January gets a terrible reputation! The “Monday” of the year, full of January blues and Blue Monday dread. But what if January isn’t the problem… what if it’s the most important month for your health? In this episode of Own Your Health, Katie Brindle reframes January as a powerful, essential reset — a grounding month designed for rest, reflection, and real self-care. Drawing on seasonal health, Chinese medicine, and natural energy cycles, Katie explains why winter is meant to be inward-focused, why December exhausts us, and how January gives us a second chance to restore balance.

If you’ve ever felt pressure to “fix yourself” in January, Katie shares a radically different, and far kinder, approach to health, wellbeing, and alignment.

Chapters:
0:00 – Why January Gets Such a Bad Reputation
1:30 – The “January Blues” and Blue Monday Myth
3:10 – Why December Drains Us (And January Pays the Price)
5:40 – Solstice, the Calendar Problem & Seasonal Misalignment
8:35 – The End of the Lunar Year & Letting Go
10:45 – Decluttering Your Space to Clear Energy
13:40 – Emotional Patterns, Self-Reflection & Inner Work
16:55 – Lessons From Extreme Winter in Swedish Lapland
20:30 – Why Rest, Darkness & Stillness Heal the Body
23:15 – Preparing for Spring & the New Energy Cycle
25:40 – How to Rebrand January for Your Health
27:45 – Making Peace With Winter
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More information here: https://katiebrindle.com/
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Buy 'Yang Sheng: The Art of Chinese Self-Healing' at
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Buy the Hayo'u tools at https://www.hayoumethod.com/products/
Hayo'uFit at https://hayoufit.com
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Love, Katie Brindle.

In this episode of Own Your Health, Katie Brindle is joined by her close friend Katie Nicholl (Vanity Fair’s royal correspondent and BBC contributor) for a conversation about stress, symptoms, and the wake-up call that changed everything. Katie shares how what looked like burnout, palpitations, and perimenopause stress turned out to be cholangiocarcinoma (a rare primary liver cancer), despite “normal” blood tests, and why pushing for a scan likely saved her life. They unpack the post-treatment reality: life doesn’t magically get easier after a diagnosis, so self-care has to become non-negotiable.

Chapters 
00:00 — Meet the guest: royal correspondent, author, high-stress career
00:33 — Building self-care habits that don’t collapse in January
01:05 — How they met: gua sha, “liver” themes… and what no one knew yet
02:08 — The moment: “It’s probably stress”… but the truth was liver cancer
05:18 — The scary part: normal bloods, no tumour markers —why scans mattered
06:14 — Diagnosis to surgery fast: MRI confirmed it, 11-hour operation, chemo
08:00 — After the all-clear: life stays hard, so the system has to change
09:25 — Stop the self-care guilt: how to restart without beating yourself up
10:02 — The “diary-first” rule: schedule self-care before everything else
12:32 — The non-negotiables: nature, internal vs external exercise, organ strength
15:12 — Forest bathing + “tree hugging”: why nature became her anchor
18:03 — Joy as medicine: shedding what wasn’t serving her, gratitude as a practice
22:31 — Reinvention: rage, resentment, marriage ending, rebuilding a new life
25:16 — What she’s adding now: foot baths, daily breathwork, simple routines
30:47 — Guided practice: Healing Sounds for organs (follow along)
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More information here: https://katiebrindle.com/
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://katiebrindle.com/newsletter-signup/
Buy 'Yang Sheng: The Art of Chinese Self-Healing' at
https://www.hayoumethod.com/product/yang-sheng-the-art-of-chinese-self-healing/
Buy the Hayo'u tools at https://www.hayoumethod.com/products/
Hayo'uFit at https://hayoufit.com
--------------------------------------------
Join my channel and leave a comment about what you want to see next!
Love, Katie Brindle.