Transcript: Mom Burnout Is Real, It’s Time To Start Taking Care Of You

This is a text transcript from The First Time Mum’s Chat podcast. The episode is called Mom Burnout Is Real, It’s Time To Start Taking Care Of You and you can click on the link to view the full episode page, listen to the episode and view the show notes.

The subject of self care for moms is often discussed on this podcast and I know it is something that many moms I speak with find challenging. With insufficient time in the day to deal with everything, particularly with the latest addition to the family, this is of course completely understandable.

I was thrilled to recently meet Charlotte Caunter who has a remarkable story to tell. Charlotte’s experience for me is a reminder of the importance of looking after yourself and ensuring that you live your life, without the modern tendency to burn the candle at both ends.

For some years, Charlotte has been a holistic burnout coach for moms but she came from a background in mental health and lived a life that was go, go, go. At just 32, Charlotte found herself faced with one of the scariest things any of us can face, cancer!

I’m sure you’ll find Charlotte’s journey and how she turned her life around as amazing as I did. She’s an amazingly positive lady with an amazing zest for life.

Helen Thompson: Charlotte, I’m delighted to have you here and welcome to First Time Mum’s Chat. I always love talking to you and it’s a pleasure to interview you. So, can you tell me what you’re passionate about.

Charlotte Caunter: Yeah, thank you so much for having me on. Love chatting with you. What I’m really passionate about and why I even ended up in this field. So I’m a holistic burnout coach for moms. And how I even started that career years ago, I used to work in the mental health fields. I used to work with kids and adolescents. I did not have any children of my own, but I was, go, go, go. Working night shift, day shift, afternoon shift. If I wasn’t working, I was, playing sports or going out with friends or family or working out like I was constantly burning the candle at both ends.

And this pattern continued and I could tell you behind the scenes I was going through a lot of stressful events that I didn’t want to feel. I didn’t want to feel anything. So I threw myself into work. I made my schedule as busy as I could, so I didn’t have to deal with any of those feelings that I didn’t want to feel.

And this pattern continued until eventually I was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 32, which obviously knocked me on my knees. I’d only known a handful of people that were diagnosed with cancer and they had all passed away at that point. So I was terrified, terrified.

And I remember sitting down with my oncologist saying, okay, what else can I do besides surgery, chemo, and radiation? What else can I do? And because I was young, this is 12 years ago now, but because I was young, people kept saying like, it must be in your family. That’s why you got it.

And I said, no, it’s not in my family. So I didn’t understand why I got it and nobody else could give me a reason why I got it, which led me down a rabbit hole, looking for answers. So when I sat down with my oncologist saying, Hey, what else can I do besides surgery, chemo, and radiation, he looked at me like I had two heads and he was like, nothing.

You don’t have to worry about anything. Charlotte, just do that. And I was like, really, well, what about diet? You know, what else can I do? And he said, Charlotte diet has nothing to do with your health. And then I thought, whoa, I’m in trouble here. This is a world renowned cancer hospital (Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Canada), and this is one of the top oncologists telling me that diet has nothing to do with your health.

At the time I was so angry. Cause, I’m putting my life in your hands and I’m not a doctor. I wasn’t a nutritionist at the time, but I knew if I ate like crap, I felt like crap. And if I ate well, I felt well. So I knew it had some kind of impact on our health.

Cancer was my big, ugly miracle. Something that was really challenging, but led to a lot of blessings. That conversation led to a lot of blessings because that allowed me to dive deep into the holistic hell, hell, holistic health rabbit hole.

Yeah, this is so true Helen. It was hell. And then I dove down that cause I wanted to learn and soak up as much as I could, to dive into my healing. And as I was going through all that, my best friend, who I grew up with, we went to school, we went to uni, we went to post-grad like did all that stuff together. We ended up getting sick at the same time and she was diagnosed with spinal cord cancer. Now she was given three months to live and she fought a very courageous battle and ended up passing away at 34. And at the time of her death, I mean, she was like a sister to me and at the time of her death, I mean, that’s probably the saddest I’d ever been.

And to tell you the truth, all I wanted to do was, have a glass of wine, again, wanting to go back to old feelings of running from my feelings and not dealing with anything. And then something just kind of snapped into me and it was like, man, like life is short, life is precious, I can go back into the same career where I got sick or I can take this new path. Poo my pants basically, cause I’m leaving my pension, I’m leaving my benefits and dive into this new holistic health world. So I got a bunch of certificates and all that stuff again, because I wanted to dive deeper and I was blown away by the results.

I started managing my anxiety, managing my stress, avoiding burnout, making changes to my diet, to my lifestyle, just one at a time. So it wasn’t so overwhelming and you know, I slipped and fell during an ice storm and I landed on my arm and lymphedema set in because they’ve removed a couple of lymph nodes from my armpit.

So this is where your lymphatic fluid pools into your arm. And I called world’s renown cancer hospital and I said, Hey, what can I do? They said, just go out and put a sleeve on it, you’re going to have this for the rest of your life. And I was like, come on, man. That can’t be it. You know? And I just used a holistic approach and within five days, not only did I stop the damage. I completely reversed the damage. So I thought, man, if I can do this with my arm, what else can I do with my body that I never thought was possible? Now my doctor had told me you will never have kids naturally and don’t do fertility treatment.

I had breast cancer, so because my cancer was hormone base. If I’m pumping myself with all these artificial hormones that could put my body into haywire and then I could have, relapse and the cancer could come back because I was so young. Well, I just focused again on managing my stress. Learning to express my emotions in healthy ways and not bury them in my body.

And again, focused on diet and lifestyle and doing things that I really enjoy. And within two years, my husband and I were able to have, both of our kids back to back, naturally and again, I thought, man, if I can do this, anybody can do this. There was nothing special. It was just using a holistic approach and something that I feel should be taught in school that we’re not taught in school.

Helen Thompson: That’s amazing what the doctor said! I’m just so in awe with that, because I’m a great believer myself in natural remedies, but there is a time and a place for doctors. I’m not disputing that, but from your experience, it really makes me think, wow, this is where somebody like you is so beneficial to helping moms, not only have gone through what you’ve gone through, but just going through the overwhelm and the stress of having a baby or, or having something happen to them in their lives.

Charlotte Caunter: I love that you said that because yeah, it’s not that I’m bashing doctors cause he really believed he was giving me the best advice possible to save my life. And the hospitals are filled with beautiful souls that are doing the best that they can. The thing is though where our healthcare system is kind of failing us, is that it’s using an acute approach when dealing with chronic issues. So if I slip and fall and I break my arm, they’ve got my back. If I’m giving birth and I need an emergency C-section, they’ve got my back.

But if I am dealing with anything chronic. Anxiety, depression, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, anything chronic. It is not enough and we have to come back and make changes. Holistic changes to our diet and our lifestyle. And stress is one of the biggest underlying factors. According to the center of disease and control, 85% of illness and disease is based on stress. Doctors say that 90% of their visits are all stress-related. So this is something that we’re not really talking about too much, right. We just focus on the physical ailment or the symptom and not really try and get to the root cause.

Helen Thompson: Doctors today as you say they don’t think of the stress. They’ll just put you on depression pills or they’ll say to you, there’s nothing you can do, and then they poo-poo natural. I don’t want to put out that they poo-poo naturopaths because that’s probably not right. There are a lot of doctors out there that support them, but they won’t give you that approach. They won’t say to you, right look try this. I think they’re beginning to respect it a little bit more and I think they’re beginning to realize.

Charlotte Caunter: Yeah. I think, I think you’re absolutely right, Helen. I think there’s a raise of consciousness collectively where people are thinking, Hey, this might not be it, maybe I can do a little bit more. I remember going to my family doctor saying, Hey, well, what else can you give me? And she’s like, Charlotte, I just prescribed medication. If you want something else, you’ve got to go somewhere else. And she was very blunt and honest, which I really appreciated because, at the end of the day, when we go to a family doctor, that’s what they’re there to do is to give medication.

And obviously, there’s some side effects with that even in the mental health world. And that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to get out of that industry because I was working with kids, the go-to solution was giving them medication. And when you’re given medication at such a young age, in the mental health field. When I was going through cancer, I never said I am cancer. I never said that. But in the mental health field, we don’t say I am dealing with anxiety right now. I’m experiencing a journey with anxiety or depression. We say, I am anxious.

Helen Thompson: And that’s pushing it in. That’s you telling your body that that’s what it is. You’ve got to say I’m free of this and I’m working on it. I’m doing the best I can. Yeah.

Charlotte Caunter: Yeah. So you can see the dangers in that, right. Cause once you start owning it, especially a child at a young age, saying, I can’t function unless I take this medicine, because this is who I am.

This usually results in other medications, other side effects, more medications. And so, many people that I’ve worked with in my practice have been diagnosed with, anxiety or depression, usually at a younger age or sometime in their life. And they’re really looking for, Hey, there’s gotta be another way to do this because the way that I’ve been doing this traditionally, isn’t enough for me.

And I’m ready to think outside the box or try something different.

Helen Thompson: So what is it that you do to support kids and taking yourself out of the box as you’ve just said?

Charlotte Caunter: Yeah, great question. So what I do is, I think growing up, especially as women, we grow up and we read all these storybooks waiting for prince charming to come save us, when we know who’s going to come save us?

And then if we’re under a lot of stress, whether it’s anxiety, whether it’s depression, maybe our body’s communicating, we’re consistently burning out. And we’re just like, there has to be something more. Who is going to come in and save me? And a lot of times we can turn to doctors, right? Those white coat gods, please come and save me, give this pill cause I don’t want to feel like this anymore. But the reason why I called my company Health Sheroes, and I work with men as well, but it’s really about you coming and saving yourself. It’s really about you showing up and listening within and saying what’s the best that I need.

What I give, is I give a five-step holistic system that I’ve seen work with me and my clients over and over again. So I provide you a step-by-step system and I’m walking you through holding your hand through that system. And, you know, my clients are having amazing results. And the reason why I called it Health Sheroes is cause I tend to work with more women.

There’s some men that I still work with but the majority of them were all women. But what I love when I work with women is that they come home and then they start practicing. They show up for themselves. They start prioritizing their health, their happiness, their sense of peace and create that sense of peace for them, no matter what’s going on around them or no matter what’s happening in the world.

And when they stand in their powers, their own health Shero, they naturally start inspiring their loved ones or their little ones to do the same. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard clients going, my husband is driving me crazy. And can’t you just work with him and fix him. Let’s work with you. And as we kind of go through these steps, all of a sudden they’re like, oh my goodness, my husband, remember how I was telling you, my husband, he would never clean the garage or never clean the basement. I didn’t even say anything to him and he just cleaned the garage. He just cleaned the basement.

And I said, that’s because you are now living your life at a higher frequency and your partner is now being attracted to that frequency and raising up his levels of consciousness. In kids as well. Even when I started, when I had kids, I implemented that same five step system. I started showing up for myself daily, whether it’s through meditation or journaling or pulling spiritual cards or going for walks in nature or drinking smoothies or taking whole food supplements, whatever it was, I was doing this consistently. And my kids started saying, Hey, can I meditate?

Hey, can I take a smoothie? Hey, can I have my supplements just by, me showing up my kids naturally followed suit and I’m teaching them indirectly to make their health, their happiness, their sense of peace, top priority.

Helen Thompson: And how old are your kids now?

Charlotte Caunter: They are five and six.

Helen Thompson: So you’ve done a good job of starting it young because it’ll encourage and inspire them after what happened to you and I think that really empowering. I mean, you’ve gone through a lot yourself and being able to encourage your kids through what you’ve gone through with that system I think is amazing.

Charlotte Caunter: Honestly, it’s shocking to me even sometimes. If I’m feeling stress, then I’ll say to the kids, okay, sorry, I’m just feeling a little bit stressed right now or I’m I’m worried about this. I try and talk them through and I’m trying to be vulnerable with them to learn to label their emotions and then I’ll say, okay, I’m just going to go meditate. Okay. Mama, you go meditate, you know, and they’ll give me space to meditate.

I always explain why we’re eating these certain foods, like the medicinal purposes and they do it too so if they get angry or frustrated, they’ll say to me, Hey mom, I just need some quiet time right now. I’m just going to go, take some deep breaths.

So they’re learning how to regulate, how to manage their emotions. Because when I stop taking care of myself, I’m going to have a shorter fuse with them, right. I might snap at them, I might yell at them and then I feel guilty about it afterwards. But when I’m taking care of myself, I can handle my kids big emotions. I can handle when they’re tired, when they’re cranky, when they don’t want to eat something, they don’t want to go anywhere and they’re getting loud because they’re getting all that energy out. I can handle that when I’m taking care of myself. So it’s incredible what can happen as a parent.

Helen Thompson: Yeah, self care as a parent is so important because if you’re drained out, as you were with your work. You were so overwhelmed and so stressed that you were causing your body to go into overwhelm. But the same thing’s happening a lot of the time with first time mums and I know it’s hard when you have a baby. They come home from hospital and you’ve just got this little bundle of joy that you’ve got to look after and you feel responsible for, but if you don’t take care of you, you’re not going to be able to take care of your child.

Charlotte Caunter: It’s huge. It’s huge. And when you first have a baby too, it’s almost like you’ve got to go through like a little grieving process. It’s really high, there’s great joy and then afterwards it’s whoa, who am I outside of breastfeeding, changing diapers and all this stuff. Who am I? Who am I outside of this child? And there’s a little bit of grieving, cause you’re grieving your old life. And then it’s like, well, is this my life now?, Is this what I’m going to be for the rest of my life? I’ve got to put all my needs on the back burner.

And the thing is with, with stress. Cause stress is just the adult word for fear. So anytime that you catch yourself saying, oh, I’m so I’m so stressed. Are you stressed? Oh God. I’m so stressed. As soon as you recognize saying that, stop and say, what am I afraid of? Am I afraid I’ll have to change diapers for the rest of my life.

Am I scared that I’m not going to have a life outside of motherhood? What am I really afraid of? Because the thing is when we start denying what we’re feeling like what I was doing. I was incredibly fit at the time because I was playing a lot of competitive sports, I was working out. So physically I looked very healthy, but the thing is when we deny what we’re actually feeling and we’re like, it’s okay, I’m going to be positive, it’s fine, it doesn’t matter if that person cut me off. It doesn’t matter that I have no sleep. I’ll just make dinner and breastfeed at the same time and whatever it is that we’re just sucking up and we’re storing all that energy. Cause emotions are just energy. So when we start storing our emotions that stored emotion can turn into anxiety, stored, anxiety can turn into depression. Stored depression can turn into illness or disease in the body.

And that’s when our body starts communicating, saying, Hey, make some changes to your diet or sleep or how you manage stress or whatever it is, right?

Helen Thompson: To let it out, I’m thinking of a scenario of a volcano. The volcano starts boiling up inside and then suddenly when that volcano boots out you’re releasing all that stress and it’s just making you feel so much better.

Charlotte Caunter: I love it. I love it and I actually teach my clients how to have healthy tantrums because there’s so much we can learn from kids. Kids, can I have this? No, you can’t have it. You can see them feeling that sense of injustice. How dare you say no. They’re feeling it. They feel it 10 out of 10, and then they get it out 10 of 10. Why, screaming, yelling, maybe throwing something or stomping their feet, or maybe dropping to the ground and having a full body convulsion.

And then they get up, a couple of minutes go by and they’re like, okay, mama what’s for dinner. Although it drives you crazy when kids are having tantrum, but what’s beautiful about that is that they feel it 10 out of 10, they get it out 10 at a 10 and us adults we need to do the same thing. When something, a sense of injustice or fear or sadness and we’re feeling that in our body, it’s important to get it out. So it could be just talking to a friend. You feel it, three out of 10, you get it out three out of 10, or maybe it’s scribbling on a paper. Maybe it’s hitting a pillow. Maybe it’s dancing to angry music. My favorite is putting ice cubes in a reusable grocery bag and smashing the ice cubes in the bag. Yeah. Cause you feel it, you hear it smashing right there. There’s no cleanup or anything like that, but, and this is a solo mission. So you’re feeling that anxiety, that stress, whatever that is, you’re getting it out 10 out of 10.

And it’s like this huge release that you didn’t even know you were carrying around. And then, now I can go into process my feelings. Well, yeah, I was pissed about this, but now I feel okay about that. I’m ready to move forward. And this is what I really want to focus on, whatever it is, but it’s really hard to gain clarity on what you want or what’s your next step without removing, you know, it’s like walking around with a rock in your shoe, you’ve got to acknowledge the rock is there, get it out in a healthy way, and then you can go on being positive, but you cannot skip that whole part and pretend that you’re going to be positive and love motherhood and ignore the part that’s really bothering you.

Helen Thompson: Yeah, it’s funny you say that because yesterday I spoke to my sister and she said, yes, I remember when you were about three years old and we’d bought this hairbrush and you used to throw it at me and hit me with it. And I said to her, that’s really interesting that you say that because it was probably my way of doing exactly what you’re saying. As a child, she was much more articulate than I was. She could use words to get her feelings out, but I couldn’t get my words out when I was younger. So I used to get my frustration out with this hairbrush and she used to say every time I used to see that hairbrush, I used to run because I knew you were going to hit me with it. Cause she used to push my buttons all the time. That was my way of getting my emotions out, by hitting her with a hairbrush and it just reminded me when you just said that.

Charlotte Caunter: Well, yeah, it’s funny you say that what the hairbrush, cause I have an incident with a hairbrush too. And I remember, if we got out of line, if we talked back, we were hit as kids. That was considered normal back then, right. Now they’ll call children’s services. But back then, that was pretty normal. And I remember if I was getting my hair brushed, if I moved my head, I would get hit in the head with the hairbrush. Okay. No, no. But then I was taught, this is what you do.

So then I had a sister that was 12 years younger than me or whatever she was. And then, I’m brushing her hair and then I hit her when I got in so much trouble for it. But that’s what we were taught. We were taught how to handle our anger or frustration, that way. But like you said, if we don’t channel it in healthy ways, it’s going to come out in unhealthy ways.

It’s like a pot that’s or like a volcano, right. That you mentioned. It’s going to spew out lava, usually at the people that we love, our closest ones. So with moms, it’s going to be towards your kids or your partners. If it’s now hitting strangers, you know that you are burnt out. This is a huge red flag. When we start getting angry at other people or frustrated at other people. Anytime that we’re pointing the finger at somebody else, it is always something that’s unresolved within us, but that’s a huge red flag. So anytime that I recognize that I’m snapping at the kids I’m like, okay, I got to double down on my self-care routine today or get some extra sleep or whatever that is.

Helen Thompson: And you’re also teaching your kids how to release their emotions. And how not to snap. We all snap. I snap at my partner Jonathan, if I’m stressed. If I’ve been doing a lot of podcasts or something, and he’s being so supportive behind the scenes and I’m just chilling out, watching a Facebook video or something and he wants to talk to me and I do snap at him.

Yeah and I always say, look, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped at you because he didn’t do anything wrong. It was just me. It was my stress I didn’t realize I had it and I snapped. I always come back and apologize.

Charlotte Caunter: Yeah, no, that’s huge and we’re human so it’s going to happen. The goal is not perfection. It’s just, starting to gain more awareness. So I know if I’m snapping at my kids that, okay, I’ve got to come back and take care of me. And then I almost become my own parent and I’ll say to myself, okay, I talk to myself, okay, baby girl, do you need more sleep? Yes, I did not sleep well last night. Okay. Let’s try and go to bed earlier. Can we move some appointments tomorrow and clear a schedule to take a little bit easier? How have you been eating? Well, you know, I had some sugar here. Okay. This could be affecting your mood as well. Let’s clean up the diet or have you been drinking your water? Do you need to take a bubble bath? Whatever it is, you need to take a walk in nature. Do you need some essential oils to calm your central nervous system? So I kind of go through a checklist, almost like a parent would with their child. Have you eaten? Do you need sleep? Have you had a good poop, whatever it is, right. Go through that checklist to make sure that you’re taking care of yourself. But yeah, it’s not about beating yourself up or being guilty, but it’s just about recognizing, okay, these are my red flags. What can I do to help take care of myself so I can show up better?

What you said too about apologizing. I apologize to my kids as well, saying, oh, it was two days ago. I snapped at my kids and I said, oh, I’m so sorry. This is what was on my mind. It’s nothing to do about you. I’m really sorry. And my kids come like even tonight, my daughter had a little tantrum at the dinner table because she didn’t want to eat whatever I made and I said, I’ve worked really hard at it. And then she went off and kind of yelled and cried and then she came back, took some quiet time, came back and she said, mom, I’m really sorry. I know you worked hard, then she came and apologized only because she’s seeing me do that to her.

Helen Thompson: And as you say, you teach them to do that. If they see you doing it, then they’ll start doing it and I talk to myself all the time. I think for me, it’s a way of de-stressing. Yeah. Your kids hear you doing it and your kids hear you talking to yourself. You might say, what do I need? And they see you nurturing and communicating with yourself. So you’re teaching them how to do that.

Charlotte Caunter: Yeah. Just being aware of what their needs are, how they can take care of themselves and make themselves feel better. So it doesn’t turn to outside sources. A lot of times people think that self care is getting a massage or going on a vacation or getting their hair done or nails done or shopping or whatever that is. And those things can definitely make you feel good at the moment, but it’s a short little burst, right? Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, you want to build a life that you don’t need to escape from.

And this is where that daily self care really can come into play because you’re feeling a sense of peace, no matter what’s going on in the world and the world’s upside down right now. No matter what’s going on in the world, you can create a sense of peace by creating peace throughout your day.

And it’s really about creating your day instead of reacting to your day. So I love starting my morning off with a self care routine. I try not to schedule any appointments before 10 o’clock and I’m usually up around six with the kids. So. I’m up taking my time so it’s not like rush, rush, rush. I’m making breakfast for them, for myself. I go work out, I meditate, I’ll journal, I’ll pull a spiritual card, I’m taking my supplements. So I’m easing into my day by really filling up my gas tank. When you go throughout your day, it’s like driving across the country in a car and you want to make sure before you jump in a car, you wouldn’t just jump in a car and drive across the country.

You want to make sure that your gas tanks filled up. You’ve got your windshield washer fluid, your oil changed, there’s air in your tyre and that’s really what your self care routine is about. You’re creating your day, but filling up your cup, so you’ve got the energy and almost like spiritual armor that you’re putting on, so you can deal with whatever stress comes your way throughout the day.

Helen Thompson: Yeah, talking about your cards. I looked at your Facebook page, and I noticed you have those cards on your Facebook page. You give people a choice of which card you feel like today and I really liked that. I thought that was a really beautiful thing to do because picking out a card every day, I sometimes do it with a book. You have these spiritual books and I just close my eyes and I just open the book and whatever sentence comes out, I sort of read it and think, oh, okay. That’s, what’s come up for me today. I wonder why.

Charlotte Caunter: Yeah, it’s always relevant. I truly believe that everything that happens to us, happens for a reason that it’s happening for us and not to us. So anytime that you see those signs and synchronicities, whether it’s, pulling a card, seeing that sentence. If we become aware of it, those little miracles, the more we notice them, the more we see them and then you see it everywhere. Yeah even my kids, they’ll see an animal, they’ll say mama, what’s the spiritual meaning of a squirrel. And I said, well, I don’t know, let’s look it up. Oh, to have more fun. I said, okay. I guess we’ve got to have more fun today.

What are some ways that we can have more fun? So then we’ll brainstorm about it. I took the kids for a walk this afternoon and my son did not want to go at all. And the moment we went out there we saw a Robin and I said, Kai, what’s the spiritual meaning of the Robin? He’s like, I know I have to shift my energy. It’s so important to be aware of those signs and synchronicities and I think those cards or even the sentence, that’s a great idea. Those are great ways to connect and connect with your hope and whatever else, right.

Helen Thompson: I’m going to start doing it with animals. I’ve never thought of it with animals before.

Charlotte Caunter: Yeah. A lot of times you might think, oh, it’s just a squirrel. But if you stop and look up the spiritual meaning, it’s incredible how it can be very aligned with what you’re going through, what you need to overcome. Yeah. Yeah.

Helen Thompson: I’m going to try , I love red squirrels. I don’t like gray squirrels so much. I love the red squirrels. Kookaburras because we live in Australia and we see a lot of kookaburras. So I’m actually going to look up the spiritual meaning of kookaburra, because if I’m feeling stressed and I look up, I often see kookaburras, so you’ve got me inspired now. I’m going to look. So you just look up on Google, what’s the spiritual meaning of a kookaburra or a blackbird?

Charlotte Caunter: Yeah and you’ll see a few different sites that come up. One of my favorite, I’m probably gonna get this wrong, but I think it’s like spiritual hyphen animal or animal hyphen spiritual. I’m not too sure anyways, but you’ll see different ones come up and one of them usually has a little paragraph or a little quote of which one. There’s so many different ones though. Whatever one you pick first, I’m sure that’s the one that you were meant to read.

Helen Thompson: Do you know what the spiritual one is for an elephant? I’m just curious because I love elephants. I find elephants very soothing. I just really, really love elephants. I know they’re very family orientated. They keep very close together. If an elephant is sick, all the elephants will come round together and look after them.

Charlotte Caunter: I just looked it up. Can I share it with you? It says your determination and loyalty will be key at this time. Don’t give up, success is very close at hand, and then it says in the first place, elephants symbolism reminds us that we must look after ourselves first, before we reach out and help others.

Helen Thompson: Isn’t that interesting, considering what we’ve just been talking about.

Charlotte Caunter: That’s crazy. So it says this spirit animal teaches you, that you should take time to nurture yourself first. In other words, elephant, meaning reminds us that we have the instincts that will lead us to where we need to go. Yeah. So it’s all all about self care.

Helen Thompson: Thank you for looking that up. You’ve got me inspired now. I’m going to start looking them up more often.

If somebody wants you to get in touch with you how would they do that?

Charlotte Caunter: Yeah, so they could go to my website, which is HealthShero.com. So it’s an S in front of hero. HealthShero.com, or they could find me on Instagram, health at health underscore Shero or on Facebook and you can look up Health Shero there and I’ll pop up.

Helen Thompson: Okay. So I’ve learned so much by just talking to you. So thank you Charlotte for such a beautiful conversation and sharing so much about your life and where you’ve come from and how you’ve supported your family and I hope that other moms are inspired by what you’ve done. So thank you so much for sharing your journey with me. I’ve really, really appreciated talking to you today. It’s been fantastic.

Charlotte Caunter: Thank you so much for having me. Love chatting with you. Thank you, thank you.