Rebranding Middle Age
The Rebranding Middle Age Podcast offers a mix of story, evidence-based education, and practical application to help midlife women quiet the conditioning and noise and befriend their True Selves so they (re)claim freedom, wholeness, and joy in a noisy and messy world. Hosted by Krista O'Reilly-Davi-Digui - mind-body coach, founder of the Brave + Beautiful Community, and joyful living educator for growth-minded midlife women committed to valuing and trusting themselves and handcrafting meaningful, soul-honouring lives.
Holiday Stress Relief: Set An Intention to Feel More Empowered Over the Holidays
If you've ever felt overwhelmed, resentful, or disconnected during the holidays, this episode is for you.
In this conversation, I share practical strategies for being on your own side throughout the holiday seasonâwithout abandoning your needs or losing yourself in the chaos. You'll learn why I recommend setting a clear intention that helps you honour your boundaries and stay empowered rather than falling into old patterns of people-pleasing or self-neglect.
In this episode, you'll explore:
How setting a clear intention for the holidays helps you quiet the noise, focus on what truly matters, an...How to Be on Your Own Side (And Why It Changes Everything for Women in Midlife)
In this episode, I explore what it means to truly be on your own side and why this shifts everything else in life. The truth is, if you can't accept yourself today, you won't magically do so tomorrow. The goal line just keeps moving.
By the end of this episode, you'll understand:
Why everything in life feels lighter and easier when you're on your own side.How being on your own side builds self-trust and helps your inner critic finally relax.Real examples of what becomes possible when you're on your own side: setting boundaries, advocating...Make Peace With Messiness
Things break, people get sick, plans are disrupted, life is messy.
When we make peace with messiness, we make space for joy.
When we hit a bumpy patch or we feel discomfort because life is not going according to our thoughtful plans, and we believe that surely we must have done something wrong, or worse that WE ARE bad, wrong, or broken we are 1) resisting the reality of life and 2) causing our own suffering. Not everything is on your shoulders.
What you CAN do is 1) build examination into your day, week, and year...
Who Are You BEING Today? Who Are You Becoming?
Today I'm sharing a recording I made for a lesson inside my Life Visioning Course. It speaks to the importance of recognizing and taking responsibility for who you are BEING - your current identity.
Often, we want to change the circumstances of life but we don't realize that the only way to do so in a sustainable and soul-honouring way, and in order to truly craft lives in which we feel at home, on purpose, and joyful... we must be or become the person who can and is open/willing to create and receive what we truly...
Why I Talk Out Loud to Myself Often (And Think You Should Too)
If you talk to yourself (out loud or in your head) and wonder if it's weird, this episode is for you.
In this episode, I break down the science of self-talk and share practical ways to use it to reduce stress, improve performance, and strengthen your relationship with yourself. You'll discover why the WAY you talk to yourself matters more than you might think.
By the end of this episode, you'll understand:
Why talking to yourself out loud is actually healthy and research-backed (not weird!).The surprising difference between first-person, second-person, and third-person self-talkâan...Why "Working on Yourself" Isn't Working (And What to Do Instead)
If you've ever heard someone (me!) talk about "befriending yourself" and thought, "That's nice, but I actually need to change" this episode is for you.
In this episode, I examine 5 common objections I hear from growth-minded women who are skeptical about self-compassion and befriending themselves. The resistance comes because you've been taught that being hard on yourself is the only path to growth.
By the end of this episode, you'll understand:
Why self-criticism keeps your nervous system in threat mode and how that actually prevents the change you're working so hard for.Why the...Your Thoughts Are Powerful. Only Water Hopeful Thoughts!
This is a super short episode today in honour of my son Jairus who died this day 6 years ago. And in honour of myself and my choice to keep living fully and thriving forward beyond grief and trauma.
The thoughts you think regularly or allow to run unchecked are not neutral. They have the power to harm or help you. It's critical that you notice your thoughts, learn to interrupt unhealthy thought patterns, and intentionally plant and water affirming and life-giving thoughts.
Even 30 seconds or three minutes a day will help intentional thoughts put down...
Are You Highly Sensitive? Honour Your Wiring and Start Flourishing
In this episode, Krista explores high sensitivity and how to recognize and honor your wiring as a highly sensitive person (HSP) in the middle season of life.
Key Topics:
Why HSPs often feel like life requires more effort than it seems to for others.
Common experiences of highly sensitive people that are rarely discussed openly.
The difference between feeling "wrong" and understanding your unique wiring.
How sensory sensitivities, environmental awareness, and emotional boundaries affect daily life.
Key Takeaways:
If you're highly sensitive, doing life can feel...Autumn Themes: Grief, Letting Go, and Coming Home to Yourself
In this episode, I explore the themes and invitations of autumn, focusing on self-care for women in midlife season of life.
In this episode, you'll discover:
If you're a highly sensitive person, you may notice that grief and melancholy arise in autumnâeven when you haven't experienced an obvious loss. Here's why this happens and what it meansHow you can listen to your difficult emotions as wise messengers rather than problems you need to fix or push awayWhy autumn invites you to strip away, let go, and engage in truth-telling about what no longer serves youThe re...Reclaim Your Agency: From Powerless to Purposeful
Agency is your power of choice - your capacity to intentionally influence your life and circumstances. It means you're the author of your life, exercising control over your choices while recognizing you can't control every circumstance or other people's behavior.
Three Key Aspects of Reclaiming Agency:
Build Skills and Expand Capacity - Stay open to ongoing learning, discovery, and education. Surround yourself with people doing brave inner work. Acquire new ideas and practices that help you grow beyond your current bubble. Build nervous system regulation skills and healthy patterns.Live on Purpose - Develop strong self-knowledge...Stop Waiting for Perfect: How Imperfect Action Creates the Life You Actually Want
Building the muscle and practice of imperfect action is essential if you want to craft an intentional, soul-honoring life. This practice helps us show up through fear and feel discomfort but show up fully to life anyway.
Three Key Principles of Imperfect Action:
Small Steps Create Big Change - One tiny seed planted and watered consistently can bear beautiful fruit over time. Lower the bar and celebrate small wins. Practice "more than zero" when life gets messy. Plan for life's messiness by creating simple, portable versions of your goals.We Find Our Way in Action, Not...The Three Pillars of Self-Compassion: Mindfulness, Self-Kindness, and Common Humanity
Self-awareness without self-compassion can lead to shame and despair. Self-compassion is one of the most impactful practices you can develop - it will permeate every corner of your life and create lasting positive change.
The Three Components of Self-Compassion:
Mindfulness - Not everything needs to be fixed; most things just need to be witnessed. You can hold multiple emotions at once (grief AND joy). Learn to acknowledge difficult feelings without letting them hijack your entire day.Self-Kindness - Shame, judgment, and bullying yourself will never lead to positive change. Only when compassion and curiosity are present...Self-Awareness as the Birthplace of Change: Building a Friendship with Your True Self
Self-awareness is the "birthplace of change" - you can't change what you can't identify or name. Think of it as a lantern illuminating the next few steps, not the entire path. It works hand-in-hand with mindfulness and self-compassion.
Three Ways Self-Awareness Serves You:
Building a friendship with yourself - Getting to know your personality, identity, and authentic self beyond conditioningAwakening to current patterns - Recognizing unconscious behaviors, triggers, and capacity limitsIdentifying and pursuing true desires - Moving past surface wants to discover what you genuinely needSelf-awareness isn't about fixing yourself - it's about...
Self-Awareness + Self-Compassion + Imperfect Action = Reclaim Your Agency
In this episode I share about the 3 layers of my Hope Map Graphic/my work:
1. Outer, seasonal living layer
2. Yellow macro view of core concepts. To go one layer deeper, take the Hope Map Assessment: https://www.alifeinprogress.ca/take-the-hope-map-assessment/
3. Inner Cycle of Self-Awareness + Self-Compassion + Imperfect Action = Reclaim Your Agency
Then (at 17:20) I walk you through the inner cycle and explain how to begin applying it to your life starting today.
The next four episodes will take you deeper into the "Inner Cycle." You'll learn more about HOW to...
What If You Were So Filled Up You Overflowed?
My hope for you is that you would love yourself so deeply... that you would be so filled up that you would overflow into the world around you.
In this final episode of year two, I'm getting vulnerable about my own journey with receiving. From childhood patterns of never asking for anything to recent struggles with buying myself cute hand towels without guilt, I share the messy reality of learning to receive goodness.
During my recent summer visioning time, I heard this piece of intuitive wisdom: "Krista, you can't lead where you're not willing to...
Letting Go and Moving Forward: Insights on Parenting and Personal Growth with Guest Whitney Fleming
Today's guest, Whitney Fleming, is a writer, social media consultant, mother and advocate. She owns the blog Parenting Teens and Tweens and is the voice behind the popular social media account @WhitneyFlemingWrites.
Writer and social media consultant Whitney Fleming opens up about launching three daughters into the world, navigating perimenopause, and finding herself again after feeling like "a shadow of herself" for years.
We talk about...
The emotional "push and pull" of watching kids become independentReframing "empty nest" as kids "sitting on the branch"The importance of finding healthcare providers who actually listenWhy women...How Will You Know That You Have Lived Well?
Where we focus we aim. And where we aim, we will arrive/experience. This is where our energy, attention, and important resources go. Where is 80% of your focus directed? And is this taking you in a direction that you truly want for your life?
I'm resharing this episode because the question "how will I know that I have lived well" is one of the key questions I ask myself (in the WHY section) of my Life Visioning Process.
Join me for my Life Visioning Course: The Life Visioning Course: Handcraft A Soul-Honouring Life | A Life...
The Courage to Shift Your Identity: Bridging the Gap of Change
Happy solstice - and happy summer! To start us off I offer a couple simple ways to check-in at the start of the season to ensure that you truly enjoy the months ahead.
Then, I talk about self-identity and how, if we are growth-minded and say yes to the fullness of life, our identify can and will shift as we move through different seasons of life.
I invite you to think about your vision/dream/longing and to recognize that there are many pathways toward your dream. You don't have to follow the status quo...
Motherhood, Shifting Identities, and Menstrual Cycle Tracking With Guest Sophie Jane Hardy
In this episode I talk with Sophie Jane Hardy, writer, podcast host and business coach inspired by nature's seasons and cycles.
Sophie shares a bit about her journey to becoming a mum after years of fertility treatments and postpartum emotional turbulence. She talks about a shift in identity in her early 40s, her personal decolonisation process, and the profound wisdom she has gained from cyclical living.
Our discussion emphasizes the significance of honest storytelling and the importance of creating safe spaces for women to share their truths. Furthermore, we explore how these narratives can foster c...
Small Life. Expansive Self.
You get to define "small" and you get to choose the size and quality of your life. The point is to craft a way of being that allows you feel safe, at home, and joyful in your body and life.
I talk about why we need to do the inner and outer work at the same time. The inner work might include things like getting to know your True self, learning a practice of self-compassion, building skills to support naming and honouring your boundaries, and so on.
The outer work is what I offer in...
Embracing Messiness and Change: The Pathway to Personal Freedom
All morning I'd been pondering what I wanted to talk about on the podcast this week and what came up was the truth that we must allow ourselves to change, evolve, and continue growing if we are to meet and befriend our True Selves and if we want to walk in freedom, wholeness, and joy.
While this may sound simple and obvious, it's brave and hard work. Risky work. In order to grow forward, we must be willing to let go of old versions of Self, old identities, old stories, old patterns that no longer serve us. <...
Self-Kindness Strengthens Us and Waters Others
Be kind to yourself today. You do not have to be prettier, smarter, or less emotional, stronger, take up less space, or be less of a hot-mess than you currently are to deserve love. To deserve life. Or be treated with kindness. Or to treat yourself with kindness.
The post from 2016: You Deserve Love, Life, and Kindness Exactly As You Are | A Life In Progress
Connect with Krista on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/alifeinprogressca and https://www.facebook.com/rebrandingmiddleage/
Connect with Krista on IG: https://www.instagram.com/a_life_i...
Life is Messy and Imperfect: 12 Ideas to Help You Show Up Anyway
*I talk a tiny bit about grief in this episode, nothing deep. But head's up in case you're not in a place to hear any mention of this.
You're imperfect. Life is messy. Show up anyway.
In this episode I share 12 ideas or quotes that will help you practice hope-in-action or imperfect action and show up fully to life - even though it's messy and imperfect.
Takeaways:
Embracing our imperfections allows us to fully participate in the messiness of life, which is essential for personal growth and connection. Life inevitably presents us...Navigating Perimenopause and Trusting the Wisdom of Our Bodies With Guest Asha Frost
My guest today is Asha Frost. Asha is an Indigenous Medicine Woman, and the international best-selling author of You are the Medicine, The Sacred Medicine Oracle, and The Animal Elders Oracle Deck. *I've included my referral links
Though I ended up editing this out (for time) I shared with Asha how much I've used and benefitted from her Sacred Medicine Cards - I use them at every new and full moon as a tool as I listen inward for wisdom and direction.
Connect with Asha: https://ashafrost.com/
We talk about seasons of...
Happy Spring! 5 Growth Ideas to Explore as You Step (Gently) Into Spring
I love a fresh start! In early spring it is wise to focus first on freedom and recalibration and then, later, expansion and growth. We need to build healthy soil, a stable foundation, or put down healthy roots first because this is what prepares us for growth and expansion.
In this episode I offer 5 ideas that you can explore this spring - I'm practicing with you.
RESOURCES
Join the Brave + Beautiful Community for midlife women this spring: Join the Brave + Beautiful Community For Midlife Women | A Life In Progress
Connect with...
Why Pelvic Floor Health is Essential for a Full, Amazing Life With Guest Kim Vopni
My guest today, Kim Vopni - aka the Vagina Coach â is a Pelvic Floor Fitness & Women's Health Coach. She is the creator of the Buff Muff Method and Membership in which she provides education and exercise, lifestyle support and group coaching, to help women prevent & heal incontinence & prolapse.
*My "likes" and "ums" were in full force in this episode - I needed to slow my thinking and speech. Hopefully it won't distract you from the wealth of information in this episode.
This episode talks about why attending to our pelvic floor health is important to ou...
What Is True Rest and How Do I Practice It?
I'm sharing a short presentation I offered recently as part of an online event called The Joy Reset. In the conversation I talk about True Rest in the midlife.
Get the free True Rest resource that I refer to: True Rest Through The Seasons: Free Resource | A Life In Progress
I have coaching spaces opening up. Learn more: Coaching for Midlife Women Seeking Freedom, Wholeness, and joy
Release Urgency and Remember: Not Every Good Thing is for THIS Season
We grow into the wisdom, bravery, and strength that we need for each new season. We don't need to worry forward, compare, or judge ourselves for not knowing all the answers for our whole life.
Not everything â not every core dream â is for today or this season. Not every task on the weekly to-do list must be checked off Monday morning (something I actually had to learn!). We are not in a race. Western culture gives us a sense of always being behind or in competition with each other.
There is incredible rest, peace, and joy...
Train Your Brain to See a New Possibility and Hold the Tension
I share a practice that is essential for befriending and growing into your True Self and walking in freedom, wholeness, and joy.
It also supports your resilience and helps you practice hope-in-action.
I'd love to hear what comes up for you. You can reach out at krista@alifeinprogress.ca.
Three Core Dreams For My Soul-Honouring Life | A Life In Progress
What Is Hope? And How To Practice Hope-In-Action | A Life In Progress
How To Handcraft A Soul-Honouring life Step-By-Step | A Life In Progress
Read to work together...
Tiny, Intentional Practices Keep Us Grounded With Guest Heidi Barr
My guest Heidi Barr is a writer and wellness coach whose work is founded on a commitment to cultivating ways of being that are life-giving and sustainable for people, communities, and the planet. She lives with her family on Dakota land in rural Minnesota. Her ninth book, a poetry collection called Church of Shadow and Light comes out in April, 2025. Connect with Heidi at https://heidibarr.com/ or Ordinary Collisions: Intersections of Nature & Culture | Heidi Barr | Substack.
None of us are immune to struggle or challenging seasons of life. 2024 was one of the hardest years ever for...
5 Habits That Will Help You Live Rooted + Resilient In Times of Instability or 'Messiness'
Turning toward or facing our wounds, fear, pain or struggle can lead us into healing and growth. But it can also reveal our deepest gifting, our light, some of the most beautiful and valuable aspects of our who we are.
In this episode I share with you 5 habits that helped me live rooted and resilient through crisis and personal challenge - but that also help me in the day-to-day of being human in a messy world.
Identify how you want to FEEL in your body and life: How Do You Want To FEEL In Your...
How to Show Up With Strength When Life is Messy or You Must Begin Again
The messiness of life is not only to be tolerated or managed. It is the pathway to greater freedom, wholeness, and joy. It is the pathway to growing into and learning to love your True Self and to thriving in every season.
In this episode I share 3 characteristics of wise and brave 'beginners' - or qualities that help us show up with strength when life is challenging.
I also offer the reminder that a healthy (flexible, adaptable, resilient) nervous system is forged through some stress, stretching, and even harder life experiences.
The Four...
Parenting kids with Extra Needs and Using Our Gifts in the Empty Nest Season
I said I enjoy long podcast episodes but this is a first, even for me;)
Today I chat with guest Amy J Brown. We talk, among other things, about parenting kids with "extra needs" (or invisible disabilities) and how common it is to feel shame and judgment (external and internal) when parenting is challenging. We also talk about honouring our boundaries and using our gifts in the "empty nest season." And we discuss perfectionism and being Enneagram Type Ones and how we learned quite different coping mechanisms as young kids.
I met Amy when she...
Soul-Care, Shame, and Self-Compassion in Winter Seasons
Why you need to practice soul-care in winter seasons: Why You Need To Practice Soul-Care In Winter Seasons | A Life In Progress
Winter Mindfulness Journal: https://amzn.to/3DcDlgj
Seasonal Transition Call: The Seasonal Transition Call: Step Into Winter A Life In Progress
Join winter session of the Brave + Beautiful Community: Join the Brave + Beautiful Community For Midlife Women | A Life In Progress
Join by Dec 20th and you'll get this workshop free: New Year Goal Setting Workshop | A Life In Progress
8 Ways I'm Honouring My Wiring and Capacity in This Season
No.8 in my list, of how I'm practicing honouring my wiring and capacity, may just save my marriage;) Let me know how YOU are practicing!
New Year Goal Setting Workshop (half price for 2 more days!): New Year Goal Setting Workshop | A Life In Progress
Shift out of all or nothing mindset: Just Choose All or Something | A Life In Progress
Seasonal Transition Call: Join The winter Solstice Call: Dec 11
Let Things be Simpler and Easier Wherever Possible
Bonus episode: I decided to share day 3 of the Quiet the Noise Challenge with you because It aligns with the topic of honouring our wiring and capacity.
Join me on January 3/25 to for a New-Year Goal Setting Workshop. Come set your values-aligned life and business goals and start mapping them out for the first quarter.
This workshop is free for all returning and new Brave + Beautiful Community members who join before December 20th.
Or you can buy the new year goal setting workshop for just $97 the week of Nov 25-29! đ
Why You Need to Honour Your Wiring and Capacity
Western culture promotes a linear, constantly productive, âmore and faster is betterâ way of being. it makes us live like weâre in a race: if you win, I lose. If youâre accomplishing good things then I must be behind.
This way of being not only leads to burnout, illness, increased risk of suicidality, emotional and spiritual dissatisfaction, and constant self-judgment. But it blames the individual for not measuring up and keeping up.
As such, it leaves many of us feeling never good enough or fundamentally bad, wrong, or broken if weâre unable to sustain...
Questioning, Wrestling, and Resisting is a Healthy Part of Grief Work and Letting Go
In this solo episode I talk about being a Questioner and 'wrestler.' One who must grapple with things in order to make peace with life or the circumstance in front of me, and find my way forward.
If I lived full time in grief or pain, or in the grappling process, this would hold me back from living fully and thriving forward. But resistance itself is not wrong or bad. Itâs part of the grief process. The letting go process. Coming to terms with things really and truly. Not just shoving down our feelings or pain...
Letting Go of The Life You Wanted and Embracing the Life You Have With Guests Mikala Albertson and Jennifer Arnspiger
Midlife is a great unraveling and re-envisioning/reconstructing. Itâs a time of hard and brave work and this work (if we are able to say yes to it) takes us deeper and deeper into freedom and joy (though this does not mean joy feels accessible in every moment). We are invited repeatedly to come face to face with reality, grapple with all our expectations and illusions about how life should be and how it will be if we follow the right rules and jump through all the right hoopsâŚ. when it turns out that life is not quite so c...
The Messiness of Middle Age With Guests Anno Bell and Chantal Gauthier-Vaillancourt
*Heads up: there's swearing in this episode.
In today's conversation, I'm joined by two guests: Anno Bell and Chantal Gauthier-Vaillancourt. We talk about the messiness of middle age and how our thinking has shifted or how we've grown and healed so far in midlife. And we chat about joyful aging (and Chantal bravely shares about her current experience).
Anno Bell is an exuberant lover of all things wild, and a sensitive soul that creates beautiful things out of scraps of glass, vintage trailers and old pieces of fence board. She is mama to four humans...
