say YES to yourself! | Inspiring Women in Midlife to Create a Life They Love

Fan Mail: Tell Wendy how you're saying yes to yourself!

This week on the Love Letters, Life & Other Conversations podcast Wendy shares two excerpts from the book A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson for this week's springboard. One that talks about faith and the other that talks about surrender.  The each share their own stories of faith and surrender and agree that the two are inextricably linked. 

Here are our takeaways for this week:

Wendy

• She loves the expansiveness of sharing the journey through conversation that lends to new perspective and growth. 
  
  Everything that has turned her off about religion has been people and the misinterpretation or misuse of faith. 

Jane

• That a conversation about God, faith and religion doesn’t have to be scary or uncomfortable.  Faith and religion are not always the same thing. 

Kristina (KB)

• Prayer is the talking to God and meditation is the listening
• Once you surrender to the faith, the getting there is easy.

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Say YES to yourself and book your spot for one of the Phineas Wright House On the Road trips to France! Click below for whichever delights you!

Paris & Versailles - September 5th - 12th, 2022
Charente Maritime (Cookbook Project) - September 20th - 26th
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We want to encourage you to share your takeaways with us too!  Send them and your love letters to us at [email protected]

Stay connected  with us...
Jane Webster
@janewebsterthefrenchtable

Wendy Harrop
@phineaswrighthouse

Kristina (KB)
The Spectacular Middle Virtual Entrepreneur Support Services
@thespectacularmiddle

________________________________________________________________________________________

Connect with Wendy:

Linkedin
Instagram: @wendy.harrop
Facebook: Phineas Wright House

Website: Phineas Wright House
PWH Farm Stays
PWH Curated Experience and Travel

Interested in being a guest on the show?
Send your pitch to [email protected]

Podcast Production By Shannon Warner of Resonant Collective
Want to start your own podcast? Let's chat!

If this episode resonated, follow Say YES to Yourself! and leave a  5-star review. It helps more women in midlife discover the tools, stories, and community that make saying YES not only possible, but powerful.

Fan Mail: Tell Wendy how you're saying yes to yourself!

This week on the Love Letters, Life & Other Conversations podcast Jane shared a quote she heard as their springboard for the conversation.

"Don't regret being a good person to the wrong person. Your actions say everything about you and your actions say everything about you. "  ~Anonymous

They talk about the idea that we each own our experience and that our actions reflect who we are, including our reactions to what others are putting out.  Jane also shares a Brené Brown quote, 'Strong Back, Soft Front, Wilde Heart' and they talk about how this relates to owning your experience by continuing to be kind when faced with someone who isn't but also holding your boundaries firm, and beautifully embracing having a 'wild heart'.   The conversation winds around the idea of owning your actions and your experience and how we can never know what someone else is going through so cannot make assumptions about their perspective or behaviour. 

Hello.. KB here - Jane and Wendy shared their 'thank yous' to everyone who has given us such beautiful feedback about these episodes and how you are using them as your own springboards either with others or for yourself.   I want to add my thanks to that as well.  I am inspired by how these conversations are impacting others, as I know how they impact me as I am the 'first' listener to each one!  Inspired by your feedback we are going to update our weekly shownotes to include not just Jane and Wendy's takeaways, but mine as well.   

Here are our takeaways for this week:

Wendy

• Always let them eat sorbet in Versailles!
• How owning our experience is not at the expense of others but a way of embracing our perspective, our joy and our experience without trying to force or figure out the other persons experience or perspective. 
• She loved the Brené Brown quote and how it encourages the 'empowered bravery', but also holding true to our own boundaries.

Jane

• She loves the simplicity of the springboard quote, but that through the conversation recognizes that who are we to determine who is the wrong person, and  that we need to focus instead on that idea of owning our experience.
• The idea that someone by be the 'wrong person' doesn't mean that they are always the wrong person, but that it may be isolated to that particular experience.

Kristina (KB)

• Our actions and reactions show who we are and it is so helpful to remember that when faced with a situation that is uncomfortable.  The other person's actions are not a reflection of you, but of themselves. 
• This conversation made me ask myself, 'Where am I not owning my experience and instead deferring to another's' perspective...and how can I with kindness and grace change that? 

We want to encourage you to share your takeaways with us too!  Send them and your love letters to us at [email protected]

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Congratulations again to the winner, Beverley on being the winner of our Raison d'etre contest!

Stay tuned for details of the live Podcast recording on Zoom - yes I almost always say YES to Jane and Wendy's ideas ;)

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Stay connected  with us...
Jane Webster
@janewebsterthefrenchtable

Wendy Harrop
@phineaswrighthouse

Kristina (KB)
The Spectacular Middle Virtual Entrepreneur Support Services
@thespectacularmiddle

________________________________________________________________________________________

Connect with Wendy:

Linkedin
Instagram: @wendy.harrop
Facebook: Phineas Wright House

Website: Phineas Wright House
PWH Farm Stays
PWH Curated Experience and Travel

Interested in being a guest on the show?
Send your pitch to [email protected]

Podcast Production By Shannon Warner of Resonant Collective
Want to start your own podcast? Let's chat!

If this episode resonated, follow Say YES to Yourself! and leave a  5-star review. It helps more women in midlife discover the tools, stories, and community that make saying YES not only possible, but powerful.

Fan Mail: Tell Wendy how you're saying yes to yourself!

On this week’s podcast Jane and Wendy discuss a Instagram post that found Jane moved by the power of ending the silence in a relationship.  To taking that step to communicate or to acknowledge so as to quiet the deafening sound of silence that can be so heart-wrenching. 

Here are the words from the post: 

--- Losing lovers, best friends or even family members that you were so close to is one of the hardest pains you can experience. 

Going from telling someone about your day, about the accomplishments you’ve done or the sadness that you’re going through just to have silence is heart wrenching. It feels like a piece of you is missing. The only way to ease the pain is to realize that every day is different. Every day may not always feel better, but the pain becomes less and less as they days go by and eventually the silence won’t seem so loud anymore.  ---

Wendy’s Takeaway

• Perspective and our personal responsibility to own our experiences.

Jane’s Takeaways

• Take the step to reach out and end the silence.  

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Thank you to everyone who submitted an entry for our Raison d'etre contest!  We will be announcing the winner on next week's podcast episode!

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You are  invited to share your love letters with us for consideration for a future conversation.  Email your love letter to [email protected]

What is a love letter?
It is a letter, a text, a poem, a direct message, a drawing, a voice message, a watercolor, a recipe, a cup of tea, a smile, a home-baked meal delivered.  It's anything that connects us and makes us feel all those messy emotions, that without life would be pretty beige.

---------------------------------

Stay connected  
Jane Webster
@janewebsterthefrenchtable

Wendy Harrop
@phineaswrighthouse
---------------------------------------------
This podcast is produced by:
The Spectacular Middle Virtual Entrepreneur Support Services
@thespectacularmiddle

________________________________________________________________________________________

Connect with Wendy:

Linkedin
Instagram: @wendy.harrop
Facebook: Phineas Wright House

Website: Phineas Wright House
PWH Farm Stays
PWH Curated Experience and Travel

Interested in being a guest on the show?
Send your pitch to [email protected]

Podcast Production By Shannon Warner of Resonant Collective
Want to start your own podcast? Let's chat!

If this episode resonated, follow Say YES to Yourself! and leave a  5-star review. It helps more women in midlife discover the tools, stories, and community that make saying YES not only possible, but powerful.

Fan Mail: Tell Wendy how you're saying yes to yourself!

On this week’s podcast Jane and Wendy discuss an excerpt from the book 'A Return to Love' by Marianne Williamson.  Wendy shares the quote as the springboard for their conversation about embracing and living our potential.  They discuss not holding back, being present and that if a dream is in your heart, it is meant for you. 

Wendy’s Takeaway

• Trust myself and give myself the permission to do what is in my heart.  
• Vulnerability is 'empowered bravery'

Jane’s Takeaways

• That this has cemented the concept of doing it messy and that the act of that is encompassed in the idea of empowered bravery
• Don’t wait for perfect and miss your potential

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Thank you to everyone who submitted an entry for our Raison d'etre contest!  We will be announcing the winner on July 27th podcast episode!

---------------------------------
You are  invited to share your love letters with us for consideration for a future conversation.  Email your love letter to [email protected]

What is a love letter?
It is a letter, a text, a poem, a direct message, a drawing, a voice message, a watercolor, a recipe, a cup of tea, a smile, a home-baked meal delivered.  It's anything that connects us and makes us feel all those messy emotions, that without life would be pretty beige.

Stay connected  
Jane Webster
@janewebsterthefrenchtable

Wendy Harrop
@phineaswrighthouse
---------------------------------------------
This podcast is produced by:
The Spectacular Middle Virtual Entrepreneur Support Services
@thespectacularmiddle

________________________________________________________________________________________

Connect with Wendy:

Linkedin
Instagram: @wendy.harrop
Facebook: Phineas Wright House

Website: Phineas Wright House
PWH Farm Stays
PWH Curated Experience and Travel

Interested in being a guest on the show?
Send your pitch to [email protected]

Podcast Production By Shannon Warner of Resonant Collective
Want to start your own podcast? Let's chat!

If this episode resonated, follow Say YES to Yourself! and leave a  5-star review. It helps more women in midlife discover the tools, stories, and community that make saying YES not only possible, but powerful.

Fan Mail: Tell Wendy how you're saying yes to yourself!

On this week’s podcast Jane and Wendy discuss self worth.  A rich conversation flowed as a result of Jane's springboard for this week.  She had read the following:

"I will never for a moment in my life ever again fight for somebody to see my worth. 
Never, ever again."      ~ Author Unknown

Through the conversation Jane and Wendy share their own experiences with moments of not feeling their self worth and moments when they embraced it and declared that they too would never, ever, again fight for somebody to see their worth.    In the conversation Jane proposed an exercise for you to try as well: 

• Write down 10 things that you like about yourself. 
• Ask 2 friends to give you 10 things that they like about you.
• Write down 10 things that you have achieved in your life.

Take this information and read it over and over.  Internalize your self worth and create a solid foundation for it.  

Wendy’s Takeaways

• Choosing yourself is a decision away.
• You are worth choosing yourself,  no longer available to hand your power over to someone else.

Jane’s Takeaways

• We all have to be our own cheerleader.  Not in a saccharine way, but in that if you don't believe in 'you' how will anyone else.
• Without self worth, belief in yourself, you really won't reach your potential. 

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You are invited  to participate in our Raison d'etre contest!  Submit one paragraph of no more than 150 words telling us why you would like to join Jane's 'I Want More the Next 30 Years' class that starts on November 1st, 2022  to discover or articulate your reason for being, and why you want to win this prize!

Submit your entry by midnight EST on July 4th to our Love Letters, Life and Other Conversations email for consideration.

Email: [email protected]

All entries must include:

• Your 150 word paragraph
• Full Name
• Address
• Telephone number
• Date of birth
• Confirmation for availability to travel in March 

Jane, Wendy and KB (Kristina) will review the entries and choose one person as the winner.  They winner will receive a place in Jane's 'I Want More the Next 30 Year's' 6-month program which begins November 1st, 2022,  a 4 day retreat at Chateau Bosgouet in March of 2023 and airfare to attend.

The winner will be contacted prior to being announced on our July 20th podcast episode!

---------------------------------
You are also invited to share your love letters with us for consideration for a future conversation.  Email your love letter to [email protected]

What is a love letter?
It is a letter, a text, a poem, a direct message, a drawing, a voice message, a watercolor, a recipe, a cup of tea, a smile, a home-baked meal delivered.  It's anything that connects us and makes us feel all those messy emotions, that without life would be pretty beige.

Stay connected  
Jane Webster
@janewebsterthefrenchtable

Wendy Harrop
@phineaswrighthouse
---------------------------------------------
This podcast is produced by:
The Spectacular Middle Virtual Entrepreneur Support Services
@thespectacularmiddle

________________________________________________________________________________________

Connect with Wendy:

Linkedin
Instagram: @wendy.harrop
Facebook: Phineas Wright House

Website: Phineas Wright House
PWH Farm Stays
PWH Curated Experience and Travel

Interested in being a guest on the show?
Send your pitch to [email protected]

Podcast Production By Shannon Warner of Resonant Collective
Want to start your own podcast? Let's chat!

If this episode resonated, follow Say YES to Yourself! and leave a  5-star review. It helps more women in midlife discover the tools, stories, and community that make saying YES not only possible, but powerful.

Fan Mail: Tell Wendy how you're saying yes to yourself!

On this week’s podcast Jane and Wendy discuss three quotes that Wendy brought forward as the spring board for their conversation.

1. You can live your life out of circumstance or you can live your life out of vision.  
   ~ Werner Erhard
   
   
2. Pain pushes until the vision pulls.
   ~ Reverend Dr. Michael Beckwith 
   
   
3. Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.  
   ~ Jean-Paul Sartre

Each of these quotes centres around the idea of the push and the pull in life.  Jane and Wendy talk about how the discomfort and even pain of the push can lead to the greatest discovery.  

Wendy’s Takeaways

• The reminder that sharing our story, our journey, our pain and our response to it in the hopes of our growth, in the desire for our breakthrough is a double please.  Our experience and the ripple effects of that shared experience.

Jane’s Takeaways

• To be remembered as being available for someone. 
• That the pain in the push can lead to such growth

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You are invited  to participate in our Raison d'etre contest!  Submit one paragraph of no more than 150 words telling us why you would like to join Jane's 'I Want More the Next 30 Years' class that starts on November 1st, 2022  to discover or articulate your reason for being, and why you want to win this prize!

Submit your entry by midnight EST on July 4th to our Love Letters, Life and Other Conversations email for consideration.

Email: [email protected]

All entries must include:

• Your 150 word paragraph
• Full Name
• Address
• Telephone number
• Date of birth
• Confirmation for availability to travel in March 

Jane, Wendy and KB (Kristina) will review the entries and choose one person as the winner.  They winner will receive a place in Jane's 'I Want More the Next 30 Year's' 6-month program which begins November 1st, 2022,  a 4 day retreat at Chateau Bosgouet in March of 2023 and airfare to attend.

The winner will be contacted prior to being announced on our July 20th podcast episode!

---------------------------------
You are also invited to share your love letters with us for consideration for a future conversation.  Email your love letter to [email protected]

What is a love letter?
It is a letter, a text, a poem, a direct message, a drawing, a voice message, a watercolor, a recipe, a cup of tea, a smile, a home-baked meal delivered.  It's anything that connects us and makes us feel all those messy emotions, that without life would be pretty beige.

Stay connected  
Jane Webster
@janewebsterthefrenchtable

Wendy Harrop
@phineaswrighthouse
---------------------------------------------
This podcast is produced by:
The Spectacular Middle Virtual Entrepreneur Support Services
@thespectacularmiddle

________________________________________________________________________________________

Connect with Wendy:

Linkedin
Instagram: @wendy.harrop
Facebook: Phineas Wright House

Website: Phineas Wright House
PWH Farm Stays
PWH Curated Experience and Travel

Interested in being a guest on the show?
Send your pitch to [email protected]

Podcast Production By Shannon Warner of Resonant Collective
Want to start your own podcast? Let's chat!

If this episode resonated, follow Say YES to Yourself! and leave a  5-star review. It helps more women in midlife discover the tools, stories, and community that make saying YES not only possible, but powerful.

Fan Mail: Tell Wendy how you're saying yes to yourself!

This week on the Love Letters, Life, and Other Conversations podcast Jane and Wendy discuss 'The 5 balls of Life' speech by Coca-Cola's former CEO Brian Dyson and the concept of having a purpose or a raison d'etre, as the springboard for their conversation.  

The five balls of life are made up of work, family, health, friends and spirit.  Jane and Wendy discuss the importance of these, and that ultimately it is having purpose or a raison d'etre that gives life meaning.  They talk about how purpose can change and evolve with the seasons in life, but that it is also really simple - their reason for being is to enjoy the simple pleasures in life and be present in and for them.  

Wendy’s Takeaways

• Even if your reason for living seems silly or inconsistent with others, if it makes your heart swell and everything inside you screams Yes! Please...it is enough, you are enough. 
• Be 100% committed to your success!

Jane’s Takeaways

• That the purpose of her life is to taste and experience everything to the utmost of her ability and to reach out and truly feel what is there for her. 
• To have new experiences without fear.  

Inspired by their conversation we are inviting you to participate in a contest!  Submit one paragraph of no more than 150 words telling us why you would like to join Jane's 'I Want More the Next 30 Years' class that starts on November 1st, 2022  to discover or articulate your reason for being, and why you want to win this prize! 

Submit your entry by midnight EST on July 4th to our Love Letters, Life and Other Conversations email for consideration. 

Email: [email protected]

All entries must include:

• Your 150 word paragraph
• Full Name
• Address
• Telephone number
• Date of birth
• Confirmation for availability to travel in March 

Jane, Wendy and KB (Kristina) will review the entries and choose one person as the winner.  They winner will receive a place in Jane's 'I Want More the Next 30 Year's' 6-month program which begins November 1st, 2022,  a 4 day retreat at Chateau Bosgouet in March of 2023 and airfare to attend.

The winner will be contacted prior to being announced on our July 20th podcast episode!

---------------------------------
Jane's 'I Want More the Next 30 Years' is a 6-month online & in person course that will explore & redefine every aspect of your life.  You will ask yourself  "Do you want more?  and understand that ...

"What you think, you create. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you become."  Anonymous

---------------------------------
You are invited to share your love letters with them for consideration for a future conversation.  Email your love letter to [email protected]

What is a love letter?
It is a letter, a text, a poem, a direct message, a drawing, a voice message, a watercolor, a recipe, a cup of tea, a smile, a home-baked meal delivered.  It's anything that connects us and makes us feel all those messy emotions, that without life would be pretty beige.

Stay connected  
Jane Webster
@janewebsterthefrenchtable

Wendy Harrop
@phineaswrighthouse
---------------------------------------------
This podcast is produced by:
The Spectacular Middle Virtual Entrepreneur Support Services
@thespectacularmiddle

________________________________________________________________________________________

Connect with Wendy:

Linkedin
Instagram: @wendy.harrop
Facebook: Phineas Wright House

Website: Phineas Wright House
PWH Farm Stays
PWH Curated Experience and Travel

Interested in being a guest on the show?
Send your pitch to [email protected]

Podcast Production By Shannon Warner of Resonant Collective
Want to start your own podcast? Let's chat!

If this episode resonated, follow Say YES to Yourself! and leave a  5-star review. It helps more women in midlife discover the tools, stories, and community that make saying YES not only possible, but powerful.

Fan Mail: Tell Wendy how you're saying yes to yourself!

This week on the Love Letters, Life, and Other Conversations podcast Jane and Wendy use a long love, and slightly modified quote by John C Maxwell as their springboard.  The original quote is 'Learn to say no to the good so you can say yes to the best'.  Wendy shares that she has held this quote near and dear for a long time with a slight modification to 'say not to the good and yes to the best!'

The talk about how this is essentially setting personal non-negoitables and priorities to ensure that you have space to the things that are a full body yes! And, that those yeses can change based on the season you are in time wise and growth wise.  

Wendy’s Takeaways

• to look at her calendar and review what is a full body yes and what needs to be a no. 

Jane’s Takeaways

• that the yeses are our personal non-negoitables and we need to honour those.

---------------------------------
You are invited to share your love letters with them for consideration for a future conversation.  Email your love letter to [email protected]

What is a love letter?
It is a letter, a text, a poem, a direct message, a drawing, a voice message, a watercolor, a recipe, a cup of tea, a smile, a home-baked meal delivered.  It's anything that connects us and makes us feel all those messy emotions, that without life would be pretty beige.

Stay connected  
Jane Webster
@janewebsterthefrenchtable

Wendy Harrop
@phineaswrighthouse
---------------------------------------------
This podcast is produced by:
The Spectacular Middle Virtual Entrepreneur Support Services
@thespectacularmiddle

________________________________________________________________________________________

Connect with Wendy:

Linkedin
Instagram: @wendy.harrop
Facebook: Phineas Wright House

Website: Phineas Wright House
PWH Farm Stays
PWH Curated Experience and Travel

Interested in being a guest on the show?
Send your pitch to [email protected]

Podcast Production By Shannon Warner of Resonant Collective
Want to start your own podcast? Let's chat!

If this episode resonated, follow Say YES to Yourself! and leave a  5-star review. It helps more women in midlife discover the tools, stories, and community that make saying YES not only possible, but powerful.

Fan Mail: Tell Wendy how you're saying yes to yourself!

This week on the Love Letters, Life, and Other Conversations podcast we welcome our second guest to the podcast.  Jane speaks with one of her Chateau Life Residency guests, Dr. Ruth Anderson.  They use a quote by one of Jane's favorites, Yung Pueblo, as a springboard for their conversation about anxiety and its role in peak performance. 

Ruth is a sports psychologist specializing in peak performance for athletes.  She works with athletes working under pressure to manage their thought processes so that they can have an awareness of how to think when they are actually performing. The idea is to equip people proactively to be self aware of their psychological processes and how to perform when they need to in a high performance way.

Jane and Ruth talked about how the skills applied by high performance athletes are applicable to those in business and the average person who wants to function at their best level.  

Anxiety is a universal emotion.  The flight or fight reflex.  And when flight is your reaction of choice this is not because of weakness.  Think of it rather that anxiety can actual help you perform better because you are  aware and your reaction and decision making time is heightened. What you need to learn is how to not allow the anxiety to stay high, but how to manage it and perform in the moment.

The only thing that is within your control is what you think what you do and what you focus on. What do you need to do to get the best outcome possible for your situation.  

If you’re not 20-30% anxious about something, you are probably not challenging yourself. If you want to move forward you have to be willing yourself in that challenged position, but have the skills to put into place.

Jane share some of her current tools for managing anxiety: 

• Implementing ‘worry time’ which can help manage anxiety in an incremental way vs letting it become overwhelming. 
• The 5-4-3-2-1 process
• Habit Stacking 

Ruth shared  that there are some common though traps: 

• Common thought traps
• Self doubt
• Worry
• Predictions
• Ruminations

She also share that it is important to individualize what is right for you, but that there are two practical things we can do for our mind and our body to help manage our anxiety and improve our performance:

• Slow deep abdominal breathing 
• Work on our awareness -  paying attention to what you are thinking

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Connect with Ruth
Her website is: https://mindhq.com.au/ruth-anderson/
On Linkedin
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You are invited to share your love letters with them for consideration for a future conversation. Email your love letter to [email protected]

What is a love letter?
It is a letter, a text, a poem, a direct message, a drawing, a voice message, a watercolor, a recipe, a cup of tea, a smile, a home-baked meal delivered. It's anything that connects us and makes us feel all those messy emotions, that without life would be pretty beige.

Visit the Podcast Page
Stay connected with Jane and Wendy on Instagram

Jane Webster
@janewebsterthefrenchtable

Wendy Harrop
@phineaswrighthouse

----------------------------------------------
This podcast is produced by:

The Spectacular Middle Virtual Entrepreneur Support Services
@thespectacularmiddle

________________________________________________________________________________________

Connect with Wendy:

Linkedin
Instagram: @wendy.harrop
Facebook: Phineas Wright House

Website: Phineas Wright House
PWH Farm Stays
PWH Curated Experience and Travel

Interested in being a guest on the show?
Send your pitch to [email protected]

Podcast Production By Shannon Warner of Resonant Collective
Want to start your own podcast? Let's chat!

If this episode resonated, follow Say YES to Yourself! and leave a  5-star review. It helps more women in midlife discover the tools, stories, and community that make saying YES not only possible, but powerful.

Fan Mail: Tell Wendy how you're saying yes to yourself!

• That our story has impact and the lovely way in which our stories have a ripple effect when they are shared. 
• How this podcast is like having others seated at our table and provides an opportunity for our stories to be shared. 
• The way in which ‘Eve’ is intentionally approaching her current situation with a beautiful sense of how her actions are going to be successful. 

• How ‘Eve’ recognized her relationship had gone a bit beige and she showed courage in her intentional instigation to take action to refresh the connection.
• How important is when we are in a state of ‘instigating’ change that we are really looking after our own well being at the same time

________________________________________________________________________________________

Connect with Wendy:

Linkedin
Instagram: @wendy.harrop
Facebook: Phineas Wright House

Website: Phineas Wright House
PWH Farm Stays
PWH Curated Experience and Travel

Interested in being a guest on the show?
Send your pitch to [email protected]

Podcast Production By Shannon Warner of Resonant Collective
Want to start your own podcast? Let's chat!

If this episode resonated, follow Say YES to Yourself! and leave a  5-star review. It helps more women in midlife discover the tools, stories, and community that make saying YES not only possible, but powerful.