Fempowered: Making Your Mess Your Message

In this hard-hitting yet cozy episode, I sit down with the SheEO herself: Sheena Daniels. Sheena is a podcast host, businesswoman, yoga instructor, and female empowerer. She shares tough lessons she’s learned upon getting a divorce and leaving the LDS church. We also get into:

• how to connect with yourself and your kids

• how to empower yourself and your kids

• how to reduce shame and guilt

• how to learn to trust yourself

• how to use your body as a healing tool

• the power of the pause and the necessity of stillness

• how your mistakes are your entry points for connection

• how to make your mess your message

It’s good. Oh, so good.

Find Sheena on Instagram @shelyfe, and listen to her on Pivot and Pursue, the podcast she hosts with Britney Neibaur

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram @the_nativist

Visit https://clearstem.com/?ref=eubxjtws and use code WHITNEYRICHARDS for 15% off!

Straight Talk: Communicating Directly

It’s my absolute (and long-awaited) pleasure to introduce the podcast’s new monthly guest: Brooke Anderson - who so happens to be my sister and BFF. In this “soft opening” first episode with her, we talk about…talking. Direct communication, to be specific (and direct!): what this looks like, what it doesn’t look like, what it means, what it yields. Naturally, this leads us to touch on other topics relevant to all of us: boundaries, co-dependency, self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-accountability, relationships/friendships. Trust me, this is merely a nibble of the treat we have in store for you.

Brooke is a mother and a photographer committed to helping other parents break into the photography industry by creating their dream job without sacrificing their parenthood. She offers training on starting your own thriving photography business. She also just released iPhone Camera Academy, a mini photography course showing how to shoot and edit polished photos using only your phone. (She’s also my soulmate creative partner and forever business partner.)

Follow her on Instagram/Facebook for more helpful tips and inspiration: @thehomebodybybrooke and @brookerichardsonphotography

Connect with me on Facebook/Instragram @the_nativist

Loyalty

Image: Brooke Richardson Photography

What does loyalty entail? What should it entail? Loyalty to a partner, to a friend, to a brand, to a vendor, to a family member, to a country, to a cause, to an ideology…

As with most topics, it’s nuanced. It can be contextual. It’s tempting to simplify and reduce it, but that often ignores reality and limits us: our understanding, our growth, our relationships, our empathy, our compassion, our progress, our wisdom, our lives.

What does loyalty mean to you? To those in your life? Do your definitions align? What’s a deal breaker for you?

Should it be conditional? Should it be blind? Should it be all encompassing?

Thank you for listening.

Find me on Facebook and Instagram: @the_nativist

The D Word

In this solo episode, I talk divorce in its broadest sense. Not just the dissolution of a marriage, but the “conscious uncoupling” (great term, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin!) from anything that no longer serves you: one-sided friendships, toxic habits, regressive thought patterns, unhealthy practices, stagnant jobs, outgrown partnerships, etc.

I suggest helpful questions to ask yourself to effectively approach and navigate the situation, and to help determine if a divorce is needed (again, divorce in the broadest sense).

I offer angles to consider and solid steps you can take (including a specific activity you can do) to [re]claim your power, promote your healing, and serve the highest good.

Mucho love to you all.

-w-

Self Love

This is another episode per request. Though it’s a topic that’s often discussed…it’s still just as relevant and necessary.

And let’s be straight: Self love isn’t always about massages and candlelit baths. Sometimes it’s about tough love. Digging in and doing shadow work. Calling yourself on your bullshit. Identifying and eliminating your toxic habits. As with everything in life, balance is crucial and boundaries aren’t just to apply to other people. They’re not just interpersonal - they should be intrapersonal as well.

I talk about how self love looks like:

• Recognizing and releasing toxicity - yours and others’

• Connecting to yourself

• Honoring your basic needs: emotional, physical, mental

• Communicating directly and authentically, and letting others do the same (without overanalyzing and assuming people hate you/are mad at you)

• Apologizing only for things within your control

• Setting boundaries

• Asking for what you want/need

• Daring to say yes, and daring to say no

• Feeling and navigating your emotions

• Releasing what you can’t control, and prioritizing what you can

• Treating yourself and others with grace and kindness

I hope you find value in this. And I hope you love yourself. Because I sure as hell do.

-w-

EmPOWERment

What a powerful and illuminating episode this is! Parris Hodges and I go wide and deep in this wide-ranging and transformative conversation. Parris is a remarkable and inspirational human who has overcome a great deal and is committed and exceptional at empowering not only herself, but others. I applaud and appreciate her willingness to share as openly as she does, and she does so to connect with and help others.

We discuss identifying and understanding the stories we tell ourselves, taking ownership of our lives and healing, accessing our power, reframing situations and extracting value, soliciting feedback, detaching from things beyond our control, embracing shadow work and growth, and finding joy through it all.

Parris radiates light and love and is someone with whom I connect on the deepest of levels. Our lives and experience are vastly different yet eerily parallel, which just goes to show how connected we all are, no matter the individual journey.

I hope you find this valuable.

Thank you for listening.

xx,

-w-

You can find Parris on Social Media:

Instagram: @parris.hodges

Facebook: Parris Hodges

B O U N D A R I E S

Images by Brooke Richardson Photography

This was a presentation I provided for the Women’s Networking Group. For those unable to attend, I got yo back - I recorded me giving the same speech!

In this episode, I discuss the importance of setting personal and professional boundaries. It heavily draws from a previous blog post I wrote on the criticality of boundaries in exercising true, lasting compassion.

I hope you love.

xx,

-w-