Moving from self-doubt to self-trust is just a matter of realigning, like your yoga teacher pulling you 1cm forward and suddenly you find yourself balancing as if by magic, or your bike gliding forward smoothly once you have space and can feel the balance point instead of wobbling violently when you’re just trying to reach the pedals.

I know because I developed my tool the SovReina Compass after a lifetime of living in the consequences of self-doubt and then little by little the joy of interrupting that pattern to return to self-trust, which is our natural state, the state where we have access to all our senses, our energy, our innovation and spontaneous creativity.

In short, I feel over, a lot. Metaphorically and literally.

And I love systems, so the beauty of this; the compass is that you get to minimise your falling over and use the tool instead!

The voice note covers:

* What self-doubt is

* How we identify it

* What feeds it

* How to gently move from self-doubt to self-trust

* The role of safety & embodied self-trust

* Your decision making

* External vs internal validation

* Your focus

* And the language you use to unlock all of the above

* At the end - a question. What happens if you’re already enough?

Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share 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

Episode 2 — Making Ease the Default

* Ease isn’t passive — it’s a discipline, and it’s learned through practice

* Case study: learning to swim with the Shaw Method — moving from “fighting the water” to gliding

* Most of us are fighting life the way Emma was fighting the water

* Noticing your nervous system response is the first step — not pushing through it

* Reframe: “I love the warm” instead of “I hate the cold” — moving towards, not away from

* The ripple effect: choosing ease changes what the people around you learn is possible (including my mum, in a Nordic bath)

* Kilian Jornet on limits: cows can outrun Usain Bolt — most of our limits aren’t where we think they are

* Rita’s lesson: it’s not about avoiding fear, it’s about your capacity to recover afterwards

Your Life Atelier Practice this week: Find one moment today to move from “struggle” to “easy, easy, easy, work” — and notice what happens when you stop fighting 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

I am writing this having checked for the 99th time if, as a British person ‘practise’ or ‘practice’ is the correct spelling.

This word is all over my website; in the words I’ve written in my journal and I can now quite cheerfully tell you, I genuinely don’t care which one it is!

Because I am writing this to you in the window of my local coffee shop, that has TWO vegan cake options, a badass vegan waitress who has shared her vegan apero book with me - expect pink houmous soon.

And my cells are packed full of the Pyrenees mountain air I was breathing in this morning, with the relish of Rita sniffing the croissant beurre I’d bought her an hour earlier.

I’ve designed a life that has taken five years and a lot of bruises, literally as well as emotionally but I feel that today I can share the knowledge gained with you, my community and soon to be fellow intrepid life explorers.

We have a new name and direction, I’m lovingly retiring Joy Ambition into the archives to gently mulch and this substack can now be found by searching Emma Lavelle Co, just like my website emmalavelle.co and Instagram, all aligned, simplicity.

Make simplicity the default.

This has been my mantra for a few weeks now.

Simplify. Simplify again.

Lighten the load, move faster from flow, ease and gliding not rushing.

If it can be done in two look for how I can do it in one.

It’s a discipline I’m committed to, ESPECIALLY from the calm self-trust that arrives after the euphoria of surviving and doing the thing.

Five years ago life felt terrifying.

Starting felt like like trying to lift the legs glued to the floor in my nightmares.

But I did start.

Because I had hope.

I felt this defiant, naughty, playfully insistent part of me hoping that there was a life ahead full of the vibrant colour, the confetti joy of wildflowers bursting wherever they bloody well want to energy of impact ahead.

The deep warm glow of a life with love at the core and the still calm I now embody, my Emma energy, the feeling of being in the Bethesda lake, alone yet connected to the bird of prey soaring above, the wind rustling through the trees, every sense active, poised and still.

Today is the first Life Atelier lesson I’m sharing with you, each Monday I’ll share another step along the path, I’ll guide you, create space for you to find your footing and also be able to tell you what’s up ahead as I climb my own peaks in my own Life Atelier (like how to prepare to actually feel safe to have your dreams and not rocket into self-sabotage, yes, that particular rebalance is a good one to practise before not in it where possible!)

The voice notes will be free, for everyone and in your podcast player, all you need to do is check you’re subscribed and then for paid subscribers you’ll have access to my own personal field notes, and a community conversation to share what you’re working on and support each other!

And of course, I’m writing the book. The full exercises and private podcast are for my private coaching clients, those of you working closely with me 1:1 - you can learn more about that process here but I’ll also share taster pages and exercises with paying subscribers each month too which will shape the work!

So, I’m so very excited to share this next stage of the journey with you and can’t wait to see your Life Atelier practices come to life!

Emma ✨

EPISODE NOTES

Episode 1 — The Life Atelier Practice

* Life is a practice, not a plan — and you’re already in it

* The Life Atelier is your space to work on your life, not just live it

* Emma’s story: from bouncing branch to branch, to becoming her own centre of gravity

* Why the best start rarely looks how you expected (a dog fight, a bleeding paw, a French keyboard)

* Your job this week: notice where you’re tensing — in your body, your mind, your options — and just untense

* Little experiments → little data → fast, flexible movement

* The only difference between Rita meeting dogs well and badly? Her stress levels. Same goes for us.

* What if now is actually the perfect time to start?

Your Life Atelier Practice this week: Decide you want this. That’s it. Exactly where you are is the right place.

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