You stare in the mirror and think, disgusting.

You tug at your clothes, avoid the camera, dread the dressing room. You carry a shame so old it feels, in Carl Jung’s words, like the “swampland of your soul.”

But what if that deeply personal shame is actually your tender heart of compassion, waiting to be born?

In this first episode of a four-part series on body image and feminine power, let the wild innocence of the Maiden archetype guide you to shed your inherited shame and reawaken the sacredness of your body.

Want to go deeper? Join me August 13–17 for A Pilgrimage to Self-Love, a 4-night retreat in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Southern Colorado. Details at marcellafriel.com/retreat

It’s easy to “love yourself” when, say, your wallet is full, or you’re having a great hair day, or life just generally feels like it’s on your side.

But what about when the sorrows of personal and collective trauma feel like more than you can handle?

Today in The Marcella Principle I share with you why the life-saving practice of self-love might be the most important choice you can make to find a home of inner ballast that weathers every storm.

Because the circumstances of our lives that we might regard as unbearable, unspeakable, and infinitely shameful are the keys that open the gates to an equally unfathomable divine grace—the grail that always overflows and never runs dry.

In the spirit of Fathers' Day (a holiday I never celebrated), I dedicate this post to the memory of my father, Howard Charles Friel Jr. (1925 - 1972), a man I never knew.

Daddy went to prison when I was 18 months old and died there just before I turned 10.

Years ago, on a solo hike in the deep Sangre de Cristo wilderness, I received a visitation from his spirit where he let me know he had been stuck in an afterlife limbo ever since he died.

I sat in the woods with my hands on my heart and listened.

Would I forgive him, he asked, for abandoning me and my family? For succumbing to the roaring undertow of his addictions?

I sat quietly until a small voice came:

Yes, Howard. Yes, Daddy, I forgive you. And I'll do what I can to help you move forward.

In keeping that promise, this post is for you, Dad. May you know the love that you are, wherever you are.

Join me for A Pilgrimage to Self-Love, a 4-night retreat in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Southern Colorado, August 13–17, 2025.

Through EFT Tapping, ritual, sacred sisterhood, and deep rest, you’ll reconnect with your body’s wisdom and remember the love that never left you.

For all the pain that’s proliferated 24/7 these days, there’s a parallel universe of deep somatic healing flourishing right alongside it.

Sometimes that medicine arrives in the form of one practice, one moment, or one question that unlocks a door we didn’t even know was closed.

And it often comes just as we’re ready to receive it.

In this episode of The Marcella Principle podcast I’m joined by Lulu Agan—surfer, yogini, and host of The Power of Just One, a free masterclass series running now through June 8.

Listen as Lulu and I ride hilariously through waves of self-forgiveness and paddle peacefully through the bliss of pure being.

Want to go deeper? Join Lulu, me, and 27 other wise women as we each share one practice you can do daily to activate the healing powers within you.

These include

* The power of Yoga Nidra for peaceful sleep

* A healing journey through hypnotherapy

* MELT magic: easing body pain with simple awareness

* Connecting to the magic of plants and the earth

* Feel it to free it: a somatic path to emotional liberation

I’ll be speaking on June 6 about the one practice you can do to calm your inner mean girl and activate self-compassion, no matter your circumstances.

In this first episode of The Marcella Principle, I explore how you can free yourself from the extremes of acting anger in or acting it out and instead honor the wildfire within by coming into wise relationship with this life-giving energy.

It feels fitting that anger is my inaugural topic for this podcast. Because anger, just like this episode, is by its nature rough around the edges.

After alligator-wrestling with GarageBand and a dozen other tech gremlins and cussing up a blue streak … after fretting and fussing about this detail and that … I’ve decided to trust that you, my beloved audience, will hear helpful words in my lumpy initial foray into podcast land.

So many of us women are afraid to release our voices into the world. Heaven forbid we burp, or fart, or discover spinach in our teeth in the midst of our impassioned speech.

But today I say, “Done is better than perfect.” And imperfect truth is better than polished procrastination, don’t you agree?

In this episode, you’ll hear:

* The ecological fallout of suppressing anger

* The difference between acting in, acting out, and acting wisely

* How anger, when honored, can deepen intimacy and fuel healing

* Somatic and earth-based practices to metabolize anger

* The flaming threads that connect rage, shame, boundaries, and body trust

How does anger show up for you? What has been the cost of your personal wildfire suppression? What would it take for you to come into respectful relationship with your native anger?

Thanks so much for liking, sharing, and reposting! They fire me up to keep producing the content that you enjoy.

And when you upgrade to paid you not only give me even more rocket fuel to keep doing this work—you also join Marcella’s Inner Sanctum, where you receive guided meditations, journal prompts, and other writings I share only with my loyal subscribers.

Last fall at my “Becoming Ageless As We Age” retreat, I discovered an unexpected truth:

A dozen women, in one powerful moment, confessed that they longed to rekindle their sexuality—whether by igniting passion with their husbands, venturing into solo exploration, or rediscovering intimacy after divorce.

If this small gathering was any indication of our collective predicament, then the jury is in:

Ladies … we need to talk about sex.

Enter Ana Novakovic Odoi, a formidable force of wisdom in the realm of post-menopausal sexuality.

Are there other women in your life who need to get in on this conversation? Share this post with them!

With loving fearlessness Ana boldly declares that “menopause is the new 20”—not merely the new 40, but a radical reimagining of what it means to age with passion and power.

Our candid conversation spans everything from the ancestral “witch wound” every woman carries, to why Freud was right after all about female orgasm, to why menstruating women are the heartbeat of the world.

I came away from this conversation feeling that the roof of my cranium had been blown off. It took me a good few hours afterward to put my brain back together.

Here’s a time-stamped summary of what we talked about when:

* 0:00 Introduction

* 1:14 Taoism and Tantra for 21st-century Western women

* 8:20 Clitoral versus internal orgasm

* 11:20 The ancestral sexual trauma every woman carries

* 14:50 Masculine sexual trauma

* 23:15 Why is menopause the new 20?

* 35:56 It’s never too late for a happy first menstruation

* 43:56 One woman, many partners

* 50:22 Why all women need to cultivate an inner father

* 53:33 Why menopause is the new 20 (really)

* 57:43 Ancestral wisdom heals technocratic dehumanization

* 59:30 A Taoist breathing practice for women to thaw their frozen zone

Thanks for reading “Grief, Grit & Grace”! Your support helps me continue creating content about how we midlife women can make the rest of our lives the best of our lives. If you feel inspired by what you find here, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Would you like to go deeper with Ana? Reach out to learn more about her suite of offerings. She’d love to hear from you.

In this talk from a winter virtual retreat I led with my Women, Food & Forgiveness Academy community, we explored a timely question:

How do we un-conform ourselves to the swirling world of illusory appearances and instead transform ourselves by the renewing of our minds?

Who do we seek to become in this aeon of collective degeneration prophesied in Hindu cosmology as the Kali Yuga, the darkest hour that precedes the dawn of the new Golden Age?

The answer to such cosmic questions lie closer to home than you might imagine.

Dive in with me, and after listening, I’d love to hear about the thoughts you are thinking and the actions you are taking to anchor yourself to sanity amidst the maya of a world in turmoil.

Is there someone you know who would resonate with this talk? If so, please feel free to share it.

Here’s what I talked about when:

0:00 Welcome and introduction

0:41 Discovering sacredness in a turbulent world

1:45 The Kali Yuga: the last of a four-age cycle

4:44 The choices you make matter

6:03 The crisis is the crossroads

7:12 Hospice the death of the old; midwife the birth of the new

8:15 The threefold commitment to yourself

8:41 Regarding the body as sacred

11:06 Every word you say matters

14:41 Penetrating the illusions of mind

15:56 Technology shabbat and the re-wilding of the soul

17:10 Walking back to analog reality

19:22 Be not conformed to this world

20:17 Discovering what is truly sacred in our lives

“The human race built most nobly when limitations were greatest, and therefore when most was required of the imagination to build at all. Limitations seem to have always been the best friends of architecture.” —Frank Lloyd Wright

Are you seeking to make 2025 the year you reclaim your health on every level?

Join my Women, Food & Forgiveness Academy in January and learn the spiritual and practical tools you need to transform your body into an ally for healing.

“Shock has value,” says wise woman Josephine Spilka upon contemplating the outer and inner wreckage that mighty Hurricane Helene visited upon her life.

After what she thought was a night of heavy rain, Josephine awoke in the early morning of September 27 to what sounded a freight train ripping through her house.

When the stately rooted trees on her property began twirling like parasols through the sky and crashed down into a 10-foot-high barricade of tangled wood blocking her driveway, all she could do was sit on her sofa and cry trembling tears.

No power. No cell phone service. No way to know what was going on elsewhere.

Drawing on her decades of accumulated wisdom as a Classical Chinese Medicine practitioner, Buddhist devotee, and I Ching student, Josephine summoned her presence amidst the chaos and has emerged—is continuing to emerge—with, in her words, “trust in the natural order of Heaven and Earth.”

Listen to Josephine express the privilege she feels by having experienced Helene firsthand and the opportunity it presents her to transmute crisis into blessing.

Is there another natural disaster survivor you know who would draw strength from Josephine’s wisdom? If so, please share!

Here’s a time-stamped summary of what we covered:

* 0:00 Introduction: “Things will never be the same”

* 9:52 We had no idea what was going on anywhere else

* 10:50 The strange exhilaration of a living world heightened by disaster

* 14:20 Natural elements don’t behave the way we expect them to

* 16:09 You can’t pretend anything is ok

* 17:30 “I Ching Hexagram 51: The Arousing”

* 18:50 Thousands of dollars of wasted food

* 22:19 Disaster has no opinion

* 23:24 “What do I really need?”

* 28:02 Kwan Yin’s blessing

* 33:10 Astrological coincidence and the massive hand of fate

* 36:10 Back to WNC: the impact on Josephine and the future of Asheville

* 42:44 Trust in the natural order of Heaven and Earth

* 47:58 We each need to become sovereign

* 49:57 Nature eats chaos for breakfast

To follow Josephine’s insights on her continued journey, subscribe to her Monday Morning Notes here on Substack.

”The shock that comes from the manifestation of God within the depths of the earth makes man afraid, but this fear of God is good, for joy and merriment can follow upon it.” —I Ching Hexigram 51, The Arousing (Shock, Thunder)

Election tension is running high and is likely to run higher in the coming days.

I can’t say this to you strongly enough:

Stop squandering your precious life force on people, places, and circumstances you cannot control.

Remember: worry is praying for what you don’t want.

Instead, turn off the shrieking media … find a quiet spot … put in your earbuds … and let this centuries-old Buddhist meditation on compassion bring you the peace you need to face whatever election outcomes unfold with skillful equanimity.

Is there someone you know who is suffering from election anxiety who could benefit from listening to this meditation? If so, please share.

If you’re biting your nails and grinding your teeth with election anxiety, step with me out of the madness and into a parallel universe where love comes alive in the specter of death.

I initially intended to interview midlife renewal coach Anasuya Basil about the caregiving journey she’d undertaken to support Gary, her ex-partner, through his ordeal with stage 4 cancer.

I was curious to hear how Anasuya, a multi-talented wise-woman healer, was taking care of herself while tending to Gary’s overwhelming needs.

When Anasuya and Gary’s story took a unanticipated twist, I reached out to her immediately.

What started as an odyssey of caregiving became a profound affirmation of passionate love in the face of impending loss.

In Anasuya’s words, “It's a good way to live.”

This is a story you must hear.

Or watch, if you prefer video:

Does someone in your life need to hear Anasuya and Gary’s story? If so, please share.

Here’s a time-stamped summary of what we covered:

* 0:00 Anasuya’s wedding story

* 4:53 We set our intention, and the Universe stepped in

* 7:00 Married in the crossroads of love and death

* 10:30 The moment it shifted into love

* 14:45 The proposal

* 17:39 The wedding

* 19:06 The impact of love on Gary’s health

* 21:41 Anasuya’s instinct to help Gary

* 22:56 Healing versus curing

* 26:52 The caregiver’s high

* 32:27 When the inner well runs dry for midlife women

* 34:40 Marcella’s discovery about working with others as a practitioner

* 36:23 Anasuya’s natural talent for caregiving

* 40:18 Midlife crisis and opportunity

* 43:26 Clearing regrets

* 46:10 Where midlife ends and elderhood begins: Anasuya’s closing reflections

If you’d like to support Anasuya and Gary's journey, they welcome your prayers and financial support.

You can find Gary's GoFundMe page here. Read more about Gary's story and donate if the spirit moves you. 

Aging is inevitable. How you age is up to you.

Take my brand-new online course, “Becoming Ageless As We Age,” where you'll learn EFT Tapping and other somatic tools to release regrets, revitalize your dreams, and journey to the eternal fountain of youth in the center of your heart.

The course centers around talks I gave during an in-person retreat in August 2024. Pull up a chair and join the circle as we women-of-a-certain-age explore the raw and rugged issues that face us as we get older: loving our older bodies, getting back into sex, and rewriting the scripts of our past to go for the life of our dreams.

Last month I had the privilege of talking with Erin Reese, host of Truth and Consciousness—one of my favorite podcasts here on Substack—about how planetary movements can give us insight and courage when our personal and collective lives feel overwhelming.

Erin describes her work as “straddling the worlds using astrology as a portal for guidance and expression in day-to-day living alongside my truest love of the Advaita [nondual] wisdom teachings.”

Erin also read my astrological natal chart (what she calls my “baby picture”) and forecasted events in my near future based on my astro-progressions and transits. (Chart screenshots are below.)

You’ll find Erin’s wisdom reassuring whether you’re an astrology pro, a rank novice, or even a nay-sayer. And don’t we all need more reassuring wisdom these days?

Here’s what we covered when:

* 0:00 Introduction

* 1:20 Using astrology as a portal for functioning in the duality of daily living

* 8:39 How Erin uses channelling to create her podcasts

* 10:45 Astrology, the Trump assassination attempt, and Biden’s withdrawal from the campaign

* 14:08 How powering down technology changes the world

* 16:00 How astrology helps us feel less crazy

* 19:06 Erin reads Marcella’s astrological “baby picture”

* 27:21 Marcella’s ambition for God

* 30:50 Erin reads Marcella’s progressed chart

* 34:31 Why Marcella is astrologically configured to teach forgiveness

* 37:10 When Marcella’s spiritual journey took off

* 40:47 Marcella and Erin’s composite chart

* 43:54 What is “archetypal astrology”?

* 48:11 How archetypes help us make sense of current events

* 49:30 One of the most popular archetypes in Marcella’s Women, Food & Forgiveness Academy

* 51:56 Why women need to connect to the Inner Father archetype

* 53:52 “Walk toward the Hag”

55:49 Where to find out more about Erin

If you’d rather watch than listen, here’s the video of our conversation:

For those of you who like to geek out on the stars, here are the charts that Erin read in our conversation:

* Marcella’s natal chart with planetary transits:

* Marcella’s natal chart with planetary progressions:

* Marcella and Erin’s composite charts:

All acts of healing are acts of heroism, and reclaiming your soul from restrictive dieting is no exception.

If you're ready to embark on a Heroine's Journey to heal the emotional roots of your food behaviors, sign up now to join the waitlist for my new Women, Food & Forgiveness Academy online course and be the first to enroll when the course opens in January 2025.