In this episode, I’m sharing the seven lessons from the year that completely transformed my life as I learned how to reinvent myself in midlife and learned how to be more confident at 50+. From becoming the CEO of your own days to embracing imperfect action, these are the mindset shifts and practical tools that build real midlife confidence, self-trust, and momentum.

We talk about what it looks like to design a life that fits your wiring - not the expectations you’ve outgrown. I have learned how to create a life I love! I share how understanding my nonlinear, curious, ADHD-coded path helped me release shame and finally lean into the way I’m naturally built. You’ll also hear why lightness is a skill you can practice, how to choose your response instead of reacting, and why discomfort is often a sign of growth, not danger.

You’ll learn how to do a simple values audit, check whether your calendar matches the life you say you want, and make aligned decisions that support reinvention in midlife, so you can take action when you feel overwhelmed and also simplify your life. These seven lessons will help you stop playing small, expand into your next chapter, and create more freedom, clarity, and joy - starting today.

If this episode resonates, follow the show and leave a quick review so more midlife women can find the confidence and alignment they’re craving.

Links to episodes mentioned:

7 Ways to End the Year Strong

6 Ways to Reclaim Your Visibility in Midlife

🦋 Would you like help walking through these steps, or with accountability, or deeper dives into these topics? Interested in learning more about working 1:1 with me to transform your life in your rediscovery? Schedule a free Discovery call with me here: https://stan.store/MidlifeConfidenceLab

🎧 Follow Midlife Confidence Lab on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And share this episode with a friend who you would like to help.

✨ Find me on Instagram @MidlifeConfidenceLab

📌 Leave a review, then email us a screenshot at [email protected] and we will send you a beautiful free digital journal to help you work through some of your thoughts and get some clarity about what you truly want out of your life.

🎵 Theme Music: Home by Vlad Gluschenko @vladest_art — Home

License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Ready to finish the year strong? We explore ending the year rooted in identity, choice, and self-trust in midlife - so the next chapter starts with natural momentum. Framed by the energetic shift from the Year of the Snake to the Year of the Horse, we trade shedding and inner work for bold, forward movement grounded in presence and clarity.

We walk through seven practical steps to end the year with intention: offering real gratitude to the people who changed you, running a full tech reset to clear mental noise, auditing your year across emotions, energy, relationships, boundaries, work, habits, joy, and self-expression, and choosing values that will steer every decision to come. You’ll hear why open tabs are open loops, how awareness creates power, and how values outlast resolutions when life gets messy.

We also focus on nervous-system health as the engine of confidence - more stillness, mindful walks, breath work, and somatic release - so action feels natural, not forced. Then we recommit to an authentic self-concept, asking what the truest version of you will stop tolerating and boldly say yes to. Finally, we anchor meaning with a closure ritual that marks the crossing into a freer, more aligned year. If you’re done playing small and eager to run in the direction that feels right, this conversation will meet you where you are and invite you forward.

Share this episode with a midlife friend who’s ready to feel powerful and purposeful again. Subscribe, leave a rating and review, and tell us: which practice will you try first?

🦋 Would you like help walking through these steps, or with accountability, or deeper dives into these topics? Interested in learning more about working 1:1 with me to transform your life in your rediscovery? Schedule a free Discovery call with me here: https://stan.store/MidlifeConfidenceLab

🎧 Follow Midlife Confidence Lab on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And share this episode with a friend who you would like to help.

✨ Find me on Instagram @MidlifeConfidenceLab

📌 Leave a review, then email us a screenshot at [email protected] and we will send you a beautiful free digital journal to help you work through some of your thoughts and get some clarity about what you truly want out of your life.

🎵 Theme Music: Home by Vlad Gluschenko @vladest_art — Home

License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

We reintroduce our show as Midlife Confidence Lab (formerly Edge of Real Podcast) and explore why midlife restlessness is not a crisis but a call to a deeper, truer identity. We share the psychology, the signs to watch for, and practical steps to regulate, reflect, and follow small, brave moves.

• Midlife Confidence Lab has a deeper focus on self‑trust and boldness
• Carl Jung’s individuation and the shift from roles to inner truth
• Three driving forces: role disruption, cognitive maturing, somatic truth telling
• The hidden message of restlessness as expansion not failure
• Clear signs you’re outgrowing your old identity
• Reframing fear and discomfort as information
• Better questions to ask for clarity and direction
• Nervous system regulation with 4‑7‑8 breathing
• Small yeses, micro‑steps, and desire

Episodes mentioned:

#12. How to Find Meaning in Midlife When Everything Is Fine But Nothing Feels Real   https://www.buzzsprout.com/2517915/episodes/18086705

#7. Living Out of Alignment? How to Recognize the Signs and Realign with Your Authentic Self  https://www.buzzsprout.com/2517915/episodes/17895584

#5. Embodying Your Highest Self: How to Live It Today   https://www.buzzsprout.com/2517915/episodes/17813132

🦋 Would you like help walking through these steps, or with accountability, or deeper dives into these topics? Interested in learning more about working 1:1 with me to transform your life in your rediscovery? Schedule a free Discovery call with me here: https://stan.store/MidlifeConfidenceLab

🎧 Follow Midlife Confidence Lab on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And share this episode with a friend who you would like to help.

✨ Find me on Instagram @MidlifeConfidenceLab

📌 Leave a review, then email us a screenshot at [email protected] and we will send you a beautiful free digital journal to help you work through some of your thoughts and get some clarity about what you truly want out of your life.

🎵 Theme Music: Home by Vlad Gluschenko @vladest_art — Home

License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Today we share a decisive shift - Edge of Real is becoming Midlife Confidence Lab - to best support women in a midlife transformation to move from self-reflection to embodied, practical confidence. The heart stays the same: honest stories, truth-telling, and those moments of knowing you are seen.

We walk through the why behind the rename and how it helps the right listeners find us. Midlife signals who we serve. Confidence names the skill most women ask for. Lab sets the tone: low-risk tests, iterative learning, and real-world tools for decision-making when certainty is scarce. You’ll hear how growth in coaching and speaking opened new doors, why performative confidence falls flat, and what durable self-trust looks like when careers shift, kids launch, relationships evolve, and your identity asks for a roomier definition.

Expect continuity where it matters - same host, same Tuesday cadence, same feed - and upgrades where we collectively desire more. We outline what’s changing with the title and cover art, why past episodes remain intact, and how our content will go deeper into the how: rebuilding self-trust after doubt, choosing well when fear is loud, and expanding your comfort zone instead of abandoning it. You’ll get fresh journal prompts and decide on one bold, doable action to schedule this week, plus a clear invitation to stop waiting for perfect and to start before you know the endgame.

If the idea of claiming your voice and acting on your inner knowing resonates, press play and join us in the Lab. Your next experiment starts now.

🦋 Would you like help walking through these steps, or with accountability, or deeper dives into these topics? Interested in learning more about working 1:1 with me to transform your life in your rediscovery? Schedule a free Discovery call with me here: https://stan.store/MidlifeConfidenceLab

🎧 Follow Midlife Confidence Lab on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And share this episode with a friend who you would like to help.

✨ Find me on Instagram @MidlifeConfidenceLab

📌 Leave a review, then email us a screenshot at [email protected] and we will send you a beautiful free digital journal to help you work through some of your thoughts and get some clarity about what you truly want out of your life.

🎵 Theme Music: Home by Vlad Gluschenko @vladest_art — Home

License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Staring at a menu too long, rewriting the same text, or living in the land of maybe isn’t a character flaw - it’s a signal that your confidence got outsourced. In this episode, host Kristin Hamilton opens up about how that happens in midlife and share a simple, repeatable way to rebuild self-trust so choices feel cleaner, calmer, and more aligned with who you are now.

We start by redefining confidence as the ability to handle what comes next, not the pressure to predict the perfect outcome. From there, we walk through the “confidence loop”: make a small decision, follow through, witness your ability, and bank the evidence. I share my own post-divorce story - navigating every choice alone with two kids - and how doing the reps shifted my baseline from second-guessing to grounded clarity and ultimately solid confidence from within. You’ll also learn the brain science behind decision stress: why the amygdala hijacks your system and how breath, grounding, and somatic check-ins bring your prefrontal cortex back online.

Then we get practical. Use the two-minute rule for low-stakes choices, ask better questions that honor your values, and separate fear’s urgent shout from intuition’s steady voice. Try the expansive vs constricting body test to sense alignment before you rationalize it away. We also explore the energy side of confidence: releasing the need for validation, acting from self-certainty, and letting reality organize around your stance. To anchor it all, I offer journal prompts to reclaim decisions you’ve delayed and to practice choosing without apology.

🦋 Would you like help walking through these steps, or with accountability, or deeper dives into these topics? Interested in learning more about working 1:1 with me to transform your life in your rediscovery? Schedule a free Discovery call with me here: https://stan.store/MidlifeConfidenceLab

🎧 Follow Midlife Confidence Lab on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And share this episode with a friend who you would like to help.

✨ Find me on Instagram @MidlifeConfidenceLab

📌 Leave a review, then email us a screenshot at [email protected] and we will send you a beautiful free digital journal to help you work through some of your thoughts and get some clarity about what you truly want out of your life.

🎵 Theme Music: Home by Vlad Gluschenko @vladest_art — Home

License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

The quiet question “Is this all there is?” can actually be an invitation. We trace the origins of midlife restlessness back to generational scripts that prized endurance over expression and to a Gen X upbringing that taught independence without teaching self-connection. That context matters: it explains why a life that looks complete on paper can still feel thin in your body, and why longing is not failure but a sign of expansion trying to surface.

I share a personal turning point that unfolded into years of choosing again. Along the way, we unpack the myth of completion, the friction between a brain wired for safety and a spirit built for growth, and the difference between anxiety and misalignment. You’ll hear how somatic cues - tight chest, shallow breath, a closed throat - act as a compass, and how honoring them shifts you from performing okay-ness to living with quiet confidence.

You’ll leave with five micro moves to rebuild self-trust: ask better feeling-led questions, listen to your body’s signals, spot the pattern beneath the noise, take one inspired action each day, and let consistency grow confidence. We close with journal prompts to help you remember who you were before the roles and rules, and to imagine what else is possible right now - not someday. If you’re ready to trade autopilot for aliveness, this conversation offers language, tools, and courage to begin again.

🦋 Would you like help walking through these steps, or with accountability, or deeper dives into these topics? Interested in learning more about working 1:1 with me to transform your life in your rediscovery? Schedule a free Discovery call with me here: https://stan.store/MidlifeConfidenceLab

🎧 Follow Midlife Confidence Lab on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And share this episode with a friend who you would like to help.

✨ Find me on Instagram @MidlifeConfidenceLab

📌 Leave a review, then email us a screenshot at [email protected] and we will send you a beautiful free digital journal to help you work through some of your thoughts and get some clarity about what you truly want out of your life.

🎵 Theme Music: Home by Vlad Gluschenko @vladest_art — Home

License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

What does it really mean to feel alive again - to wake up each day knowing you have the power to choose how you show up, what you want, and who you want to be? In this episode of Edge of Real, Kristin explores the exhilarating freedom that comes when you start living life on your own terms.

From breaking old patterns to embracing your desires, this soulful conversation dives into what it means to live in full spectrum - to reconnect with your autonomy, your joy, and your sense of self after years of putting others first. Kristin shares insights on self-trust, honoring your truth, and speaking kindly to yourself as you step into the most authentic, alive version of who you are.

Whether you’re redefining your life after divorce, rediscovering your passions, or simply ready to feel fully alive again, this episode offers inspiration and grounded practices to help you live your days with more purpose, pride, and power.

🦋 Would you like help walking through these steps, or with accountability, or deeper dives into these topics? Interested in learning more about working 1:1 with me to transform your life in your rediscovery? Schedule a free Discovery call with me here: https://stan.store/MidlifeConfidenceLab

🎧 Follow Midlife Confidence Lab on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And share this episode with a friend who you would like to help.

✨ Find me on Instagram @MidlifeConfidenceLab

📌 Leave a review, then email us a screenshot at [email protected] and we will send you a beautiful free digital journal to help you work through some of your thoughts and get some clarity about what you truly want out of your life.

🎵 Theme Music: Home by Vlad Gluschenko @vladest_art — Home

License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

What if the real block isn’t leaving your comfort zone, but believing you have one in the first place? We explore a gentler, more powerful approach to growth: living as expansion. Instead of muscling through fear, we look at how language, identity, and energy can shift the way you move through your day so progress feels safer, more aligned, and actually sustainable.

I share how a single phrase - “stepping outside my comfort zone” - felt small and constricting, and how replacing it with “I’m expanding into this” changed my choices and calmed my nervous system. We unpack the psychology behind comfort zones, where it helps and where it hardens into a limiting identity. You’ll hear a simple metaphor for dissolving edges without burnout, and why the body responds differently when you frame growth as expansion rather than threat.

We also dig into practical tools you can use right away: micro expansions that compound into big shifts, a body check to discern danger vs. expansion, and a morning question that anchors you in your highest self. I walk through my “alter ego” practice and how living in her for one decision can change your frequency, your tone, and your outcomes. The aim is less forcing, more allowing; less proving, more becoming.

If this conversation lands for you, share it with someone who’s ready to stop shrinking and start widening the perimeter of who they already are. Subscribe, leave a review to help others find the show, and tell me: what imagined boundary will you dissolve today?

🦋 Would you like help walking through these steps, or with accountability, or deeper dives into these topics? Interested in learning more about working 1:1 with me to transform your life in your rediscovery? Schedule a free Discovery call with me here: https://stan.store/MidlifeConfidenceLab

🎧 Follow Midlife Confidence Lab on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And share this episode with a friend who you would like to help.

✨ Find me on Instagram @MidlifeConfidenceLab

📌 Leave a review, then email us a screenshot at [email protected] and we will send you a beautiful free digital journal to help you work through some of your thoughts and get some clarity about what you truly want out of your life.

🎵 Theme Music: Home by Vlad Gluschenko @vladest_art — Home

License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

We explore how self-trust erodes through small betrayals, then rebuild it through nervous system regulation, compassionate reframes, and seven practical steps that create proof you can rely on yourself. 

• how self-trust erodes through people-pleasing and overthinking
• signals of lost self-trust such as overexplaining and decision paralysis
• energy, alignment, and why doubt repels what you want
• fear as self-protection and walking with it anyway
• regulating the nervous system to access intuition
• seven steps to rebuild self-trust with micropromises and action
• journal prompts to anchor insight into daily life

If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a friend. Also, feel free to leave me a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to help me reach more women who could use this kind of message and support.

If you’ve been listening and thinking, yes, that is what I need, I’d love to invite you to book a free discovery call with me through the link below.

🦋 Would you like help walking through these steps, or with accountability, or deeper dives into these topics? Interested in learning more about working 1:1 with me to transform your life in your rediscovery? Schedule a free Discovery call with me here: https://stan.store/MidlifeConfidenceLab

🎧 Follow Midlife Confidence Lab on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And share this episode with a friend who you would like to help.

✨ Find me on Instagram @MidlifeConfidenceLab

📌 Leave a review, then email us a screenshot at [email protected] and we will send you a beautiful free digital journal to help you work through some of your thoughts and get some clarity about what you truly want out of your life.

🎵 Theme Music: Home by Vlad Gluschenko @vladest_art — Home

License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

We take a hard, honest look at shame - the kind that tells you you’re the problem - and trade the old scripts for a new practice of self-return. Along the way, we unpack how culture taught many midlife women to internalize blame, explore why younger stories are reframing shame as something external, and draw strength from surprising places: the action-packed K‑pop Demon Hunters with a deeper message and Keely Jones’s refusal to carry someone else’s violation in Ted Lasso.

I share the language that helped me separate identity from behavior, and a personal moment of catching myself mid‑edit—tempted to polish away my pauses—then choosing to leave them in as an act of unshaming. From there, we get practical with four simple tools you can use today: name the shame and bring it into the light, regulate your nervous system with 4‑7‑8 breathing, reframe with compassion by asking what you needed back then, and take one inspired action that tells your brain it’s safe to be seen. We close with a journal prompt to help you hand back what never belonged to you and a reminder that freedom isn’t earned; it’s remembered.

If you’ve been shrinking, apologizing, or second‑guessing your voice, this conversation is a gentle push toward clarity, confidence, and self-acceptance. Listen for relatable stories, actionable steps, and a steady invitation to live unashamed—without waiting for permission. If this resonates, share it with a friend who’s ready to set down her shame, subscribe for future episodes, and leave a review to help more women find their way back to themselves.

🦋 Would you like help walking through these steps, or with accountability, or deeper dives into these topics? Interested in learning more about working 1:1 with me to transform your life in your rediscovery? Schedule a free Discovery call with me here: https://stan.store/MidlifeConfidenceLab

🎧 Follow Midlife Confidence Lab on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And share this episode with a friend who you would like to help.

✨ Find me on Instagram @MidlifeConfidenceLab

📌 Leave a review, then email us a screenshot at [email protected] and we will send you a beautiful free digital journal to help you work through some of your thoughts and get some clarity about what you truly want out of your life.

🎵 Theme Music: Home by Vlad Gluschenko @vladest_art — Home

License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en