This week we’re carrying on the conversation with the cool girl of baking, Sarah Lemanski of Noisette Bakehouse. We get pretty deep, talking about our experiences with imposter syndrome and anxiety, especially if you haven’t been formally trained in your chosen profession. We discuss how social media can really bring out your own insecurities and how you have to learn to run your own race and not always look at what other people are doing. Plus Sarah talks about what it’s like to be one half of a creative power couple, and DOUBLE jams this week.

This week I talk to one of my favourite people ever - my sweet friend Sarah Lemanski of Noisette Bakehouse. We’re talking about the business of baking and what it means to be a creative person and turn your passion into a business, something we both have experience with. And how it’s not always the dream you think it’s going to be. Plus we start to talk about the feelings of anxiety and imposter syndrome (something we'll explore even more next week) that this can dredge up, but how you can sort of channel them into something more productive. And on a slightly lighter note we talk about how to stay inspired and continue to create purely just for the joy of it. Oh, and, learn Sarah's feelings on the topic of Bakeoff!

So today’s episode is something a bit different. Usually we’re talking to people who are on top of their game and have an inspiring story to share or something to kind of take your wellness practice next-level. But what good is any of that, if you struggle to even get yourself out of bed in the morning? If you’re constantly in unrelenting pain, and have brain for that makes you forget what you were saying half way through your sentence, and you have aching joints all day long? Because that’s what today’s guest has to deal with every single day. So the idea of meditating or starting a yoga practice is cute and all, but it’s not even really on the radar. And being body positive is cool but what if you feel like your body is literally fighting against you all the way? And there’s this notion of being positive and showing appreciation ALL THE TIME, but how can you be expected to do that when you have a chronic illness that you didn’t ask for, and that you’re not grateful for? But despite ALL of this Natasha Lipman is starting a charity, she’s a freelance writer and blogger, AND she's pursuing a master’s degree in Law. Her life may not look as cool or as glamorous as what we see presented on Instagram, but she is 100% stronger and fiercer than any of those people and I think that it’s really cool that she can talk so openly and honestly about how everything isn’t rainbows and sparkles. But what I think is truly amazing, is how despite all the things in her way, she still gets ish done, and she’s redefining what it means to have a chronic illness and what it means to have an invisible disability, and showing everyone that when you’re given the right support and seek out the right opportunities, you don’t have to be limited or constrained by your physical capacity, and it doesn’t mean you can’t pursue your dreams either. And I know that talking about chronic illness sounds like it could be a total downer, and we do get kinda heavy at times, but I really think you’ll enjoy it and hopefully really learn from it, I know I definitely did. And if nothing else it kind of makes you realise that most of the time when we’re complain about ish we’re really just being little Bs and that, really, we’ve got it pretty good.

Laura and I cover SO MANY THINGS in this episode, but basically she got caught up in the whole wellness scene, took things to extremes, and had to learn the importance of balance the hard way when she realised she wouldn't be able to get pregnant if she kept going the way she was going. So we get into her story, and she talks about how she never felt good enough, even when she lost loads of weight and even when she obsessively ate clean. So she had to go through a process of coming to terms with her body's natural weight, and how that was really, really difficult for her to look down at the scale and see the numbers were going up and having to be OK with that and to stop having messed up thought around food. And she talks about her fertility struggles and what self-care looks like for her now she is a mama. So in this episode we talk a lot about babies and baby stuff, but I don't want you to think "I don't have a kid, this isn't relevant to me". Because it it. I don't have a kid either but I still found what Laura learned on her journey to be so poignant, that you're going to want to stick around to hear what she says. I especially love what she says about when you're in a funk, and asking yourself 'How do I want to feel?' and then doing something to make you feel that way, and to me, that's what self-care is all about.