CLAIRE ROTHER
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CLAIRE ROTHER
on being, yoga, motherhood & everything in between
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
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~NOURISHING THE WHOLE SELF~

MINDFUL LIVING AND EATING 12-week course starting soon…

Are you ready for a mindfulness based approach to nurturing your whole self?

Do you want to find a new and sustainable way to feel balanced, healthy and happy?

Do you want to learn how to have a nourishing and peaceful relationship with yourself, food and eating?

Do you want to be free from self-judgement and criticism and learn to find greater peace and enjoyment?

If the answer to any of these questions is a resounding “YES” then read on…

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Pregnancy Yoga

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Why giving advice can be a selfish act / I'm tired and no I don't want baby sleep advice

I’m much more selective who I talk to about my sleep issues these days. Firstly, there is the fact of boring myself with the same answer to the question ‘how are you?’ But more significantly, I have stopped relaying my lack of sleep to most (m)others because it is almost always met with some advice. There’s nothing wrong with giving advice to others - when it is wanted

Dealing with sleep deprivation as a new mum


I read a statistic the other day that new mothers lose an average of 720 hours of sleep in the first year of motherhood. The fact that my first thought was ‘mm, is that all?’ should tell you a bit about that state of my sleep at this time in my life. If my sleep were a person it would look like Pete Doherty on a bad day circa 2010. Seriously though, 720 hours is a lot.  

Recovery; it's more than okay to be okay.
Recovery; it's more than okay to be okay.
Two magic words you need to hear about legitimising your feelings
Two magic words you need to hear about legitimising your feelings
Cultivating Insight
Cultivating Insight
Motherhood So Far: 2 Weeks In
Motherhood So Far: 2 Weeks In
Being Real About The Magic of Pregnancy
Being Real About The Magic of Pregnancy
To the depressed - you have nothing to be ashamed of
To the depressed - you have nothing to be ashamed of
Is your yoga practice doing this?
Is your yoga practice doing this?
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The feather boa effect
 
 
 
 
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Today you’ll find me snotty and puffy-eyed whilst trying to rest whilst simultaneously looking after a wildly energetic toddler...Mothering is difficult anyway - throw feeling like poo into the equation and difficult becomes brutal. Being self-employed also means these things are trickier. Today I’ve had to cancel a busy class and a private client. And when I woke up today feeling like this, my unchallenged narrative was one of being annoyed and frustrated at myself...’I could have avoided this...(I could have done things to make sure I didn’t get ill). Which is 1). Irrelevant right now, 2) unhelpful 3) unkind and 4) not true. • Often the times we need to practice self compassion the most are when we feel like we are the least deserving of it. And often those times are when we cling on to the illusion of control. • Learning to hear and then to challenge those internal narratives is one of the best life skills I’ve ever learned. It’s actually the only way we can really, truly, be on our own side. So today I’m taking it easy. I’m replacing that narrative and offering words of comfort and kindness to myself. And perhaps most importantly, I’m reminding myself to let go of the illusion of control - which is a funny thing. Because as much as we all love to feel in control, it’s an illusion that often leads to feelings of self-blame and self-judgement on many levels; if I was in control of getting sick then I’m to blame for being ill...but also...if I was completely in control of getting poorly I clearly wouldn’t be poorly! So clearly...the control is not entirely mine. And relinquishing it feels good. It’s a bit like breathing 💖 (which, admittedly, is hard for me to do through these bad boy blocked nostrils but the analogy still stands😆). P.S on the upside, I’ve had an excuse to stay in my onesie all day.
Confession: I love anger* (does that make me weird?😎). (I mean - learning about it!). So heads up because ima teach you a couple of things... • What were you taught about anger? Probably that anger is a ‘bad’ and shameful emotion? As a kid I never learned healthy ways of dealing with anger and I got myself into some real states. ::::: Anger isn’t bad. But when it’s left unchecked, it can have dire consequences for our wellbeing and happiness. So how do we feel and express anger in ways that are healthy? Anger is the emotion that we find the hardest to control. It’s also the most seductive - when we are angry, our self-righteous inner talk reinforces our ‘right’ to be angry and fuels our justification for venting. Compared to other negative emotions - (e.g sadness) - anger is physiologically arousing; it gives us energy (we get a kick out of it!). One of the myths about anger is that venting it is good - yay for catharsis! Nope. Sounds appealing, but venting anger mostly increases our arousal and makes us feel more angry. There are some exceptions to this - which is why it’s good to have some psycho-ed about anger. Because like I said, feeling anger is not bad lovelies. Anger can be smart if experienced and expressed in a healthy and appropriate way. What does this mean? It means: 1). When the degree of anger is fitting to the situation 2). When we express it in the right direction 3). When it brings about a change in behaviour or thinking in the person(s) whom it is targeted at (without making them angry and only wanting to retaliate!) 4) when it rights an injustice or restores a sense of control. But because anger is so arousing and hijacks our reasoning, it is so hard to experience and express anger in ways that are truly helpful and make us feel better, not worse😬 • Feeling anger is okay. But ruminating about it and venting it mindlessly isn’t. • There’s lots of research about what helps with anger - mostly : time and space. Removing ourselves from the situation and taking our minds off it as a way to bring us into a LOW AROUSAL state : one that is incompatible with anger... So tell me - what do you do to help when you’re angry? 💖🌈✨
This is your Sunday evening reminder that your brain is absolutely amazing👊🙌🌈 • One of the most amazing things about it is that it can change itself. Take your amygdala for instance (it’s not shown here but it’s set of almond-shaped neurons located deep in the temporal lobe). Your amygdala plays a huge role in the perception and detection of fear (as well as other emotions like anger and sadness) and the initiation of the stress response. People used to believe that the brain, once fully formed in adulthood, basically stayed the same. But whoa boy it just ain’t true! • In just 8 weeks, a course of mindfulness meditation led to a decrease in the size (and number of cell bodies) of the amygdala. It actually shrunk!! In 8 weeks?! It also lead to greater connection between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) - the ‘higher’ part of the brain governing awareness, decision-making and concentration amongst other things. This connection is so important because it allows us the ability to inhibit our stress response; to get conscious control of our stress/anxiety/fear responses by strengthening our self-awareness. • So the next time that you feel overwhelmed by anxiety or full of fear or stressed out by things you wish you had more control over, please just remember this: Your brain is amazing. It is RESPONSIVE. And if you want to change it, you can. You just have to learn the tools, and USE THEM. They’re all there for you taking❤️. . . . Image: @duvet_days
A few months ago I was awarded a scholarship to study with some pretty amazing women to learn to teach Mindfulness & Mindful Based Eating Awareness Training. This is a course I’d wanted to do for a long time but kept putting off the application. Until...I didn’t. And now...I am almost at the end!✨🌈🙌Soon to be qualified as a Mindfulness & Mindful Eating Instructor😍. I’m launching my own programme called Nourishing The Whole Self - Mindful Living & Eating - on the w/c 9th May...and when I decided to do this, these were the contents of my head: •Eek this is so goddam exciting! 🤩 •I’m totally gonna kill it!👊 •Erm...Can I really do this?🙀 •Is anyone gonna sign up?Will I just be sitting in my online classroom all by myself???😞 .... Its no coincidence that whenever we are about to embark on something new, the kickback emotion to our excitement is often a version of the Imposter Syndrome - self doubt. Fear. ‘I can’t do this why did I think I could?!’ Our instincts want to protect us from anything that feels novel or out of the ordinary... And so...we will get this feeling deep in our core - which is an ‘instinct’ - and because we have been fed some modern day mantra of ‘always trust your instincts’, we will interpret this feeling as valid - something to be trusted - acted on. ::::: Instincts aren’t always right or to be followed. Part of my instincts are telling me to stay safe, don’t risk failure, keep comfortable, don’t put myself out there. But my inner wisdom can choose to acknowledge my instinct and then reframe it... ‘Okay cheers I get you want to keep me safe but it’s really okay for me to step into the unknown so you don’t need to protect me.’ ::::: If we always listened to our instincts we would remain stuck and stagnant and we would never move into new places. So the next time you see some sanctimonious mantra about always trusting your instincts then maybe you’ll think of me?❤️ ::: P.S I actually won’t be sitting alone in my online classroom because I have 4 people signed up already (was aiming for 6 the first time🙌) and there’s still 6 weeks until the course starts 🙌🌈💖 (take that instincts!!😂👊👊). Xxx
Hands up if you’ve ever decided to eat a whole pack of cookies just because you had one? This used to be me on repeat. I would binge and then compensate by being massively restricting - cutting calories, sugar, carbs... general FOOD. But then - inevitably - my will power and energy would be unable to upkeep such strict re*striction* - and so in a moment of ‘weakness’ (not weak - NORMAL) I’d reach for some of what I forbade myself to eat...and then...there goes another 10...and here comes self disgust. :::::: The problem isn’t that I ate one. Or even two. The problem is that I ate one when I said I MUST NOT HAVE ANY: the problem is that I restricted something I did want to eat, convinced myself I didn’t want it, and labelled it a ‘never-ever’ food. Restrictive eating / diet mentality says ‘I’ve blown it so I might as well eat the whole pack. The damage has already been done.” Which is frankly - crazy talk. But then...restriction makes us crazy. It injects a sense of stress around food - a stress that many of us cope with by eating more. Then we feel more stressed (disgusted, ashamed) and then... we eat more. But the initial ‘overeating’ might look like simply having one donut (JUST ONE) when we said we could have NONE, which isn’t really over eating at all, and is more scientifically labelled as ‘I just ate a f****** donut okay?!?!?!’. ::::: But there is another way. It’s called not attaching your sense of worth to your food intake or your body weight. It’s called learning to accept your body and give yourself permission to take up space AS YOU ARE. It’s called getting in touch with your inner wisdom and letting that guide you rather than some stupid diet regime. It’s called treating yourself with the same compassion you would extend to a cherished friend. It’s called freedom. And it tastes sweeter than a whole pack of donuts. (But donuts are also pretty good too). ❤️❤️❤️
❤️✨🙌this🙌✨❤️ :::: from @themilitantbaker