Conscious but Grounded is a podcast about spirituality, high vibe living in the real world. I ask questions like, how do we connect to the magic? The spirit, the source, the universe, but with our feet firmly planted on the ground. How do we show up in a conscious way and harness that to make big, paradigm busting change in the day to day of our lives? I'm Rachel Brady, mum of three, yoga teacher and embodiment coach. This is the place where I'll be reflecting and exploring big, deep questions, all with a pinch of self deprecation, a few proper lols, and a lot of real life. Join me.
Hello, welcome to Conscious But Grounded. So Conscious, but Grounded is a podcast all about spirituality in real life and kind of like how can we have a holistic and spiritual view on like what's happening right now. So this is the first episode of season two. I'm so excited to be recording this. I'm in the car. I was like, oh, for season two, I'm gonna record at my desk and it's gonna be much more planned and organized. But the reality of my life is I'm like super ridiculously busy. Like when people realize all the things that I'm doing, they're like, I don't understand. And I have to say it's an A DHD superpower, but I also do kind of have to stop and chill every once in a while. Okay, so that aside. I know exactly what I'm gonna talk about and I know the subject so well. I don't need to sit down and plan it. That's the thing I will do. Somewhere I sit down and it's like maybe more workshopy feel. But suffice to say that season two is all gonna be for you, the midlife woman. Now, when I say midlife, who am I talking about? What I love about this category of midlife is like it's quite big. Like if you actually ask track GBT, it's like late thirties to like mid sixties. But honestly like if you're 30 listening to this and you relate, awesome. If you're 17 listening to this, awesome, like, let's not get too hung up on that shit. So I find myself in midlife and going through the shit all the time and really making sense of it, and that's been my greatest life lesson. And they always say, you know, teach what you, you know, teach and pass on your wisdom from your struggles. That's, that's what most people's Dharma is actually. And dharma is a yogic term for life purpose. So in season one, I was very much. Finding my feet. I was very much like, fuck, let's just do this. Just do this. Just to start and had my title. I knew it was gonna be conscious, but grounded, and I just ended up talking about my spirituality, my spiritual struggles, what I was going through at that moment in time. So a lot of it is about neurodivergence and my youngest son's autism diagnosis and what that meant for me. There's a lot of that going on, a lot of processing of that. And then at the end, I realized who I really wanted to focus on working with in my work, in my. Retreats in my yoga workshops, in my content, and in my coaching is midlife women. It's like, that's what I know. Like that's the subject I know. And it's not just midlife women. It's like peop midlife people, uh, who are at like maximum output. Like maybe they've got aging parents, maybe they've got teenagers or toddlers, you know, the range can be so wide or like grown up kids and, and they're like at the peak of their career, but also having the, the real tough hormonal shifts. Like it's a lot and I think so many of us have become isolated and unsupported. And so yeah, in my season one was all about me just like talking, channeling, finding my feet, and I like to pull that season experiment. And now this season, season two is called emergence, and it's all about the midlife emergence and it's all about how can I help you? Not that I'm a fricking guru like you, you are the guru, right? That's the saying. But it's. So true. Like, you know, it, all of this, you just need help excavating and guiding and being supported. Like that's, it's not a weakness. Like we need to be supported. We can't do this thing alone. Um, and we all have to walk each other home. Like that's a spiritual saying, like, we're just walking each other home and, and it's so true. So what I wanted to talk about today, midlife woman, and please don't press stop if you are like, I'm not a midlife woman, just keep listening'cause it'll be really useful advice for. Anyone really, um, is how I, as somebody who's been on this journey for a while now, and I do call myself an expert in self-care, I am a self-care expert. I scaffold my week around my self-care, around my routines. My day is scaffolded around my routines, my spiritual practices, and there is not a day that goes by where I don't do at least one thing for myself. Um, normally four or five things for myself and I scatter appointments throughout the week that are more kind of healing appointments and I'm always working with one person, at least at the minute. I'm working with my business slash uh, spiritual coach, Karen. I'm gonna have her on soon. We had to reschedule a couple of potential podcast talks. She has the most incredible story. Breast cancer survivor. Incredible woman. Incredible, incredible. You're gonna love her. So. Um, I'm working with her at the minute. She's holding me accountable in my business. She knows me very well. She keeps me focused. Um, and I'm, I've, you know, yesterday I went for Shiatsu, uh, on Friday I'm going for some kinesiology. So shiatsu is a form of like Japanese kind of energy medicine. It's not really massage. People call it massage. It's not really, uh, and I have that fairly. Not fairly regularly. Might be a stretch, but I've had a few sessions and I'm trying to book in at the minute, every couple of weeks. And what she does in those shiatsu sessions. This is a total digression. If you're new around here, this is what I do. But anyway, I really love Shiatsu. It's traditional Chinese medicine, so in Chinese medicine we have meridians, which are these energy channels throughout the body. And she acts who basically balances those energy channels and she can pick up things that are happening in my body. She could pick up, for example, my left lower back degenerative disc. She could feel like loads of tension around the so off on that side. And um, yeah, she just kind, I'm like, this is what's going on in my life right now. And she just goes, right, this is what you need today. Anyway, I digress that chat soon. Um, and then kinesiology. I've never had it before, but it's, I, I dunno that much about it actually. I think it's similar. Like an energy medicine where they feel into your body. And like what I want through my practices that I'm getting at the minute is I want support. And I love things that are like, okay, this is going on in your life. This is where it's showing up in your body. Let's heal. Let's heal that space. Let's, let's unblock that energy because I'm very active in my business and my life right now, and I don't need that shit hanging around. I want it to be lifted. I want to, I'm doing the work in every respect. Uh, yeah, that was a massive digression, but suffice to say. Eight. It's an example, right, of like, I'm having two like specialist appointments and I'm working with someone this week, three days a week. Um, and on a more kind of day-to-day level, I walk my dogs every day. Not just because they need a walk, but because it's really good for me to get out in nature. So this morning I've jumped in the car and gone to the gym. I'm going to the gym. Another example, right? Like, so I'm committing to three days at the gym a week, even though it's half an hour's drive. Normally I'll take my laptop and do some work thereafter. But today I'm not. I'm gonna get back and walk the dogs. And so what I do like at the start of the week is like I'll scaffold my week out. So I've got a work and wellbeing planner where I first started to do this a few years ago, someone gave me a template, a coach actually, she gave me a template and I tweaked it and I was like, I wanna include, she was like, this is a wellbeing planet. And I was like, well, I also wanna put my work in there and, and so I tweaked it and made it my own and I'll. I'll pop that template below. Um, and you don't have to use the template. You can just think, you know in your diary. Okay, I put my wellbeing in first. This is what surprises people. You put your wellbeing in first, so you write every day. I meditate every morning. Does it matter if you miss one? I miss one this morning. No it doesn't because shit happens. I was up in the night with Stan, he still sleeps with me and he was sweaty and like pulling all the covers. So I woke up and got annoyed with him and we both woke up. So I turned my 6:00 AM. Arm off, and I ended up getting up by seven, so I missed my morning meditation. I'll do it later. It's fine. You have to have flexibility and compassion around these wellbeing practices or else they're not wellbeing practices, right? They're like a punishment schedule. Um, so I got up this morning and said I had a really lovely healthy back breakfast. I'm following a kind of Ayurvedic principle in my eating at the minute. I'm, I'm honoring the fact that I did a food intolerance test recently. I'll post that below as well. From a company called Supply Life, a hundred quid, pretty much, roughly a bit more, uh, for an intolerance test. I on holiday. Did I honor it? No. Did I? Hell, I was eat, you know, this intolerance test has come up that I'm intolerant to milk, yeast potatoes and egg whites. And I got on holiday in Spain. We've just, we've just had half term here and I was like, you know, we picked up some food from the garage on the way to the house, and I was like. This is gonna be so hard out here, like, and I was so focused on not drinking because Spain has a lot of drinking memories for me. I was like, sack this, I'm gonna, and I just like proper, like, honestly, it was actually quite funny. My mom was like, oh, I thought you weren't eating potatoes and bread and milk or stuff. I was like, yeah, I'm gonna give myself a break. Like whilst I still. A piece of cheese and a handful of crispers. And I go, so it is like give yourself grace, right? Um, but now we're back. I'm like, right, refocus. Like it's easy for me to do tho to, to avoid those foods at home where I've got a, a well-stocked fridge and cupboards and you know, all the things I need. So that's self-care too, right? So yeah, you scaffold your week around it. So what are your self-care non-negotiables. Okay. I want you to put three into your day. Not one, okay? That's not. Enough, I want you to put three and they can be drink water. And so I really think it's worth getting one of those bottles or a Stanley Cup or something like that. Treat yourself. They make a hell of a difference to me. Or even if it's just like a mason jar. Fill it up with water, ideally drink two. But to be honest, one of those is probably an improvement in where you're at now. And it could also be one of your self-care, non, non-negotiables could be, I eat five fruit and veg, so it doesn't have to be that hard guys. It can be, the third one can be I walk in nature. Okay, so maybe you, maybe you get off the bus before a certain couple of stops and walk through a park to work. Maybe you do 10,000 steps a day instead. Um. Three self-care, non-negotiables. Maybe you do a YouTube yoga every day, even if it's a short one. Like I always find, um, aim for three. And then on the days where you're like doing it, you're smashing outta the park. You'll get three. On the days where you're really fucking struggling, you'll get one. And on the days, most of'em, you'll probably end up doing two. Right? It's like how my Vedic meditation teacher says that we have to do two 20 minute meditations a day. On the days where I'm smashing it, I do two meditations. The day. And actually that's most of the time. But like there were also a hell of a lot of times where I just do one. And there are also some times where I don't do any the most important thing. And this is such a lesson and such a thorough, uh, a through line, sorry. In my work coffee sip. Sorry. Um, is, it doesn't matter if you fuck up, it doesn't matter if you slip, like with sobriety, like with everything. Don't throw the baby with the bath water. I hate that saying, I always use it, but I hate it. Don't just give up because you. I had one shit. Day two, shit. Days three, shit. Days four, shit days. You know, my, um, one of my partners or group, uh, fellow group members in the meditation group that were in, you know, she had a few days recently where she didn't do anything. She was just feeling it. She was just, and it's like, it doesn't matter. Get back on. What actually happens is, like we were discussing in the group, you will find if you have a week, right? Where, say, say you're doing this, say you're doing three self-care negotiables, and you, you're smashing it for like a month. Like all these things, there are periods when you're like, eh, and something happens and you don't do it for a week, you will then start to notice, oh, I feel really irritable. Oh, I feel really like agitated. Like, oh, I feel, and you'll start to collect data points from your crappy week. So don't see, oh, I, I had a shitty day, or I didn't do it for a day, or two days or three days. Don't see that as a failure. It's all data points. It's all learning. This is a problem. Practice is not perfection. I mean, if you do all of this perfect first time, like massive credit to you, but like the vast majority of people don't. Okay. Um, and that's okay. Like, we are humans. We are just humans. We're just silly, flawed humans. Okay? And it really annoys me. And, but I'm guilty of it too, how we kind of so hard on ourselves about like, oh, I joined a gym and I've only been a couple of times. I'm like, I'm like, well, don't, don't give up, like go this week. Um, and it's better to do that one workout than absolutely nothing. Like just keep, keep having self-compassion. So let's go back to the, the basic strategy. At the core of this episode, I want you to scaffold your week around your wellbeing. So you get your, I love for Google Calendar, by the way. I use Google Calendar. Or you could use your Outlook on your iPhone or whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever works for you. I've also. Got a pen and paper planner that I write stuff down on. I mean, do I always look at it and refer to it? No, but the process of writing it down at the start of the week helps me go like, right, I've got like a busy week here, so yeah, this, this, this. Okay. Yeah. Must remember to meet her on Thursday. Okay. Yeah. Need to move that. Oh look, I've got to do that. Okay. So you schedule in, you've got your three self-care non-negotiables. You don't even need to write those down, but you can if you want. I, I sometimes do diarize them just to ping at like 6:00 AM It'll be like. Meditate, 6:00 AM and 2:00 PM I try and do mine and then it'll be like dog walk at nine 30 normally. Or if I don't do it at nine 30, I do it in the afternoon. And then, so for example, I'm gonna give you an example. One thing that's dropped off massively for me recently is my Asana practice, my yoga practice. But it's like my coach says to me yesterday, you've got so many practices that you've almost got too many. And so that's true too. Like it's awesome to be doing all of this self care work, but give yourself a break. Know that there's only so many hours. In the day, you are also likely work, you know, or have a business. You're also probably a mom if you're listening to this, you know, I've got three kids all at different ages. It's a lot. Like my shiatsu lady yesterday was like, yeah, like you've got a lot on like, I dunno how you're doing it all. And I'm like a DHD, like I just, I like spinning plates I guess. Um, okay, so we're scaffold in our week. We've got our self-care non-negotiables. I want you to lay out your week and go. Right. I'm at the gym Monday, Wednesday, Friday. They're my days, right? Just to give you that example, and then you're like, okay, so maybe once a month you go for a massage, right? Maybe you are doing, you know, yoga with Adrian on YouTube, uh, every Sunday evening every day, whatever works for you. Just make sure you're doing regular three self, self-care, non-negotiables. That's actually called a spirit, a sader in spirituality. It's called a sader. You do. Three spiritual practices, and that can be walking nature, it can be meditate, it can be anything. It can be journaling, journaling's, lovely. It could be pulling an Oracle card. So I really strongly suggest having a morning and an evening practice. So my morning practice normally would be to meditate, and if I have time and I've got the energy, I'll pull a card. I might move my body a little bit. I will always have a kickout at some point in the day. And then I will try to do yoga. I end up doing it quite sporadically, just throughout the week here and there. I go to the gym three times a week. Like I say, but that's a new addition as well. So then I want you, once you've got your self-care practices all mapped out and you've got a couple of more in depth things, so oh, I'm gonna go to that yoga workshop. Like I'm posting the yoga workshop on Sunday locally. I want you to have some more in depth things thrown in there. And then I also want you to consider working with someone. It doesn't have to be me, but you can choose me if you like. I'm offering like a half price embodiment, coaching taster session at the minute, and that's just like as an intro and. If you like it, and if we vibe and if we're like getting shit done, then it's like we can talk about working together after that as well. Um, also, do you know, do you know guys that you can actually get free therapy on the NHS? So depending on where you live, you can self-refer. So just Google self-refer therapy. NHS, it's very, very easy to get it sorted. I've had it before free. Um, so I want you to consider what is the shit that is showing up for you and how can you heal it? It. And if you're not sure, please book in with me and we can explore that. So whether it's chronic pain, whether it's perimenopause, I want you to just take this moment right now to come outta victim consciousness and to get proactive to think how can I actually improve my life? Right now? What is it that keeps coming up is it's in childhood trauma that you need EMDR therapy. Like I say, self refer on the NHS. Is it sobriety? Are you like self-medicating? Join sober mom collective. That's my sober. A community that I'm in, I don't run it. I'm in it. Just to be clear on that, um, I will post these links below. This is what I'm referring people to at the minute who are contacting me about their sober journey. Uh, she recovers equally an amazing organization. They have free meetups. Um, just start to get that. It's scaffolding, isn't it? It's starting to get that support network scaffolded in and literally you need those three self-care non-negotiables. You need to go to the doctor to get your bloods done. You need to think, am I on hrt? T is it the time? Uh, do I need my meds adjusting? Whatever, whatever. Guys, I'm not anti-Western medicine at all. I'm on HRT. I still take an antidepressant from five years ago that I've still not managed to taper off fully. Uh, I don't have any shame in that. Like, you know, life's full on and like shit happens and it's like, how are we best showing up in a responsible way to like put our best foot forward, you know? Um, but what I wanna say is this is your responsible. You can't. Well, I mean you can,'cause I do. You can get irritable, you can get angry, you can get annoyed. But ultimately it's like how are you showing up in the world? What can you do to keep your side of the street clean? How? How can you put up boundaries with people? How can you take a little bit off your to-do list? You know, if you are a people pleaser or if you are codependent and you keep saying yes to people all the time and overgiving, who is it gonna affect? It's gonna affect you. Who's that gonna affect? Gonna affect your family. So it is time to start saying no to things unless they light you up. Of course, it's time to get your ass to the gym or out on a nature walk or climbing or yoga, whatever it is, time to start getting other connections with women in a similar position. It's time to start getting a coach. It's time to start referring for, you know, psychotherapy. It's just time, it's, it is time to stop the excuses. It's time to work on your health, your vitality. Your spirituality is time to start getting connected with the awe of life. Like booking a trip, go on a retreat. Hell, I've got one coming up in November. It's called the Embodied Queen. Um, we are working on reparenting, which is in a child, work with my good friend and co-hosts Veba Tran. We actually have a free workshop at my website right now. If you go to rachel brady.com yes, I've changed my URL, but you'll still find my website if you type in Rachel Brady yoga.com and. A popup will come up, uh, for the free embodiment and reparenting workshop. There's a little introductory chat and then about 15 minutes in, we have the practice. Go and do it. It's free. Guys, that is like a free therapy session by two facilitators that really know what they're doing and one of them is me. Okay. Blowing my own trumpet. So I'm gonna leave it there because I'm approaching Sheffield, which is where my gym is. Um, yeah. One thing I want you to take away from this is just to sit down for five minutes now and scaffold. Start scaffolding in what is my self care? Where do I need support? And if you do wanna book in with me in my Instagram linking bio, uh, there is a slot in there. I've not actually put it on my website yet. There's a little button in there where you can just directly book in for one hour coaching session with me. It's an embodiment coaching session. It's 55 pounds for your introductory one. Uh, yeah, just go for it. You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain. And that is all I love you. Please rate and review this podcast. It really helps me. Uh. Get picked up by the algorithm and yeah, just reach out anytime. Hello at Rachel Brady Yoga. All my Instagram is now at Rachel Bridget Brady. I changed that too just to my name.'cause I think when it was yoga before people thought yoga was all I was doing. Yoga runs through everything that I do, guys. Everything that I do, I'm a yogi, but um, there is more to my work than the yogic practice itself, and that's why I wanted to reflect with my little name change there. So I hope you'll be staying tuned for more to come on. This season two, which is all about midlife emergence. I'm gonna cover every single part of midlife, all the struggles, all the shit, and I'm gonna have some amazing midlife guests on that have really overcome some serious shit in their lives to turn, melt down into magic. That's all. Love you. Bye.