In a soul-honouring life, we look back to witness and celebrate our progress and to mine for wisdom.

We look forward to cast a vision, set goals, and reimagine who we are becoming.

But then, we must pull our hearts and minds back so we can live fully willing and present in each moment and each day. Even the super messy, deeply challenging, or pretty wonderful yet not perfect days.

In this episode, I share a recent example from my life when I did not get everything checked off my to-do list and fear and urgency crept in. Nothing was truly wrong in the moment, but if I believed the story that fear was spinning, my future was doomed;)

Thankfully, my Wise Self spoke up and gently offered the anxious part of me a different thought.

“This too is what it means to trust yourself and your seasonal rhythms. The rhythms and practices you build into your life are there to serve YOU. You are not subservient to them. And when consistency turns into rigidity, it is no longer serving you."

Life is messy. It has always been messy. But each messy day is a gift - and each imperfect day IS our real life.

And the quality of my life is not determined by perfect accounting. Or perfection of any kind. Never has been.

Resources

If you want to create a soul-honouring life, one that is an expression of your True Self and helps you thrive forward in every season, you need to check out the Life Visioning Course: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/life-visioning-course/

Join the waitlist for the Brave and Beautiful Community for growth-minded midlife women: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/community/

Connect with Krista:

• Instagram: @a_life_in_progress
• Facebook: @alifeinprogressca and @rebrandingmiddleage
• YouTube: @ALifeinProgress
• Website: alifeinprogress.ca

Over the past few episodes I've been talking about elements of a soul-honouring life.

Today I'm focusing on the freedom you can experience when you recognize that your capacity shifts in new life seasons. And how honouring your wiring and capacity in different seasons of life is an important way that you can befriend yourself and also create a sustainable and soul-honouring life for yourself.

Key ideas you'll learn about in this episode:

1. What it means to honour your wiring and capacity.
2. Why this matters to you as a midlife woman. And why this likely feels challenging or counter-intuitive to you.
3. The reasons that learning to do this not only helps you rest and restore but also helps you EXPAND your capacity for the fullness of life.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month.

Learning to fully love and respect who you are and how you are wired supports your mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing.

Constantly judging yourself as bad, wrong, or broken because you cannot keep up with a societal expectations or your conditioned expectations on yourself is harmful.

Giving yourself permission to be your True Self, unravelling all the old beliefs about how you "should" be or all the ways you learned to perform or prove yourself is freeing and hopeful.

This is one of the kindest and wisest things you can do for yourself. I know that bills still need to paid and this doesn't magically fix hard circumstances in this season of your life.

But if you can be on your own side, and lay down shame and judgment, life will feel a whole lot simpler and kinder.

Resources

Free Life Visioning Class: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/life-visioning-exercise/

If you want to create a soul-honouring life, one that is an expression of your True Self and helps you thrive forward in every season, you need to check out the Life Visioning Course: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/life-visioning-course/

Join the waitlist for the Brave and Beautiful Community for growth-minded midlife women: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/community/

Connect with Krista:

• Instagram: @a_life_in_progress
• Facebook: @alifeinprogressca and @rebrandingmiddleage
• YouTube: @ALifeinProgress
• Website: alifeinprogress.ca

In this episode I share one of my favourite empowering and life-giving practices. It offers a huge ROI in my life. And I've seen the change that happens for others when I teach them this practice.

A soul-honouring life is an expression of True Self in the world. Last episode I focused on how knowing your Core Values helps you be your True Self and make decisions aligned with what truly matters to you.

It takes a bit of time to not only identify your Core Values but also to learn how to use them in practical ways - or how to live them in concrete ways. And some people feel overwhelmed by figuring out their core values at first.

So today I'm sharing how you can receive most of the same benefits in an easier to access, and even less-threatening (or activating) way. Which brings us to my favourite practice of choosing 3-5 Mind-Body-Spirit Intentions each year.

Mind-Body-Spirit Intentions (or MBSIs) are words that reflect your current growth edge and how you want to feel in your body and life. They paint a vivid mental and emotional picture of who you want to be in your life.

MBSIs are not magic fairy dust or wishful thinking. When you name your Mind-Body-Spirit Intentions for the year, you are simply naming (or claiming) what you are committed to practicing.

In this episode you'll learn;

1. The 3 key filters for my life.
2. What distinguishes a core value from an MBSI.
3. The difference between an outward orientation and an inner orientation (and why it matters to you).
4. How our experience of life can shift even radically depending on how we show up to it.
5. And why the most important thing to remember is that every day you get to ask ourself "will I practice, or will I not?"

NEW Free Resource

Name what you want + Bridge the gap between current reality and what you desire: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/life-visioning-exercise/

If you want to create a soul-honouring life, one that is an expression of your True Self and helps you thrive forward in every season, you need to check out the Life Visioning Course: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/life-visioning-course/

Join the waitlist for the Brave and Beautiful Community for growth-minded midlife women: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/community/

Connect with Krista:

• Instagram: @a_life_in_progress
• Facebook: @alifeinprogressca and @rebrandingmiddleage
• YouTube: @ALifeinProgress
• Website: alifeinprogress.ca

One of the most common search terms on my website or in google that bring people to my site is "how to find your core values" or "what are my core values."

Your Core Values are an expression of your True Self in the world.

I created a 5-hour workshop to help you not only identify your core values, but understand why this is so beneficial, and how to apply (or live) your core values in practical, intentional ways.

If you're interested in more than dabbling and are ready to truly understand your core values and how to embody them or walk them out to "live on purpose" then I encourage you to buy the workshop.

In this episode I share

3 things that drive the show in your life - your root motivations. The things that influence your thoughts, emotions, and behaviour.

5 key benefits of knowing your core values.

5 reflection prompts that will grow your self-awareness and point you toward your core values.

Next week I have a new resource coming that will help you name what you want and bridge the gap between current reality and the desired outcome.

Resources

Core Values Workshop: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/core-values-workshop/

Spring Self-Care Guide: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/spring-guide/

If you want to create a soul-honouring life, one that is an expression of your True Self and helps you thrive forward in every season, you need to check out the Life Visioning Course: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/life-visioning-course/

Join the waitlist for the Brave and Beautiful Community for midlife women: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/community/

Connect with Krista:

• Instagram: @a_life_in_progress
• Facebook: @alifeinprogressca and @rebrandingmiddleage
• YouTube: @ALifeinProgress
• Website: alifeinprogress.ca

A soul-honouring life is a life that is true to yourself. One that expresses your True Self in the world - your gifting, your core values, possibly your core dreams or a soul-calling. It is a life that you feel proud of, take ownership for, an intentional and meaningful life.

How you express your core values and gifting will shift in different seasons of life. But you can always walk out your values and live "on purpose" no matter what is happening in you and around you.

A soul-honouring life has nothing to do with perfection and less to do with circumstances than you might imagine.

It is much more tied to who you are BEING in the circumstances of your life. And if you are being a person who is committed to consistently watering what you say you want, who has permission to receive what you want, a person willing to practice every day the truth of who she is and what she most cares about.

If you want a soul-honouring life, in this episode you'll learn 4 things that you must learn to practice.

Resources

I have new related resources coming soon. In the meantime, this free Self-Care Guide for Spring will help you take good care of yourself, mind-body-soul, in the months to come: get the guide.

In the Core Values Workshop you’ll identify your core values and apply them to your life in meaningful ways to support your growth and freedom: buy the workshop.

If you want to create a soul-honouring life, one that is an expression of your True Self and helps you thrive forward in every season, you need to check out the Life Visioning Course: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/life-visioning-course/

Join the waitlist for the Brave and Beautiful Community for midlife women: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/community/

Connect with Krista:

• Instagram: @a_life_in_progress
• Facebook: @alifeinprogressca and @rebrandingmiddleage
• YouTube: @ALifeinProgress
• Website: alifeinprogress.ca

Notice if a lot of the heaviness, pain, and struggle you're feeling is self-imposed. If so, you can choose to let it go.

20 years ago my life changed when I made a commitment to no longer bully myself (or my body). I stepped over a line that day. And then I started practicing...

In this episode I share a short clip from a recent Befriend Yourself Workshop. I share a bit of my personal story and how I began walking in greater freedom.

I realized I could stop searching outside of myself for a “fix.” I wasn’t broken! Instead, I learned to turn toward myself. Life was always going to be messy but I could learn to calm the storm inside of me by being a loving, respectful, affirming friend to myself. By being on my own side.

I knew my relationship with myself had to change if I wanted a kinder, gentler life. And I knew I needed to commit to this change for my sake and to model health to my children.

Resources

If you want to create a soul-honouring life, one that is an expression of your True Self and helps you thrive forward in every season, you need to check out the Life Visioning Course: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/life-visioning-course/

Join the waitlist for the Brave and Beautiful Community for midlife women: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/community/

Connect with Krista:

• Instagram: @a_life_in_progress
• Facebook: @alifeinprogressca and @rebrandingmiddleage
• YouTube: @ALifeinProgress
• Website: alifeinprogress.ca

This is a short but hopefully life-giving episode. I offer you 10 reminders that can help you befriend yourself exactly as you are today. And that can help you enjoy your messy and beautiful life.

Resources

You can download the PDF of these 10 reminders here: click here.

Join the Brave + Beautiful Community: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/community/

Connect with me:

• Instagram: @a_life_in_progress
• Facebook: @alifeinprogressca and @rebrandingmiddleage
• YouTube: @ALifeinProgress
• Website: alifeinprogress.ca

Subscribe and Review:

If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcast. Thank you!

The same over-giving, working harder, people-pleasing, perfectionist patterns that brought you to this season of your life won't create the change that you're needing and wanting.

But there's a good chance that while you want to grow, heal, and learn to be kinder to yourself and build a life you truly want, you're still trying to use those same old patterns that leave you exhausted, discouraged, and wondering if life-giving, sustainable change is truly possible for you.

It took you decades to build these patterns, so unraveling or deconditioning from these patterns doesn't happen overnight. But it is possible. For 11 years, I've been helping women do this work and experience so much more freedom and joy in their lives as they befriend themselves and learn how to be on their own side.

Resources to support you

Last chance to register for the free Befriend Yourself Workshop: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/befriend-yourself-workshop/

Join the Brave + Beautiful Community (starting tomorrow, join for 6 or 12 months and get $300 off March 24-27 only): https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/community/

Spring reminds me to hold everything loosely and live open to change. It reminds me that I can only see so far - there is so much more beauty and joy ahead. And each seasonal shift also prompts me to notice that feeling uncomfortable is not the same as being unsafe.

You'll learn four ways I'm caring for myself right now - they will likely serve you too. And I have a free spring self-care guide that you can use to support your mind-body-spirit health in the months to come.

Spring self-care guide: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/spring-guide/

Autumn self-care guide: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/autumn-guide/

Don't forget to register for the Befriend Yourself Workshop next week. Its free and I'm giving away free coaching sessions to two people who show up live: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/befriend-yourself-workshop/

I had a breakthrough this weekend and it felt like 50 lbs were released from my chest. I could breathe deeply and exhale fully again in a way I had not been able to for months.

In this episode I share more about this but one part of this breakthrough was realizing that I'd been feeling conflicted internally because ... well, this is NOT the life or family I wanted or dreamed of. Family was my first and primary dream and family has also been a source of incredible pain. Beauty too but the beauty, joy, and love do not cancel out the pain, fear, grief, and trauma. They simply coexist.

We can tell the truth about the incredibly painful parts of life and also continue handcrafting a brave and beautiful life. It may not be the life we wanted or dreamed of but it can still be good. Deeply imperfect and good.

Resources

Your relationship with yourself impacts every area of your life. And constantly judging, comparing, speaking to yourself unkindly… this is like walking around with a 200 pound backpack on your shoulders, all day, every day. It’s time to let this go!

Join the free Befriend Yourself Workshop: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/befriend-yourself-workshop/#sign-up

Join the Brave + Beautiful Community: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/community/