"I dwell in Possibility." ~ Emily Dickinson

Welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast. I’m your host Cindy MacMillan and I am thrilled you’re here.

Exploring the Seasons of Life is a metaphor for understanding the complexities of being alive. It is a reminder that life is filled with ups and downs, joys and sorrows, and moments of both growth and stagnation. Life is a journey, and each season brings its own unique lessons and experiences. As we move through the different “seasons” of life, we learn, we grow, and we become better versions of ourselves. It’s a more beautiful way of being alive.

Each week I interview spiritual explorers, amazing coaches, and authors 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. 

Get ready… it’s time to hear some words of wisdom… from today’s guest, Miriam Wexler.

Miriam is a Certified Mindset and Life Purpose Coach currently based out of Florence, Italy. Miriam helps clients live their best life, by filling the gap between where they are now, and where they want to be. By identifying where growth is desired, setting goals and objectives, and holding accountability, clients will reach their highest goals and dreams.

Miriam, welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast.

5:25 How am I living my life? Is this how I want to live my life? Like, am I happy? Am I not happy? Like actually starting to ask those questions happened in my early 30s. I went on a backpacking trip in Asia for a year. And that's when you know, the deep contemplation about what the hell am I doing with my life started.

10:58 That's why, I became both a mindset and life purpose coach, because our purpose isn't, there's no one thing that we're stuck doing for the rest of our life, our purpose can change. This is where I think a lot of people make the mistake thinking, oh, I've never found my purpose. Well, you can have multiple purposes. And people think that purpose has to do with your career, it doesn't.

11:41 This is another exercise I do with all my clients…I create two lists. And this is the easiest and most fun way to figure out what your purpose is. I did a list of everything that I have ever been interested in, it could be the most ridiculous to the most profound, right. And it's things like travel and food and friendship and laughter, and comedy shows and movies, like anything and everything, and I call it a living list.

12:18 And then I do a second list with everything that I'm good at, have skill and experience in a talent in etc. And then I start cross referencing, and one of my biggest passions is travel. Obviously, I live in Italy. And one of the things that I'm really, really good at is event planning, right? So I'm like, Okay, how can I take travel and event planning and combine them to create the next chapter of my life, I'm like, oh my god, I can do wellness retreats, I can bring communities of women together.

24:11 It's how to manage the fear, how to respond to the fear, and how to get through life in spite of being afraid. That's the first mindset concept that I that I work with my clients. And then of course, creating a new system of beliefs and assumptions and ideas that will help us move forward.

29:15 For me my purpose is to help people recognize themselves, step into themselves, like build themselves up as human beings and live lives that just satisfy and excite them. But my passion is travel. My passion is food. I'm actually creating a couple of projects together that revolve around food and travel and community because that's what I'm passionate about. Am I passionate about life coaching, Yes, of course, I'm passionate about it. But it's not the end all and be all for me. It's my purpose. It's not my passion. My passion is something else altogether.

 You can find Miriam Wexler at:

IF YOU LOVED THIS EPISODE WITH MIRIAM WEXLER YOU’LL ALSO LOVE THE CONVERSATIONS I HAD WITH:

The Quaranteen Project with Tanya Rex

Helping Women Heal from Their Divorce with Karin Nelson

Emotional Self-Care with Jamie Martin

"As a woman who’s highly gifted and co-creating your masterpiece in the world, it’s your birthright to give yourself what you need, energetically, emotionally and spiritually as much as possible." ~ Lynne Taggart

Hey, my friends, I’m Cindy MacMillan and I am so glad you’re here. Welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast.

Exploring the Seasons of Life is a metaphor for understanding the complexities of being alive. It is a reminder that life is filled with ups and downs, joys and sorrows, and moments of both growth and stagnation. Life is a journey, and each season brings its own unique lessons and experiences. As we move through the different “seasons” of life, we learn, we grow, and we become better versions of ourselves. Life is a beautiful and precious gift, and it is up to us to make the most of it.

Each week I interview spiritual explorers, amazing coaches, and authors 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. 

I am thrilled to introduce my guest and dive into some really important topics today.

Ashley Valliere is a Body Educator, her background is in personal/group fitness training, massage therapy and currently she's in school to become a Somatic Body Therapist. Her goal is to inspire and embolden people to advocate for themselves by understanding their bodies in new ways.

Ashley, welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast.

3:57 I ended up finding it in a modality called Bodynamic and it is developmental psychology that is based in somatics. Traditional psychology is talk therapy, with Bodynamic, it's a little bit of talk, like obviously we have to talk but the idea is it's really body driven.

5:38 There's a lot of emotional, like resonance that comes up in stretching, because all of a sudden, you're elongating a muscle that's maybe been rigid for decades, right? And like, physically rigid, yes, but also like energetically rigid, and then when you open it up, and you're in a different place than when that disruption happened, you're in a safer place. Now, all of a sudden, those emotions have a place to be processed.

6:28 So the way that I've learned it is that there are seven universal emotions. We have fear, sadness, shame, anger, joy, connection, and disgust and each one of those has like subsidiaries, right. So, like, you can filter it down, kind of like the feeling wheel, right? They can all get boiled down to different kinds of sensations.

10:30 So yes, like I think self-reflection, journaling, meditation, contemplation, whatever it is to you, that you reflect upon yourself is huge. Like, that is absolutely how you can get so many answers, right, like, that's how you can really start connecting your own dots. And though a lot of times, we're too close to our own situation. So it's like you need that outside help.

12:49 Each muscle has the capacity for any of it. Like for any emotion, really. So, there isn’t a specific muscle. It's not like my shoulders, is my happy muscle, right? Like, it's, it's not quite like that. I could give an example of, I like to think of our arms, and especially like the biceps, like those, those are our huggy muscles. Like that is like you bring somebody in and you're just you're holding them tight, you're squeezing them in, you're getting really good connection, like that is I think that's a joyful experience, right? 

24:25 Just talk to your body. I think we overcomplicate it, but it literally is just pausing like, hey body, and ask it a question. It can be that simple. Keeping in mind that you might not get an answer that second, right? So, it's like, hey, body, why did we react like that at the grocery store, like that was weird. You might not get the answer right then but maybe later when you're just doing something a little bit mundane.

 You can find Ashley Valliere at:

IF YOU LOVED THIS EPISODE WITH ASHLEY VALLIERE YOU’LL ALSO LOVE THE CONVERSATIONS I HAD WITH:

Niki Svara on Self-Forgiveness

Conversation with End-of-Life Doula, Hannah Fowler

Through the Lens of Yoga and Mindfulness with Elizabeth Savage

Helping Women Heal from Their Divorce with Karin Nelson

 As always, thanks for listening to Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast.

 Sometimes it can be hard to find the perfect Mother's Day gift. I have an idea for you...the dōTERRA Touch Blooming Trio. 

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Wear one as a statement aroma or experiment with all three to find your aromatic harmony.  

Let me touch on a couple of the emotional aspects of these beautiful oils.

• Gardenia encourages you to love and share that love freely.

• Jasmine nutures healthy sexuality and asks individuals to honor and respect themselves and others.

• Neroli is a stabilizing oil and is helpful for calming troubled hearts. It encourages active acceptance and supportive space for the chosen partner. 

The dōTERRA Touch Blooming Trio will only be available while supplies last and is part of our April promotions. 

Which oil will become her new favorite?

“Love is a choice you make everyday.” ~ Gary Chapman

Hey, my friends, I’m Cindy MacMillan and I am so glad you’re here. Welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast.

Exploring the Seasons of Life is a metaphor for understanding the complexities of being alive. It is a reminder that life is filled with ups and downs, joys and sorrows, and moments of both growth and stagnation. Life is a journey, and each season brings its own unique lessons and experiences. As we move through the different “seasons” of life, we learn, we grow, and we become better versions of ourselves. Life is a beautiful and precious gift, and it is up to us to make the most of it.

Each week I interview spiritual explorers, amazing coaches, and authors 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. 

I am thrilled to introduce my guest.

J. Parker is a Christian sex author, speaker, blogger, and podcaster. Her ministry, Hot, Holy & Humorous, focuses on helping others understand God's design for sexual intimacy in marriage. 

J has a personal story of redemption in the area of sexuality, holds a master’s degree in counseling, and lives in Texas with her fabulous but oh-so logical husband, fondly nicknamed "Spock."

J. Parker, welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast. 

2:51 Professionally, because I'm talking a lot of times to wives and or couples, about sexual intimacy and marriage, there are seasons for that in your marriage. So, this idea that you get married, and then you're just gonna have a sex life, and that's the sex life you have for your whole marriage. It's just not true. And the more that we understand that there are ups and downs and sweet spots and challenges and all of that, then the better we're able to weather that and create something really beautiful.

10:01 I would say the hot part to me represents that this is supposed to be something that is pleasurable, that is mutually desired, mutually satisfying. It's supposed to feel good. Sex is supposed to feel good, and supposed to be something you enjoy doing.

13:35 One is, we don't necessarily always have the language for it. Some people grew up with, this isn't talked about at all. And so they don't really know how to talk about it. Other people grew up with a situation of it always being talked about in crass language. And so they know they're not supposed to do that with their spouse, but they don't know what else to do.

16:03 I think that we have to understand that sexual intimacy is not just the sex itself. And I'll say that this is something I was hearing recently, another author on sex, Dr. Juli Slattery  talk about who's excellent. How even talking about sex and getting comfortable talking about sex is something that builds sexual intimacy and makes the experience of being physical together later better. 

21:07 The first thing I would say is you can have a conversation and say, hey, it really makes me feel great when you initiate.

25:04 I would say in almost every marriage, somebody's higher drive than the other. But, I guess statistically, it seems like about 20% of couples are fairly well matched, in another 20% to 25% the wife is the higher desire spouse. And in the rest, the husband is higher drive. I mean, they're not perfect statistics, but it's pretty good. I've looked at a lot of research on this.

32:28 I would say in those situations, it's considered a sexless marriage, if you're having sex 10 or fewer times a year. Because you're really not getting the benefits of sexual intimacy in a marriage. And there are really a whole lot of benefits to your relationship, even to your health. I mean, sex is really good for your marriage.

YOU CAN FIND J. PARKER AT:

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. I would love to hear your favorite part of the conversation.   

This may not be for everybody but this might be perfect for some of you. I would like to extend an invitation to join a dōTERRA® 30-Day Cleanse that I will be hosting on April 12, 2023.

Are you open to the idea?

The last 3 years have been hard, not only emotionally, but on our physical health as well. I believe when a group of women come together that have similar needs and desires, magic happens!

 I’m inviting you to join other women in community as we give ourselves permission to feel good and BE ALL IN ON OURSELVES. This is a wellness lifestyle change not a diet.

The Cleanse and Restore Kit is powerful and is filled with the essentials to promote lifelong health. It is a gentle 30-day cleanse designed to help rid your body of toxic overload and to support the overall function of the body’s systems and organs.

Enroll with my special link https://doterra.me/FC1GUn to order the doTERRA Cleanse and Restore Kit by March 31st  2023 so the products will be in before we begin.

“Aim for emotional wholeness. When you’re upset or feeling sick, try to get to the bottom of your feelings. Figure out what’s really eating you. Always tell the truth to yourself. Find appropriate, satisfying ways to express your emotions. And if such a prescription seems too challenging, seek professional help to feel better." ~ Candance Pert, PhD

Hello and 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 Deyna Phillips. 

Today we are chatting about emotions and anxiety. What are emotions and the possible root causes for anxiety?  

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. 

It is my great pleasure to introduce Deyna Phillips. 

Deyna is a Master Emotional Wellness Coach specializing in anxiety and emotional flow mastery. She is a Certified Health & Life Coach, Certified Anger Management Specialist, and Domestic Violence Specialist. Deyna works with people throughout the country helping them embrace their anxiety and emotions so they can feel confident and empowered to live life by their own design!

Deyna, I am thrilled you are here and I am so looking forward to today’s conversation. Thank you so much for being here today.

8:37 Let's define what anxiety is before we get to the causes, right? So, anxiety is an emotion along with a memory that got stored in our part of our brain called the amygdala. And it's stored there. And what it does is that it just really wants to keep us safe. So, it'll continue to run almost like a, like an anti-virus in our memory bank, right.

9:45 What ends up happening is that it will manifest itself again in different types of anxiety. So, there are five usual different types of anxieties, PTSD, OCD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic,  Panic Attacks. And so, what we end up doing is that, depending on the trauma itself, it'll fall into one of those types of anxiety.

 13:25 I want you to just look around you right now and tell me five things that you can see. And then you would look around and you would tell me, I see you know, all the things. Now four things that you can hear. Now, that's going to require you sitting quietly and paying attention to what's going on around you. Three things that you can touch, two things that you can smell, one thing that you can taste, the unconscious mind, which is where the anxiety is, is very sensory based, and it can't handle both jobs at the same time. So what we're doing is we're literally giving the mind a brand new assignment, I'm switching it over from the panic of what was happening here to now this job, which again, the mind is very sensory based. So it's going to be quiet and listen to what's happening around looking for the textures, looking for certain things. And now focus on that.

15:03 When you first asked me this question, I thought this was such a beautiful question. I love exploring the seasons of life because my approach, not just to business, but to life itself is, really being like nature and being like a tree. And I use this example so much with my clients, you know, I learned to start practicing detachment. And detachment really for me is the seasons of life. Because, you know, Nature doesn't get attached to every season that happens.

22:47 For example, one of my core needs is love and love, can be looked at as connection, affection, understanding, empathy, things like that. So, when I say love, my definition of love might be super different than your definition of love.

30:36 Anxiety, emotions are healthy, and you can use them as your superpower. And once you learn how to give yourself permission, you will literally create a completely different life for yourself. A life that is confident and empowered, and the life that you deserve. So please embrace your anxiety and embrace your emotions? Because you are beautiful.

IF YOU LOVED THIS EPISODE WITH DEYNA PHILLIPS YOU’LL ALSO LOVE THE CONVERSATIONS I HAD WITH:

Emotional Self-Care with Jamie Martin

Niki Svara on Self-Forgiveness

Cornelia Gilbert on Boundaries and Integrity

Letting Go of Resistance with Michelle Kinnett

Through the Lens of Yoga and Mindfulness with Elizabeth Savage

 I have partnered with dōTERRA Essential Oils. Just one of the many reasons I am so excited; is because it's in total alignment with the podcast and the topics that I am passionate about...topics that encompass the human experience; self-care, stress management, resiliency, grief and our emotional health.

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👉 Contact me to get started on your journey. My e-mail is [email protected] or go here to my doTERRA website.

“The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting. For some, it's a Broadway spotlight; for others, a lamplit desk. Use your natural powers -- of persistence, concentration, and insight -- to do work you love and work that matters. Solve problems. make art, think deeply.” ~ Susan Cain

Welcome to another episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life, a podcast for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey. 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.

I’m your host Cindy MacMillan and I'm so grateful that you tuned in today; it means a lot to me. If you love this conversation and you want to continue it or want to share your thoughts, your takeaways, or just any aha’s that come up…come on over to Instagram. That is where I spend most of my time when it comes to social media. I'm @cindy.macmillan on Instagram. Make sure you're following me. Say hello. I'd love to hear from you.

It’s my great pleasure to introduce you to Tanya Rex.

Tanya Rex is a Commercial Photographer and Intuitive Guide and Whole Healing Practitioner. She currently guides successful women, who have lost themselves in the daily grind, to rebalance and find their truth through unconditional self-love. Her passion is working with teens and she will be shifting over to this solely and launching an 8 week course for teens in a few weeks.

Tanya, I'm SUPER excited you are here.

3:15 One night as I was going to bed, I had this feeling that I had to help teenagers through photography, to find themselves through photography. And I didn't know how I was going to do it. But I thought I'll sleep on it. And tomorrow morning, I'll figure it out. And by the time I woke up the next morning, I had the whole plan in my head.

4:29 I started connecting with teenagers around the world, the whole project started to come together. And as I mentioned, I didn't really think about the logistics and especially since the world had kind of shut down. It wasn't always that easy to get cameras to refugee camps in Sudan or into India that was under complete lockdown for almost a year. But somehow, I managed to get to, I think it was 18 or 20 countries.

8:57 The first roll of film that I got back was from a 12-year-old boy who lived in Belarus. And one of the first images that he took was of his mother and sister lying in a cast iron bath that was in a field and it was being heated by a fire from underneath. And the way that he just captured life and innocence and his story, you know, his vision, what he saw was unbelievable.

17:41 I think I've had three seasons of life so far. And they have nothing to do with my age, or anything like that. It's more around, I guess, spirituality. I grew up in a very religious family and as a teen, I started asking questions, and I didn't really find answers. So, I would say that I have walked away from religion and rather accepted morality as my way of being so The Ten Commandments gave me a great background for what I thought good morals were. And now I'm in a space of spirituality and it just feels more all-encompassing, and more wholesome, if I can say that, for me personally.

26:18  I'm sure it comes as no surprise, since what I've been talking about is photography that the literal filters that so many people are using on various social media platforms are causing big issues with self-perception, self-image and self-esteem. And many people are only seeing a filtered and edited version of other people's lives, that's hard to live up to if you feel that you need to keep up with the Joneses.

34:57 I would love for listeners to be able to see the value of being themselves, of speaking their truth and of living in their own authenticity, however that looks. Because, as I mentioned before, I think so often we allow our ego to get in the way. And we only want to show certain parts of it, of our lives. But when we start to speak our truth and living our authenticity, it doesn't matter what anyone else is doing, once you realize the beauty of who you are, and you're able to shine past all of the limitations that you might feel that you have, or insecurities, or doubts and fears that you feel that you might have.

40:00 My website is SoulTribeCoaching.com.

 You can find Tanya Rex at:

IF YOU LOVED THIS EPISODE WITH TANYA REX YOU’LL ALSO LOVE THE CONVERSATIONS I HAD WITH:

Niki Svara on Self-Forgiveness

Cornelia Gilbert on Boundaries and Integrity

Through the Lens of Yoga and Mindfulness with Elizabeth Savage

Grief and Big Love in the Adoption Journey with Kim Noeth

 I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for joining Tanya Rex and myself this week on Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast. I know just how many podcasts you could have been listening to and I have a personal favor to ask...can you share this episode with others who may be interested in this topic!

Make sure to visit my website, CynthiaMacMillan.com, where you can subscribe to the show in iTunes, Stitcher, or iHeartRadio so you’ll never miss an episode.

In closing, I have a message for you today, you are not alone, you are worthy, and you are good enough.

“Something precious is lost if we rush headlong into the details of life without pausing for a moment to pay homage to the mystery of life and the gift of another day.”  Kent Nerburn

Hello and 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 Jennifer Lee.

Today we are chatting about something a little different and here is where I’m giving a content warning for this episode; the podcast today will discuss a specific person’s experiences with robbery and abduction. This may be difficult for some listeners.

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. 

Before we begin our conversation, I have an exciting announcement to share with you! I love working with modern, midlife women to help them lead a healthier and happier life and improve their emotional wellbeing. So, I am following my own advice about self-care - the podcast will now be twice a month vs weekly to dedicate more time working with women. Visit my website CynthiaMacMillan.com to learn more and join my newsletter Exploring SoL for updates on workshops.

Now on to the show and It’s my great pleasure to introduce you to Jennifer Lee.

A decade after surviving an armed robbery and abduction, Jennifer Lee created the I Need Blue podcast. She recognized a need for other survivors to share their stories in a space where they felt comfortable. I Need Blue became that space where survivors feel they belong, are loved, are understood, and feel empowered to share their truth.

Jennifer, I'm SUPER excited you are here. 

2:26 I was store manager for a women's clothing store in Virginia and it happened to be a Saturday evening and there were about nine of us in the store. So quite a lot of people including children. I was working in the fitting room area and behind me I heard give me all your money. Now I stopped because those words didn't register. I'm used to hearing can you zip me up? Does this look good?

11:49 I'm on the phone with the 911 dispatcher and I will tell you that I have the most respect for what they do. Because literally all they have is a voice of a distraught person trying to describe the scene and what is going on and then to give directions to me so I can help. But they were wonderful. What they told me on the phone was helpful. And I was able to administer what they wanted me to do to help the lady.

13:10 I get asked did they catch the robber. So, to kind of fast forward a little bit. Yes, they did. And they did it because he kept my cell phone. And they pinged my cell phone and he was 20 miles north at a bar living it up with his friends. And they were able to arrest him there.

17:47 This is not just Jen's opinion, like these are coming from an expert is well, and I will say I have these magnets that Mike and I put together and I will gladly mail one to any of your guests that want one for free. If you just email me or email you and send me the address, I will gladly send you a magnet. But in the magnet, we have the word LIVE, very simple. So, the L is listen to your gut never apologize for listening to your gut, because it is there for a reason. Okay. And then I is identify the threat. So be aware of your surroundings. And that's so important. Like put your cell phone away, walk with your head up all of those things. If you run at least make sure you have one ear open, don't run with your music blaring because you have no idea who's who's coming behind you nothing. And then the V is visualize your response. So have a plan ahead. Like when you're aware of your surroundings? Is there an emergency door you could run through? Are there houses around you could run to if you needed to all of those things. And then the E is eliminate distractions. Again, it's so important just to be aware of your surroundings,

33:34 Take naps, be compassionate, don't take on other people's emotions and allow them to penetrate. You don't carry that around. And I'm a firm believer of therapy, always. And I also just did hypnotherapy as well. And I found that to be beneficial. So, there are ways to find help. And if therapy doesn't work, then try another source because there are many options out there.

IF YOU LOVED THIS EPISODE WITH JENNIFER LEE YOU’LL ALSO LOVE THE CONVERSATIONS I HAD WITH:

Emotional Self-Care with Jamie Martin

Niki Svara on Self-Forgiveness

Cornelia Gilbert on Boundaries and Integrity

Through the Lens of Yoga and Mindfulness with Elizabeth Savage

Thanks for listening to Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast with your host, Cindy MacMillan! I hope you loved this conversation with Jennifer Lee as much as I have. 

Join me on February 20, 2023 at 2:00 PM ET for the Essential Emotions Masterclass where I will be discussing How to Use Essential Oils for Emotional Wellness. 

As always you can head over to CynthiaMacMillan.com to sign up to our email list, as well as check out all the links and resources in the show notes.

That’s all for this episode folks, see you next time!

“Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.” ~Parker J. Palmer

Welcome to 2023 and another episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life, a podcast for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey. My name is Cindy MacMillan.

It’s my great pleasure to introduce you to Jessica Louise. Jessica is a guide, mentor and healer to heart centered soul led women who are ready to truly connect to and embody their most authentic self, to feel fully free in the way they show up to their lives. Her clients are often gentle, sensitive spiritual women who desire to be of service to the world. Jess supports her clients in remembering their worthiness and seeing their unique gifts they bring to this world. As they work with Jess they feel more confident to take aligned actions from a deeply empowered place.

I interview coaches, spiritual explorers and thought leaders 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. 

I am starting off the New Year with conversations on topics I have been thinking about lately. In this episode of the podcast, Jess and I are chatting about Beingness vs Doing, taking aligned action, worthiness and visualizing our life force energy.

Jess, I'm SUPER excited you are here. 

4:24 This is a season for me where I'm more outwardly connecting with people and building relationships. And so just honoring the seasons of our spiritual journey and all of it in between because those moments where it might feel like there's contraction, there's this going inwards can feel quite uncomfortable, can feel like there might be something wrong with us. The world tells us we need to be more outward. And so, I've just been learning how to honor each season and each season really has a part to play and is there for us.

8:56 The woman that I work with, and myself and my personal journey, my nervous system has been so dysregulated that to rest or to lie on the couch and just BE was impossible. And it's been such a journey with myself to allow my body to relax.

14:55 In my past life, I like to say, I studied Food Science, and I did a master's in wine biotechnology, and I worked as a winemaker for many years. And I believed it was very much in hindsight, very much an ego-based decision. It was very much a mental decision of what I wanted to do, and I wanted to be the best woman winemaker in South Africa.

16:50 I think a key piece of taking aligned action is to understand ourselves on a very deep level, you know, what makes me tick? What brings me joy? That was a key piece for me around understanding myself, like, what do I really enjoy? Who am I without the identity of being a winemaker? Or, you know, whatever it may be, but who am I underneath all of that? And what expands my heart?

29:20 I almost sent you an email to say, you know, can we reschedule because I'm not feeling and I had to talk to myself and say Jess that is you sabotaging, that's you not wanting to show up because you feel you're not ready. There's this unknown of how this is going to unfold and maybe a lack of trust of how this is going to unfold and that piece around being perfect. And I was busy writing an email to you. And then I was like, No, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna get centered, connect back to my heart and show up messy, myself, and share my voice. Share my truth because it's enough. So yeah, I just wanted to share that.

35:13 At the moment, my key offering is my 1:1 Embodied Essence Mentorship. So, I work in a deep intimate container with a woman that's online. And so that's a three month or a six-month program, so they have the option to choose.

 You can find Jessica Louise at:

IF YOU LOVED THIS EPISODE WITH JESSICA LOUISE YOU’LL ALSO LOVE THE CONVERSATIONS I HAD WITH:

Helping Women Heal from Their Divorce with Karin Nelson

Letting Go of Resistance with Michelle Kinnett

Emotional Self-Care with Jamie Martin

Niki Svara on Self-Forgiveness

I have partnered with dōTERRA Essential Oils. Just one of the many reasons I am so excited; is because it's in total alignment with the podcast and the topics that I am passionate about...topics that encompass the human experience; self-care, stress management, resiliency, grief and our emotional health.

And I love love their uncompromising commitment to purity and being a company with a conscience.

I truly feel this is a beautiful fit with my mission to serve and support women in every season of their life; beginnings, endings + the messy bits in-between.

I'm also doing this for my overall well-being, and want to share my journey with you, as I rediscover the benefits of essential oils.

👉 Contact me to get started on your journey. My e-mail is [email protected] or go here to my doTERRA website.

“It isn’t what happens to us that causes us to suffer; it’s what we say to ourselves about what happens.”

~ Pema Chodron

Welcome to another episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life, a podcast for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey who are ready to lead healthier and happier lives and improve their emotional well-being. My name is Cindy MacMillan.

In this season of the podcast, I’m inviting you to lean into well-being. Well-being takes into account the entire person, body, mind and spirit. It’s feeling good and functioning well; it’s experiencing positive emotions such as contentment and gratitude; it’s developing your potential, having a sense of purpose, and experiencing close relationships.

In this episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life, we are chatting about grief and how it shows up in the adoption journey.  And my guest is Kim Noeth.

Kim is a grief recovery specialist working with post adoption grief and other trauma related issues that prevent people from moving forward in life and pursuing their dreams.

Welcome to the show, Kim. Thank you for being here.  

1:31 So in my personal life, and also very much so on the adoption journey. I think for me, the seasons of life represent the constant change that's always present on that journey. You know, some of those changes are behind the scenes, and some of it's in the spotlight. And I guess I kind of see it, like a birth, a death and a rebirth cycle that's always going on and happening, you know, sure, you know, you'll experience great joy one minute, and then another, you know, you can be brought to your knees and sorrow. 

10:41 I wrote him a letter, and I kept a copy of it for myself. And always hoping that maybe one day he would read that letter and know that if he ever wanted to look for me, I would be ever so grateful to be able to, you know, meet with him again. Life went on, had lots of children and experienced lots of things. Never heard anything, remembering when he turned 18, I was super hopeful. 

14:14 And the very first time I laid my eyes on my son, it was as if a piece of my soul came back to me. It was an incredible, incredible experience. We sat together, had some coffee, and just talked. And what was most incredible was realizing that even after all these years of separation, there was still a huge part of me in him. And so much of us is similar. 

15:32 You know, adoption has a lot of joy. And it has a lot of sorrow. And we have to be willing to embrace both parts. 

17:09 I think one of the biggest components in the adoption journey is what is called disenfranchised grief. And that's almost a grief that has no closure, if I can simplify it in that way. 

24:57 I think one of the biggest is being willing to realize especially in the adoption journey, that you have to do your own healing, it's so important for both the mom and the adoptee to do their own healing, to be able to come together and be human. But also to recognize that we can't fix this for each other at the level that, you know, the depth of the level that it is, you know, moms carry a lot of shame. 

30:48 There's something that is a very powerful tool, both to birth moms and adoptees. It's a podcast that's called “Who am I Really?” and it's by a man named Damon L. Davis. What I love about his perspective is he invites it in conversations that allow especially a birth mom to hear stories of adoptees that aren't painfully personal. 

34:14 Every adoptee wants to know, first of all that they're deeply loved, and that they were thought of over the years. You know, I was shocked to have conversations with my son where he was surprised that I was, you know, thinking of him at the level that I was. 

38:58 A lot of the work that I do in the Brave and Noble circles is being willing to go first, you know, being willing to be vulnerable, and to model what that looks like. And I do some of that on social media through the Brave and Noble circles.

IF YOU LOVED THIS EPISODE WITH KIM NOETH YOU’LL ALSO LOVE THE CONVERSATIONS I HAD WITH:

Lynn Principe is an End-of-Life Doula, Coach and Celebrant

The New Face of Grief with Katie Rössler

Conversation with End-of-Life Doula, Sue Phillips

Grief and Secondary Losses with Nesreen Ahmed

I have partnered with dōTERRA Essential Oils. Just one of the many reasons I am so excited; is because it's in total alignment with the podcast and the topics that I am passionate about...topics that encompass the human experience; self-care, stress management, resiliency, grief and our emotional health.

And I love love their uncompromising commitment to purity and being a company with a conscience.

I truly feel this is a beautiful fit with my mission to serve and support women in every season of their life; beginnings, endings + the messy bits in-between.

I'm also doing this for my overall well-being, and want to share my journey with you, as I rediscover the benefits of essential oils.

👉 Contact me to get started on your journey. My e-mail is [email protected] or go here to my doTERRA website.

“Grief and love are sisters, woven together from the beginning. Their kinship reminds us that there is no love that does not contain loss and no loss that is not a reminder of the love we carry for what we once held close.” ~ Francis Weller

Welcome to another episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life, a podcast for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey who are ready to lead healthier and happier lives and improve their emotional well-being. I’m Cindy MacMillan. 

In this season of the podcast, I’m inviting you to lean into well-being. Well-being takes into account the entire person, body, mind and spirit. It’s feeling good and functioning well; it’s experiencing positive emotions such as contentment and gratitude; it’s developing your potential, having a sense of purpose, and experiencing close relationships.

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.

In this episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life, we are chatting about what death can teach you about living.  And my guest is Jill McClennen.

Jill is a certified death doula which is a non-medical person trained to care for someone holistically at the end of life. She offers support, preparation, and soul-level healing to her clients and their families in person and virtually through her work as a death doula and end-of-life coach. In addition to being a death doula, Jill is a trauma-sensitive yoga instructor, and she also uses reiki and shamanic healing techniques to help her clients heal their fears around death and dying as well as work with their grief.

13:50 That's what started me down this path to really being able to help other people through these experiences so that they can just enjoy it for what it is. It's you know, death and dying is not always going to be pretty but it can really be a beautiful time to connect with your loved ones if we can get over our fears and our anxieties and open ourselves up to the possibility of what it could be like other than what we've essentially mostly grown up with, which is not talking about it, being afraid of it, sheltering our children and our loved ones from the reality of it. It really doesn't have to be that way. 

15:49 And the reality is, if you're living, you're going to die, I mean, that there's no way of escaping that. But that doesn't mean that we must suffer at the end of life. Yes, I mean, most of us will probably die from the disease that might give us some pain. But the mental part of it, you know, the fears and the anxieties, we don't have to die that way. 

17:17 It's important for us to do this work now, before we're faced with our own death or with somebody that we love. And not only will it help us navigate the end of life, if we can work with some of our old grief and our shame, and our fears and all that stuff. It'll really help you to live a better life. 

19:05 You know, no matter how much we educate ourselves around death, dying and bereavement, we're all going to have our own individual experiences. It doesn't mean that any of it is right or wrong. It just means that really, we need to honor ourselves and what we need, so often, especially women, we are taught to care for everybody around us before ourselves. 

22:00  I mean, self-care, to me is still something that I struggle with a little bit, it's still something that I'm trying to make sure that I put some importance on my own self-care, because again, you know, the way that society has essentially taught me is that my worth is based off of how much I'm getting done. And oftentimes, how much I'm getting done is not part of taking care of myself. 

35:20  I love this kind of work. I mean, this, to me was something that I didn't necessarily plan on doing. When I became a death doula, I thought I was just going to help people that were dying at the end of life. But this is the work that I think can really transform people the most if we start doing the work now at any age at any stage of life, because it'll really kind of ripple out into our life and the way that we interact with other people. 

38:30 And it's really important that we understand that forgiving other people takes our power back. And that was something that I had to go through forgiving somebody that really hurt me when I was 21. And I was able to really heal it and forgive and let it go about two years ago. 

39:50 Forgiveness is so important for us to be able to move on from a situation.  

46:29 I mean, I think honestly, the biggest thing is I would thank her for is not giving up because I was in a rough spot when I was a teenager.

IF YOU LOVED THIS EPISODE WITH JILL MCCLENNEN YOU’LL ALSO LOVE THE CONVERSATIONS I HAD WITH:

Lynn Principe is an End-of-Life Doula, Coach and Celebrant

The New Face of Grief with Katie Rössler

Conversation with End-of-Life Doula, Sue Phillips

Grief and Secondary Losses with Nesreen Ahmed

I have partnered with dōTERRA Essential Oils. Just one of the many reasons I am so excited; is because it's in total alignment with the podcast and the topics that I am passionate about...topics that encompass the human experience; self-care, stress management, resiliency, grief and our emotional health.

And I love love their uncompromising commitment to purity and being a company with a conscience.

I truly feel this is a beautiful fit with my mission to serve and support women in every season of their life; beginnings, endings + the messy bits in-between.

I'm also doing this for my overall well-being, and want to share my journey with you, as I rediscover the benefits of essential oils.

👉 Contact me to get started on your journey. My e-mail is [email protected] or go here to my doTERRA website.

“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” - J.K. Rowling

Hello friend, Welcome to another episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast.

I’m your host Cindy MacMillan, Integrative Life Coach and self-care advocate for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey who are ready to lead healthier and happier lives and improve their emotional well-being.

I interview coaches, spiritual explorers and thought leaders 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. 

I’m really excited about today’s interview but before we jump in, I want to pause for a moment to thank you dear listeners for being here.

Today’s guest is Karin Nelson.

Karin Nelson is a divorce confidence coach helping women heal from their divorce while redefining their new life. Karin went through her own divorce 6 years ago after a 20-year marriage and has since reinvented herself. She is the host of the Becoming You Again Podcast and is a mom to 2 kids and 3 cats.

Welcome Karin. Thanks so much for coming on the show. I’ve been really looking forward to this conversation.

3:42 I really think that exploring the seasons of life means that like our life, our human life, just in general, for every human being is going to be ever changing, it is never going to stay the same, right? Sometimes it's going to feel like summer, and it's going to feel really fun and happy, and things will be going great. And then it might feel like winter where there's transitions and there's challenging things and it might seem a little darker and a little harder.

7:05 I was married almost 20 years and about six years ago, my husband and I were struggling in our relationship. And we were kind of in this stage of like, should we, or shouldn't we? And it's not like we had a very, you know, we didn't have a very contentious marriage. It's just that we had grown apart, we wanted different things.

10:04 It's so many things, first of all, but when we really boil it down, it comes down to number one, they mostly don't know who they are, they are just so disconnected with themselves as human beings, because they have been getting so much of themselves through their relationship.

15:00 Acceptance doesn't mean you have to be happy about where you're at. It doesn't mean you have to enjoy everything that's going on in the challenge that you're facing. But it really is just opening yourself up to. Okay. This is where I'm at right now. And how do I want to move forward from here? Who do I want to be in this situation that I've got, that I'm surrounded with right now. And without that acceptance, you just stay stuck you there's no moving forward.

25:00 I also believe that part of that self-care is being compassionate with yourself as you go through these hard times. Because the tendency for so many of us when we go through something really challenging is to just beat ourselves up

29:00 Often when we go through a divorce, or we go through something challenging, where it doesn't look like that anymore, the holidays look different. And we have this idea in our head of my family doesn't look traditional like that anymore. Now my family is broken, divorce means my family is broken, something is wrong here. And we have this idea and this story that we hold on to and we carry it around with us like that. It makes the holidays very scary. It makes them hurt.

31:26 So much of the pain that we create for ourselves comes from a comparison of the past, like what it used to look like.

35:11 I want all of your listeners to remember that their worth isn't conditional on anything that happens in their life, it isn't conditional on whether they have a successful podcast, or they are succeeding as a parent, or they have the most amazing job that they always wanted, or whether they have money in the bank or, you know, are with family on Christmas. Their worth has literally nothing to do with any of that. None of those things outside of you determine your worth and your love ability.

IF YOU LOVED THIS EPISODE WITH KARIN NELSON YOU’LL ALSO LOVE THE CONVERSATIONS I HAD WITH:

Emotional Self-Care with Jamie Martin

Niki Svara on Self-Forgiveness

Cornelia Gilbert on Boundaries and Integrity

Through the Lens of Yoga and Mindfulness with Elizabeth Savage

I have partnered with dōTERRA Essential Oils. Just one of the many reasons I am so excited; is because it's in total alignment with the podcast and the topics that I am passionate about...topics that encompass the human experience; self-care, stress management, resiliency, grief and our emotional health.

And I love love their uncompromising commitment to purity and being a company with a conscience.

I truly feel this is a beautiful fit with my mission to serve and support women in every season of their life; beginnings, endings + the messy bits in-between.

I'm also doing this for my overall well-being, and want to share my journey with you, as I rediscover the benefits of essential oils.

👉 Contact me to get started on your journey. My e-mail is [email protected] or go here to my doTERRA website.