More Beautiful Podcast

Welcome to More Beautiful, the podcast for women rewriting the midlife playbook. I'm your host, Maryann LoRusso, and I invite you to join me and my brilliant, charming, funny guests as we talk openly about all the issues on your mind during this transformative—but sometimes challenging—life stage. Our mission is to change the conversation around aging and inspire you to live a life that's more adventurous, more fulfilling and more beautiful than ever before. For complete show notes and all epsiodes, visit Morebeautifulproject.com.

What's this thing called personal vibration, and how do you know yours is attracting the right stuff into your life? This out-of-this-world season-two finale has me chatting with Nicki Bonfilio, an intuitive counselor who's taught at the Goop Health Wellness Summit. Nicki is both clairvoyant and clairaudient, which means she has the ability to see and hear things other people can't (for example, she can see the emotions someone is feeling as specific colors), and she's also an experienced astrologer. Nicki says the majority of her clients are people over 40 who are going through transitions and seeking meaning during midlife—no surprise, right?

Nicki and I touch on so many interesting topics, including:

• Why exhaustion and emotional drain may be signs of something deeper in your psyche
• What it means to be in "alignment" and why you want to get there
• How everyone has the ability to sharpen their intuition, and how you can accomplish this

Then—drumroll, please—we dive into astrology! Nicki tells you:

• What your birth chart can reveal about your personality and life themes
• What your North and South Nodes are, and how these aspects of your birth chart are so important, especially in the second half of life
• What your sun sign tells you about your special traits and the parts of the body that rule you
• The challenges you might face, according to the stars, as you traverse midlife

Full show notes available at Morebeautifulpodcast.com.

This time of life comes with so much change. Much of it you have no control over, but sometimes you're actually the one seeking it. On this episode, certified life coach Anne Pillsbury tells you how to gain the courage and confidence you need to make those changes in your life you've been dreaming of. We discuss how you can get "unstuck" and figure out what your purpose is, why midlife calls upon you to re-evaluate your values, how you may be inadvertently self-sabotaging, and how you can quash that self-doubt once and for all and go after what you really want. Full show notes available at Morebeautifulpodcast.com.

Midlife is a transitional time when we need our friends more than ever. However, it's not always easy to meet people and sustain relationships when our lives are so busy and complicated. On this episode, I chat with entrepreneur, coach and podcaster Jen Marples about the importance of having a strong social network, and why it's absolutely not too late—or, as Jen puts it, not too f*** late—to make new friends, build community and find our people. We also discuss how we're redefining friendship during this life stage, and—if we're looking for new pals—how we can find and bond with likeminded individuals. We also talk about why friendships sometimes hit a fork in the road, how to recognize when one of yours has run its course, and how all women can do a better job supporting one another. Full show notes available at Morebeautifulpodcast.com.

At some point after 40, each of us will experience presbyopia, or difficulty focusing on nearby objects. We may also have trouble with night vision, suffer from dry eye, or deal with other age- and hormone-related conditions. Optometrist Dr. Surveen Singh fills us in on the latest treatments that can help with these issues, as well as the best protective measures to keep our eyes healthy well into old age. We also discuss computer use and how that's affecting not only our eyes, but our kids', whether or not blue-light glasses actually work, which eye symptoms should be viewed as an emergency, the beauty product that may unintentionally protect our vision, and the nasty habit some of us had in the 90s that (hopefully) we've all broken by now. Full show notes available at Morebeautifulpodcast.com.

It seems like everyone is talking about microdosing—the daily practice of consuming tiny amounts of psychedelics to promote healing, growth and transformation. The beauty of microdosing is that there's no hallucinating or "tripping" involved—just a slew of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual benefits many people say they experience. On this episode, healing practioner Kayse Gehret explains how natural earth medicines such as psilocybin mushroom are being used to treat ailments at the root cause and, research is revealing, can help people recover from PTSD, trauma, adverse childhood experiences, depression and anxiety. We also discuss how microdosing can ease some common midlife annoyances, from hormonal upheaval to sleep issues. Whether you've been seriously considering dabbling in psychedelics, or if you're just curious about what they can do for you, you'll enjoy this mind-expanding episode. Full show notes available at Morebeautifulpodcast.com.

Determined to keep your mind and memory sharp well into old age? Barbie Boules (aka the "Cognition Dietician") tells you which lifestyle habits can help to strengthen your brain and reduce your risk of neurodegenerative diseases like dementia—even if you have a family history. Full show notes available at Morebeautifulpodcast.com.

'Tis the season—and the season of life—to give back to your community and make a difference. A chat with coach and author Gia Duke about why midlife is the perfect time to find your philanthropic passion, support the causes you believe in, and make meaningful change in the world. (Hint: It's easier than you think.) Full show notes available at Morebeautifulpodcast.com.

If you're over 40, yoga is one of the best activities you can do to maintain stability—both the physical and emotional kind. Certified yoga instructor Julie Newbold explains how this ancient practice can help you stay strong, balanced and limber, as well as decrease stress, get better sleep and ease into physical, mental and spiritual alignment. Julie and I also chat about how yoga can address one of the most common age- and gender-related health issues: decreased bone density. Full show notes available at Morebeautifulpodcast.com.

Author Rozella Kennedy believes we should use our time on this planet to lift one another up, fight for the causes we believe in, and encourage future generations to expand on our life's work. In this conversation Rozie and I talk about why she wants to include all women in the conversation about race, how we can cultivate hope even when we feel like our differences are insurmountable, and why midlife is the time to take a stand and be courageous. We also discuss why Gen X is the greatest generation and how pickleball, of all things, might just save America. Full show notes available at Morebeautifulpodcast.com.