Chai on Life

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today we have a big topic to dive into: Motherhood.

For this conversation, I got connected with Yael Sunshine who is a parenting coach, special educator, speaker and yoga therapist with more than 15 years of experience. She helps parents through many different challenges that come with raising kids like behavior issues, addiction, learning disabilities, relationship challenges and more.

She is the creator of Soulful Mothering, a holistic parenting framework that supports mothers so they can manage overwhelm, trust their parenting and develop thriving support networks.

We really got into it in this conversation and covered so many different topics related to parenting including:

-Strategies to manage tantrums with a young child

-How to model the behavior we want to see in our kids

-How to avoid perfectionism as mothers

-How to make sure your needs are being taken care of

-How to help kids through a personal or family trauma they may be experiencing

-How to bring more joy into parenting

…and so much more!

For more from Yael, check out these resources:

Instagram

Facebook group

Facebook business Page

Facebook Digital Creator Page

If there's someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, send me a DM on Instagram at @chaionlifemag or an email at [email protected].

Thanks so much for listening!

Hi everyone! Welcome to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast, I’m Alex Segal and today we are so privileged to have Rachel Tuchman, licensed mental health counselor on our podcast.

Rachel has worked with many diverse populations including incarcerated women at Riker's Island Correctional Facility, kids and adults with developmental delays, kids with behavior issues, overwhelmed parents looking for skills and support, teens struggling with the pressures of adolescence and life in general, adults going through difficult life circumstances (divorce, infidelity, phase of life challenges), individuals struggling with their relationship with food and their bodies and women experiencing infertility.

Rachel is a Health At Every Size aligned clinician and dedicates a lot of her time out of office to educating parents and kids on the importance of body respect and the behaviors that truly honor our health. 

Rachel also does speaking engagements for schools, synagogues, and various community organizations.

In our conversation, we speak about:

-What managing your mental health looks like right now in a post October 7 world and how we can do more of that

-How we can feel closer to each other through feeling this collective pain

-How we can deal with any survivor’s guilt we may be feeling living our day to day lives when some of our brothers and sisters are in such a horrific situation

-How to deal with the influx of difficult news that comes at us regularly

-How to deal with the uncertainty of life in America and what a better mindset might be

-How to manage anxiety you may be having right now, work on getting rid of it and working on not passing it down to your kids

-Practical things we CAN do to take action when we’re feeling helpless, or just to boost our mental and emotional state

-How to create better boundaries in our lives to actually live the life you want to be living

…and SO MUCH MORE

It definitely turned into an important conversation and an emotional one — maybe have some tissues nearby. I cried, Rachel cried, I cried again while editing it but it was one of those good cries where you’re allowing your emotions to come to the surface, so I’m excited for you to hear it.

For more from Rachel, follow her on Instagram at @rachel_tuchman_lmhc.

If there is someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, email me at [email protected] or send me a DM @chaionlifemag.

Thanks for listening!

Hi everyone! Welcome back to The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, we are speaking with Dating Coach and Former Today Show Psychologist Jackie Glaser.

I’ve known Jackie for 12 years. She was really influential on my Jewish journey. I was on a trip to Israel the summer after I graduated college which is when I met her — she taught us at the seminary Neve Yerushalayim and then she basically convinced me to stay in Israel and do another program for six weeks. That fall, after I was back, she was in New York and started a program that we called Souled — which was a weekly Jewish learning class which changed my life and introduced me to some of my best friends.

If you know Jackie, you know she is a powerhouse. She has changed so many lives with her teaching and now is helping so many through her dating coaching. She is using her psychology skills and her own experience of working on herself to help other singles do any work that could help them become more ready to meet and marry their soulmate. She also coaches married women in her courses.

In this podcast, we speak about:

-Jackie’s experience being single and how she worked on her relationship with Hashem to find peace in that and ultimately, meet her husband

-What it really means to surrender to Hashem and she shares real exercises you can do today in order to help you get there

-How to know what type of therapy is right for you and if you’re stuck in talk therapy, where you can go from there

-Why we may experience trauma and how to work through it so we can heal

-Why you should run away from someone who is trying to tell you reasons why you’re single

-How to deal with the pain of being single without turning it into suffering

-More about her course offerings and why the work she does is so powerful

-Practical tools and resources we can turn to to work on our trust in Hashem

…and so much more!

Other resources mentioned in the podcast:

-Jackie's website and Instagram (@datingbyjackieg) — follow her there for more dating advice and support!

-Listen to Jackie on The Inside Out Podcast to learn even more about her journey and get more wisdom from her

-Build your strength in Hashem with dailybitachon.com

-Watch Tzipora Grodko's content for more support

If there is a topic or person you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, send me a DM on Instagram at @chaionlifemag or send an email to [email protected].

Thanks for listening!

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal, and today we have a really exciting episode to gear up for Shavuot with Esteemed Educator, Speaker and Kallah Teacher Nalini Ibragimov.

If you know Nalini, you already know how special she is. I had the privilege of meeting her nearly 12 years ago now when she co-founded a group called Souled, which was a weekly class for young professional women who had been on Israel trips or other programs and wanted to continue their learning while working in New York City. She is a role model to maybe thousands of women at this point through her work on college campuses, as a kallah teacher, someone who prepares brides for their upcoming wedding, Souled and other Jewish organizations.

Here’s some more formal info for those who aren’t familiar with Nailni and her work:

Nalini Ibragimov attended Barnard College and Moreshet Institute and studied Jewish history in Touro’s master’s program. She lived in Israel for four years where she taught in various institutions. 

For the following five years, she and her husband worked at Brooklyn College for JLIC, a joint program of the OU and Hillel, where she taught and ran various programs for Jewish students on campus. Nalini taught in Ateres Naava seminary in Brooklyn for 15 years until moving to Long Island a few years ago. Additionally, Nalini has taught hundreds of kallot and is a speaker for My Gift of Mikvah. She is also part of the educational staff of Core. 

Today, Nalini is the director of the Olami Women's House, which provides a living space for young professional women who seek to live in a nurturing, Torah immersive environment. If you want to apply to live there, click here!

If you're a young professional woman, you can also hear Nalini speak Wednesday nights at Safra Synagogue on the Upper East Side at 7:30 p.m.

Nalini resides in Woodmere, New York with her husband and takes great pride in her six children and the families they are building.

Now, let’s talk about our episode. In our conversation we speak about:

-Nalini’s Jewish journey and how she got to where she is today

-How she manages and balances all of the work she does with being a wife and a mother of six children

-How she decides what professional responsibilities to take on

-What Shavuot really means and the perspective we can have going into it

-How we can manage the heaviness all around us right now and channel that pain we’re still feeling into the holiday and use it to create even more connection with Hashem

-What a miracle actually looks like and how we can see more of them in our daily lives, right now

-How we can use the time we have left before Shavuot to prepare for the holiday — and why the process and the preparation are key

-How to connect on Shavuot when you’re home with little kids and not going to learn all night

-How the holiday of Shavuot is like a wedding and a beautiful lesson that we can all infuse into our marriages and our relationship to all of klal Yisrael

…and SO MUCH MORE

If you have any questions for Nalini, you can reach out to her at [email protected].

If there's someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast or a topic you want featured, send me an email at [email protected] or a DM on Instagram at @chaionlifemag.

Thanks so much, see you next week!

Hi everyone! Welcome to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, we’re diving into the deep, spiritual world of mikvah and the mitzvah of Taharat HaMishpacha, or the laws of family purity.

NOTE: While all of our podcasts are targeted to women, this one specifically is for women, as per the request of the speaker.

Also an important note, I know this is a mitzvah that not everyone may be able to participate in right now for various reasons, so if it’s a sensitive topic, that is totally okay and you can feel free to skip this one if it’s not for you.

This is a big one. Mikvah is kind of a mystical topic and has so much power.

So this week, I am speaking with Miriam Goldberg. Miriam is a renowned educator who lives in Sanhedria, Jerusalem with her husband Rabbi Yitzchak Goldberg. Both she and her husband have been involved in teaching and guiding chassanim and kallahs for more than a decade as well as providing halachic and martial counseling for married couples.

Together, they wrote a book called Wellsprings of Taharah, which is a guide complete with halachic and hashkafic guidance about this important mitzvah.

They are also the founders of the Chizuk Series website, where they offer in-person and recorded sessions for men and women in taharat hamishpacha, shalom bait, emunah and tefilah which have become popular internationally.

Miriam is actually launching a new series that goes way more in-depth into this topic starting on June 16 so if you like what you hear in this episode and want to learn more, you can join here!

In this episode, we speak about:

-Why the mitzvah of mikvah can become bland and rote over time and what to do about it

-Why it’s so important to continue learning about the mitzvah and its laws after you’re married, not just before

-Important perspective on how to love the mitzvah more if it’s one you’re struggling with

-Why the investment in the mitzvah is so important and some really powerful stories around that

-Why the mitzvah of mikvah may be harder in our generation

-Why the mikvah waters provide a unique spiritual environment to connect to Hashem

-How to get more out of your entire mikvah prep and the experience once you’re there

-Tips to make the niddah period easier if it’s hard for you

-How to connect to mikvah night after you've had an argument with your husband and feel emotionally disconnected

…and SO MUCH MORE

Miriam is just a fountain of information and a wealth of knowledge and she shares deep and powerful concepts in a really attainable and truly thought-provoking way. Hope you enjoy!

If there's a woman you want to see here or a topic you want featured, send an email to [email protected] or send a DM to @chaionlifemag. Thanks so much!

Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast! I’m Alex Segal and today I am so excited to bring you this episode with Chana Deutsch. 

Chana lives in the Old City in Israel and is currently devoted to helping women feel their best and create their best marriages. She is a mom, a wife, a relationship expert and coach. She specializes in helping women in relationships (and not-yet-in relationships) foster the connection, intimacy and love they desire in their marriage and in their home.

Chana teaches down-to-earth strategies designed for women to get in touch with, and bring forth, their authentic and vulnerable feminine self through her coaching program, Absolutely Feminine.

She has become a beacon of light for women around the world who want to transform their relationships from a state of disconnect, frustration and lack of understanding to one of mutual respect, happiness, intimate communication and connection.

Chana is also the host of the popular With All Your Heart Interview Series: The Jewish Woman’s Path to Experiencing Joy and Fulfillment in Love where she speaks with other experts all about building new patterns and habits for greater connection in their relationships. She just launched this year’s series which is going on until May 30th — a new interview is sent out every day. If you want to check it out, you can visit withallyourheartseries.com.

In this interview, we speak about—

-How she ended up living in Israel and meeting her husband at 19

-What challenges came up and how she learned to work through them

-What a “normal” marriage actually means and entails

-If religious dating versus secular dating makes a difference in how the marriage ends up down the road

-What she offers in her “Absolutely Feminine” course

-A real life example and how she would guide someone through it

-How we can help our children develop the skills they need to succeed in and build a beautiful marriage of their own

…and so much more!

Get a free class from Chana all about creating a playful and passionate marriage. You can access it at chanadeutsch.com/passion.

Listen to Chana's podcast on Spotify called: Coffee and Connection.

If you want to reach out to Chana, you can email her at [email protected] or [email protected].

Thanks for listening!

Hi everyone! Welcome back to The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, we’re talking all about Israel. If you’re a Jew right now, Israel has constantly been on your mind since October 7th (and probably for awhile before that too!)

Those of us outside of Israel are experiencing violent protests from those who seem like they will stop at nothing to terrorize the Jews. When we’re living in such scary times, we’re reminded even more how badly we need Israel. We think of the Holocaust, of all those souls that weren’t able to leave or didn’t have a place to go.

As we continue to navigate the stressful climate we’re in, thinking about Israel and its significance is an important one. So today, I have my friend Izzy Sakhaie on the podcast to speak about all of the questions and points of inner conflict we may all be thinking about.

In this episode, we cover:

-How she became religious and got more deeply connected to Israel

-How her career trajectory evolved along with her Israel journey

-How she decided to make aliyah and the process of doing so

-What it’s actually like living in Israel

-How Izzy dealt with the challenges of life in Israel and how she took advantage of the positive aspects

-Why she decided to move back to America when the war broke out

-Tools she uses to connect to Hashem in her everyday life now

-What we can all pray for when we’re feeling stuck

-What those of us outside of Israel right now may need to be doing

-How she is connecting to her soul’s mission and what we can all learn from that

It was an amazing, inspiring conversation that I hope you can take something from.

Izzy’s Bio:

Izzy is a New York native who officially made aliyah in December of 2020. Although she returned to America right after the war began, one of her personal passions is shedding light on Israel through her documentary series “My Israel Narrative.” This project aims to unpack the myriad questions our current reality is presenting. Izzy focuses on unpacking two major ideas: “What is home?” and “What is Israel to me, on both a personal and collective level?” With Hashem’s help, this project will hopefully bring to light some real answers in what's certainly a confusing and challenging time for many.

In addition, Izzy manages Olami’s Zero Tolerance Campaign. Zero Tolerance is a national, student-run initiative helping to create a campus culture of zero tolerance for antisemitism. Their goal is to transform the culture on campus from one of intimidation, resignation, and apathy to one of zero tolerance to antisemitism and all forms of discrimination.

Izzy also seeks to capture the beauty of Israel through her photography (25% of proceeds go to causes supporting Israel).

Follow “My Israel Narrative” on Instagram, YouTube and Spotify.

Learn more from Izzy at myisraelnarrative.com.

If there’s a topic you want covered or a woman you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, email me at [email protected] or send me a DM on Instagram @chaionlifemag.

Thanks for listening!

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life podcast. I'm Alex Segal.

Trigger warning for this episode: We speak about pregnancy, miscarriage and diet and nutrition so if any of those things may be triggering for you, definitely feel free to turn off the episode, I completely understand.

Now let’s learn about our amazing guest, Lauren Allen. Lauren is a former sugar addict turned Certified Nutrition Coach who specializes in women's hormonal health and fertility. After being diagnosed with PCOS after struggling with infertility, Lauren discovered the power of using food as medicine to heal her body, balance her hormones, and eventually get pregnant naturally. Lauren believes that all women deserve to harness the power of eating foods that help balance their hormones and optimize their fertility without feeling deprived or restricted. She is the creator of the Balance Your Hormones 101 program and The Empowered Path to Pregnancy program to help women learn how diet and lifestyle changes can help them balance their hormones and optimize their fertility. She coaches women privately as well.

In this episode, we speak about:

-How Lauren got to where she is today, working through a sugar addiction to become a health coach and conceive two children naturally

-What a hormone is and what its role is in your body

-What vital organs in your body do and how the food we eat can affect them

-What balancing our blood sugar means and how to do so effectively

-How to improve out diets to add in more nutrition, in a way that’s not overwhelming

-What it actually means to be “born with all your eggs” — it’s not what you think!

-The best things to eat during the pre-pregnancy, pregnancy and postpartum periods to optimize your health and your baby’s health

-How to make time to take care of ourselves

…and so much more!

If you want to learn more from Lauren, you can follow her on Instagram @laurenallennutrition and visit her website laurenallennutrition.com — there are tons of awesome recipes on there (I highly recommend the chickpea chocolate chip cookies!) She also has her own podcast called “About Health and Hormones” which you can learn more about here: laurenallennutrition.com/podcast. For more information on her courses, you can also visit her website.

If there is a guest you would like to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, send a DM to @chaionlifemag on Instagram or email [email protected].

Thanks for listening!

Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and I am so excited about this conversation with Rebbetzin Yehudis Golshevsky. We’re in a difficult time for the Jewish people. We just marked 180 days since October 7 —  six whole months since Israel and the Jewish people were attacked on Simchat Torah. It’s hard to believe. It’s so hard to know that every single day, 134 hostages still remain in captivity, our soldiers are still fighting and our people are at risk

There is increased antisemitism around us. Incredible gaslighting about what Israel is doing in self-defense and just to survive and protect its people, our people. It’s truly a painful moment and it can be confusing to know where to turn or where to find hope. This conversation with Rebbetzin Golshevsky, I hope will help you find some comfort.

In our conversation, we speak about:

-Rebbetzin Golshevsky's path to becoming a profound Torah teacher

-How to connect to Nisan and Pesach during this unique time we're in and how we can extract so much meaning out of it

-How to become joyful at this time

-Why things may look so gross and ugly on the outside right now and what that means for the Jewish people

-The process of redemption — what we can look to for hope

-How to free yourself from something personal you're working on

...and so much more!

If you would like to learn more about Rebbetzin Golshevsky and SHIVITI and get on the school's mailing list for classes, visit https://shiviti.org.il/.

To reach out to Rebbetzin Golshevsky directly, you can email her at [email protected].

More about Rebbetzin Golshevsky:

Rebbetzin Golshevsky founded and is the director of SHIVITI, a school in Jerusalem for women. She holds primary and secondary teaching certifications from Yavne Teacher's College in Cleveland, Ohio, as well as a BA from SUNY Buffalo in Classics-Judaic Studies. Rebbetzin Golshevsky has been a well-known Torah educator in Jerusalem and abroad for twenty-five years, with students all over the world. She is also published author, editor, and translator.

To nominate a woman for the podcast, please send me an email at [email protected] or send me a DM on Instagram at @chaionlifemag.

Thanks for listening!

Today's guest is Debbie Greenblatt and we are talking all about the secrets to a more connected marriage.

Debbie just released a book (Secrets of a Connected Marriage — order here!) where she breaks down profound Jewish wisdom into tangible, succinct ways you can improve your marriage. You will become more connected to your spouse and turn more into the person you want to be in the process.

In this conversation, Debbie and I speak about:

-Why marriage is such a challenge

-How husbands and wives and grow closer to each other

-How to become a great woman, using your marriage to get you there

-How we can create a more positive culture in our homes

-How to bring Hashem into our lives and marriages more

-What we can learn from relationships in the Torah, like Avraham and Sarah

...and so much more!

If you would like to get in touch with Debbie after listening, you can reach out to her at [email protected] or through her website, deardebbie.com.

Please leave a rating and review for the podcast and reach out if there's anyone you'd like to see on! You can send a DM at @chaionlifemag or email at [email protected].

More about Debbie:

Debbie Greenblatt has been involved in teaching and counseling Jewish women for over thirty-five years.  Mrs. Greenblatt lectures across the United States on topics that include Jewish texts, Jewish thought and relationships. 

For over thirty years, her weekly class in the works of Rabbi Dessler have served as an anchor in her own life and has changed the lives of many of those who have attended. She currently gives several Middos Vaadim that concentrate on character development. Her warm and personal approach to the women she encounters has many women seeking her counsel and insight on the Torah’s approach to their personal dilemmas.

Using the unique Torah based and practical approach that she developed to help people navigate the dating process, Debbie has been successfully coaching singles for over twenty years. Mrs. Greenblatt writes a column on relationships for a large Jewish Magazine, and is regularly asked to contribute essays to a variety of publications. She is the founder of the Women’s Division of Gateways, an outreach organization.

Debbie is the Director of Education for the Mentorship Training Program of Core, and organization that seeks to strengthen the fabric of the Jewish People by building the woman of klal Yisrael and the connections between them.

Debbie’s new book, Secrets of a Connected Marriage, published by Judaica Press, gives us a glimpse into the deeper Jewish perspectives that form the basis of successful marriage, with practical applications for the woman of today.