Nurturing Habit

Sheltering in place during this pandemic is especially hard for mothers who are introverts, especially when your kids are very small. You just.want.to.be.alone, but that space and quiet is really hard to come by. In this Summer Break re-run episode, I share a bit of my own story, finding my way as an introvert and a stay-at-home mother. I also offer suggestions for how introvert moms can better care for themselves and be more calm, recharged and focused by practicing self-care that gets right at the need for quiet and alone time (even if your family never leaves you alone). In this episode: Links for this episode: Complete show notes for Episode Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

This summer break-re-release is an episode where I break down the philosophy behind the KonMari method, and how to apply it to more than just your house. After you listen, I want you to review what is - or was - in your life pre-Covid, and what you WANT in your life now. There is so much we want but still can’t have. But what are you actually relieved to no longer be doing? When you get to start doing all the things again, which are the ones you really want, and which do you just think you should go back to? What do you want to keep from this period of being forced into being slow and small? There might be a lot. What you’ll hear in this episode: Links for this episode: Complete show notes for Episode Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

Being turned on means to be ready. Not, in this case, for sexy stuff, but to be ready to invite life in. Do you feel open to that invitation? Or are you instead worn out, exhausted, and touched out? Motherhood - life - doesn’t have to feel this way. But if you are waiting for someone to swoop in and fix it, you might be waiting a long time. This week’s episode (#64) is about how you can reconnect with yourself, reconnect with the world, start to feel alive and vital again. It is about how you can light yourself bak up again. In this episode, I explore what it means to turn yourself back on - to life, to connection, to fun, and yeah, maybe for sexy stuff, too. What you’ll hear in this episode Links for this episode Complete show notes for Episode Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

In this summer break re-release, I get personal about how I tended to myself in a particularly hard season; what worked for me, where I set boundaries, what I did to nourish myself. I hope you will hear some ideas here that you can implement in your own life. Ideas that make you think, "Huh, I hadn’t thought of that as self-care!” But it is. It totally is. And the effects will last a lot longer than a bubble bath, too. What you’ll find in this episode: Links for this episode: Complete show notes for Episode Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process

How do you talk to your kids about the hard stuff? Illness, death, violence? Racism? If you feel completely unprepared for these conversations, this episode should help. While there is no one script to cover all the different conversations, there are some general guidelines that will help you feel more confident and brave, no matter what the topic. In this episode I share a rough framework that will help you prepare for and have a conversation with your child - at any age - about those more tricky or emotional topics. What you’ll hear in this episode: Links for this show Complete show notes for Episode Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

Do you feel like a good parent every day? Or do you snap and get frustrated, say things you regret, and wish you had different kids?: My guest for this episode, Casey O’Roarty, has been training and coaching parents since 2007, and credits her commitment to her own personal work to helping her get through some pretty intense stuff - not even including the current world crisis. Her work encourages parents to discover the purpose of their journey, while also providing them with tools and a shift of mindset that allows them to deepen their relationships with themselves and their families. Links for this episode Complete show notes for Episode Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

Uma Girish believes that this pandemic is here to teach us something important. Uma is an author, speaker and life purpose coach, and she believes that you are here, at this moment in time, on purpose. What can you learn from this experience? How can you support and usher your kids through it so that it has greater meaning than just being paused? What you’ll hear in this episode Links for this episode: Complete show notes for Episode Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

“I need help following through on doing things that are good for me,” is what she said to me, but what she really needed was: In this live coaching episode, I help Dacy dig in to what was REALLY going on, what she really WANTED - and it was not at all what she thought she was after. It was so much more far-reaching! What you’ll hear in this episode Links for this episode Complete show notes for Episode Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

Last month, life shifted for everyone. I expect you are feeling the deep impact of that right now. I’m personally writing this five weeks into sheltering at home, a month into school closures and my partner working at home, and no end in sight. Every woman I’ve come in contact with is feeling the strain of this massive shift in our time, income, and the ways we emotionally support ourselves and our families. Carey Osenbau’s life is no different. She’s the mom of 3 kids and owner of a boutique branding business. Normally, her husband travels extensively for work and she balances the needs of her young daughter and teenage sons, while also supporting her business. But right now, she’s homeschooling, sharing her tiny office with her husband, who is not traveling at all but working full time remotely. And still running her business, because her clients still need branding! Carey also has a chronic illness that flares with stress, so she has to be super intentional about managing her mental health. In this episode, Carey shares how the systems she used to run her business and balance her work and life in the before times allowed her to shift into this new experience. If you are struggling to find your way in this new world, I hope you will pick up some ideas from Carey’s experience so that you can focus, balance, and find a bit more grace in this pandemic life. What you’ll hear in this episode Links for this episode Complete show notes for Episode Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

Today’s guest is a song doula. You’ve probably never heard of that. I hadn’t either! Chelsea is a singer and songwriter who works with women to begin to write their own songs, But that process, as she will describe in this interview, is so much more than learning how to place the chorus and the verses or how to set a story to music, it is about learning how to dig into what’s really true, what’s real, and as she says in this interview, sometimes that truth can be really not pretty, and has to be reckoned with. And that’s the place where her work and mine intersect, and why I wanted to bring her perspective to this show. What you’ll hear in this episode links for this show: Complete show notes for Episode Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

We are in a period of time like none any of us have experienced before. It feels overwhelming, scary, and stressful. There are so many decisions we are trying to make every day, in an environment where we have never made decisions like these before. So how the heck we figure out what we should do when we are uncertain? When everyone has an opinion and they don’t necessarily make sense, or they might even contradict each other. What should you do when you are afraid, or when everyone around you is afraid? What should you do when even our leaders don’t make sense? What should you do when you find yourself in a situation where you have no experience to guide you? What you’ll hear in this episode Links for this episode: Complete show notes for Episode Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you most. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

Would you stand in front of a bus for your kids? Are you making decisions that are the equivalent of many tiny steps in front of a bus, over many years? The outcome is still the same - and it isn’t good for you or your kids. Sometimes we do things that are great for our kids, but are actually a detriment to ourselves. And then we feel really stuck in this decision. In this episode, I coach a divorced mom who has moved and changed jobs to live closer to her co-parent, which is great for her son, but is making her miserable. She feels stuck and unhappy and so tired. In this conversation, we dug into where the positives are in her life, how to reconnect with the kinds of things that light her up, and how to hold this current situation a little more lightly, so she can have more joy in her day to day life in spite of the uncertainty of what her future will bring. What you’ll hear in this episode Links for this episode Complete show notes for Episode 55 Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

What you'll hear in this episode Links for this show: Complete show notes for Episode 54 Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

Do you know what you need most in each season? Does winter feel different to you than other seasons? Winter is so much harder for me than any other time of year, which requires some major commitment to my self-care. Which, as I confess in this episode, I've not been doing. What you’ll hear in this episode how I have to care for myself differently in the winter Links for this show: Complete show notes for Episode 53 Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

Guest Melissa Camara Wilkins, award-winning blogger, speaker, author of Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of The Rest, talks with me about the ways we can give ourselves more permission to be our whole selves, and what that can do to expand our way of living. What you’ll hear in this episode Why the discomfort of showing up as your imperfect self is worth it What to do if you reach decision overwhelm in IKEA The kinds of permissions I’d like to give myself and my clients, after reading Melissa’s book Several questions you can ask yourself when you’re stuck Links for this show: Complete show notes for Episode 52 Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

Sometimes what you need to pull yourself out of a funk is cozy slippers, hot tea, and deep conversation. Other times, what you need is permission to slam your body into another strong woman while roller skating. When Erika Tebbens found herself drowning in motherhood after moving across the country to a new community, the way she found herself again was through the surprisingly fierce community of roller derby. Erika is host of the Sell It Sister Podcast, and a coach for female-identifying people who want to make more money in their businesses without either complex systems or sleazy sales tactics and in this episode she shares her story of how she fought her way back to herself through a method that surprised even her. What you’ll hear in this episode How Erika found herself again after being swallowed by motherhood. Why roller derby is a great sport for finding your strength and determination. How being in a community with people with all different kinds of bodies can really shift your relationship with your own body. How to sell your work without feeling sleazy. Links for this show: Complete show notes for Episode 51 Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

It is so easy to make friends when you are 4, or 8. Right? “Hey, do you want to play with me? Yet it feels so hard when you are 33, or 48. “Um, hi, I think you might be cool and I’d kind of like to know you.” AWKWARD. This episode is all about making it feel a little easier to make those first connections with new people. Because what I’ve discovered is that we can actually learn a lot about how to make friends from how our kids do it. Our adult brains just want to over-complicate the whole thing. So check out Episode 50 now for some ways to un-complicate making friends as a grown up, and get more confident about saying hello to that cool-looking chick at the park. And then have the courage to try again if that connection doesn’t work out. What you’ll hear in this episode: Links for this show: Complete show notes for Episode 50Sign up to get notified about the upcoming self-care class.Connect with Doña on InstagramGet the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcastWork with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

Does your home feel chaotic, overwhelming, and like there’s constantly too many small things to keep track of, so you aren’t making any progress on any big goals or dreams? Yvonne Marcus teaches Agile project management methods to moms, so they can more efficiently run their homes. In this episode, she tells us all about what that means, the basics of how to do it, and the kind of results that her clients are seeing - like drinking coffee hot every morning, saving money, and watching their kids help solve their own behavior struggles. I mean, wow. And what I love about this is that it takes the weight of household management off the shoulders of the mom, where it usually sits. It increases communication and engages the other family members, even young kids, in taking ownership of personal and household responsibilities. And doesn’t that sound amazing? What you’ll hear in this episode Links for this show: Complete show notes for Episode 49 Sign up to get notified about the upcoming self-care class. Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

How do you feel about weekends? At various points in my parenting journey, I have dreaded them, looked forward to them, and felt entirely undone by them. A friend of mine admitted recently that she’s been watching the clock on Sunday afternoon, counting down until bedtime, because in the morning she can send her kids back to school. And she feels kind of terrible about that. Another friend has been feeling bad about not focusing enough on her kids on the weekend. Here’s the truth: We’re all experiencing different things on the weekend, but a lot of us are feeling bad about our experience. So in my mission to create more happy moms, I have some tips to make your weekends happier, no matter what kid season you are in. Let’s banish that Monday guilt, OK? In this episode: Links for this show: Complete show notes for Episode 48Sign up to get notified about the upcoming self-care class.Connect with Doña on InstagramGet the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcastWork with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.

How often have you wished you could just do something without being afraid? I know in my own life, fear is often the root of why I hold myself back, why I do not take that action or say the things I want to say. Enter Kate Swoboda, who has literally written the book on this topic. Kate is author of The Courage Habit,creator of YourCourageousLife.com and Director of the Courageous Living Coach Certification, where I received my coaching training. Kate firmly believes that the absence of fear is not the goal. The goal is to live comfortably with fear, and know how to work with it, and take the action you want to take anyway. It is because of Kate’s training and wisdom on this topic that I have braved so many of the very hard circumstances that have appeared in my life in the last few years with some amount of grace. To learn how you can be more courageous and navigate the hard stuff in your life with much more ease, check out this week’s bonus episode with Kate Swoboda now. In this episode: Links for this show Complete show notes for Episode 47 Connect with Doña on Instagram Get the Get Back In Control Of Your Life workbook and get regular updates about the podcast Work with Doña - email me a note with what is currently frustrating you and how you'd like your life to feel. I'll reply with the next step in the process.