In this episode of Gen X Voices, I chat with Karen Miller, a Reiki Master, coach and holistic practitioner.

Karen practices holistic living, nature spirituality and a little magic every day. She’s an ordained minister, herbalist, equestrian and mum to a daughter and many animals.

In this episode, we talk about Karen’s journey from corporate trapped but successful single mum through suicidal thoughts, depression and food allergies to now being an advocate for holistic living. Karen broke out of living her life how she should live it to embrace all the coulds as she turned 50. In our chat, Karen helps me get over my fear of horses and we talk about having fulfilling relationships later in life and how to take a "sparkle walk" :).

To find out more about Karen and her courses, go to her website at www.shiftkitchen.com, Facebook at www.facebook.com/shiftkitchenbalanaceforbodymindspirit and see her incredible nature photos on her Instagram at www.instagram.com/ravynwood.

I hope you enjoy our chat and do subscribe to Gen X Voices to hear future episodes. You can connect with me on Instagram at thegenxwomenscoach and Twitter at susebb.

This is the last episode of Season 1 of Gen X Voices and I’d love to hear your feedback on the Gen X Voices journey so far with this short survey: https://forms.gle/qNpyTzguPghGCESu9

PLEASE NOTE: poor audio in parts of this podcast (yes, we did everything we could to fix it so please don't @ me!)

CONTENT WARNING:

Suicide is discussed in this episode. 

If you need support: 

UK Samaritans https://www.samaritans.org/ or call 116 123; 

USA https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or call 1800 273 8255. 

Wikipedia has a global list of suicide helplines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines

In Episode 9, I chat with Lorna Ive, women’s health and wellbeing specialist.

Lorna is the founder of award winning PeriMenoPost, a LIVE campaign and digital platform to raise awareness and support across all stages of menopause. She wanted to create a community for women to feel informed, comfortable and to create conversations to break down the menopause taboo!

In this episode, we go deep into everything menopause, with Lorna sharing her menopause journey and where she’s at now with her health. We discuss the lack of menopause education for GPs in the UK, hidden health issues such as adenomyosis and how to persevere with your goals, no matter what.

To collaborate with Lorna, join her community or find her perimenopause resources and advice, go to her website: https://perimenopost.com/and she’s on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/perimenopost/.

I hope you enjoy our chat and do subscribe to Gen X Voices to hear future episodes. You can connect with me on Instagram  and Twitter .

 I’d love to hear your feedback on the Gen X Voices journey so far: https://forms.gle/qNpyTzguPghGCESu9

Content warning: medical descriptions of perimenopause, menopause and adenomyosis

In this episode, I chat with Rachel Peru, body confidence activist, influencer and host of the Out of the Bubble podcast.

What a great chat with Rachel! Volunteering for a Macmillan charity fashion show set her on the path for midlife modelling, both catwalk and lingerie. We talk about being inspired by other women and the challenges she’s set herself for 2021, working with your values, our Mums and body confidence, talking to the next generation about ageing and being visible as well as the growing midlife movement for women.

You can connect with Rachel on her Instagram @rachelperu1 and listen to her amazing podcast at https://www.outofthebubblepodcast.com/.

If you want to buy the books we mention in this episode, they’re all up on my website as affiliate links to bookshop.org at https://www.susanbbentley.com/resources/, supporting local bookshops.

I hope you enjoy our chat and do subscribe to Gen X Voices to hear future episodes. You can connect with me on Instagram @thegenxwomenscoach and Twitter @susebb. Find out more about my coaching and training on my Linktr.ee. 

What do you think of Gen X Voices? Complete my survey and help shape the questions I'll be asking my guests in Season 2: https://forms.gle/2BxdYCMhSyEmdCnZA

In Episode 7 of Gen X Voices, I chat with Abi Sea, a fantastic content coach, a Scot and all-round fabulous woman. 

Abi is a self-confessed collector of excellent humans from different areas of her life. She’s a relationship builder, a happy mum, wife, daughter and friend. With her content coaching business, she works with women who inspire her, empowering them to find the right words and show up online. Her Dirty Words series on Instagram helps people get out of their own way and she has a fab Youtube channel where she chats with some of those interesting women she’s collected.

In this episode, we talk about having pillars of support throughout life and putting love out into the world, inspired by the incredible bonds she had growing up with her young, single mum and family (big shout-out to Carol!). We chat about having friendships with people who can call you out on your shit as well as how she got through redundancies, making peace with our past selves and self-doubt about being a good parent herself.

Abi thrives on contributions and collaborations, as it’s an excellent way for her to add to her excellent human collections. So, if you have something you’d like to work on with her, or think she has the perfect attitude to contribute to something you’re working on, catch up with her on:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seachangecreativecontent/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seachangecreativecontent

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdxu24gVQHPY-59kX7m_O4Q/videos

The WWW: www.seachangecreativecontent.com

I hope you enjoy our chat and do subscribe to Gen X Voices to hear future episodes. You can connect with me on Instagram at thegenxwomenscoach and Twitter as susebb. If you’re listening to Gen X Voices on Apple, do please leave a review. For all other podcast players, I love hearing your feedback on the show and who resonated with you most so reach out to me on my social media. Don’t forget, subscribe to hear future episodes and contact me if you know a Gen X woman that you think would be amazing as a guest on my show.

In this episode, I chat with Star Monroe, the midlife revolution coach and psychotherapist.

Star talks openly with me about being through hell and back in her life with eating disorders, cocaine addiction, alcoholism and codependency. She's also spent 30+years teaching in the health and wellness arena including being a yoga teacher, pilates instructor and pole dancing trainer.

In this episode, we went deep into Star's journey and how everything she's been through now makes her a fantastic advocate for other midlife women reclaiming their power and getting out of their own way. 

You can find out more about Star on her Instagram at msstarmonroe where you should definitely follow her – her Instagram Lives and Stories are sensational!

I hope you enjoy our chat and do subscribe to Gen X Voices to hear future episodes. You can connect with me on Instagram as thegenxwomenscoach and Twitter as susebb. I've been blown away by all your feedback on how much you're enjoying this podcast and yes, you've made me well up!. Contact me if you know a Gen X woman that you think would be amazing as a guest on my show.

If you're listening on Apple, do please leave me a review. If these episodes resonate with you, let me know on my social media.

Content warning: swearing, discussions of addictions, eating disorders and codependent relationships.

In this episode, I chat with Jo Moseley, everyday outdoors adventurer. Jo is a mum of two sons and lives by the Yorkshire Dales in the UK. She’s a beach cleaner, joy encourager and midlife adventurer.

In August 2019, Jo became the first woman to SUP (stand up paddleboard) coast to coast 162 miles along the Leeds Liverpool Canal, picking up litter, fundraising and raising awareness of the problems of single use plastic.

She loves writing, speaking about adventure  + wellbeing and making tiny films about the joy of the outdoors for our mental health after losing her Mum + a difficult menopause. Her film Finding Joy has been screened at adventure festivals and Found at Sea won the Four Seasons Film Festival One Minute Adventures award.

We chatted about incorporating Ands into your life rather than ors as well as putting yourself on the priority list, intergenerational friendships and remembering that it’s not bragging when it’s based on facts!

You can find out more at www.jomoseley.com or follow her on Twitter @Healthyhappy50 and Instagram @healthyhappy50.

Jo's film of her coast to coast SUP journey is currently in post-production by the filmmaker Frit Sarita @fritstartingat30 through her film studio @passionfruitpictures_

I hope you enjoy our chat and do subscribe to Gen X Voices to hear future episodes. Connect with me on Instagram @thegenxwomenscoach and Twitter @susebb.

In this episode, I chat with Sara Dobie Bauer. Sara is a bestselling romance author and mental health / LGBTQ advocate with a creative writing degree from Ohio University. She lives with her hottie husband and two precious pups in Northeast Ohio, although she’d really like to live in a Tim Burton film. You can find out more about Sara at her author website: SaraDobieBauer.com and Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram as saradobiebauer.

Sara’s latest book, Abstract Love, is available from Amazon.

It was fab chatting with Sara and we talked about the vulnerability of men in fiction and a new generation of men breaking stereotypes and opening up about their emotions and mental health. We squeed over Timothée Chalamet and discussed feeling connected and empowered with other writers and fangirls through writing fanfiction.

We talked about positive changes in the world with patience, inclusivity and tolerance as well as getting excited about the new version of Dune and our thoughts on the book - sadly we recorded this episode just before the delay announcement of the Dune movie to 2021 :(

Timmy, if you’re listening and you ever need a life coach, call me! :) And, as ever, thank you for your kindness on showing this ‘older lady’ how to take a selfie!

I hope you all enjoy our chat and do subscribe to Gen X Voices to hear future episodes. Connect with me on Instagram at thegenxwomenscoach and Twitter as susebb.

Content warnings: mental health and suicide discussion

In episode 3 of Gen X Voices, I chat with Lou Mycroft. Lou is a nomadic educator and a true Generation X outsider. Adopted into a loving family in the Yorkshire coalfield, Lou grew up during the Thatcher years and raised for a life that wasn’t there anymore. Although she struck a few poses it wasn't until she was an independent parent in her 30s that she found her identity as a thinker. These days, Lou works on a range of projects, each of which practice affirmative ethics of joy. She is one of further education's #DancingPrincesses💃 a Thinking Environment specialist and has just submitted her PhD. She still dances like no-one is watching, even if they are, and she totally believes that her son's generation will save the earth for humanity. 

You can find Lou @loumycroft on Twitter and her website https://loumycroft.org. It was a joy to chat with Lou and we talked about being working class, philosophy, Wellbeing Wednesdays and the practice of constellations rather than teams.

I hope you enjoy this episode of Gen X Voices and do connect with me on my social media: @susebb on Twitter and @thegenxwomenscoach on Instagram.

In Episode 2 of Gen X Voices, Suse Bentley chats with Suzi Warren. 

Suzi is a London based artist who worked in advertising for 20 yrs before starting her own business, Twisted Twee in 2003, making items of practical lunacy. Suzi is the creator of polite protests, becoming a human billboard to express her reaction to political and social events. In 2018, she started the Clothing Hospital doing her bit for the environment and creating some very happy customers. She's currently selling her masks online at twistedtwee.co.uk as well as the fantastic hag range, reclaiming words used to describe older women. You can find Suzi on Instagram and Twitter as twistedtwee. 

I hope you enjoy our chat and do subscribe to Gen X Voices on your preferred podcast player. 

I'd love to hear what you think of the podcast and let me know who you'd like to guest on it. Reach out to me on Instagram at thegenxwomenscoach and Twitter at susebb. 

Listen to Episode 1 of Gen X Voices

Gen X Voices includes copyrighted original music (permissions given by song creator) and swearing.

We start off this series with Dr Clare Forder, chatting with her about Gen X being the transitional generation of tech and social media. In this 30 minute chat, we cover who we are as Gen X women, how this series can develop, social media and cyberbullying for our kids (not mine, just the entire generation's!), marches, politics, gender equality, community.  Likes and positive comments/shares welcome. 

Some swearing throughout. Full copyright belongs to Susan B. Bentley 2020. Original music copyrighted.