The Real Health Podcast: Life Lessons with Mairead Ronan: 'Trust your gut and back yourself a little bit more'

Karl Henry Twitter Email

April 01 2021 06:00 AM

This week’s show is part of our ‘Life Lessons’ series with some of Ireland’s most famous personalities and my guest today, Mairead Ronan, is certainly no stranger to the Irish TV and radio landscape.

She has been working hard in the industry for nearly twenty years. Mairead started her career on The Ray D’arcy Show, hosts Fittest Families, won Dancing with The Stars in 2019 and now presents her own daily radio show on Today Fm. On top of all that she co-owns a hair-styling equipment business called FARO.

Real Health with Karl Henry · Life Lessons with Mairead Ronan: ‘Trust your gut and back yourself a little bit more’

Mairead talks to me about the ups and downs of the last year: "I feel like I'm in no position to complain, because both myself and my husband are still working full time. But also, for a huge chunk of the last 12 months, we didn't have childcare."

Mairead found it challenging to mind her kids while presenting a daily radio show. "I had to still perform like you normally would and present the radio show but we didn't have that pillar of support, which is our child minder Kay. And I just found that extremely difficult."

The whole family also had Covid this year. Mairead believed she had some degree of immunity to the virus after her husband Louis and their two daughters Bonnie (2) and Eliza (4) tested positive for it. Despite initially testing negative for the virus, both she and her son Dara (13) were subsequently diagnosed with it.

"I felt stupid, because it had been in our home, we had gotten rid of it. And somehow, I brought it back into our home a second time by doing nothing. So I felt like disappointed and stupid. And how did this happen again? Thankfully everyone is now on the mend."

Mairead tells me that she wishes she had been more confident early on in her career. "Trust your gut, back yourself a little bit more and don't stay working on the one thing for too long. That's definitely advice I would give to my younger self."

She also admits that cleaning is a hobby that helps her switch off. "I'm sorry, I love it, it is my mindfulness. I have tried yoga before, and it doesn't do for me. Cleaning my house is my mindfulness."

For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to: https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-real-health-podcast