Inside My Wardrobe

How to silence the recurring voices that say I’m not clever enough, wise enough, beautiful enough, slim enough, fit enough, rich enough etc. We all live by a script that we formed at a very young age before we had even learned to read or write properly and that script still influences much of who we are and what we do as adults today, unless, we go back to the beginning and rewrite the aspects that were never based on truth.  You’re fat, you're useless, you're clumsy, you’re ugly, you’re stupid, you’re slow, why can’t you be as good as your sister? Why aren’t you more like so and so? These become curses that whisper into our ears and guide our paths, telling us that we are not enough when really, we are enough.  Unashamed is about revisiting those scripts and rewriting them, enabling us to see ourselves for who we truly are. To see our kindness, strength, beauty and wealth of gifts and talents that make us who we are, despite our imperfections – we are good enough.

Did you know that people who are happy, are said to live for 10 years longer than those who aren’t? In our quest for happiness we seem to scrabble around to fill our lives with more stuff and so in this podcast we take inspiration from a totally different perspective. We take inspiration from acclaimed NHS nurse Christie Watson and from her book The Language of Kindness alongside Giles Brandreth’s book The 7 Secrets of Happiness. We also discuss how we can be more wise with our fashion choices, we whizz through some statistics from a recent white paper published on fast fashion and how we need to be more aware of the impact on the environment and take into account Vivienne Westwood’s words from a number of years ago “Buy less, choose well, make it last” Here is the YouTube link for Christie Watson speaking at the RCN Congress last year and a great quote, taken from 7 Secrets of Happiness from the Dalai Lama - Choose to be optimistic, it feels better. Enjoy! Come find me via my website, from there you can l

So how do you cope when the unplanned occurs – you lose your job, you have a miscarriage, someone you love gets ill or passes away, you get divorced, you suddenly have to care for an elderly parent, things that were NEVER on your wish list suddenly appear at the top of the todo list, life as you planned it feels like it has come to an abrupt end; you feel like we have lost all sense of control and purpose. The art is in being able to deal with life’s curve balls and bombs that land in our laps. If we are so hell bent on perfection, we find life’s uncanny way of pulling the rug from under our feet can leave us flat on our backs, but with solid grounding in what really matters, we are so much more likely to catch those curve balls rather than have them knock us down. The key to life is learning from the past but not being defined by it, living in the moment and planning for the future. The key to happiness is finding pleasure and purpose both over time, and in every-day life, something that Professor Paul Dol

We all want to feel and look good every day. Our first conversation on fashion inside my wardrobe is titled “Do I Look Good In This” because that is often the ultimate question but actually is that the real question we are asking, OR are we asking “will the world accept me in this outfit” or “will I be judged if I wear this?”  It’s actually a much deeper question of identity and self-confidence. Our wardrobe gets leant on daily, we rely on it to make us feel good, better, confident, able, appropriate, accepted, powerful, successful – fake it til you make it – but then you wonder, when are you going to start making it? What is MY style?  In this podcast I discuss how we can start ourselves on this road, how we can find our true style and avoid the pitfalls of trends that don’t work for us, dating ourselves and most importantly how we can use our wardrobe to increase our confidence.

OK so firstly spot the maths error half way through – this is what comes with not scripting! We make mistakes but that’s just fine because that’s what this is all about, being ok with not being perfect! This is episode 2 of our series Living An Un-Real Life where we delve into how to find a true sense of peace, fulfilment and being ok with the imperfections of life. As someone who lived with intense trauma and anxiety for many years, it has become important to me to share the tools I discovered that worked for me when it came to rebuilding my life as an adult, finding my identity and then discovering joy, love, peace, confidence and all the wonderful things that are available to us once we stop trying to fit in. Comparison leads to disappointment and an array of negative emotions; denying our reality causes us to numb and shut down but instead we want to embrace all we are, live by our core values and climb the mountain because the views are great!

Over the last couple of decades we have seen an explosion in the self-help industry however I’m not convinced it’s working for us. We walk into a book store and see shelves and shelves of books under the "self-help" umbrella that seem to have an ability to make us feel guilty and inadequate the minute we look at them.   I’ve always found the greatest source of inspiration has come from when I look up and out, rather than looking down and in. One of these sources has always been hearing other people's stories, seeing others triumph over adversity or become a champion of something in their own right, I find that spurs me on and challenges me when I feel I can't. So each month I am going to tell the story of someone who I feel has lived through or achieved something that can inspire or challenge us as we look up, and out. If they can do it, so can we!   This month, our "Inspired by …" figure is American cookbook author and TV Chef Julia Child. She was so much more than a bestselling cookbook author and chef, ahe

Welcome to Episode 3 which is the first Episode of Living your Un-Real Life!  Anxiety is on the rise and often it's because we are chasing our tails and bombarded by external pressures which grind us down and distract us from our own paths. The premise of this series is flying in the face of the pressure brought about by #mybestlife and breaking down the importance of the Un-Edited life, by discovering who we really are and living by our own code, not code generated by social media and pressures from around us. This in turn helps us manage the Un-Planned parts of life, the bits we didn’t put on the wish list, that catch us unawares, illness, redundancy, divorce – all the stuff that can throw us right off balance and then being ok with forging the Un-Rehearsed parts of life, being brave about not having control, being ok with taking risks and making changes with the hope that we might find true fulfilment that fits who we are, not what the world wants us to be. 27 mins This is Maslow's hierarchy of needs I ref

In this next episode of Inside My Wardrobe I take you on a whistle stop tour through my life, what got me here, why I’ve decided to do a podcast, what my personal mantra is and so on. From 80s pop songs, to foster homes, anorexia, my dalliance with pop music, divorce and so much more, it’s a mere scratching of the surface which I fly through in 25 mins whilst my tummy rumbles and my brain darts from left to right but I think it’s followable – enjoy!

OK so this is somewhat of a rather substance-less episode involving me waxing lyrical from inside my wardrobe about the who what why and where. It's not very brain taxing, after all I didn't want to waste any decent content if I then accidentally ditched it but I wanted to get the ball rolling, figure out all the posting side of things, make sure that you can hear it your end, that I know what I'm doing etc etc before I start proper. It's just under 11 mins of chat from me and Sherbert the cat so I hope you enjoy! I would be HUGELY grateful if you could leave a comment from wherever you are listening, if you do listen, to let me know that it downloaded ok and sounded ok - thanks ever so much!! Pipa xx