In this episode, I got to talk with Tara Whitney, who is an accomplished family photographer. What's magical about her style of photography is that she deeply sees her clients. You can see that in the photos, and you can hear it in how her clients talk about the experience of being photographed by her. She sees their inherent beauty and individuality. And by her seeing it, she allows them to see it. How does that change people? Tara and I talk about how photographs can be a powerful tool in shifting the way you look at yourself and feel about yourself, if you are willing. We also got into a bonus conversation about social media and how be unique and authentic. If you struggle with how to stand out of the crowd and be real, while also keeping your private life private, you're going to love this.

Episode 17 show notes

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Do you consider your body your friend? An ally? Or do you, as so many women do, interact with it more as an adversary? As if your body is troublesome, needs too much, is too much, or looks or feels the wrong way?

In this conversation with Valerie Tookes, we explore how befriending our body, treating it as we would a good and wise friend, could change everything. As Valerie says, "Our body is always speaking to us."

What might we learn, if we slow down enough to listen and to really learn what it is saying?

Show notes

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In this conversation with Jen Vertanen, podcaster and emotional sidekick, we talk about building a highly personal self-care tool box. One that is designed to support you, with whatever collection of hurts and traumas and likes and dislikes you come wired with. Jen's work focuses around encouraging people to share the hard to tell stories and start to heal the places that hurt and Jen and I begin the conversation talking about self-mothering, a very specific form of self-care that you may need if you did not receive the kind of nurturing and touch that all humans need when we are very small. We also talk about how trauma lives in the body, and how self-care to soothe that kind of pain needs to look a certain way.

Links from this episode:

• Jen's About Page
• Kate Swoboda, aka Kate Courageous
• Going There episode about loneliness
• Going There episode with Marie Poulin
• Have me help you get aligned and get unstuck.

Journaling has many benefits, including increasing mindfulness, helping you achieve goals, and increasing your self awareness, confidence and creativity. And art journaling - that is, starting the written journaling process with a visual component - is thought to deepen all of those benefits. And besides, it's fun!

In this episode with coach, bookbinder and avid art journaler Grace Howes, you'll learn:

• The difference between a journal and a diary
• How to use a journal to manifest a vision
• Why we're really afraid of someone reading our journal
• How to begin to journal joyfully (without getting lost on Pinterest and Google) and what you don't need in order to begin
• A story about a teapot
• How to gather a community of women (and don't we all need that?)

Show notes:

• NurturedMama on Instagram and #100waystonurtureyourself
• Get Unstuck coaching package
• Grace's blog post on creating habits
• Catching Stories

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Our own lives are also a narrative, but we are often so busy recovering from the trial, or preparing for the next one, that we don't take stock of what we have learned about ourselves, and then we can't take that knowledge and appy it to being wiser, braver or stronger.

But we could. And we should. Because otherwise we just go around being the weaker, more scared, and not so smart versions of ourselves. And wouldn't you rather feel like the heroine of your story instead?

In this episode, I talk with Stacy Brookman, who teaches a writing method called Life Storytelling. Stacy uses this method with people who have experienced some kind of trauma in their life, and helps them to write their way through their experience togain some perspective and insight. Stacy shares how she came to this work after experiecing the power of the process herself.

She uncovered a life-long pattern in her life through the writing process, and was able to change it, and as a result, change everything in her life.

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When we are in transition - after a baby, during or after a move - it can feel impossible to find your balance, let alone find space to make good decisions around self care. Eat well? Sleep enough? Even get a shower? Crazy! But also necessary. This week on Nurturing Habit, I talk with Mara Glatzel, an intuitive coach and mama, about how we tend to ourselves through big transitions. We talked about the transition to motherhood, moving, and the difficult but necessary practice of being gentle with yourself. Show notes Connect with Doña on Instagram Get on the email list for all the updates

Living peacefully with your body - that is the one you actually have, not the aspirational one you strive and work toward, but never quite achieve - is a foundational piece of self care. But it is also a piece of self care that few of us are good at.

Meredith Noble is a coach who helps plus-size people make peace with food and their bodies, so that they can live full, engaged lives without the weight of shame and self-hate that may have plagued them their whole lives. In this episode, we talk about the many steps along the path to body love, and how finding pleasure in your body can be one of the first steps.

Even if you don't identify as plus-size, there is a lot in this episode for anyone who would like to live in their skin more comfortably, with more self-love.

Find full show notes here

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To kick off Season 2 of the Nurturing Habit podcast, I'm talking with Sarah Silvas, a life coach, yoga and Qoya teacher. In this episode, we talk about what self care is (and is not), how being deeply connected to our bodies is a root of wisdom, and we talk about our shared story of loving dance as children, quitting it, and then finding it again as adults.

To find complete show notes, visit www.nuturinghabit.com/episode10

In this short episode, I talk about the healing path through grief that I learned about from guests in this season of the podcast, and through the season of grief I have been living in in my own life. If you, too, are grieving, I hope that this series of conversations, and this episode, are of support to you. Find show notes and links to all the Season 1 episodes at Nurturing Habit.com

Paula Jenkins has built her coaching and podcasting career around joy. This is no naive image of constant lightness and happiness, but instead a study of how people grow through and out of challenging or traumatic life experiences by committing themselves to finding joy - and the transformation that process can bring. I asked Paula to join us as we near the end of this series about nurturing ourselves through grief exactly because of that idea of transformation. How do we return to the world, after experiencing great loss? How do we take the experience and integrate it into our life "after"? Deciding to follow joy is one answer. Paula is a life and podcasting coach, and runs the wonderful podcast Jumpstart Your Joy. In this conversation, Paula shares how she recovered from a deep trauma in her life by the act of choosing joy in her every day life. We also talk about the hero's journey, and how we can apply these universal concepts to the stories of our own lives. Paula is one of the most profoundly joyful, thoughtful people I know, and this was a delightful conversation. My hope is that it will give you some ideas for how to reconnect with joy in your own life. Find show notes at www.nurturinghabit.com