Making Midlife Magic

"What's the point of sadness?" a friend asked me. This episode is for her and for you, if you've ever wondered what the point of sadness is, when it doesn't seem to create anything good in our lives. In this episode, I explain why it's essential to embrace this emotion, especially in midlife. I share personal reflections and explore how sadness can be seen as the flip side of desire, connecting us to what we truly want and love. Learn three key insights about sadness and discover practical ways to transform your own relationship with it, turning this often uncomfortable emotion into a tool for growth and deeper connection with others. Whether you're coping with grief, disappointment, or life's transitions, this episode offers valuable strategies to help you navigate sadness and emerge with greater equilibrium.

In this episode:

Mentioned in this episode:

Maurice Sendak, On Life, Death, and Children's Lit (interview with Terry Gross, 12/29/2011)

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Questions? Email me at [email protected]

In this episode, I reflect on a powerful question inspired by my dog, Wally: What makes us feel younger? Wally, at 13 years old, becomes a different dog when we cross certain streets—he moves with newfound energy and excitement. I realized this parallels our own lives: what brings that spark of youthfulness back to us? I explore how freedom, agency, and newness can create that feeling, encouraging you to ask: What does this for me? What makes me feel younger, more alive, invigorated?

In this episode:

✅ Discover how a simple walk with my dog sparked a profound question: What makes me feel younger?

✅ Learn about the three key elements—freedom, agency, and newness—that can bring energy and excitement to your life.

✅ Reflect on your own "Oakland Avenue" moments and find ways to bring more joy and vitality into your everyday routine.

✅ Get inspired to reconnect with activities, people, and experiences that give you that spark.

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In this episode of Making Midlife Magic, I reflect on the power of "do overs," inspired by Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and my late mother's birthday. I explore how this time of renewal offers us the opportunity to rethink our lives, relationships, and habits, showing how we can all benefit from the grace of starting over—both with others and ourselves. Whether you're working on relationships or overcoming negative self-talk, I'll show you how embracing "do overs" can bring more kindness, compassion, and growth into your life.

In this episode:

✅ Learn how to embrace the concept of a "do over" in relationships and everyday life for more grace and growth.

✅ Discover ways to overcome negative self-talk and reframe how you talk to yourself.

✅ Experience the power of starting fresh at any moment, not only at New Year's or the start of the day.

✅ Get inspired to approach challenges with compassion and offer yourself endless tries to improve and grow.

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* ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for a free one-hour midlife magic consultation call ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠to discover what you most want for the second half of your life and how coaching can help

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In this episode, I share the concept of useful thoughts, and how thinking in this way, rather than true/false can serve us. I share my own experience of self-doubt before a conference (I was a wreck!), and how I helped myself by focusing on what's useful rather than true. While we often think in terms pof positive & negative thoughts, sometimes negative thoughts can be useful and positive thoughts can be not useful. Listen in as I show you how to reframe your thinking to find more ease every day!

In this episode:

✅ The power of shifting your mindset from truth to usefulness

✅ Practical strategies for managing negative thoughts

✅ Why "negative" thoughts aren't always a problem

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* ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for a free one-hour midlife magic consultation call ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠to discover what you most want for the second half of your life and to see how coaching can help

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If you worry, this episode is for you!

In this episode:

✅ Understand Your Worry Cycle: Learn how to identify and break free from repetitive, anxious thoughts by recognizing that worry is driven by uncertainty.

✅ Practical Tool for Managing Worry: Discover the powerful technique of scheduling a "Worry Hour" to give your concerns focused time, helping you feel more in control and reducing constant mental stress.

✅ Effective Journaling: Gain a journaling method that allows you to release anxious thoughts, providing clarity and peace of mind.

✅ Improved Emotional Balance: Learn how to build a better relationship with your emotions by honoring your worries, addressing them with compassion, and giving your brain what it most needs.

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* ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for a free one-hour midlife magic consultation call ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠to discover what you most want for the second half of your life and to see how coaching can help

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Are you successful? How do you know? 

Often we think about success as something “out there,” something we achieve. Maybe we thought about what success means to us when we were younger, but now it feels too late to reassess. 

In truth, middle age and beyond is the perfect time to rethink our definition of success. At this time, we often have a deeper sense of what is truly important to us and what it takes for us to feel successful and fulfilled. 

In this episode: 

✅ What to do when you feel unsuccessful 

✅ How to be more successful by changing the definition of success

✅ How to use the feeling of success to create more of it 

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In this episode, I share a powerful filter for making decisions:

Do What Feels Good.

In this episode:

✅ The radically delicious power of choosing to move towards feeling good

✅ How Do What Feels Good builds trust and a greater sense of wholeness

✅ The lies we tell ourselves about feeling good (You won't become a stagnant sloth when you do what feels good, although I'd love you even if you did)

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Sometimes you just have to fake it till you make it. You're giving a presentation and you don't feel ready. You have to be nice to your ex at your best friend's wedding.

But also, sometimes being fake feels terrible. We don't want to fake confidence, we want to feel more confident.

So I'm giving "fake it till you make it" a glow up. We'll take the useful parts of it and leave the rest behind.

In this episode:

✅ How to do things you don't want to without pretending you feel confident or enthusiastic.

✅ Why putting on good clothes really helps

✅ How to feel your way into an emotion by remembering that it's already inside you

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"Remember who you are" seems like solid advice for midlife. It's what I talked about in episode #115. But sometimes we need for forget who we are in order to be someone new.

In this episode:

✅ Why it's hard to do something we haven't done before or to be someone we haven't been before

✅ How to use the power of your mind to help you to start a new habit or to feel more confident

✅ What to do when others won't forget who you are, or who you have been

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There's such power in remembering who we are -- because sometimes as we get older, we forget. We leave parts of us behind, we lose connection with the things we love, we forget how brave, adventurous, or creative we are.

This episode will help you remember. I ask three questions to get you started and show how even if you don't want to pick up tap dancing again, you can use your previous experience to help you with the things you do want, right now.

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