“Clutter is stuck energy. The word "clutter" derives from the Middle English word "clotter," which means to coagulate - and that's about as stuck as you can get.” ~ Karen Kingston

Guest Introduction: 

I’m Cindy MacMillan, and welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life. You’re listening to episode 76.

This is a podcast about beginnings, endings and the messy bits in-between. Self-love, well-being, and mindset are at the heart of our conversations because I believe the way we feel about ourselves on the inside determines what we will create for ourselves on the outside.  

If this is your first time joining me, I’m especially glad you’re here. I often say this is a podcast that has followed the breadcrumbs of my own interests and healing journey.  

Today’s interview is part of a self-care series called Life in Full Bloom: Living From the Inside Out and I am delighted to introduce my guest today, Jillian Rothschild-Scholar.

Jillian is a Feng Shui practitioner and she helps ambitious people who are feeling like there’s something a bit ‘off’ in their life so they are unable to choose which direction to go, get clarity and accelerate their results. She uses Feng Shui and other tools, such as Chinese Astrology and divination, in her practice. These resources can be especially helpful for people who need support with their own self-cultivation, creativity, and personal growth. That is to say, living in an environment where the energy is supportive and nurturing helps us get closer to our heart’s desires.

Here’s a glimpse of our conversation:

Hi, Jillian. Thanks so much for joining me today. 

2:22 So from a business perspective, exploring the seasons of life means to me the opportunity to grow and expand. From a Feng Shui perspective, what we're aiming to do with Feng Shui is increase a person's quotient of luck. And when we have luck, we have opportunity.

4:12 Feng Shui is the Chinese art and science of bringing harmony and balance into any environment. And when we're in an environment that is harmonious and balanced, and makes us feel good, then it's just easier to achieve the things that we want in life, like well-being, abundance, good health, and happiness.

9:42 So usually people come to Feng Shui for one of three things: health, wealth, or relationship issues.

11:57 Well, when it's done correctly, it works because it connects to your personal energy. So in my practice of classical Feng Shui, what I'm doing is I'm working with the orientation of the building, I'm working with the energy of the people, and I'm working with the right timing.

16:54 So this is not a classical Feng Shui recommendation. But this is something that's very common that you will hear all the time, we really do need to deal with our clutter. Because Feng Shui addresses, now, not cleanliness, necessarily. But when we talk about dealing with clutter, we're addressing fullness versus emptiness.

41:52 With a Discovery Session, we can really talk about making a recommendation that's a good fit for you. So, it really becomes a tailored experience.

You can find Jillian Rothschild-Scholar at:  Website Instagram Facebook  If you LOVED this conversation with Jillian Rothschild-Scholar you’ll also love the conversations we had with:

Rediscover Your Brilliance with Jamie Martin

Redefining Death with Jessica Wertz

Your Clutter is a Teacher with Star Hansen

Finding Your Inner Peace with Lydia Knoor

Knowing and Believing you are Worth the Time with Justine Hwang

Putting More Love Into The World With Zita Christian 

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode and you’d like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or

head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Leaving a rating and review helps to improve rankings in iTunes, it shows engagement which may

attract sponsors and is essential for the podcast to be discovered by new listeners + it would mean the world to me.

 

Here's How to Leave a Review in iTunes From Your Phone 

1. Launch the Apple Podcast app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Tap the Search icon (on the bottom right) and search for “Exploring the Seasons of Life.”

3. Tap the album art.

3. Scroll down to Ratings & Reviews.

5. At the bottom of the page tap on “Write a Review”.

6. If you’re not already signed into iTunes, you will be asked to enter your iTunes password to login.

7. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a scale of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the best. Tap the Stars to leave a rating.

8. Enter a review title and submit a brief honest review.

9. Tap Send. 

Thanks again, Until next time live inspired!

“As the heart revives, many people find a new life beneath their sorrow.” ~ Stephen Levine

Guest Introduction: 

I’m Cindy MacMillan, and welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life. You’re listening to episode 75.

This is a podcast about beginnings, endings and the messy bits in-between. Self-love, well-being, and mindset are at the heart of our conversations because I believe the way we feel about ourselves on the inside determines what we will create for ourselves on the outside.  

If this is your first time joining me, I’m especially glad you’re here. I often say this is a podcast that has followed the breadcrumbs of my own interests and healing journey; it’s for professional and midlife women navigating life transitions, in all of its forms. In our hearts, we all know that death is a part of life, and we are becoming aware that grief is showing up in so many other areas of our lives: from new motherhood to a special need's diagnosis, job loss, divorce, having an empty nest, and even the loss of a pet. And now collectively during COVID-19.  

Today’s interview is part of a self-care series called Life in Full Bloom: Living From the Inside Out and I am delighted to introduce my guest today, Jessica Wertz.

As an artist, adventurer and visionary Jessica has spent more than a decade as a self-employed ceramic artist living in seven different states. After establishing her career in the San Francisco Bay Area, she moved to the deep woods of Oregon to build a studio where she spent years living in the wilderness. During this time she had deeper conversation and insight around living consciously and creating from that space. 

Jessica feels a deep sense of curiosity for the journey of the soul and how we weave our love in this world and into the next.

Here’s a glimpse of our conversation:

Hi, Jessica. Thanks so much for joining me today.

4:26  And then there's this gentle reminder that comes in and, and you say this to yourself, no, I'm, I'm in a cycle of my life. I'm here for a reason I can trust why I'm here in this cycle. And what I'm going through right now is really important for me to experience the next thing, and I need to learn this, whatever this is. 

5:50 Spirit Vessel is a company that my sister and I have formed together. And it is basically helping people create personalized celebration of life ceremonies, to honor those who have passed. And to do that in a way that feels very unique and individualized to the person. 

8:13  We live in a culture that doesn't recognize death as a sacred transition as simply a part of life. And because of that, and then this really goes back to living in the cycles of life. Like we don't see ourselves cyclically living we see ourselves linearly living and we're terrified of the end, for what that would mean, you know, but if we were to bring into our lives, a sense of we are nature, we come from, you know, spirit world, but we are of Earth, just as everything else is here, and really a deeper understanding of how important death is. 

23:00 Because I'll tell you, it'll just keep coming up and it's gonna come up uglier every time. And then you'll start feeling, you know, experiencing other emotions and taking it out on the people you love and everything else. So, tend to yourself first, attend to your heart. Let yourself be in it. Let yourself cry, find a day find time for yourself. 

24:30 So I'm reading a book right now by Stephen Jenkinson called Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul and it is extremely beautiful and his perspective on death in this culture is so helpful, and it's one we've really lost. We've really lost the context. And he just really helps bring in a fuller perspective of death after his years in hospice work and really being with people through the process. So that's a gorgeous book.

You can find Jessica Wertz at:  Website Instagram Facebook  If you LOVED this conversation with Jessica Wertz you’ll also love the conversations we had with:

Rediscover Your Brilliance with Jamie Martin

Your Clutter is a Teacher with Star Hansen

Finding Your Inner Peace with Lydia Knoor

Knowing and Believing you are Worth the Time with Justine Hwang

Putting More Love Into The World With Zita Christian

 Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode and you’d like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or

head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Leaving a rating and review helps to improve rankings in iTunes, it shows engagement which may

attract sponsors and is essential for the podcast to be discovered by new listeners + it would mean the world to me. 

Here's How to Leave a Review in iTunes From Your Phone 

1. Launch the Apple Podcast app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Tap the Search icon (on the bottom right) and search for “Exploring the Seasons of Life.”

3. Tap the album art.

3. Scroll down to Ratings & Reviews.

5. At the bottom of the page tap on “Write a Review”.

6. If you’re not already signed into iTunes, you will be asked to enter your iTunes password to login.

7. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a scale of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the best. Tap the Stars to leave a rating.

8. Enter a review title and submit a brief honest review.

9. Tap Send. 

Thanks again, Until next time live inspired!

“Each person’s grief is as unique as their fingerprint. But what everyone has in common is that no matter how they grieve, they share a need for their grief to be witnessed.” ~ David Kessler

 Guest Introduction: 

I’m Cindy MacMillan, and welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life. You’re listening to episode 74.

This podcast is for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey. Each week I interview coaches and spiritual explorers about beginnings, endings + the messy bits in-between. Self-love, well-being and mindset are at the heart of our conversations because once you change the inside, the outside will begin to change as well.

If this is your first time joining me, I’m especially glad you’re here. I often say this podcast that has followed the breadcrumbs of my own interests and healing journey. 

Today’s interview is part of a self-care series called Life in Full Bloom: Living From the Inside Out and I am delighted to introduce my guest today, Laura Warfel.  

Laura is the founder and Chief Encouragement Officer of More Than A Widow, a ministry to help widows live beyond the label and find their more. At age 45, she became a widow and finally understood the depth of loss in that experience. She is also a writer and public speaker.

Here’s a glimpse of our conversation: 

Hi, Laura. Thanks so much for joining me today. 

1:37 Each season has something new for us to learn and to do and to experience. We need to look for what that is, we need to embrace it. We need to find our more and live our more. And one thing I've learned in my life is that remaining stuck in the past brings only stagnation and aloneness. We must keep moving forward and looking forward.

5:00  In 2016, I launched More than a Widow; website, Facebook, Twitter, and a blog. And I just began putting it out there. And it's just amazing to me, the more that you risk putting yourself out there, the more other people will resonate with you, and the more they will be willing to share with you.

6:50 When people find out that a woman is a widow, they often act or react differently toward her.

9:03 Sometimes women want to hide behind that label of being a widow, they want to use it as an excuse for not going on with their lives. And that's, that's a very easy thing to do. Because I found and I'm sure there would be other widows who would agree with me on this, that isolation and isolating are probably the widow's biggest enemies for going on with life, building new relationships. Finding new things to do, it just gets way too easy to isolate and withdraw.

11:53 So the ideal is people will walk with you and help you and be there for you and stay with you. But often, that really isn't what happens. And that's, that's a difficult blow. Because a lot of times we think that people there are people we can count on, and people who will always be there. But when a loss happens that really tests a lot of relationships.

22:53 Well, and our culture, in general doesn't want to talk about death, doesn't want to talk about dying, doesn't want to plan for that, because that's not going to happen to me, or that's not going to happen to my husband. So that denial also is really powerful in those situations.

 You can find Laura Warfel at:

 Website Facebook YouTube If you LOVED this conversation with Laura Warfel you’ll also love the conversations we had with:

Your Clutter is a Teacher with Star Hansen

Rediscover Your Brilliance with Jamie Martin

Finding Your Inner Peace with Lydia Knoor

Knowing and Believing you are Worth the Time with Justine Hwang

Self-care and Showing up in our Lives with Gina Bell

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode and you’d like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or

head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Leaving a rating and review helps to improve rankings in iTunes, it shows engagement which may

attract sponsors and is essential for the podcast to be discovered by new listeners + it would mean the world to me. 

Here's How to Leave a Review in iTunes From Your Phone 

1. Launch the Apple Podcast app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Tap the Search icon (on the bottom right) and search for “Exploring the Seasons of Life.”

3. Tap the album art.

3. Scroll down to Ratings & Reviews.

5. At the bottom of the page tap on “Write a Review”.

6. If you’re not already signed into iTunes, you will be asked to enter your iTunes password to login.

7. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a scale of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the best. Tap the Stars to leave a rating.

8. Enter a review title and submit a brief honest review.

9. Tap Send. 

Thanks again, Until next time live inspired!

“If we don't attack the heart of the issue - the fear, guilt, and shame in our lives that cause us to buy what we don't really need - we are going to use that clutter to build our own prisons and keep us from connecting with others.” ~ Kathi Lipp

 Guest Introduction: 

I’m Cindy MacMillan, and welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life. You’re listening to episode 73.

This podcast is for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey. Each week I interview coaches and spiritual explorers about beginnings, endings + the messy bits in-between. Self-love, well-being and mindset are at the heart of our conversations because once you change the inside, the outside will begin to change as well.

If this is your first time joining me, I’m especially glad you’re here. I often say this podcast that has followed the breadcrumbs of my own interests and healing journey. 

Today’s interview is part of a self-care series called Life in Full Bloom: Living From the Inside Out and I am delighted to introduce my guest today, Star Hansen.

Star Hansen is a Certified Professional Organizer and Clutter Whisperer who helps people use their clutter to overcome blocks in their lives. Her unique approach has been featured on HGTV, OWN, TLC, Style, A&E, and TEDx.

Here’s a glimpse of our conversation:

Hi, Star. Thanks so much for joining me today.

2:00 I'm in the middle of developing a class right now called The Meaning of Stuff that's launching in September. It's so incredible, because my whole career, I've been able to track what the clutter means, like what the symbolism of people's where you have your clutter and what your clutter is, tells me a whole story about your life. 

3:33 You know, it's funny because when you think about it, it's disorder, it’s untidy, clutter is it's a crowd, it's a mess. And yet, and yet something can look like a mess to one person and feel like home to someone else. So, it's subjective. 

5:11 I was on the phone with a client for two hours today, discerning the symbolism of their storage areas, and how it's not just, it's not cut and dry. It's like an onion, there's, you know, you're not a simple being, we're complex beings as humans, and we have lots of, you know, emotions and, you know, journeys tied in. 

16:56 Or maybe you make a sign that says creative party in place. And you know, create a party in progress and you hang it on the wall. And you say you can come in. But this is a laboratory of creativity, and you don't mess with my creative Juju. Like you just claim that you set that intention. That's like yeah, that's not welcome here because we're in the middle of something. 

18:29 So the interesting thing about clutter is that it is rarely one sided. So, the client I was talking to today, her clutter was inviting her to step into her purpose to really choose to step into her purpose. At the same time, that clutter was inviting her to punish herself. So, it was doing both. 

28:21 So keeping an entire house of stuff doesn't serve us because the more we keep the less we see. And what I've done for the people that I love dearly who've passed away is I'll create a box or two of items from them that mean the most to me. So, journals, clothes, things that smell like them, like I had my grandpa's shirt in a Ziplock bag for years before the smell went away. But what you want to do is create a box or somewhere that you can go and revisit that loved one.

37:23 Thank you so much, Cindy, this was such a treat. And thank you to everyone for listening. It's really wonderful to connect energetically with you all.

You can find Star Hansen at:

 Website Instagram Facebook YouTube

Freebie: 10 Things you Can Organize in 20 Minutes or Less www.starhansen.com/checklist

 If you LOVED this conversation with Star Hansen you’ll also love the conversations we had with:

Rediscover Your Brilliance with Jamie Martin

The Resilient Family with Amy Saloner

Finding Your Inner Peace with Lydia Knoor

Knowing and Believing you are Worth the Time with Justine Hwang

Self-care and Showing up in our Lives with Gina Bell

 Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode and you’d like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or

head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Leaving a rating and review helps to improve rankings in iTunes, it shows engagement which may

attract sponsors and is essential for the podcast to be discovered by new listeners + it would mean the world to me. 

Here's How to Leave a Review in iTunes From Your Phone 

1. Launch the Apple Podcast app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Tap the Search icon (on the bottom right) and search for “Exploring the Seasons of Life.”

3. Tap the album art.

3. Scroll down to Ratings & Reviews.

5. At the bottom of the page tap on “Write a Review”.

6. If you’re not already signed into iTunes, you will be asked to enter your iTunes password to login.

7. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a scale of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the best. Tap the Stars to leave a rating.

8. Enter a review title and submit a brief honest review.

9. Tap Send. 

Thanks again, Until next time live inspired!

“Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.” ~ Rabbi Hyman Schachtel

Guest Introduction: 

I’m Cindy MacMillan, and welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life. You’re listening to episode 72.

This podcast is for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey. Each week I interview coaches and spiritual explorers about beginnings, endings + the messy bits in-between. Self-love, well-being and mindset are at the heart of our conversations because once you change the inside, the outside will begin to change as well.

Today’s interview is part of a self-care series called Life in Full Bloom: Living From the Inside Out.  

I am delighted to introduce my guest today, Kate Moody.  

As a musician with a sensitive attunement to energy Kate has found that all life experiences - joy,  adversity, stress, loss, success - can be powerful inspiration for personal growth. She developed the original Connect & Glow exercise, “Brain Glow,” in a search for healing from a profound depression in the early 2000s; the practice has grown to be a tool for upliftment and vibrant aliveness.

Here’s a glimpse of our conversation: 

Hi, Kate. Thanks so much for joining me today. 

2:30 Acceptance means just saying, this is how it is, and I'm going to work with that to find my joy in this moment. And when I say joy, I don't mean I have to be ecstatic about everything but finding that ground, that our inner peace and our inner love that that makes everything fine, and sometimes even ecstatic and sometimes very contemplative.

4:29 Yes, and finding the beauty, one time I was up in Washington state which gets very dark in the winter. Not as dark as Alaska, but it's quite dark. And I was on a ferry boat in the Eagle Harbor looking at the gray, gray, gray everywhere gray. And I thought okay, I've got to find some beauty in this. And I looked at this island in the trees and you could almost see lavender. Ah, lavender shadows.

6:06 The music is sort of like a spring that's inside of me. It's not something that I ever thought, oh, I want to be a musician. It just came through me. So, I was the girl who was if there was a piano in the room, I was almost magnetically attracted to it.

21:47 Well, part of it is, is understanding that everybody has got stuff, you know, and we don't know what the pain is, what the backstory is that creates this, whatever the behavior is, that's the number one step. So that's compassion.

35:33 But I had a young man I was dating at the time, whose mother had a couple of friends who were existentialists, and I was like, oh, I want to be an existentialist even though I had no idea what that was. But, you know, there was that draw to philosophy. So, I would say, yeah, that's real, you know, follow that. And I would also say that really to anyone, you know, follow whatever the promptings are. Follow that and find people who can show you how to follow it.

 You can find Kate Moody at:

 Website Facebook If you LOVED this conversation with Kate Moody you’ll also love the conversations we had with:

Rediscover Your Brilliance with Jamie Martin

The Resilient Family with Amy Saloner

Finding Your Inner Peace with Lydia Knoor 

Knowing and Believing you are Worth the Time with Justine Hwang 

Resources:

Here is URL for YouTube Channel which has Connect & Glow meditations (Connect the Dots, Being Glow, Guiding Star, Alleviating Loneliness, Releasing Anxiety, Ho'oponopono, All Heart): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxhbhCNCNRNTlapN8xhl-mg

This video of the poem "Thank You" has the beginning of Lavender Shadows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ0BLDt_ctA&t=2s

This is a channel maintained by cdbaby that has music from six of Kate’s albums: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV9mbQtoFkLNHZX2SjVriPg/featured

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode and you’d like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Leaving a rating and review helps to improve rankings in iTunes, it shows engagement which may attract sponsors and is essential for the podcast to be discovered by new listeners + it would mean the world to me. 

Here's How to Leave a Review in iTunes From Your Phone 

1. Launch the Apple Podcast app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Tap the Search icon (on the bottom right) and search for “Exploring the Seasons of Life.”

3. Tap the album art.

3. Scroll down to Ratings & Reviews.

5. At the bottom of the page tap on “Write a Review”.

6. If you’re not already signed into iTunes, you will be asked to enter your iTunes password to login.

7. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a scale of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the best. Tap the Stars to leave a rating.

8. Enter a review title and submit a brief honest review.

9. Tap Send. 

Thanks again, Until next time live inspired!

“To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.” ~ Pema Chodron

Guest Introduction: 

Welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life, a podcast for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey. I’m your host Cindy MacMillan and I’m joined today by Bethany Dotson.

Each week, I interview coaches and spiritual explorers from all walks of life about beginnings, endings and the messy bits in-between. Self-love, well-being, and mindset are at the heart of our conversations because once you change the inside, the outside will begin to change as well. 

This interview is part of a self-care series called Life in Full Bloom: Living From the Inside Out. You may be wondering - wait - what does she mean - Living From the Inside Out.  I believe the way we feel about ourselves on the inside determines what we will create for ourselves on the outside.

Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast. I am delighted you are here and thanks for hanging out with me. I can’t wait to share today’s guest.

Bethany Dotson is trauma-informed yoga therapist and relationship coach with over a decade of experience helping professional, high-achieving women heal anxiety, C/PTSD, find their power and skyrocket their confidence after divorce or toxic relationships, communicate better, navigate conflict and most importantly, co-create healthy relationships.

She is a domestic violence and childhood trauma survivor who helps women triumph over trauma, break their cycle of emotionally unavailable men and attract the love they deeply desire.

Here’s a glimpse of our conversation:

Bethany, welcome to the podcast. 

2:08 Exploring the Seasons of Life, to me, means being fully present, even when things are falling apart and not running away from turbulence or emotional pain or not being, you know, I want to say not being too attached to life needing to be a certain way in order for you to be okay. Being fully present with what life is bringing you. 

4:55 My focus is complex trauma. So, people who've endured relationship pain, relationship is the area, one of the areas in our life that can be the most flourishing and the most amazing, and unfortunately, I think it's over 80% of trauma that people suffer is in the context of a relationship where they're supposed to feel safe, so I know that very well.  

6:44 It can be very easy to ignore the signals that your body is giving you or feel them, and then override them because we're running away from pain. 

7:38 So the first way is just becoming emotionally present with themselves. And when someone's stuffed, who they are, or cut off parts of who they are. And we do this, ironically, to make a relationship feel safe. 

14:04 I do believe that self-awareness is so key.  

20:48 Because when we have trauma, we tend to live in our head a lot, and override the instincts in our body. And we say, I can't trust anybody, what really is happening, you're not trusting yourself. 

28:30 I would tell her because my 18-year-old self was in a pretty painful period in my life, it gets better. And everything that you're experiencing is serving you. It's for you. It's not happening to you. It's happening for you, for your evolvement right, bodybuilders go to the gym, and they get under a lot of pressure, and they lift heavy weights so that they can develop a physique. And we have the same we have to go through pressure situations so that we can meet some resistance so that it helps us grow.

 You can find Bethany Dotson at:  Website Instagram  If you LOVED this conversation with Bethany Dotson you’ll also love the conversations we had with:

Rediscover Your Brilliance with Jamie Martin

The Resilient Family with Amy Saloner

Finding Your Inner Peace with Lydia Knoor 

Knowing and Believing you are Worth the Time with Justine Hwang

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode and you’d like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or

head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Leaving a rating and review helps to improve rankings in iTunes, it shows engagement which may

attract sponsors and is essential for the podcast to be discovered by new listeners + it would mean the world to me.

 

Here's How to Leave a Review in iTunes From Your Phone 

1. Launch the Apple Podcast app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Tap the Search icon (on the bottom right) and search for “Exploring the Seasons of Life.”

3. Tap the album art.

3. Scroll down to Ratings & Reviews.

5. At the bottom of the page tap on “Write a Review”.

6. If you’re not already signed into iTunes, you will be asked to enter your iTunes password to login.

7. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a scale of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the best. Tap the Stars to leave a rating.

8. Enter a review title and submit a brief honest review.

9. Tap Send. 

Thanks again, Until next time live inspired!

“Over and over, we begin again.” ~ Banana Yoshimoto

 Guest Introduction: 

Welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life, a podcast for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey. I’m your host Cindy MacMillan and I’m joined today by Justine Hwang.

Each week, I interview coaches and spiritual explorers from all walks of life about beginnings, endings and the messy bits in-between. Self-love, well-being, and mindset are at the heart of our conversations because once you change the inside, the outside will begin to change as well. 

This interview is part of a self-care series called Life in Full Bloom: Living From the Inside Out. You may be wondering - wait - what does she mean - Living From the Inside Out.  I believe the way you feel about yourself on the inside will ultimately determine what you will create for yourself on the outside.

Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast. I am delighted you are here and thanks for hanging with us today.

Justine Hwang is a burnout survivor, social impact calligrapher, and creative workshop facilitator. She is passionate about creating spaces where art and conversation become a bridge to explore self-awareness around topics like mental health and racism, both at a personal and societal level. She crafts experiences that empower compassionate doers to build a sustainable life with intention, so they can impact their world from a full heart. She brings 20 years of experience in leadership and spiritual development, adult education, and communication in the non profit start up world.

Here’s a glimpse of our conversation:

Justine, welcome to the podcast.

3:59  If we even think about, literally the seasons, winter, spring, summer and fall, that applies on a daily basis, right, we wake up first thing in the morning, it's spring, we move into a summer energy during the day, we move into a fall energy in the evening. And then in the winter is like sleeping hibernation time, right? It happens on a weekly schedule to like, what's your energy, like at the beginning on a Monday versus on a Saturday, it's going to be different, quarterly, and annually, etc. So for me the seasons of life really means paying attention, listening, acknowledging and not trying to push through the slower seasons, which is easier said than done.  

5:46 When we think of self-care, or we think of creativity, we typically think just ourselves, or if we think calligraphy, we think pretty letters, and we think weddings, and, you know, like vow renewals and poems, which can be that for sure. But for me, my life and my message is all about connection to ourselves, to other people, and to the world. So, self-care for me is not just about caring for myself, actually, I don't even like the term because it's so overused. So self-advocacy is a term I've heard somebody use that really resonates with me.  

12:46 So the intention behind the workshop, or that space really is to give space to validate the hard things.  

16:31 I feel like the biggest first step with this, that’s a constant muscle to exercise is first knowing and believing that you're worth the time.  

33:07 I think comparison also gets in the way of our sense of creativity. I think being creative is very vulnerable.

You can find Justine Hwang at:  Website Instagram Facebook  If you LOVED this conversation with Justine Hwang you’ll also love the conversations we had with:

Rediscover Your Brilliance with Jamie Martin

The Resilient Family with Amy Saloner

Finding Your Inner Peace with Lydia Knoor

YOU are an Awesome Mama with Deborah Ann Davis

 Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode and you’d like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or

head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Leaving a rating and review helps to improve rankings in iTunes, it shows engagement which may

attract sponsors and is essential for the podcast to be discovered by new listeners + it would mean the world to me. 

Here's How to Leave a Review in iTunes From Your Phone 

1. Launch the Apple Podcast app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Tap the Search icon (on the bottom right) and search for “Exploring the Seasons of Life.”

3. Tap the album art.

3. Scroll down to Ratings & Reviews.

5. At the bottom of the page tap on “Write a Review”.

6. If you’re not already signed into iTunes, you will be asked to enter your iTunes password to login.

7. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a scale of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the best. Tap the Stars to leave a rating.

8. Enter a review title and submit a brief honest review.

9. Tap Send. 

Thanks again, Until next time live inspired!

“All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them.” ~ Erma Bombeck

 Guest Introduction: 

Welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life, a podcast for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey. I’m your host Cindy MacMillan and I’m joined today by Deborah Ann Davis.

Each week, I interview coaches and spiritual explorers from all walks of life about beginnings, endings and the messy bits in-between. Self-love, well-being, and mindset are at the heart of our conversations because once you change the inside, the outside will begin to change as well. 

This interview is part of a self-care series called Life in Full Bloom: Living From the Inside Out. You may be wondering - wait - what does she mean - Living From the Inside Out.  I believe the way we feel about ourselves on the inside determines what we will create for ourselves on the outside.

Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast. I am delighted you are here and thanks for hanging out with me. I can’t wait to share today’s guest.

You're doing better than you think. As a Parenting Life Coach, author, speaker, former science teacher and mother, Deborah’s job is to help you recognize what you’re doing right, and to add supplemental strategies. Her books “How To Keep Your Daughter From Slamming the Door” and “How To Get Your Happy On” are available everywhere.

On July 31, Deborah and two of her colleagues are offering the third of a 4-part series of free seminars called "Talk About Teens" for parents of tweens and teens. This one is on how to rock the return to school after that weird year we just had. 

Join her Facebook group, The Mom Meet-Up, or email her at [email protected] for more information. You don’t have to go it alone.

Here’s a glimpse of our conversation:

Deborah, welcome to the podcast. 

5:15 I taught for many years, and I taught a group of children who happens to be in a huge transition. It's called puberty. And they are very emotional and very insecure. And absolutely, positively convinced that everybody's got it together, except them. 

5:46 Parents all think that all the other parents have it together, and they're screwing up their kid's life. And really, they're doing way better than they think they are. If you just look at how great your kid is, you could see the evidence of what you've done right. 

8:07 And that's the mistake we all make is we compare ourselves to everybody around us, you know, we compare our clothing and our makeup and our hair, and the behavior of our children and the success of our children and of the relationship we're having with our significant other. And I mean, we never look at ourselves and say, wow, I am in a better place now than I was a year ago. 

11:15 I wish somebody had said to me, baby steps, Deborah baby steps, all you have to do is worry about today. So, all you people out there, I’m that voice, I'm saying that to you right now, you are doing better than you think. And all you have to do is take the baby steps to move yourself forward. That's all you have to do. 

30:13 That's what an awesome mom is, you think your screwing up. But what you're doing is showing your child you're resilient. You don't have to be perfect, it's not real. And trying for perfection is the exact same thing is trying for anxiety. And if you are modeling an attempt to be perfect, then you're doing a disservice to your children.

32:41 In my book, How To Get Your Happy On, there's a list of 10 things that you can do to increase your happiness. The first one is self-care, if you model self-care, you're increasing your own happiness. And you're modeling that for your kids. So they're learning self-care, and it will raise their happiness level to, plus when you're haggard, and overtired and overwhelmed, and scared, and worried. They cannot be happy and be jubilant in their lives.

41:19 And you know what, for you other empty nesters out there, that conversation about I love you no matter what still is important. Those conversations with your kids, I don't care how old they are. They can be 20, 30, 40, 50 that conversation I love you no matter what, we may squabble, we may get in a fight. I may say, you know what, I don't want to talk to you right now. But I love you no matter what. And I will be back.

You can find Deborah Ann Davis at:  Website Instagram Facebook  If you LOVED this conversation with Deborah Ann Davis you’ll also love the conversations we had with:

Rediscover Your Brilliance with Jamie Martin

The Resilient Family with Amy Saloner

Finding Your Inner Peace with Lydia Knoor

 

 Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode and you’d like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or

head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Leaving a rating and review helps to improve rankings in iTunes, it shows engagement which may

attract sponsors and is essential for the podcast to be discovered by new listeners + it would mean the world to me. 

Here's How to Leave a Review in iTunes From Your Phone 

1. Launch the Apple Podcast app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Tap the Search icon (on the bottom right) and search for “Exploring the Seasons of Life.”

3. Tap the album art.

3. Scroll down to Ratings & Reviews.

5. At the bottom of the page tap on “Write a Review”.

6. If you’re not already signed into iTunes, you will be asked to enter your iTunes password to login.

7. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a scale of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the best. Tap the Stars to leave a rating.

8. Enter a review title and submit a brief honest review.

9. Tap Send. 

Thanks again, Until next time live inspired!

“Racism separates, but it never liberates. Hatred generates fear, and fear once given a foothold; binds, consumes and imprisons. Nothing is gained from prejudice. No one benefits from racism.” ~ Thurgood Marshall

 Guest Introduction: 

Welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life, a podcast for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey. I’m your host Cindy MacMillan and I’m joined today by Dr. Artika Tyner.

Each week, I interview coaches and spiritual explorers from all walks of life about beginnings, endings and the messy bits in-between. Self-love, well-being, and mindset are at the heart of our conversations because once you change the inside, the outside will begin to change as well. 

This is interview is part of a self-care series called Life in Full Bloom: Living From the Inside Out.

Dr. Artika R. Tyner is a passionate educator, author, sought after speaker, and advocate for justice. Tyner is the founder of a nonprofit education organization, Planting People Growing Justice Leadership Institute.

Here’s a glimpse of our conversation:

It is my pleasure to welcome Dr. Tyner to the podcast.

1:27 For me personally, it means being aware of where I am, in each season of life. It's acknowledging that in certain years, certain decades, it's been an opportunity to learn, while other seasons may be about growing and applying what I'm learning, but whatever season that I'm in standing grounded in my faith, and my purpose and mission to make a difference in the world and in the community. So, for me, it's about self-awareness. And it's also about moral responsibility. What will I do with what's in my hands to make a difference and impact?

2:19 I would say it was in my DNA and my makeup. I come from generations of pastors and teachers and everyone that I knew, focused on how they could make an impact. They focused on the betterment of society. And in particular, within the African American community where I was born and raised, my hometown name is Rondo.

4:46 There's a monument in Washington, DC near the National Mall, that gives us a sense that the past is the prologue that it's with us it’s living and breathing. But the opportunity that each of us have is to write a new future to be able to say okay, we can acknowledge the atrocities that happened in the past. But it's our responsibility to bring healing to bring reconciliation to bring atonement and to make things right in some meaningful ways.

9:38 We're more accustomed to being that ally and supporting someone we know or an issue that we're passionate about. But if we're going to evolve to the America that we should be the America that we promised, and whether our preamble of the Constitution or Declaration of Independence it’s going to require deep systemic changes and that piece of being an abolitionist, that we then transform, we uproot and change those systems that lead to the inequities that we see. 

10:38 I would be happy to share a book list, a couple of the ones that I'm currently reading, I would highly recommend reading a book called Blind Spot that looks at the science of unconscious bias to help to give us clarity as well. I also love a book, because if we're talking about being those abolitionists, radically transforming systems and reimagining the future, I love the book Groundwork: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Struggle for Civil Rights, which is about the life history of a pioneering civil rights attorney by the name of Charles Hamilton Houston, the average American has never heard of his name. 

16:49 Yes, for me, Planting People, Growing Justice™ is a big piece of this season of my life, and creating, reimagining and building. 

21:49 You can connect with us wherever you are in the world, you can fill out our contact sheet on our website, which is www.ppgjli.org and you can also email us at [email protected] and there are things that you can do no matter where you are in the world. 

22:03 I would tell my 18-year-old, first of all, dream big.

 You can find Dr. Artika Tyner at:  Website Twitter Instagram  If you enjoyed this conversation with Dr. Artika Tyner you might also enjoy these other episodes of a self-care series called Life in Full Bloom: Living From the Inside Out.

Finding Your Inner Peace with Lydia Knoor

Rediscover Your Brilliance with Jamie Martin

The Resilient Family with Amy Saloner

Self-care and Showing up in our Lives with Gina Bell

Living Life on Purpose with Stephanie Lora Bearce

A Self-love Mindset with Martine Felton

Living Your Core Values with Paige Mitchell 

 

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode and you’d like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or

head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Leaving a rating and review helps to improve rankings in iTunes, it shows engagement which may

attract sponsors and is essential for the podcast to be discovered by new listeners + it would mean the world to me.

 

Here's How to Leave a Review in iTunes From Your Phone 

1. Launch the Apple Podcast app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Tap the Search icon (on the bottom right) and search for “Exploring the Seasons of Life.”

3. Tap the album art.

3. Scroll down to Ratings & Reviews.

5. At the bottom of the page tap on “Write a Review”.

6. If you’re not already signed into iTunes, you will be asked to enter your iTunes password to login.

7. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a scale of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the best. Tap the Stars to leave a rating.

8. Enter a review title and submit a brief honest review.

9. Tap Send. 

Thanks again, Until next time live inspired!

“When you live each day with intentionality, there’s almost no limit to what you can do. You can transform yourself, your family, your community, and your nation. When enough people do that, they can change the world. When you intentionally use your everyday life to bring about positive change in the lives of others, you begin to live a life that matters.” ~ John C. Maxwell

Guest Introduction: 

Welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life, a podcast for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey. I’m your host Cindy MacMillan and I’m joined today by Amy Saloner.

Each week, I interview coaches and spiritual explorers from all walks of life about beginnings, endings and the messy bits in-between. Self-love, well-being, and mindset are at the heart of our conversations because once you change the inside, the outside will begin to change as well. 

This is part of a self-care series called Life in Full Bloom: Living From the Inside Out.

Amy is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Functional Nutritional Therapist. She has worked with children and families for more than 25 years as a therapist, educator, event producer, ceremony facilitator and community builder. She lives in an intentional community in North County San Diego with her husband, two children, dog and ten of her closest friends.

I am so happy you are here and I can’t wait to share today’s guest.

Here’s a glimpse of our conversation:

Amy, welcome to the podcast. 

3:03 It's a very meaningful discussion point. Because, to me, the seasons of life are those steps we take from childhood all the way through adulthood, that take us through various growth points. And a lot of work that I do, that I've done in my own personal life and now that I do professionally with families, is really support various rites of passage that we go through. 

7:05 I really wanted to support families in capacity to be resilient and strong and so I did a lot of research. I put together this course, that allowed for people to explore how to be strong in their bodies, how to be strong in, you know, their mindset, how to fortify their relationships, through this challenging time. 

8:30 And following me on social media, I share various themes throughout every month. And we just keep talking about and creating community, because it's one of the things I'm really passionate about is just making sure people have support to continue to grow that capacity for resilience. 

11:53 Journaling is one part; I pair journaling with meditation or just quiet, self-reflective time. 

15:03 I actually call boundaries one of our most important self-care tools. 

22:33 I focus a lot with families and adolescents around life skills in general. I am teaching a course next month, for graduating seniors and their families around this transition. 

24:03 It's called Beyond Graduation. And it's a two-part workshop. The first one is really with the parents and the teens together to focus on again, this rite of passage of graduation, that it's more than just walking across the stage and getting a diploma that there is a great transition and shift in in roles and responsibilities between the parents and the children and to really honor that this massive shift that's about to happen that this person is going to go off and be independent for the first time probably in their life, and what that means in their relationship and individually for each other.

You can find Amy Saloner at:

 Website Facebook Instagram  If you enjoyed this conversation with Amy Saloner you might also enjoy these other episodes of a self-care series called Life in Full Bloom: Living From the Inside Out.

Self-care and Showing up in our Lives with Gina Bell

Living Life on Purpose with Stephanie Lora Bearce

Rediscover Your Brilliance with Jamie Martin

A Self-love Mindset with Martine Felton

Living Your Core Values with Paige Mitchell 

Finding Your Inner Peace with Lydia Knoor

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode and you’d like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or

head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Leaving a rating and review helps to improve rankings in iTunes, it shows engagement which may

attract sponsors and is essential for the podcast to be discovered by new listeners + it would mean the world to me.

 

Here's How to Leave a Review in iTunes From Your Phone 

1. Launch the Apple Podcast app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Tap the Search icon (on the bottom right) and search for “Exploring the Seasons of Life.”

3. Tap the album art.

3. Scroll down to Ratings & Reviews.

5. At the bottom of the page tap on “Write a Review”.

6. If you’re not already signed into iTunes, you will be asked to enter your iTunes password to login.

7. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a scale of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the best. Tap the Stars to leave a rating.

8. Enter a review title and submit a brief honest review.

9. Tap Send. 

Thanks again, Until next time live inspired!