This week’s episode of Honest to Gob with me, Gemma Ray, comes to you straight from my headphones on the drive to Liverpool Women’s Hospital. No video version this week!

My house is currently a DIY war zone, and recording at home aint happening as the windows get changed, the roof is completely off, and the builders are taking a sledgehammer to multiple walls.

It's fine... this is fine... it will all be worth it!

Not wanting to leave ANOTHER week without an episode, and knowing that you know this podcast will never ever be perfect and polished, I hope you'll forgive this rough and ready recording.

I was on my way in for a colposcopy (AKA me, in stirrups with a doctor shoving a camera up my chuff to have a nosey at my cervix) after finally dragging myself to a smear test I’d put off for two whole years. When the nurse at my doctor's surgery spotted a growth on my cervix, that overdue appointment suddenly didn’t feel so easy to ignore.

After sharing all this on Instagram before this journey was recorded, multiple women messaged to say they’d booked their overdue cervical screening. 

CERVICAL SCREENING SHOCK NEWS IN THE UK

Did you know? In the UK, cervical screening has just changed from every 3 years to every 5 years, meaning remembering to book your screening and NOT putting it off is more important than ever.

If this episode encourages even one more person to prioritise their gynaecological health – no matter how awkward or embarrassing it feels – then the shaky car audio and pre-hospital nerves at having my *'salmon canyon' excavated were worth it.

Honest, messy, slightly chaotic… welcome to Honest to Gob.

*You'll have to listen to understand this awful description.

Mentioned in this episode:

☕ Support the show → buymeacoffee.com/GemmaRay

📚 My books → Stop Procrastinating and Start Living, Self-Discipline, Stop Procrastinating in Six Steps (all on Amazon) https://mybook.to/spsl 

📸 Follow for more → @gemmadeeray on Instagram & TikTok

To keep up to date with the latest episodes, please follow Honest to Gob pod:

TikTok - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @honesttogobpod
Facebook - @honesttogobpod
If you'd like to see the video footage of this podcast episode, find us on YouTube here.

Follow Gemma @gemmadeeray www.gemmaray.com
Production (Episodes 1 - 29) @Liverpoolpodcaststudios www.liverpoolpodcaststudios.com

Drills, Drama, and Milking Cows on a Digital Farm: My Mental Health Meltdown

Ever found yourself catastrophising over everything in your life, crying over a broken nail, and farming digital cows at 2am? Same.

In this week’s episode, Gemma gets brutally honest about a full-blown mental health wobble triggered by building work, social services delays, sleep deprivation, and one highly addictive mobile game that saw her milking digital cows at 2am.

From shaking on the sofa to finding solace in stand-up comedy and a ceramic heart that spells “hope,” this is a story about spotting the spiral before it swallows you.

Expect:
 • Unfiltered talk about the messy reality of mental health
 • Real-life tools for spotting when you’re spiralling
 • Lessons in self-trust, boundaries, and deleting the bloody games and things we're using to disassociate
 • Proof that laughter (and speaking honestly with family and friends) might just be the best therapy

Mentioned in this episode: It's Got Pockets Podcast with Sarah Knight

Why Are We Whispering Podcast with Jennie

☕ Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/GemmaRay

📚 Gemma’s books: Stop Procrastinating and Start Living, Self-Discipline, and Stop Procrastinating in Six Steps all available on Amazon here: mybook.to/spsl

To keep up to date with the latest episodes, please follow Honest to Gob pod:

TikTok - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @honesttogobpod
Facebook - @honesttogobpod
If you'd like to see the video footage of this podcast episode, find us on YouTube here.

Follow Gemma @gemmadeeray www.gemmaray.com
Production (Episodes 1 - 29) @Liverpoolpodcaststudios www.liverpoolpodcaststudios.com

Gemma manifested going viral… just not like this.

One vegan café, one potty-training toddler, and one silicone toilet brush later, she became the internet’s latest cautionary tale. 

Three million views, a Radio 2 feature, and a lifetime’s worth of trauma (and Dettol).

Gemma's mum’s always telling her to wash her potty mouth out, and apparently, the universe decided to get involved and help her do just that in the most shocking, horrendous and vile of ways.

In this week’s episode, she relives the grimly hilarious story that made her go viral (in more ways than one), share how a parenting catastrophe became comedy gold, and chat to Rosie from Lokla - the mum who’s invented the toddler-proof toilet brush every parent now needs.

Because sometimes, “shit happens” really is a career move.

For the Lokla toddler-proof toilet brush waitlist visit: www.lokla.co.uk

To help Gemma wash her mouth out with a coffee, consider showing your support for the podcast at www.buymeacoffee.com/gemmaray

For helpful guides, planners and downloads to stop procrastinating and start living, visit www.gemmaray.com

To keep up to date with the latest episodes, please follow Honest to Gob pod:

TikTok - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @honesttogobpod
Facebook - @honesttogobpod
If you'd like to see the video footage of this podcast episode, find us on YouTube here.

Follow Gemma @gemmadeeray www.gemmaray.com
Production (Episodes 1 - 29) @Liverpoolpodcaststudios www.liverpoolpodcaststudios.com

Eight weeks ago, Gemma left her job with 24 hours’ notice, expecting to take on another child through kinship foster care. That didn’t happen (for reasons she can’t go into), but what did happen was a huge wake-up call. She realised she couldn’t go back to the way things were.

In this episode, Gemma talks about taking the scariest risk of her career - walking away from a job and colleagues she adored with financial security to focus on her own creative work. 

The Honest to Gob podcast is growing, her content’s gone viral, and it is working… just not financially. Yet. So she’s clinging to her new mantra: “I don’t know how, but I allow.”

Because stepping away from the grind has made her calmer, more present, and genuinely happier. It’s improved her marriage, her parenting, and her mental health. Now she just needs to figure out how to pay the mortgage without resorting to selling hairy bumhole pics on OnlyFans.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

☕ Support the podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/gemmaray

🥦 Spice up your meals with HelloFresh! Tap the link to claim your discounted meals now 🎁 ⏰  🍽️  https://www.hellofresh.co.uk/freebox/MzM4NjgxNTYzLTItMC0xMS1HQg

To keep up to date with the latest episodes, please follow Honest to Gob pod:

TikTok - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @honesttogobpod
Facebook - @honesttogobpod
If you'd like to see the video footage of this podcast episode, find us on YouTube here.

Follow Gemma @gemmadeeray www.gemmaray.com
Production (Episodes 1 - 29) @Liverpoolpodcaststudios www.liverpoolpodcaststudios.com

This episode wasn’t planned. It started as a simple mic test during the first time I tried my camera and audio setup. It turned into a full-blown rant about perfectionism, procrastination, and getting in my own way.

Filmed at home at 10 pm with bad lighting, a snoring dog, and my husband watching conspiracy docs in the background, it was meant to stay on my laptop. But when my friend Zoe listened, she said, “Gemma, the irony of this is exactly why you should put it out.”

So here it is... the unfiltered, accidental episode tackling getting over my all-or-nothing mindset, just bloody showing up and an ironic reminder that progress always beats perfect.

To keep up to date with the latest episodes, please follow Honest to Gob pod:

TikTok - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @honesttogobpod
Facebook - @honesttogobpod
If you'd like to see the video footage of this podcast episode, find us on YouTube here.

Follow Gemma @gemmadeeray www.gemmaray.com
Production (Episodes 1 - 29) @Liverpoolpodcaststudios www.liverpoolpodcaststudios.com

I didn't know whether to be appalled or over the moon that I made it to the telephone audition stage of Stacey Solomon's TV show, Sort Your Life Out.

Sadly, the TV appearance was not to be.

However, I did do my own version of the show on my patio with a bajillion Barbie shoes and a shit load of patience. Because clutter was ruining my life.

Clutter isn’t just “stuff”. It’s stress, guilt, procrastination, and sometimes nine washing baskets, baby rockers, Barbie shoes and air fryer boxes you’ll “definitely need one day”? 

In this episode of Honest to Gob... 

• I spill the truth about my failed audition for Stacey Solomon's award-winning TV show, Sort Your Life Out 
• Reveal my reluctant love affair with the local tip
• Talk about how hiring a professional declutterer was the best birthday present to myself ever
• Get candid about the impact of watching the news about the LA fires in early 2025 and how it made me reevaluate my possessions
• And talk about the surprising ways decluttering has changed my habits, stress levels, and even my cheese consumption

To keep up to date with the latest episodes, please follow Honest to Gob pod:

TikTok - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @honesttogobpod
Facebook - @honesttogobpod
If you'd like to see the video footage of this podcast episode, find us on YouTube here.

Follow Gemma @gemmadeeray www.gemmaray.com
Production (Episodes 1 - 29) @Liverpoolpodcaststudios www.liverpoolpodcaststudios.com

If you have ever thought “I cannot do this parenting sh*t anymore” or found yourself Googling “is it bad to hide from your children in the shed” this episode is for you.

Author and kinship foster carer Gemma Ray did not exactly choose Non Violent Resistance parenting, now often called New Vision for Relationships, out of curiosity. She arrived at it like most parents arrive at desperate solutions, exhausted, tear-stained and one step away from waving a white flag and saying “I’m out.”

NVR is not about being the perfect parent or making anyone else wrong. It is about keeping hold of the relationship between caregiver and child no matter how messy things get. For Gemma, that meant ripping up her old parenting rulebook, learning not to rise to every battle, and reparenting herself in the process. It was exceptionally hard, humbling, sometimes hilarious and completely life-changing.

In this episode of Honest to Gob, Gemma tells the truth about how NVR stopped her from giving up on her foster children, why it is not about fixing kids, and how it helped her rebuild the very relationships she thought were broken beyond repair. She is not here to preach or hand out gold stars, just to share the tools that helped her stop shouting herself hoarse and start thriving in her family life, not just scraping by.

This episode is not meant to be judgemental to anyone who parents in a different way. Parenting is deeply personal and often triggering. None of us want to feel like we are doing a crap job as mum, dad or carer. But what if there was another way? A way that might feel unnatural at times, but creates calmer homes and happier families all round? That's why this episode exists - to give you an insight into what Non Violent Resistance parenting is and how you could put some of the key themes and practices into action in your own family.

To keep up to date with the latest episodes, please follow Honest to Gob pod:

TikTok - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @honesttogobpod
Facebook - @honesttogobpod
If you'd like to see the video footage of this podcast episode, find us on YouTube here.

Follow Gemma @gemmadeeray www.gemmaray.com
Production (Episodes 1 - 29) @Liverpoolpodcaststudios www.liverpoolpodcaststudios.com

What happens when you think your family is complete, your husband’s had the snip, and then life hands you two more children overnight? 

In this deeply personal episode, I open up about the unexpected journey into kinship foster care from the trauma, the family politics, the social worker chaos, to the moments I thought I couldn’t go on.

It’s also a story of resilience, love, and learning. From newborn night feeds with bottle in one hand and laptop in another to compassion fatigue, therapy, and finding strength in the hardest of places... this is the truth about kinship care that you don’t see on the polished 'Become a foster carer' adverts.

Peppered with humour (because that’s always been my best coping mechanism), I share how this experience broke me, rebuilt me, and taught me more about love, stress, and survival than I ever imagined possible.

Most of all, it’s a story of hope: that even in the hardest seasons, you can find connection, growth, and a new kind of family you never expected, but grew to love with all your heart anyway.

If you are a kinship carer looking for answers and support or to learn more about kinship care, please visit the Kinship charity website at www.kinship.org.uk 

To keep up to date with the latest episodes, please follow Honest to Gob pod:

TikTok - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @honesttogobpod
Facebook - @honesttogobpod
If you'd like to see the video footage of this podcast episode, find us on YouTube here.

Follow Gemma @gemmadeeray www.gemmaray.com
Production (Episodes 1 - 29) @Liverpoolpodcaststudios www.liverpoolpodcaststudios.com

We’re back after three years away… and honest to God, it feels like we’ve lived a whole other lifetime since you last heard from us!

In this comeback episode, we catch you up on everything from broken bones to bonus kids, vasectomies that didn’t do the job, and why Claire got so furious about empty toilet rolls that she packed her bags and moved out (before running off to India, catching typhoid, and coming back as a Kundalini yoga teacher).

Gemma shares how her son’s broken leg led to losing her job, and how that twist of fate opened the door to becoming a kinship foster carer for two extra kids (yes, that vasectomy really was pointless). 

Meanwhile, Claire explains why sometimes the only logical response to chaotic family life and the stress of teenagers is either to move back in with your mum or flee the country.

It’s messy, it’s funny, it’s real life. This is Honest to Gob.

For Gemma’s social media and books visit:

https://linktr.ee/GemmaRay

For Claire’s Modern Meditation for Stress Heads course and other services, visit: 

https://linktr.ee/clairemorton

To keep up to date with the latest episodes, please follow

Honest to Gob pod: Instagram - https://instagram.com/honesttogobpod

Facebook - https://facebook.com/honesttogobpod

If you'd like to see the video footage of this podcast episode, find this episode on YouTube here.

Production @Liverpoolpodcaststudios www.liverpoolpodcaststudios.com

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To keep up to date with the latest episodes, please follow Honest to Gob pod:

TikTok - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @honesttogobpod
Facebook - @honesttogobpod
If you'd like to see the video footage of this podcast episode, find us on YouTube here.

Follow Gemma @gemmadeeray www.gemmaray.com
Production (Episodes 1 - 29) @Liverpoolpodcaststudios www.liverpoolpodcaststudios.com

In this episode Claire & Gemma talk about breath, not only does it keep us alive – no shit Sherlock...

Once we are aware of our breath and work with it in different ways, we can begin to explore how it can help us with the following:

 • Aid positive self-development

 • Processes emotions

 • Heals emotional pain and trauma

 • Develops our levels of self-awareness

 • Improves relationships

 • Enhances our confidence and self esteem

 • Overcoming addiction

 • Decrease, even eliminate - anger, anxiety, chronic pain, PTSD and more

 • Oh yeah – Can help us to have a better sex life and reach orgasm just through breath work

The Sanskrit word for Breath is Prana, breath work in Sanskrit is known as Prana Yama. Also translated as the vital life force energy.

The breath is an amazing gift that we can use to lead us into a life of healthier, stress-free life, full of conscious creation and connection as opposed to a life of separateness and lack.

Once you understand the power of the breath, the mind and heart you can choose to change your life quickly in any area – such as personal relationships, business, career, dreams, goals, finances.

Claire demonstrates some quick and simple breath work techniques for different results as Gemma tests them out and talks us through 😊 as always the professional.

If you would like to learn more on breathwork, meditation and personal development for high performance, balance and a stress free life then, have a look at Claire’s Luxury, Transformation and Wellbeing Retreat in North Wales is on Friday 18th March 2022 for 3 nights.

Click the link for information. I would love to share space with you.

https://thepurpose-pusher.com/retreats/

PLEASE NOTE: If you suffer with respiratory problems or other medical conditions, please consult your doctor before embarking on breathwork practices. 

For Gemma’s social media, books and ‘Stop Procrastinating in 7 Steps’ mini course, visit

https://linktr.ee/GemmaRay

For Claire’s Modern Meditation for Stress Heads course and other services, visit: 

Link to all Claire’s social media, products and services:

https://linktr.ee/clairemorton

To keep up to date with the latest episodes, please follow

Honest to Gob pod: Instagram - @honesttogobpod

Facebook - @honesttogobpod.

If you'd like to see the video footage of this podcast episode, find us on YouTube

Production @Liverpoolpodcaststudios www.liverpoolpodcaststudios.com

To keep up to date with the latest episodes, please follow Honest to Gob pod:

TikTok - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @gemmadeeray
Instagram - @honesttogobpod
Facebook - @honesttogobpod
If you'd like to see the video footage of this podcast episode, find us on YouTube here.

Follow Gemma @gemmadeeray www.gemmaray.com
Production (Episodes 1 - 29) @Liverpoolpodcaststudios www.liverpoolpodcaststudios.com