This week I’ve seen my clients horse riding on their lunch break, cheerfully swinging from a hoop attached to the ceiling in .. I don’t know what but it’s where I did an aerial silk class so somewhere between circus and yoga 😆, another had their second week of getting breakfast in their favourite cafe before starting work and I can see they’re sleeping better from the glowy skin that has reappeared.

And I was thinking about how prioritising these activities that bring them joy came from little shifts, little self-trust deposits in their self-trust investment funds, the pause before automatically rushing, the ‘let me get back to you, I have a 36 hour breathing space before deciding on new opportunities’ delivered first wobbily and then confidently with practise.

These shifts are the muscle that mean these women are already on the path to the goals we’ve set together based on their authenticity, wants, and an honest evaluation of what they’re capable and where they are.

There will be others who think the goals are too ambitious, and others who think they are too timid, they should skip the horseriding and yoga sessions, ‘knuckle down’ suffer until the result.

Noise.

Distraction.

Complication.

Simplicity is beauty and simplicity plus self-trust applied to your goals? A joyful, liberating, powerful discipline.

I mention Kilian Jornet in this episode because he is my favourite expression of that right now, endurance fuelled by play and desire for happiness.

He says again and again that it’s what you do each day that adds up.

And the version of you who made space to have a nourishing breakfast in the sunshine before picking up your phone, who chose to go to a horseriding class at lunchtime or hike in nature at the weekend instead of ‘pushing through’ week after week?

They are the version of you who also leans into the fear, who picks courage again and again, they are the ones that make it to the end with a smile on their face, already planning the next peak with delicious tired energy in the car on the drive home instead of grimly punishing themselves for not doing it fast enough and comparing their performance to others on different paths.

I’ve shared the questions I’m sending my clients this week who are starting their Life Atelier practise this June, and I would love for you to give yourself the gift of pausing to answer them yourself.

And if you want to be one of the group I’m leading through The Life Atelier this year, to share your stories and what you create in 3, 5, or 10 months? You can save your spot at the current prices before the 1st June increase, by replying to this email and letting me know you’re in or we can schedule a conversation to talk about if this is the right fit for you and where you are 💛

Click here to learn about Your Life Atelier: The Practice

Before We Begin: Terrain Check-in & Prehab

Your Life Atelier: The Practice

Before we run, we read the terrain. Before we climb, we check the conditions. Before the work begins, we get honest about where we are.

This is not an assessment. You are not being evaluated. You are simply mapping the ground you are standing on — so that everything that follows can be built on something real.

What this is

The terrain check-in is the first thing you bring to your opening session. We use it together to understand where you are right now — your sleep, your body, your current pressures, how your brain and nervous system work — so we can build your practice around the actual you, not an imagined version.

There are no right answers. There is no baseline to meet. The more honest you are, the more useful this becomes.

Take your time. Come back to questions that do not land immediately. Write in whatever way feels natural — short answers, long answers, fragments, feelings. All of it is useful.

Decisions about what to do with what you find here happen in your first session, together. Right now, just explore.

Part 1 — The terrain

Sleep

What is your relationship with sleep right now?

How do you feel when you wake up?

What is most disrupting your sleep at the moment — if anything?

Nourishment

What is your relationship with food right now?

How does eating feel — is it something you enjoy, something you manage, something you forget?

What does your body feel like it needs that it is not currently getting?

Movement and body

How are you moving your body at the moment?

How does that feel — energising, dutiful, absent, joyful?

What is your relationship with your body like right now — honest version?

Nature

How much time are you spending in nature?

What is your version of nature — what is accessible to you right now?

What does being in nature give you when you do find your way there?

Social media and digital noise

What is your relationship with your phone and social media right now?

How do you feel after you have been scrolling?

What would you like that relationship to look like?

Support

Who do you have around you who genuinely supports you — not just practically, but in the deeper sense?

Who in your life might find it difficult — consciously or unconsciously — when you start to change?

What kind of support do you most need right now that you are not currently getting?

Current pressures

What is costing you the most energy right now?

What are you carrying that you have not yet named out loud?

What would it feel like to put some of that down — even temporarily — for the duration of a session?

Part 2 — How your brain and nervous system work

This is not a personality test. It is a practical map of how you are wired — so the tools can be calibrated to you rather than applied generically.

Motivation

What does it feel like when you are genuinely motivated — in your body, in your energy, in how you move through a day?

What has historically helped you follow through on things that matter to you?

What has historically got in the way?

Focus

How do you work best — what conditions, what time of day, what environment?

When do you feel most scattered or unfocused — what tends to be happening?

Your nervous system — stress responses

When we are under pressure, our nervous system moves into one of four responses. Most of us have a dominant one — though all four can show up depending on the situation.

Fight — pushing through, arguing, fixing, taking control Flight — leaving, getting busy, moving on, escaping the feeling Freeze — going quiet, going through the motions, shutting down Fawn — appeasing, over-giving, making it okay for everyone else first

Which of these do you recognise most in yourself?

What does it look like specifically for you — what do you say, what do you do, what do you stop doing?

What are your personal dashboard lights — the specific words, thoughts, or behaviours that tell you your nervous system has been activated before you consciously realise it?

(These are the early signals — the ones that, when you learn to spot them, change everything)

What helps you return to yourself when you have been activated?

Part 3 — Your starting point

In one paragraph — where are you right now?

Not where you want to be. Not where you think you should be. Where you actually are. The version you might not have said out loud yet.

What do you most want to feel differently about?

What would have to be true for you to feel that this work was worth it?

What are you most afraid of — about doing this, or about what it might change?

What are you most excited about?

Part 4 — Prehab

Prehab is what you do before the work begins so the work can actually land.

You do not need to have everything in place before your first session. But reading through what follows — and noticing where there is friction — is useful preparation.

Create some silence

The most transformative practice in this programme is also the one most people resist: creating space to hear themselves.

Before your first session, experiment with one of these — just once:

* Walk without headphones or music

* Sit with your coffee or tea without your phone

* Drive without the radio

* Do something with your hands with no audio in the background

Notice what comes up in the silence. You do not need to do anything with it. Just notice.

Reduce the noise — temporarily

Creativity needs space. When there is constant input — podcasts, news, social media, other people’s opinions — you cannot hear your own.

Consider, just for the first two weeks of the programme:

* Turning off notifications for at least part of the day

* Removing one source of background noise that is not serving you

* Protecting one morning or evening a week that belongs only to you

This is not permanent. It is deliberate clearing — so that into the quiet, you can start to hear what is actually there.

Lower the bar for the beginning

Your brain is designed to protect you from the unfamiliar. Even something deeply wanted will trigger some resistance. That is not a signal to stop. It is a signal that something real is beginning.

The antidote is not to push harder. It is to lower the bar for the first weeks. Show up in small ways. Build the muscle before you add the weight. The practice will deepen naturally — you do not need to force it.

Start the body check-in

Before your first session, try this once a day for three days:

Pause. Put your hand on your heart if that feels right. Notice your shoulders — what are they doing? Your jaw. Your belly. Your breath.

Do not fix anything. Do not interpret anything. Just notice.

This thirty-second practice is the foundation of everything. The earlier you build it, the more it will give you.

A note on the acclimatisation

You may not feel different after session one. You may not feel different after session three. And then something will shift — usually quietly, usually when you are doing something ordinary — and you will realise you are already different.

That is the acclimatisation. The external catching up with what has changed underneath.

Trust the pace. The work is happening even when you cannot see it.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emmalavelleco.substack.com/subscribe