My vibrant friend Vera Marcinko is this episode’s guest of honor. As a doula, Vera is a birth and postpartum mentor who shares her own postpartum journey, and its effect on her health, her marriage, and her identity. There’s something in this episode for everyone., as we go wide and deep, covering:

+Why community is crucial for humans, especially in pivotal life moments

+What you can do if you feel unsupported as a partner, a parent, a friend - or just a human in general

+How to connect with yourself and others

+How to navigate intimacy as new parents

+What constitutes true intimacy

+What to do when you feel stuck/powerless/alone

+How approaching partnership, parenthood, and life from a place of understanding changes everything

+How to fill your own cup, especially as a caregive

Why you should prioritize patterns over perfection

A very meaningful and helpful episode.

Find Vera on Instagram @thespanglishdoula or @dlnvera

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram @the_nativist

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

Resources mentioned in the podcast:

+We Can Do Hard Things Podcast: Find Healing In Your Partnership and Balance Inequality in Your Home with Kate Mangino

+The Breathing Cure: Develop New Habits for a Healthier, Happier, and Longer Life

+@theteachermomma on Instagram

If you’re like me, you make life 10x harder than it needs to be. Because you’re exhaustively overthinking, because you’re obsessively problem solving, because you’re overly complicating.

In this short episode, I share realizations I’ve made, and techniques I’ve used, to flow with life, not against it. I offer perspectives and identify possible energy and time sucks that are zapping you dry. You might be surprised.

Love you.

Whitney

Connect with me on Facebook and instagram @the_nativist

Life on your own terms means first defining those terms, yeah? So how are you defining the words in those terms? Whose definitions are you using? If you ever catch yourself comparing yourself to others, and/or telling yourself you “should” do this or “shouldn’t” do that, do you ever stop and truly ask yourself why? Have you ever questioned what success means to you? Do you analyze what actually resonates with you (eg as “successful” or “acceptable” or “fun”) or do you just obediently accept others’ definitions? Whose yardstick are you using to measure your life? Yours or society’s? Yours or your parents’? Maybe upon closer inspection those yardsticks match, and maybe they don’t. But YOU get to decide.

So that’s basically what I talk about in this episode. Happy you’re here.

Connect with me on Facebook and/or Instagram @the_nativist

The book I reference in the episode is The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again by Catherine Price