Ep 083: Find Your Breath with Ciara Clark

You ever wonder what success actually means?

How do you get it?

And how do you keep it?

We all want it yet sometimes it feels only some of us get to have it.

Hi, Teresa and Blair here we are to badass entrepreneurs, best selling authors, coaches and business mentors who have had success, built success, questioned our own success and reclaimed it. Let's be real for a hot minute. 2020 has been a roller coaster ride, and many of us a start to wonder if the loser things that made them successful. So we got curious, Ron real about what success is truly about?

Can you put it in a box?

How can you get it?

Can people take it away? Or are you the one with the power?

Does it mean the same to all of us? Or are we the ones that create it?

From PGA golf pros to doctors, CEOs, entrepreneurs and spiritual mentors. We get together to meet with successful people from around the globe to dissect success for vibrant conversations and interviews. Make sure you click the subscribe button on the app store because each week we will drop a new episode to bust through the myths around success and dissect its true meaning.

Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of dissecting success. We are here today with the fabulous Ciara Clark and Blair Kaplan Venables, and we're going to have a brilliant conversation about success dissecting success. But first, let me introduce you to this beautiful, beautiful woman that I am looking at on my screen Ciara Clark, she is a level two integrative health practitioner, holistic health coach, certified yoga instructor and plant based expert. As a former scientist by trade she suffered from years of debilitating digestive distress, which led her on a personal journey to achieving optimal wellness. I cannot wait to talk about this. For the power of mindset movement, plant based nutrition and functional medicine, car blends and scientific and holistic expertise to create customized wellness approaches, empowering her clients to find strength in healing their bodies. She utilizes an individual individualistic approach to focusing on their unique biochemical needs to restore the body on a cellular level. So, so amazing. And see Yara is also the founder of Ciara Clark wellness, where she helps high achieving leaders to amplify that gut health and achieve their goals to bring vitality back into her bodies. And blend I had the pleasure to be working alongside Ciara because she was one of our momentum cohorts clients, which was incredible. And we got to see firsthand the magic that she can do and all the passion she has to really helping her clients achieve the state of vitality and optimal wellness. And I love that. So welcome, Ciara so happy that you're here.

Thank you so much for having me. I can't help but laugh because that was such a wonderful introduction. Thank you.

Thank you. And as I was reading it, I was like, thank you for putting such difficult words for me to pronounce in your bio. You know, I love it. I love it. You're so welcome. So let's dive into this conversation. siara. What does success mean to you?

So Well, when I think about success, and this certainly has changed over the years from being bred and corporate, I realized that I had to learn what success is not in order to learn what it truly meant for me. So when I think about success, today, I think about these three foundational pieces. So for me, that would be peace, freedom and prosperity. So when I speak about peace, I'm someone who really craves peace in my life, I do not thrive in chaos, I had a very chaotic childhood. And since then I've innately worked to create this in my life. And when I say in my life, this is as in my home, you know, with the company that I keep and adopting certain wellness practices to help me to come back to my center. You know, I certainly haven't perfected this. And that's certainly not the goal. But life as you know, it ebbs and flows. So I'm constantly readjusting the freedom pace, you know, I want to be able to do what I want when I want and obviously, within limits, because I have a family. I have a four year old, but I really crave freedom and autonomy. And I'm always working to create more of this in my life. And the last piece speaking about prosperity, you know, this isn't necessarily in terms of wealth, but really just being abundant, having the things that I need and not really having to worry about certain things because it costs too much or it seems so out of reach. And if it does, I'm actively working to be in a place where I don't have to worry about that. And not even like material things, something Again, like, you know, if my son needs to go to the ER or we have an expensive medical bill that comes in the mail, I want to feel that sense of relief and knowing that I got it. So from there, I'm always working to level up. And of course, these three fundamental pieces really helped me to support my wellness.

I love that that's it's you have, it seems like you have it pretty dialed. And I love that you started off with knowing what success isn't. And something that really caught my attention when you started talking about that was really making sure your life is not chaotic. Not having chaos in your life, like how how do you put those boundaries up? Like what too is a signal that things are getting chaotic? And what do you do once it feels that way?

Yeah, that's a very good and interesting question. I would say that ever since I was a child, I was a very sensitive very, I hate using the word sensitive. And sometimes that can mean like you're weak, but very sensitive, very in tune with other people's energies. I felt these things like really on a visceral level affecting my health, like I would get headaches all the time, I would have these stomach pains and not really knowing that being within that chaos, not knowing that it was wasn't normal, was something that I later had to work to adapt as I went on this little personal wellness journey to really optimize my health. But it really happened like after I had my child and 2018, learning how to speak up, have a voice set boundaries, and then just really being able to like advocate for myself and speak for myself and say that, you know, this is what I want for my life. These are the people that I want in my life. And these are the different factors and elements that I need to have in place. Just really thinking about, like what works for me, that's really going to help me to feel more at peace. And like I said, obviously, like, you know, it ebbs and flows, and it has different circumstances that come up. But I'm constantly readjusting to see what works for me and really just advocating for myself speaking up and creating those boundaries has really helped.

box so good, okay, I love boundaries. I'm all about the boundaries. I had an onboarding with a client the other day, and one of the first things I said was like, I really like my boundaries, like, I don't work evenings and weekends. And if I do, it's on my time, it's not on anyone else's time. So boundaries. I love that because I think people kind of blurred the boundaries, especially with the pandemic, and people working from home, you know, I think boundaries and stuff get blurry. So for you keeping the peace for yourself, like what are things that you do to go out of your way for self care.

So in terms of a self care piece, you know, for me, it doesn't really mean like, you know, doing a bubble bath, like a lot of people, there are some people that really resonate with taking a bubble bath, and just being at bringing that sense of calm and ease and terror into their environment. But I really like being outside in nature. You know, my parents were very huge advocate of their children being immersed in exercise and knowing how important it is to exercise in terms of like the wellness for your body. And being outside in nature. I know that my father, when we're younger, he used to always take us to the river, we grew up in New Hampshire. So we'd always take us for walks in the woods, or we go down by the river and just kind of just hang out and eat lunch. And when I think about like all the chaos that I had in my childhood, I never really realized like how much peace that actually brought into my life, being in nature, getting outside riding our bikes, exercising, being enthralled in certain activities, like activities, like basketball and going, going downtown to the community center to just you know, get all that excess energy out. So really just being outside in nature, exercising yoga, which is very, very much intertwined in my life. Those are the certain things that I really try to keep top of mind when I think about bringing that sense of peace and calm back in inward.

One thing that I really love about what you've been sharing so far with us is that it comes back to you for making it work for you and you keep bringing it back to these feelings, the feeling of peace, the feeling of freedom, the feeling of prosperity, and then in turn, there's these experiences that you have and the things that you do, whether it's being able to nature, yoga, moving, how you desire to create your life, how you set your boundaries, all these things that you're talking about, but it keeps coming back to the feeling. And I really love that because it's so attainable for us to focus on the feeling and then create experiences based on how we want to feel first. I talk about that a lot when it comes Doing business? How do you? Like? How do you walk through times? I'm just curious when you don't feel it, like when you feel like, you know, it's like life is too wild, and you definitely feel like there was no, like, freedom and your calendar, maybe it's like busy or maybe the kids go crazy or like I don't even know, right? Like, it doesn't feel like there was peace or freedom present, like how do you get yourself back on track to stay congruent to those practices that you have?

Honestly, I do a lot of deep breathing. And that sounds very cliche to say, especially if you've been immersed in the world of social media, it's like, just take a breath and you know, close your eyes and meditate on it. But honestly, I live, it's still very much chaotic. But I really have to. I've learned to adopt practices where I'm not so quick to react to my circumstances and what's going on in my environment, and really coming in and asking myself the question, what do I need in most in this moment to bring peace back into my life, whether my child is having a tantrum, whether I'm in traffic going to work, whether I got into an argument with a loved one, I really have to come back and ask myself, What do I need in this moment? Do I need to step away? Do I need to go outside? Do I need to take some deep breaths? Do I need to just get out of the experience in order to come back to sell in order to feel centered, those are really like the key fundamental pieces that I go back to. So I'm not getting chaotic and being immersed within the chaos. So I'll just start spinning. And just really knowing myself that has really helped me to build that foundation.

I think that's so important, because it's all about finding your breath. And I can't remember this exact stat, as we know, I'm not going to like the exact stat but it's like you can live X amount of days without water, but it's only a few minutes without breath. And breath is so essential to life, and regulating. And I think it's really interesting that you said that, because breathing is so simple, but it's so important. So I love that you just explain that. And it's a nice reminder for the listeners that you know, find your breath. And do you have a specific like breathing practice, like if things get really chaotic, or, like, you know, there's lines breaths, or there's box breathing? And, you know, I know the breath is so important in yoga, because you move with your breath, like, do you have anything that our listeners can, like, do as they listen to this, or maybe not if they're driving?

Well, I think it would be easier to actually go through it rather than to explain it. But I really tap into diaphragmatic breathing. A lot of times when we're stressed. And we're really, a lot of times when we're stressed, we tend to breathe from our chest, from our upper portion of our body and it feels really tight, it feels really constricted. So with diaphragmatic breathing, you really want to breathe from your belly. And that really helps you to tap into your parasympathetic nervous system to really bring that stress response down, and then really relax the body and to not create that heightened sense of anxiety and overwhelm and that flushed out we may get when we're feeling really overwhelmed, excited, or like something's happening where we're feeling a bit chaotic. So diaphragmatic breathing, super simple. Like I said, it will be easier to like speak it than actually, to actually go through it and speak about it in detail, but I really tap into the diaphragm that really helped to bring that ease back in.

Well, should we do it? Well, yeah, we can do it. Do it. Yeah, let's, let's do this. We can freeze I like I hate like I was also gonna say when you said freezing I was like, Isn't that funny? We all breathe without noticing. It's the one thing we do so subconsciously because obviously, if we wouldn't, we would collapse and die. But yeah, let's breathe. I feel like we can all use more breath work in our life.

Absolutely. So a simple breathing technique. You just take a moment, the close your eyes or you can keep them open. Like what if you're in the experience of overwhelm? Obviously, do whatever it's going to help you to feel grounded. Close your eyes. Take a deep inhale in through your nose 234 Hold the breath 234 exhale 23456 hold two to inhale 234 Hold the breath to 234 exhale, 23456. Hold, to inhale. And then you continue to do that breathing pattern over and over again. And usually within like three rounds, you start to feel that sense of calm and relief from within, at least for myself, but scientifically, on a biological level two to three rounds, you really start to feel more at ease.

I feel more ease just taken two breaths. So here,

perfect.

Breathing Hey,

ah, yeah, it's doing in the moment.

Guns up people breathe, breathe. I love that. Thank you so much was sharing that practice. And, you know, I feel like if you combine the breathing, with learning to response, like you mentioned, rather than react to what's coming at you and you breathe first, and then you, you go ahead and you respond to whatever somebody said, or you make a decision on foots come in your space. It's amazing how when we move with that level of intent, intentionality, and also asking yourself this question, what what what in this moment do I need in order to help me get back to the experience off and then just inside the feeling that you offer for you? It's peace, right? Like, I feel like between the breath breathing, pausing, breathing, and then thinking about this question, and then thoughtfully responding, that's such a powerful process that can really help us make some better decisions for ourselves in a day. So thank you for sharing that. That is huge. That is huge.

So good. So So that's like, obviously a small tool. I mean, it's a big tool, but it's one of the tools and you have all this experience this knowledge, you know, science backed and whatnot. You know, how can people work with you? Like how, what are the ways that people can work with you?

So I have a couple of different options that people can work for me, work with me. So I have my one on one coaching, well, maybe it might be cool, maybe to provide some insight into what I do. And then who are you? What do you do? Yeah, I'm like, Oh, who am I like, we don't even know who you are. So just really briefly, so CR Clark wellness, which is my business, it was founded with the intention of helping high achieving leaders to really help them to eliminate their bloat, amplify their gut health and achieve their goals to bring the sense of vitality back into their bodies again. And I achieved this by incorporating the Six Pillars of my business. So that would be mindset movement, focusing on plant based nutrition, helping clients to reduce their toxic load, focusing on self care and sleep hygiene. So my intention is really to support busy professionals by developing a deeper understanding of their biological footprint, and the food and lifestyle choices that work the best for them, while improving their overall energy. They're balanced health and their overall well being. And what's worthy of mentioning is that my business was really born out of my own personal struggles with my health. You know, I'm a former scientist by trade, I suffered from years of debilitating digestive distress. And this really led me on a personal journey to achieving optimal wellness. And so in terms of what people can do to actually work with me, so I offer one on one coaching people who want more of a private personalized experience. I also have a group coaching container that is called Thrive by design. So this is a four week detox program. And this is designed to really help you thrive. So while giving my clients the support and the accountability, they need to move forward. And it's the same detox program that I actually use in my coaching practice with my one to one clients to help them to jumpstart their wellness plans. And so whether they're struggling to say shed excess weight or declare after skin or to reduce bloating, and indigestion, you know, whether they're struggling with an autoimmune condition such as Hashimotos, or Graves disease, menopause, really the list goes on. This is what helps them to accelerate their livers detoxification capabilities. So when we move forward into their more personalized and comprehensive wellness plan, their bodies are capable of utilizing and absorbing all of the nutrients that they are adding into their lifestyle. So I have the one to one private coaching, the group coaching container and then for people who just want to get a taste of a couple of different life I fail things that they can change considering their current circumstances, I have a one hour power hour session that I offer for people. And they can just, that's more of like a deep dive session where you can take one to two of your top challenges. And then we'll work from there to implement some simple steps that you can do right away, and then potentially suggesting some labs, if needed.

So basically, if you're a human, who is alive, you need to work with you. I need to work with you. We need to work with you.

I love I'm using a lot of people.

I bet you people are like, Oh, wow, I should, I should I should really reach out. But I know you also said you have a gift for our listeners that and the links in the show notes. What is this? What is this little freebie we have here?

I do if the listeners are interested, I have a five day got healthy meal plan that I have five different breakfast recipes and lunch recipes that people can utilize to really help them to make some simple shifts when it comes to their diet. The number one thing that I get questions about is, you know, what do I eat? You know, I'm not sure like what to eat. And secondly, you know, what do I eat for breakfast? I mean, I'm not really sure like, what, what are the healthy breakfast options. So I give some people some healthy recipes and some healthy alternatives to help them to jumpstart their wellness goals.

I love that that is so beneficial. And we're going to make sure that we put that in the show notes as well, so that it's super easy for you to grab. Because that is amazing information. And truthfully, like having been able to guide siara For the last six months on her business journey and see what she's doing. I can like, only speak very, very, very, very highly of what she's offering, including that detox program and working with you one to one because you have such an incredible wealth of knowledge. And I really love that about you. And also, I think above and beyond that. Like being able to be a part of your journey. These past six months. One thing that I really appreciated about working with you and being able to be invited in to be a part of your journey is really seeing you embody your work, seeing you use what you teach, and apply it in your life and hold yourself to it. And I thought that that was vidi vidi powerful because the embodiment of all work is so key. So when you work with siara Not only do you get an expert who can really help you, but you're also learning from somebody who's actually doing what she says you should do. Like she's embodying her work. And I love that and I would I would love to know from you having been in a space with us over the last six months, how do you feel? And this has sort of changed the way you do your business and think about putting yourself out there and getting more visible as a business owner.

Honestly, I've said this time and time again, I I tend to overcomplicate things. I'm very analytical. I constantly researching and trying to figure out new ways to do things, but you really have helped me to just simplify the process. Like simplification is really key like that was a big, that was a big like, pivot, Pivotal. What do you call it pivotal moment. For me, it's just like, just simplify it like you don't need all these crazy funnels. You don't need to overcomplicate your programs, you don't need to, to overwhelm your potential clients by Yeah, you just need to simplify it, really dial it back in. I love that.

I love that. And I recall you and I having a conversation about simplifying. And then we had a conversation about health gut health. And you said to me, Oh, you just got to keep it simple and I literally turned what you had said to me back into a mirror to you and I said See you feel like I like I and I bled we make business easy and simple and simplify and you help other people simplify gut health simplify this whole idea of like how can I feel vitality How can I be at my best How can I feel you know energized and not drained and heal by body food whether it's nutrition or movement or mindset and all these beautiful pillars you have so I anyways as you were saying simplifying I just had to remember this conversation because it was just so classic because you like you just make it sound so simple. And I literally turned at you and I was like you just make it sound so simple.

In my mind, I get it Yeah, I It sounds simple to me. But that's another practical piece, I have to keep reminding myself what is simple for me, it's not necessarily simple for somebody else, meet them where they are. So

I love that. That's so beautiful. So as we wrap up, I would love to know, where can people get in touch with you?

Well, the easiest way that people can get in touch with me is on my website up. So that's CR Clark wellness. And I'm also very active on Instagram with the same handles CR Clark wellness.

Brilliant. And what is one piece of advice you have for listeners?

One piece of advice, I would have to say that you have to choose yourself if you want things to change in your life. Start with yourself. Choose yourself and believe that, that you can make things happen for you, whether that be with your wellness, whether that be professionally with anything, start with you stick to your why and then keep moving forward.

Beautiful, what potent words.

So you just shared some important information. And I think that exercise is amazing. So like don't forget to breathe people out there listening to this, you know, if you are driving, and you want to try this again, just give it a rewind, you know, being a podcast, we're out there. It's not live radio. This is a live conversation. And I just want to thank all of our listeners for tuning in to another episode of dissecting success Ciara. Thank you so much. It's been such an honor to work with you and what you blossom and grow and I love your Instagram content. I learned so much every time you make a post and so I just can't wait for our listeners to dive into your world. All the links are below. And thank you for tuning in to another episode of dissecting success. Peace.

That's a wrap for another episode of dissecting success. enjoyed this episode. Make sure to subscribe to Blair Kaplan Venables and Teresa Lambert's podcast dissecting success on the App Store.