Midlife Audacity

Love to hear your take aways. Send me a message.

This week on Midlife Audacity, I’m celebrating a milestone - 20 episodes since launching the podcast on November 1st, 2025. And instead of brushing past it like so many of us tend to do, I’m taking a moment to actually acknowledge the win. Women deserve to celebrate their progress - big and small.

In this solo episode, I’m sharing a personal reflection sparked by a recent conversation about core values. After revisiting an exercise I first did with a coach eight years ago, I decided to do a new values audit using Brené Brown’s list from Dare to Lead. What I discovered was eye-opening: the values I thought defined me years ago have shifted as I’ve grown, evolved, and stepped deeper into midlife.

We talk about:

• Why women often skip celebrating their accomplishments
• How your core values can change over time
• The power of radical honesty when identifying what truly matters to you
• The surprising difference between what we say we value and how we actually spend our time
• The “rocks and pebbles” metaphor that reveals why so many of us feel overwhelmed and disconnected from ourselves

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering “How did I get here?” or feeling like your life has drifted away from what truly matters, this episode invites you to pause, reflect, and reconnect with your deepest values.

When you put the rocks in first, the things that truly matter, everything else finds its place.

I also share details about my Soul School Book Study Seminars, a new space for women who love personal development books but want guidance on actually applying those insights in real life.

✨ If you’re ready to realign with what matters most, this episode is for you.

Resources mentioned:

• Brené Brown’s Core Values list (Dare to Lead)

Connect with Celeste:
Follow along and learn more about Soul School and upcoming programs.

Soulful Sunday Newsletter:  Each week, you’ll hear from me in a way that’s simple, intentional, and easy to stay connected to.

Book Study Seminars:  Soul School has opened up new room called, Book Study Seminars.  This room meets four times a year to read, study and unpack not only the words, but our lives, together.  This fall we will be reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  Our theme is what personal freedom looks like in your actual life:

Soul School: A curriculum for midlife women who are ready to remember their wisdom, protect their energy, project their power and come back into alignment. You don’t need fixing. You need to remember. Open for enrollment NOW.

Follow @the_conscious_coach_ 

Love to hear your take aways. Send me a message.

In this episode of Midlife Audacity, Celeste DiDona sits down with Kristi Hinck Mills, corporate communications leader, executive coach, and academic researcher exploring burnout and resilience in today’s workplaces and families.

Kristi earned her master’s in Strategic Communications from Columbia University, holds a leadership coaching certificate from Rutgers University, and is the founder of CommsLede Consulting. Her work focuses on how burnout is unfolding in high-performing environments and what true resilience actually requires.

Together, Celeste and Kristi unpack:
 • What burnout really is
 • Why high achievers are especially vulnerable
 • The biological impact of chronic stress
 • The difference between endurance and sustainable resilience
 • How to redesign success so it supports your well-being

If you are a midlife woman navigating career demands, family responsibilities, leadership roles, and personal reinvention, this conversation will both validate and challenge you.

Burnout is not weakness.
Resilience is not pushing harder.

It’s time to rethink what strength actually looks like.

Subscribe, rate, and share this episode to help more women rise boldly, soulfully, and unapologetically.

Soulful Sunday Newsletter:  Each week, you’ll hear from me in a way that’s simple, intentional, and easy to stay connected to.

Book Study Seminars:  Soul School has opened up new room called, Book Study Seminars.  This room meets four times a year to read, study and unpack not only the words, but our lives, together.  This fall we will be reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  Our theme is what personal freedom looks like in your actual life:

Soul School: A curriculum for midlife women who are ready to remember their wisdom, protect their energy, project their power and come back into alignment. You don’t need fixing. You need to remember. Open for enrollment NOW.

Follow @the_conscious_coach_ 

Love to hear your take aways. Send me a message.

In this episode, I’m recording during February break here in New York — that quiet, gift-of-a-week that isn’t attached to a holiday and gives you space to breathe, reflect, and reset. And what’s been at the forefront of my mind?

Touring college campuses… for the third time.

My youngest is a junior, and we’ve officially entered the college conversation. And let me tell you — the energy this time feels very different.

In this deeply personal episode, I share:

• What it’s like to tour colleges with your third child
 • How my energy has shifted from control to trust
 • The difference between the Overextended Nurturer and the Regulated Nurturer
 • Why control often comes from uncertainty
 • The emotional evolution of parenting adult children
 • And how midlife isn’t “empty nest” — it’s expanded nest

I reflect on the tension I carried with my first two during senior year, the grip of needing certainty, and how experience has softened me. There is a profound difference between managing your child’s life and consulting alongside them.

This episode is about identity.

As our children step into adulthood, we must update our own identities too. We move from manager to guide. From urgency to steadiness. From bracing to trusting.

And that shift? That’s spiritual work.

If you’re navigating college tours, senior year stress, living with adult children, or simply feeling your role as “mom” evolve — this conversation will resonate deeply.

Midlife isn’t about shrinking as your kids grow.

It’s about growing alongside them.

Rise boldly. Live soulfully. And trust that evolving does not mean disappearing — it means becoming.

Soulful Sunday Newsletter:  Each week, you’ll hear from me in a way that’s simple, intentional, and easy to stay connected to.

Book Study Seminars:  Soul School has opened up new room called, Book Study Seminars.  This room meets four times a year to read, study and unpack not only the words, but our lives, together.  This fall we will be reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  Our theme is what personal freedom looks like in your actual life:

Soul School: A curriculum for midlife women who are ready to remember their wisdom, protect their energy, project their power and come back into alignment. You don’t need fixing. You need to remember. Open for enrollment NOW.

Follow @the_conscious_coach_ 

Love to hear your take aways. Send me a message.

What if the anxiety, weight gain, exhaustion, and burnout you’re experiencing in midlife aren’t personal failures… but signals from your body asking for a different kind of care?

In this powerful conversation, I sit down with Terry Tateossian, wellness coach and founder of The House of Rose, to talk honestly about perimenopause, menopause, nervous system regulation, and what it really takes to create sustainable health and vitality in midlife.

Terry shares her deeply personal story of being hospitalized with panic attacks in her late 30s, living in survival mode for decades, and ultimately losing over 80 pounds while transforming every area of her life. Together, we unpack how hormones, chronic stress, under-eating, and identity patterns collide during midlife, often leaving women feeling dismissed, confused, and disconnected from themselves.

This episode is a grounded, compassionate conversation about advocating for your body, regulating your nervous system, and building practices that support you for the long haul, not quick fixes or temporary transformations.

In this episode, we explore:

• How perimenopause and menopause can show up as anxiety, panic, weight changes, and burnout
• Why nervous system regulation is foundational for midlife health
• The hidden cost of chronic dieting, under-eating, and living in fight-or-flight
• Hormone testing, baseline panels, and learning to advocate for yourself
• Strength training, breathwork, meditation, and nourishment as long-term tools
• Why midlife is an invitation, not a breakdown
• How recovery time, not perfection, is the real measure of healing

If you’re a midlife woman feeling like something is “off,” this episode will help you name what’s happening, release the shame around it, and reconnect with your body in a new way.

You are not broken. You are being called inward.

Connect with Terry:
Website: thehouseofrose.com
Instagram: @howgoodcanitget

If this episode resonated, be sure to subscribe, share it with a friend who needs to hear it, and leave a review. It helps Midlife Audacity reach more women who are ready to rise into their next chapter boldly, soulfully, and unapologetically.

Soulful Sunday Newsletter:  Each week, you’ll hear from me in a way that’s simple, intentional, and easy to stay connected to.

Book Study Seminars:  Soul School has opened up new room called, Book Study Seminars.  This room meets four times a year to read, study and unpack not only the words, but our lives, together.  This fall we will be reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  Our theme is what personal freedom looks like in your actual life:

Soul School: A curriculum for midlife women who are ready to remember their wisdom, protect their energy, project their power and come back into alignment. You don’t need fixing. You need to remember. Open for enrollment NOW.

Follow @the_conscious_coach_ 

Love to hear your take aways. Send me a message.

What if midlife isn’t a breakdown, but an awakening?

In this episode of Midlife Audacity, Celeste DiDona sits down with Angela Burke, author of Real Girl’s Guide to Midlife, for an honest, humorous, and deeply validating conversation about what really happens in midlife and why so many women feel like they’re quietly disappearing inside their own lives.

Angela shares the 20 year journey that led her to write her book, from early identity cracks in her 30s to menopause myths, parenting grown children, divorce, grief, and the emotional “waves” of midlife change no one prepares you for. Together, Celeste and Angela unpack the shtty committee*, the internalized voices that keep women playing small, self abandoning, and believing their needs come last.

This episode is for the woman who has ever asked:
 “How did I get here?”
 “Where did I go?”
“Is it too late to want more?”

In this episode, we explore:

• Why midlife change doesn’t happen all at once, but in waves
• Menopause truths most women are never told
• The emotional tightrope of parenting adult children
• How self abandonment becomes normalized in midlife
• Why honesty, boundaries, and energy protection are non-negotiable
• What it really means to say “I’m not available” without guilt

This conversation will make you feel seen, understood, and far less alone, while reminding you that small shifts in awareness, boundaries, and self permission can radically change your life.

Connect with Angela Burke:

• Website & Blog: https://www.realgirlsguide.com
  
  
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realgirlsguide55
  
  
• Substack: https://substack.com/@realgirlangela

Soulful Sunday Newsletter:  Each week, you’ll hear from me in a way that’s simple, intentional, and easy to stay connected to.

Book Study Seminars:  Soul School has opened up new room called, Book Study Seminars.  This room meets four times a year to read, study and unpack not only the words, but our lives, together.  This fall we will be reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  Our theme is what personal freedom looks like in your actual life:

Soul School: A curriculum for midlife women who are ready to remember their wisdom, protect their energy, project their power and come back into alignment. You don’t need fixing. You need to remember. Open for enrollment NOW.

Follow @the_conscious_coach_ 

Love to hear your take aways. Send me a message.

What if balance was never the goal?

In this episode of Midlife Audacity, Celeste DiDona explores why the idea of work-life balance often leaves women feeling more scattered, not more fulfilled, and why presence is the practice that actually creates alignment and flow.

Drawing from personal experience, reflections on midlife, and insights inspired by The Midnight Library, Celeste shares how regret and future-tripping quietly pull us out of our lives, and how divided attention creates mixed energy that disrupts both emotional and physical well-being.

This conversation weaves together presence, energetic coherence, and the body’s wisdom, including a vulnerable reflection on chronic pain as a messenger of misalignment. Celeste invites listeners to rethink balance, choose alignment, and devote themselves to living fully in the moment they are actually in.

If you are navigating midlife transitions, questioning old definitions of success, or feeling called to slow down without losing momentum, this episode offers a grounded, compassionate perspective on what it truly means to live with clarity, integrity, and flow.

✨ Ready to practice this work in real time?
Join Soul School, Celeste’s monthly membership for women who are done self-abandoning and ready to live with presence, regulation, and soul-aligned intention. Inside, you’ll find coaching, teachings, and community support to help you stay connected to yourself as you move through midlife with confidence and clarity.

Soulful Sunday Newsletter:  Each week, you’ll hear from me in a way that’s simple, intentional, and easy to stay connected to.

Book Study Seminars:  Soul School has opened up new room called, Book Study Seminars.  This room meets four times a year to read, study and unpack not only the words, but our lives, together.  This fall we will be reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  Our theme is what personal freedom looks like in your actual life:

Soul School: A curriculum for midlife women who are ready to remember their wisdom, protect their energy, project their power and come back into alignment. You don’t need fixing. You need to remember. Open for enrollment NOW.

Follow @the_conscious_coach_ 

Love to hear your take aways. Send me a message.

In this episode of Midlife Audacity, Celeste DiDona sits down with Suzanne Barron for a powerful and deeply human conversation about healing through the body.

Suzanne shares her personal journey through profound grief following the loss of her young son and how that experience revealed the inseparable connection between emotions, the nervous system, and physical health. Together, Celeste and Suzanne explore how unprocessed emotions such as grief, fear, worry, and anxiety can become stored in the body and show up as physical symptoms, chronic stress, or emotional dysregulation.

This episode introduces Jin Shin Jyutsu, a gentle Japanese healing art that works with touch and breath to restore balance in the body. Jin Shin Jyutsu is a simple, hands-on practice that helps regulate anxiety, process emotions, and support the body’s natural healing response.

Suzanne explains how these subtle practices can be used in real time, during moments of anxiety, overwhelm, or panic, without needing to relive trauma or overthink the healing process. The conversation also touches on nervous system regulation, emotional awareness, and why true healing requires feeling, not fixing.

This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen inward, and reconnect with the body’s wisdom, especially for women navigating midlife transitions, grief, anxiety, or long-held emotional patterns.

Connect with Suzanne Barron:

📸 Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/suzanneandorabarron/

📘 Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/feeltohealwithsuzanneandorabarron

🎙️ Finding Joy in the Hard Podcast:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7MuCMEk0LGbfj9bpjx4qI9?si=2a4e2958973d47fd

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/finding-joy-in-the-hard/id1716893853

💛 Process What You Feel to Heal – Monthly Membership:
https://suzanneandorabarron.graphy.com/courses/Process-What-You-Feel-to-Heal-Membership-6938364a00c0186dcc5ba2b7

Soulful Sunday Newsletter:  Each week, you’ll hear from me in a way that’s simple, intentional, and easy to stay connected to.

Book Study Seminars:  Soul School has opened up new room called, Book Study Seminars.  This room meets four times a year to read, study and unpack not only the words, but our lives, together.  This fall we will be reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  Our theme is what personal freedom looks like in your actual life:

Soul School: A curriculum for midlife women who are ready to remember their wisdom, protect their energy, project their power and come back into alignment. You don’t need fixing. You need to remember. Open for enrollment NOW.

Follow @the_conscious_coach_ 

Love to hear your take aways. Send me a message.

In this episode of Midlife Audacity, Celeste reflects on how abundance truly works - not as something we chase, but as something we expand into.

She begins with a deeply personal story about motherhood and the fear of not having the capacity to love more, and how that experience revealed a powerful truth: abundance doesn’t divide, it multiplies.

From there, Celeste explores why so many women trust abundance when it comes to love and connection, but tighten and shut down when it comes to financial abundance, ease, and success. She explains how identity sets the ceiling for what we can hold, and why growth often feels uncomfortable before it feels expansive.

The episode includes a gentle guided meditation to help listeners expand their internal capacity, soften resistance, and step into a new identity that can receive abundance with more ease and trust.

This conversation is an invitation to stop forcing outcomes and start allowing expansion - in your body, your identity, and your life.

Soulful Sunday Newsletter:  Each week, you’ll hear from me in a way that’s simple, intentional, and easy to stay connected to.

Book Study Seminars:  Soul School has opened up new room called, Book Study Seminars.  This room meets four times a year to read, study and unpack not only the words, but our lives, together.  This fall we will be reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  Our theme is what personal freedom looks like in your actual life:

Soul School: A curriculum for midlife women who are ready to remember their wisdom, protect their energy, project their power and come back into alignment. You don’t need fixing. You need to remember. Open for enrollment NOW.

Follow @the_conscious_coach_ 

Love to hear your take aways. Send me a message.

In this episode of Midlife Audacity, Celeste sits down with Erika Rothenberger for a powerful conversation about grit, resilience, and what it truly means to live with audacity in midlife.

Erika shares how her boldness and determination were present early in life and how they were profoundly strengthened through personal challenge. She reflects on how adversity can become a catalyst for purpose, leadership, and service, and how resilience is not something we are born with but something we intentionally build over time.

Throughout the conversation, Celeste and Erika explore the importance of daily self-devotion, setting boundaries that protect energy, and surrounding yourself with people who support growth and healing. Erika also introduces her BOLD framework — Believe in yourself, Ongoing progress, Lean on others, and Develop others — as a practical and sustainable approach to courage and expansion.

This episode is a reminder that midlife is not a breakdown but a becoming, and that audacity is not about force or perfection, but about consistency, connection, and intentional action.

In This Episode, Listeners Will Hear About:

• How grit and resilience are built through lived experience
 • Why small daily habits create lasting transformation
 • The role of community in healing and growth
 • Setting boundaries that support clarity and purpose
 • Turning personal experience into meaningful impact

 🔗 Connect with Erika Rothenberger here to learn more about her work, pre-order her upcoming book Audacious Expansion, and sign up for the Audacious Women’s Summit 2026.

🔗Erika's 1 page bio sheet

🤍 An Invitation: Listeners who feel called toward deeper alignment, support, and conscious community are invited to explore Soul School, Celeste's membership for midlife women ready to reconnect with themselves beneath the roles and expectations of life.

Soulful Sunday Newsletter:  Each week, you’ll hear from me in a way that’s simple, intentional, and easy to stay connected to.

Book Study Seminars:  Soul School has opened up new room called, Book Study Seminars.  This room meets four times a year to read, study and unpack not only the words, but our lives, together.  This fall we will be reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  Our theme is what personal freedom looks like in your actual life:

Soul School: A curriculum for midlife women who are ready to remember their wisdom, protect their energy, project their power and come back into alignment. You don’t need fixing. You need to remember. Open for enrollment NOW.

Follow @the_conscious_coach_ 

Love to hear your take aways. Send me a message.

In this personal and reflective episode of Midlife Audacity, host Celeste is joined by her daughter, Marley, for a heartfelt mother–daughter conversation about closing out 2025 and consciously preparing for 2026.

This episode is not an interview. It’s a real, honest dialogue about identity, growth, and what it actually takes to create meaningful change from the inside out.

Together, Celeste and Marley reflect on 2025 as the Year of the Snake, a season marked by shedding old identities, habits, beliefs, and even relationships that no longer served their growth. They explore how release doesn’t always mean “forever,” but often creates the space needed for clarity, healing, and new experiences to emerge.

They also discuss the importance of understanding seasonal and energetic timing, including why January is still deeply rooted in grounded Capricorn energy and why it’s meant for preparation, not pressure. As they look ahead to the Year of the Fire Horse, they talk about momentum, freedom, and expansion—and why inner preparation is essential before outer movement begins.

Throughout the episode, Celeste and Marley unpack the connection between identity and manifestation, why nothing truly changes without an internal shift, and how running the same mental “program” can keep life feeling stuck year after year.

Listeners will hear practical insights on:
 • Creating supportive structures instead of relying on motivation
 • Setting standards rather than chasing goals
 • Using discipline as a form of self-honoring
 • Building loving boundaries that protect growth and alignmentMarley also shares a powerful tool she uses every year to stay connected to her standards and vision, while Celeste offers her own reflective practice that helps her align with the future she’s calling in.

This episode is a reminder that winter is not a pause - it’s preparation and that real transformation begins with identity, intention, and inner work.

If you’re ready to step into the new year with clarity, alignment, and purpose, this conversation will meet you right where you are.

Soulful Sunday Newsletter:  Each week, you’ll hear from me in a way that’s simple, intentional, and easy to stay connected to.

Book Study Seminars:  Soul School has opened up new room called, Book Study Seminars.  This room meets four times a year to read, study and unpack not only the words, but our lives, together.  This fall we will be reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  Our theme is what personal freedom looks like in your actual life:

Soul School: A curriculum for midlife women who are ready to remember their wisdom, protect their energy, project their power and come back into alignment. You don’t need fixing. You need to remember. Open for enrollment NOW.

Follow @the_conscious_coach_