From the Heart with Rachel Brathen

Today’s episode begins with some grounding breaths to arrive fully into this moment. When life throws something our way, no matter if it’s exciting or heart wrenching, our emotions can become scattered and our breath gets strained. This short meditation will hone everything into the here and now. And we are going to need it because…Rachel and her family found a house in Sweden! After months of moving through limbo it is finally happening. In today’s episode, she shares the entire journey that brought her here, from the things that felt wrong to what ultimately felt so divinely right.Tune in to be reminded that the universe is taking you where you need to go, although it usually has a surprisingly way of getting you there! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We all poop! Why don’t we ever talk about it? Trigger warning: this episode gets really up close and personal on all things number two!After having her first colon hydrotherapy session, Rachel became more intimate with her poop than ever before - and she shares all the deets! What was the experience like? How did it feel? And what really came out of her? From someone who grew up feeling so embarrassed by poop, this experience taught Rachel so much about her own body, her relationship with food, and what specifically disagrees with her system. But on a deeper level, Rachel unravels the shame behind pooping - especially as women who are taught we cannot have big bodily functions. We’ve all been there, but poop shouldn’t be a shameful topic!This episode will inspire you to release many things, including the shame surrounding a completely normal and natural human experience. Tune in for a safe space to let go… literally! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode shares the objective story on how Rachel and her family dealt with finding toxic mold in their house, from A to Z.Environmental health is incredibly important, but often overlooked. The truth is you are exposed to toxins on a continuous basis, but your body has pathways to remove them from your system. What happens when you live in an environment that completely overwhelms your natural ability to detox? It’s simple. You get sick.In this episode, Rachel covers the entire mold timeline, from how her family discovered the problem, to the symptoms experienced, the tests they used to assess the damage, the detox protocols they followed, how they remediated their house, and what happened with their belongings. Tune in to learn the common places in your home that mold loves to hide, why your steamy showers may be harming you in the long run, and other tips and tricks to keep your home healthy. You shouldn’t always have to focus on healing - sometimes you should just thrive! Today’s episode will help you get there.Mold Resources:The Colorado based company that helped Rachel’s family: Gary Gilman from SteamMaster https://steammaster.com/ Mold Remediators and Consultants: @moldfinders, @themoldguy, @pjharlowwellnessFunctional Doctors: @drjillcarnahan, @dr.jess.mdThe Great Plains Laboratory: https://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/ Envirobiomics: https://www.envirobiomics.com/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There is a place life takes us sometimes. It’s dark, it’s lonely and it feels like we’re trapped at the bottom of a hole. It can be hard to get out, unless we remember one thing: the only way out is through.This week, Rachel has managed to see the light again after two weeks of ever present anxiety. Through what felt like utter failure, she realized something important. No matter how often she loses herself, and no matter how hard it is to get back, she never stops trying. Instead of giving up and drowning herself in ice cream and wine, she hugs her husband, cuddles her daughter, practices yoga, drinks tea, and walks outside in the sunshine. Maybe this is the mark of real self-love. It’s not always butterflies and rainbows. It’s not quick fixes. It’s the fact that we stick with ourselves through the hard times. We don’t give up on ourselves. Today’s episode will give you a new way to measure your self-love, not in your supposed successes or failures, but in how often you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and try again. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode comes with no epiphanies. It’s just an honest, open sharing on anxiety when there is nothing else you can do. If you’ve ever had a tiny moment trigger a sea of anxiety, then you’ll know exactly what that feels like.This week, Rachel and her family are visiting friends on a beautiful island off the southern coast of Sweden. The sun is shining, summer is in full swing, and Rachel is surrounded by loved ones, good food, and beautiful scenery. But her anxiety has not let her enjoy any of it. After finding three ticks on her daughter, Rachel went into a full downward spiral worrying about her daughters health. Nothing has helped her break the surface as of yet.What can we do when there is nothing to do? Sometimes the answer is to be in the body, so the mind can follow. Sometimes the answer is to share. And sometimes the answer is a really long, understanding hug. Tune in today for a combination of all three. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you look back on your life, make sure you can say that you were there for it. You were present. You didn’t just move through the motions of life, doing what you were told and checking out when things got hard or boring. You felt it all. You experienced it all, from the mundane to the breathtaking. This podcast episode begins with a short exercise to support the feelings in your heart right now, then Rachel dives into today’s topic - our presence. Over the course of our lives, our presence is shaped by so many things. Being told we are ‘bad’ as children and internalizing those emotions. Checking out as we complete our normal mundane tasks for the day. Or, finding ourselves overwhelmed by trying to keep it all together. For Rachel, this came to a cumulation this week after she checked out and was only brought back to earth by a crippling panic attack.The solution? Embrace your humanity! Love yourself - and that begins with understanding yourself. Learn the intricacies of your emotions, what triggers you, and when you check out so you can catch it before you’re too far gone. Today’s episode will give you new tools to manage anxiety and help you get to know yourself a little better. Tune in to get started. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We come from the earth, we’ll return to the earth. In between, we garden. We nourish our bodies, we feed our minds. We tend to our hearts as though they are budding seeds.In today’s episode, Rachel shares the journey of self-care she has been on over the past year. After feeling a huge disconnect in Aruba (cue toxic mold, land built to support tourists, and environments not conducive to her human design), everything has come to a head in a surprising way now that she is in Sweden. Alone in nature, running through the woods collecting flowers, she has found herself.The environments you immerse yourself in play a huge role in your healing practices, but that doesn’t just mean your immediate surroundings. The relationships you are in, the home you live in, even your country and the practices it adopts can affect you on a deep, cellular level. That’s because we are nature. Flowers cannot grow in concrete, and you cannot grow where you are not rooted.Tune in today for an episode that will remind you that no matter what season you are moving through in your life, there is always one constant. Mother Earth is here to hold you. Returning to her is returning to yourself - it’s the real coming home. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are you actively participating in the creation of your life, or are you a bystander, feeling out of control and like you have no say in what life brings your way?Today, Rachel has some big decisions to make. It’s reminding her of a time of crisis years ago when she turned to Sweden to clear her head and find the answer that changed the course of her life forever. Now in a similar situation, she is once again being asked to choose - to actively decide the life she wants to create - but choosing for yourself when you’re used to putting the needs of others ahead of your own is a scary thing to do.No sign from the universe is still a sign. It’s a sign that it’s time to get empowered and make decisions for yourself. The answers aren’t always easy, but if you choose love over fear and yourself above everything else, the path forward becomes a little bit more clear - and a whole lot more aligned. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sometimes life doesn’t work out the way we expect. We can sit in nature, ask for guidance, notice the signs and follow our intuition, but it still doesn’t lead us to the answers. This week’s episode begins with a beautiful guided meditation to anchor you into the spiritual practice of sitting with the unknown, and holding space for everything that you are. If you feel anxious, worried or angry, this meditation will help you hold space for the discomfort. Sometimes, that’s just what life brings.Rachel continues on to share and process her last days in the Swedish cabin, and dwell on the feeling of not knowing what is coming next. After all the places life has taken her in the past year, she is not sure if she can fully trust that life is taking her where she is meant to be anymore. But maybe being lost deep in the woods of unknowing is part of the process, too. No matter where we are, even if it’s not meant to be ours, can lead to learning, growing and healing. Not everything is black and white - there is gratitude in uncertainty, trust in the disbelief, and even dreams found in heartache. Tune in to be reminded that it’s okay to not know where you’re going. It’s the journey that counts, anyways. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week’s episode, Rachel has everyone’s favorite guest on the show, Dennis Schoneveld! After being separated for almost 2 months, the little family is finally reunited and exploring their options in Sweden.They discuss everything that brought them to this exact moment, from moving out of their home, remediating their house from toxic mold, and Dennis finally making it to the tiny cabin in the woods of Sweden where he is settling in nicely (except for the water temperature and low ceilings!). Now the question is, where do they go from here?Today, Rachel and Dennis discuss their feelings, their dreams, and whether or not they will move to Sweden. Things may be up in the air, but they are always okay when your loved ones are by your side. Tune in for a wonderfully funny and endearing episode with the sweetest couple, and even a special guest appearance at the end from Lea Luna herself! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices