Take A Breath

Polly Warren

A podcast for creating practical calm in the messy middle of midlife. This is your space to pause.  Because life in midlife is full-on. Between work, family, menopause, and the mental load, your nervous system can easily end up in constant overdrive — leaving you feeling exhausted, reactive, and overwhelmed by even the smallest things.  Each week, I’ll share my own tools, alongside honest conversations and practical nervous system support —  to help you create more calm, peace, joy, and inner steadiness. Not by escaping your life, because that’s totally unrealistic, but by meeting it differently. So when you're ready, let’s take a breath together… 

  1. 3d ago

    Thursday Thoughts - What Radio Station Are You Tuning Into?

    On this week's Thursday Thoughts, Lucy and I are talking about radio stations.  More specifically, what metaphorical radio station you are tuning into. Before you tune into a specific radio station, every single station is available to you. And it’s the same with life. Every day, we have a choice about what we want to tune into. It’s all available to us - Joy FM, Anger FM, Hope FM, Hate FM, Zen FM. The only question is: which station will you choose? We hope you’ll find something useful in here. Love, Polly & Lucy x Download 15 Breaths to Calm Anxiety - a FREE 5 minute audio to calm you down in real time. Download The Breath Check-Up - your FREE guide to understanding how well you're breathing right now. Download my energising 5 Minute Morning Practice to get your day started in the best way possible. To find out more about my membership The Inner Space go to:  https://www.pollywarren.com/theinnerspace Email me at:  info@pollywarren.com https://www.pollywarren.com/ https://www.instagram.com/pollywarrencoaching/

    28 min

  2. 4d ago

    My Secret Weapon for Anxiety, ADHD and Life's Biggest Challenges with Lisa Clarke

    In this week's episode of Take a Breath, I'm joined by chef and chocolatier Lisa Clarke, a member of my breathwork community, who shares her honest and inspiring story of how breathwork helped her through one of the most difficult periods of her life. Within the space of just six days, Lisa experienced a series of traumatic events, including a car accident involving her son, the loss of close friends and a house fire. While trying to stay strong for everyone around her, she found herself carrying an enormous amount of stress, grief and anxiety. Lisa shares how discovering breathwork became a turning point, giving her a safe space to process emotions, calm her nervous system and regain a sense of control. We also discuss her recent ADHD diagnosis and how breathwork has helped her manage racing thoughts, anxiety and her tendency to catastrophise. In this episode, you'll learn: How breathwork can support you through periods of stress, grief and overwhelmWhy being "the strong one" can take a toll on your own wellbeingHow gentle, consistent breathing practices can help regulate the nervous systemThe role breathwork can play in managing ADHD symptoms, anxious thinking and catastrophisingWhy simple daily practices often create the biggest shifts in how we feelA quote from Lisa: "Breathwork has become my secret weapon. It's something I can use wherever I am, whenever I need it, and it's helped me more than I ever imagined." To connect with Lisa go to:  https://www.instagram.com/theclevedoncookeryclub/ and https://www.instagram.com/thechocolatetartuk/ or https://www.thechocolatetart.co.uk/ Download 15 Breaths to Calm Anxiety - a FREE 5 minute audio to calm you down in real time. Download The Breath Check-Up - your FREE guide to understanding how well you're breathing right now. Download my energising 5 Minute Morning Practice to get your day started in the best way possible. To find out more about my membership The Inner Space go to:  https://www.pollywarren.com/theinnerspace Email me at:  info@pollywarren.com https://www.pollywarren.com/ https://www.instagram.com/pollywarrencoaching/

    42 min

  3. Jun 4

    Thursday Thoughts - How Well Do You Know Yourself?

    On this week's Thursday's Thoughts, Lucy and I are asking the question ‘How well do you know yourself? So many of us spend our lives reacting to what’s happening around us that we lose touch with what we actually need. We discuss what gives us energy, what drains us and the importance of living a life which is authentic to who we truly are. We hope you find something useful to you in here. Love Polly & Lucy xx Download 15 Breaths to Calm Anxiety - a FREE 5 minute audio to calm you down in real time. Download The Breath Check-Up - your FREE guide to understanding how well you're breathing right now. Download my energising 5 Minute Morning Practice to get your day started in the best way possible. To find out more about my membership The Inner Space go to:  https://www.pollywarren.com/theinnerspace Email me at:  info@pollywarren.com https://www.pollywarren.com/ https://www.instagram.com/pollywarrencoaching/

    30 min

  4. Jun 2

    Feeling Off Balance? A 20-Minute Reset for Calm and Clarity

    Have you been feeling a little out of balance lately? In this special episode of Take a Breath, I'm sharing one of the guided breathwork sessions from my REWIRE programme—a course designed to help you gently retrain your nervous system and create a calmer, steadier baseline. Before we begin, I'll walk you through the structure of the session so you know exactly what to expect. Then, when you're ready, I invite you to find a quiet space, get comfortable, and press play. This 20-minute practice is designed to help you: • Release mental and physical tension • Regulate your nervous system • Create a greater sense of balance and steadiness • Reconnect with yourself and the present moment • Move from overwhelm towards calm clarity Please don't listen while driving. Give yourself these 20 minutes as a gift—an opportunity to pause, breathe, and return to yourself. If you enjoy this session and would like more support, The REWIRE offers a deeper journey into nervous system regulation through breathwork, awareness, and simple body-based practices designed to help you feel calmer, clearer, and more resilient in everyday life. Take a breath, settle in, and enjoy the session. Download 15 Breaths to Calm Anxiety - a FREE 5 minute audio to calm you down in real time. Download The Breath Check-Up - your FREE guide to understanding how well you're breathing right now. Download my energising 5 Minute Morning Practice to get your day started in the best way possible. To find out more about my membership The Inner Space go to:  https://www.pollywarren.com/theinnerspace Email me at:  info@pollywarren.com https://www.pollywarren.com/ https://www.instagram.com/pollywarrencoaching/

    33 min

  5. May 28

    Thursday Thoughts - Mind, Mouth, Mood

    On this week’s Thursday Thoughts, Lucy and I are talking about three little words…mind, mouth, and mood. Ultimately, those three things - our thoughts, our words, and our emotions - are the building blocks of our reality.  But most of us spend our lives trying to change what’s going on in the outside world, instead of prioritising our inner world. And the outer world is simply a reflection of our inner world.  So…master your mind (the stories you’re telling yourself, the thoughts you repeat etc); master your mouth (are you constantly moaning and complaining?); and master your mood (by becoming aware of how you feel and learning how to gently shift into a better feeling state.)  We really hope you’ll find something useful in here. Love, Polly & Lucy x Download 15 Breaths to Calm Anxiety - a FREE 5 minute audio to calm you down in real time. Download The Breath Check-Up - your FREE guide to understanding how well you're breathing right now. Download my energising 5 Minute Morning Practice to get your day started in the best way possible. To find out more about my membership The Inner Space go to:  https://www.pollywarren.com/theinnerspace Email me at:  info@pollywarren.com https://www.pollywarren.com/ https://www.instagram.com/pollywarrencoaching/

    30 min

  6. May 26

    How To Breathe Better So You Feel Calmer, Clearer & Less Overwhelmed

    You breathe more than 20,000 times a day. But if your breathing is shallow, fast, noisy, or stuck high in your chest, your nervous system may be receiving a constant signal that you’re not safe yet. Which means your body can stay stuck in stress mode even when you’re desperately trying to relax. And over time, that can look like: 😮‍💨 Feeling tense, overwhelmed, or constantly “on”  😴 Poor sleep and waking up exhausted  💭 Racing thoughts, overthinking, and brain fog  💥 Snapping at people in ways that don’t feel like you  ⚡ Feeling wired, anxious, and unable to properly switch off The way you breathe directly affects your nervous system. So when your breath changes, your body changes too. In this episode of Take a Breath, I’m sharing part of my Breathe Better Basics course where I teach my NGSE Method - a simple approach to breathing that helps you: ✅ Calm your nervous system ✅ Reduce anxiety and racing thoughts ✅ Improve focus, sleep, and energy ✅ Feel steadier, clearer, and more regulated in your body No overwhelm. No complicated techniques. Just learning how to breathe in a way your nervous system actually responds to. If you'd like the full Breathe Better Basics course for £47 go to: https://www.pollywarren.com/bbb Download 15 Breaths to Calm Anxiety - a FREE 5 minute audio to calm you down in real time. Download The Breath Check-Up - your FREE guide to understanding how well you're breathing right now. Download my energising 5 Minute Morning Practice to get your day started in the best way possible. To find out more about my membership The Inner Space go to:  https://www.pollywarren.com/theinnerspace Email me at:  info@pollywarren.com https://www.pollywarren.com/ https://www.instagram.com/pollywarrencoaching/

    32 min

  7. May 21

    Thursday Thoughts - Complaining

    This week on Thursday Thoughts, Lucy and I are talking about complaining. We all love a good vent now and again, and sometimes it’s healthy to let those emotions out. But when we stay stuck there, replaying the same thoughts over and over, it can keep us trapped in a really low-energy state. In this episode, we share our thoughts on the difference between releasing emotions and ruminating, plus some simple ways we try to catch ourselves before getting pulled into the cycle of constant complaining. Because sometimes the most powerful shift is asking: “Do I want to stay here… or do I want to move forward?” We hope you find something useful in here. Love,  Polly & Lucy x Download 15 Breaths to Calm Anxiety - a FREE 5 minute audio to calm you down in real time. Download The Breath Check-Up - your FREE guide to understanding how well you're breathing right now. Download my energising 5 Minute Morning Practice to get your day started in the best way possible. To find out more about my membership The Inner Space go to:  https://www.pollywarren.com/theinnerspace Email me at:  info@pollywarren.com https://www.pollywarren.com/ https://www.instagram.com/pollywarrencoaching/

    27 min

  8. May 19

    The Missing Piece in the Perimenopause Conversation

    In this episode, I’m sharing a big realisation I’ve had recently, one that feels like a real full-circle moment for me. Nearly 10 years ago, I left my teaching career feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, anxious and completely disconnected from myself… although at the time, I had no idea that perimenopause was playing such a huge role in how I was feeling.  Looking back now, I can see that this was the beginning of a much deeper journey into understanding stress, the nervous system and what my body was really trying to tell me. Over the years, I immersed myself in learning - from coaching to breathwork and nervous system regulation - while also supporting hunderes of other women navigating midlife.  And the one thing I kept seeing over and over again was that so many women weren’t simply struggling with hormones alone… they were living with chronically overwhelmed nervous systems. In this episode, I explore why perimenopause can suddenly make life feel harder to cope with, why so many women feel like they’ve “lost themselves”, and how hormonal changes can make the nervous system far more sensitive to stress.  I also share why learning to regulate my nervous system changed everything for me, and why I now believe this is one of the missing pieces in the perimenopause conversation.  In this episode, I share:  How hormonal changes affect the nervous system and our ability to cope with stress  Why anxiety, overwhelm, irritability and exhaustion often intensify during midlife  The connection between chronic stress, survival mode and feeling “not like yourself anymore”  How breathwork and nervous system regulation helped me feel calmer, steadier and more like myself againDownload 15 Breaths to Calm Anxiety - a FREE 5 minute audio to calm you down in real time. Download The Breath Check-Up - your FREE guide to understanding how well you're breathing right now. Download my energising 5 Minute Morning Practice to get your day started in the best way possible. To find out more about my membership The Inner Space go to:  https://www.pollywarren.com/theinnerspace Email me at:  info@pollywarren.com https://www.pollywarren.com/ https://www.instagram.com/pollywarrencoaching/

    33 min
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4.6
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About

A podcast for creating practical calm in the messy middle of midlife. This is your space to pause.  Because life in midlife is full-on. Between work, family, menopause, and the mental load, your nervous system can easily end up in constant overdrive — leaving you feeling exhausted, reactive, and overwhelmed by even the smallest things.  Each week, I’ll share my own tools, alongside honest conversations and practical nervous system support —  to help you create more calm, peace, joy, and inner steadiness. Not by escaping your life, because that’s totally unrealistic, but by meeting it differently. So when you're ready, let’s take a breath together… 

Information

  • Creator
    Polly Warren
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    327
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Take A Breath
  • Show Website
    Take A Breath

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