I'm back with a quick hello and to introduce you to the project I've been working on since I signed off from season 1 of the podcast back in the fall. I'll tell you a little about the background of how I came to create the True You Summit and I also have the audio from a Facebook live that I did with my friend Heather Carney, the moderator and hostess with the mostess at the Holistically Green Village Facebook group where we talk about #momlife and introduce the topics of the True You Summit. Here are the links I mentioned in this podcast episode: True You Summit Registration The Modern Mom Society Facebook Group Holistically Green Village Facebook Group Join me and 15 experts in the True You Summit where the goal is to give you the tools and resources you need to live a life in alignment with what your body, mind, and soul desires; to help you uncover and achieve what you really want out of life, remove obstacles that keep you stuck in unfulfilling circumstances, and create time to pursue your passions and things that bring you joy above and beyond your role as a mother. We'll explore connecting to your True You as it relates to 5 different areas of your life: Parenting, Mom Life, Authenticity, Spirit, and Mind & Body. Hope to see you there!

In this episode, I discuss my reasons for closing out season one and share the blog post I wrote with you in mind: What I want for you, mama.

Thanks for listening to Season 1 of the Modern Mom Society Podcast! Please reach out to me via Facebook, Instagram, or on The Modern Mom Society website. I'd love to hear about what your favorite episodes from season 1 were, what you learned, what you're still struggling with... I'm here to help you on your journey!

In Rebecca Scritchfield's interview we discuss:

• Rebecca's story of body kindness for herself
• Her recommendations on how to ditch diets for good and feel good about the food choices you are making
• The difference between guilt and shame as it relates to your relationship with food and making healthy food choices
• Rebecca's concept of spiraling up rather than spiraling down
• Tuning into your body and determining what it really wants versus turning to diet philosophies and others as experts on what you should be eating
• The importance of having fun in your life and how it relates to body kindness
• How to fit more fun into your daily life
• Cultural messages about getting your body back post baby and being at peace with your body at all ages and stages of your mom life

For show notes and other episode details visit: themodernmomsociety.com/episode39/

In Sharon Somekh's interview we discuss:

• Things that we think make our kids happy but actually don't in the long run
• Giving your kids everything they want (even when you know it's not in their best interest) and how it sets them up for unrealistic expectations and difficulty handling disappointment
• How to coach your child through handling disappointment
• What to do with tantrums
• Being your child's parent versus being their friend
• Sharon's example of how she handled her sixth grader asking for a laptop as a parent and not a friend to her daughter
• Implementing the rules in a kind yet firm manner
• Younger children thriving on the idea that you there to guide them
• Remembering the reasons you make your parenting decisions as a way of helping you stick to those decisions
• Changing your mind when you make a parenting decision
• The importance of not changing your mind while your child is in the midst of a tantrum
• Building skills of indepence in our children as a key to happiness
• Celebrating the effort and progress of your child working toward a goal
• Letting go of some our fears as a parent and giving your children more responsibility and freedom

Sharon has a great free gift for the Modern Mom Society listeners! It's her guide, Top 5 Ways to Create A Healthy, Lifelong Relationship with Your Child. Get a link to that as well as the episode show notes at www.themodernmomsociety.com/episode38

In Jessa Zimmerman's interview we discuss:

• How Jessa came to be a sex therapist
• Sex therapy as grief and loss work
• Differences in sexual desire and how it can affect a relationship and what couples can do to work through that discrepancy
• How the difference in sexual desire should not be taken personally by the person who wants sex more often
• The importance of determining the reasons the lower desire partner has for not wanting sex, and how to address those issues
• The work that the higher desire partner has to do
• Two ways of having sexual desire: proactive and reactive
• Being open to sexual experiences that don't necessarily lead to sex
• Bringing the spark back to long term relationships
• Exploring our own eroticism as a way of bringing sexy back
• What working with a sex therapist looks like
• Who should consider going to sex therapy, and who shouldn't
• Jessa's online course and book

For show notes and a link to Jessa's free 'How Healthy is Your Sex Life?" Quiz visit www.themodernmomsociety.com/episode37

Jessa Zimmeman is a licensed sex therapist and couples' counselor. She specializes in helping couples who have a good relationship but who are avoiding sex because it's become stressful, negative, disappointing, or pressured. Jessa educates, coaches, and supports people as they go through her 9-phase experiential process that allows them real world practice in changing their relationship and their sex life. She does this work through in person therapy in her office in Seattle, online therapy for Washington residents, her Better Sex podcast, and soon to be published book, Sex Without Stress.

In Suzanne Tucker's interview we discuss:

• Suzanne's background in physical therapy and how she came to create Generation Mindful
• Empowerment Education and how to put yourself in the center as the parent
• Connecting before correcting
• How she was inspired to make mindfulness fun
• The Time In Toolkit and what's all included
• Positive discipline rests in relationship, not overpower and control
• Time In versus Time Out
• Spanking as a discipline method
• What you sacrifice when you use time outs
• Giving yourself grace when you make mistakes, and being a good example for your kids when you do so
• The beauty of being an imperfect parent
• The best time to use the Time In Toolkit (hint: it's not in the heat of the moment!)
• Step by step: how to handle your child when they are in meltdown mode
• The triune brain: green, yellow, red
• What NOT to do when your child is in their "red brain"/meltdown mode and what to do instead
• Why you might want to consider celebrating big displays of emotion
• Trusting yourself and your inherent knowledge and intuition instead of Google for parenting advice
• The development of the prefrontal cortex and when your children develop the tools to regulate themselves
• How using these tools help sibling relationships

For show notes and links to Suzanne's Time In Toolkit and Generation Mindful, visit: www.themodernmomsociety.com/episode36

I'm excited to now be a part of the Parents on Demand Network! Find the POD app in the Apple App Store and Google Play market to listen to all the best parenting podcasts in one place!

In Ali Parnell's interview we discuss:

• How Ali came to be a parenting coach
• What she did to move from being terrified of becoming a mom to loving being a mom
• The main reasons as to why we get so angry with our kids
• Identifying why you might get triggered and how to gain control of our emotions when our kids just don't listen
• A quick tip how to get back into your logical thinking brain when you are angry
• All about trying to get control as a parent and the difference between "fake control" and what you actually can control
• How shifting your perspective in challenging parenting moments can make a world of difference
• Getting behind our emotions and understanding why are we getting triggered as an important self development and parenting tool
• Why you should put yourself first and not at the bottom of the list of priorities, and why you should never feel selfish or guilty for doing so
• How to find time to "fill your cup"
• Ways to lessen your load as a busy mom

Ali Parnell is an Emotional Mastery Coach and CEO of Joyful Parenting. She helps heart-centered moms of toddlers to teens transform from being snappy, angry and lashing out at their kids to responding with love in the heat of the moment and being the centered and calm parent they want to be. She has been studying Psychology, Family Relationship and Personal Development for over 9 years and her mission is to help create healthier, happier families starting with mom.

For show notes and a link to Ali's free gift, 5 Steps to Reprogram Your Anger Buttons" guide, visit themodernmomsociety.com/episode35

In Naomi Damask's interview we discuss:

• Naomi's story of diagnosis and treatment
• Finding support for her journey with Gilda Club and interviewing friends and family who had breast cancer
• How she decided her course of treatment with all of the options available to her.
• Choosing to have a mastectomy
• How she supported herself on the emotional end of things
• Donating her hair to St. Baldrick's, and honoring her daughter's preschool friend who was diagnosed with cancer
• The power of using social media for good
• How her kids and husband managed through the process of her treatment
• Having her mom as her rock through treatment
• What the most helpful things friends did for her
• About The Licorice Project, a non-profit that she is involved in.
• Things that people would say that was helpful and not helpful
• Holistic treatments that she intertwined with her chemotherapy and other standard cancer treatments
• How much easier it is to find alternative treatments online now versus when she went through treatment
• What she would have done differently
• Her second surgery for the breast reconstruction
• How the cancer journey affected her children.
• Things she does and recommends to prevent cancer
• About biohacking and nutrigenomics
• Why being extremely strict with your diet might not be the best choice
• Self exams & self care as important ways to keep cancer at bay
• Thermography as an alternative to mammograms

Links

• Silver Pen Blog
• Block Center - Integrative Cancer Treatment Center in Skokie, IL
• Lots of Helping Hands
• St. Baldrick's Foundation - raises money for pediatric cancer patients. Check out the blog post she wrote about the experience: Bald is Beautiful (Especially for St. Baldrick's)
• The Licorice Project - tips for what to do for a friend who is going through cancer treatment
• Radical Remission by Kelly Turner (affiliate link)

Find show notes and additional words of wisdom from Naomi at: themodernmomsociety.com/episode34/

In Sarah Argenal's interview we discuss:

• Sarah's story of going from "stressed out, working mom to feeling energetic, excited and productive" in her life
• What she did to be more intentional with her time, which led to being happier and more productive both at work and at home
• How much of the changes she made were actions versus changing her attitude
• The importance of figuring out what you really want out of life
• Making changes at work to better support a work/life balance - negotiating work from home days, defining emergencies, working with her team to get things done, setting boundaries
• What moms whose employers are not willing to be flexible or find alternative solutions should do
• Mompowerment book by Suzanne Brown (affiliate link) - how to create part time schedules or flexible arrangements at work and how to have those conversations with your boss or with your team and how to figure out what will work for you
• Ideas on how to let go of the mom guilt and not let it consume you
• What some of the benefits children of working moms enjoy
• The importance of focused, quality time with your kids and how to fit it in in your day
• A few additional time management tips for busy working moms
• What working with Sarah looks like, and how she helps working moms be happier with both their work and mom life
• Baby steps versus big leaps and what makes the most sense when working towards building a happier life

For show notes and additional words of wisdom from Sarah on motherhood, visit themodernmomsociety.com/episode33/

In Hema Raj Trukenbrod's interview we discuss:

• Her background as a sensory specialist
• How a parent would identify a sensory issue versus a personality quirk
• The point at which a sensory issue becomes a problem that needs to be addressed
• Ways sensory issues manifest in children
• What kinds of specialists are available to help with sensory issues, including therapists as well as Early Intervention
• Pediasource, the platform she developed for parents to have a place to start when they think their child may have an issue that they're not sure if or how to address.
• An example of a child she treated from diagnosis through treatment
• The importance of creating a team of specialists to help treat your child with sensory issues
• What occupational therapy looks like
• Why you might not want to get your fidgety kid a fidget spinner
• If children with sensory issues definitely need therapy or if it is a possibility that will they grow out of it

For show notes and additional words of wisdom on motherhood from Hema, visit http://themodernmomsociety.com/episode32