Aging Fiercely Podcast

AM Costanzo
  • 5.0 (9)
  • Mental Health
  • Weekly

Welcome to the Aging Fiercely Podcast! 💋 Who says life over 40 means slowing down? We’re here to flip the script on aging! Forget the scale and the “summer body” obsession—it’s about building strength, changing the narrative, and experiencing more wild adventures! Midlife isn't a crisis - it's a comeback! 👊 amcostanzo.substack.com

  1. 3d ago

    Stop Talking Yourself Out of What You Want: The One Daily Habit That Fixes It

    How often do you talk yourself out of what you want? In this solo episode, I’m starting the Yes Movement: saying yes to doing something for yourself once a day, every day, through the end of the year. Then we take it into 2027. So many of us are doing something I call the quiet override. We quietly override the things we want because we’re afraid of how it will look, what people will say, or how disruptive it will be to stop doing things just to keep the peace. So we’re going to practice the opposite, one clean yes at a time. In this episode: The quiet override, and the questions that help you find where it’s coming fromMorning pages, a simple way to get clear on the thoughts and beliefs underneath (from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way)What to do with the fear of what other people will think (Sally and Margaret, this one’s for you)The clean yes: just for you, no guilt, no justifying, no dissertationIdeas for your daily yes: yin yoga, the shoes, a night off from making dinner, school lunch, cringe moments, a Wednesday mani-pedi, a walk with your thoughtsThree questions for a good yesWhy “Do I want to keep my promises to myself?” works better than “Do I feel like it?”Free resource Join my free monthly Working on Becoming Workshop: https://www.amcostanzo.com/free-goal-setting-workshop Ready to say a helluva lot more yeses to yourself? Book a Breakthrough Session with me, and we can figure out exactly where to begin! https://www.amcostanzo.com/breakthrough-session Connect Instagram: @aging.fiercely Website: amcostanzo.com YouTube: @amcostanzowellness What’s your yes today? Send me a DM on Instagram and tell me. And if this episode resonated, share it with your bestie, and please leave a review - it only takes a minute, and it helps me grow my community ❤️

  2. Nov 3

    Hormones Get All the Attention. Let’s Talk About Minerals with Dori Martin

    You’re doing all the things. You’re lifting, eating the protein, maybe taking the hormones. So why do you still feel like you’re playing whack-a-mole with your own body? Dori Martin has been there. She’s a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, certified yoga teacher, and hair tissue mineral analysis practitioner, and when her own symptoms got worse on hormone therapy, she went looking for what her labs weren’t showing her. What she found changed how she thinks about midlife, burnout, and what our bodies need from us. We talk about why your body may not have the energy to use what you’re giving it, why the unsexy basics matter more than the next supplement, and how to stop being ping-ponged through your own life. Dori also shares how she and her partner handled a terminal diagnosis by asking one better question: what lights you up? Key Takeaways When something stops working, it may be the information that failed you, not you. A sound bite can’t account for your body or your life.Hormones may not be the whole story. Dori isn’t against them, but she wants to know what your body is doing with them.Going hard at the gym can backfire when you’re depleted, because your body may be breaking down faster than it can build up.Stress isn’t only emotional. Poor sleep, dehydration, shallow breathing, and missing morning sunshine all register as stress too.The way you talk to yourself matters. Dori calls it the biggest nervous system dysregulator of all.Be the thermostat, not the thermometer. Set the tone for your day instead of reacting to it.Retrain your brain by writing down one thing that delighted you today.Dose calm throughout the day: a long exhale at a stop sign, scanning the room, or passing an object from one hand to the other.Connect With Dori Website: https://www.dorimartin.com/homeInstagram: @midlifeenergy.doriProgram: Foundations FabulousGet your 5 Minute Nervous System Tune UP!Connect With Anne Marie Free Resource Join the free monthly Working on Becoming Workshop: https://www.amcostanzo.com/free-goal-setting-workshop Want Help Getting Started? Book a Breakthrough Session with me. It’s one hour on Zoom Learn more about Breakthrough Sessions! Website:amcostanzo.comInstagram: @aging.fiercelyYouTube: AM Costanzo WellnessYour Turn What’s one small thing you can do for yourself today, before your to-do list gets going? Tell me on Instagram @aging.fiercely

  3. Oct 27

    Why You Need to Be Selfish for the Next 9 Weeks

    There are nine weeks left in the year. That’s either plenty of time or no time at all, depending on how many holiday parties you’ve already said yes to. Instead of waiting for January 1st to magically turn you into a new person, let’s use these nine weeks to build proof that you can show up for yourself. This episode is about the quiet override: the moment you hear that little voice say, “I should really do this for me,” and then talk yourself out of it because someone else needs something, the store closes at six, or meditating at 2 pm feels ridiculous. We’re getting selfish for nine weeks. The good kind of selfish. So when the ball drops, you’re not starting from scratch. You’re already ahead. Your 9-Week Plan Phase 1: Set the Table (now through Thanksgiving) Pick one small thing you can do for yourself every single day. Movement, a 10-minute stretch, a 9:30 bedtime, drinking 50 ounces of water. It has to be easy enough that “I’m too busy” doesn’t hold up. Track it, and jot down how it feels. You’re building trust with yourself. Phase 2: Add One Intention (Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day) Keep your one thing, and add a daily intention. Before your to-do list comes at you in the morning, ask: How do I want to feel today? Calm. Present. Like laughing comes easy. Set a reminder on your phone or a sticky note, because you will forget. If you remember three days later, no big deal. Just set one and keep going. Phase 3: Reflect (between Christmas and New Year’s) Carve out 30–60 minutes and ask yourself three questions: What do I want more of?What do I want less of?What’s just right?Key Takeaways If you can only relax once everyone else is taken care of, that’s a pattern worth flipping.Small daily actions are evidence. Five minutes of movement on a packed day still counts, and what it proves is bigger than the walk.Missing a day doesn’t make you a failure. Just pick it back up.Setting an intention trains your brain to go looking for what you want to feel (hello, reticular activating system).When you’ve been practicing all along, you get back to neutral faster when life tilts.This works better in community. Share what you’re noticing.Free Resource Join my free monthly Working on Becoming Workshop: https://www.amcostanzo.com/free-goal-setting-workshop Want Help With Your Plan? Book a Breakthrough Session: one hour, one-on-one with me on Zoom to map out the next nine weeks and beyond. Details at amcostanzo.com. Connect with AM:  Website: amcostanzo.com YouTube: amcostanzowellness  Substack: Aging Fiercely Instagram: @aging.firecely Follow along with me for the next nine weeks on Substack and Instagram. I'm doing this right alongside you!

  4. Oct 20

    How to Change Your Relationship With Money: Uncovering the Patterns That Keep You Feeling Stuck

    Why do so many smart, capable women know exactly what they should be doing with their money and still not do it? In our first-ever money episode of Aging Fiercely, I sit down with Crystal Janis of Dreamz on Fire, and her answer goes a lot deeper than spreadsheets. Crystal started out in wealth management, then spent years teaching economics and personal finance at Berkeley High School. Now she works with adults, and she says most of us already know the basics: spend less than you make, have a plan, save, pay down the credit card debt, invest. The real question is why we aren’t doing those things. Her answer is that you’re not bad at money. Money is triggering a safety pattern you learned as a kid. We peel back those layers. We talk about where you learned to give your power away, and why avoiding the bank account feels like relief until it doesn’t. Crystal explains how the survival strategy that once kept you safe can quietly become your income ceiling. She shares her own “do it all, trust no one” pattern, and how she realized she didn’t want independence so much as freedom. In this conversation: Why the money skills are the easy part and the inner work is the hard partThe avoidance loop: how dodging your money reinforces “I’m not enough”The superpower hiding inside your childhood survival strategy“I’m a mess up” vs. “I messed up,” and swapping “I am” for “I feel”You can’t outrun your wounds: setting down the 200-pound boulderMoney as a mirror, and why fixing the process isn’t the same as healing the identityWhy your body fights change, and how to self-soothe through itRethinking your budget as your “money bestie,” a way to align your money with your dreamsA client who went from about $50K in credit card debt to debt free in six monthsCrystal’s number one step: 30 minutes a week on your calendar, with a buddyUsing AI to work through triggers and spot your patternsConnect with Crystal Janis: Website: DreamzOnFire.com Instagram: @crystal.rigley.janis Financially Empowered: one-to-one coaching or a group program with two levels. You can book a free call through her website. Connect with AM: Website: amcostanzo.com YouTube: amcostanzowellness Substack: Aging Fiercely Instagram: aging.fiercely

  5. Oct 1

    Overthinking and Overfunctioning? Retrain Your Brain and Settle Your Nervous System | Cameron Allen

    What if the brain fog, the overwhelm, and that feeling of "I don't even know who I am anymore" aren't proof that something is wrong with you or that you need fixing? In this episode, I sit down with Cameron Allen, founder of Neuro Progeny, to talk about what's happening in the nervous system when we feel overwhelmed and anxious, and why that dysregulation can intensify during perimenopause and menopause. Cameron's path started with his brother, who struggled with depression after a series of head injuries. When a neurotherapy program brought him back, Cameron spent the next 22 years testing brain-based interventions and built XRegulation, an at-home program that uses virtual reality and heart rate variability biofeedback to help regulate the nervous system. It's designed to reconnect your mind and your body, because when we tune into how our bodies feel, we gain so much more awareness of our thoughts, behaviors, and patterns. We talk about why the nervous system's bigger job is conserving energy by predicting what happens next, how shifting estrogen, oxytocin, and GABA can leave women feeling disconnected from themselves, and why the vagus nerve offers another way back to that connection. What your nervous system wants is flexibility, the ability to bounce back from an emotional moment without it lingering in your body for days. He calls it state fluidity. In this conversation: The moment Cameron's brother came back, and why it became Cameron's life's workWhy your nervous system runs on prediction, and what happens when it gets it wrongHow the hormonal cycle gives women access to different brain states, and what shifts in perimenopauseWhat heart rate variability isWhy an argument can linger in your body for daysA simple way to feel oxytocin in your body right nowWhy feeling slightly frustrated is part of how the brain learnsHow "I'll slow down when..." turns into a busy identityAsking "How do I want to feel today?" before you get out of bedFinding your three true self words and making decisions from themHow the five-week XRegulation program works, from the home headset to weekly coaching with CameronWhy every state you've lived through is an asset as you ageConnect with Cameron Allen: Website: neuroprogeny.com Instagram: @neuro_cameron Book a free 30-minute consultation with Cameron through the website. Connect with AM: Website: amcostanzo.com YouTube: amcostanzowellness Substack: Aging Fiercely Instagram: aging.fiercely

  6. Sep 22

    Unresolved Trauma: How It Affects Our Behavior, and How Safety Opens the Door to Healing

    What do you do when what you've always done stops working, and you catch yourself saying, "I don't know who I am anymore"? In this episode, I sit down with Ramona Kossowan, Canada's first certified Gentle Trauma Release practitioner, certified women's empowerment coach, and fitness trainer, to talk about how unresolved trauma affects our behavior in midlife, often without us realizing it, and how safety opens the door to healing.  Ramona's answer is that for most of us, the nervous system is driving our behavior, beliefs, relationships, and sense of worth through adaptations we formed in response to trauma. She defines trauma as distress without resolve, and it isn't only the big events. It can be a slow erosion of your sense of self. Because we may not connect what we're feeling to trauma at all, she starts with our symptoms and when they began, often around a period like a falling out with a child or parent, or years of caring for an elderly relative. From there, her work starts with safety, the foundation that opens the door to healing.  Subtle nervous system exercises give the body the message that it's safe, and that’s when the body shows what it's ready to release. As the distress comes down, a memory loses its intensity and the way we see things begins to shift on its own. Ramona notes this is a complementary method, not a replacement for medical treatment. We also get into the identities we take on to survive, why she looks at shame before she talks about food, and her advice for anyone who wants to age fiercely: don't accept limits that were pushed on you.  We discuss: Why so many women reach a breaking point in midlifeTrauma is defined as distress without resolveWhy we may not realize our patterns are trauma-basedWhy safety comes before releaseHow nervous system exercises workThe identities we take on to survive: mother energy and daughter energyWhy fitness comes later, and movement that feels joyfulAdvice for aging fiercely: don't accept limits that were pushed on youConnect with Ramona Kossowan:  Website: ramonakcoaching.com  Gentle Trauma Release: gentletraumacoach.com Facebook: Ramona K Coaching Instagram: @ramonakcoaching LinkedIn: Ramona Kossowan YouTube: Ramona K Coaching Free Resource: Is it Trauma? Explore the often overlooked symptoms of trauma: Gentle Trauma Assessment Free Resource: When food feels chaotic, who's running the show? Find your Food Archetype: Food Archetype Opt-in Connect with AM:  Website: amcostanzo.com YouTube: amcostanzowellness Substack: Aging Fiercely Instagram: aging.fiercely

  7. Sep 15

    How Somatic Movement Heals What Words Can't with Allison Pagano

    Why don't affirmations work, even when you say them every day? In this episode, I sit down with Allison Pagano, founder of Embodied Dance®, to talk about what happens when you finally let your body back into the conversation — and it comes down to somatic movement. Allison's own path into somatic movement started in her twenties, when she was in what she describes as a depressed, shut-down state and struggling with an eating disorder. A class with an indigenous teacher during a study-abroad year in Australia introduced her to chakras and energy work for the first time, and it cracked open a question she's been chasing ever since: what is my body actually trying to tell me? We get into how to tell a limiting belief apart from your body's genuine no, why affirmations don't work when there's an unresolved belief underneath, and how she uses movement as medicine to help people release what's stuck. She also talks about her own body of work, informed by what she calls the Collard Method, which links specific areas of the body to specific emotional patterns. And she doesn't shy away from the bigger point underneath all of it: why disconnection from your body makes you easier to control, and how reclaiming that connection is its own kind of power. In this conversation: How an eating disorder in her twenties led her to found Embodied DanceHow to tell a limiting belief apart from your body's genuine "no"Why affirmations don't work when your body doesn't believe themWhy certain body areas hold certain emotional patternsWhy disconnection from your body makes you easier to controlWhat a somatic movement session actually looks likeWhy she works with small groups of five or six people, by designWho the "quiet rebels" are that she mentors into leadershipHer one piece of advice for a woman looking to age fiercely Connect with Allison Pagano:  FREE TRAINING: The Body as Oracle: Awakening the Teacher Within — a free live class on Oct. 23, 2026  for the "quiet rebels" ready to step into their next chapter. embodied-dance.com/body-as-oracle (check website for accurate start time - she’s in Sydney Australia.) Website: embodied-dance.com  Instagram: @embodied.dance Connect with AM:  Website: amcostanzo.com  YouTube: amcostanzowellness  Substack: Aging Fiercely  Instagram: aging.fiercely

  8. Sep 3

    This 17-Second Practice Allows You to Feel How Ridiculously Good Life Can Be

    Have you ever tried to feel truly happy, truly abundant, truly at peace for just 17 seconds straight — and had your brain shut it down after four? In this episode, recorded live on one of my walk/runs - as part of a 30-day commitment to show up and share whatever's on my mind -I get into a practice I've heard about for years but never actually tried: the 17 second rule. It comes from Abraham Hicks by way of my own coach, Cathy Heller, and the idea is deceptively simple — get into the emotion you want to feel, fully, for a full 17 seconds, and you start shifting your momentum and what you attract. It sounds easy. It is not that easy. I talk through what happens when I try it, why our brains fight so hard against letting us feel good before "the problems are solved," and why stepping into that feeling on purpose is what it means to “step into your power.” Connect with AM: Website: amcostanzo.com YouTube: amcostanzowellness Instagram: aging.fiercely

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About

Welcome to the Aging Fiercely Podcast! 💋 Who says life over 40 means slowing down? We’re here to flip the script on aging! Forget the scale and the “summer body” obsession—it’s about building strength, changing the narrative, and experiencing more wild adventures! Midlife isn't a crisis - it's a comeback! 👊 amcostanzo.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    AM Costanzo
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    141
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 AM Costanzo
  • Show Website
    Aging Fiercely Podcast