Hard Beautiful Journey | Finding Joy Again Through Life's Hardest Lessons

Grief can shatter the world as we know it - but it can also become a doorway to love, connection, and transformation.

In this powerful conversation, grief specialist, thanatologist, and author Ligia M. Houben shares how losing her father at 12 years old shaped her life’s mission and led to her remarkable framework, The 11 Principles of Transformation®.

Ligia opens up about losing her beloved mother at almost 101 years old, the healing power of rituals, the overlooked grief of losing “the person you used to be,” and why understanding your thoughts, presence, and emotional expression is essential on the grief journey.

If you’re moving through loss - whether death, divorce, identity changes, transitions, or the loss of who you used to be - this conversation will wrap around your heart.

Connect with Ligia:
Website: https://ligiahouben.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ligiamhouben

Connect with Tiff:
Instagram: @iamtiffcarson

Website: ⁠www.tiffcarson.com⁠

Mother-daughter relationships are beautiful, complicated, and sometimes…dramatic (trust me, I once called the cops on my mom in high school).

In this episode, I sit down with Tes and Holly, the inspiring mother-daughter duo behind Heart to Heart Gatherings, to talk about boundaries, speaking up with love, and how even the hardest moments can lead to deeper connection.

We explore finding your voice, setting loving boundaries, and growing through change - no matter what season of life you’re in.

Connect with Tes & Holly here:Heart-to-Heart Website and waitlist sign-up for adult daughters and their mothers who might like to join an upcoming circle.

[email protected] / gatherbetter.co

[email protected] / http://we-hearyou.com (documentary Holly produced!)

✨ Connect with Tiff:

Website: www.tiffcarson.com

Instagram: @iamtiffcarson

Are you showing up in your life…or just getting through the day?
In this powerful episode, bestselling author and TEDx speaker Marcy Axelrod joins me to explore how we’re designed to thrive - and why most of us are just barely there.

Based on neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, her model of Showing Up is transforming how people live, lead, parent, and heal.

We talk about how to recognize when you’re off path, the simple shifts that change everything, and how to come back to yourself - even 1% at a time.

🔗 Learn more about Marcy: https://choosetoshowup.com
📲 Connect with Tiff: https://tiffcarson.com + @iamtiffcarson

What if your world started to disappear - literally?

At nine years old, Laura Bratton was told she would go blind. But instead of letting that diagnosis define her, she chose to build a life of purpose, grit, and gratitude.

In this heartfelt episode of Hard Beautiful Journey, Laura shares how she turned a life-altering challenge into a calling to help others. We talk about what it means to truly choose courage, how to move forward in the unknown, and why gratitude might just be the game-changer you didn’t know you needed.

💛 Connect with Laura:

Website: https://laurabratton.com

Ubi Global: https://ubiglobal.org

Book: Harnessing Courage

✨ Connect with Tiff Carson:

Guided Meditation & Weekly Newsletter: https://tiffcarson.com

Instagram: @iamtiffcarson

What if your body was speaking to you—and you just didn’t know how to listen?

In this episode of Hard Beautiful Journey, I sit down with Inna Segal, bestselling author of The Secret Language of Your Body, to explore how physical pain is often rooted in emotional trauma, suppressed energy, and ancestral patterns. Inna shares how healing begins when we reconnect with the body's innate wisdom and tune in to its messages. If you're carrying chronic pain, burnout, anxiety, or inherited grief, this episode will show you a powerful new way forward.

🎧 Tune in for a conversation that blends intuition, somatic healing, and radical honesty.

Connect with Inna:

🌐 www.innasegal.com

📘 @innasegal on Instagram

📖 Book: The Secret Language of Your Body (available wherever books are sold)

Connect with Me (Tiff):

🌐 www.tiffcarson.com

📸 @iamtiffcarson

Timestamps:

Have you ever wondered why overgiving feels like love, but leaves you burned out and resentful? In this powerful episode, psychotherapist and author Dr. Zoe Shaw joins me to explore the roots of complex shame, the hidden cost of people-pleasing, and how to create emotional safety in your relationships and within yourself.

We break down the real meaning of codependency, how to set boundaries without guilt, and why your deepest strength is often found in your most painful places.

Dr. Zoe’s new book, Stronger in the Difficult Places, is a must-read for anyone ready to stop abandoning themselves in the name of connection.

💥 Key Topics:

• Complex shame vs. simple shame

• Emotional safety in relationships

• Overgiving as a form of control

• Boundaries, resentment & self-worth

• Healing through vulnerability and community

  
  

✨ Let's ask the real question: Are you showing up from love, or fear of disconnection?

Chapters & Timestamps:

00:00 – Welcome + Meet Dr. Zoe Shaw

02:00 – Why Dr. Zoe left traditional therapy for bigger impact

04:40 – How fear nearly stopped her from speaking

07:10 – Why the relationship with yourself is the hardest

09:15 – Cracked cups & complex shame

14:00 – How shame shows up in your daily life

17:30 – Why external compassion doesn’t always work

19:30 – The process of untangling shame

24:00 – Overgiving = control? Let’s talk about it

26:00 – The hidden cost of people-pleasing

28:00 – If they’re not okay, are you still okay?

30:00 – What emotional safety really means

33:00 – Boundaries, rejection & freedom

36:00 – Sisterhood and the healing power of community

37:30 – How to spot where your shame lives

39:00 – What Dr. Zoe is grateful for today

40:30 – Final reflection + free meditation + newsletter invite

🌐 Connect with Dr. Zoe Shaw:

Website: drzoeshaw.com

Instagram: @DrZoeShaw

Book: Stronger in the Difficult Places (available for pre-order now)

💛 Connect with Tiff Carson:

Website: tiffcarson.com

Instagram: @iamtiffcarson

This episode gave me a whole new perspective on the ego - and how it shapes everything from our healing to our relationships.

I sat down with bestselling author and ultra-consciousness guide Daphne Michaels, and we dove into quantum awareness, energy healing, and how to live from the part of ourselves that’s already whole. We talked about ego collapse, how to raise your vibration, and why healing is really just your heart surviving your life.

Whether you're brand new to these ideas or already deep in your healing journey, I promise - this one will meet you where you're at.

Timestamps:

0:00 – Welcome & Reflection

2:10 – Daphne’s Spiritual Awakening at 19

5:30 – What an Ego Collapse Really Feels Like

10:00 – How the Ego Keeps You Emotionally 7 Years Old

13:45 – Healing Begins with Feeling Safe

18:00 – Quantum Awareness Explained Simply

22:00 – Real Stories of Energy Healing That Work

28:00 – Healing the Heart: Emotion, Trauma & Energy

34:00 – The Power of Micro-Acts of Healing

38:00 – Releasing Ego in a Noisy, Competitive World

44:00 – The SHB Movement: Living with Higher Consciousness

50:00 – Final Reflections & Takeaways

CONNECT WITH DAPHNE:

• Website: daphnemichaels.com

• Instagram: @theshbmovement

• YouTube: @DaphneMichaels
  

CONNECT WITH TIFF:

• Free Guided Meditation: tiffcarson.com

What if the very thing you've been holding back - your voice - is actually the key to your healing?

This week on the podcast, I sit down with vocal alchemist and teacher Maryn Azoff to explore the incredible healing power of sound, chanting, and expression. Maryn’s Vocal Transformation Method helps people reclaim their voice - not just to speak, but to feel, heal, and connect.

We talk about voice blocks, body memory, and even the parts of sound that make us squirm (hello sensual sound 👀). And yep…I was left speechless multiple times. On a podcast. About voice. 😂

This episode made me wish I’d started this work years ago - and now I’m inviting you into it too.

Chapters & Timestamps:

00:00 – Episode Intro

02:00 – Maryn’s take on what the voice really is

06:00 – The accident that changed everything

12:30 – The healing power of humming

15:45 – Tiff’s own voice blocks

20:00 – Sound, sensuality & shame

28:00 – Chanting & chakra reprogramming

36:00 – Healing generational trauma through sound

44:00 – Reclaiming our range and resonance

53:00 – Final sound practice + I AM ritual

1:05:00 – Gratitude & closing

Maryn’s Info:

Website: https://vocaltransformation.com

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

Connect with Tiff:

Free Guided Meditation: https://tiffcarson.com

Weekly Exhale Newsletter: https://iamtiffcarson.myflodesk.com/qkccrin7qz

In this emotional and powerful episode of Hard Beautiful Journey, I sit down with Julie Barth—a mother of six, trauma survivor, and author of Notes from a Blackberry. Julie shares her journey through caregiving, the devastating loss of her first husband, surviving emotional abuse, and how she turned those experiences into a mission to help other women in crisis.

If you're walking through grief, feeling stuck, or trying to find meaning again, this conversation will show you that healing is possible and power can be reclaimed.

Chapters:

00:00 - Intro: How Much Can One Heart Take?

01:00 - Meet Julie Barth

03:00 - Surviving Loss and Finding Purpose

07:00 - Notes from a Blackberry & Healing Through Writing

11:00 - Caregiving, Identity & Loneliness

13:00 - Physical Toll of Survival Mode

16:00 - Building a Nonprofit After Trauma

22:00 - Red Flags in Emotionally Abusive Relationships

26:00 - Legacy, Faith, and Helping Others Heal

Connect with Julie:

Website: https://www.juliebarthauthor.com

Follow her daughter’s art: Facebook - Hope4Tayt

Connect with Tiff:

Website: https://www.tiffcarson.com

Instagram: @iamtiffcarson

Have you ever felt like talk therapy just scratched the surface—but your body was holding onto something deeper?

In this soul-shifting episode, I sit down with intuitive guide Donnie Summers to explore how he turned years of depression, trauma, and suicidal ideation into a journey of spiritual and emotional healing. We talk about his sacred mentorship with the Yavapai tribe, how the body holds wisdom, the truth about our inner “parts,” and what it really takes to come home to yourself.

💬 You’ll walk away with a deeper understanding of EFT, Parts Work, somatic awareness, and how love can transform your life from the inside out.

Chapters:

00:00 – Welcome + Intro

01:30 – Who is Donnie Summers (in his words)

05:00 – The moment that cracked him open

08:30 – The loss of a friend to suicide

10:00 – Mentorship with the Yavapai Tribe

15:30 – Emotional healing isn’t always pretty

17:00 – EFT + tapping saved his life

22:00 – The “parts” inside us: inner critics, exiles, protectors

29:00 – Learning to trust his intuition

36:00 – How to tune into the body

42:00 – The power of being witnessed

48:00 – How love taught Donnie to choose himself

52:00 – Gratitude & Closing

🔗 Connect with Donnie:

Website: www.beyondlimitscoaching.life

🔗 Stay connected with me:

Instagram: @iamtiffcarson

Podcast: Hard Beautiful Journey

Website: www.tiffcarson.com