In our current society, women without kids make up anywhere between 15 and 25% of the adult female population, depending on the country.  Recently, I started to wonder what life would look like - what grief would look like - if that were reversed.  If mothers were in the minority, would childless women feel so much FOMO, inadequacy or lack of belonging?  Would the grief run as deep?  Would we still wonder what our legacy or purpose is? Join me for this solo episode where I contemplate: aging in a world where childless women made up a larger proportion of the population t ..read more

Have you ever come away from a conversation thinking "gosh, "people just don't get it"?  Either they say something insensitive or simply can't empathize with your childless circumstances.   It's definitely happened to me.  Even recently.  But the mistake I see in the childless space is the assumption that there is nothing you can do about it.  You just have to deal with the irritation or "trigger" and move on somehow.  What I have noticed, in myself and my clients, is that there IS something you can do about it.  The first step is recognizing when it's happ ..read more

Anger is an emotion that comes up a lot with my childless clients who wanted kids.  Anger can be a really complicated emotion because it's not only an emotion in and of itself, but it can also disguise other emotions.  What makes it even tougher to manage is that most little girls are taught not to express the tough emotions.  Anger is something boys are allowed to show, but not girls.  Yes, even in today's society.   So you might be someone who was conditioned to suppress anger, and maybe other negative emotions as well.  Join me on this episode as I share: th ..read more

As I embark on the next 100 episodes on the Awakening Worth Podcast, I spend this session reflecting on the deeper reason I keep hitting record and why you should keep hitting the play button.  I've come to realize that so many of us are stuck in this pronatalist ideology and it's impacting, well...really, all of humanity.  It's us, the childless women, who feel it the most, but it's affecting all of us.  On this solo episode, I'm delving into: what pronatalism is and why you need to start paying attention to how it's affecting you the magic that  will happen when we sta ..read more

Celebrating 100 episodes today!   My husband, Mike Johnson, and I mark this special occasion together on the podcast with a conversation that makes its way through life without children from HIS perspective.  As we share the narrative of our journey, from the heartbreak of miscarriage to the multitude of decisions along the fertility treatment path, we peel back the layers of our different perspectives.   Mike lends his voice to explore the complexities of a partner's role in facing childlessness, an area frequently overshadowed by the focus on women.  We shed light on the ..read more

The moment I sat in quiet meditation with an energy healer, I never anticipated the floodgates of emotional pain that would open from my womb space. That pivotal encounter ignited a journey into womb healing, leading me to create womb healing retreats that help women to release emotions stored in the womb space.  On today's episode, I replay a conversation that my sister, Jen, had on her show, Leading with Grace.  We venture into the transformative power of acknowledging and addressing womb trauma, not just for those who've grappled with infertility or sexual trauma, but for any (an ..read more

This episode is a bit controversial.  I think there's this an expectation that if you are a woman, you are onboard with everything International Women's Day stands for.  But I'm not known for just getting on board with something simply because of an expectation.  Do I want women to rise? Yes.  Do I want there to be equitable pay in the workforce? Yes.  Do I want to see more women at the top?  Absolutely!  At the same time, there are some aspects of IWD that I look at from a different perspective.   I'm sharing all my thoughts on this episode and I'm cur ..read more

The moment I sat in quiet meditation with an energy healer, I never anticipated the floodgates of emotional pain that would open from my womb space. That pivotal encounter ignited a journey into womb healing, leading me to create womb healing retreats that help women to release emotions stored in the womb space.  On today's episode, I replay a conversation that my sister, Jen, had on her show, Leading with Grace.  We venture into the transformative power of acknowledging and addressing womb trauma, not just for those who've grappled with infertility or sexual trauma, but for any (an ..read more

I'm doing a solo episode today and pulling back the curtain on pronatalism even further.  In this episode, I will peel away the layers of this pervasive belief system, examining how it shapes the sense of purpose and self-worth in those of us without children.  By uncovering historical and contemporary pressures from society, government, and religion, we pave the way for acceptance and a redefined sense of meaning and purpose beyond traditional expectations. Tune in to find out:  what pronatalism is and how it affects our subconscious beliefs about purpose how my own sense of ..read more

As a leader in the childless space, Maria Hill brings a ton of wisdom to this episode. Her story of parental and societal expectations as a woman growing up in the 60's shed so much light on what we are going through now as childless women. Maria and I cover some unexpected topics in this conversation from how Ayurveda supports the grief journey to highly sensitive people to the patriarchy and how it's impacting us all.  The most fascinating part of the conversation for me though, was on the topic of how our current culture perpetuates survival mode.  You'll discover:  how ou ..read more