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Today’s conversation around the value of meaningful female friendships in midlife is especially poignant for me and my co-host Sarah as colleagues who have also become very good friends over the course of the last few years.

We discuss how picture-perfect social media feeds can often lead to comparison and feelings of inadequacy, and how that can keep women from reaching out when they need more connection. 

But with midlife there’s a sense of coming home to oneself, and with that, a level of honesty that can make women finally feel they can admit when things are imperfect. Being able to build these deeper, more vulnerable friendships nurtures our energy.

Midlife is also a time when many women feel they now also have time for themselves, and these high-value friendships that could have been put on the back burner while they were prioritizing their family’s growth. 

If you have a story...

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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]

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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...

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Amy and Matt Edwards are the hosts of the Alcohol-Free Marriage Podcast. Amy is also a certified coach who helps high-achieving women get out of the shame and blame cycle when it comes to their relationship with alcohol.

They join me today to share their story of quitting drinking as former craft beer enthusiasts and starting the podcast – the ups, the downs, and some of the joyful surprises of leaving alcohol behind together.

Tune in to find out how they got to the decision to take a mindful break from alcohol, who stopped first, who was the “ringleader” when it came to their drinking, what was hardest about quitting for each of them, whether moderation worked for either of them and what advice Matt and Amy would give an alcohol-free person whose spouse is still drinking.

This is a really entertaining conversation with a fun and upbeat duo!

Alcohol-Free Marriage Podcast info:

...

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My colleague Sarah Baillie and I discuss a 2011 article from The Atlantic (by author Sandra Tsing Loh) that is still a very relevant and hilarious read for women in midlife, no matter where they are when it comes to the hormonal transition of perimenopause and menopause.

We discuss what it would mean if fertility was actually the “Big Change” and menopause was just a “return to normal” and why this theory actually makes far more sense in our modern world.

Sarah talks about the value of living an “entitled life” and why this isn’t selfish, but instead well-earned for her as a woman in her 50s.

Sarah and I discuss the power of midlife women as a demographic and why we can consider menopause a major cultural event.

Sarah shares her Costco story and what she’s learned about her “inside voice”. 

We discuss the role of declining estrogen in midlife women’s diminishing drive...

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If you recently saw the revised drinking guidelines in Canada and gasped, you’re not alone. Most Canadians are drinking more than two drinks a week, the new low-risk maximum.

Ann Dowsett Johnston is an award-winning journalist and the bestselling author of Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol, a book named one of the top 10 of the year by the Washington Post. Ann is also now a psychotherapist, and my friend, mentor and writing coach.  

Ann joins me for a discussion about the alcohol consumption guidelines in Canada released by the Centre on Substance Use and Addiction in January, which replace the 2011 Low-Risk Drinking Guidelines. The new guidelines present a continuum of health risks associated with different levels of alcohol consumption, including the risks of breast and colon cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Ann and I discuss what now constitutes low-risk, moderate, and...