The Life Of Bryony - The Life of You – Strength, Nature, and Self: Dr. Charlotte Ord’s Path to Wellbeing

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Charlotte Ord to talk about the simple but powerful routines that keep her well, drawing from her experience as both psychologist and patient. We get into why habits like breathwork, movement, and time outdoors matter so much to her recovery and resilience. Charlotte shares honestly about learning to care for herself in new ways, and how those choices now shape her work with others. If you’re looking for practical ideas to feel stronger in mind and body, you’ll find plenty of inspiration here.   LINKS TO SUPPORT GROUPS If the content around eating disorders resonated with you today and you would like support, please consider the following charities:   BEAT: https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/ First Steps ED: https://firststepsed.co.uk/   BOOKS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE Dr. Charlotte Ord’s book, Body Confident You, Body Confident Kid, is available to buy now.   WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU Got something to share? Text or send a voice note on 07796657512 – just start your message with LOB. Use the WhatsApp shortcut: https://wa.me/447796657512?text=LOB Prefer email? Drop me a line at [e-mail]   If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who might need it – it really helps! Bryony xx   CREDITS: Host: Bryony Gordon   Guest: Dr. Charlotte Ord   Producer: Laura Elwood-Craig   Assistant Producer: Ceyda Uzun   Studio Manager: Sam Chisholm   Editor: Luke Shelley   Exec Producer: Mike Wooller    A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Seriously popular. Hello, you absolute miracles. It's time for our special bonus episode, The Life of You. And today, Dr. Charlotte Ord is back to share her non-negotiables for staying sane in a world once again obsessed with weight loss. Being out in nature is so important for me to be, it helps me feel alive. It makes me feel connected to the universe. There's just so, there's so many sparkles in nature. And by sparkle or glimmer, what I mean is those moments of beauty, of comfort, of safety, of

miraculousness that you can connect with and internalize and just helps you feel better. So sit back in that gorgeous, wonderful body of yours, because in about 15 minutes time, you're going to be armed with some of the tools that Charlotte uses to stay. body confident. Dr Charlotte Ord, welcome back to the life of Briney, and now we're going to talk more about the life of you. So in these episodes, we like to get guests to select three things that are really crucial to them and to their well-being.

And specifically in this episode, I want to, you're going to tell us about. the three things that help you to stay body confident. You have a history of bulimia, of anorexia, of disordered exercising, disordered eating. And because of that, not in spite of it, but because of that, you have retrained to become a counselling psychologist and help others to get through the experiences that you yourself have got through. Which is the case, isn't it, for so many professionals working in mental health? A wounded healer. A wounded healer. A wounded healer. I love that. It's wonderful.

And it's, this is what we, there's a phrase that we have in the 12 steps is that we only keep what we have by giving it away. And that really, really is the case for you, Charlotte. So what's the first thing that is crucial to use staying grounded and body confident? Breathwork. Ooh. I use a breathwork to music app every day called Other Ship.

Other ship. other ship and it's algorithms specifically to either upregulate or downregulate your nervous system and there's tracks from three minutes to three an hour or so so you can choose whatever suits you i normally do a really quick one but if i have a bit more time i'll do something longer and it feels so empowering and steadying and grounding to start my day with that and i quite often listen to the same track to most of you all know lovely day and it has a when i look at you i do do do i mean guys you could use me singing that for your just as the start of your day but over the top it has this guided breath work okay and it's just magical and i'm someone that used to hate

doing breath work i've known time for that made me stressed out to do it feel like i can't keep But actually now, I absolutely love it. Yeah, I know that I need to do a practice at the beginning of each day. My practice at the moment at the beginning of each day, my meditative practice is going downstairs and listening to the green of the espresso machine as I make myself a coffee. Well, I mean, the thing is, the purpose of all of these types of practices is to stimulate your vagus nerve, which is the nerve that has a direct impact on our nervous system. and what that does it activates our rest and digest system so it helps us feel calm

and it's a really easy way of impacting that in a short space of time and it's a great way to start the day you can do it with your kids and practice it with their kids too so that's something that I is that's a non-negotiable for me now okay it really helps and it also helps me to feel connected to my body and like I'm taking care of my body and I'm getting it on side and I'm tuning in checking in start the day with good intention okay number two number two is lifting weights oh yeah i think because of my history of owning a gym and being on the gym floor a lot i'm a bit of a show off in the gym right makes me feel really empowered and i'll train on my own i have some weights in

my garage so i can't show off to anybody except myself yeah but that's the best person to show It is because it makes me, it reminds me of what my body can do and I'm really strong and I love that and it puts me in that frame of mind of being powerful and empowered. So using exercise to make yourself stronger as opposed to making yourself smaller? Absolutely. It's totally different. You're actually making yourself. Yeah. It's a real shift but it's been such a vital part for me of finding the right balance between exercise, rest, and nutrition.

Those three things have to be in balance for me. That's a key part of my recovery. And so that gets prioritised too. I probably train four times a week, nothing excessive. But it is, you know, that's generally what I do. And I don't do it for very long because I get bored. Yeah.

But it's enough to make me feel really good in myself. I like strength training because, as you say, there is rest time built into it. So, like, you do the, you pick up the weights, the barbell, the whatever. And then, you're like, oh, now I've got to stand here for two minutes until my body's recovered. And I'm like, la-da-da-da-da-da-da. And like, so, like, when I'm running, there is, like, I obviously add in my rest time by, like, standing at the traffic lights. But, you know, like, the strength training is built into it.

It's like, no, chill out, relax. I mean I do like running as well I'm actually injured at the moment so I can't run but strength training is definitely a good thing for me to be doing regardless and just for also long-term health and longevity and it's so important to look after your muscle mass

so that feels like a priority for me as well finally what's your third non-negotiable well there's two oh okay you can do what you want your world we're just living in it okay cool okay three plus one So the third one, in the 12-step tradition, is my higher power, or one of my higher powers, which is Mother Nature.

Being out in nature is so important for me to be, it helps me feel alive, it makes me feel connected to the universe, it reminds me that there's more to life than what's going on on social media, it helps me connect with my dog. I love it. There's just so, there's so many sparkles in nature. And by sparkle or glimmer, what I mean is those moments of beauty, of comfort, of safety, of miraculousness that you can connect with and internalise and just helps you feel better. I had a really big one yesterday. Did you? Yeah, I was on my run and I was running along through High Park and a song came on that reminds me of a friend. of mine who died last year and as the song came on I looked to my right and there was a bed

of these flowers that my friend had who loved gardening and he had we remember being at a garden centre about a year before he died and I was like oh what shall I get I'll get and he he had said you need to get one of these but there was a bed of those flowers right there as this song that reminded me of him came on and I was like who and that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't have made myself go out and gallop around Hyde Park you know yeah that connection absolutely and we have to look for those we do have to look for those but it's it's fulfilling I think and what's your extra bonus one my extra one is my therapist oh yeah I mean that's listen I just assumed that every guest one of their things you know that goes without saying

She should be first, really, for so many reasons. But one of them being that you can't take other people places that you're not willing to go yourself. And so for me, being willing to keep leaning into my own work, my own self-exploration is really important. And having that space every week to explore that is really crucial. Thank you. I'm very grateful to her.

And were we really grateful to you, Dr. Charlotte, for giving us a little kind of mini therapy session in this episode and the main episode. Thank you for coming along and being on the life of Briney. It's been such a pleasure. I don't know about you, but I am going to go forth and look for glimmers in the world. Why don't you message me on Instagram at Briney Gordon and let me know what you notice when you're out and about this week. end. Thank you to Dr. Charlotte Ord for coming in. Her book, Body Confident You, Body Confident

Kid, is available now. Big love to you all. Thank you for listening and I will see you on Monday for another episode of The Life of Brianny.