The Courageously.u Podcast

Today, Dr. Marilyn Sanders is hanging out with us to help me create a conversation about the impact trauma has on a child's developing nervous system. 

Dr. Sanders is a board-certified pediatrician, neonatologist, author, scholar, and educator. She provides clinical care for critically ill newborns, infants, and young children at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, Connecticut. As a neonatologist, she cares for babies with a wide range of medical problems that require intensive care services, and she also sees babies from four months to three years of age who are at risk for developmental challenges.

Dr. Sanders is also a professor of pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.  Her scholarly work focuses on enhancing the social and emotional well-being of vulnerable infants and children, many of whom were exposed to early trauma. Her approach to trauma-informed care is embedded in the Polyvagal Theory that elaborates how our unconscious nervous system’s sense of safety, danger, or life threat affects our emotions and behaviors. Dr. Sanders also co-authored a must-read book called The Polyvagal Theory and the Developing Child.

In today’s episode, we’re talking about…

• What the nervous system looks like.
• How exposure to trauma, neglect, chronic stress, and adversity impacts a child’s nervous system.
• How childhood survival responses can carry into adulthood.
• How dorsal shutdown can manifest as self-medicating.
• Why it’s important to stop asking what’s wrong with you, but rather what happened to you.
• The importance of repair after disruption.
• Why it's important to understand your nervous system response so you can better respond to children’s dysregulation.

…and so much more!

Podcast show notes: 

https://courageouslyu.substack.com/p/marilyn-sanders-how-childhood-trauma

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Today, the hilarious Caitlin Murray is joining me on the show to discuss all things motherhood. Caitlin is a humorist, writer, podcaster, future author, mother of three, wife of one, and voice behind the wildly popular Instagram account Big Time Adulting. 

We're talking about... 

• What Caitlin does to maintain her sanity
• How she navigated her son’s cancer
• How sharing her real feelings with the world is therapeutic
• The impact her hormonal cycle has on her mood and ability to juggle all the things
• How she manages stress
• The importance of asking why you’re doing something
• The insane pressures placed on moms
• Why it’s okay to slightly ruin your child
• How she keeps her marriage alive
• What she’d say to moms of littles

…and so much more. 

Podcast show notes: 

https://courageouslyu.substack.com/p/caitlin-murray-an-honest-conversation

Join my courageous community on Substack...

https://courageouslyu.substack.com/

Hang out with me on Instagram...

https://www.instagram.com/courageously.u/

Sponsor... Get 40% off your first Thrive Market order when you use this link —> Click here!

Hey, friends! Today the brilliant Dr. Jodie Skillicorn is hanging out with us to help me create a conversation on how you can holistically heal depression. 

Dr. Skillicorn is a holistic, integrative psychiatrist and author of Healing Depression without Medications: A Psychiatrist's Guide to Balancing Mind, Body, and Soul. She integrates conventional medical training with evidence-based holistic methods that blend mindfulness-based psychotherapy with a variety of complementary, research-based modalities including breathwork, meditation, EMDR, Emotional Freedom Techniques, nutrition, exercise, and nature at her virtual practice in Ohio. 

Her passion is in guiding, supporting, and teaching her patients self-care techniques that help balance their bodies and minds, thus empowering them to take an active role in their unique healing journeys on the road to optimal health. These skills may also help in reducing and often eliminating the need for medications. 

We're talking about... 

• How what Dr. Skillicorn was taught in med school was misleading
• The impact psych meds have on the chemistry of your brain
• The consequences of long-term antidepressant use
• The power of placebo on depression
• How Dr. Skillicorn’s approach to helping people heal differs from conventional psychiatry
• The power of mindfulness on the brain
• Why it’s important to move your body to discharge stress
• The impact poor sleep has on your mental health
• What Dr. Skillicorn believes drives increased depression
• How a biochemical bandaid isn’t healing the wound 
• The role stress plays in inflammation
• The importance of eating clean foods
• What you can do to improve your depression holistically

…and so much more!

Podcast show notes: 

https://open.substack.com/pub/courageouslyu/p/dr-jodie-skillicorn-healing-depression?r=29mstw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Join my courageous community on Substack...

 https://courageouslyu.substack.com/

Hang out with me on Instagram...

https://www.instagram.com/courageously.u/

Sponsor... Get 40% off your first Thrive Market order when you use this link —> Click here!

Today the beyond brilliant Brigid Titgemeier is hanging out with us to help me create a conversation about the impact diet and lifestyle has on our mental health. 

Brigid is a Functional Medicine Registered Dietitian, Entrepreneur, professor, and Mom who is on a mission to help you use food to create health. She is the CEO and Founder of Being Functional Nutrition, a digital coaching company that has helped more than 20,000 people use targeted nutrition and lifestyle strategies for better labs, symptoms, and relationship with food. Previously, Brigid was a co-founding dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine under Dr. Mark Hyman. 

In today's episode, we talk about... 

• The current mental health crisis
• Where conventional medicine gets it wrong
• How gut health influences brain health
• How you can optimize your gut health
• How blood sugar fluctuations mimic anxiety
• Why it’s important to eat a blood sugar-stabilizing diet
• The impact nutrient deficiencies have on mental health
• Why you need more magnesium to help calm your nervous system
• The impact stress has on your b vitamins
• The role inflammation plays in depression
• The importance of exercise
• Why you need to spend more time in nature
• How going at mental health struggles with medication alone is failing people
• The top three foods she’d encourage you to eat less of
• The importance of preconception health
• How to increase energy and mental clarity postpartum
• Why we need to redirect our focus from weight loss to overall health postpartum
• How you can include more protein into your diet

...and so much more!

Podcast show notes: 

https://courageouslyu.substack.com/p/brigid-titgemeier-the-impact-diet

Join my courageous community on Substack...

 https://courageouslyu.substack.com/

Hang out with me on Instagram...

https://www.instagram.com/courageously.u/

Sponsor... Get 40% off your first Thrive Market order when you use this link —> Click here!

Join me in today’s minisode as I process through why I’m changing my narrative, why I’m leaning towards the grey, what I want you to know, and why I don’t want to die on “this” hill.

Happy listening!!

In today’s episode, I’m going deep… and I get a little emotional. You ready?!

Today, the wonderful Kate White is hanging out with us to help me unpack my birth trauma and to also help you gain insight into how labor and delivery impacts the birthing parent’s nervous system.  Kate is an award-winning educator and an advanced bodyworker. She is trained in somatic therapies, prenatal and perinatal somatic health, lactation, brain development, infant mental health, and she has specialized in parent-baby dyad care using somatic prevention and trauma healing approaches for 25 years. 

She's also a mother of two children, holds a BA and MA in Communication, is a Registered Craniosacral Therapist in the Biodynamic Craniosacral method, and is a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner. Her work combines somatic trauma healing, energetic therapies, bodywork, pediatric therapies, and education about the nervous system to help give families with babies and small children the best possible start. 

In today’s episode, we talk about… 

• My birth trauma and how it led to nervous system dysregulation postpartum
• Why it’s important to educate providers, midwives, and doulas about the freeze state
• Why Kate likes to unpack early life traumas when helping you with your birth trauma
• How the birth parent’s autonomic response is impacted based on how they're treated during the birthing process
• How the vulnerability of labor and delivery tends to lead to pleasing and appeasing
• Why we need to normalize nervous system responses during the birthing process
• How your baby has a story to tell too
• How our need to do things by ourselves is a survival strategy that we relied on as a child
• Why new parents need more support postpartum
• The impact social media can have on your nervous system
• How Kate helps me disrupt locked-up nervous system energy

…and so much more!

Podcast show notes: 

https://courageouslyu.substack.com/p/kate-white-how-the-birthing-process

Join my courageous community on Substack...

 https://courageouslyu.substack.com/

Hang out with me on Instagram...

https://www.instagram.com/courageously.u/

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I’m excited to share today’s conversation with you because I’m currently navigating a season where I crave friendships and I like to think I’m not alone.

Today the fabulous Anna Goldfarb joins us on the podcast to help us understand why we need a new approach to navigating friendships in a time when it’s so easy to shed them. Anna is a journalist, author, and speaker. Called “The New York Times’ friendship correspondent”, Anna’s work explores the nuances of friendships, relationships, and pop psychology. She has reported for outlets including The New York Times, The Atlantic, TIME, Vice, The Cut, Vox, and The Washington Post. She also writes the Substack newsletter, Friendship Explained, where she demystifies friendship mechanics through a pop culture lens.

In today’s episode, we talk about...

• Why it’s so important to have friendships
• Why it feels harder to make friends as you get older
• Why you’re not a horrible friend for prioritizing a partner over a friend
• Why friends tend to get the short end of the stick
• Why our social lives can feel like a supermarket
• Why it can take longer to foster meaningful friendships as you age 
• Why friendships drift apart
• The different types of friends you can make
• How friendships have shifted over the years
• Why it’s okay to call it quits on a friendship
• The importance of a friendship cleanse

...and so much more. 

Podcast show notes:

https://courageouslyu.substack.com/p/anna-goldfarb-navigating-modern-friendships

Join my courageous community on Substack...

 https://courageouslyu.substack.com/

Hang out with me on Instagram...

https://www.instagram.com/courageously.u/

Consider this an emergency (spontaneous) minisode where I let it alllll out. Sparked by the wild comment section of an Instagram post and the even wilder loss of followers (something I'm actually grateful for), I'm sitting down with you here to process it...

I'm also sharing with you what you need to know about me if we're going to be friends. 

Enjoy! 

Are you ready to escape conformity, ignite creativity, and awaken your genius? If yes, than you're in the right spot. Today the brilliant Ozan Varol is hanging out with us to help you do just that. 

Ozan is a rocket scientist turned award-winning professor and bestselling author. He is one of the world’s foremost experts in creativity, innovation, and critical thinking.

In today’s episode, we talk about...

• How everyone is born creative
• Why you need to show the parts of yourself that you’ve suppressed
• Why comparison is one of the worst things you can do
• The two issues you’ll run into when you conform
• How little drops of work will create a ripple effect
• Why names given to what you’re doing matter
• Why it’s crucial to know your why
• What happens when you force yourself to create
• Questions you can ask yourself to help unlock your unique talents
• Why it’s important to give shamed parts of yourself a voice
• What you can do to inspire creativity
• The importance of journaling
• Why it’s more important to create than consume

...and so much more. 

Podcast show notes:

https://courageouslyu.substack.com/p/ozan-varol-how-to-escape-conformity

Join my courageous community on Substack...

 https://courageouslyu.substack.com/

Hang out with me on Instagram...

https://www.instagram.com/courageously.u/

Today the fabulous Ruby Warrington is hanging out with us to chat about why it’s okay for women to decide that being a mother just isn’t for them. Ruby is a British-born author, editor, and creator of the term Sober Curious. 

Author of the 2018 book Sober Curious, and podcast of the same title, her work has spearheaded a global movement to reevaluate our relationship with alcohol. Other works include Material Girl, Mystical World, and The Sober Curious Reset. Her new book, Women Without Kids, is out now. With 20+ years of experience as a lifestyle journalist and editor, Ruby is known as an astute cultural commentator and true thought leader. 

In today’s episode, we chat about…

• Why nothing is wrong with you for questioning whether or not you want kids

• Questions to ask yourself before having a baby

• Why the birth rate is dropping off

• What’s impacting fertility

• Reasons why people are choosing not to have kids

• Why women are starting to say no more than men to having kids 

• How the lion’s share of work falls on women

• How motherhood impacts a woman’s career

• Why Ruby says she’s “areproductive”

• Why it’s important to normalize questioning whether or not you want kids

…and so much more!

Podcast show notes...

https://courageouslyu.substack.com/p/ruby-warrington-its-okay-to-question

Join my courageous community on Substack...

 https://courageouslyu.substack.com/

Hang out with me on Instagram...

https://www.instagram.com/courageously.u/