What happens when life suddenly changes direction?

In the first of four personal reflections, I share part of my journey following a car accident in 2006 and the unexpected lessons I learned about hope, identity and choosing to believe in possibility—even when there seemed little reason to do so.

Reflection One – When Life Changes Direction is an invitation to pause and consider what choosing hope might look like in your own life today.

🌿 The Space Between — a place to pause, reflect and find meaning in life's quieter moments.

Guest:   Doctor Lena Subbotina  - MD

Purpose – A deep dive into the positive impact of switching off from the noise of the world on our mental and physical health

Key points –

Takeaways

Find Dr Lena on [email protected]

Guest – Yvonne Daly from Mervue Natural Skincare

Purpose – to look at what good skincare looks like and develop good skincare habits as part of an overall wellness ritual. 

Key Points –

Research your skincare products.

Make educated choices about your skincare products. 

Choose products that can be multipurpose – more economical.

Less is more when it comes to good skincare.

Integrate your skincare with a nice nighttime wellness ritual – 10 minutes at night.

Takeaways

Become an educated skincare consumer

Take 10 minutes out at night for a nourishing skincare routine and some self -care – helps sleep. 

Email contact for Mervue Natural Skincare is the same as for Julie Clarke Candles [email protected] - we work side by side and all emails will be passed on to Mervue Natural Skincare. 

Yvonne Daly works as the product formulator and educator at Mervue Natural Skincare – a certified organic skincare brand launched in 2021 and made in Mervue, Galway City. 

Yvonne trained as a chef originally and went on to train and work as a beautician – she has a life long passion for taking care of our skin from the inside out. 

In this episode Yvonne shares some of her knowledge about becoming a more educated skincare consumer – using the principle less is more for the skin.  She also chats about developing a good skincare routine as part of our self-care.  

Guest - Meditation Teacher Dora Ross

Purpose - exploring meditation and how it can change your life

Key Points

Neuroscience behind meditation 

How meditation can change your life

A few tips to get you started with meditation 

A 3-minute meditation to close 

Takeaways

Dora Ross is a mindfulness and wellbeing coach and behavioural change specialist. She helps people with busy, demanding lives pause, reset, and reconnect with what truly matters through meditation and practical mindfulness tools. Alongside her corporate role in behavioural change within cybersecurity, Dora delivers wellbeing mentoring, coaching, and meditation sessions for individuals and in corporate settings. Her work focuses on helping people manage stress, reduce overthinking, and bring more calm, clarity, and balance into their everyday lives.

In this episode Dora explores with Julianne the benefits of practical mediation as a tool for tuning in and living our best life.  Dora also guides us through a short meditation.  

You can find her on Instagram, Insight Timer, and Substack under Dorika Wellbeing

Guest – Siobhan Moylan Setu Yoga Studio

Purpose – Exploring yoga as a mind body practise for everyone regardless of age or physical ability. 

Key Points 

Yoga is and should be accessible for all ages and physical abilities.

Yoga helps us to connect within –it is a moving medication.

The power of the breath to calm the nervous system. 

Takeaways

Through the day practise taking a deep breath through your nose and exhaling through your nose.   Make sure the exhale is longer than the inhale.  Write a few lines in your journal at the end of the day about how you feel after doing this practise. 

Siobhan Moylan is a Yoga Teacher and Yoga Teacher Trainer with over 25 years of experience – working from her studio ‘SETU’ in Kilcornan, Clarinbridge, County Galway.  

Siobhan’s mission is delivering Yoga classes that are accessible for everyone in the community regardless of age or physical ability.  She sees Yoga as a moving meditation helping is to connect within and calm our nervous system. 

In this episode Siobhan shares our deep knowledge of Yoga and her mission to deliver accessible yoga.   There is a short breathing exercise at the end of this episode we can all use during the day to create that calm from within. 

You can find Siobhan on Instagram @setustudiospace and at her studio in SETU, Kilcornan, Clarinbridge, County Galway if you are in the Galway area. 

This is a solo podcast with host Julie Clarke.

Purpose – Sharing my journey of recovery and waking up to the real me.

Key Points

Takeaways

Setting up your day – practical meditation

Pausing during your day - taking a few deep breaths 

Stop trying and start trusting

Email contact for Julie Clarke Candles is [email protected]

Julianne Clarke has a master’s degree in Adult and Community Education.  She worked for many years for various Government Organisations and Rural Development Companies in community education settings.   

Julianne had some time out of work to recover from injuries sustained in a car accident.  Following her recovery, Julianne co-founded two brands Julie Clarke Candles and Mervue Natural Skincare.  At the heart of these brands is a passion for wellbeing and creating calm spaces. 

In more recent years Julie has trained as a Yoga Teacher and Breath Work Coach – she is planning to do more work in this area brining some tools to her clients for living their best life.  

In this episode Julie shares some of her story of recovery in the hope that it helps listeners who are in challenging situations.  

Simply Holistic Living Series 4 will launch on Thursday 4th June 2026.

Welcome to Simply Holistic Living – Practical Tools for Waking Up to the Real You.

After taking some time away, I’m returning with a fresh eye.

This podcast is for people who feel they are on a spinning wheel and just surviving but want to change, want to slow down, breath and reconnect.   

In this podcast we explore grounded, practical ways to reconnect with yourself and build a more balanced, rounded life.

So, if you’re ready to slow down, tune in and live with more clarity, you’re in the right place.

Fiona Brennan from ‘Inspire, Action, Success” is a professional business coach.  She combines her 20 years’ experience as a project manager with mindset and neuroscience coaching to help her clients achieve the business and personal success they desire.   Fiona's mission is “to help you discover your full potential, see your limitless power and become the best you can be.”  Fiona is an advocate of regular daily meditation as a tool for our real personal growth.  In this episode Fiona chats about her experience of meditation and the reasons why she practises meditation and encourages her clients to do the same.   We finish this episode with an experience of meditation you can go back to anytime. Fiona runs an online meditation club.  The club is opened to new members only every quarter-  now at a cost of €99+VAT for the year.    This link allows you to purchase  membership for a discount of €77 + vat for the year. https://subscribepage.io/join-the-ceo-meditation-club Fiona can be contacted through her website https://inspireactionsuccess.com/

In episode 3 Life Coach Máirtín Óg McDonagh and Julie Clarke chat about overcoming life challenges and growing through them to come out the other side.   

Máirtín Óg brings a wealth of life experience and professional qualifications to the table. An entrepreneur, responsible for building two successful businesses in the past, employing a skilled workforce and managing teams. A casualty of the downturn in 2010, losing everything he had worked so hard to achieve. This difficult time in Máirtín’s life gave him a huge understanding and empathy of how frail our mental health can be. How we need to draw on inner strength and how with determination and the right mindset you can rebuild your life, with an emphasis on the quality of your life rather than the material acquisitions.

This experience led to a passion for helping others and resulted in him studying and acquiring an accredited Life Coaching Qualification in 2019.

In 2020 Máirtín set up Mind Over Mountains, an initiative that combines coaching, mentoring and the great outdoors. Encouraging positive and productive teamwork through a healthy mind health body ethos to his clients.

For more about Mairtin see his website  www.mindovermountains.ie

Julie Clarke had a successful career in training and education when in 2006 she had a car accident that changed her life forever.  Shortly after completing the Connemara half Marathon Julie was involved in a car crash – this left her with an injury to her brain causing muscle movement disorder.   It was a long road to recovery leading her down a road of great personal growth. The turning point for Julie was when she faced the fear of what was happening to her body and at that moment decided she was going to survive this.   Julie kept a vision of running the London Marathon in her heart and bought herself a pair of marathon runners to wear every day during the years of her recovery.   In 2012 Julies dream came through when she ran the London Marathon with her friends and husband.    

Following her recovery Julie set up her own artisan candle business called Julie Clarke Candles – at the heart of this business lies Julie’s passion for health and well-being.   The podcast Simply Holistic Living has grown out of Julie’s journey of recovery and passion to help others.  

The website for Julie Clarke Candles is www.julieclarkecandles.com

In episode 2, I have a conversation with Psychologist Willie Horton about the practises he teaches through his various programs, helping us to become who we really are and hit the off button on the autopilot running our lives. 

Willie Horton is an Irish Psychologist living in France.  He has an amazing program called the ‘The Psychology of Success Online Program’ and an inspiring podcast ‘To Succeed Just Let Go’.  Through his podcast, online program and free videos and other resources on his website, Willie teaches us how to change our lives, how to become who we really are and to stop paying attention to the thinking mind which he says is the false self. 

Willie’s work is truly inspirational and changing lives.   To find out more about his work click on to his website www.willie-horton.com