This week’s episode is a lookback lesson with Andrea Owen on "How to Stop Feeling Like Shit." This episode originally aired earlier this year, when her second book came out. Andrea Owen is an author, mentor, and certified life coach who helps high-achieving women let go of perfectionism, control, and isolation and choose courage and confidence instead. She has helped thousands of women manage their inner-critic to create loving connections and live their most kick-ass life.

I loved this episode because Andrea and I talk about people pleasing, perfecting, approving and performing, and our experience with all of them. What I love is that near the end of this interview, we talk about the myth of having to “be strong” as women, and how that can be both a habit and burden that is not necessarily serving us.

We also talk about:

• How to Stop Feeling Like Shit (her new book)
• Andrea studying with Brene Brown in 2014 and how that influenced her life and this book
• how the armor we build up works, until it doesn’t, and what happens next
• boundaries and how to set them
• the cycle of pleasing, perfecting, approving, performing
• how women (and all people) avoid shame, and why we do it
• the 14 common behaviors that we all do when things get hard in life, and why they aren’t serving us
• how feeling and acknowledging the pain in our lives opens us up to more joy
• Andrea’s earliest memories of joy
• how she will be “stepping up and stepping forward” this year
• Andrea’s thoughts on how to jumpstart your joy: make room for creativity

Resources: How to Stop Feeling Like Shit by Andrea Owen (on Amazon) 52 Ways to Live a KickAss Life by Andrea Owen (on Amazon) – her first book Your Kickass Life – Andrea’s website The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks (on Amazon)