Workdays & Weekends: Claire Standen

Claire Standen is a coach, neurolinguistic programming practitioner and business owner at Rising Strong, and a part-time veterinary nurse. “For me, being a neurolinguistic programming practitioner means we move the body to move the mind a lot of the time. I incorporate this into my self-practice too, with a lot of my ‘big ideas’ coming to me when I’m out walking”, she tells us.

“My business, Rising Strong, is still at ‘sapling’ stage, so I spend a lot of time working on content for my website, vlogs and posts, as well as networking, learning and planning!

I have some really big plans for 2019, including running collaborative workshops, doing a lot of talks and also setting up an online course so that people can access my resources remotely at times to suit them.”

We chat to Claire to find out more about everything from her work in Rising Strong, the importance of feeling comfortable in yourself, the often overlooked wisdom of children, and even karaoke!

Tell us the weirdest / funniest thing that has ever happened to you at work?
I can’t begin to describe some of the otherworldly stuff that’s happened so far in my work as an NLP practitioner. I think one of the strangest is when you see somebody crack through a story that’s been holding them back in life. Something that they’ve held to be true, despite knowing it doesn’t serve them. When they access this knowledge during a session, I know that we’ve made a major breakthrough, and that their life is coming into alignment with who they really are. That’s when I know their process of empowerment has really started. Those are the kind of breakthroughs that are exactly why I am here to serve. Because everybody deserves to be comfortable with themselves and live life with their own needs and desires at the top of the priority list. It’s not selfish: it’s self-love.

Everybody deserves to be comfortable with themselves, and live life with their own needs and desires at the top of the priority list.

What signals the start of your days off?
I have two kinds of days off. On the first kind, I have my kids with me. So it’s all about play. They love to dance, so we’ll often get up, put the radio on and get moving. I love the lack of inhibition a toddler and a 4-year-old have, and anybody who’s ever seen me dancing, knows I channel this! Then we tend to go and meet friends. Our favourite meeting place is The Madoch Centre in St Madoes. The coffee is EXCELLENT. The play facilities are fab, and I always bump into about 3,276 people I know. So it’s a great way to feel connected and catch up.

I’m a single mum, so when the kids are at their dads, my ‘days off’ tend to focus around learning as much as I possibly can. I also work on my business plan, marketing, and just generally try to gather allll the skills. I kind of have to force myself to relax, but I have a great group of friends who remind me to put my health and wellbeing first with lunch out, spa days and therapies such as reiki. I also mediate, walk and read to relax.    

What might people be surprised to know about you?
I’m not sure Perthshire is ready…there’s quite a lot! In veiled terms, I guess you could say that there isn’t going to be much my clients can say they’ve done that will shock or surprise me. You know those ‘negative’ behaviours I was talking about before? Yeah, well- I’ve done a fair few of them before realising they weren’t serving me! Also, one thing you can’t tell from looking at me: I’m a twin!

What is at the top of your bucket list?
My burning desire and passion is to make Rising Strong my full time business. I take steps every day to make this dream a reality. This is because I believe the reason I’m here is so that no woman has to be in a relationship where abuse exists. Physical, sexual, financial, emotional or otherwise. I want women to see me running a successful business and realise that you can come from a very dark place and step out into the light without fear. I’m driven by this purpose. It is the reason I cannot and will not fail. 

What is the worst job you’ve ever had?
I worked in a pub that had karaoke every Tuesday and Thursday. Still to this day I can’t be in a pub when karaoke comes on. *Shudder*

Who or what inspires you?
My biggest inspiration is also somebody I’m lucky to call one of my best friends. When Fi Munro stepped into my life by teaching my daughter yoga, I had no way of knowing the massive impact she’d have.

She is a truly inspirational person, who after her diagnosis with stage 4 ovarian cancer, set about doing so much work to learn about healing. She now teaches yoga, practices reiki and is an intuitive mentor. She is also a scientist. We both are, I think that’s part of why I was drawn to her. She often refers clients to me because we have this beautiful way of complimenting each other’s work. She has that intuitive knowing about someone’s difficulties and I have the tools and techniques to help them work through them and gain a better understanding of themselves so they can step into their power.

It was while watching a programme Fi was in called ‘A time to live’ that I decided to leave my emotionally abusive marriage. So I can literally thank Fi for my life as it is now. I honestly don’t know what the wake-up call would have looked like had I left it any longer. Fi gave me the spiritual kiss of life. She’s a warrior and a force for good in the world.

Tell us about the day you’d love to live again?
The day I had my daughter. I found birth to be such an empowering and beautiful experience. I know that this is not true of a lot of women, and believe me - my birth did not go according to ‘the plan’, but nothing could take away that ground braking feeling that I had produced life, and that I now had a responsibility to that little person. I felt invincible. My daughter is another huge inspiration to me. She’s fiery, she questions EVERYTHING, and she’s so beautifully herself. We can learn an awful lot from children, if we can just put aside the feeling that we have ‘experience’ and ‘know better’. I think a lot of the time, they know best, because they have yet to be heaped with all the societal norms. They just do what feels right.

What’s the best part about your job?
Working with another human being to create a shift in their experience of how they view life, and opening up the possibilities available to them. The person with the most flexibility in any given situation is the one who has the most power. Powerful women are brave and courageous and true to themselves. We all have it in us, and I love to see that knowledge unlock in my clients, and then watch them go forth into the world being really authentic.

Complete this sentence; the best things in life are….
All around you if you’re just prepared to see them. Open your eyes to the beauty of really living in the present moment, and feel your soul sing.

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