podcast

Episode 197: Stories of Those Things We Don't Talk About

How do we respond and connect with others when discussing difficult topics such as miscarriages?

Join Sarah Elkins and coach, writer, and speaker, Sandra Winterbach, as they delve into a human response to infertility and the related reactions and interactions with the people in our lives.

Sandra shares her experience with learning about who she is and the importance of self-reflection for her health, and the way self-reflection contributes to gratification in her life.

Episode 196: Get Out There! Dance! Be Silly! Don't Face Regret

I remember being shy, I remember being more self conscious than I am now. I like to say I don’t regret, but there are definitely some moments in my past that I wish I could do over again. A lot of them involve sitting out a great song because I was self conscious about dancing. Opportunities flew right past me: To sing with great musicians, to dance, to swim in the ocean. The memories of that person, the girl who didn’t raise her hand to volunteer on stage, the girl who said no to a cute boy because she didn’t think she could dance, the one who was so concerned about how she looked or that she might mess up a note, those memories came back to me as I watched the woman in the audience look away from me. What a waste.

Episode 195: The Shame Doctor's Gift

John Dunia didn’t become the Shame Doctor overnight. His journey from a junior high kid discovering his love for music to releasing his first book took years, and the struggle of his 22-year-old marriage falling apart was a catalyst in his personal growth and professional career shift.

He found writing his novel was a time to self-reflect and contemplate the experiences that brought him to where he is today, and believed that sharing those experiences could guide others to find relief from self-doubt and anger.

194: There are Three Parts to Our Lives, and One is Undercover

She grew up in a solidly middle class household with little exposure to the underbelly of her community. As an undercover cop posing as a prostitute, Diane Halfman got a quick and unlikely education about that world.

She had to learn to trust her instincts and own her space, her power, and her current coaching clients get the benefit of her knowledge and experience doing just that.

Episode 193: Hillary Johns "It's an Honor and a Privilege to be a Lawyer"

"I consider our country as a whole" is how Hillary Johns explains her appreciation and love for the variety of experiences our country offers. As a bi-coastal attorney, Hillary explores everything from entertainment law, civil litigation, business law, torts, employment law, to outdoors activities like hiking and camping, and even volunteers to work with animals.

Episode 192: Authenticity Doesn't Mean Rigid

It was his search for happiness that took him down the road of dramatic changes in his eating, his thoughts about exercise, and his idea to start a podcast.

Trey Kauffman was on a mission, and it didn't take long, or very many episodes, really, for him to realize that happiness was the wrong goal. He had to search for meaning first. And when he gradually adjusted his mindset, his epiphany occurred: He could be happy with exactly what he had in his life in that moment, partly because everything he had and everything he was doing had meaning.

Episode 191: After Happily Ever After, a Novel by Leslie Rasmussen That Hits Home

Leslie Rasmussen didn't intend to write a novel. Her idea was to interview people in their 40s, empty-nesting or nearly empty nesting, in long-term relationships or newly divorced, hearing their stories and finding commonalities in order to write a non-fiction book for people to find comfort in these transitions.

She found so many commonalities that she decided to combine the patterns she was hearing about to write the stories of one fictional family's experience.

This story resonates because it feels so familiar. Every character is familiar, from the teenaged daughter to the high achieving best friend. The primary protagonist is me. She's you. She's your husband or your wife. Though her actions and how she chooses to move through her current situation won't exactly match what you might do, the feelings and circumstances absolutely will.