In this episode, Jenni details what it was like to overcome the experiences in her divorce that took place within herself.  Where she drew inspiration from and how she sees society has shaped how we view struggle.  She talks about how she couldn’t say no to anyone who showed interest in her and why.  How she transformed that way of being and where she had to look to do it. She talks about the importance of having support and also of doing the work she had to do in order to get to her best SELF. 

She shares with us a lot of the questions she asked herself at that time, which is why I find this episode to be a great starting point for anyone who is tired or done with feeling less than. Jenni builds a road in this episode that allows all of us to travel on, in whatever vehicle we may be riding in today. Enjoy!

In this episode we explore how it was never her intention of ending the marriage. What was important for the healing process to take hold and how she chose to not place herself in this kind of situation anymore. It’s about seeing a future worth living into and taking the steps, one at a time, to grow from the past that had you being less than the potential. 

This conversation is so good that if you will want to listen to it many times over.

In this episode we discover how having an affair was the communication. It was how she told herself and him that she wasn’t happy. She details how if she had gone to that extent to communicate, imagine how big of a need there was to take care of herself. A need sometimes given less significance when guided to make something work. An illusion we often get advised on without the adviser knowing all the details. 

Since then, Jenni  has done a lot of work to heal and forgive herself, along with everyone else that was involved. Inside that time frame she has discovered the importance of what a relationship is and the value of listening to oneself. How being caught up in the morality of keeping the promise can become shadowed by the commitment. How getting a divorce isn’t sometimes an option.  Even if it means being unhappy.

This episode reveals what happens when happiness is not a priority and the one friend who will tell you...

In this episode we meet Jenni Kephart, who has been divorced for 10 years and is a mother of a beautiful four year old boy. This interview was very special for me because of the content we speak of and who Jenni is. When I learned that she had cheated on her then husband a nerve was struck on my side and it wasn’t till the end of episode 19.1 that I realized why. I had never spoken with someone or understood what someone who cheats goes through. I only knew how to blame them for doing it.

Jenni shares how telling on herself about infidelity was her way of playing out a pattern. She explains how she did not think that the relationship would be over. How she expected anger and other things, but not for it to be over.  She explains how up until that point in her life she had always lived above the consequences.

She talks about her first six months and how the experience of divorce was also accompanied by the experience of sobriety. Early in the interview she expressed how the harder she tried to fix things, the worse it got. So she chose to stop drinking on the day she told him and hasn’t since.

I learned more than I was expecting with Jenni. At first I wanted to make her wrong for the things she did. Then, as I gave her a chance to tell her story I began to understand what we as people go through on both sides of a relationship. 

This whole series with Jenni is extremely vulnerable and I am grateful to her that she allowed us to listen. Although she would disagree. I think she is very courageous and as an audience you are very fortunate to hear what is going to share. 

In this final episode with Maria we summed up the secrets to her successful divorce process. The story of what it takes. It is the episode that brings everything together within her story and allows you to be complete about what she went through, how she got there and who she needed to be to have what she has. It’s the episode that tells you what happens when you stop asking the universe "why?".

Maria is a guest that I will always remember. My experience of listening to her gave me access to yet another layer of why this podcast and what is being said and heard is important. Listening to someone share their story and having it available serves everyone that may be going through or healing from a divorce. It is in the sharing that we release the hold on us. It is also in how we listen.

Till next time, thank you again for listening to us and remember to be vulnerable, it takes courage and it really does make a difference.

In this episode we learn the importance of asking for help and how Maria found her ability to ask.  She speaks about what she had to do and become in order to have help become available.  How time and circumstance shaped who she would become as a person.

She shares her story about being overweight and her then drinking problem.  How having her head right was the only answer to her most visible problem, her weight. She shares about what the weight signified and how letting it go also gave her access to let go of other stuff that came along with it.

You will listen about the tools she applied to get herself to where she wanted to be. From apps to structure, she details what her journey looked like and how she navigated it with the help of several elements.

By the end of the episode, you can literally download what she used and begin to apply it for yourself. 

In this episode we define how Maria went from rolex and yachts to not knowing how to set a goal. How being lonely is a choice and the point in the divorce where she just gave up and didn’t want the fight anymore. She explains how she was about to give it all away just to have peace. Then, on her 10th anniversary she walked into a lawyers office and learned that writing a letter to her husband would give her the ____________ she was searching for.  

She explains how in that letter she learned how _________ no longer existed. The relationship was just something that was ending. 

This episode gives you something different, something real and unexpected. It gives you her answers to what she was looking for when surrendering was the only option she had.

In this episode we learn that on Maria's 40th birthday, the marriage began to fall apart. After a life of being raised to want the three kids and the beautiful home, she was thinking that she had failed for not reaching that dream. She was convinced and had told herself repeatedly that she wanted those things.  It was not until she went to the root of her problems, to the breaking point, that she really analyzed it and discovered everything she faulted came back to her. To her anger issues, her resentments. It was all her.

She tells how if she dated you, it was because she could manipulate you. She shares how she would hit you below the belt because she was aware that you would take it. A method she developed within relationships. Hearing her say this you would think that she was a bad person, but as she continues to speak you begin to see her humanity and how ingrained her idea of what she thought she should be was far removed from who she was. 

In this episode you begin to understand how what is sometimes considered or viewed as ugly can slowly become the foundation for what is beautiful when you are honest with yourself, as well as others.

In this last episode with Michael, he gives us the reasons he is in his current extraordinary relationship. He shares what he would do differently standing from today and looking back at what happened. How he would have paid attention to what was being said and the importance of keeping promises in existence. 

The beauty of this conversation and guests like Michael is the ability to hear stories of perseverance and triumph over the past. Michael says something that buttoned up his entire conversation in just a few sentences. He said, “We are human beings, we are going to react. That is the design of us. The power lies inside of asking ourselves why are we reacting”.

And with that, I bid you farewell till our next interview. Thank you for allowing us to contribute to you and also for your listening. If you wish to seek out Michael, he can be reached through his website. https://www.opescoaching.com