Love From the Inside Out: Honest Conversations for Women About Midlife, Menopause, Body Changes and Becoming Yourself Again

Have you ever pushed down something you were feeling because you didn’t have the time, energy, or emotional bandwidth to deal with it?

Maybe you told yourself it wasn’t a big deal. Maybe you knew that facing it would require a difficult conversation, a boundary, or a decision you weren’t ready to make. So you kept going and hoped the feeling would eventually disappear.

But what happens when it doesn’t?

In this episode, Susan explores emotional congestion and the cost of repeatedly ignoring what you feel, overriding what you know, and abandoning yourself when something becomes uncomfortable.

The idea had been on her mind after revisiting a personal growth program she completed earlier this year. Then, during a challenging Jess King Peloton ride, the message showed up again in a completely different way.

The ride was low impact, but the resistance and cadence stayed steady for long stretches. Instead of pushing hard for a few seconds and getting relief, Susan had to remain in the discomfort long enough for her body to adapt. That experience became a powerful parallel for emotional fitness and what can happen when we stay present long enough for a difficult feeling to begin to shift.

Susan also shares what coherence means to her: feeling grounded, connected to her heart, and aligned in her mind, body, emotions, and energy. She reflects on how years of overriding her intuition and ignoring red flags affected her sense of balance, and why she believes prolonged stress and unexpressed emotion can become part of what the body is carrying.

You’ll also hear a simple but powerful analogy about being the pot rather than the boiling water, along with practical ways to check in with yourself through 4-7-8 breathing, music, movement, rest, and asking what your body actually needs.

This episode is not about getting stuck in difficult emotions or allowing them to take over. It is about recognizing what is there, giving it a path through, and learning how to stay with yourself instead of automatically pushing it away.

Join Susan’s new monthly newsletter, Notes From the Inside Out, for personal reflections, practices, and reminders to help you come back to yourself. Sign up at this link: lovefromtheinsideout.co.

Text Susan about this episode

🎧 Connect & Stay in Touch

• Instagram: @susan.kricun — DM me to share your story or ask a question.

• Join me on Substack: Love From the Inside Out® — Personal reflections, bonus content, and more ways to connect. Free and paid options.

• I'd love your feedback! Take my anonymous listener survey and tell me what you'd like more of.

✨ Support the Show

• Follow, rate, or review the podcast wherever you listen.
• Share this episode with a friend who might enjoy it.

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Fill out the guest interest form.

🎶 Music Credit

“Seize the Day” by Andrey Rossi, via #Uppbeat (uppbeat.io/t/andrey-rossi/seize-the-day)

© 2025–present Susan Kricun. Love From the Inside Out® is a registered trademark of Kricun Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

All opinions are my own. This podcast is educational, not medical or legal advice.

How do you know when it’s time to let go of something you still love?

After an arborist told Susan and her husband that the enormous ficus tree outside their home could no longer be safely preserved, Susan’s emotional response caught her completely off guard. The tree was still standing, but suddenly she was seeing it differently and imagining what their home, and her life inside it, would feel like without it.

In this deeply personal solo episode, Susan reflects on anticipatory grief, the difficult space between knowing and accepting, and what it means to care for something when holding on may no longer be the most responsible choice.

She also explores how the same question can surface in other parts of our lives, including our relationships, our work, our changing bodies and the versions of ourselves we may have outgrown.

This episode is an honest reflection on change, stewardship and the time it can take for our hearts to catch up with what our minds may already understand.

In this episode:

• Why grief can begin before something is actually gone
• The emotional difference between understanding a decision and feeling ready for it
• How ordinary parts of our lives quietly become part of what home means to us
• The difference between caring for something and holding on because we fear what comes next
• Why letting go does not erase the love, meaning or memories connected to what we are losing
• How to remain present with what is still here while acknowledging that it may soon change

Stay connected

Subscribe to Notes From the Inside Out for personal reflections, podcast updates and encouragement for navigating midlife from the inside out: https://love-from-the-inside-out.kit.com/473b24caee

Text Susan about this episode

🎧 Connect & Stay in Touch

• Instagram: @susan.kricun — DM me to share your story or ask a question.

• Join me on Substack: Love From the Inside Out® — Personal reflections, bonus content, and more ways to connect. Free and paid options.

• I'd love your feedback! Take my anonymous listener survey and tell me what you'd like more of.

✨ Support the Show

• Follow, rate, or review the podcast wherever you listen.
• Share this episode with a friend who might enjoy it.

🎙️ Interested in Being a Guest?

Fill out the guest interest form.

🎶 Music Credit

“Seize the Day” by Andrey Rossi, via #Uppbeat (uppbeat.io/t/andrey-rossi/seize-the-day)

© 2025–present Susan Kricun. Love From the Inside Out® is a registered trademark of Kricun Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

All opinions are my own. This podcast is educational, not medical or legal advice.

Your home may look beautiful, but does it still support the life you’re living now—and the person you’re becoming?

In the first conversation episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan sits down with Kim Costa, a Top 5% REALTOR®, author, speaker and creator of the Wheel House Method™, to explore the often-overlooked connection between our homes, our identities and the changes we experience in midlife.

Years ago, Kim was living in a picture-perfect farmhouse when a serious horseback-riding accident left her with a broken back and the possibility that she might never walk again. During her recovery, she won an essay contest for The Oprah Winfrey Show—but when producers asked to film her story at her home, she turned down the opportunity.

That decision eventually helped Kim recognize a much deeper truth: she had created a life that looked wonderful from the outside but didn’t reflect who she really was.

In this conversation, Kim shares how that realization led her to reinvent her life, change careers and develop a new way of helping people determine whether their homes still fit their needs, values and vision for the future.

Susan and Kim also talk about the emotional side of our living environments, what happens when couples need different things from the same space, and why a home can sometimes keep us connected to roles or identities we have outgrown.

This episode is not simply about moving, renovating or decorating. It is an invitation to consider whether your surroundings support the way you want to live now.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• How Kim’s life-changing injury became a wake-up call
• Why she said no to an opportunity with The Oprah Winfrey Show
• The difference between a beautiful home and a home that truly fits your life
• How life transitions, including empty nesting, career changes and divorce, can change what we need from our homes
• Why each person in a household needs space to be who they are
• How your home can support your interests, relationships, creativity and well-being
• The connection between people-pleasing, guilt and living a life that does not feel like your own
• Why midlife can be an opportunity to reconsider what you want next
• How small changes can begin moving you back into alignment
• Kim’s advice to pause, take inventory and choose one area in which to begin

About Kim Costa

Kim Costa is a Top 5% REALTOR®, author, speaker, host and creator of the Wheel House Method™. With more than 30 years of experience across residential construction, design, real estate and lifestyle alignment, Kim helps homeowners—especially women in midlife and major life transitions—decide whether to stay, go, renovate or reimagine the home they already have.

Through her book, Live in Your Wheel House, Kim encourages readers to look beyond square footage and resale value and ask a more meaningful question: Does this home support who I am becoming?

Connect with Kim

Website:
https://lifestylefoundations.com/

Learn more about Live in Your Wheel House:
https://liveinyourwheelhousebook.com/

Join Kim’s Wheel House Workshop Series:
https://lifestylefoundations.com/virtual-workshop/

Kim is also launching a virtual workshop series this fall based on her Wheel House framework. The six-session experience invites women to take an honest look at the different areas of their lives and explore what may be ready for more support, clarity, or change.

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/kim.e.costa/

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

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimecosta

Join Notes From the Inside Out

Join Susan’s monthly newsletter, Notes From the Inside Out, for personal reflections, thoughtful reminders and ideas to help you keep finding your way back to yourself in midlife.

It’s where our conversations continue between episodes—one thoughtful note at a time.

Join at this link.

Stay connected with the podcast

Follow or subscribe to Love From the Inside Out so you don’t miss what’s next.

And if this conversation made you look at your home—or your life—a little differently, share it with a friend who may need to hear it too.

Text Susan about this episode

🎧 Connect & Stay in Touch

• Instagram: @susan.kricun — DM me to share your story or ask a question.

• Join me on Substack: Love From the Inside Out® — Personal reflections, bonus content, and more ways to connect. Free and paid options.

• I'd love your feedback! Take my anonymous listener survey and tell me what you'd like more of.

✨ Support the Show

• Follow, rate, or review the podcast wherever you listen.
• Share this episode with a friend who might enjoy it.

🎙️ Interested in Being a Guest?

Fill out the guest interest form.

🎶 Music Credit

“Seize the Day” by Andrey Rossi, via #Uppbeat (uppbeat.io/t/andrey-rossi/seize-the-day)

© 2025–present Susan Kricun. Love From the Inside Out® is a registered trademark of Kricun Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

All opinions are my own. This podcast is educational, not medical or legal advice.

One year ago, on International Self-Care Day, I launched Love From the Inside Out with one simple promise: to release one episode every week for an entire year.

In this one-year anniversary episode, I'm reflecting on what a year of showing up has taught me about self-trust, consistency, perfectionism, confidence, and why so many women in midlife struggle to recognize how far they've come.

I had no idea where that commitment would lead.

I didn't know if anyone would listen. I didn't know what I was doing. I just knew there was something I wanted to create, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could follow through.

One year later, after more than 50 episodes, listeners in 65 countries and territories and 481 cities worldwide, and as I wrap up this season of the podcast, I've realized the greatest thing I built wasn't a podcast.

It was trust in myself.

But this episode isn't really about podcasting.

It's about something I think so many women in midlife struggle with: moving from one accomplishment to the next without ever stopping long enough to recognize how far we've come.

I also reflect on the incredible kindness of this community—from thoughtful messages and reviews to cards, gifts, and conversations that have reminded me there's a real person on the other side of every episode. Your encouragement has not only kept me going, it's helped shape the direction of this podcast.

If you've been second-guessing yourself, waiting until you feel "ready," wondering why nothing you accomplish ever feels like enough, or constantly moving on to the next goal without stopping to acknowledge your progress, I hope this conversation reminds you that the evidence of who you're becoming is already there—you may just need to slow down long enough to see it.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How to trust yourself by recognizing how far you've come
• Why self-trust is built by keeping promises to yourself
• The surprising relationship between consistency and confidence
• Why so many women rush past their own growth
• Why we rarely feel like we've done enough—even after accomplishing something meaningful
• How perfectionism keeps us from acknowledging our progress
• One of the most overlooked forms of self-care
• Learning to celebrate yourself without waiting for someone else's approval
• Why honoring your growth isn't selfish—it's necessary
• Lessons from one year of Love From the Inside Out
• A look ahead at what's coming next for the podcast

Also in this episode:

• Celebrating one year of Love From the Inside Out
• More than 50 episodes published
• Listeners in 65 countries and territories and 481 cities worldwide
• The beginning of Season 3—with the first conversation episode of Love From the Inside Out

If this episode resonates with you, I'd love to hear from you. Send me a message on Instagram or Facebook and tell me one promise you've kept to yourself recently—or one way you've grown that you haven't stopped to acknowledge yet. I'd genuinely love to hear your story.

And if you've been listening this past year, thank you. Whether you've listened to one episode or all of them, left a review, shared the podcast with a friend, sent a thoughtful message, or simply invited me into your walks, workouts, or morning coffee, I don't take a single minute of your time for granted. You've helped shape this community more than you know.

Keep Listening

If today's conversation resonated with you, you may also enjoy Why Choosing Yourself Feels So Uncomfortable, where I explore why keeping promises to yourself can feel so difficult—and how self-trust is built one small choice at a time.

🎧 Listen here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2369290/episodes/19434060

If today's episode spoke to you, I think you'll love Notes From the Inside Out. It's where our conversations continue between episodes—one thoughtful note at a time.

Once a month, I'll send you a personal note with reflections, practical insights, encouragement, and a few things I'm loving or learning as I navigate this season of life alongside you. My hope is that each note helps you trust yourself a little more and reminds you that you're not doing this alone.

✨ Sign up for Notes From the Inside Out HERE.

I'd truly love to meet you there.

Because you're not disappearing.

You're recognizing the woman you've been becoming all along.

Text Susan about this episode

🎧 Connect & Stay in Touch

• Instagram: @susan.kricun — DM me to share your story or ask a question.

• Join me on Substack: Love From the Inside Out® — Personal reflections, bonus content, and more ways to connect. Free and paid options.

• I'd love your feedback! Take my anonymous listener survey and tell me what you'd like more of.

✨ Support the Show

• Follow, rate, or review the podcast wherever you listen.
• Share this episode with a friend who might enjoy it.

🎙️ Interested in Being a Guest?

Fill out the guest interest form.

🎶 Music Credit

“Seize the Day” by Andrey Rossi, via #Uppbeat (uppbeat.io/t/andrey-rossi/seize-the-day)

© 2025–present Susan Kricun. Love From the Inside Out® is a registered trademark of Kricun Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

All opinions are my own. This podcast is educational, not medical or legal advice.

What do you do when you know what helps you feel better, but motivation is nowhere to be found?

In this solo episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan explores the idea of mental fitness as one of the most important muscles women in midlife can build. Inspired by a moment during a Peloton class, she reflects on why motivation is unreliable and why mental fitness is what helps us keep choosing what supports us, even on the days we do not feel like doing it.

This episode is for you if you have been feeling burned out, overwhelmed, anxious, emotionally exhausted, or stuck in overthinking. It is also for you if you know that movement, meditation, rest, a walk, a workout, a boundary, or a small reset would help, but you still find yourself resisting the very thing you need most.

Susan shares how meditation, movement, consistency, and nearly a year of weekly podcasting have strengthened her own mental fitness and helped her build more self-trust. She also talks about the difference between discipline that feels punishing and discipline that feels supportive, especially in midlife when old ways of pushing through may no longer work the same way.

Through a personal story about preparing for a quick trip to Sedona, Susan looks at how easy it can be to chase control by trying to finish one more thing, answer one more email, or get everything handled before allowing yourself to rest, step away, or enjoy your life.

This conversation is not about forcing yourself through exhaustion or ignoring what your body needs. It is about learning to notice what is happening inside you, ask what would actually support you, and choose the next honest step when motivation disappears.

In this episode, Susan reflects on:

• Why motivation comes and goes, especially in midlife
• How mental fitness supports physical fitness, meditation, creativity, boundaries, and self-trust
• Why the days you do not feel like doing the thing may be the days you need it most
• How consistency and small choices build confidence over time
• The difference between pushing through and truly supporting yourself
• Why women in midlife may need a new relationship with discipline
• How meditation and movement can help shift your state
• Why chasing control can keep you stuck in overthinking
• How to come back to yourself when your mind is making a convincing case for doing the opposite

Susan also shares more about Notes From the Inside Out, her new monthly note for women in midlife. If you already signed up, you do not need to do anything. You will receive the new version when it is ready. If you have not signed up yet, Notes From the Inside Out will feel more like a note from a friend than a regular podcast update, with personal reflections, simple resets and reminders, things worth sharing, and episodes to revisit when you need encouragement or a moment to reconnect with yourself.

You can find both the Spotify playlist and the waiting list for Notes From the Inside Out at LoveFromTheInsideOut.co.

If this episode resonates with you, share it with a woman who may be trying to do too much, push through burnout, or wait until everything is finished before she lets herself breathe.

Love From the Inside Out is a podcast for women in midlife navigating menopause, body changes, burnout, self-trust, relationships, anxiety, overthinking, identity shifts, and the process of finding their way back to themselves.

Text Susan about this episode

🎧 Connect & Stay in Touch

• Instagram: @susan.kricun — DM me to share your story or ask a question.

• Join me on Substack: Love From the Inside Out® — Personal reflections, bonus content, and more ways to connect. Free and paid options.

• I'd love your feedback! Take my anonymous listener survey and tell me what you'd like more of.

✨ Support the Show

• Follow, rate, or review the podcast wherever you listen.
• Share this episode with a friend who might enjoy it.

🎙️ Interested in Being a Guest?

Fill out the guest interest form.

🎶 Music Credit

“Seize the Day” by Andrey Rossi, via #Uppbeat (uppbeat.io/t/andrey-rossi/seize-the-day)

© 2025–present Susan Kricun. Love From the Inside Out® is a registered trademark of Kricun Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

All opinions are my own. This podcast is educational, not medical or legal advice.

If choosing yourself makes you feel guilty, selfish, or wrong, this episode will help you understand why that discomfort may not mean you’re doing anything wrong.

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan explores why choosing yourself can feel so uncomfortable, especially when you’ve spent years being the dependable one, the helpful one, the person who figures it out, or the one who says “it’s fine” even when it’s not really fine.

This is not a conversation about becoming selfish or walking away from your responsibilities. It’s about the difference between abandoning yourself and honoring yourself.

Susan shares personal reflections on growing up without really knowing what it meant to have needs, building success around proving herself, shifting from wanting to be chosen in dating to choosing from a place of self-worth, and learning how unfamiliar healthy, stable love can feel when you’re used to being the only person you can count on.

She also talks about how midlife, postmenopause, body changes, energy, hormones, digestion, sleep, and real-life obligations can make it harder to keep overriding yourself the way you used to.

This episode is for you if you’ve ever said no and then immediately questioned yourself, felt guilty for wanting more space, or wondered whether choosing yourself means disappointing people you care about.

Sometimes choosing yourself feels uncomfortable because you’re interrupting an old pattern that once helped you feel safe, loved, successful, needed, or chosen. And sometimes the most loving thing you can do is stop disappearing inside the care you give to everyone else.

In this episode, Susan explores:

• Why choosing yourself can feel selfish, even when it’s not
• The difference between self-honoring and self-abandonment
• How people-pleasing and proving can become part of your identity
• Why healthy love can feel unfamiliar when you’re used to anxiety or uncertainty
• How midlife can make it harder to ignore what your body and energy are telling you
• Why guilt does not always mean you made the wrong choice
• How to start trusting yourself when choosing yourself feels uncomfortable

Susan also shares more about Notes From the Inside Out, her monthly note for women in midlife who are navigating body changes, burnout, relationships, self-trust, menopause, identity shifts, and the process of coming back to themselves. 

Sign up here.

If this conversation resonates with you, follow or subscribe to Love From the Inside Out, and share this episode with someone who may need the reminder that choosing yourself does not mean you have stopped caring about everyone else.

You are allowed to matter here, too.

Text Susan about this episode

🎧 Connect & Stay in Touch

• Instagram: @susan.kricun — DM me to share your story or ask a question.

• Join me on Substack: Love From the Inside Out® — Personal reflections, bonus content, and more ways to connect. Free and paid options.

• I'd love your feedback! Take my anonymous listener survey and tell me what you'd like more of.

✨ Support the Show

• Follow, rate, or review the podcast wherever you listen.
• Share this episode with a friend who might enjoy it.

🎙️ Interested in Being a Guest?

Fill out the guest interest form.

🎶 Music Credit

“Seize the Day” by Andrey Rossi, via #Uppbeat (uppbeat.io/t/andrey-rossi/seize-the-day)

© 2025–present Susan Kricun. Love From the Inside Out® is a registered trademark of Kricun Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

All opinions are my own. This podcast is educational, not medical or legal advice.

Music has a way of taking us right back to ourselves.

In this holiday weekend replay of The Soundtrack of Your Life, we’re revisiting one of my favorite episodes about music, memory, mood, nostalgia, and the songs that remind us who we were, who we are, and who we’re still becoming.

In this episode, I share stories from my own life soundtrack, from childhood car rides and teenage freedom to dance floors, concerts, friendships, heartbreak songs, wedding music, and the playlists that still shift my energy today.

We also talk about why certain songs bring back memories so vividly, how music affects mood and emotion, and why the right song can help you feel more like yourself again.

If you’re heading out on a road trip, enjoying a staycation, or just looking for something fun and reflective to listen to this weekend, this episode is a great one to download and save to your device.

In this episode:

• Why music brings back memories and emotions so quickly
• How songs become connected to different seasons of our lives
• The connection between music, mood, nostalgia, and identity
• Why certain songs can make us feel joyful, emotional, energized, or grounded
• How music can help us reconnect with ourselves in midlife
• Why your personal soundtrack can be a reminder of who you are
• How to create your own life playlist with songs that support, inspire, and energize you

Listen to the Love From the Inside Out Spotify Playlist:

I also created a Love From the Inside Out Spotify playlist filled with songs to give you a little boost, whether you’re driving, walking, working out, getting ready, or just need a mood shift.

Click here to listen.

Join Notes From the Inside Out:  Sign Up Here!

If you’re enjoying these conversations, I’d love to invite you to join Notes From the Inside Out, my monthly note for women navigating midlife, body changes, burnout, relationships, self-trust, and identity shifts.

Each month, I’ll share a personal reflection, a simple reset or reminder, something worth sharing, and a few podcast episodes you may want to listen to on a walk, drive, workout, flight, or quiet moment alone.

Text Susan about this episode

🎧 Connect & Stay in Touch

• Instagram: @susan.kricun — DM me to share your story or ask a question.

• Join me on Substack: Love From the Inside Out® — Personal reflections, bonus content, and more ways to connect. Free and paid options.

• I'd love your feedback! Take my anonymous listener survey and tell me what you'd like more of.

✨ Support the Show

• Follow, rate, or review the podcast wherever you listen.
• Share this episode with a friend who might enjoy it.

🎙️ Interested in Being a Guest?

Fill out the guest interest form.

🎶 Music Credit

“Seize the Day” by Andrey Rossi, via #Uppbeat (uppbeat.io/t/andrey-rossi/seize-the-day)

© 2025–present Susan Kricun. Love From the Inside Out® is a registered trademark of Kricun Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

All opinions are my own. This podcast is educational, not medical or legal advice.

If you've been overthinking a situation you can't control, replaying conversations in your head, worrying about what might happen next, or feeling stuck in uncertainty, this episode is for you.

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan shares a personal story about catching herself in a spiral of overthinking and anxiety during a workout, and how an unexpected song brought her back to a deeper truth about self-trust, identity, and the life that's happening right now.

What started as a familiar cycle of fear and future-casting turned into a powerful reminder: your life is not waiting on the other side of the answer.

Together, we'll explore why overthinking feels so convincing, how our minds often create stories that aren't true, and what it means to stay connected to yourself when life feels uncertain. Susan also reflects on how some of life's most difficult experiences become our greatest teachers, helping us grow into stronger, more grounded versions of ourselves.

If you're navigating anxiety, relationship challenges, identity shifts, emotional exhaustion, burnout, menopause-related stress, or simply feeling stuck in a situation you can't solve, this conversation offers a compassionate reminder that you don't need all the answers before you can keep living your life.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why overthinking what you can't control is so exhausting
• How fear and uncertainty can convince us that the worst-case scenario is inevitable
• The difference between overthinking and self-trust
• How to reclaim your energy when your mind is stuck in a loop
• Why your life doesn't have to be put on hold while you wait for clarity
• The surprising lesson one song taught Susan about personal growth and emotional resilience
• How difficult experiences can become powerful teachers over time

Whether you're dealing with relationship uncertainty, people-pleasing patterns, midlife transitions, anxiety, or simply trying to stop overthinking every possible outcome, this episode will remind you that you are stronger, wiser, and more capable than your fear wants you to believe.

Your life is happening now.

And so are you.

Text Susan about this episode

🎧 Connect & Stay in Touch

• Instagram: @susan.kricun — DM me to share your story or ask a question.

• Join me on Substack: Love From the Inside Out® — Personal reflections, bonus content, and more ways to connect. Free and paid options.

• I'd love your feedback! Take my anonymous listener survey and tell me what you'd like more of.

✨ Support the Show

• Follow, rate, or review the podcast wherever you listen.
• Share this episode with a friend who might enjoy it.

🎙️ Interested in Being a Guest?

Fill out the guest interest form.

🎶 Music Credit

“Seize the Day” by Andrey Rossi, via #Uppbeat (uppbeat.io/t/andrey-rossi/seize-the-day)

© 2025–present Susan Kricun. Love From the Inside Out® is a registered trademark of Kricun Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

All opinions are my own. This podcast is educational, not medical or legal advice.

Why trying harder isn’t helping and backing off isn’t giving up.

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan explores midlife burnout, the addiction to effort, and why pushing through, doing more, and overriding your body can stop working at a certain point in life.

For many women in midlife, effort has been the thing that worked. It helped us build careers, care for others, move through hard seasons, stay responsible, and become the people others could count on. But sometimes effort turns into force. And when that happens, trying harder may not bring more clarity, energy, peace, or self-trust. It may just make our bodies and minds louder.

Susan shares a recent Peloton moment that helped her understand this pattern in a new way. Instead of forcing a harder workout, she stayed in Zone 2, backed off, and gave her body what it actually needed. The surprising part wasn’t just that she felt better afterward. It was how hard it was to let the gentler ride be enough.

This conversation is about learning to listen to your body, notice when effort has become force, take smaller steps, and reconnect with the inner wisdom that often gets buried under pressure, striving, overthinking, and burnout.

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, burned out, or like your body is asking for something different than it used to, this episode is a reminder that doing less by even ten percent may be one of the most powerful ways to come back to yourself.

In this episode:

• Why trying harder can stop helping in midlife
• The difference between effort and force
• How burnout can be connected to proving, striving, and over-functioning
• Why your body may get louder when you keep overriding it
• The difference between listening to your body and monitoring it
• Why backing off by ten percent can feel harder than pushing through
• How small steps can help you keep moving without shutting down
• What daily meditation has taught Susan about self-trust and inner wisdom
• Why slowing down can create more creativity, clarity, energy, and aliveness

Mentioned in this episode:

• Zone 2 Peloton rides
• The “less is more” lesson from journalism school
• The mantra “let go and let it flow”
• The one-step-at-a-time / elephant analogy

Text Susan about this episode

🎧 Connect & Stay in Touch

• Instagram: @susan.kricun — DM me to share your story or ask a question.

• Join me on Substack: Love From the Inside Out® — Personal reflections, bonus content, and more ways to connect. Free and paid options.

• I'd love your feedback! Take my anonymous listener survey and tell me what you'd like more of.

✨ Support the Show

• Follow, rate, or review the podcast wherever you listen.
• Share this episode with a friend who might enjoy it.

🎙️ Interested in Being a Guest?

Fill out the guest interest form.

🎶 Music Credit

“Seize the Day” by Andrey Rossi, via #Uppbeat (uppbeat.io/t/andrey-rossi/seize-the-day)

© 2025–present Susan Kricun. Love From the Inside Out® is a registered trademark of Kricun Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

All opinions are my own. This podcast is educational, not medical or legal advice.

What happens when the thing you imagined your whole life finally arrives... and it doesn't feel the way you expected?

For most of my life, I assumed I would change my last name when I got married. I actually looked forward to it. Growing up with a difficult-to-pronounce last name, I dreamed of the day I would take a simpler name and step into what I thought would be an easier identity.

But when I got married for the first time at 52, something unexpected happened.

The name I had spent years wanting to leave behind had become part of who I was.

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, I’m sharing the story behind why I didn’t change my last name after marriage and why that decision became about much more than paperwork.

I talk about family expectations, growing up with the belief that marriage was the ultimate goal, what it means to get married later in life, and how keeping my maiden name became connected to identity, independence, family history, and belonging.

Whether you changed your name, kept your name, reclaimed your maiden name after divorce, never married, or are still figuring out what parts of your identity truly belong to you, this episode is really about one question:

How do we love deeply without losing ourselves in the process?

In this episode, I talk about:

• Why I chose not to change my last name after marriage
• What came up for me around keeping my maiden name
• Getting married for the first time at 52
• Family expectations around marriage, motherhood, and identity
• Why names can feel so emotional for women
• What it means to belong to someone without losing yourself

Referenced in this episode:

• Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden
• Related episode: “I Tried Every Dating App - What Actually Worked: Self-Love, Boundaries & Message Scripts” 

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🎶 Music Credit

“Seize the Day” by Andrey Rossi, via #Uppbeat (uppbeat.io/t/andrey-rossi/seize-the-day)

© 2025–present Susan Kricun. Love From the Inside Out® is a registered trademark of Kricun Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

All opinions are my own. This podcast is educational, not medical or legal advice.