Midlife Repurposed

In this issue: This is for anyone who has ever wished they could escape from regular life for just a few days; a personal retreat is calling your name! A getaway with God is a time to pull away, refresh, and renew. But where does someone start? Author Letitia Suk makes a guest appearance to explain how her own personal retreat turned into a ministry of helping others plan their own getaways. We talk about how it has changed her life and the lives of others. 

 

Show notes and resources

 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michellerayburn.substack.com

Episode 019 - Is your schedule crammed? Your space full of too much stuff? Your soul overwhelmed with too much of everything? Author Courtney Ellis makes a guest appearance to talk about a simpler life based on the idea that less is more. Courtney is funny and witty and so honest about her own struggles in a way that encourages us to believe we can find the same freedom she has.

Check out the show notes in Issue 19 on the blog to get the article, links, and photos that accompany this episode. michellerayburn.com/19

This is Life, Repurposed with Michelle Rayburn, where you’ll find uplifting and practical advice for everyday living, creative inspiration for do-it-yourself projects, and recommendations for books and resources that will encourage you to embrace your life, repurposed. Check out tips, resources and inspiration at michellerayburn.com.

Michelle is the author of "The Repurposed and Upcycled Life: When God Turns Trash to Treasure" and several other books. She's a speaker and social media guru as well.

Musical tracks in this episode used legally with rights. Intro music purchased from safemusiclist.com.

In this issue: Is your schedule crammed? Your space full of too much stuff? Your soul overwhelmed with too much of everything? Author Courtney Ellis makes a guest appearance to talk about a simpler life based on the idea that less is more. Courtney is funny and witty and so honest about her own struggles in a way that encourages us to believe we can find the same freedom she has. 

 

Show notes and resources

 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michellerayburn.substack.com

Episode 018 - Do you ever feel as if you're always running and never have time to rest? When was the last time you took a day to refresh? I'll use my own struggle as exhibit A for why a sabbath is important, and I'll share some resources with ideas for how to give yourself a break.

Check out the show notes in Issue 18 on the blog to get the article, links, and photos that accompany this episode. http://michellerayburn.com/18

This is Life, Repurposed with Michelle Rayburn, where you’ll find uplifting and practical advice for everyday living, creative inspiration for do-it-yourself projects, and recommendations for books and resources that will encourage you to embrace your life, repurposed. Check out tips, resources and inspiration at michellerayburn.com.

Michelle is the author of "The Repurposed and Upcycled Life: When God Turns Trash to Treasure" and several other books. She's a speaker and social media guru as well.

Musical tracks in this episode used legally with rights. Intro music purchased from safemusiclist.com.

In this episode: Do you ever feel as if you're always running and never have time to rest? When was the last time you took a day to refresh? I'll use my own struggle as exhibit A for why a sabbath is important, and Michelle shares some resources with ideas for how to give yourself a break.  

 

Show notes and resources

 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michellerayburn.substack.com

Episode 017 - What happens when life doesn't go the way you've planned, when your plan A is no longer part of the picture? It's hard to embrace plan B, and maybe we don't like it at all, but resilience has a lot to do with how we frame our thinking. In this episode, we talk about facing adversity, finding hope, and discovering resilience.

Check out the show notes in Issue 17 on the blog to get the article, links, and photos that accompany this episode. http://michellerayburn.com/17

This is Life, Repurposed with Michelle Rayburn, where you’ll find uplifting and practical advice for everyday living, creative inspiration for do-it-yourself projects, and recommendations for books and resources that will encourage you to embrace your life, repurposed. Check out tips, resources and inspiration at michellerayburn.com.

Michelle is the author of "The Repurposed and Upcycled Life: When God Turns Trash to Treasure" and several other books. She's a speaker and social media guru as well.

Musical tracks in this episode used legally with rights. Intro music purchased from safemusiclist.com.

Episode 017 - What happens when life doesn't go the way you've planned, when your plan A is no longer part of the picture? It's hard to embrace plan B, and maybe we don't like it at all, but resilience has a lot to do with how we frame our thinking. In this episode, we talk about facing adversity, finding hope, and discovering resilience.

Check out the show notes in Issue 17 on the blog to get the article, links, and photos that accompany this episode. http://michellerayburn.com/17

This is Life, Repurposed with Michelle Rayburn, where you’ll find uplifting and practical advice for everyday living, creative inspiration for do-it-yourself projects, and recommendations for books and resources that will encourage you to embrace your life, repurposed. Check out tips, resources and inspiration at michellerayburn.com.

Michelle is the author of "The Repurposed and Upcycled Life: When God Turns Trash to Treasure" and several other books. She's a speaker and social media guru as well.

Musical tracks in this episode used legally with rights. Intro music purchased from safemusiclist.com.

In this issue:

What happens when life doesn't go the way you've planned, when your plan A is no longer part of the picture? It's hard to embrace plan B, and maybe we don't like it at all, but resilience has a lot to do with how we frame our thinking. In this issue, we talk about facing adversity, finding hope, and discovering resilience.

 

 

Podcast

Inspired Life: Facing Adversity and Grief

The heart of my writing and speaking is helping people discover gems in the midst of life's difficulties. Life is hard. Sometimes, circumstances outside of our control leave us on a path that looks nothing like what we had planned. A loss of any kind is a blow that can change the course of our future. Sometimes we can be so resilient and other times we feel powerless, and whenever we have a challenge, our resilience might not be immediately evident. It's really a process of getting to a place of joy again after a terrible loss.

I recently ready the book Option B, by Sheryl Sandberg. (Keep on scrolling to find the link to it in the resources section below.) Sheryl's story moved me. She was on vacation with her husband and a bunch of friends, when he collapsed and died during a workout at the resort gym. Life as Sheryl knew it stopped. In the book, she writes about her journey through grief and how she learned to live again after losing the love of her life.

If you haven't experienced adversity and you aren't grieving right now, this is your opportunity to learn how to be a good friend to someone else. Sheryl talks in her book about how some friends responded with her husband Dave died. Some were helpful. Some, in their awkwardness, essentially abandoned her. Some said unhelpful things. Her loss was the elephant in the room in so many situations after Dave's death.

Sometimes others expect us to act a certain way after a loss, and I want us all to examine whether or not we have let others process their loss as they need to. Have we let them experience the support they need, rather than judging, or blaming, or ignoring their struggle?

If you're in the middle of a difficult time, remember that others might be so busy with their own life that they don't see your pain. Heartbreaking, but true.

We need to speak up and ask for help. I know, that's hard. But it is important to be real with people about our feelings and our struggles. That might mean we have to reach out to them. Yes, in a perfect world people would notice our pain and reach out to us. But let's give them grace in their own overwhelm and see that they might not have the margin in their lives to even notice our struggle. Let's all be human!

Be real with our struggles.

Be honest about our hurt and pain.

Mutually love and support one another in our grief.

That's the path to resilience.

 

Life, Repurposed: 3 Ways to Process Plan B 

If you're living plan B, or as Sheryl calls it Option B, let's look at some tips for finding repurposed life, or resilience. I like to do fancy writer stuff, like use acrostics, so let's make it the ABCs.

A - Acknowledge your feelings. Be honest about how you feel! Stuffing it down is not resilience. That wound will reopen every time someone says the wrong thing, or your thoughts drift to pain. Journaling can be a great way to process your feelings. I talked about Mary Potter Kenyon's book in episode 2. Mary's book,

In this episode: What happens when life doesn't go the way you've planned, when your plan A is no longer part of the picture? It's hard to embrace plan B, and maybe we don't like it at all, but resilience has a lot to do with how we frame our thinking. In this issue, we talk about facing adversity, finding hope, and discovering resilience.     

 

Show notes and resources

 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michellerayburn.substack.com

In this episode: Are you working 9 to 5 and not feeling fulfilled in the work you do? Do you long for more than just a paycheck? What if you could start over and pursue what you really want to do? Discover how pursuing a new dream doesn't have to equal becoming a starving artist. 

 

Show notes and resources

 

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