Midlife Magic & Mayhem

Our stories of resilience and transformation never cease to inspire me. And this conversation is no different.

Today, I speak with Alison Rothman MA CYT. She is a Body-Centered Holistic Empowerment Coach, Emotional Doula, Guide, Mentor, and Transformational Group Facilitator with over 25 years of study and experience in somatic healing arts and therapies, yoga and meditation, authentic embodiment practices, and holistic healing channels. Through her extensive studies, practices, and experiences she provides clients and students with the ability to tap into their innate inner resource, release debilitating life patterns, reclaim their body, mind, heart, and soul connection so as to access their true selves empowering them to live life awake, embodied, and in alignment. In addition to her one-on-one work she facilitates retreats and events, runs women’s groups (both virtual and in person), writes, speaks and is the host of the podcast "Embodied and Awake." She lives in beautiful Boulder, Colorado with her partner and teenage son.  

In this episode, Alison tells her incredible story of overcoming major life obstacles including a debilitating eating disorder when she was young, losing almost everything in a house fire and a near death experience in Mexico. 

We talk about the life-changing practice of meditation, what all this talk about embodiment means, the importance of touch and she shares her personal meditation ritual that includes an element that I will be incorporating into my own practice immediately.

Please enjoy my conversation with Alison Rothman.

Connect with Alison:
Website | www.embodymylife.com
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/embody_life/
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/EmbodyLifeHolisticWellness
Podcast | Embodied and Awake

Connect with Angie:

Website|www.angiebyrd.com

Instagram| https://instagram.com/angie.byrd

YouTube| https://youtube.com/@angiebyrd

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Whether we are trying to lose a few extra pounds, get stronger or improve our health in general, midlife shows us that the things we did to get those results in our 20s, 30s and early 40s often just don't work at all anymore. And with the insane amount of health information out there, it can be really difficult to know which approach is the right one for us.

Claire and James Davis are the husband and wife team behind the multi- award winning wellbeing company 38 Degrees North and thriving midlife coaching business, The Midlife Mentors.

The couple have a successful midlife health podcast; The Midlife Mentors (top 1.5% globally) and their passion is helping midlifers achieve the body, mind and lifestyle they deserve.

The couple’s science based approach, leveraging their backgrounds and qualifications in psychology, coaching, hormones, nutrition, personal training, stress management, menopause and NLP, empowers individuals with the practical tools and knowledge they need to make positive, long lasting changes to their lives.

Claire & James are incredibly passionate about offering an anti-fad approach to the health and wellness narrative. You’ll find no fancy diets or pseudo science - just authentic, balanced information based on years of professional and personal experience.

They also work with corporates providing coaching and wellness programmes for individuals and teams, and are regular media commentators. They have also been featured in The New York Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller, The Evening Standard and more.

We cover all sorts of topics from relationships to the importance of protein intake in midlife, alcohol, strength training and much more.

This couple is an absolute blast and we hit it off instantly.

Please enjoy this conversation with me and Claire and James Davis, The Midlife Mentors.
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Connect with The Midlife Mentors:

Website| www.themidlifementors.com

Instagram| www.instagram.com/midlifementors

Facebook| www.facebook.com/themidlifementors

Tiktok| @themidlifementors

Podcast| The Midlife Mentors on Apple, Spotify and all other platforms

Transparency! I am an affiliate of The Midlife Mentors and will receive a commission from any products purchased. But I only share things and people I believe in.

Connect with Angie:

Website|www.angiebyrd.com

Instagram| https://instagram.com/angie.byrd

YouTube| https://youtube.com/@angiebyrd

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At this point in our lives, I would confidently say most women have tried most to all the eating trends. I’m not going to even call them diets anymore, because they actually do feel like trends because the science seems to constantly be changing. Not faulting science. It’s just as technology grows and we are able to dial in precision medicine, it can make what we are “supposed” to be eating that much more confusing.

This is why I lean into and encourage women to listen to the wisdom of our own bodies. No matter what everyone else is doing.

This week on the podcast, I’m joined by Pam Moore.

Pam is an occupational therapist-turned-intuitive eating coach and health and fitness journalist who lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and two daughters. 

As an intuitive eating coach, her mission is to help women stop micromanaging their food and exercise so they can start fully showing up to their lives. 

The author of There's No Room for Fear in a Burley Trailer, Pam's writing has also been published in The Washington Post, Runner's World, SELF, The Guardian, Time, Outside, AARP, and Forbes, among others.

Despite, or more likely because of, being picked last for every team as a kid, Pam is also a certified personal trainer, six-time marathoner, and two-time Ironman finisher. Her podcast, Real Fit, features conversations with women athletes about body image, enoughness, and more.

Pam’s newsletter, Real Nourished, features evidence-based tools to reduce food-related anxiety, improve body image, and embrace exercise as a form of nourishment instead of punishment. 

This is a fun and informative discussion about trusting the wisdom of our bodies and our own intuition. Please enjoy my conversation with intuitive eating coach, Pam Moore.

Connect with Pam:

Website: www.pam-moore.com

LinkedIn:/www.linkedin.com/in/pammoorewriter/

TikTok: tiktok.com/@pammoore303

Instagram: instagram.com/pammoore303

Twitter: twitter.com/PamMooreWriter/

Podcast: Real Fit

Connect with Angie:

Website|www.angiebyrd.com

Instagram| https://instagram.com/angie.byrd

YouTube| https://youtube.com/@angiebyrd

Subscribe to Angie’s Newsletter: www.angiebyrd.com/subscribe

Listening to each other’s stories is one of the most impactful ways to learn. This week’s guest on the podcast is Jen Berlingo, and she has a powerful story of midlife transition which helped inform a beautiful approach to reframing this life threshold.

Jen Berlingo, MA, LPC, ATR (she/her) is a midlife coach, a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Colorado, a Nationally Registered Art Therapist, and a master-level Reiki practitioner. 

After two decades of midwifing hundreds of women through life’s major transitions and experiencing her own passage through a fiery midlife portal, she was inspired to write her book, Midlife Emergence, to accompany other women in traversing their midlife journeys. 

Jen is also a visual artist who creates custom pieces for collectors worldwide and exhibits her fluid, abstract art locally in her beloved town of Boulder, Colorado. There, among the sunny foothills, Jen can be found making bottomless bowls of popcorn and snuggling on the couch with her unconventional family, her coven of close friends, and her Norwegian forest tabby rescues, Jinx and Juju.

Please enjoy this inspiring conversation with Jen Berlingo.

Connect with Angie:

Website|www.angiebyrd.com

Instagram| https://instagram.com/angie.byrd

YouTube| https://youtube.com/@angiebyrd

Subscribe to Angie’s Newsletter: www.angiebyrd.com/subscribe

Psychology. Parts work. Somatic healing. Dance. Movement. Embodiment. Parenting. Sex. Relationships. 

This conversation with therapist, Deb Rubin, is especially dynamic and expansive. Every piece of Deb’s work resonates deeply with me and she drops many truth nuggets in this episode. 

According to Deb, love and deep connection are her lifelines. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has worked in numerous therapeutic job settings, as well as sexual health education - consciously  blending the best of both Eastern and Western theories into her practice. 

Her experience includes working with both young adults and adults in multiple facets of life, including: relationships, self-esteem, sexuality, life transitions, attachment styles, parenting, anxiety and depression, preparing for motherhood, grief and loss, and trauma work. 

Deb has worked with the Colorado Outward Bound School, Women’s Wilderness Institute, Planned Parenthood, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital, Colorado University’s Psychological and Psychiatry Department and eventually landed into her own private therapeutic practice in 2006. 

In 2017, she expanded to include parent coaching and group facilitation through her program The Mother Daughter Journey (MDJ.) 

Deb’s energy is contagious and I invite you to slow down and really listen to this conversation. You may even want to grab paper and pen...it's packed with gems.

UPCOMING WORKSHOP FOR MOMS BEGINNING APRIL 6, 2023:

https://motherdaughterjourney.co/classes-and-workshops

Connect with Deb:

Website| www.motherdaughterjourney.com

Instagram| www.instagram.com/themotherdaughterjourney

Podcast| Motherhood Uncut

Connect with Angie:

Website|www.angiebyrd.com

Instagram| https://instagram.com/angie.byrd

YouTube| https://youtube.com/@angiebyrd

Subscribe to Angie’s Newsletter: www.angiebyrd.com/subscribe

This episode speaks directly to creating magic and mayhem and is about one of my favorite topics … pleasure… and I am speaking with Elizabeth Wood, who literally wrote a book called The Pleasure Prescription: A Surprising Approach to Healing Sexual  Pain, with her business partner Dee Hartmann.

Elizabeth is a co-founder of the Pleasure Movement™, an organization dedicated to helping women find pleasure in their bodies, some for the very first time. As a certified Erotic Blueprint™ coach, tantra educator, and somatic sex educator, she has immense knowledge of the healing power of pleasure.

She has been working in sexual health and wellness for over two decades with individuals, couples, and groups. She has led comprehensive sex workshops and lectures at multiple universities including Metropolitan State University of Denver and Naropa University. Elizabeth earned her master’s degree in clinical social work from Loyola University Chicago and is a former licensed private-practice sex therapist. 

We do a deep dive into the importance of pleasure in all areas of life and why we both believe in its healing and transformational power.

Other highlights of the conversation are:

• How pleasure can be a critical tool in healing pain, specifically sexual pain
• The importance of knowing our own anatomy and that everyone’s anatomy is “normal”
• The role of pleasure in nervous system downregulation
• The role of pleasure in embodiment and cultivating wisdom as we journey towards elderhood
• a simple yet profound prescription from the book that all women can use to begin connecting to themselves, their bodies and their pleasure
• And at the end we go into how all of this is amplified for women in midlife

Please enjoy this impactful conversation with me and pleasure educator, Elizabeth Wood.

Connect with Elizabeth:

Website| https://pleasuremovement.com

Instagram| https://www.instagram.com/thepleasuremovement/

Connect with Angie:

Website|www.angiebyrd.com

Instagram| https://instagram.com/angie.byrd

YouTube| https://youtube.com/@angiebyrd

Subscribe to Angie’s Newsletter: www.angiebyrd.com/subscribe

Did you know that in the 1700s some people believed that menopause caused women to be vulnerable to spontaneous combustion? Yes, that a woman in menopause could just drop into a pile of ash. 

I mean, seriously.

This story among many other fascinating topics are in the wonderful book Sidelined: How Women Manage & Mismanage Their Health. And this conversation is with the researcher and author of that book, Susan Salenger. Sidelined examines the many ways in which some women manage and sometimes mismanage their healthcare. 

Women are notoriously putting everything and everyone else’s needs in front of their own. In the book, she references a study which ranks where women put themselves in order of priority when it comes to health care: 1. Children (of course) 2. Pets 3. Elderly parents 4. Partner/Spouse 5. Ourselves.

How in the world do we expect to take care of all those other humans and non-humans if we aren’t taking proper care of ourselves? And is it any wonder we feel this way after knowing the history of how women’s bodies and health have been perceived for the past few thousand years? The final chapter of Sidelined gives a really interesting overview of how women's bodies and health have been perceived through time. It made me laugh out loud and honestly seethe with anger.

Susan explores how women, typically the medical gatekeepers for their families, tend to be extremely conscientious about taking care of themselves, yet at the same time inadvertently undermine their own care. They often hesitate to call the doctor when they don’t feel well and worry that their doctor visit will take time away from their families or work. They may hesitate to ask doctors the necessary questions and don’t always comply with the doctor’s instructions. Salenger’s research reveals how conflicted many women are about the medical decisions they ultimately make.

This was an absolutely delightful conversation with a very inspiring woman. 

Susan is not only an author, she’s also a powerlifter at 80-years-old, and is taking Latin dance lessons. She is my kind of lady. 

Connect with Susan:

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL HANDLES:

https://www.susansalenger.com/

https://www.tiktok.com/@grandma.gains

https://www.instagram.com/susansalenger/

https://www.facebook.com/suesalenger/

https://twitter.com/susansalenger

https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-salenger-a4a02716/

@shewritesdotcom (IG)

@shewritespress (FB)

Connect with Angie:

Website|www.angiebyrd.com

Instagram| https://instagram.com/angie.byrd

YouTube| https://youtube.com/@angiebyrd

Subscribe to Angie’s Newsletter: www.angiebyrd.com/subscribe

Devotion and ritual. Two topics that we don’t talk a lot about in mainstream culture, but have become a real focus and curiosity in my life over the past few years.

What do devotion and ritual do for us? How can they change our experience of living?

And what happens when we combine devotion and ritual with sexuality?

This conversation is with Anne More. Anne is an internationally acclaimed sexologist who helps people  just like us to discover love, freedom, and sex beyond our wildest dreams. 

Anne is deeply intuitive, profoundly grounded in sacred ritual and the body, and offers support at the highest level in the art and science of sex coaching, Sexological Bodywork, trauma release, and dissolving shame into loving self-acceptance.

She provides private coaching and bodywork, inspired speaking, workshops, events and online group education about sex, embodiment, devotional practice, and erotic mindfulness. Her clients and students rave about her proven approach to clearing shame and stuckness and using joyful, mindful erotic play as a pathway to self-discovery and spiritual evolution.

Anne and I dive deep into devotional practice, what it looks like for her, why it’s important and why it’s also important to include devotion and ritual into our sexuality. 

This is a gorgeous, rich conversation with a woman who lives her magic and mayhem with real wisdom and depth.

Please enjoy and allow yourself to feel my conversation with Anne More.

Connect with Anne:

Website| www.yesannemore.com

Email| [email protected]

Instagram| https://instagram.com/yesannemore

Facebook| https://www.facebook.com/anne.more.351

Connect with Angie:

Website|www.angiebyrd.com

Instagram| https://instagram.com/angie.byrd

YouTube| https://youtube.com/@angiebyrd

Subscribe to Angie’s Newsletter: www.angiebyrd.com/subscribe

This episode is with Amanda Thebe, personal trainer and fitness professional with almost 30 years in the fitness industry. She also authored the book, Menopocalypse – which is one of the book titles I’ve ever heard. 

She is Canada’s first menopause coach and educator. Through menopause advocacy and education, Amanda provides on-site or virtual presentations in the workplace to improve productivity, retention and attendance for female employees. Helping companies to normalize the conversation around menopause and provide support which impacts 100% of their female employees.

Amanda has lived in the UK, Canada and the USA, and has been exposed to all the healthcare systems, her book is a best-seller in these countries.

She is a popular guest on podcasts, radio, TV and online summits, and she brings a refreshing humor and no-nonsense approach to subjects usually shrouded in shame. Through her frank articles, hilarious social media posts and inspirational and entertaining talks, Amanda continually inspires the loyal readers on her social media.

Her exercise workouts, health and fitness tips have been featured in Shape, Prevention, Health Line, CBC Radio, Global News Canada, The Doctors, Lifehacker, Breaking Muscle, Girls Gone Strong, and Ultimate Sandbag Training.

In this conversation she talks about how hard perimenopause hit her, physically, mentally and emotionally. She reveals with honesty what it was like and how the symptoms seem to come from nowhere to the point she didn’t recognize who she was anymore.

In this conversation, she openly shares her journey of creating tools for herself to powerfully guide her through this life threshold, which inspired her to write her book. The book she says she wished she could have read.

She is a joy to be with and I’m sure you’ll get so much from this conversation. I certainly did.

Connect with Amanda:

Website| https://amandathebe.com

Instagram| https://instagram.com/amanda.thebe

BUY THE MENOPOCALYPSE BOOKHERE!: https://amzn.to/3XYFSj5

Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/amandathebex  32k followers

Twitter | https://twitter.com/amandathebex

LinkedIn |  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-thebe/

YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/c/AmandaThebex

Podcast | www.amandathebe.com/podcast 35k downloads

Connect with Angie:

Website|www.angiebyrd.com

Instagram| https://instagram.com/angie.byrd

YouTube| https://youtube.com/@angiebyrd

Subscribe to Angie’s Newsletter: www.angiebyrd.com/subscribe

The prospect of healing with psychedelic medicines and entheogens has been making mainstream news for a while now. In fact, my new home state of Colorado just passed (fall 2022) a bill legalizing the personal use of Psilocybin (mushrooms.) There is a steady stream of research coming out proving the efficacy and usefulness of a lot of these medicines to help heal trauma and many other psychological issues. Probably the most well known is the MAPS program. (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies)

If you have ever been interested in this modality or are just really curious about the new flurry of attention directed at these molecules for the purpose of healing, this episode is for you. 

Please meet, Ana Jaia, or as some of her clients have called her, “the archeologist of the subconscious.”  She has become an incredibly special person in my life with an absolutely incredible story. She is a truth teller and gifted healer who shoots straight with a gigantic heart.

Ana’s life mission is to help people remember who they are. Her spiritual path started in her early 20s after she moved from her homeland of Mexico to the U.S. to study music. 

Her mission became even clearer when she was summoned by the plant teachers to give her gift of service to communities in an even deeper way.

Her education spans a wide range of modalities. In addition to being a certified Life Coach, her training includes, Sound Healing, Reiki, Pranic Healing, Shadow Work, Quantum Healing, Psych-K and Ho’oponopono to name a few.

Ana weaves decades of experiential education and curriculum development with the teachings of plant and earth allies in order to co-create The New Paradigm Mystery School. Within this context she guides participants toward reconnecting to their ancestral roots and remembering their true calling.

Ana’s commitment to deep listening has led her down the path of teaching, helping people heal individually and in groups.  She has most recently turned toward the profound responsibility of becoming an elder to her community.

Just a few  highlights from this very real, honest and raw conversation:

• the reality of healing with entheogenic medicines, including my personal stories
• being with big transitions
• tapping into our own wisdom
• identifying when magic sparks
• our perspective of unconditional self-love
• how science is catching up with what ancient intelligence has known for thousands of years
• her fascinating story of growing up in Mexico, leaving for the US at 17 years old, marrying a rocket scientist and how her path led her to her current work

Referenced in the episode:
How to Change Your Mind  by Michael Pollan
This book was also made into a series on Netflix, starring Michael Pollan

Connect with Ana Jaia:

Email :: [email protected]

Connect with Angie:

Website|www.angiebyrd.com

Instagram| https://instagram.com/angie.byrd

YouTube| https://youtube.com/@angiebyrd

Subscribe to Angie’s Newsletter: www.angiebyrd.com/subscribe