Vacation's over and the kids are back at school. It’s that time of year when we often feel the need to get “back on track” and reboot the structure and routines that help us thrive. But something that we rarely consider is that as life changes, so does our personal “recipe for success.” Be it in relationships, careers, added responsibilities, shifting hormones, or the ages of your kids, life has a way of changing and throwing curve balls when it comes to maintaining a healthy routine. 

So if you’re looking to establish some new habits around sleep, food, movement, mental health, unhealthy coping mechanisms  (or any other area of positive change), this episode is the perfect place to start. With the tips you gather here, you’ll be able to evaluate all the variables in your life at this moment so you can create habits and routines that are both achievable and supportive of your body’s needs. 

In this episode,...

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Today I talk with Sarah about how the empty nesting went last year and how I'm feeling now that both of my kids are home for the summer. 

Just one year ago on the podcast, I shared the reality of empty nest syndrome, including my apprehension and grief around my children leaving for university and the sale of their childhood home.

But their time away brought many unexpected gifts, and I found myself enjoying the agency and freedom that came with the un-parenting. I traveled loads by myself, and my husband and I downsized to a fun downtown neighborhood.

There was an adjustment period around how to both parent and “un-parent” from afar, and now with my kids back at home for the summer, there’s another re-adjustment happening for all of us as full nest syndrome sets in.

Topics include: 

• understanding your own needs and...

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This week I am joined by Maureen Benkovich. Maureen shares her moving personal story as she and I have an honest discussion about infertility, pregnancy loss, grief, depression, and women’s drinking. 

Maureen has experienced the pain of infertility and failed adoption and knows firsthand how easy it is to get stuck in a cycle of shame and blame when it comes to grief, depression, and drinking. For years, she used alcohol as a way to cope with these challenges, and it only made things worse.

But with help, compassionate support, and the latest neuroscience-based techniques, Maureen was able to break free from her patterns and transform her life. Now, as a life coach, she is committed to helping others do the same.

Topics include:

•  Maureen’s journey through multiple miscarriages and fertility treatments
• The painful decision to stop treatment
• Her failed adoption and the grief that followed
• Using alcohol to...

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Today I talk with Jay Fields, an educator, coach, and author who has taught the principles of embodied social and emotional intelligence to individuals and organizations for twenty years.

If you’ve ever wondered how to get better at sitting with your emotions, instead of drinking, eating, or scrolling to escape them, Jay’s got the practical three-step solution.

We discuss the importance of feeling your emotions instead of “fixing” them, and how learning to do this using Jay’s approach allows us to respond instead of react, which in turn leads to deeper, more meaningful connections and personal relationships.

Topics include:

- how people-pleasing arises from a common childhood blueprint (“never make anyone else feel uncomfortable”)

- how trying to “fix” an emotion instead feeling and accepting it can lead to overwhelm and burnout

-...

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This is Part 2 of the “How to Do Less and Get More in Midlife” Episode with Dr. Sarah Baillie, N.D., and coach. In Part 1, Sarah and I discussed why so many women reach overwhelm and burnout in the care sandwich that is midlife.  We also shared our favourite coaching strategies and tools to help busy women scale back on their to-do lists and clear some space to bring in more of the things that serve them.

In this installment, we provide some concrete strategies for standing in personal responsibility and figuring out what you need more of in your life to create the next fulfilling joyful chapter because no one is coming to do it for you.

What matters to you about how you live the next 20 years of your life?

What do you need more of?

If you don’t know, how do you find out?

To contact Sarah Baillie about coaching services, email her at: [email protected]

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.

In this episode Sarah and I talk about why so many of us reach overwhelm and burnout in the care sandwich that is midlife. 

We share our favourite coaching strategies and tools to help busy women scale back on their to-do lists and clear some space to bring in more of the things that serve them (listen to Part 2 of this episode, coming soon, for those strategies!)

Topics include:

• being v. doing
• how to say no more often
• how to care less
• how to figure out what’s no longer serving you (energy drains v. gains)
• people pleasing and why it’s a dishonest way to show up
• how it’s not serving you or the people you are pleasing

We also discuss the answer to the most common question we hear from the women we support: "Is this IT?" (Spoiler: Nope. There’s SO MUCH MORE great stuff to come.)

 For more on coaching with Sarah Baillie, email her at: [email protected]

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Susan Hodgson is an Irish ex-pat coach helping women navigate new territory with their drinking amidst the challenges of living abroad and trying to find that elusive feeling of “home”. She lives near Paris with her French husband and three kids who enjoy correcting her grammar and complaining about holidays back to the Donegal rain.

Susan shares her story of becoming alcohol-free, and Susan and I discuss:

• the common misconceptions of expat life,
• why it can make drinking less more challenging for women,
• the difference between what you do and who you are,
• Mommy wine culture abroad,
• learning to feel emotions instead of numbing them, 
• the concept of “home” and how to find it anywhere,
• and discovering yourself in midlife.

This is a lovely conversation with an even lovelier human. Enjoy!

More about Susan:
www.sharpsensecoaching.com
@sharp.sense.coaching on Instagram

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Michael Amster, M.D., is the co-author (with Jake Eagle, LPC) of The Power of Awe. Dr. Amster is a pain management specialist and awe researcher who teaches at the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center. He’s also a long-time meditator and yoga instructor. He joins host me to share what he and Jake discovered a few years ago about the amazing power of “micro-dosing awe” and how the simple practice they teach can impact almost every area of your physical, mental, and emotional health.

In this episode, Dr. Amster defines “awe” and distinguishes it from other emotions like gratitude, discusses the three types of awe and how we know we’re experiencing them, and shares the quick 5 to 15-second A.W.E. Method that he developed with Jake Eagle at the start of the global pandemic. 

He goes on to explain the incredible results their formal awe research studies have generated and the science around...

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Julia Anderson shares her incredible story of leaving the “cult-like” experience of her evangelistic Christian upbringing (including its purity culture) at the age of 19 to raise her newborn daughter and create the independent, successful life she craved. Julia is now the CEO of the Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health (CanWaCH) and has over 15 years of senior and executive-level experience in international development, not-for-profits, civil society, human rights, and gender equality. As CanWaCH CEO, she continues to champion bold, innovative - and even disruptive - approaches to advancing the health and rights of women and girls around the world.

Julia and I met over a year ago in an online writing group. Julia discusses her experience as a female CEO in the non-profit sector, the stresses associated with that, and how she works to prioritize and maintain her own balance and that of her staff (to...

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As a best-selling author and speaker, Meg Geisewite is changing the narrative on the mommy wine culture, hustle culture, and our pro-drinking culture. In Meg’s debut book, Intoxicating Lies: One Woman's Journey to Freedom from Gray Area Drinking, Meg flips the script on the five most intoxicating lies we tell ourselves about alcohol.

In this episode, Meg shares her story of being an ordinary, working mom who found herself trapped in the mommy wine culture, and how her love of science led her to discover the real truth about alcohol and its seductive lies as she embarked on a journey to becoming alcohol-free.

Meg and I discuss the common lies women tell themselves including that “we deserve a drink” and that we “don’t have a problem” as gray-area drinkers.

We review the common signs of gray-area drinking and Meg shares her “just one sip” story. We also discuss the shame cycle, the detox to...