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How Do We Find Joy After Death? A Conversation on Grief, Parenting, and the Return of Happiness

This profound episode of Lift One Self with host NatNat welcomes grief advocate Marie Alessi, who faced unimaginable heartbreak when her husband suddenly passed in 2018 while she was raising two young sons.

Rather than accepting grief as a life sentence or a hole that never heals, Marie shares a radical yet tender perspective: grief is a visitor — sometimes present, sometimes gone, always allowed, never permanent. "Sometimes Joy goes to the markets when Grief visits," she shares, "and sometimes they sit together."

Through the lens of personal loss (including the death of her father at age 20), Marie opens up about raising emotionally safe children, creating rituals of remembrance, and allowing herself — and her family — to feel everything without shutting joy out.

From laughter at funerals to annual family celebrations honouring her late husband, Marie challenges cultural taboos around grief. She reminds us that healing is possible and joy is not disrespectful to love.

If you're ready to reframe your relationship to grief and soften into joy without guilt, this episode offers profound wisdom.

→ Visit Marie at mariealessi.com to explore her books, TEDx talk, and personal coaching.

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Permission to feel shouldn't be something we need to ask for, yet we've created a culture where expressing authentic emotions feels like crossing a boundary. Why do we apologize before sharing our sadness? Why do we preface vulnerability with disclaimers? This episode dives deep into our collective discomfort with the full spectrum of human emotion.

We've constructed a tiny, polished box where only happiness and productivity fit, making "okay" mean something artificially limited. But what if "okay" could be bigger? What if feeling sad was simply information, fear was your nervous system doing its job, and overwhelm was just a natural response to a complex world? When authenticity becomes radical instead of normal, we've lost something essential.

The most powerful realization is that everyone struggles—even those who seem to have everything together. The person who appears perfectly composed also cries in parking lots; the one who always seems fine also lies awake at 3AM with racing thoughts. We're all pretending to be the polished version of ourselves when what we truly need is to remember that messy is okay too. This episode offers a practice for giving yourself permission to experience your full humanity without apology, without explanation—just truth. Because your humanity doesn't need a hall pass. It just needs space to exist.

Take a moment to check in with yourself. Notice what's happening in your body without trying to fix it. Remember: be kind and gentle with yourself. You matter, and time is a tool, not a toy. Use it wisely.

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What happens when you bring together a nervous system expert and a Harvard-trained psychotherapist who survived flesh-eating disease? A profound conversation about the true nature of healing, resilience, and self-discovery.

This episode opens with a guided mindfulness practice that immediately demonstrates how we can create space between awareness and thoughts—a foundational skill for genuine transformation. As Harvard-educated psychotherapist Madelaine Weiss shares her remarkable journey, we discover how her insatiable curiosity and personal challenges shaped her unique approach to helping others "make their dreams come true."

Through vulnerable storytelling and scientific insights, Madelaine reveals why perception is so limited yet we cling to our narratives as absolute truth. "Out of 11 million bits of information our senses receive every second, our conscious mind processes only 5 bits," she explains, illuminating why genuine curiosity and openness are essential for growth. Her near-death experience with flesh-eating disease offers a powerful reframe: "Every single one of us has already lived through everything we've ever been through"—a simple but profound reminder of our inherent resilience.

The conversation reaches its emotional peak when discussing faith, revealing it's not about avoiding pain but maintaining an open heart regardless of circumstances. This episode brilliantly demonstrates that true healing is an inside job, not dependent on external circumstances changing but on our relationship with ourselves transforming. You'll walk away with practical insights on navigating uncertainty, processing difficult emotions, and accessing your innate capacity for joy even amid challenges.

Ready to discover the warrior within? Connect with Madeline at madelaineweiss.com explore her books, free resources, and personalized guidance for your own healing journey.

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What if the place you've been trying to get back to is actually you? Not the you that pleases others or performs for acceptance, but the raw, honest, wildly worthy you beneath all the conditioning. This essential question forms the heart of a deeply resonant exploration into authentic selfhood.

Many of us equate power with cutting people off or establishing firm boundaries—valid steps in our healing journey. Yet deeper than that lies a more profound truth: real power isn't about controlling how others treat you but about fearlessly embodying who you truly are. When you stop second-guessing every word and gesture, when you simply allow yourself to be felt rather than performing what you think others want, something remarkable happens. Your presence lands differently. Your energy speaks a language beyond words.

This episode guides you through the difference between intellectual understanding and embodied wisdom, offering a gentle mindfulness practice to reconnect with your essential nature. We explore how tenderness isn't weakness but a different kind of strength—one that holds clarity and doesn't need to shout to be known. For those feeling overwhelmed by the demands of human-made systems and expectations, this episode offers a sacred reminder: you don't owe these constructs your soul. Your body carries the waters, minerals, and breath of the earth to which you truly belong. When the world feels too loud, too rigid, or too demanding, you can always return to breath, to body, to soul—to you. There's no place like that.

If this resonates, please like, share, and leave a review. It helps others find this space and lets me know these words are landing where they're meant to.

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Unlock Hidden Childhood Blocks: A Live Hypnotherapy Breakthrough

Vulnerability takes center stage as podcast host Nat bravely undergoes a live hypnotherapy session, revealing the childhood roots of her creative blocks. This intimate exploration with RTT hypnotherapist Karoline Fisher offers listeners a rare glimpse into the therapeutic process that connects present struggles with past experiences.

The session unfolds with Karoline guiding Nat into a relaxed, suggestible state through mindful breathing and visualization. What follows is a powerful journey into two pivotal childhood memories: being publicly criticized by a teacher at age nine, leaving her feeling "stupid" and "small," and having spontaneous joy shut down at age four, teaching her that openness and expressiveness weren't safe.

Through Carolina's expert guidance, we witness Nat express emotions her younger self couldn't articulate, reframe limiting beliefs, and integrate these healed aspects of her inner child. The transformation is palpable as Nat describes feeling "lighter" with physical sensations of release.

Beyond the personal journey, this episode serves as a masterclass in understanding how our subconscious mind works. Karoline explains that hypnotherapy isn't about being asleep but accessing deep suggestibility—demonstrated when Nat's body physically responds to the mere suggestion of tasting lemon juice. This mind-body connection reveals how deeply our thoughts influence our actions and capabilities.

For anyone struggling with creative blocks, procrastination, or feeling stuck in patterns they can't seem to break, this episode offers both hope and practical insight. It demonstrates that healing happens when we bring our wounds into the light and reconnects us with the understanding that our bodies hold wisdom about our emotional experiences.

Ready to explore what might be blocking your own creative expression or personal growth? Find Karoline Fisher at www.whyhypnotherapy.com and remember to subscribe to the Lift One Self podcast for more conversations that break mental health stigmas through authentic connection.

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That bone-deep tiredness after a weekend filled with surprise visits, thunderstorms, community gatherings, and late-night shifts isn't something to push past—it's something to honor. When fatigue comes from creating memories, from being truly present in your life, it's serving a different purpose than the exhaustion that stems from stress or obligation.

Many of us have forgotten how to distinguish between these different types of tiredness. We carry stress psychosomatically, our bodies responding to thought patterns about control and perfectionism that we've internalized. We convince ourselves that if we can just be perfect enough, handle everything perfectly, we'll finally be safe. But that pressure adds up, flooding our system with cortisol and disconnecting us from the natural rhythms of rest and activity.

The real question isn't whether you're tired—it's whether your fatigue is evidence of a life you actually want to be living. Are your days nourishing you? Are your actions investing in the kind of experiences that fill you up, or are they draining what little energy remains? Manifestation isn't about escaping discomfort; it's about alignment. Freedom doesn't always require external changes—it begins with the pause, that moment when you interrupt the automatic patterns and check in with yourself honestly. You're allowed to slow down. You're safe to take life at your own pace, to release what's rooted in fear, to stop sprinting toward some imagined finish line of enough-ness.

Take a moment today to place one hand on your heart, the other on your belly, and remind your body: "We are here. We are safe. We are listening." Because time is a tool, not a toy—and it's up to each of us to use it wisely.

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Quitting silences the dream. Pausing and pivoting refine it. In this raw and powerful conversation, clarity coach and entrepreneur Dominiece Clifton joins NatNat on the Lift OneSelf Podcast to unpack the emotional toll of burnout, the courage to pause without guilt, and the sacred difference between avoidance and true rest.

After three successful years of podcasting, Dominiece made the bold decision to pause her show—not out of failure, but to honor her nervous system, her role as a single mother, and her deeper alignment. In this episode, we explore:

• 🔥 How to tell the difference between burnout, freeze response, and soul-led rest
• 🔄 Why pivoting isn’t quitting—and how to reframe failure as feedback
• 💡 The nervous system signals that whisper before they scream
• ✨ The power of self-awareness and soul care routines for entrepreneurs and empaths
• 🤍 The hidden cost of people-pleasing, productivity culture, and performing strength

Whether you're an entrepreneur, healer, or heart-led human navigating transitions, this episode is a grounding permission slip to pause, reflect, and reconnect with your inner compass.

Connect with Dominiece here:

https://domrclifton.com

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Why do we keep reopening doors that already showed us what’s behind them?

That person who repeatedly disappoints us. 
The belief that keeps us small.
The habit of over-functioning when our body is quietly begging for rest.

In this tender solo episode, we explore what you may still be carrying that was never meant to come with you. Through a guided mindful moment, you’ll be gently invited back into your body—to soften where you’ve been gripping and create space for a much-needed reset.

We’re also moving through the Flower Full Moon in Scorpio, a potent invitation to go deep.

Scorpio doesn’t let us skim the surface—it pulls us inward to face emotional truths we often avoid. If you’ve been feeling heavy, untethered, or unusually sensitive, you’re not broken.

You’re transforming. And transformation rarely feels graceful in real time.

Just like spring cleaning asks us to release what no longer fits, our emotional landscape asks the same. Nostalgia and fear can keep us clinging—but real freedom invites us to trust what we can’t yet see.

To let go before the next chapter fully reveals itself.

This isn’t abandonment. This is alignment.

Take a loving inventory:

What are you still loyal to that keeps you small?

What beliefs or roles have outlived their purpose?

You don’t have to know exactly who you’ll be on the other side.
Just trust: your becoming needs room to breathe.
You are allowed to outgrow what once felt like home.
You are allowed to choose lightness.

And you are still whole—especially when you walk away.

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The divide between pain and pleasure, escape and presence, runs through the core of human experience. In this riveting conversation with Amrit Singh Reinsch, we venture beyond conventional thinking about consciousness and healing to discover what happens when we stop running from discomfort.

Amrit's extraordinary journey took him from Germany's regimented structure to two decades in India, where meditation and yoga became his pathway to experiencing the profound internal highs our bodies naturally create. "It's a fascinating subject," he explains, comparing these states to the runner's high many already know. "Your human body can do this."

The most compelling aspects of our discussion center around intention versus escapism. While many use substances or activities to numb pain, Emerick describes his recent therapeutic psychedelic experience as transformative precisely because it wasn't about avoiding reality but seeing it more clearly. "It's not about going high... it's about having the experience and then taking that with you into our human experience."

What emerges is a radical reframing of life's challenges. Rather than obstacles to happiness, difficult emotions become doorways to freedom when we face them directly. This applies not only to our inner work but also to parenting, where witnessing our children's pain without immediately trying to fix it becomes one of the most challenging and necessary forms of love.

"Have fun," Amrit reminds us in closing. "It's all just one big game." This isn't dismissive but profoundly liberating – an invitation to approach life with curiosity instead of control. By embracing both the light and shadow aspects of being human, we discover a wholeness that transforms how we experience everything.

Ready to explore your own relationship with presence and pain? Listen now and discover how accepting the full spectrum of human experience might be the most healing choice you'll ever make.

Find out more about Amrit here: https://coachingnow.info/

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The tender threads of motherhood weave through this deeply personal episode as I share a love letter to my son Javon on his 30th birthday.

Thirty years ago, as a scared teenager without even a high school diploma, I was thrust into motherhood — holding a tiny human who depended on me while I was still learning how to depend on myself.

That moonlit night when I first brought him home, whispering promises I wasn’t sure I could keep, marked the beginning of a transformative journey — one that reshaped my entire existence.

Through raw and honest reflection, I share how motherhood taught me that love isn’t only gentle — it’s fierce, demanding, and expansive. It stretches us thin, yet paradoxically makes us whole.

My son became my greatest teacher, reflecting my essence back to me when I couldn’t see it myself. He showed me how to receive love when I wanted to push it away, and how to give love without conditions.

This episode honors not only my relationship with Javon but also the many forms of mothering:
 → those who have given birth
 → those who have lost mothers
 → those mothering themselves
 → and those navigating motherhood without children

This Mother's Day carries special meaning — marking both my son's milestone birthday and my first without my daughter, Natalie, here physically.

I speak to how grief and gratitude can coexist, and how Natalie’s love continues to radiate through her boys. I share how I am learning to honor both joy and sorrow, and how love continues to shape us.

Whether this day brings you smiles, tears, or quiet reflection — I invite you to meet it authentically, without performing or carrying others' expectations.

Join me for a mindful moment. Feel the support beneath you. Remember — you are not alone in this sacred circle of mothering.

✨ Share your reflections: [email protected]
 ✨ Join the conversation: #LiftOneSelfMotherhood

Let’s grow this community of authentic, loving presence… together.

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