Clare Bowditch talks guilty pleasures, surviving lockdown and overcoming self-doubt

By MiNDFOOD

Clare Bowditch talks guilty pleasures, surviving lockdown and overcoming self-doubt

Australia knows and loves Clare Bowditch as an ARIA Award-winning musician, a Logie-nominated actor and a former ABC Radio broadcaster – but it’s a little-known fact that she’s also a trained Life Coach.

Now, we can all benefit from Bowditch’s experience and skills thanks to the release of Tame Your Inner Critic – a light-hearted guide to teach you how to bypass your self doubt and take action.

Bowditch teams up with neuroscientist Dr Charlotte Keating for the podcastwith the pair offering practical steps using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy concepts to help retrain your brain and allow you to achieve your wildest dreams.

Bowditch talks to MiNDFOOD about her favourite things, what’s getting her through COVID lockdown in Melbourne, and helpful tips to end self-doubt and be the best you.

The best book I’ve read recently is… All Our Shimmering Skies, a new work of fiction by the brilliant Trent Dalton which is out in September. It is absolutely golden! Could not put it down! Read it in a day.

The song I have on repeat at the moment is… ‘What’s Going On?’, Donny Hathaway Live version. I listen to it on repeat in the shower most mornings, just before tuning in to the Coronacast podcast.

The podcast I’m currently listening to is… Yes, Coronacast, but I’m also just about to begin listening to the new musical comedy podcast about a fictional Christian hip-hop group called CrossBread written by Megan Washington, Declan Fay and Chris Ryan. I’ve heard it’s absolutely fabulous. 

The last TV show I binge-watched was… Last One Laughing on Amazon Prime. OH MY GOODNESS ME! I so needed a laugh! In my history of binge-watching TV this is one of the only series I’ve ever watched twice. The first time through I tried not to laugh (which is the premise of the show – the last comedian to laugh wins) and I lasted about seven minutes before I thought I was going to explode! The second time though I watched it with my husband and let it all out. Felt so GOOD to LAUGH! 

My favourite pick-me-up is… very handy one, available to anyone. It’s reminding myself that my feelings are largely the result of the stories I tell myself, about myself and the world, at any one time. Although I can’t really change the worry stories my inner critic (lower brain) tells me about myself and the world, I can always find a better, more hopeful second story to tell myself. A true story – one that makes me feel better. That’s the way I pick myself up, assuming I remember to do it. Sometimes I just forget, and stay on the floor for a little too long. 

My guilty pleasure is… White fluffy things. For example, I have a white fluffy dog, a white fluffy cushion, a white fluffy dressing down, and a white fluffy coat. I genuinely had no idea I was collecting white fluffy things until one day a friend of mine took a photo of me wearing my white fluffy coat holding my white fluffy dog who had a white fluffy toy in his mouth and… that’s when the penny dropped. I am a hoarder of white fluffy things! What’s wrong with me?!!!? 

My most prized possession is… I already mentioned my dog, and although I do own two glorious Burmese cats, they wouldn’t like to think of themselves as ‘possessions’, I’m sure of it. So I’m going to say… my Tahitian lime tree, the one my husband planted for me in the backyard about ten years ago. It is fecund beyond belief, and keeps me and my neighbourhood in limes all year around. 

I like to relax by… Well, lately, since the world’s gone weird, I like to relax by lying on my side on the floor with my thumb in my mouth, rocking, holding a fluffy thing, and humming to myself until such time as my husband says ‘Would you like a glass of wine?’ and I say ‘Yes please!’ It’s been a really weird year. Also, baths.

When I was a child I wanted to grow up to be… A singing dancing mother of eleven who wrote books and made people laugh and saved the world in its entirety (I was not a very chilled out kid). I also – in grade one – wanted to grow up to be Mary, Mother of Christ (the Second). Life taught me that dreams sometimes need adjusting, and that’s okay. 

If I wasn’t doing what I am, I would be… Gosh… hard to say. I’m currently in COVID lockdown in Melbourne, so if I wasn’t doing that… I’d be running down a beach in Queensland or Jamaica in my red polka dot bikini yelling ‘We’re safe! We’re free!’ and hugging and kissing strangers. Career wise, I’m one of those people who changes things around a lot, which means, I keep it fresh. I’m generally doing the thing I want to do. Music is my first love, but last year I became a late-blooming first-time author (Your Own Kind of Girl), and this year I’ve written and produced my first Audible Original (including original score by myself and Marty Brown) teaching people how to tame their inner critics. Career wise, wouldn’t change a thing.

I find inspiration in… Nature. I know that sounds like ‘the right thing to say’ but… nature is where it’s at. 

The biggest lesson I’ve learnt about myself recently is… I’m an introvert who expresses as an extrovert. 

A piece of advice I’d give to my younger self is… Tell your inner critic to go sit in the naughty corner. You’re the boss of your own brain. 

 

Clare Bowditch’s new Audible Original Podcast, Tame Your Inner Critic is a fun and original guide designed to teach you how to bypass your self-doubt and take action. Tame Your Inner Critic is only available on Audible and is free with a 30-day free trial at http://audible.com.au/tame

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