In this episode of Beautiful Work Beautiful Life, host Laurel Holland sits down with naturopathic doctor and author Jenn Rapkin for a deeply human conversation about emotions, embodiment, and resilience. Jenn shares the inspiration behind her new book, The Feeling Muscle, and invites listeners to rethink their relationship with emotions—especially the hard ones we often try to avoid.

Drawing from her personal journey with OCD, her clinical work, and body-based healing practices, Jenn explains why our thoughts don’t always have our best interests at heart—and how reconnecting with the body can help us feel safer, steadier, and more grounded. This episode is a powerful reminder that feeling deeply is a strength , not a weakness. And when we build our “feeling muscle,” we expand our capacity to live more fully, authentically, and courageously.

Highlights include: 

• Why our thoughts don’t always have our back—and how to stop letting them run the show

• How emotional resilience is something we can practice and strengthen

• How embodiment and mindfulness help interrupt anxiety, OCD, and intrusive thought patterns

• Understanding body armor—how we physically hold down emotions and how to release them gently

• The importance of going slowly in healing and honoring your own timeline

• How naming emotions and describing their physical sensations builds emotional intelligence

• Why avoiding hard feelings actually limits our lives—and how learning to feel them creates freedom

• The often-overlooked practice of receiving positive emotions and compliments

• How compassion neutralizes and softens the inner critic to build self-trust

Journaling prompts are suggested to further your exploration to gently support deepening your emotional awareness and resilience.

Links/Books mentioned: The Feeling Muscle by Dr Jenn Rapkin

The email to send questions to Laurel Boivin is [email protected] and for Laurel Holland - [email protected]

Host/Cohost/Guest Info

Guiding others to become effective leaders of their own lives, Laurel Holland has been on a journey of awakening and transformation throughout her life. Writing about inner work, Laurel has authored four books, including Crossroads and Love’s 8 Laws. Her books, Live Your Inner Power, the Journal, and Courageous Woman, introduce, share, and explore the eight foundational practices for creating transformation from the inside out. Through her books, programs, and innovative talks, Laurel’s great desire is to lift others up and courageously step into the life they came here to live. You can learn more about Laurel, her books, and work she does at www.liveyourinnerpower.com.

Laurel Boivin, life coach and founder of Flux+Flow Professional Coaching, helps high-performing professionals overcome overwhelm and disillusionment by increasing self-awareness and shifting perspective to improve performance, increase personal contribution, and experience a greater sense of fulfillment and purpose. Laurel began coaching after a 30-year corporate career.  A Reiki master and yoga practitioner, collector of sea glass and antiques, she lives in New Hampshire and summers in Maine.  You can learn more about Laurel and the work she does at www.fluxflowcoaching.com.

Dr. Jenn Rapkin is a naturopathic physician, bodyworker, former dancer, and Frequent Feeler with more than 25 years of experience in mind-body and body-centered therapies. Her new book The Feeling Muscle chronicles her personal and professional transformation from physician to a shepherd of “feelings.” In her clinical practice, her bodywork table is a place to hold space for, validate, and give voice to her patients’ inner felt emotion. She has had the good fortune in her life to balance deep and meaningful inner reflection with rich and interesting life experiences – from growing up on Nantucket Island, go-go dancing in the Guggenheim Museum, and living as an expat in Barcelona to raising two amazingly soulful and spirited children in Connecticut.