Gratitude and thankfulness can be rough when your holidays are full of family DRAMA. Relationship expert Summer Howard teaches you how to reduce the amount of drama in your family while actually deepening and improving your family relationships at the same time.  You don't want to miss this interview!

Learn a step-by-step process to use when you get triggered by difficult family members or extreme emotions and a way to use your intuition to improve your interactions.

Download Inspiring Mama's Quick & Dirty Guide to Actually Enjoying the Holidays Here: InspiringMama.com/Holidays

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Your creativity could be the missing piece in your healing journey. Creativity coach Kathy Stowell will explain how opening your creative channel can improve your mood and expand your overall happiness.

Did you shut the door on creativity when you had a baby or became an adult? Does the word "creativity" conjure up images of puffy paint and hot glue? Creativity is actually not about the finished product. It's about the place you go, the energy you exude while you are in a creative project.

Kathy Stowell will explain how you can reopen this channel and rediscover an energy that can heal and transform your life.  She will teach you how to pick new projects that will make you feel more alive and how let go of the perfectionism that may be keeping you stuck. 

Like this podcast? Join the Treat Yourself Challenge to learn more about happiness. In  10 Days you will learn 10 ways to shift from crappy to happy whenever you want. Join here: InspiringMama.com/TreatYourself

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Postpartum Depression ("PPD") is one of the most common health issues for moms and yet it is also one of the least understood. Guest Pamela Zimmer, author of Reclaim the Joy of Motherhood: How I Healed from Postpartum Depression discusses PPD myths, realities, and healing strategies.

What causes PPD? What does it look like in reality? How do you know if this is baby blues or PPD?  When should you seek treatment? Why do women try to hide it? 

As many of you know, I am still healing from the postpartum depression that hit me when my daughter was 5 months old. Like many women, I misunderstood the symptoms of postpartum depression. Because I wasn’t “sad” or “down” or “unbonded to my baby,” I did not seek treatment until my PPD was severe. Today we’re going to talk truth, what is postpartum depression, who is at risk, how do you know if you have it, and what are your options for healing (besides just medication).

Learn to Transform Crappy to Happy in 10 Days - The Treat Yourself Challenge Join at: http://InspiringMama.com/TreatYourself

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How do you pick up a new mommy friend at the grocery store? How do you deepen a friendship with a mom you met in a playgroup or at school? Host Lauren Fire interviews Decker Cunov, a relationship expert who trains men to pick up and connect with women.  

Learn how to break the ice with a new mommy friend out in public and ask them on a mommy date. Hint - it starts with presence! 

Learn a simple a 3-step process you can use to deepen your friendships. If you want more nourishing and supportive friendships with other parents, Decker's strategy is golden. 

Join the Inspiring Mama Village and get 1 short happiness lesson every week, free! http://InspiringMama.com 

Connect with me to get more free stuff:

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What do you do when you secretly feel like the reality of motherhood doesn't live up to the hype? What happens when the day-to-day grind makes you feel stuck, trapped, sad, overwhelmed, or just plain bored? Learn how to re-discover who you are and what you deeply desire and how to start making small shifts in the direction of a happier and more fulfilled life. 

Speaker and leadership coach Tewana Pinard explores why moms have a hard time admitting discontent and what you can do when after you realize that you're not 100% happy. Learn a process you can use to discover who you are and what is most important.  Learn why you may not have been successful at changing in the past and how small changes can bring you closer to your desires and dreams.

Interview Highlights:

10:05 - Tewana explains why it's so hard for moms to admit that they're not happy

14:00 - How limiting beliefs can lead you to settle in default unhappiness

16:35 - A new approach you can use to discover who you are and what you want

23:20 - Why it's important for moms to put their needs up front in order for their children to ultimately lead happy lives

26:05 - Tewana's advice for how moms can start today bringing their passions, goals, and desires back into their lives.

Visit the Show Notes Page for this Episode at: InspiringMama.com/MotherhoodJoy

Inspired to make small changes in your life? Try my Treat Yourself Challenge, 10 Days, 10 Ways to Shift from Crappy to Happy. Join to receive 10 free happiness lesson videos and a free E-Book. Free at: InspiringMama.com/TreatYourself 

Learn how to move through guilt and shame quickly with this short exercise. If you are highly critical of yourself, this podcast will help! 

Shame is a very destructive emotion, usually connected with highly critical thoughts and a tense body. If you feel really bad when you make a mistake, or find yourself working tirelessly to please no one in particular, shame is probably the culprit. 

But how do you get rid of it? What can you do, in the moment, when you feel bad about a mistake? 

You say this to yourself: 

I love you and I forgive you. I like to use my name: I love you Lauren and I forgive you Lauren.

I learned this from Cheryl Richardson, a highly acclaimed author and speaker. She said in a tele summit earlier this year that she does this when she feels ashamed. 

We all criticize ourselves. The people who live the happiest are the ones who have learned how to move through it, putting it behind them rather than in front of them. 

It's not about improving yourself or fixing yourself. It's about learning how to work with what you already do. This exercise is a way to work with guilt, shame and self criticism. 

If you want more exercises like this, you would enjoy the challenge that I'm giving away, called the Treat Yourself Challenge - 10 Days, 10 Ways to Shift from Crappy to Happy. 

Every day you will try a happiness lesson, just like The Shame Buster. At the end of the 10 days you will understand how to shift from crappy to happy anytime you want and gain a new freedom over how much you enjoy your life.  

When you sign up at: InspiringMama.com/TreatYourself, you will get: 10 short happiness lesson videos, an E-Book, and access to our exclusive Facebook group. 

Join now: InspiringMama.com/TreatYourself

Treating yourself isn't just about an ice cream cone or a bath. You can treat yourself by allowing yourself to be happy in any moment of your life. Most of us know this in theory, but don't understand HOW to actually do this in practice. How do you treat yourself to happiness? How do you practice happiness? 

Host Lauren Fire explains that happiness is not actually the natural result of success. In fact happiness and success aren't linked together at all. ave to actually do something. 

To practice happiness, to treat yourself to happiness, you have to actually shift the way you work with your mind, body, and emotions in the present moment. 

Learn how you can use happiness tools to shift how you think and feel at any time. When you learn to do this, you unlock an incredible power in your life to be happy no matter the circumstances. 

If you enjoyed this podcast, sign up for Inspiring Mama's Treat Yourself Challenge - 10 Days, 10 Ways to Shift from Crappy to Happy. Sign up at: InspiringMama.com/TreatYourself 

When you enter your email, you will get the Treat Yourself E-Book, daily video happiness exercises for 10 days, and access to an exclusive Facebook group. Sign up today! 

Our “to do” lists aren’t getting any shorter. And the organization tips in magazines only get us so far. We need a new way to think about overwhelm and productivity.  

Lauren Fire interviews renowned sports psychologist and high performance consultant Loren Fogelman about overwhelm. Learn new ways to think about your particular brand of overwhelm and strategies for changing your relationship to the “to dos” in your life. Take back your power and feel stronger, more productive and happier with your accomplishments. 

Bonus: To hear the entire tapping session between Lauren Fire and Loren Fogelman and to learn how to use tapping and the Emotional Freedom Technique to shift the beliefs that may be causing your overwhelm, visit the show notes page for this episode: InspiringMama.com/Overwhelm

Episode Quick Reference Guide:

4:40 - Loren talks about Wonder Woman Syndrome, how the quest for “doing it all” creates overwhelm, self-judgment, and inner criticism. 

9:35 - Learn what causes overwhelm and how your belief structures influence how overwhelmed you feel on a regular basis.

12:50 – Understand negative self-talk and what you can do when self-criticism is causing you to feel more overwhelmed.

17:50 – Learn how shifting from “perfectionism” to “excellence” can shift your experience of your to-do list

20:25 – How a simple strategy you can do yourself, called the Emotional Freedom Technique (aka “tapping”) can shift the beliefs that are causing your overwhelm

28:00 - Loren’s advice for moms struggling with overwhelm and monster to-do lists.

Who doesn’t love a good mood! Did you know you can generate your OWN good mood, no matter what is happening? How POWERFUL are you? In this bonus episode, I’m going to teach you how to access your power to feel TOTALLY AMAZING AND ALIVE whenever you want. I call it The Good Mood Generator.  

The Good Mood Generator is one of the Happiness Practices that I give away every week to members of the Inspiring Mama Village. You can join at InspiringMama.com.

What is a Happiness Practice? I'm glad you asked!

My philosophy is very simple. When you practice happiness, you will enjoy more of your life.

Have you ever thought to yourself, I will be happy when…I lose 10lbs, change jobs, move, get pregnant…

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but sadly happiness is not going to show up at your door when you get any of these things.

Because when you get there, you will still be you.  And you still won’t be happy.  You may be happy for a bit. But you will soon find something else to strive for.

Happiness is not a goal. It is not the natural result of success.

Countless research studies have shown this. Countless celebrities and other “successful people” have proven this again and again with drug abuse, overdoses and most recently, suicide.

Happiness is a practice.

It’s something you do.  

All over the world, authors, thought leaders, speakers, and researchers are all saying the same thing - if you’re not actively practicing happiness, actively trying to take more joy in your life, you are only living half alive.

If you want to enjoy more of your life, feel more alive, it’s time you start practicing happiness.

You can practice happiness with The Good Mood Generator, and the other short Happiness Practices that I give away to the Inspiring Mama Village.