Dear Midlife...

 Whhooo girl! We jump straight into this conversation with our guest Susan Bratton. We were off to the races faster than we could consider what sex would be like if Barbie were in charge instead of Ken! We loved this no holds barred conversation with Susan. Uh can you say "Orgy dome"?!  

If you want to know what happens IN the orgy dome, you'll have to tune into our stimulating conversation (pun intended) with Susan Bratton, who is a trusted intimacy advisor to millions and sexual wellness expert. As the co-founder of both Personal Life Media and The20, she’s an authority in bedroom techniques and communication skills as well as organic supplements and non-invasive treatments that improve vitality for both men and women.

Susan stands firm in the conviction that passion is ageless. However, few things bring lovemaking to a screeching halt faster than the inability to…show up, shall we say. Susan's superpower is her courage. She takes a lionhearted stand for our human right to pleasurable connection. And she has the willingness to get nerdy about science/anatomy and very detailed about lovemaking skills so everyone can learn to achieve the pleasure they deserve. She has been featured in the New York Times and on CNBC and the TODAY show; and she makes frequent appearances on ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox and NBC.

In this episode, Susan teaches us: 

Getting to know what your partner values and honoring that by giving the other person what they need can help you feel like you're in the most perfect relationship. And when you are single and know your values, these can be a litmus test for those you meet and help you determine who you invite into your life..

Try radical honesty with your partner. While it is scary, it is really one path to full and complete authenticity and often reveals your own insecurities and shortcomings so that you can examine those and make more conscious decisions about how you want to show up in the world.

People who are not honest with themselves, who don't have boundaries, who don't know what they want are impossible to love because you don't every really get beneath the surface to actually know the REAL person

True orgasmic pleasure takes practice! Adopt a "research partner" on which you can practice both delivering and receiving pleasure.

Practice "big clit energy". There are a variety of tools available to help you learn to expand your personal pleasure within your zone of arousal to extend and evolve your orgasmic pleasure.

Again, Susan is an advocate for sexual wellness. She briefly mentions in the show her affiliation with GAINsWave and FemiWave and we wanted to include these resources if you need help enjoying sex more. Most ED and vaginal rejuvenation treatments are invasive and painful or hinge upon pricey pharmaceutical solutions–and they don’t address the root cause of the condition. GAINSWave, on the other hand, is all-natural, completely non-invasive, and uses high-frequency shockwaves to enhance male function, performance, and overall health. For women, FemiWave uses low-intensity sound waves to restore sensation and natural lubrication. Susan can speak to the effectiveness of both In addition, take advantage of the natural wellness products by Foria for intimacy enhancement and menstrual relief.

if this episode resonates with you as much as it did us, leave us a review and let us know what stood out to you? We'd love to hear from you and want to keep this juicy conversation going. For more engaging conversations just like this one, like and follow our show so that you won't miss a single episode. You can also find us on FaceBook or Instagram. We can't wait to hear from you! 

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Have you ever heard of "Extreme" self-care? And...no. Extreme self-care is not jumping out of a plane into a hot tub where a sexy massage therapist is waiting you, or riding backwards on a motorcycle while painting my toes. No...it's something WAY more dangerous like NOT answering your cell phone or even scarier...turning it OFF completely and plugging it in to charge in the next room! Or NOT spending time with people who don't fill your bucket or love and treat you the way you deserve to be treated (and that includes family).

I know you're thinking, "what the hell?!?!" You'd rather jump out of a plane than not answer your cell phone!! LOL Just kidding. Truth is, we could all do with a little EXTREME self-care and our guest today, Steph Palermo, reminds us that when we take care of our own needs first we are then able to show up as our most authentic self for ourselves and others.

Steph is a spitfire and grew up in the Boston area in a Sicilian-American household. Her Sicilian heritage has strongly shaped her personal and professional life. A congenital limb difference and numerous spiritual gifts taught her from a young age about overcoming difficulty and navigating life’s challenges. These factors instilled in her a level of tenacity that has proven to be a key part of her personality.

When she got divorced, her lawyer told her she needed a job. Steph had spent twenty-five years raising her children and hadn’t had a job outside the home in a long time! So she decided to take what she loved and made it a business called "Just Steph" and made a fresh start as a “second-lifer.”

Today, she calls herself and intuitive should guide and combines her natural and supernatural gifts of empathy, encouragement, prophecy, healing, and discernment, to name a few, to guide clients and audiences toward their own soul’s path, purpose, and personal growth. She see clearly into the hearts and emotions of others. Her goal has always been to heal and guide seekers of a more meaningful existence to the life of their dreams.

In today's episode, Steph teaches us: 

You cannot grow or expand unless you are living authentically.

Your authentic self is one that is aligned, that feels good and is happy. Our authentic state of being is one of physical health and you're not healthy unless you're also emotionally healthy.

It takes time to see and recognize our own self-value. One of the best ways to get there is through extreme self-care.

Extreme self-care is saying yes to those activities that feed your soul, it's saying no to what doesn't serve you (or serve you right now), it's turning off your phone, investing in yourself and our future, and understanding without freedom there is no love

Life doesn't happen to us. It happens as a result of the choices we make. In the end, we have no one to blame for our choices but ourselves. And if we want to rewrite our story, guess who is writing it? we are!

 You can find more of Steph at:

Website | juststeph.com

The Just Steph® Show: Mondays 8-10 pm WATD 95.9 FM

Here is the link to a free download: https://learn.juststeph.com/JustStephTheOnlyWayisUp

Latest Book: It's not personal, Sonny. It's business. How to run your family, life and business like a Sicilian

It is also OUR goal to help guide other "second-lifers" towards their purpose and passion through the expertise of our guest and our community. We are there...Verging on the edge of our second life. We want to link arms with you as we navigate the messy middle together as we weather hot flashes, midlife dating, empty nesting, career changes and finding ourselves. We want you to join us on this journey by checking out our website at Dearmidlife.com and following us on Facebook and Instagram @dearmidlife.

We need to queue Justin Timberlake's "Bringing Sexy Back" as we introduce our next guest, Kim Coffin. So, how is Kim Bringing Sexy Back? She is THE REAL DEAL!! She specializes in Sexuality, Tantric Sex and Relationship Transformation and in this episode she shares with us just a few of the tools we can use to unleash our sexual confidence and unlock profound new levels of self-love, pleasure, empowerment, and intimacy with yourself - and in your relationships!

 This woman is a certified Trauma Informed, Somatic (body-based) Empowerment, Sex, Love & Relationship Teacher, Speaker {soon to be Author} & Coach, graduate of Layla Martin’s Institute of Integrated Tantric Sexuality, and founder of "Get Your Sexy Back".

In this episode, Kim shares with us some of her methods for creating deep trust and safety in your body and mind, and she can show you how to RECONNECT to your body, ACTIVATE your turn-on, HEAL heartbreak & shame, and RECLAIM your true SEXY self so that you can fully step into your UNAPOLOGETIC POWER!

And honey! You KNOW we are ALL about unapologetic power!! Raise your hand if you've been a victim of sexual assault? Trauma? Betrayal? Burnout? We KNOW you each have experienced at least one, if not more than one of these. Kim helps us identify where these experiences have gotten "stuck" in our bodies and helps us to heal so you can step back into the drivers seat and go after the life they desire by reconnecting to their innate inner wisdom.

Her own story and experience of healing is one we call all relate to. She's survived sexual assault and trauma, betrayal, 3 traumatic births (now teens/adults) and postpartum periods, adrenal fatigue, and total burnout. She remained self-employed the entire time (25+ years) and she's here to share with us how she overcame it all and now serves others to do the same. 

 In this episode, Kim teaches us:

Our bodies hold the keys to what we want and don't want. However, most of us are living "in our heads" and not following what our bodies are telling us what we desire, what we trust or what is aligned for us. We need to heal to be comfortable to feel, sense and trust our bodies.

De-armoring is a practice that releases the sexual or other trauma that we are holding in our body. In this practice we check-in with our bodies and gently massage our bodies and check in by exploring what's going on where we feel these tensions

Keep a mirror with you and 3x a day look yourself in the mirror and wink at yourself. It will start to shift your thinking about you.

Most women have experienced some kind of sexual trauma at some point in life. It may not have come in the form of an assault It may just be some degree of shame that we've been made to feel about our bodies and therein comes the need to heal that trauma. Somatic, or body-based, work can help us heal these traumas.

If we don't do the work to heal our trauma, it can especially take its toll on women later in life and perimenopause. Trauma can manifest itself in more impactful symptoms, depression, hot flashes, back, and joint and muscle pain. And...your body will keep tapping until you're able to come home to heal your traumas and come home to yourself.

 You can get more from Kim here…

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Instagram | @get_your_sexy_back_coach - https://www.instagram.com/get_your_sexy_back_coach/

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If you are LOVING these episodes, join us! Follow our podcast by clicking on the + sign and leave us a review so we can continue to bring you this amazing content. We are working towards building a community of love and support for women in the middle. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. 

Do you believe in reincarnation?  Cue the Indigo Girls... "And now you had to bring up reincarnation over a coupla beers the other night..."  You know, we're not sure. We've both been exposed to numerous stories that make reincarnation feel very real.

To help us ponder the above question, we welcome our guest Corbie Mitlied who really brings to life (pun intended) the idea of reincarnation as an intuitive counselor. She has made her own path, rather than take the one cut out for her by others. The path wasn’t easy and consists of t two marriages, which didn’t last, a constant search for the "Partner Who Understood", a succession of jobs, and a series of spiritual paths. Then, out of the blue, she got breast cancer...THREE times.

Life became a roller coaster with no brakes, asking Corbie to survive divorce, abuse, poverty and life-threatening illness. But through all of this, she learned the value of the "Examined Life", in which she ask herself...what does this mean and what am I meant to learn from this?

In today's episode, Corbie teaches us the three important questions to examine our lives and explore our purpose here on this earth. What are we meant to do and learn? How can we meet challenges and always ask the next question and face each new situation with strength, courage and humor. Corbie sees it as her job as an intuitive counselor, inspirational speaker, author, breast cancer survivor to give her clients the tools and courage to deal with any situation.

She believes that everything else is free will. So, today Corbie reminds us that we can do what she does! What will YOU do? We want you to follow us in our FB group and leave us a review so we can continue to connect like minded women in midlife together because no one should have to navigate this crazy shit show alone! lol

In this episode, Corbie teaches us:

Find Karma is 5 things: healing, service, contrast, unbalanced energy and healing of beliefs. The more we know ourselves and our strengths, the more we'll keep when we pass over into our next life.

Live the examined life by asking ourselves: what can I learn from this and how can I teach with it ...then consider what is the next thing!

Embrace YOU! There's more to go in life and we are more than just a part of our story that took place in our history. Who are you now? You are more than just the contest winner, the divorce, the car accident, the cancer survivor, the miscarriage,

Find your sentence of passion...It's not the JOB. Your sentence of passion is the thing that, when you roll up to the pearly gates, hair on fire and fumes in the tank you can say, "I did this!" It's the moments where you were living in your bliss.

Ask yourself the 3 most important questions in the world: What am I ____ about? (fill in the blank with your feeling or emotion...angry, sad, confused, frustrated, etc.) Why am I _____ about that? What would happen if I stopped being ____ about that?

You can find Corbie at:

Website | corbiemitleid.com

YouTube

Facebook | firethroughspirit

Patreon | corbiemitleid

Instagram | @corbie_mitleid

Medium: https://corbiemitleid.medium.com

Do YOU believe in reincarnation? Leave us a review and let us know. We're eager to keep the conversation going. Join us in our Facebook Group and follow us on Instagram for more Dear Midlife. 

So, today I was in the grocery store and couldn't help but notice that Halloween decorations are already on display. I swear! it seems like big box retailers are pushing consumers towards the holidays sooner than ever before!

Then Trinity noticed that Starbucks is making a huge deal about bringing in Pumpkin Spice back into their stores on August 24th! We've started to feel like we can't even enjoy summer because we're being pushed immediately to Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas on the timescale of the big box retailers!. Next year they will start putting that shit out in June instead of August! we can't tell you the anxiety that creates in our friggen souls! It makes us feel like we're running behind. Oh shit, I haven't even bought my turkey yet...bitch it is the beginning of SEPTEMBER!

Our guests today, Natascha Corrigan and Alegre Ramos are badass productivity bitches! They help us to bring more JOY into our lives and holidays. They remind us that we are in control of our holidays and the amount of joy we experience. With a little "pre-party planning" we CAN have a joyful holiday season.

You may remember these ladies! We interviewed them in episode 43! Now, We are bringing them back in celebration of the release of their new book "Rock Your Holidays", which came out September 8th. In this book, Natascha and Alegre remind us to keep the "Fun in the Fun", take our control of the holidays back and do what works for US this holiday season so we can turn down the noise and turn up the joy and the jingle in the way that really matters!

Not only do Natascha and Alegre share with us amazing tips to rock our holiday season but, also, provide tips and tricks that can be applied universally across your life and they show us how they can be applied in practical ways!

 In this episode, our girls teach us: 

Make small course corrections along the way as you start to adopt a new habit. These little adjustments can keep you more in alignment of your goal and prevent you from steering too far off path.

Enlist a friend! Doing what may otherwise be tedious tasks with a friend makes it that much more fun and friends can help you see what you can't....they can help point out what is/isn't important and your wins and opportunities for improvement that support small course corrects.

List all of the possible things you might want to do this holiday season and give them a rating on a scale from 1-5 and remove those activities that are not the highest priority!

Define what intention you want to carry into this holiday season. Is it joy? Is it peace and calm? Define what you want the holiday to feel like and then use that as your litmus or touchstone for all activities by asking yourself is this activity in alignment with my holiday intention.

Keep fun FUN!!

You can get more of Natascha and Alegra by following them:

If you want to learn more about Natascha and Allegre and their programs: 

👉Learn to Harness the Power of Planning at BYWDreams.com

⏰ Could you use a quick win every morning? Sign-up for our FREE mini-course "Create Your Morning Ritual" on their webpage above.

📖 Save time with our bestselling books like  "3-2-1-Done: Three simple strategies to get your to-do list done!" and "Rock Your Holidays", which just came out on SEPTEMBER 8th!! The e-book is JUST 99 cents!  

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Facebook | BYWDreams

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 If you love this episode as much as we do, leave us a review and let us know your favorite productivity tip! Now, if I can just get Natascha and Alegre to remind me where I stash all the holiday presi's I buy early, I'd be Super Mom!  Let's keep the conversation going. Head to our website at dearmidlife.com Follow us on Instagram and join our Facebook Group.

So, today we have a mind-bending, trailblazing conversation with our guest, GIllian Pothier, that changed the way we perceive masculine and feminine presence in our own daily lives. Gillian helps us to rethink society's negative portrayal of masculine and feminine nature and how it is this portrayal that is creating a self-destructive paradox.

Gillian holds the belief that we all contain within us a little bit of both masculine and feminine energy. For women, in particular it is only through this complementary union with the masculine that we can learn to be fully expressed in our feminine, as well as, be anchored in our beauty, truth, and creational power.

We are not saying you have to change your personal anthem from Katy Perry's "Roar" to "Feelings" by Morris Albert? However, Gillian's perspectives on this topic really caused us pause. We, typically, stand for women rising to overcome the constraints the patriarchy has imposed on us for decades. However, this conversation made us reconsider if there is opportunity for our own personal expansion and growth by exploring more of our feminine energy and gave us insights as to how to do this.

Gillian is no stranger to the difficulties of today’s dating pool. Just like many of us, she's spent years seeking a lifelong partner, experiencing nothing but heartbreak. But, she found that embracing her femininity was what it took for her to resurrect dull and flatline romantic relationships and harnessing this energy was how she found a partner where erotic sex, joy, and love reign supreme. 

In this episode, Gillian teaches us:

When women start to un-numb and bring back to life the truth of their feelings, women can come home to the aspects of themselves they have discarded in order to survive in a masculine society.

We are overdriving the truth of our nature in order to "produce", "perform" or "generate" more and more and women are exhausted and depleted, as a result. We need to massively disrupt and de-armor ourselves in order to come back to our true "yin" nature and re-awaken to our own truth.

When women go to work in masculine structures and then bring that energy into the home they may be unconsciously perpetuating the patriarchy. Women are depleted and over-functioning because we are terrified that our male counterparts are not capable of making important decisions.

Women have been unconsciously corrupted by masculine energy and that is robbing us of the joy, delight and sensuality of receiving. When we allow ourselves to become vulnerable enough to receive, we honor our feminine and the masculine need to give, provide and protect.

Necessity causes women to build up around golden cages of protective armor that prevents us from the living into the vulnerability that is our feminine energy.

You can find Gillian at: 

Website: www.feminineeros.com 

Special Audience Giveaway:  

 8 Ways to Cultivate Your Feminine Allure

 http://www.devotion.gifts

 Social Media:  

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/gillian.pothier 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/feminine_eros

Youtube - @feminineeroswithgillianpot1489 - Feminine Eros with Gillian Pothier

We'd love to continue this juicy conversation!! Leave us a review or join our Facebook Group and Instagram and let us know your thoughts on the topic of masculine and feminine. We want to build a community where these conversations thrive! 

According to a 2020 report from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is the 12th leading cause of death in the US. 45,979 Americans died by suicide and there was 1.2 million suicide attempts in 2020 alone.  Further, According to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center 2019 Data reports that 33.6% of Females self-reported being in a Depressed Mood, 64% report Mental Health problems and 38% were being treated for Mental Health problems. 

With all of the above data, we couldn't help but pause to ponder the could these feelings we have of being “stuck” actually be mental health issues worth exploring, understanding and resolving? 

Similarly to teens who don’t run home to report bullying. Women who choose to not allow the robust world to squeeze all of the next chapters of life out of them - may not run home or to a loved one to report symptoms of “silently quitting their lives” while beckoning themselves to get “unstuck” (for the last time or for real this time). 

So, we explore these themes in our episode today with our guest, James Hayes, to discuss the theory of contextual conceptual therapy, or CCT. CCT looks not at what is broken, but explores what is happening within us that may be just misunderstood, in the way we may be misunderstood if we speak a different language in a foreign country. CCT brings to the surface answers that already exist within us and helps us learn to love ourselves in the way we give love to others.

In this episode, James teaches us:

Traditional therapy is meant to "fix" what is "broken". Contextual Conceptual Therapy (or CCT) looks at not what is broken, but explores what may be just misunderstood

Sometimes we become someone we are not to protect the someone that we are. Then we spend all of our time trying to be worthy...but, the deception is that we always were.

Understanding of self give us freedom. We have a life path that has been predestined and laid out before us. In moments when we have a mental health events, our life then feels like a train that has been derailed and just needs to get back on track.

CCT is about loving ourselves as much as we love the most important persons in our lives. We give our love away, but don't give it to ourselves. If we took the love we give to others and focused it on ourselves, that is where our greatness would come from.

Our emotions are messages from our inner spirit. We need to slow down and hear what they are telling us. Every time we tell a lie to ourselves, our inner spirit takes a blow. Stop saying what you won't do, because that's the next thing life will ask you to do.

If you're struggling and need support, please link to the Suicide Therapy Website and know you're not alone. We are here to love you and lift you up as we strive together to be our best selves for the next chapter in our life. If you want to be part of our community, join our FB group and follow us on Instagram.

So, not long ago, Trinity visited her childhood home and it was a surreal experience for her, as you will hear in our show. She stared into the "eyes" of the home (the windows that faced the street) where she endured so much pain and suffering as a child. She surprised herself as she stood in the street doubled over in pain and grief and wept for that little girl she was so long ago.  What she realized is that this wound that she THOUGHT she had healed was still very present. Even further, she felt the stress and anxiety in her body for at least a few days after that experience. 

Thank you, Trinity, for sharing that very personal story and for reminding us that trauma is held in our bodies until we can release it. Our guest today, Alison Rothman, is an expert in the realm of embodiment and sustainable healing. She specializes in working with women in (primarily) in midlife, to help them holistically heal their trauma, and relationships, mind, body and spirit!

She is all about bringing tools and practices into everyday life to create potent and lasting shifts and changes. Most of the clients she works with have tried traditional therapies, with no success. The body of work that she has created is unique, deep, and effective in creating sustainable healing and bringing women back into alignment with their most authentic and embodied selves. 

Alison a Body-Centered Holistic Empowerment Coach, Transformational Group Facilitator, Mentor, Teacher, Emotional Doula, Guide, and Advocate. She is an expert in the somatic healing arts and therapy, yoga and meditation, authentic embodiment, and holistic healing. Through her extensive studies, practices, and experiences she provides clients and students with the ability to access their innate inner resource and release debilitating life patterns in order to access their truth, power, and reclaim their body, mind, heart, and soul connection.

Alison, herself, has survived several highly traumatizing life events including a house fire and a near death experience.  Additionally, she has navigated divorce and single motherhood for over a decade and has utilized her practices in support of her own embodiment during times of stress and challenge.  So, she carries with her an embodied understanding of the wisdom and intelligence of the body and brings to her sessions a deep intimacy with herself, her own process of life experiences, and uses these various embodiment practices, deep self-inquiry, and the exploration of an array of natural health and wellness modalities to help women just like you transform their lives.

She leads women’s wellness retreats and groups, works one-on-one with clients, is the host of the podcast: Embodied and Awake, blogs, offers online empowering courses, and public speaks sharing her stories and wisdom.

In today's episode, Alison teaches us:

You can find more of Alison at the following links:

READ HER REFLECTIONS

WORK WITH ALISON

Website | embodymylife.com

FB | @embodylifeholisticwellness

Join the Acceptance Circle

Alison is a tremendous believer in the potential that each of us holds in our own capacity for wellness and that often what is needed is that person to remind us of our innate goodness.  She reminded us of this in our conversation and we are here to remind YOU that you can heal your trauma and transform your life and you don't have to do it alone! We are on this journey together. Today Trinity shares with you her personal trauma as a way to encourage you to remember, and embrace who you truly are.  Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram and leave us a review to tell us what you're carrying with you!

Our guest today, Mayda Poc, is a badass who went from Wall Street to working as an International Life Coach for Executives. She's lived all over the world, Paris, London, New York City (damn is there anyplace this woman hasn't been?) and was living life in the fast lane...until life tapped her on the shoulder and said "'Hey girl! Why don't you slow down a bit?" and handed her a cancer diagnosis that caused her to re-evaluate her place in the rat race and gave her pause to reflect on what really matters to her.  It was in that space that she regained balance in her life and how spends her career helping busy women and executives just like us find more zen, fulfillment and purpose in their lives and careers.

You know, Mayda, as a typical overachiever, holds multiple certifications and accreditations in Life Coaching, Career and Corporate coaching as well as health coaching and aims to help women heal their mind, body and spirit. She helps women find their feminine essence, even in more 'masculine' settings, and teaches women everywhere that we do NOT need to let go of who we are as WOMEN and can lean into our femininity and STILL be relevant as women in middle age.

Hell yes! Women have been so conditioned to believe that youth and beauty is our only asset.  But girl, we are here to remind you that you are strong and powerful and, with your years of wisdom and experience you CAN find your place in life and work...AND find yourself!

In this episode, Mayda reminds us:

You can find Mayda at:

Website | maydapoccoaching.com

LinkedIn | @maydapoc

Instagram | @maydapoc

Facebook | @maydapoccoaching

And if you woke up this morning and looked in the mirror and thought, "Well who the hell is that woman staring back at me in the mirror?!" YOU ARE NOT ALONE!! We are here in the middle going through all this crazy shit with you. It it our purpose to stand together so no woman has to brave midlife alone. That why we bring you these valuable interviews each week! And if you're loving our message...PLEASE leave us a review so we can continue to share these juicy conversations with you each week. You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook

Girl...we've been single a looonngg time. And, let's face it, building intimate connections and relationships at this age, ain't easy. I was thinking the other day that there must be some secret key or special sauce that makes it easier to connect with people. The good news is THERE IS! the secret key to building connections is called emotional intelligence! Our guest today, Dr. Patrick Kilcarr is a Georgetown University Professor, Therapist and Author of the book "Leading an Emotionally Intelligent Life", He's here to take us on a masterful journey into the power of emotional intelligence. So, if emotional intelligence is the secret to unlocking personal transformation and reaching one’s full potential, why are there so few personal guides on how to use emotional intelligence? Well, Enter Dr. Patrick Kilcarr, who has dedicated his life to studying and teaching EI and his latest book, Leading an Emotionally Intelligent Life: Expanding Your EI to Make Courageous Decisions and Transform Your Life, is the guide you're looking for. Dr. Kilcarr closes the gap between what is written about Emotional Intelligence and demonstrates what it looks and feels like to achieve and maintain it, especially if our formative years were paved with drama, trauma, and disappointment. This conversation is so thoughtful and riveting in the way Dr. Kilcarr gets us to think about the power of EI. And to tell you the truth, I'm not surprised. He is one of the leading experts in Emotional Intelligence and has been the Director of Georgetown University’s Center for Personal Development since 1999. Further, he is a master trainer in emotional intelligence and certifies professionals to use the EQ-i2.0 (the most valid and reliable self-assessment of emotional intelligence). All of his work is directed toward strengthening the individual with respect to his/her innate talents and abilities. You can find more about his teachings on his website. 

In this episode, Dr. K teaches us that:  Emotional intelligence is about understanding your emotions and how those emotions impact the relationships in your life and, conversely, the emotions of others and how they impact you. We can use emotional intelligence to get ahead of those things that may trigger us emotionally. To an extent, there is an emotional vibration that we begin to feel before the trigger occurs, and it is in those moments when we have a choice about how to navigate what is to come. We are sometimes so overly cautious in being politically correct, that it prohibits us from asking the tough questions to really get to know someone else. When you see an emotional cue from someone else, open the dialogue with a question. "Did I just do something to make you uncomfortable?" Conversely, when someone says something that triggers you, call attention to it and invite conversation.

One key component of EI is the recognition that we're all imperfect, most people have good intentions and to talk about it when a mistake is made. In that space, we can begin to make conscious changes. There are 4 things that indicate whether or not we're living a balanced, emotionally intelligent life: self-regard, relationships, optimism, and self-actualization in the frame of are we doing what we want in our lives right now?

And here we thought we had to start a damn podcast to build connections with you ladies out there. But, since I mentioned it, We DOOOO want to connect with YOU! We love you and hope you love Dr. Patrick's message in this episode about how powerful emotionally intelligent connections can be. We want YOU to join the conversation. Leave us a review, follow us on Instagram and join our FB group.