This week’s episode is a deeply personal one. I’m opening up about parts of my journey that I haven’t spoken about much before - my experiences with depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and the shame that once surrounded my mental health.

From navigating early struggles as a teenager, to living overseas in England and experiencing one of the most challenging periods of my life, I share how these moments shaped the work I do today and the passion I have for helping women and children understand their minds and emotions.

This conversation isn’t about having it all figured out - it’s about normalising the ups and downs of being human, removing stigma, and reminding you that support, tools, and healing are always available.

If you’ve ever felt alone in your mental health journey, this episode is for you.

• My personal story with depression and anxiety - and why it felt hard to share
• Experiencing mental health challenges as a teenager and not recognising the signs
• Living in England, seasonal changes, and how environment can impact wellbeing
• Panic attacks: what they felt like, what helped, and how to support someone through one
• The shame many people carry around medication and seeking help
• Why finding the right psychologist, coach, or support person matters
• The role mindfulness, emotional awareness, and nervous system tools have played in my healing
• How these experiences shaped my passion for helping women and children
• Teaching emotional awareness to the next generation and breaking the stigma cycle

This episode shares personal experiences and reflections. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice. If you’re struggling, please reach out to a trusted health professional or support service.

If this episode resonated with you, I would truly love to hear from you.
Share your thoughts, your story, or what you took away - these conversations matter.

Email - [email protected]; IG - @the.victoria.r

In this episode, I gently unpack the heaviness many of us are feeling in the world right now - the constant stream of negative news, overwhelming information, and the emotional toll it can take on us as adults, parents, and educators.

Rather than diving into fear or sensationalism, this conversation focuses on what is within our control: how we think, how we protect our energy, and how we support the children in our lives to grow into thoughtful, grounded humans.

We explore the importance of critical thinking - not blindly accepting everything we’re told, but learning to question, reflect, and consider multiple perspectives with curiosity rather than judgement. This is a skill many of us were never taught, and one that feels more important now than ever.

I also share practical, real-life ways we can:

• Teach critical thinking to children (at home, in classrooms, and through everyday conversations)
• Model analytical and open-minded thinking as adults
• Reduce the impact of doom-scrolling, negative media, and information overload
• Set firm but realistic boundaries around social media, news, and technology
• Protect our mental health and nervous systems during challenging times
• Reconnect with gratitude, mindfulness, kindness, and the small moments that ground us

This episode is an invitation to pause, reflect, and come back to yourself - while also raising children who can think for themselves, question respectfully, and navigate the world with discernment and compassion.

✨ In this episode, we talk about:

• Why the current state of the world feels so overwhelming
• The role of critical thinking in today’s society
• How to teach children to question information without fear
• Why different perspectives aren’t wrong - just different
• Celebrity culture, idolisation, and media influence
• Simple ways to model critical thinking for kids
• Protecting your energy and mental health
• Setting boundaries with news, social media, and technology
• Gratitude, mindfulness, and being the positive ripple in your world

🌱 Mentioned in this episode:
I’m also hosting a free webinar on finding your spark again - for anyone feeling flat, burnt out, or disconnected from themselves. The link is here - https://victoria-r.com.au/webinar-why-youve-lost-your-spark/, and I’d love to see you there.

If this episode resonated with you, I’d truly love to hear your thoughts. What conversations are you already having at home or in your classroom? How are you supporting your own mental wellbeing right now?

Thanks for being here. And remember: protect your energy, honour your boundaries, and keep coming back to what matters most.

Welcome back to the Mindful Educator Podcast 🤍
After a much-needed break, I’m officially back behind the mic - refreshed, reset, and excited for what’s ahead.

In this first episode of the year, I’m sharing a very honest reflection on how different this January felt compared to previous years. Instead of hitting the ground running, I found myself moving slowly, resting more, enjoying time with the kids… and feeling guilty about it - until I realised it was exactly what my body and nervous system needed.

If you’ve felt flat, unmotivated, or like your spark took a little longer to return this year, this episode is for you.

• Why it’s okay if January felt heavy, slow, or unmotivated
• Letting go of the pressure to be a “new version” of yourself on January 1
• How energy influences how we show up as parents, partners, teachers, and humans
• The importance of seasons - and why we don’t need to be “on” all year
• Using intention (not hustle) to guide the year ahead
• Small, sustainable habit changes vs. overwhelming life overhauls
• Why sleep is often the foundation for everything else
• Creating new neural pathways (and why your brain resists big change)
• Different ways to set intentions — vision boards, journaling, voice notes, or reflection
• Trusting the process even when the “how” isn’t clear yet

I also share some of the tools that personally support me when I’m setting intentions, including:

• Yearly energy readings with Courtney
• Oracle and tarot cards (yes, my woo side 🤍)
• A powerful 24-hour planning and clarity session with Elsa Mitchell, which helped me reconnect with my direction and confidence for 2026

Most importantly, this episode is an invitation to ask yourself:

You don’t need to have everything figured out.
You just need to choose a direction - and gently keep guiding yourself back when life throws curveballs.

• My Reflections & Intentions Booklet (a beautiful starting point if you’re feeling unsure about the year ahead) https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/1225418/140215074039006976/share
• A free upcoming webinar focused on helping you reconnect with your spark

👉 Follow along on Instagram: @the.victoria.r
Webinar registration details will be shared there very soon.

Thank you so much for being here, for listening, and for allowing me into your ears and your world. I’m incredibly grateful — and I can’t wait to share what’s coming next.

🎙️ I’ll speak to you next week.

Contact - www.victoria-r.com.au; [email protected]

It’s the final episode of the year - and what a way to wrap things up. I’m joined by the brilliant (and hilarious) Elsa Mitchell - business mentor, podcast host, and one of the big reasons I started this podcast in the first place.

This chat is equal parts real talk, laughs, and truth bombs, as Elsa shares her journey from owning a hair salon and building multiple businesses, to stepping into the mentoring space - and what she’s learned about success, resilience, and the behind-the-scenes realities of business life.

We talk about what’s changed in business over the years (hello Yellow Pages days), why connection still wins, how personal life always impacts business (even when we try to pretend it doesn’t), and why rural and regional women are becoming a powerful force in Australia.

And of course… a mic-drop reminder to end the year: 

The sooner you stop caring what people think, the sooner your life will move forward.

• Elsa’s journey: hairdressing, business ownership, and becoming a business mentor
• Why being “the best” isn’t everything - connection matters more than perfection
• How social media changed the game (and why it can feel harder now)
• The common patterns Elsa sees in women in business - especially mums and midlife women
• The fine line between being “authentic” and still feeling professional when life is messy
• Advice for starting a business when you feel time-poor: start with an hour a day
• Mum guilt, family juggle, and making choices that actually suit your season
• Why community (especially in rural/regional areas) is everything - and how women are rising

Website: elsamitchell.com.au
Instagram: @elsa_mitchell_ (Elsa loves a voice DM)

Website: victoria-r.com.au
Instagram: @the.victoria.r
Email: [email protected]

Thanks for listening — and if you’d love to be a guest on the podcast next year, send me a message. I’m already excited for what’s coming in 2026.

As we come to one of the final episodes of 2025, today’s conversation is intentionally slower, softer, and deeply reflective.

This time of year can feel chaotic — school events, winding down work, juggling social plans and trying to think ahead to the new year. But amongst the noise, there’s an opportunity to pause long enough to recognise just how much has happened, shifted, expanded and unfolded.

In this episode, we look back on the year through gentle guided reflection. I walk you through thoughtful prompts exploring:

• A word to capture the essence of your year
• Moments that shaped you
• Highlights, lessons, mistakes and growth
• How you expanded past your comfort zone
• What you want to leave behind — and what you want more of
• The memories, people and experiences that stood out
• The areas of your life that felt balanced… and the ones that didn’t
• The version of you that is walking confidently into 2026

It’s an invitation to pause — with curiosity, not criticism.
To acknowledge the hard, the beautiful, the unexpected.
To see how far you’ve come before rushing into what’s next.

You can do this reflection solo with a journal, or use it as a beautiful family conversation ritual. Grab a pen, a cup of something warm, and give yourself the space to breathe, remember and honour the year that was.

✨ Revive Your Spark Round Two enrolments are now open!
Round two begins February 2026, and the BIRTHDAY2025 discount code is extended until December 31st.
This will be the only discount offered.

✨ 1:1 coaching is now closed for the year, and will reopen in February.

✨ One more episode is coming next week — and it’s a good one.

Then I’ll be taking a refreshing break over Christmas and the school holidays to soak up family time and reset for the year ahead.

I always love hearing from listeners — your reflections, intentions, or even guest suggestions for 2026.
Come say hello:

📧 Email: [email protected]
📱 Instagram: @the.victoria.r
🌐 www.victoria-r.com.au

✨ Whether this year felt expansive, messy, magical, heavy, surprising, or all of the above — you made it.

Thank you for being here.
Thank you for listening.
And thank you for being part of The Mindful Educator community.

Wishing you a beautiful December, a restful break, and a hopeful start to the new year.

See you in 2026. 💛

In this episode, Victoria chats with Susan Hughes, an ADHD parent coach and educator based in Perth. Susan shares her journey from accountant to Master of Education, ADHD researcher, and mum navigating neurodiversity at home.

They unpack what ADHD actually is, why so many kids and adults are being diagnosed now, how it often looks different in girls and women, and what parents and teachers can practically do - even while they’re stuck on waitlists.

You’ll hear about:

• Susan’s turning point as a parent and how it led her back to university.
• ADHD as an executive functioning delay, not “naughtiness” or laziness.
• Why girls and women are often missed, and the big role hormones play.
• What parents can do right now while waiting for diagnosis or support.
• Simple strategies for mornings, routines, and scaffolding expectations.
• How teachers can better support ADHD students in busy classrooms.
• A compassionate, evidence-based take on ADHD medication for kids and adults.
• The importance of parental regulation, mindful parenting, and seeing behaviour as communication.

Key reminder: Your child’s behaviour is usually not a choice – it’s a sign of capacity, not character. When we understand their brain, we can support their strengths and protect their self-esteem.

Connect with Susan:

• Website: susanhughes.com.au
• Email: [email protected]
• Download the freebie mentioned here: https://www.theconfidentadhdparentformula.com.au/lm-5-steps-to-calm-morning

She offers a semester-long small-group parent program and an educator course to support families and teachers raising and working with ADHD kids.

• Website: victoria-r.com.au
  Instagram: @the.victoria.r
  Email: [email protected]

In this episode, Victoria joins us from Perth, where she’s spending a week immersed in Mind School training. Surrounded by new insights, lightbulb moments, and deep personal reflection, she explores a topic that has been completely reshaping the way she thinks, feels, and responds to the world: the language we use.

Victoria breaks down how the words we speak - both out loud and internally - shape our emotional state, our identity, our resilience, and ultimately the world we create around us. She shares heartfelt examples from her own life, dives into the concept of transformational vocabulary, and reminds us that while we may not always be able to control our circumstances, we always have influence over the words we choose.

This episode touches on:

• How everyday phrases like “I’m tired” or “I’m busy” unconsciously set the tone for our day
• Why our brain follows the direction our language points it toward
• The powerful idea from Mind School: “Words create worlds”
• Flipping negative internal dialogue into more uplifting, empowered language
• Modelling healthy language for children and students
• Expanding our emotional vocabulary to better understand what we’re actually feeling
• Why “I am…” statements can keep us stuck in outdated identities
• Practical examples of reframing common phrases into more supportive ones
• Using language to shift our state and reconnect with confidence, energy, and clarity

This conversation is a beautiful reminder that the way we speak becomes the way we live - and small shifts in vocabulary can create huge shifts in how we feel.

• Instagram: @the.victoria.r
• Website: www.victoria-r.com.au
• Work With Me: Coaching, programs, mindfulness sessions, school workshops & more

In this episode of The Mindful Educator podcast, Victoria is joined by breathwork facilitator, nervous system educator, mum, and founder of Breathing Space, Tash Forbes.

Tash shares the deeply honest story of hitting burnout, ending up in hospital with a major panic attack, and realising that “just talking about it” wasn’t shifting anything. From there, she discovered breathwork, experienced a profound session that changed her whole state, and decided to train as a facilitator so she could bring this work to other women.

Together, Victoria and Tash chat about the nervous system, why so many women are stuck in constant “go, go, go” mode, and how we can gently teach our bodies that it’s actually safe to slow down. They break down what breathwork really is (beyond “I’m breathing anyway!”), why so many of us have no idea how to truly take a deep, regulating breath, and how simple, tiny moments of intentional breathing can shift our entire day.

This episode is especially powerful for mums, educators and women who feel wired, snappy, unable to relax, or who “can’t meditate” and think that means they’re broken. You’ll walk away with practical nervous system tools you can use today — and simple ways to bring calming breath into your children’s routines, too.

Tash’s current offerings include:

• 1:1 breathwork sessions (online and in-person in Kununurra)
• A 6-week intensive women’s coaching container to help reset the nervous system
• Small group breathwork sessions in Kununurra, with plans to expand to online groups

Connect with Tash:

• Instagram: @tashforbes_
• Business: Breathing Space – breathing-space.com.au

If this episode resonated with you, or you’re curious about mindfulness, coaching or nervous system support, you can connect with Victoria here:

• Instagram: @the.victoria.r
• Podcast: The Mindful Educator (follow & leave a review if you loved this chat!)
• Website: victoria-r.com.au

In this week’s episode, Victoria chats about the time of year that always seems to arrive faster than any of us expect - Term Four, Christmas, New Year, and the beautiful chaos that comes with it. Instead of getting swept up in the rush, she shares practical, simple ways to finish 2025 feeling grounded, organised, and present.

Whether you’re managing school events, end-of-year work deadlines, family celebrations, or the mental load of gift-giving, this episode offers gentle reminders and realistic strategies to make this season lighter.

✨ Why the end of the year can feel like a blur, and how to slow it down
✨ The power of taking just minutes a day to reset your nervous system
✨ A reality check on whether everything really needs to happen before Christmas
✨ Planning ahead without pressure -  small steps that make a big difference
✨ Easy ways to reduce the mental load (like Secret Santa, delegating food, or shared gift pools)
✨ Letting go of the tiny details that don’t actually matter
✨ Staying present so you can actually enjoy the celebrations, not just survive them
✨ Flipping “I have to…” into “I get to…” to shift the energy of the season

✔ Take a few minutes for yourself each morning - no phone, just breathe and reset
✔ Write a gift list in your phone as ideas come up
✔ Start your carts early and revisit when you’re ready
✔ Plan teacher or staff gifts now to avoid last-minute stress
✔ Delegate Christmas food - everyone brings a dish
✔ Ask for help rather than carrying everything alone
✔ Release perfectionism over tiny details that don’t matter in the long run
✔ Remind yourself of the joy, connection, and privilege of this season

This time of year is meant to be joyful - but often becomes rushed, pressured, and exhausting. With a few intentional decisions and mindset shifts, we can reclaim it as a season of connection, presence, and calm.

Have a tip that makes the season easier in your household?
Victoria would love to hear it!
Comment on the episode post on socials or send an email so we can share ideas with the community.

• Website: www.victoria-r.com.au
• Instagram: @the.victoria.r
• Email: [email protected]

Somatic sexologist and coach Ruby Josif joins me for a grounded, empowering chat on coming back to your body, redefining “good sex,” and raising tweens/teens with consent, language, and self-trust. We dig into nervous-system safety, shame, intimacy after kids, and how to actually start the conversation with your partner-vulnerably, not defensively.

• Ruby’s mission: confidence, pleasure, and authentic expression—inside the bedroom and out
• Why needs, desires, and boundaries underpin satisfying intimacy
• Getting back into your body: tiny, safe somatic practices (outside the bedroom first)
• Nervous-system basics: moving from “fight/flight” to “rest/digest”
• Active presence for busy mums: walking, touch, self-massage, dance
• Talking to kids: correct anatomical language, everyday consent, being a safe parent
• Spotting shame: hiding, shutdown, judgment of others, the “gripping” in your body
• Redefining “good sex”: less goal/organism-chasing, more connection & nourishment
• From “obligatory sex” to desire: expanding what intimacy can look like
• Couples communication: lead with vulnerability & curiosity, not resentment
• Taking responsibility for your pleasure (and why partners aren’t mind-readers)
• How to work with Ruby: mentorship, focus sessions, therapeutic yoni massage (WA)

• Start outside the bedroom: build safety and presence in small moments.
• If sex feels like a chore, widen the definition of intimacy and follow what nourishes you.
• Teach kids correct words and everyday consent early—make yourself the safe person.
• Desire grows when experiences feel good for you; obligatory sex erodes it.
• Lead tough talks with “I feel/I need/I’m desiring…” and genuine curiosity.

When you park the car (or make tea), place both hands on your body, take three slow breaths, and ask: “What sensation is here? What do I need right now?”  Thirty seconds. Daily.

Guest: Ruby Josif - somatic sexologist & coach (based in WA; mentorships, focus sessions, therapeutic yoni massage). 

• https://www.ruby-josif.com/
• https://www.instagram.com/ruby.josif.sex.coach/

Host: Victoria R — The Mindful Educator: mindset, mindfulness, education & mum life.

• https://www.victoria-r.com.au
• [email protected]
• @the.victoria.r