From the Heart with Rachel Brathen

When you really think about it, there are so many parallels between healing trauma and knitting. If you find a hole or a knot in your project, you have to work backwards. It feels like losing a lot of progress - but you’re actually building something more beautiful in the end. In today’s episode, Rachel opens up about the trauma work she’s been doing lately and how it has brought her to a new chapter in life. Now, more than ever before, she chooses things for joy. She reaches for what her inner child wants. She does things simply because they make her happy.
It may seem simple, but it feels like a big revelation. The world is full of potential, and we can make choices with joy at the front of our minds. How are you choosing joy in your own life? Are you crafting? Are you taking care of your inner child? What do you reach for when joy is calling to you? And can you do more of it? This episode will remind you that sometimes the simple things are really what life is all about.

It’s time for another episode of Ask Rachel! Today Rachel takes a beautiful and very relatable question from a listener on how to speak more kindly to your body. She shares her history of struggling to speak kindly to herself, and a moment when she was nine years old where she first felt like her body wasn’t good enough. Ultimately, this is a practice! Rachel gives some little things she does in her day to bring out the voice of her inner best friend and quiet the inner critic.
There are always resources we can use to find more self-love. And that is especially important when it comes to our children! Rachel talks about things we can teach our kids so they speak kindly to themselves, and gives examples of conversations she is having with Lea right now. On top of that, she takes a question on how to pick up new skills and start new projects, and relatedly, some advice she has for learning new languages. Your body can do incredible things! Tune in for a reminder to be kind so it can work its magic.

Happy September! Fall has officially arrived in the north of Sweden where Rachel lives. The seasons change quickly here, and Rachel is already finding herself in darker days, wearing heavier clothes (and having wild animal encounters outside!). Things in nature may be slowing down, but are you? In this episode, Rachel shares how important it is to set a fall intention: something to serve as a guiding light, to align you with nature, and help you find a purposeful daily rhythm. For her, that intention is to sit at the pottery wheel each and every day.
Does play feel frivolous to you? Usually, when we have free time from our children, we do the things we are “supposed” to do. But what if play is actually a basic human need? Do you have your own version of pottery? And can you make more time for something in your life that is just for you? This episode will help you see why it’s one of the most important things you can do.

So many of us want to live a slower and more deliberate life. But how do we get there? In today’s episode, Rachel shares her path - it’s to practice it! The life she is living right now was once a dream. It involved a lot of learning, trying new things, and making mistakes along the way. But now, quite a few years in, she is noticing that the things that were once hard are coming more naturally. She can tend to her garden, care for her bees and animals, do pottery, and even knit.
You have to start somewhere! Practicing your longing is the way to embody and actually live that longing. Whatever you are dabbling in right now, this episode will inspire you to keep creating pockets of time for it, keep trying, and keep dipping your toes in. Before you know it, you will be swimming.

After a long summer, it is finally time to get back to school, back to basics, and back to routine. Rachel has some time now to tackle the chaos and mess that has accumulated over the past couple months, and she shares honestly what the state of her house was like. Her family definitely didn’t start the new school year off on the best foot!
How do the perfect Instagram moms keep their houses clean all the time? Is there some secret trick some of us are missing? Is it possible to keep an entire family organized? Today’s episode is a relatable one - sometimes we fail, sometimes things get chaotic, and sometimes things are just flat out messy. But maybe that means you’re enjoying life. Tune in to let yourself off the hook.