Rooted In Presence

Content note: this episode gently touches on restrictive and disordered eating. Nothing graphic, and held with care  but please look after yourself and come back another time if that feels kinder today. This week I had a photo taken that, completely by chance, mirrored one from my very first photoshoot five years ago. Same pose. Same kind of setting. Two very different women; or rather, the same w...

A shorter, gentler one about choice; not the tidy 'take control of your life' kind, but the honest kind.  The choices we don't realise we're making, the ones we only spot after they've passed, and why 'I get to' doesn't always feel true when life is hard. If you've been feeling stuck lately, come and sit with this one. Interested in exploring your life...

We've just passed the summer solstice; the peak of the light, and the precise moment it begins, very gently, to turn. It got me thinking about the thresholds we meet in midlife, and one in particular: strength. In this episode I share a story about the heaviest weight I ever lifted on a competition platform and what happened next. We get into the actual physiology of strength and ageing, why...

We so often treat joy as a destination, something we'll get to once everything is sorted, healed, achieved or resolved. I'll be happy when. I'll relax when. I'll feel free when. But what if joy was never meant to be a finish line? What if it's already here, quietly woven through the ordinary moments we're moving too fast to notice? In this episode I share a moment fro...

In this week's episode, Carly explores a very specific kind of grief: one that doesn't come from losing something, but from finally finding it. The 'why didn't I start sooner' feeling. The ache that can show up right alongside a genuine awakening. It's something I've lived through more than once. And it's something I sit with my clients through regularly. Co...

If you're in a season of big change; menopause, midlife, or just that feeling of not quite knowing who you are anymore, this episode is for you. We close with a simple breath awareness practice that you can use anywhere, any time things feel like too much. This week I learned something about butterflies that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. Inside the chrysalis, the caterpilla...

Something kept coming up across Carly’s client sessions this week. A composite thread running through different conversations with different clients all trying to figure out how to make their self-care and routines actually stick. And the question that kept arising was this: could you plan your downtime as much as you plan your workout time? In episode 137, Carly explores why scheduling the decomp...

What happens when your old routines stop fitting? When the life you’ve built no longer belongs to the person you’re becoming? This week Carly is talking about something she’s been sitting with personally and hearing from clients — what consistency really means when life has fundamentally shifted. After burnout. Through menopause. When the woman you were and the woman you’re becoming don’t quite ma...

This is a Mental Health Awareness Week episode. But it's not a fix-it episode, and it's not a think-positive episode. It's an honest conversation about wonder — the small, quiet, always-available kind and why reclaiming it might be one of the most quietly radical things you can do. Carly explores glimmers, soft fascination and Attention Restoration Theory, the difference between chi...

In this episode Carly explores why rest feels so radical for midlife women, the science behind rest in strength training and the nervous system, the neuroscience of silence and neurogenesis, and introduces The Restorer; one of four archetypes from the Midlife Presence system.  Also included... a sneak peek of an upcoming offering at Still Space Hull. Take the MIDLIFE PRESENCE ARCHETYPE QUIZ here T...

Are you drowning in conflicting health advice, trends and opinions? In this episode, Carly explores what it really means to trust yourself more than any plan, programme, or process, inspired by a powerful post from a former client, the Barbie movie, and and Indigo Girls song. She also explores how strength training and Breathwork are doorways to self-knowledge, and why midlife (and perimenopause e...

Are you losing bone when you can’t do as much?  It’s the question Carly left hanging at the end of part two and this week she answers it.  In the final episode of the Lead With Your Bones series, Carly goes wider.  Nutrition, stress, sleep, breath, circulation, and the emotional landscape that either nourishes or depletes your skeleton over time.  Because bone health isn’t just about what you lift...

What does a decade working in an NHS hospital have to do with why you should be lifting weights? In part two of the Lead With Your Bones series, Carly draws on ten years as a clinical dietitian to explain why the patients who came in with more muscle on their bodies consistently did better. Because building bone and muscle isn’t about aesthetics. It’s about reserves. It’s about having a foundation...

When you picture your bones, what do you see? Most of us imagine something rigid and inert, a coat hanger, a Halloween skeleton. Something that just hangs there in the dark while the rest of us gets on with living. But that picture is wrong.  And in this episode,the first of a three-part series called Lead With Your Bones, Carly is here to change it. In this episode Carly explains the science of l...

The clocks went forward last weekend. And the night before, Carly did something she does every year without thinking, she left her kitchen clock on the old time. Just as a quiet check. A way to hold both times at once while the world shifted overnight. She couldn't help thinking... isn't that exactly what menopause feels like? In this episode, Carly explores what it means to stay rooted...

What if the small things you're already doing are quietly setting you up for the moments that matter most? In this episode, Carly shares a client story that stopped her in her tracks this week and gets personal about  hospital, how a bare-bones approach to fitness kept her in the game through years of hospital visits and what happened when life gave her a bit of breathing space. This episode...

This week I did something a little outside my usual world I went to an aerial silks and hoop class. And what I didn't expect was how much it would bring up. Body stuff. Beginner feelings. And for the first time in a long time... an unexpected thought about my age. In this short personal episode I'm sharing what the experience taught me about showing up as a beginner and why I think it ma...

In this episode, I'm exploring a shift in language that I think matters more than it might first appear... the difference between nervous system regulation and nervous system care. We've all heard 'regulate your nervous system.' But what if that framing is quietly telling us that activated states are problems to fix... even when they're actually appropriate? In this episod...

TW: Fawn response, trauma response discussion. It's International Women's Day week, and this year's theme is "Give to Gain." But what if you're already depleted? What if you're already giving everything you have? In this episode of Rooted in Presence, we explore the complicated tension in this year's IWD theme and what sustainable generosity actually require...

This week’s episode is a little different. I was invited onto Matt Robinson’s podcast Fitness Business Insights   to talk about my journey, from NHS dietitian… to commercial gym PT… to burnout… to building Still Space Hull. We explore: Why I left a secure 10-year career The identity shift from “health professional” to personal trainer Burnout, overworking, and forcing growth Why “success” isn’t al...

Tired but can't switch off?  Wired but exhausted?  Feel like you don't have time to relax and when you do, it leaves you foggy instead of restored? You're not alone. And the answer might not be what you think. In this episode of Rooted in Presence, we explore why relaxation isn't always the goal and why coherence might be the missing piece for busy midlife women. Host Carly Kil...

Are you still looking for self love? You've done the affirmations. You've tried to "love yourself more." Maybe you've even achieved the body, the goals, the external validation you thought would make you feel enough. But you're still holding your breath. Still monitoring yourself. Still performing acceptability even when you're alone. In this Valentine's Day...

Forgetfulness, difficulty finding words, reduced focus, and that unsettling sense of mental “fuzziness” are common in midlife but they’re not a personal failing. In this episode of Rooted in Presence , Carly Killen explores menopause brain fog through a nervous system lens, helping you understand what’s actually happening in the brain and body as hormones begin to shift. You’ll learn: Why brain fo...

What if many of your "menopause symptoms" are actually nervous system signals? In this episode of Rooted in Presence, we explore why anxiety, sleep issues, emotional sensitivity, and overwhelm intensify during menopause—and how your nervous system plays a bigger role than you might realize. Host Carly Killen breaks down the science in plain language: how oestrogen supports your stress re...

We're often told to "take up space" to be bold, visible, and unapologetic. But what if the real work isn't about being louder... but about learning to hold space? In this episode of Rooted in Presence, we explore the difference between taking up space (which can trigger your nervous system) and holding space (which requires deep presence and vulnerability). Host Carly Killen sh...