The Joy of Movement with Physiotherapist Sarah Mottram

work but I really got into it because I enjoyed it so much and it’s not so much exercise but moving the body, becoming aware of the body, how it’s feeling, what we can do to change and some very simple practices can make such a big difference so I really like to get that into my every day, do some sort of movement every day.

Hi, welcome to episode 120 of the Soles to Soul Care for Trauma and AuDHD podcast. I’m your host Eve Menezes Cunningham and this week’s guest is Sarah Mottram, physiotherapist and she was delightful to talk to as are all my guests but I especially liked what she was saying about benefiting from taking more space and it’s one of those things that we can easily talk ourselves out of.

I shared a space-inducing breath practice with the free subscribers of my Míle Buíochas Mondays newsletter which you can sign up for through the website solestosoul.ie but in whatever you’re doing, as you listen to this episode, you’re making space for yourself to listen to something that’s going to potentially help you reconnect with your resources to remind you of the things in your own practices that help you in different areas of life as well as learning from my guests.

You can access older episodes through solestosoul.ie/podcast and full transcripts and all the rest of it but thinking about all sorts of different times in your day, where can you put in those buffers, where can you offer yourself more spaciousness, time to breathe, time to just be? Let me know in the comments or email eve at solestosoul.ie and I look forward to hearing from you and hope that you enjoy listening to or watching this episode as much as I enjoyed making it. Thanks for being here.

So welcome Sarah, thanks so much for joining me. Do you want to say a little bit about where people can find you online, how you got into your work and what you’re working on at the moment?

Yes, well thank you very much for asking me along today, I’m delighted to be here. You can find my work on Instagram, @the_movementworks, I have a website themovementworks.co.uk, I’m also on Facebook, the movement works and I’ve got an Instagram page Sarah Mottram and I’ve been a clinician, a physiotherapist for many years and over 30 years and in that time I’ve worn many hats.

That work is so different from my original work as a physiotherapist looking for pain, helping people with the pain, now I’m helping people understand what happens when you have pain for a long time and how they can manage it themselves.

It’s growing all the time and I have some wonderful people that work with me that are not in the medical profession but we’re all working together to help people find that joy of movement and getting back to the things that they love.

I had endometriosis, I’m post-menopausal now but I was in pain every day and just like Cat Cow, back then I could do Wheel but any abdominal stretches worked where painkillers didn’t work. Then I started going to classes because the effects would last longer than if I just did a little bit on my own and I used to volunteer for the National Endometriosis Helpline and people were being prescribed things that would take away hearing, take away eyesight, just focusing on the pain because only one part of the body was being treated and

I remember like there was no cure but that’s what got me into this.

And it was like movement is so important and I love what you’re saying about joy as well, like kind of that we’re mammals aren’t we, we’re meant to enjoy being in these bodies of ours. I’d love to hear about your own ideal and actual self-care, so as I mentioned I work through the FEEL. LOVE. HEAL. framework that I developed and the FEEL. bit is about the kind of lowercase self-care and the things that help us feel better when we have the bandwidth to like go for a swim or do some yoga or go for a run or a walk or do something different, maybe journaling, anything like that.

The LOVE. part is that remembering that we’re worthy of joy, we’re worthy of love and acceptance and support, so it might be asking for health, help even, health, remembering that we’re part of nature, part of the divine, so the things that help you get into that kind of state of mind.

And the HEAL. bit is the community care, the co-regulation.

If we start with the FEEL. bit, what helps you, like what movements and what other things in an ideal day, an ideal week would you be doing for your self-care?

Obviously it’s going to be movement isn’t it and I think, you know, I’ve been doing that for probably 20 years, both for work but I really got into it because I enjoyed it so much and it’s not so much exercise but moving the body, becoming aware of the body, how it’s feeling, what we can do to change and some very simple practices can make such a big difference.

I really like to get that into my everyday, do some sort of movement every day. I also have a dog and I love to go out in nature and what I love about that is there’s sort of no excuses, that’s good, come rain or shine, we’ve got to go out and I think that’s really important for me.

I think what you’re saying, so many people, it’s like a dog is an external reminder but it’s taking care of our inner mammal as well, like we deserve that movement, we deserve that, yeah. What would be your go-to types of movement, what are your favourite ways to move?

Well I think it’s really something that I’ve developed through my own system, so I’ve become a yoga instructor, a Pilates instructor but more somatic movement I think, that’s I think the top thing, it’s about the awareness, so feeling the body as we need, not so much, well I’ve got to do this movement in this way, it’s feeling where something maybe is a little bit stuck, using the breath with the movement, so very organic I think in the movement.

And if you could only do one thing, like what would be your essential self-care?

Oh do we have to take it down to a one, well of course.

No you don’t, I always feel evil saying one.

I think both, one of the things that I have been doing in more recent years is really working on my creativity and I think when I go out in nature now, I am much more aware of what’s around me and I see things and I look at things and I hear things, so I think that’s a real kind of double whammy, it’s not just going out for a walk but actually it’s really enjoying and noticing and I think it comes back down to that awareness piece, so I would say the one thing is awareness, whether that’s through movement or through going into nature, I think that’s the thing that helps me the most.

Yeah lovely, and moving into the LOVE. part, that love archetype, that acceptance, that support, knowing that you are part of nature, part of the divine, what helps you, you’ve already said a bit, but is there anything like, you’ve mentioned the yoga, do you kind of have any kind of meditation practices that are particularly helpful or what helps you connect with that highest, wisest, truest part of yourself?

Yes, I think that’s such a good question, I have spent years in my career just being so busy, I haven’t been able to stop and I think what’s helped me in more recent years, particularly in the last five years when I’ve been working on my programme and really thinking about what helps people and that certainly has been what helps me.

I think one thing that I really like to do is to spend a bit of time giving myself space and I think I never used to do that, I was always on to the next thing, what’s the next thing on the list and now that space doesn’t have to be big in terms of time but it has to be big in terms of allowing, so I really grant myself time now to have that space and just being and I think with that is losing the self-criticism and not trying to fix everything all the time, to me that comes with the space and also the self-compassion, it’s good.

OK I might not have done everything but what I’ve done is good and that’s OK and it’s really sitting with that and then allowing that to grow and to have that space and that’s something that I really encourage in my programme and because of that I think I’ve done it a lot myself more recently.

Wonderful, it makes me laugh because this is my work and I still, it feels radical when I drag myself up to the top of the garden to sit on the bench with my lunch if it’s not raining and I’m in the west of Ireland, it rains a lot, it’s beautiful, whatever, but I don’t want to be sitting out eating in the rain but it’s only a few extra minutes or like all these little things, all these little ways in which we can slow down and I do like a 12-hour silence most weekends and within half an hour that spaciousness of like it’s when you say it, it’s like yes, it’s the most important thing, it’s the most and yet when we’re busy it’s like I need to just do do do do do but when I remember that is amazing so I love that.

What would be your essential there like if you could only make space for one thing or like at one time of day like where is it most helpful for you?

Yes, I like to anchor in that space at the beginning and the end of the day and I think it doesn’t need to be long but it needs to be true.

Yeah, so when you say it doesn’t need to be long like what is the minimum that feels, I’m thinking like even a spacious breath practice or something like creating room in the lungs and then emotionally a bit, what would be your minimum?

I think five or ten minutes the beginning and start of the day but the thing that I really try and work on now is being aware of that sensation when things are running away a bit in the day and then as you say it could only be a breath but I think I find it helpful to stop and think hang on is this true? I’m running away with myself stop and that is something that is taking me years to learn to do that because I’ve always been rushing on to the next thing.

Babies know how to do it and then we spend as adults trying to remember that kind of presence and that everything we’ve been conditioned out of. So moving on to the HEAL. part you obviously create community for your clients, for the people you help with your programme, your classes, Pilates, yoga, what other ways do you hold space for others like that community care, different types of community we’re living in such challenging times for so many people and also where do you let yourself be held in an ideal world and your actual essentials.

So taking a very quick break and be back with the episode soon.

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They’re mainly seven-day programmes but I don’t like telling people how to do anything and their persistent drive for autonomy otherwise known as pathological demand avoidance. You know what’s right for you. It may be that you want to experiment with all of the tools, it may be that only certain tools resonate for you.

Again you know yourself best and let me know what you are most keen to begin with and if you have any questions and you can find out more at solestosoul.ie/adventures. So looking forward to hearing from you there or if you just go to the website there’ll be links and there’ll be links in the show notes as well. Thank you for listening to my first ever podcast ad and welcome back to the episode.

I ask a lot don’t I?

In my work the community space has been very strong and again when I set it up I didn’t really realise the power in it and I think it really helps people understand that they’re not alone and when they’re not alone and there are people in very similar circumstances obviously a broad unique with our circumstances but that has been really powerful and many many people say to me the community was so good so it’s encouraging people to just share something even if it’s just an emoji you know we’re here we’re supporting you and for myself I work online so it can be quite challenging that but I have built an online community that does support me and I think that’s very strong and again what I’ve noticed as I sort of broaden my work I’ve broadened the people that support me and perhaps people that have been mentoring me and for me I’ve always been sort of in the health field and quite narrow but I’ve really broadened out and I’ve got a lot of strength and support from that.

Yeah and more recently as I’ve been doing more creative work and I’ve been doing more artwork I’ve found a very supportive community in art that has been very special and very new and I’m excited to do more of that again very new to me but very nourishing.

Wonderful and if you could go back to any younger version of yourself and send some love some wisdom compassion what might that be and when?

Yes I think the wisdom would be you know “It’s OK, it’s OK” and not trying to chase and sit there with that space that we’ve been talking about because I think we did have that when we were younger and then something happened and lost it and I’ve got that back so that would be a very strong thing for me to go back and say you know keep that keep that space.

I think something else not so much perhaps when I was very young but I spent many years perhaps 20 years travelling and I think that was quite harsh because there’s a lot of time travelling with everything that goes with it different places to stay different food different timetable and I think again putting a bit more buffer in there and allowing that space again I think would help me but again it was always oh we can do this and we can do that and we should be doing this and I think on reflection now I would have liked to add a bit more space when I was doing that.

I love it thank you so much for joining me and do you want to say again where people can find you online?

Yes so Instagram @the_movementworks my website is themovementworks.co.uk I’m on Facebook I’ve got a personal account there Sarah Mottram and my work the movement works and on LinkedIn.

Well thanks again.

Thank you. Before you go please take a moment to ground the episode by just pausing and scanning your parts all your parts from the soles of your feet to your soul so you may want to keep your eyes open you may want to close them but planting your feet firmly on the ground lengthening through the spine if that feels comfortable for you letting yourself feel held by the chair or whatever it is you’re sitting or lying or standing on and taking just a moment to scan your whole self your whole body your whole energy field and ask yourself what you’re gonna do for yourself right now it might be as a result of listening to the episode it might be something else it might be a nap it might be something to eat it might be some kind of movement but let yourself ground let yourself get into the habit of connecting with your inner wisdom and notice what you need and give yourself what you need. Thanks for listening to this episode. If you haven’t already and would like to please like subscribe and comment engage across the platforms wherever you may be accessing this and you can also email me eve@solestosoul.ie Thank you for listening. I look forward to sharing more next week.