From the Heart with Rachel Brathen

Latest Episodes:

What If We All Just Did Whatever the F*ck We Want? Jan 25, 2019

Show notes

Rachel shares some big life challenges she's had over the past week, such as cutting out her braid that her best friend put in her hair 12 years ago, waxing her legs, trying CBD oil and completing a triathlon, all while dealing with a crazy toddler.

What If Every Challenge Is a Blessing In Disguise? Jan 18, 2019

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Rachel shares lessons her daughter, Luna, teaches her on a daily basis and how often times these "teachers" shop up through immensely challenging moments and hold the key to self realization.

Nurturing Your Friendships with Olivia Rothschild Jan 11, 2019

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In this episode, Rachel is recording from NYC with her best friend Olivia Rothschild. Rachel and Olivia “met half way” in NYC for the only reason that they wanted to spend some time together and have a little break from the husbands and the babies. They chat about life, sex, having more babies, shaving, veganism and all the usual things best friends talk about.

Who do you call when you just need to talk to someone? How do you stay close with your best friends that live far away? Tune in for an episode on the meaning of friendship and the connections that we would fly across the world for.

Calm and Confident in 2019 Jan 04, 2019

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Welcome to the first From the Heart episode of 2019 where Rachel shares her intentions for the new year. First, reflecting on 2018 and the challenges that it brought into her life, Rachel notices that she was shook by a loss of confidence. From working too hard and too much, chasing around a crazy toddler and having social media telling her all the things she was doing wrong, Rachel felt self-doubt creep in and latch onto her in the spot that was most vulnerable. This had her questioning every decision she made in her businesses and with her family and friends the entire year.

Sometimes, when you have many voices telling you what to do, your inner voice becomes cloudy and overshadowed. Listen in as Rachel discovers the answer to this - sitting in silence and bringing calm and peace into her life to allow her inner wisdom to shine through. In 2019, Rachel intends to embody the calm, confident, inner wild woman that doesn’t give a f*ck what other people think. What are you planning to embrace in 2019?

Rituals to Set Your New Years Intentions Dec 28, 2018

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In this episode, Christmas has just ended and Rachel is feeling the relief. She realizes why people spend the holidays with their extended family - because leaving all the cooking to one person is too big of a job! Rachel discusses the pressure she put on herself to create the perfect Christmas for her family and how it left her missing her mom and wondering exactly what she was trying to recreate.

With Christmas over for the year, Rachel’s focus shifts to New Years. Intention setting as the year turns is one of her most sacred rituals. She shares her best practices and tips to arrive at her intentions and affirmations and invites you to join in as well.

Tune into this episode for a beautifully guided meditation and specific instructions from Rachel’s personal ritual to help you settle into the feeling you want to manifest in your life as 2019 approaches. Beginning the new year with your mind clear and your heart focused is a powerful tool we can all use to manifest what our soul is craving.

Holidays, Trauma and the Santa Claus Problem Dec 21, 2018

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In this episode, Rachel touches on an unexpected parenting issue her and Dennis have come across - Dennis doesn’t want to be Santa for Christmas. Christmas is an especially important time for Rachel and she reflects on her past to figure out why that is. Prior to having her baby girl, Rachel placed so much emphasis on her birthday. Not too long ago, she realized that a happy birthday meant separating from loss and trauma that plagued this celebration before.

Since leaving Sweden, Christmas has been the time of year Rachel loves the most. Coming from complex family dynamics (learn more about these in the episode, “From Suicide to Sobriety” with Rachel’s mom, Shama), Rachel realizes that having a Christmas where everyone is together and happy means so much to her. Spending the holidays with her little family is a time to create happy memories with Dennis and fill Luna’s childhood with Christmas joy and magic. But now, with Dennis and Rachel not seeing eye-to-eye on the importance of Santa Claus, Rachel tries to decide the best course of action moving forward.

There is beauty in this time of year, even if it is sometimes messy. What are your Christmas stories and traditions? Share and let’s see what this time of year brings us all.

Let Your Inner Wild Woman Roar Dec 14, 2018

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In this episode, Rachel discusses the disconnect between what resonates with her inner voice versus what society tells her. She wonders what her life would be like if she fully let the wild woman inside of her blossom - not the woman who has been conditioned by society.

These thoughts were triggered after Rachel noticed a pattern of how often she tells Luna how beautiful she is. Of course, this isn’t a bad thing to do - our children are all beautiful - but Rachel realized that this is exactly how she was brought up. Putting an emphasis on our looks, however well-meaning, can lead us obsessing over our exterior as we grow up - but what if you didn’t have to do anything to be worthy? What if you didn’t have to look good or accomplish things or be successful, but you could feel validated just from being exactly the way you are? This is how Rachel wants Luna to grow up. She doesn’t want her to grow up watching her mom do things she hates just to please society - like shaving her legs.

Anything we do that doesn’t make us feel happy and whole should be cut out. For the sake of our daughters and our sons, so they know they can grow up being exactly themselves. Rachel’s conclusion: she needs to let her wild woman roar (and that might include not shaving her legs).

Maternity Leave Schmaternity Leave Dec 07, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, Rachel is on her very first day of maternity leave - and it is not going well. She discusses everything that led her to this moment, from feeling burnt out and tired from work with a heavy burden of responsibility on her shoulders. So she took time off and... cleaned the house, walked the dogs, fed the goats, took out the garbage, browsed Instagram and felt like she did nothing of value to help her slow down.

After some evaluating, Rachel recognizes that her challenge doesn’t just lie in slowing down, but in practicing mindfulness and staying present in all the moments in between.

Are there areas in your life where practicing mindfulness is a challenge? Where are you not present and how can you better focus your attention? Maybe its the in-between moments - standing at the grocery store line, driving to work, cooking dinner - that really matter. And maybe the key to finding inner peace is available to us, all the time.

The Art Of Slowing Down Nov 30, 2018

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In this episode, Rachel talks about her absolute inability to slow down. After a very intense few years culminating with back-to-back retreats and trainings, her body has started giving her serious signals to work at a slower pace. How do you slow down when moving fast is all you know? Rachel wraps her head around the fact that there is never a time that she is not working. Not on her honeymoon, not after having a baby, not even when she got so sick she had to get a steroid injection in her butt!

She talks about how leading her latest yoga teacher training while incredibly sick finally allowed her the space to slow down, take a real vacation, and make the decision to go on a very overdue maternity leave. And it also helped her to realize that the world will not stop if she is not constantly on the move.

Our life’s purpose is not something that comes easy for us, it is something we have to work at. Rachel discusses her own life purpose - which just may be learning to slow down and sit with her emotions. Tune in to this episode and then find a way for yourself to slow down this week! Put everything away. Be with your children. Cook dinner. Whatever you are focusing on, immerse yourself in that fully. Be wherever you are - because that is the only place you can be.

What Scares You? (Part 2) Nov 23, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, Rachel continues sharing with her group of yoga teacher trainees as they discuss Fear and the answer to the question, “What Scares You?”

How does fear hold you back? Does it run your life? Does it paralyze you? How does it show up day-to-day? Listen to what this community had to say about it - it may sound very familiar.

Then of course, the participants turn to another question, “What if that fear wasn’t present?” Or “What if fear didn’t have such a big part of our lives?”. What would your life be like without this fear steering the ship? What is the first thing you would do? How would you live differently?

Tune in for the second segment of this raw and beautiful podcast. Especially if you’re in need of a good cry, a bit of heart opening, or you just want to sit down and feel your feelings for a moment. Fear may be present in all of our lives, but the first step to moving past it is to recognize that we all fear the same things.