Love From the Inside Out: Honest Conversations for Women About Midlife, Menopause, Body Changes and Becoming Yourself Again

Can you actually learn how to be happier and raise the level of happiness you naturally return to?

Happiness strategist Monique Rhodes believes you can. After more than 30 years studying happiness, meditation and the mind, she teaches that happiness is not something we have to wait for or find outside ourselves. It is a skill we can practice.

In this conversation, we talk about self-abandonment, why we run from discomfort, the stories our minds create when we are stressed or uncertain, and what Monique calls our happiness baseline, along...

I’m popping in on a Tuesday with a few things I’m excited to share!

First, today is the official launch of the new Love From the Inside Out Substack. I’ve heard from many of you that you’d like more ways to interact with me and with Love From the Inside Out beyond the weekly podcast, and I heard you.

The Substack gives us another place to connect through writing, bonus audio and video, live Q&As, subscriber conversations, a quarterly book club, guided reflections, workshops and other things I’m developi...

What happens when more money, more clients and more growth start creating more stress instead of more success?

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan talks with entrepreneur, media executive and marketing consultant Cynthia Sassi about business growth, entrepreneurship, scaling, self-doubt, perfectionism and how our definition of success can change over time.

Cynthia has spent nearly 20 years in digital media and marketing. She is the founder and president of Fabulous Media Group, co-owner of LuxeGetaways and co-founder and president of Say Less Media. But this conversation goes far beyond how to build...

How do you build a better relationship with yourself?

Acclaimed meditation and mindfulness teacher with more than 30 years of experience and bestselling Hay House author Sarah McLean joins Susan for a deeply personal conversation about self-love, self-trust, relationships, meditation, and learning how to stay connected to yourself through change. Sarah has been teaching meditation for more than three decades and has led retreats, trained meditation teachers, and written extensively about meditation and self-awareness. 

A special gift for the Love From the Inside Out community!

Sarah is generously offering listeners

Something doesn’t have to be broken for you to realize it may be time to do things differently. What happens when your career, routines, or life still work — but you’ve changed?

We get comfortable with our careers, routines, relationships, and even the way we see ourselves. But when was the last time you stopped to ask whether the decisions you made years ago still make sense for who you are today?

Twenty-four years after being fired from the Phoenix Coyotes, I found myself revisiting my career in a way I never expect...

When someone dies, what happens to the life they lived?

My Aunt Essie passed away recently, and her death brought me back to something I’ve felt deeply since losing my parents: I don’t want the people I love to simply become part of the past. Their stories, personalities, beliefs, humor, music, relationships and the ways they shaped us still matter.

In this episode, I talk about grief, memory and what it means to keep a loved one’s memory alive after loss. I share a photograph I found of Aunt Essie as a little...

What do you already know inside that you keep looking outside yourself to confirm?

In this episode, Susan explores why we can know exactly what we want and still wait for more proof, permission or certainty before we act. Inspired by Cathy Heller’s idea of “main character energy,” this conversation is about what it means to participate fully in your own life instead of waiting on the sidelines for something else to happen first.

Susan shares the story of wanting to start this podcast for years, taking a podcasting course twice, and still finding ways t...

What if your personal style — and even the way you think about fashion — has less to do with clothes and more to do with confidence, identity and how fully you're allowing yourself to be seen?

In this deeply personal conversation, style and self-expression coach Maren Swenson shares how her own journey of questioning expectations, rebuilding self-trust and learning to express herself more freely completely changed the way she sees personal style. We talk about body image, confidence, the stories hiding in our closets, dressing for approval versus dressing for ourselves, and why what we wear can become a su...

Do you ever feel like you’re not doing enough — even when you’re doing a lot? Or like you should be further along by now in your career, health, relationships, finances or life?

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan explores the connection between enoughness, perfectionism, self-worth and self-compassion — and asks a question that may change the way you think about all of it:

When did you start believing there was a test… and whose test is it?

The conversation was sparked by an email from self-compassion researcher Dr. Kristin Ne...

What if you’re not “uncreative” at all? What if you’ve simply gotten disconnected from that part of yourself?

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, I’m talking with expressive artist and creativity empowerment guide Kristen Fagan and intuitive mentor and yoga teacher Kerry Burki about creativity as something much bigger than being able to paint, draw, or make something beautiful.

We talk about why so many of us gradually lose touch with our creativity as life gets fuller, what perfectionism and our inner critic have to do with it, and what can h...

Have you ever pushed down something you were feeling because you didn’t have the time, energy, or emotional bandwidth to deal with it?

Maybe you told yourself it wasn’t a big deal. Maybe you knew that facing it would require a difficult conversation, a boundary, or a decision you weren’t ready to make. So you kept going and hoped the feeling would eventually disappear.

But what happens when it doesn’t?

In this episode, Susan explores emotional congestion and the cost of repeatedly ignoring what you feel, overriding what you know, an...

How do you know when it’s time to let go of something you still love?

After an arborist told Susan and her husband that the enormous ficus tree outside their home could no longer be safely preserved, Susan’s emotional response caught her completely off guard. The tree was still standing, but suddenly she was seeing it differently and imagining what their home, and her life inside it, would feel like without it.

In this deeply personal solo episode, Susan reflects on anticipatory grief, the difficult space between knowing and accepting, and what it mean...

Your home may look beautiful, but does it still support the life you’re living now—and the person you’re becoming?

In the first conversation episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan sits down with Kim Costa, a Top 5% REALTOR®, author, speaker and creator of the Wheel House Method™, to explore the often-overlooked connection between our homes, our identities and the changes we experience in midlife.

Years ago, Kim was living in a picture-perfect farmhouse when a serious horseback-riding accident left her with a broken back and the possibility that she might never walk agai...

One year ago, on International Self-Care Day, I launched Love From the Inside Out with one simple promise: to release one episode every week for an entire year.

In this one-year anniversary episode, I'm reflecting on what a year of showing up has taught me about self-trust, consistency, perfectionism, confidence, and why so many women in midlife struggle to recognize how far they've come.

I had no idea where that commitment would lead.

I didn't know if anyone would listen. I didn't know what I was doing. I just knew there was something...

What do you do when you know what helps you feel better, but motivation is nowhere to be found?

In this solo episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan explores the idea of mental fitness as one of the most important muscles women in midlife can build. Inspired by a moment during a Peloton class, she reflects on why motivation is unreliable and why mental fitness is what helps us keep choosing what supports us, even on the days we do not feel like doing it.

This episode is for you if you have...

If choosing yourself makes you feel guilty, selfish, or wrong, this episode will help you understand why that discomfort may not mean you’re doing anything wrong.

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan explores why choosing yourself can feel so uncomfortable, especially when you’ve spent years being the dependable one, the helpful one, the person who figures it out, or the one who says “it’s fine” even when it’s not really fine.

This is not a conversation about becoming selfish or walking away from your responsibilities. It’s about the diff...

Music has a way of taking us right back to ourselves.

In this holiday weekend replay of The Soundtrack of Your Life, we’re revisiting one of my favorite episodes about music, memory, mood, nostalgia, and the songs that remind us who we were, who we are, and who we’re still becoming.

In this episode, I share stories from my own life soundtrack, from childhood car rides and teenage freedom to dance floors, concerts, friendships, heartbreak songs, wedding music, and the playlists that still shift my energy today.

We also talk about why...

If you've been overthinking a situation you can't control, replaying conversations in your head, worrying about what might happen next, or feeling stuck in uncertainty, this episode is for you.

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan shares a personal story about catching herself in a spiral of overthinking and anxiety during a workout, and how an unexpected song brought her back to a deeper truth about self-trust, identity, and the life that's happening right now.

What started as a familiar cycle of fear and future-casting turned into a powerful reminder: your...

Why trying harder isn’t helping and backing off isn’t giving up.

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan explores midlife burnout, the addiction to effort, and why pushing through, doing more, and overriding your body can stop working at a certain point in life.

For many women in midlife, effort has been the thing that worked. It helped us build careers, care for others, move through hard seasons, stay responsible, and become the people others could count on. But sometimes effort turns into force. And when that happens, trying harder may...

What happens when the thing you imagined your whole life finally arrives... and it doesn't feel the way you expected?

For most of my life, I assumed I would change my last name when I got married. I actually looked forward to it. Growing up with a difficult-to-pronounce last name, I dreamed of the day I would take a simpler name and step into what I thought would be an easier identity.

But when I got married for the first time at 52, something unexpected happened.

The name I had spent years wanting to...

If your body feels different in midlife and you’ve found yourself wondering what you missed, what you did wrong, or why all the “right” things aren’t working the way they used to, this episode is for you.

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan explores the difference between caring for your body and trying to control it, especially during menopause and midlife, when body changes, aging, health information, and unexpected test results can bring up fear, frustration, and self-blame.

After receiving a DEXA scan result she expected would reassure her, Susan re...

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out®, Susan explores why some of us feel responsible for other people’s moods and how that pattern can quietly lead to emotional exhaustion, overthinking, people-pleasing, and self-abandonment.

If you’ve ever walked into a room and immediately wondered what you did wrong, replayed a conversation to figure out why someone seemed “off,” or felt like it was your job to fix the energy around you, this conversation may feel familiar.

Susan shares a personal reflection on emotional hypervigilance, boundaries, nervous system regulation, and the midlife realization that cari...

Why do we keep trying to be perfect at life, even when we know life is a practice?

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, I’m exploring the pressure so many of us feel to get life right — to make the right decision, respond the right way, grow faster, heal faster, know better, and somehow skip the messy middle of living what we’re learning.

This conversation started over lunch with one of my closest friends, when we were laughing about how self-aware we can be and still fall into the trap of wan...

What is it about having your picture taken that can bring up so much?

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, I’m talking about a recent headshot experience that brought up more than I expected around being seen, body image, self-doubt, visibility, and the very human desire to feel like ourselves in the way we are seen by others.

At first, it seemed simple. I needed new photos. I had a beautiful opportunity through a women’s group I belong to. I signed up before I could overthink it.

And then...

Some dates stay with us. Grief anniversaries, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthdays, and the moments our bodies seem to remember before we do.

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, I’m reflecting on the emotional memory certain dates can hold, especially as I move through the month of May, which marks the anniversaries of both of my parents’ passing. My father passed away seven years ago on May 9th, and my mother passed away ten years ago on May 30th. With Mother’s Day and Father’s Day also falling around this season, May...

Have you ever been in one of those no-clean-answer moments where both choices make sense and both choices cost you something?

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, I’m talking about the love-hate relationship we can have with choices that are good for us, choices that feel good in the moment, and choices that come with consequences later.

This conversation came up for me after a full weekend of events for my husband Elliot’s 40th high school reunion and his baseball team’s Hall of Fame induction. I wanted to be fully...

I went into our storage unit looking for my mother’s mahjong set and a few things I wanted to give to my brother. Instead, I found old family photos, childhood keepsakes, handwritten notes, and pieces of my life I hadn’t seen in years.

What started as a search for one meaningful thing turned into a reflection on memory, grief, legacy, and the strange emotional weight of the things we keep.

In this episode, I talk about family keepsakes, old photos, finding pieces of my younger self in old boxes, keeping loved ones alive in m...

If your body, your energy, or your life has ever stopped cooperating with the pace you were trying to keep, this episode is for you.

A rough stomach bug forced me to slow down in a way I never would have chosen for myself, and once the worst of it passed, I started to realize this week was about more than just being sick.

It showed me how much I had been pushing through stress, pressure, overdoing it, and the quieter signs my body had already been giving me before life got louder.

...

If getting dressed has been feeling more emotional, frustrating, or loaded than it should, this episode is for you.

After listening to Mel Robbins’ recent conversation with celebrity stylist Erin Walsh, I thought I was about to feel inspired to clean out my closet, get intentional, and finally connect a few dots around style, confidence, and embodiment.

That is not what happened.

Instead, I opened my closet, felt immediate resistance, shut the door, and walked away. Then I went shopping with birthday gift cards, good intentions, and every plan to freshen up my wa...

How do you feel good without earning it first? In this episode, I’m talking about why so many of us wait to relax, enjoy life, or feel better until everything is done — and how choosing joy first can help break negative thought loops, shift your focus, and bring you back to what matters most.

This week, I’m sharing a personal story about getting ready to host Passover and noticing how quickly I can slip into pressure, overthinking, and the familiar habit of making everything just right. A simple reminder about joy as a daily practice brough...

What if nothing is exactly wrong, but something still feels off?

In this episode, I’m talking about 7 signs you may have outgrown your life and are at a midlife turning point. If you’ve been feeling more irritated, more disconnected, more exhausted, or less like yourself lately, this conversation is for you. I’m talking about the quiet ways self-abandonment can show up, why your life can look fine on paper but not feel right in your body, and how to recognize when something in you is asking for a more honest relationship with your life.

I...

What if abundance isn’t about getting more — but about caring for what you already have?

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan reflects on an unexpected lesson about abundance after repotting a money tree plant. What started as a simple moment turned into a deeper realization about care, attention, self-loyalty, and why things in life rarely fall apart overnight.

Through this personal story, Susan explores what an abundance mindset really means beyond money, how inconsistent care can quietly affect our relationships, health, creativity, and peace, and why true personal grow...

A few days before her birthday, Susan shares a personal reflection on what it means to get older, get clearer, and choose how she wants to meet this season of life.

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, she opens up about why birthdays have always meant so much to her, what feels different this year, and how midlife has brought both deeper perspective and a greater sense of possibility. She also reflects on the thoughts that can surface around aging, appearance, and change — and the power we have to notice those thoughts without letting th...

Want support you can press play on?
Return is my private podcast feed for the moments you can feel yourself slipping into urgency, overthinking, over-functioning, or self-abandonment. Inside, you’ll receive at least two private audio drops each month, plus occasional reflections, prompts, and practices to help you come back to yourself.
Join Return here.

In this episode, I’m talking about what it really costs to lose yourself — in relationships, in work, in identity, and in the quiet ways we override what we already know.<...

Join Return (private podcast feed) here.

If you’ve been feeling more irritated or resentful lately, this episode will help. Even if anger isn’t your main signal, keep listening because self-abandonment can look like rushing, jaw tension, over-explaining, people-pleasing, doom-emailing, snapping, or feeling “behind.” In When Anger Is the Signal: Irritability, Resentment, and Self-Abandonment, I’m sharing how I’m learning to treat anger as information—not a character flaw—and how to come back without shame.

This is a follow-up to last week’s episode, Stop Self-Abandonment: Nervous System Healing and Learning to Stay w...

A quick orientation to what Return is, what you’ll find here, and how to use this feed when real life hits.

Welcome. I’m so glad you’re here.

Return is the private feed inside Love From the Inside Out—created for the moments you can feel yourself starting to slip into urgency, over-functioning, or self-abandonment.

Here’s what you’ll find inside:

When you catch yourself doing it again, this is your permission to get curious, not cruel—and come back.

Hi. It’s Susan.

This is the episode I want you to come back to the moment you notice you’re self-abandoning and your brain wants to pile on judgment.

Self-abandonment isn’t a personal failure — it’s a human pattern, and a lot of it is learned.

In this episode, we’ll focus on:

Use this when everything feels “right now”—a short reset to slow your system and get clear.

Hi. It’s Susan.

This is a Reset you can use in real time when you feel rushed, tight, buzzy, or like you’re about to over-function.

This episode is for the moment you notice:

Inside this rese...

Borrow these clear, kind scripts for work, family, and relationships—especially when you feel the urge to explain yourself to death.

Hi. It’s Susan.

This is a Boundary Script Pack you can come back to anytime you want to say what you mean without over-apologizing, over-performing, or writing a whole novel.

Inside this pack, you’ll get scripts for:

Return is live 🎧 Join here. 💛

Stop Self-Abandonment: Nervous System Healing and Learning to Stay With Yourself

What does it actually mean to stop abandoning yourself — not in theory, but in real life?

In this episode of Love From the Inside Out, Susan names what she stands for. Not as a recap. Not as a how-to. But as a clear point of view rooted in lived experience.

This conversation explores what changes after a quiet but decisive internal shift — and how nervous system healing, attention, and self-loy...