Delicious Life™ - Self-Kindness, Less Servitude & Permission to Re-invent

I did not have on my radar at all becoming an actress again. In fact, when I gave up that dream at 17 years old, it felt clear I didn't have it in me to be a great performer. Now that I look back, I see, barely an adult, I made that decision with the weight of the world on me - three jobs, no time, hardly any parental support. I couldn't see it possible to compete against studying actors who had all the time to memorize scenes. I turned my back on acting, and got into the movies as a producer.

For decades I employed actors but never once in my brain did I let that acting dream re-emerge. It was buried so deep. It wasn't for me. Just for them.

As I built Delicious Life with little acts of self-kindness for myself, I opened up space to hear intuitive downloads that were informed by my self-love. My inner knowing returned to a place of organic trust, and I started to be open to new ideas of how to live my life. Rather than pressing forward ambitiously all the time to prove to the world I could be self-supporting, a great mom, a fantastic business owner, I let in the quiet voices that whispered "what if you acted again?"

Around that time, I was led to a woman who had come from the Tony Robbins camp. She knew with Delicious Life I wanted to be a more commanding speaker, for my events and on bigger stages inspiring women. She said the Meisner Method had changed her life, and while she was not acting, she had excelled in her field because she found her voice and confidence. I was sold. I signed up for six weeks, but received gifts in ways I never expected.

I loved acting. I was told I was good at it. Because I was doing it at mid-life already going through so many hardships and evolutions of who I was, I was willing to submerge myself in the work. I wasn't sensitive to critique. I was grateful for people to push me to expand my skills.

My life changed completely. I left one era, and entered another.

I had been spending a lot of my time wanting to get out of Los Angeles. Of course, I can still have that plan, and do. We can have lots of ideas and big visions when we are open to our dreams getting bigger. But I also want to take the time I have remaining here to lean into the opportunity to land an audition on a tv show or a film. To act in a play. To give back to that 17 year old what she was forced (or felt forced) to give up.

I can have plans to live in other parts of the world, while still exploring what is opening up for me.

You can do the same in your life. Don't fear when you go for one plan, another one opens. What if you could live a life with "Yes and..." versus constricting and over-serving others dreams all the time.

If you like this solo episide of Delicious Life, I also have a newsletter where I speak the Delicious tips, stories and ideas every week. You can sign up on my web site at https://liveyourdeliciouslife.com.

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A profound talk with Solana Prema Torres, a master yoga teacher, marriage & family therapist, Vedic astrologer and all around dynamic kick ass woman who has walked in the space from which she speaks her truth. This talk is not all Zen out mumbo jumbo but rather an honest apprasial of the ways as women we twist ourselves up in painful knots, allowing the rest of the world to take away our peace. We have the power of the breath, and while that can seem obvious, we walk around holding it in to stave off the bad news, or the expectations or the over-burdens thrown our way. No, there is no victimization here; in fact, we navigate in our conversation uplifting opportunites through movement, yoga and nature to ground ourselves into a space at any given moment that reminds us we have the right to our own decisions and dignity.

I think that you will be surprised by the scope of this talk, about the dynamic presence within all of us as women to walk through a new version of a Delicious Life.

You will walk away feeling hopeful and renewed, as well as that intimate feeling you get when women dynamically discuss the endless scope of the possibilities of our lives.

To learn more about Delicious Life, go to liveyourdeliciouslife.com.

To learn more about Solana's retreats to India, check out her Instagram at @Solana.Prema.

Integrative Nutrition Health Coach Iva Massa got into exercise and health coaching because she saw how it elevated her mood, and alleviated depression. Exercise and community at the local YMCA when she moved from Costa Rica, and was home with kids, helped her to keep a positive attitude. She soon dove into this profession, receiving countless certifications in heath and wellness.

In today's episode, we talk about how we can exercise in little bits all day. It doesn't require a massive training regiment. Knowing what feels right for your body and doing more of it consistently is the key to aging with self-love as we get older. That is why her slogan is healthy and strong, versus fit and hot!

Iva gives excellent tips on how to stay on target with working out and keeping your body active, and what I loved most about her is that she doesn't try and sell any products or boot camps. She shares how she coaches her clients in a steadfast but gentle way.

She also shares her tips for fun and joy, which are always helpful to hear in the go go go life!

Please check out more about Delicious Life at liveyourdeliciouslife.com

You can find Iva at www.strongandfitbyiva.com

Nothing sounds more delicious to me than having someone in my corner, who only cares about my physical well being so I can live the best existence in mid-life. That person understands the weird changes going on in our bodies after 40, through perimenopause, and menopause. Judy Wnuk became a coach certified to walk you through all the moving parts of your body in mid-life so you don't have to feel like a victim to the you that is no longer recognizable.

With menopause and nutrition as we age, media, friends, doctors will throw all the solutions at us. We can get overwhelmed by this juice cleanse, or rising cholesterol, and then add in the aching muscles and osteopenia. We go from bloating and digestive issues, right into brain fog alternating on a daily basis. So it's no wonder trying to manage our health when this is an area still so misunderstood by modern medicine is enough to put our head in the sand.

The truth is, this time in our life, as the wise crones, can be very rebvealing and rewarding. We get to be strong and able-bodied to live our life finally free of some of the hardest times on our bodies and mindes - raising little kids, or starting our careers. Why not, after decades of taking care of other people, take care of your health by working with someone who can be your health and wellness advocate?

Judy also understands the sandwich generation because she is right smack in it. She was caring for her mom and her grandmother, and her father until he passed, while raising her kids and working full time. She says you can't be a caregiver if you don't care for you. What people come to Judy typically for is they don't like how they look. Their bodies are changing, and she urges them to not try and be a younger version of their bodies but love the bodies they now have and care for them.

A wonderful opportunity to look at worthiness and self-trust.

This is your season of life and your body, and you get to be in charge. Don't let those voices in your head that are saying, 'Boy, it's, it's all downhill from here, win.

Judy gives us some tips on how she has Delicious fun.

If you want more tips and tools on how to live a delicious life, sign up for my Live Your Delicious Life newsletter at liveyourdeliciouslife.com

You can reach Judy at https://www.vitalher.coach

There is no perfect mom, and no reason to strive to be one. Rather, taking care of your mental health, desires and needs is the best way to create a balance in your life while knowing that working and raising kids is hectic.

And time, ah elusive time. How we wish we had so much more of it! The problem there lies in the fact that many of us would take that expanded time and just do more, instead of be. Yeah, you will take that one holiday, but back you go to overacheiving and thinking you have to do all at home and all at work all in 40-60 hours a week. That leaves little bandwidth for happy carefree fun.

What's that, asked every working mom?!

Myself and my guest Rebecca Olson, a coach for working moms, are right there alongside with you as moms running our own businesses. As someone who did DVD workouts while my little ones played in their bouncy seat, and took calls on the side of the road at soccer matches, I can tell you that I never got farther in my career by making myself frantic or nuts. If I could have known that back then, I would have let more happen naturally in my career versus running and gunning all the time. But we can only know what we know when we know it.

Which is why I thought an episode where we talk about moms, and work and time, was critical for Delicious Life. We do have sage advice about what we are putting ourselves through as working moms, and how we can relax and have more fun.

We can teach ourselves to feel new and exciting in the delicious without zero to 100 in some challenge that then is not sustainable. We do that when the motivation feels stronger than the discomfort of going after the dream. Then we can have our naggy kid make their own brownies when we get on that Zoom, and our partner watch the kids while we go Zumba.

Overcoming emotional discomfort is so much more the win than trying to make sense of time. There will never be enough so why try and make yourself crazy packing it in?

We wrap every episode with the guest sharing how they have fun, and it's solid advice if you don't have a fun list!

Check out more tools and tips on how to have a Delicious Life on my web site at liveyourdeliciouslife.com where you can sign up for the newsletter and also check out my events and zooms!

You can find Rebecca Olson and all her programs at www.rebeccaolsoncoaching.com/

I have to admit it was hard to title this interview with Mary McGreevy, creator and host of Tips From Dead People, because we covered everything from the act of writing an obit to the depth and weight of thinking through what you want to leave in this world long after you are gone as your signature of self.

Mary started reading obituaries decades ago for fun, and when she started to read them on Tik Tok and Instagram, hundreds of thousands of followers agreed with her belief - reading about the lives of people after they are gone is fascinating, deep, sad and hysterical.

As our talk unfolds, the alignment with delicious life is clear, - you are rarely remembered for your bank account or the awards on your mantle. It's the fact that you wore two different colored socks, or you always gave chocolates to the post man at holiday time.

As women, we struggle to give ourselves permission, and yet, Mary reads obits about women who have lived wild and unapologetic lives (many involve running from the law, but that is another story!) We think if we do anything out of the box, we are going to be slighted or disliked, but when you realize one day you are going to be dead, and all you have left is your story, you may want to reconsider what you give bandwidth to in your life.

What Mary has given us in her public reading of people's obituaries is that our lives are not what we have achieved by the length of our resume or our professional status, but rather our humanity and how we have interacted with and touched others. What has been our unique impact on those we get the privilege to know and love in this lifetime.

Mary highlights the layered and textured aspects of humanity by reading these obituaries which we forget is what connects us all.

I am intrigued to go and make a list of all the quirky stuff I know about myself, and even ask my partner to do it as well. Or you can ask your adult children to do it. It's not dark. We are all going to pass at some point, and in the process of living life, we can think about what mark we want to leave behind in a spiritual way once our body is no longer here.

Mary gives tips on how to write your own obit and she is currently working on her book!

You can follow her at https://www.instagram.com/tipsfromdeadpeople/

Kristen Noel knows about divorce. She, like so many of us, has experienced it twice. But she took it to the next level by becoming a certified intuitive divorce coach. As women tend to slog through, and beat themselves up while pushing to get to the other side of something as painful as divorce, help is available and deserved.

It's not your fault you want to move on. You are not selfish or self-centered. You are not burning down the castle of dreams. You have decided you are complete with this marital scenario and want different.

Our society makes it hard for women to move on. There has to be a host of reasons, and for some of us, there are. But for others, it's no longer a fit.

But what about the kid? Oh my God, how could you? The guilt, the shame, all the stuff. That's what Kristen works through in a gentle but firm way in helping women navigate a "smart divorce" with an "evidence bank" of wins.

Her evidence bank concept was so aligned to my Delicious Life (and I adore her as a friend) I had to bring her on to the show to share with my "sandwich generation" listeners that there is a path through divorce that makes it a bit easier.

Like life has its ebbs and flows, so does divorce, and it's in the waiting periods, after the dust settles that the doubts and feelings come in.

Join us as we talk about how women may give the marriage a second chance (but usually change their mind and are back for coaching round 2...)and also, what Kristen does for fun and her self care.

I want anyone listening here to understand, through divorce, one still can have self-kindness and love, even when it seems like the world is shifting off its access. Dinners with friends, and beach days, and walks in the park, all teach you that random self-kindness that you find when its all said and done is now a part of who you are.

How we treat ourselves in the trenches, is how we can treat ourselves outside of them.

Kristen has a process to bridge the gap between strategy and self-care with the women she coaches and that couldn't be more delicious. You can find her at https://intuitivedivorce.com

My Live Your Delicious Life newsletter is on fire these days - dropping the mad self-kindness tips and tools for all areas of your life. Highly recommend a join so you don't miss my live Exhale events, as well as more podcast guests!

New here? Start with this one. This is my story — and probably a little bit of yours too.

At 44, I was a single mom with two kids, no savings, and everything to prove.

So I did what so many of us do - I worked harder, gave more, pushed further. I overworked. I overpleased. I said yes when I meant no and kept producing results to prove I was worthy, capable, enough.

And then my body said: not so fast.

The panic attacks started. Not as a breakdown - as a message. My nervous system was waving a white flag, telling me I had been last on my own list for so long I had forgotten I was even on it.

So I started small. I looked at trees in the sunshine. I danced in my apartment. I laughed with friends. I started stealing tiny moments back for myself - what I now call Delicious Moments.

This is that story. And if you're in the messy middle right now, running on empty, holding everyone else together - this one is for you.

Start here. 🌻

Loved this episode? Join Live Your Delicious Life — my free weekly newsletter for women in the messy middle. One story. One act of self-kindness. Every Tuesday. → Sign up here: liveyourdeliciouslife.kit.com.

Take a minute, like give yourself a second to pause, and you may realize you don't want to do something. What? The idea of that is wild to so many of us.

Choices? WTF?

You have the right to take some space in between shit before making a decision or a move. You can say to yourself and others, let me think on this.

That is gutsy and this is what Laura Aura, my guest this week, is all about.

What makes her a Delicious guest is she stands for the understanding that what we have and need could be so easily right before us, if we pivot with desire. Ask, what do I want?

Again, a big mind blow.

Within the desire to have a more peaceful life where we are not running around constantly over performing, there are miracles of uniqueness and acheivements that we didn't even see on our landscape. Those gentle surprises where we say, "I want a peaceful home. I like being home. I like living in this country, or this city."

And we don't have to explain why.

Laura shares about her book writing journey (something I know quite a bit about as a former book coach) and we talk about the humbling permission to write a book.

You will leave this interview on fire, and with a new agency to create deliciously in your life.

You can find my newsletter - Live Your Delicious Life - here. I also am having The Exhale events in June and July which can be accessed through the newsletter.

You can learn more about Laura here.

As always, rate and review so more women can find us. Thank you!

Sure, you may have divorced your ex, but you raised kids with him co-parenting for twenty years and then unexpectedly, he dies.

A hole is left in your life, but mourning can be complicated, and perhaps your current partner doesn't understand. Or your job doesn't see that as an immediate family member and expects you to show up for your job.

What about the grief when you child gets a diagnosis of Autism or OCD and you realize that they will have to work harder than other kids to get through life. Or that it will be more on your plate as a mom, juggling two other kids.

Or someone you knew in recovery commits suicide due to addiction, and it hits you square in the heart, but feels bigger than it should?

As women, we are navigating so many complex seemingly (to society mourning standards) minor losses and griefs every day, but we are expected to just take them on in our bodies and shoulder forward to all our responsibilities. To even stop for a moment and breathe can seem like too much time in our busy schedules but if we don't face the trauma and pain, we can get derailed in other emotional ways.

Speaking today with Krista Hellman, a social worker and founder of the Trauma and Grief Institute in Ottawa, Ontario, I learned a lot about how we need to process attachment and mourning in our bodies.

Krista wrote a book about the loss of her dog called Over ther Rainbow: The Love, Loss & Legacy of Your Dog, but it is about more than pet loss. She speaks of how connection can be continued beyond loss.

Please rate and review this episode if you enjoyed it.

I have a newsletter, Live Your Delicious Life, where you can learn more about my events, The Exhale: Put Yourself First where we discover ways to bring more Delicious into your life.