Why I Recorded A Podcast In The Car And What It Taught Me

A candid, unedited catch‑up from the car on choosing a slower January, handling the Yang Fire Horse energy, and turning holiday stress into thoughtful groundwork. I share why gentle starts last longer, how gratitude reshapes mindset, and what to expect in a fire‑charged year.

• surge in blueprint requests after Christmas stress
• case for a slower January and steady prep
• winter as storage season for spring growth
• pitfalls of hustle culture and gym‑rush burnout
• 2026 Yang Fire Horse inside a fire 20‑year cycle
• analogy of riding strong energy with skill
• shift to pre‑recorded workshops for real lives
• daily gratitude practice with The Magic
• quiet optimism for a busy, bright year

Lots of love,

Speak soon,

Rachael xx

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Transcript

Unedited Car Recording Begins

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everyday Faintway podcast. I'm doing something that I've never done before today. I'm both a little terrified and excited at the same time. So I had planned on recording just a bit of a welcome back podcast during the day stay whilst I was at my desk. But I have been doing um lots and lots and lots of uh blueprint reports um that were ordered over Christmas period. Um and I'll go into why I think that's um so telling in a moment, but I didn't get round to recording before I needed to come on the school run. So I um have got here in order to find a space because my children don't go to school near my house. Um I have my dogs in the car and I thought I will get my iPhone and I'll basically do like an Instagram live but a la podcast and do an unedited um recording on my phone and I'll upload it for um this week's podcast. Why not? Let's just give it a go. So if there's any weird noises, if there are cars, if the dogs bark, if I cough, maybe oh my goodness, I I may end up saying something that um I've not I've not got a very good filter. Like when I speak, I'm so like honest and could call it auth, well, yeah, I'm authentic, but like I don't have a particularly good like buffer. So I just worry that I'm gonna, you know, say something that doesn't either sound like I want it to sound or um drop a swear word in there. So I'm gonna put a uh little caveat on that. I'm not gonna get the opportunity to to edit this at all. So um this is quite fun and wild.

Christmas Stress And Blueprint Demand

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Anyway, so back to the blueprints. Um it was really it was I was chuckling to myself because over the course of the year I kind of um you know like I always want people to when we get near to Christmas anyway, nobody likes having a stressful Christmas, but they are full of stress, whether that be spending time with people that we don't normally spend time with, or um just lots of people like on top of each other, or the expectation, or having to spend time with family members that maybe you don't get on with so well, or whatever it is, like they're quite stressful, and they quite often as a as a period of time and as a kind of get-together, not they go wrong, but there can be tension, can't there? There can be tension. And before Christmas and in the run-up to Christmas, you know, I try and kind of talk about how things we can help with that and set all the energy in the house, and you know, just generally have a better shot at having a lesser argumentative and more joyful Christmas. And it so seemed that this year we got to the Christmas break, and lots of people decided that they did, in fact, need next year. Next Christmas to look a little bit different. Um, so I was sort of chuckling to myself that uh I think more people bought the paint energy blueprint in the Christmas school holidays than for the entirety of the rest of December combined, which um I just felt was quite telling, really, about how much stress and pressure we come sort of come under as mothers in particular over that period of time. So, yes, that um I thought that was quite telling.

Shock Of 2026 And Slower January

SPEAKER_00 3:40

So here we are in January. Uh every time I say January 2026, I literally cannot believe that it is 2026. It it is blowing my mind that it is 2026. So I don't know how many times I'm gonna keep saying or writing 2025, and I know that's normal, like, but I almost it was just literally the day that we went back to the door, I went back to my desk so Tuesday. My husband was working at home and I had uh started write a a report and I had put the date of the new Frenchware year, so I put February 2026, and I said, Is he actually 2026? And he's like, Uh yeah, like there was New Year's. I was like, I know, but I feel like I've accepted the fact that there was New Year's Eve and then but didn't actually like put two and two together that actually meant that the year changed. So yeah, I can't quite get over that. It's absolutely mental. And what I'm really loving at the minute is that loads and loads of people seem to have leaned into this um kind of slower January and accepting that we don't have to kind of January the first, whatever, isn't this like hustle, let's go, let's smash it. Like, none of that, none of this, like let's reinvent ourselves, none of this. I don't know, it's just such a masculine energy. This like this one particular day in the entire calendar whereby we suddenly go, well, enough is enough, let's change our life. And you know, I don't think there's anything wrong with kind of using a like a marker, if that's what you want to call it, to make changes that you might want to

Nature’s Winter: Store Before You Grow

SPEAKER_00 5:20

have made for however long. But I just, you know, we are still here. I mean, obviously it depends where you are in the world, doesn't it? Because, you know, here in Australia in the middle of summer. Um, but here in the UK, we are in the depths of winter. We are, it's been minus six degrees, it has been cold and it is dark and it is slow. And I was speaking to one of the mums on the school one this morning, actually, and I said, you know, loads of people, which is really great, are leaning into the fact that January doesn't have to be this kind of hustle mentality, but it doesn't have to be nothing either. And if you think about like the trees and all of like nature, they're not just idle. So everything that's happening beneath the ground with all of the plants and things, you know, they're literally storing everything that they can, ready for the massive growth in spring. So it's not like they're not still taking in nutrients or whatever, they're just it's just all being stored, ready for this massive flourish come springtime. And I think that's what you know, that's certainly how I like to look at these winter winter bits. It's what can I what can I do? What can I learn? What can I plan? What can I dream about? Like this is like my you're gonna see how many times I say the word like now, and I'm sure that's gonna be really annoying to listen to. Um, but you know, this period of time is almost like the the dream building of the rest of the year. Like, what do I want the rest of the year to look like? What do I want to focus on? Um, and I'm taking the next French Free year really, really seriously. Um for lots and lots of reasons actually, but I think you know, using this period of time whereby I'm not necessarily doing right now, I'm not doing, I'm not hustling, I'm not like go, go, go, go, go. I'm not it's not all about productivity and all of that kind of stuff. It's it's way more gentle. It's you know, what what do I want the rest of the year to look like and what can I be doing now to prepare for that? And that's all it is, and I think you know, going into the beginning of a year, like a you know, Kel beast is just bonkers because you're gonna burn yourself out. You've just

Gentle Starts Beat Burnout

SPEAKER_00 7:41

got to look at gyms in in January to manage gyms. That used to be way back when in a very different life. Um, that was my job. And you were gonna have these bonkers like a few weeks. Maybe you'd get to the end of January whilst people were still involved, but you know, sign up for the year and then they're done by week three because they've pushed it too hard, they've pushed it too far, too far out of their comfort zone, expecting too much. Um, and you know, that they've done none of the prep work, none of the groundwork, none of the readiness stuff to be able to kind of support these what are probably really good life habits, but so remarkably different from what they've ever done before that it doesn't stick. So, yeah, for me this is all about kind of prep groundwork and you know, building the building blocks and stuff like that, which is a much gentler start to the year, I feel.

Yang Fire Horse And Fire Cycle

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Um, so yes, 4th of February we have the Ni Feng Shui year, which you've probably seen and heard so very much about, which is the year of the Yang Fire Horse, and obviously we are in a fire cycle. So the annual um cycle this this coming year, so 2026, is a fire year, but we are also in the fire 20-year cycle. So the overarching kind of climate is the 20-year cycle, whereas the weather forecast, if that's how you want to kind of think about it, is the is the annual cycle. So we are we are fire and fire. So it is going to be fast and powerful, and um kind of the energy of it is a bit um what's the word? Like not, I mean, not uncontrollable, I don't mean that. And it's you know, French Way can be quite scary. Like the language that gets used can feel quite scary quite a lot of the time. Um, but I do believe that it's this it's this is the sort of energy which is you know where these magnificent changes can happen if you know how to handle it. And it's a bit like being a novice rider and riding a horse versus an actual skilled rider riding a horse. Like if you're a novice rider, the horse is going where the horse wants to go, and you're not going to really utilize this power, you're just gonna go where it goes. Whereas if you are an experienced rider and you have got the power of a horse belief you, then you know, just think about these incredible dress large ponies or horses and phenomenal show jumpers and things like the the the beauty that can come from that power is immense.

Power Of Energy When Well Guided

SPEAKER_00 10:22

So, yes, I am going to be doing a recording um which will be like a downloaded thing, because I feel like um the live sessions for me, like workshops, they don't really they don't work, well not they don't really work, they don't work because of my home situation, my son being autistic. When it when he is at home of an evening, I'm not there's no I have got no I have to be with him. There is nothing, I don't work after he is at home. Um so for me to be, I just couldn't run like a workshop at 7, 7.30, 8 o'clock, whatever of an evening. That's just not my my setup all my life. Um and I wouldn't want to put the pressure and stress on myself to do that, and I wouldn't want anybody that had sort of come and invested that time to feel that energy from me because that is not what it should be about at all. So I'm going to do a pre-recorded one

Why Pre‑Recorded Workshops Work

SPEAKER_00 11:23

that you can essentially just like click on the link and um and watch kind of remotely in your own time, which I feel like will work better. I feel like that's going to work better anyway, because like we're all busy, you know, and there's people have got their own lives and their own difficult situations that they have to navigate. And the number of people who watch things, you know, back on replays and stuff is huge. And ultimately I speak to people all around the world, which still sounds utterly bonfers to my own brain. Um, but it's true. So I think that will work better. So that I am going to try and record in the next sort of week or so so that I can get that out for you all, which I'm very excited about. Um, yeah, so it's gonna be a really exciting year. There isn't really a theme to today's podcast, it is more just me saying hello and welcome back, and I'm excited about all the things that are kind of to come this year, which um yeah, I am really excited about this year. I think there is so much bubbling, so much bubbling, so many people seem really interested in this incredible world of energy and things, which is an absolute blessing. Um, and I feel really lucky to be doing it. So if you follow me on the Instagram,

Rising Interest In Energy Work

SPEAKER_00 12:45

you will the the Instagram, you will have seen that I'm doing The Magic, um, the book The Magic by Ronda Byrne, and I'm doing that in the Francesca Amber um book club, which I am really, really grateful to be in because I have owned The Magic for gosh, I don't know, two, three years probably, three years, I reckon. And I've never ever ever committed to it because it is quite like intense. It's quite an intense practice for every day. So I'm really grateful to be doing that alongside a bunch of other women. Um and I'm really, really enjoying it. It has wildly shifted my mentality, which is great because towards the end of last year I was definitely, you know, struggling a little bit with um some things that

Gratitude Practice With The Magic

SPEAKER_00 13:38

had happened. We were going through some pretty tricky times, and life with my son was challenging to say the least, and will be challenging every day, you know. That that is what that is what it is. Um, but I'd felt like that had got on top of me maybe more than it had been for a while. So um yeah, I'd kind of got into this headspace that I wasn't enjoying being in, and it's been just glorious. This daily practice of gratitude has just been truly great. I've really, really enjoyed it. So if you like things like the law of attraction and um you want to get yourself into more of a um space of gratitude and things like that, I'd highly, highly, highly recommend um looking at the magic and only reading a chapter a day. That is that I feel like that is the absolute key. I think I tried to read it in one go, like a book, but it you can't use it like a book. It's not a book, it's like a um it's like a prompt. So every chapter, one chapter every day, and use it as a prompt and don't try and reread and like read it in advance because it just doesn't work like that. Um so that's an absolute pop recommend from me. So anyway, I'm going to go and pick my children up from school and I'd be really interested to know whether you can even hear the difference on the recording. Um, I don't think I've dropped any F-bombs. I'm not sure

Closing Thoughts From The School Run

SPEAKER_00 15:05

how many times I've said like, and I don't think I've said anything wildly daft. So, all in all, I'm gonna take this as a success. It's a bit like the world's longest voice note, innit? And I re I really like a voice note. It was only very recently that I was introduced to a voice note, and my goodness do I love them. Um, so this is just like a massive, massive voice note. So I'm really enjoying this. Maybe I'll do this more often. Who knows? Who knows? But I am wishing you an absolutely glorious um end of the week and weekend wherever you are in the world, and I will try and be back next week with a you know, a more polished version of the podcast for you. But until then, um there'll be no intro. This is mind blowing. There's no intro music, no outro music, no nothing. Uh wow, this is crazy. Like I feel like I'm just being rogue. But I hope you have just the most amazing week and I'll speak to you pretty soon. Bye bye.