Love From the Inside Out: Personal Growth & Life Changes for Women

Feeling overwhelmed by holiday stress, family expectations, and the pressure to make everything perfect? What if you could let go of some of that pressure and actually enjoy the holidays yourself?

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan shares a Thanksgiving experience that completely changed how she approaches holiday traditions. With her home under renovation and most of her kitchen packed away, she found herself rethinking what Thanksgiving was supposed to look like. What happened next surprised her and taught her a valuable lesson about letting go of expectations, sharing responsibilities, and making room for her own enjoyment.

From childhood holiday memories to creating new family traditions, Susan explores how easily we put pressure on ourselves to make everyone else happy, often at our own expense.

Because sometimes, the best holiday memories happen when we stop trying so hard to make everything perfect.

Join Susan for The Holiday Reset in Phoenix!

On Saturday, November 14, Susan is hosting Love From the Inside Out LIVE: The Holiday Reset at Kaya Holistic in Phoenix. This intimate gathering will explore holiday expectations, boundaries, and how to make more room for yourself this season.

Space is limited to 14 people. Registration is $10, with the full amount donated to Fresh Start Women's Foundation.

Learn more and register for The Holiday Reset

Learn more about Fresh Start Women's Foundation, a Phoenix nonprofit helping women move from surviving to thriving through education, career development, and personalized support.

Let's stay connected!

Susan is now on Substack! Join her for more personal reflections, insights, and conversations about navigating life, mindset, healing, and making meaningful changes from the inside out.

Subscribe to Susan's Substack

A question to take with you: What do you want this holiday season to actually feel like?

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 actually gets better as we get older?

At 72, Lee Anne Klein has some thoughts about that.

Lee Anne is my dear friend and the oldest woman in the core group of women I work out with each week. I’m the youngest. And while I’ve always been inspired by her physical strength, what I love even more is the perspective, humor and wisdom she has gained from decades of actually living through the things so many of us worry about in midlife.

In this warm and very personal conversation, we talk honestly about aging, confidence, changing bodies, physical and emotional strength, family, marriage, friendship, fear, gratitude and why Lee Anne cares a whole lot less about what other people think than she used to.

Lee Anne also shares the terrifying story of collapsing at the gym in her late 50s during a medical emergency that was literally life or death. She talks about receiving an implanted defibrillator she affectionately named “Lola,” the fear she felt when she was eventually cleared to exercise again, and how she slowly learned to trust her body.

And then there are the three simple words she returns to throughout the conversation:

Shut up. Suit up. Show up.

For Lee Anne, that doesn’t mean ignoring difficult emotions or pretending life is always wonderful. It means allowing yourself to feel what you feel, recognizing when you’ve stayed there long enough, preparing yourself for what comes next and continuing to participate in your own life.

We also talk about something many women wrestle with as we get older: appearance and body changes. Lee Anne is refreshingly honest that self-acceptance isn’t something she mastered once and for all. Some days, it’s still a practice.

In this episode, we explore:

• what really can get better with age
• confidence and caring less about what other people think
• accepting a changing body without giving up on yourself
• physical strength, healthy aging and staying active
• the difference between respecting your age and fearing it
• gratitude, volunteering and getting outside of yourself
• marriage, motherhood, grandmotherhood and watching your children become adults
• processing hard emotions without getting stuck in them
• what women in midlife might actually have to look forward to
• the simple morning practice Lee Anne uses to begin her day with perspective

One of my favorite moments comes near the end, when Lee Anne tells me she starts her mornings in a quiet place with her coffee and prays that God gets into her brain before she does.

I loved that.

And when I asked her what someone nearly 20 years behind her on this road has to look forward to, she didn’t hesitate:

So much.

Lee Anne’s Favorite Books

After our conversation, Lee Anne loaned me two books she loves, and somehow they feel like the perfect companions to this episode.

The Right Words at the Right Time by Marlo Thomas and Friends is a collection of stories about the words and moments that changed people’s lives. And yes, Marlo Thomas from That Girl. I may be dating myself, but I knew exactly who she was, and I can’t wait to dig into this one.

The Last Word: A Treasury of Women’s Quotes by Carolyn Warner, with a foreword by Erma Bombeck, brings together thousands of words of wisdom from women.

I haven’t read either book yet, but I can absolutely see why Lee Anne loves them. She is someone who has collected wisdom through her own life and generously shares it with the people around her.

And I think Lee Anne herself is a pretty wonderful treasure, 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.

How do you stay informed without becoming overwhelmed by the news, social media, politics, AI, constant notifications and everything else competing for your attention?

A listener recently asked me how I process a world that can sometimes feel incredibly heavy. In this solo episode, I’m sharing what works for me: being intentional about what I allow into my world.

I talk about why I turned off every notification on my phone, how I decide when I’ve consumed enough news, why I’m selective about certain conversations and social media accounts, and how my background in journalism and public relations has shaped the way I think about messaging, headlines and credible sources.

I also share the question my first professional coach, Austin Vickers, taught me to ask whenever my mind starts racing into the past or future: What do you really know?

We’ll also talk about the difference between being informed and being flooded, how technology is designed to compete for our attention, and why spending time in nature, pursuing hobbies, connecting with people in real life and giving back are all part of how I stay grounded.

This isn’t about ignoring what’s happening in the world or pretending difficult things don’t exist. It’s about recognizing where we do have choices and becoming more intentional about what gets our attention, our time and our energy.

In this episode:

• Staying informed without living inside the news
• News overload, doomscrolling and social media
• Why I turned off all phone notifications
• Using Do Not Disturb and creating healthier boundaries with technology
• “If it bleeds, it leads” and why negative news gets our attention
• Questioning sources in the age of AI
• Being selective about conversations, media and the people around us
• How giving back can help counter feelings of helplessness
• Meditation, nature, hobbies and real-life connection
• “What do you really know?” and returning to the present moment

Resources mentioned:

• Mel Robbins Podcast: Do This for 2 Weeks to Get Your Focus, Motivation, & Life Back with Dr. Jonathan Haidt
• Jonathan Haidt: The Anxious Generation
• PubMed Central: Negativity drives online news consumption — research examining how negative words in news headlines affect click-through rates

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.

Can you actually learn how to be happier and raise the level of happiness you naturally return to?

Happiness strategist Monique Rhodes believes you can. After more than 30 years studying happiness, meditation and the mind, she teaches that happiness is not something we have to wait for or find outside ourselves. It is a skill we can practice.

In this conversation, we talk about self-abandonment, why we run from discomfort, the stories our minds create when we are stressed or uncertain, and what Monique calls our happiness baseline, along with how simple daily habits can help raise it over time.

We also explore:

• Why learning to stay with discomfort builds self-trust and emotional resilience
• How meditation helps us respond instead of react
• Why the stories we tell ourselves can create unnecessary stress and anxiety
• What Monique does when life knocks her off center
• Why courage and resilience need to be practiced
• A simple gratitude practice that goes beyond making a list
• Why happiness does not mean feeling good 24/7
• How to notice more of the everyday wonder we so often take for granted

Monique is the creator of The 10 Minute Mind, which was formally trialed at University College London and has been used in more than 70 colleges and universities worldwide. She describes herself as an “accidental teacher,” a path that began when a few women in India asked her to teach them meditation and eventually became her life’s work.

Learn more about Monique:
IIntendToBeHappy.com

Take Monique’s free Happiness Quiz:
Available at IIntendToBeHappy.com

Connect with Monique:
Instagram: @moniquerhodesofficial
Facebook: Monique Rhodes Official

I’d also love to hear from you. As I think about what to create next for Love From the Inside Out, I want to hear what brings you to the podcast, what is most useful to you, and what you would love more of. The listener survey is anonymous, and even a sentence or two is incredibly helpful.

Click here to take my listener survey.

And if this episode speaks to you, please follow Love From the Inside Out and share it with someone who might need the reminder that happiness really can be an inside-out job.

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.

I’m popping in on a Tuesday with a few things I’m excited to share!

First, today is the official launch of the new Love From the Inside Out Substack. I’ve heard from many of you that you’d like more ways to interact with me and with Love From the Inside Out beyond the weekly podcast, and I heard you.

The Substack gives us another place to connect through writing, bonus audio and video, live Q&As, subscriber conversations, a quarterly book club, guided reflections, workshops and other things I’m developing as we go.

To celebrate the launch, paid subscriptions are $7 a month or $70 for the year until noon Arizona time on Thursday, October 15. After that, the regular pricing will be $8 a month or $80 a year.

I also created an anonymous Love From the Inside Out listener survey because I want to hear what you think. What are you enjoying? What would you like more of? What topics, guests or other ways of connecting would be useful to you? Your feedback helps me understand how Love From the Inside Out can continue to grow in ways that are meaningful to this community.

And if you’re in the Phoenix area, I’m also sharing details about Moth Musings: Embrace Your Shadow and Light, a small live event happening this Saturday, October 17, from 10 a.m. to noon at Kaya Holistic.

I’m partnering again with artist Kristen Fagan for a morning of creativity, conversation and reflection. Kristen will lead the art experience, and I’ll share a personal story and lead a guided reflection around the expectations and stories we carry, what still feels like ours, what we may be ready to release and how we can practice showing up more like ourselves.

There are just a few spots left.

LINKS & MORE INFO

Join the new Love From the Inside Out Substack
Special launch pricing is available until noon Arizona time on Thursday, October 15.
Subscribe at susankricun.substack.com.

Take the anonymous Love From the Inside Out Listener Survey
I’d love to hear what’s working for you, what you’d like more of and what you’d like to see next.
Take the survey here!

Moth Musings: Embrace Your Shadow and Light
Saturday, October 17 | 10 a.m.–12 p.m. | Kaya Holistic, Phoenix
Learn more and register at kayaholistic.com.

Kaya Holistic is a community-centered wellness boutique and gathering space in Phoenix dedicated to herbal wellness, conscious living, creative expression and meaningful connection. They also have an online store, so you can explore Kaya even if you’re not in Arizona.

RELATED LISTENING

How to Reconnect With Your Creativity: Self-Care, Confidence and Quieting Your Inner Critic with Kristen Fagan & Kerry Burki
Kristen and Kerry join me for a conversation about creativity, self-care, perfectionism, the inner critic and what can happen when we give ourselves permission to create again.
Listen to the episode

What We Keep: Family Keepsakes, Old Photos, Memory, and Legacy
A personal episode about the things we keep, the memories attached to them, grief, family and the stories we carry forward. It connects closely with some of what I’ll be exploring at Saturday’s event.
Listen to the episode

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 more money, more clients and more growth start creating more stress instead of more success?

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan talks with entrepreneur, media executive and marketing consultant Cynthia Sassi about business growth, entrepreneurship, scaling, self-doubt, perfectionism and how our definition of success can change over time.

Cynthia has spent nearly 20 years in digital media and marketing. She is the founder and president of Fabulous Media Group, co-owner of LuxeGetaways and co-founder and president of Say Less Media. But this conversation goes far beyond how to build a business.

Cynthia shares what it was like to start Fabulous Arizona as a side business, the fear and uncertainty she felt before going full-time, and the growing pains that came with hiring, leading a team and learning to let go of control.

She also talks candidly about a realization that changed the way she thinks about business growth: more clients and higher revenue do not always mean more profit, more fulfillment or a better life. At one point, she realized there was “no price tag for my sanity” and began paying closer attention to which parts of her work felt meaningful and which left her feeling drained.

Susan and Cynthia also explore what it means to take a step back without seeing it as failure, how to know when growth is actually aligned, why you may never feel completely ready to begin, and why so much of entrepreneurship is simply taking the next step, learning from it and adjusting as you go.

It’s a conversation for anyone starting a business, growing a business, considering scaling, feeling overwhelmed by success, or questioning whether the version of success they have been chasing still fits.

Because sometimes the better question is not, “How much more can I build?”

It’s, “How does the life I’m building actually feel?”

In this episode:
• Business growth and scaling without losing yourself
• Why more clients and more revenue can sometimes create more stress
• Redefining success around happiness and fulfillment
• Self-doubt and imposter syndrome in entrepreneurship
• Perfectionism, control and learning to delegate
• Knowing when to step back from something that no longer feels right
• Why you do not have to feel ready before you begin
• Taking small steps, learning and adjusting along the way
• Building a business and a life that feel good from the inside out

Learn more about Cynthia Sassi at CynthiaSassi.com.

Connect with Cynthia:
Instagram: @cynthiasassi
LinkedIn: Cynthia Sassi

Love From the Inside Out is a podcast about self-trust, identity, reinvention, relationships, success and creating a life that feels as good on the inside as it may look on the outside.

I’d love to hear from you. As I think about what to create next for Love From the Inside Out, I want to hear what brings you to the podcast, what is most useful to you, and what you would love more of. The listener survey is anonymous, and even a sentence or two is incredibly helpful.

Click here to take my listener survey.

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.

How do you build a better relationship with yourself?

Acclaimed meditation and mindfulness teacher with more than 30 years of experience and bestselling Hay House author Sarah McLean joins Susan for a deeply personal conversation about self-love, self-trust, relationships, meditation, and learning how to stay connected to yourself through change. Sarah has been teaching meditation for more than three decades and has led retreats, trained meditation teachers, and written extensively about meditation and self-awareness. 

A special gift for the Love From the Inside Out community!

Sarah is generously offering listeners free access through November 30th to her full self-paced course:

Transform Your Life: A Deep Dive into Meditation & Mindfulness

This is the complete program, available at no cost to the Love From the Inside Out community through November 30th. After that date, the complimentary access ends.

Access the course here.

In this conversation, Sarah shares how her own experiences with fear, difficult relationships and self-protection eventually led her toward meditation, and why the practice has become about much more than what happens while your eyes are closed.

Susan also takes Sarah back to a conversation they had years ago about love and relationships. When Susan asked what it actually meant to love yourself, Sarah told her that she had learned to “date herself.” She took herself to dinner and stopped waiting for someone else to buy the flowers, gifts or experiences she wanted. That simple idea stayed with Susan and helped shape the way she began thinking about self-love and relationships.

Together, they explore the difference between being able to rely on yourself and believing you have to do everything alone, how past relationships can shape the way we experience love, and the ways we sometimes protect ourselves from the very connection we want.

Sarah also shares one of her favorite relationship questions: How do you feel about yourself when you’re with this person, and how do you feel about yourself when they’re not there?

They also talk about meditation as a way of coming back to yourself, what happens when you fall out of a practice that helps you feel grounded, and why the real value of meditation may have less to do with what happens during meditation and more to do with how you experience the rest of your life. Sarah emphasizes that meditation is ultimately about direct experience, not trying to have the “right” kind of meditation.

In this episode

• What it really means to build a relationship with yourself
• Self-love beyond the clichés
• Why Sarah learned to “date herself”
• Independence, self-reliance and learning to let others show up for you
• How past relationships can shape the way we experience love
• The ways we sometimes protect ourselves from vulnerability and connection
• Meditation as a way of coming back to yourself
• What happens when you fall out of a practice that helps you feel grounded
• Finding a meditation practice that actually fits you
• Why the benefits of meditation often show up when your eyes are open
• How to feel more connected to yourself in everyday life

About Sarah McLean

Sarah McLean is an acclaimed meditation and mindfulness teacher, bestselling Hay House author and longtime educator who has been teaching meditation for more than 30 years. Her work draws from decades of study, practice, teaching and retreat leadership, and she is the author of Soul-Centered and The Power of Attention. She also leads online meditation communities and shares guided practices through her YouTube channel.

Connect with Sarah

Website: https://www.McLeanMeditation.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SarahMcLeanMeditation
Awaken Wednesday: https://www.awakenwednesday.com

Books:
Soul-Centered

The Power of Attention

Free course access through November 30th

Transform Your Life: A Deep Dive into Meditation & Mindfulness

Sarah is giving the Love From the Inside Out community free access to the complete course through November 30th.

Access your special listener link here!

After November 30th, complimentary access ends.

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.

Something doesn’t have to be broken for you to realize it may be time to do things differently. What happens when your career, routines, or life still work — but you’ve changed?

We get comfortable with our careers, routines, relationships, and even the way we see ourselves. But when was the last time you stopped to ask whether the decisions you made years ago still make sense for who you are today?

Twenty-four years after being fired from the Phoenix Coyotes, I found myself revisiting my career in a way I never expected. It all started when I tried to save a little money on a GoDaddy renewal and accidentally crashed my entire Kricun Media website.

What began as a frustrating and expensive mistake turned into an opportunity to revisit years of work, recognize how much I've grown, and rethink how I want to use my experience moving forward.

In this episode, we're talking about the cost of getting too comfortable, how our past experiences can limit what we believe is possible, and why personal growth doesn't have to mean starting over.

I'm also sharing how an old money mantra has taken on new meaning for me, and why the freedom to make choices, create, and contribute matters more to me now than ever.

Here's something to think about as you listen: What in your life have you stopped questioning simply because it's familiar? And what might become possible if you gave yourself permission to look at it differently?

You don't have to wait for something to fall apart before you decide to make a change.

Mentioned in this episode

Fired and Finally Free

If you haven't heard the story behind my unexpected departure from the Phoenix Coyotes and how it changed the direction of my life, you can listen to my very first episode of Love From the Inside Out here:

Listen to Fired and Finally Free.

Explore the new Kricun Media website

The unexpected website crash gave me an opportunity to revisit more than three decades of work and create a new website that better reflects who I am and the experience I bring to my clients today.

If you're looking for an experienced partner in strategic communications, public relations, marketing, or corporate and nonprofit event strategy, I'd love to connect. I bring 30+ years of industry experience to help organizations strengthen their message, increase visibility, and tell their stories through strategic communications, marketing counsel, and thoughtfully executed events.

Explore my work and let's start a conversation:

Visit KricunMedia.com

Let's stay connected

If this conversation resonated with you, share it with someone who might be ready to take another look at what's possible in her own life.

And I'd love to hear from you: What's one thing you've been doing on autopilot that might deserve a fresh look?

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.

When someone dies, what happens to the life they lived?

My Aunt Essie passed away recently, and her death brought me back to something I’ve felt deeply since losing my parents: I don’t want the people I love to simply become part of the past. Their stories, personalities, beliefs, humor, music, relationships and the ways they shaped us still matter.

In this episode, I talk about grief, memory and what it means to keep a loved one’s memory alive after loss. I share a photograph I found of Aunt Essie as a little girl standing in a flower garden, what her glass-half-full approach to living with MS taught me about perspective, the 40 years she shared with her husband Jim, and why Elton John’s Crocodile Rock will always bring her back to me.

I also explore the small ways we can preserve the people we love: telling family stories, saving photographs and videos, writing down names and memories, explaining why certain objects matter, and keeping the little details alive that might otherwise disappear with time.

Because remembering someone doesn’t always have to feel sad. Sometimes it’s a photograph. Sometimes it’s a story that still makes you laugh. Sometimes it’s a song that comes on unexpectedly and, for a moment, brings that person right back.

If you’ve lost a parent, family member or someone you love, or you’ve found yourself thinking more about family history, grief, legacy and preserving memories as you get older, I think you’ll understand this one.

In this episode:

• Why keeping loved ones’ memories alive matters so much to me
• What losing my parents taught me about memory and legacy
• Remembering the whole person, not only the end of their life
• Simple ways to preserve family stories, photographs and memories
• How music and everyday objects can reconnect us with people we’ve lost
• The perspective my Aunt Essie carried throughout her life

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 already know inside that you keep looking outside yourself to confirm?

In this episode, Susan explores why we can know exactly what we want and still wait for more proof, permission or certainty before we act. Inspired by Cathy Heller’s idea of “main character energy,” this conversation is about what it means to participate fully in your own life instead of waiting on the sidelines for something else to happen first.

Susan shares the story of wanting to start this podcast for years, taking a podcasting course twice, and still finding ways to talk herself out of moving forward. She also shares a much more current example: deciding to reach out to Peloton instructor Jess King with an invitation to be a guest on the podcast rather than waiting until she had enough evidence that the answer might be yes.

The episode also explores Cathy Heller’s VCR framework — Vision, Choices, Results — and the difference between making decisions from the part of you that is trying to stay safe and the quieter part that already knows what feels true.

Then, after hearing Cathy speak about identity and choice, Susan found herself hearing a similar message from a completely different direction in an episode of The Mel Robbins Podcast featuring Dr. Cassandra Vieten.

Dr. Vieten’s future-self exercise offered a different way to think about becoming the woman you want to be. Instead of focusing primarily on what your future life looks like — the house, the career, the accomplishments — what happens when you focus on how that future version of you feels?

And what if your future self isn’t simply someone you’re supposed to become someday, but someone you can start consulting today?

This episode explores:

• Why waiting for certainty can keep you circling the same decision
• How fear can disguise itself as perfectly logical thinking
• Cathy Heller’s Vision, Choices, Results framework
• What “main character energy” can actually look like in real life
• Brené Brown’s idea about the emotional cost of unused creativity
• How negative self-talk can make it even harder to move forward
• A different way to approach future-self visualization
• Why self-trust grows through experience rather than reassurance
• How to recognize when you already know the answer but keep looking outside yourself for confirmation
• The one question that can help you decide what your next move really is

You don’t need to know how the whole story ends. You may simply need to get quiet enough to hear what you already know — and decide what part of the plot is actually yours to move forward.

Mentioned in This Episode

The Mel Robbins Podcast with Dr. Cassandra Vieten, PhD
World-Leading Psychologist: How to Manifest Anything & Create the Life You Want 

Among many things, Dr. Vieten discusses The Next You, future-self work, imagination and how thinking about the person you are becoming can influence the choices you make today.

Cathy Heller
Author of Abundant Ever After and host of Everything Is Energy

Brené Brown — Why Design Matters with Debbie Millman
Includes Brené’s discussion of creativity and what can happen when it goes unused.

Notes From the Inside Out

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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.

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