We are sold sooo many magic pills. Diets and Pelotons and eyebrow enhancers and wrinkle cream and slimming bathing suits and on and on.

And believe me, I get it. There is value to these things, I’m not denying that. What I’m saying in this episode is that the trauma work is your foundation. Without it, the house of you can’t stand tall and proud.

in this episode I give you a real life example of how the trauma work I’ve done helps me to be brave, audacious and adaptable in my everyday life. It's a quick, direct, honest and action-oriented episode.

If you don’t get started today, healing is just that much further away. If you’ve been waiting for a sign to get started on your healing journey, this episode is it!

Click Book a Call at orchidstory.com to get a free Time and Energy Expansion coaching session with me.

Lisa Weinert, creator of Narrative Healing™️, works with people at the intersection of writing, publishing, teaching, and yoga. Lisa believes there is powerful life-changing medicine in our stories that can heal us personally and as a society. Lisa shares with us her personal story of losing her voice and then finding it again through connection with her body. We talk about the paradox of feeling both relief and a flood of emotional pain after the traumatic event and how certain types of yoga can help us to slow down and learn to be where we are. I encourage you to find 10 quiet minutes to try Lisa's narrative healing practice that she generously shares with us at the end of the interview. Join Lisa for one of her Narrative Healing labs and follow along with her work at narrativehealing.com and lisaweinert.com. Follow her on Instagram @narrativehealing and @lisaweinert.

In this BONUS episode, the finale of our series on trauma, I am sharing some of what I have learned so far about healing. This entire podcast is devoted to healing journeys, so every single episode holds a nugget of healing, but in this episode I pull together all I’ve learned from personal experience, clients, and the research into four major takeaways.

If this series on trauma spoke to you and you’re ready to start finding the stories you’re meant to tell, book a free Time and Energy Expansion session with me, where I will help you create a ritual for self-connection as a bridge to your story. Visit orchidstory.com and click Book a Call.

Social media and Hallmark want us to believe that Mother's Day is made only of roses and rainbows, but in real life, Mother's Day is a complicated holiday for many women. As I walk through the first Mother's Day without my mom, I invite my best friend from childhood, Christy Lilley, on to the show for some real talk. With enormous courage and compassion, Christy shares vulnerably about what it was like to lose her mom at a young age. She offers a window into what it looks like to carry traumatic loss with you into adulthood and how it shapes your life. If you are feeling conflicting emotions about Mother's Day - this is the episode for you.

I am doing a special Mother's Day promo this week (open to all women; not just moms in the traditional sense). If you book one-on-one Sanctuary VIP Coaching with me by May 9, 2021, I will send you a bouquet of spring flowers! I have two spaces available so if the timing feels right, I'd love to hear from you. Go to: orchidstory.com/coaching

Our bodies are the MOST amazing and they help us stay safe in the face of danger by igniting the fight, flight or freeze response. But what happens when we go into a stress response too often because of memories or some stimulus that reminds us of a big thing that we went through? When our minds and bodies are hyperactive to our environments and when we have trouble coming back to our baseline it can have a significant impact on our health. We are walking through all of this today - the idea is not to become neuroscience experts, but to arm ourselves with knowledge about what is happening right inside our own bodies. Remember, we aren't just a brain walking around on a stick! If we want to be well, we have to consider mind and body. 

I have space for a couple of free 20 minute Time and Energy Expansion Sessions where I will show you how just a little time for yourself can help you get out of the stress response and reset your body  into a relaxation response instead. Go to orchidstory.com and click Book A Call. 

Two people may experience the same event and one might develop post-traumatic stress disorder whereas the other person might function normally after a few days. Join me this week as we examine the spectrum of response to trauma and I ask you to get curious and explore your own experience. Recognizing what's going on inside of you is critical as you move toward the path of healing. Plus - I share a personal example of how I've experienced residual trauma. *If you need professional help, make sure you seek it from a medical provider.

I'd love to hear how this series on trauma is sitting with you. Connect with me on Instagram and sign up for my newsletter. If you want to explore your own reaction to the big thing you went through but aren't sure where to start, I'll tell you that it's with self-care. Head to orchidstory.com and click Book a Call for a free coaching session with me where I'll help you create a 5 minute self-connection practice that will get you in the right headspace to explore your story. 

We hear ALOT about trauma these days. And that’s a good thing, because we are getting better talking about mental health. But it can be a little confusing too - is there a strict definition of trauma? If you aren’t a combat war veteran, can you experience trauma? The conversation is very nuanced and I am walking through some of that here. If you've ever wondered whether that experience in your life "counts" as trauma, this is the episode for you. 

Links! 

Find Your ACE score

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Give yourself a holiday treat and listen to my interview with local (to me in VA) artist, Jill Perla. Jill will help you see the beauty that surrounds you and inspire you to bring more joy into your everyday life. Jill came to painting later in life after leaving a successful corporate career. She's a reminder that we don't have to stay stuck and that there is always room to grow and change - even after being dealt tough circumstances early in life. 

Check out Jill's amazing original art: jillperlaart.com/

Connect with Jill on Instagram: @jillperlaart

Sign up for the FREE Reconnect With Yourself Challenge - Comfort Edition: orchidstory.com/reconnect

Time feels more twisted than ever right now, but it's something that busy women have forever felt constrained by. This week I offer a gentle challenge to your belief of "I have no time". Since time is a valuable resource and we all have the same amount of it in a day, wouldn't it help to do some re-framing around your time beliefs? I offer up some examples in my own life of how I'm in a constant self-coaching loop around time. This episode is for you if you're tired of complaining how busy you are and ready to start looking at time differently.

I'm talking with Brianne Kirkpatrick about how she's grown, changed, and pivoted during the pandemic. Brianne is a genetic counselor, entrepreneur and mom of three kids, including a toddler, who has made hard decisions since covid-19 hit. This episode is for all of you who feel like life has become one big swirl of work, parenting, partnering, and schooling and you wonder if you will ever find yourself inside of it. Brianne is a big thinker, a creative, and she is not afraid to share the messy middle with us.  

Find out more about Brianne and her business Watershed DNA: https://www.watersheddna.com/

Follow Brianne on Instagram @watershedDNAofficial and Twitter @GCBrianne

Enrollment for my Sanctuary: Write To Heal program is OPEN!! Details here: https://www.orchidstory.com/sanctuary