Sendy Mom

Becky Brouwer

The hardest part of achieving a goal is starting. Being sendy means making courageous decisions to try something before you have all of the answers. This podcast will remind you of the remarkable life you are living and will give you new ideas to make your life more meaningful and exciting and give you courage to accomplish your goals by stopping the negative voices in your head and just sending it!

  1. 23h ago

    Mistakes Are Proof of Learning: Alice O'Connell on Knitting, Mindfulness, and Beginning Messy

    One night in bed, Alice O’Connell realized she’d skipped her breast self-exam, did one right there, and found a lump. The knitting she’d picked up years earlier on a TV set became her sanctuary through breast cancer and chemo. In this episode, Becky and Alice talk about why knitting for anxiety works: busy hands, a regulated nervous system, and permission to be a messy beginner. They also cover how to overcome perfectionism, why mistakes are proof of learning, leaving London for Amsterdam, how to make friends as an adult, and preparing your child for the path instead of the path for your child. Meet Alice O’Connell Alice is a former TV and theatre actress (Doctor Who, Silent Witness) and the founder of Learn to Knit in Amsterdam. For 20+ years she has taught beginners around the world how mindful knitting can calm anxiety and build self-compassion. She lives in Amsterdam with her husband and daughter, and her yarn-filled garden studio is her happy place. Find Alice: learntoknit.nl | Instagram & Pinterest @learntoknitonline Takeaways - Mistakes aren't a sign of failure. They're proof of learning. - Give yourself grace and permission not to make anything beautiful yet. - Busy hands and repetitive motion help regulate your nervous system and bring you into the present. - Creativity doesn't have to be performative. - Hard things can clarify your priorities. - Real friendship as an adult takes time and shared experiences. - You don't need an opinion on everything. Try curiosity instead. - Make a joy list Chapters 00:00 Cold Open 00:33 Welcome & What Makes Alice a Sendy Mom 03:01 Catching the Acting Bug at 12 05:19 Owning Her Path With No Connections 06:59 Prepare the Child for the Path 10:10 The Modern Quilting Circle 13:32 How Knitting Found Her on a TV Set 16:17 A Safe Space for Beginners (and a Silly Cast-Off Story) 20:30 Knitting to Ground Yourself, On Set and Off 24:49 Perfectionism and the Messy Beginner Stage 29:15 Flow and the Unwearable Glove 31:58 Midway Break 33:44 Finding the Lump: A Breast Cancer Diagnosis 40:11 Knitting Through Chemo 43:15 Leaving London for Amsterdam 46:29 Making Friends as an Adult 50:05 You Don't Need an Opinion on Everything 51:36 Living the Next Four Decades on Purpose 54:32 Rapid Fire Questions 1:02:46 Parting Words: Chase Your Joy Resources: Mistakes Are Proof of Learning: How Knitting Helped Alice O'Connell Through Anxiety, Cancer, and Starting Over If you loved this episode, try: - From Opera to Sculpture: Overcoming Fear on Stage and in Art with Angela Johnson - Art After Motherhood: Creating Without Guilt with Denise Gasser - The Recipe for Resilience: Illness, Influence, and Inspiration with Rachel Farnsworth Coaching & Subscribe: 👉 Subscribe: sendymom.com 👉 Email Becky: becky@sendymom.com If you want help to be more sendy, click here If you're feeling Sendy and would like to be a guest on the show, please fill out this form

    Mistakes Are Proof of Learning: Alice O'Connell on Knitting, Mindfulness, and Beginning Messy
  2. Oct 17 ·  Bonus

    Empathy Isn't What I Thought

    For years, Becky thought empathy meant saying, "I've been there too." It turns out that can leave people feeling less seen, not more. In this solo episode, Becky shares what she's learned in four years of trying to communicate better. It started with a misunderstanding around her daughter's wedding and led to a surprising moment with her teenage son. Drawing on Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg, Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, and her coach training with Jody Moore, she walks through five strategies to keep hard conversations from turning into catastrophes. IN THIS EPISODE - Why relating to someone's experience isn't the same as empathy - How a pause can be a gift for both of you - Three ways to practice empathy: on strangers, on yourself, and in real conversations - The "It seems like…" mirror that helps people feel seen - Owning your mistakes without defending yourself or sliding into shame - Why asking for what you need isn't selfish, plus a simple sentence to do it THE 5 STRATEGIES 1. Pause 2. Practice empathy 3. Be a mirror 4. Own your mistakes 5. Communicate your needs and requests TRY THIS WEEK In your next tense moment, skip "I think you're…" and try one "It sounds like…" Then stop and listen. CHAPTERS 00:00 Why conversations are hard 00:30 Free Coaching 01:00 What is Empathy? 02:01 The Wedding Disaster That Started it All 03:16 Strategy 1: Pause 05:27 Strategy 2: Practice Empathy 09:05 Strategy 3: Be a Mirror 10:56 Strategy 4: Own Your Mistakes 12:39 Strategy 5: Communicate your Needs and Requests 16:07 Closing FREE DOWNLOAD: Sendy Mom Feelings Guide: [add link] FIND RESOURCES HERE: Empathy Isn't What I Thought It Was: 5 Strategies for Hard Conversations FURTHER LISTENING: Hard Conversations, Healthy Boundaries, and Mediation Overwhelmed Mom? How 30 Minutes in Nature Can Change Your Spiritual Life WORK WITH BECKY: Book a free coaching session: https://sendymom.com/freecoaching/ CONNECT: Website: https://sendymom.com Instagram: @beckyb.coach What does being sendy mean to you? Tell Becky in the comments or send her a message on Instagram.

  3. Oct 3

    Your Body Knows How to Heal: Bowen Therapy, Fascia, and the Gift in the Trial

    What if your hardest seasons are actually gifts? At 30, Wendy Johnson was so sick she could barely remember her own name, and no doctor had answers. Her search for natural healing led her to muscle testing, herbs, and eventually Bowenwork, a gentle therapy that works through the fascia and nervous system to help the body remember how to heal. Then her 20-month-old daughter went into kidney failure, and Wendy learned healing sometimes means herbs AND modern medicine. Becky and Wendy talk about what Bowen therapy is, how stored trauma lives in the body, caring for aging parents on hospice, and why Wendy calls trials gifts. Plus: a non-refundable ticket to Italy and a hot air balloon dare. This episode shares personal experiences and is not medical advice. Meet Wendy Johnson: Wendy is a Bowenwork practitioner in Highland, Utah, a mother of four daughters, and grandmother of nine. Since her 30s she has been on a body-mind-spirit quest, learning muscle testing, herbs, and emotional release work. After Bowenwork helped her husband's sciatica and her own post-COVID brain fog, she completed all 12 levels of practitioner training. She believes our bodies are amazing and able to heal given the right input. 🌿 UtahValleyBowenwork.com Chapters: 00:00 What Makes Wendy a Sendy Mom? 02:30 Sick at 30 With No Answers 04:53 Muscle Testing and Epstein-Barr 07:19 Going All-In on Herbs 09:29 Antibiotics, Tofu, and Clean Living 12:04 Kidney Failure at 20 Months 16:12 The Transplant Years 18:42 How Bowenwork Found Her 19:20 Fascia, Dams, and the Power of Thought 23:06 What Is Bowenwork? 26:32 Kevin's Sciatica and COVID Brain Fog 28:00 What Happens in a Bowen Session 30:57 Bowen Miracles 34:18 Midway Break 36:28 Every Trial Is a Gift 38:42 Caring for a Father-in-Law on Hospice 41:55 Bridging Time for a Brother-in-Law 45:50 Rapid Fire Questions Takeaways: ✨ Your body knows how to heal. Bowenwork's light moves over the fascia tell the brain, "that's not the original blueprint." ✨ Herbs or medicine? Sometimes both. Gather all the information, then listen to your inner voice. ✨ Healing takes time. The body keeps making changes for 7–10 days after a session. ✨ Every trial can hold a gift: "Help me to find the gift in this. Help me to find peace." ✨ Make it hard to back out. Sit with the fear for 90 seconds, then book the non-refundable ticket. Resources Your Body Knows How to Heal: Bowen Therapy, Fascia, and the Gift in the Trial If you loved this episode, try: 🎧 Natural Healing Roots: Lessons from a Sendy Mom Coaching & Subscribe: 👉 Subscribe: sendymom.com 👉 Email Becky: becky@sendymom.com If you want help to be more sendy, click here If you're feeling Sendy and would like to be a guest on the show, please fill out this form

    Your Body Knows How to Heal: Bowen Therapy, Fascia, and the Gift in the Trial
  4. Sep 19

    If You Don't Try, You're Guaranteed Not to Make It: Pivoting, Pirouettes, and Pictures

    Susan Stange finished last in every single hurdles race she ever ran. Then her dad showed up to watch and told her, "If it weren't for you out there, none of those other guys would be winners." In this episode, Becky sits down with her youngest sister, the twelfth of twelve kids, to talk about the one sentence from Dad that shaped Susan's whole life: "If you don't try out, you're guaranteed not to make it." Susan went from mom blogger to birth photographer, became a doula during COVID, planned her own peaceful home birth, took up adult ballet for beginners after a foot zoning session, and now shoots and creates content for her kids' soccer club. The sisters also talk honestly about a season when saying no made Susan miserable, how asking for help and remembering God brought her back, and how to raise resilient kids who never blame their teammates. Find Susan: susanstange.com | Instagram @susan.joy.az Takeaways - You only fail if you don't try. Try it, and if you need to, pivot. - You don't have to be good at something for it to fill you. Find the creative medium you enjoy. - Closing a chapter on purpose isn't giving up. It makes room for what's next. - Saying no to everything can make you just as unhappy as saying yes to everything. Choose your yes. - Asking for help takes courage. Journaling, counseling, and faith can all help you find your way back. - Help kids pick one goal they can control, and never blame your teammates. - You don't have to be consistent. Be consistently trying. - Everybody is necessary, even the one who finishes last. Resources If You Don't Try, You're Guaranteed Not to Make It: Pivoting, Pirouettes, and Pictures If you loved this episode, try: - From Opera to Sculpture: Overcoming Fear on Stage and in Art with Angela Johnson  - Resilient Parenting, Risk-Taking, and Medical Aesthetics Done Right with Rachel Lark - ADHD, Theatre Fitness, and Using Your Energy as a Superpower with Emily McKinney  Coaching & Subscribe: 👉 Subscribe: sendymom.com 👉 Email Becky: becky@sendymom.com If you want help to be more sendy, click here If you're feeling Sendy and would like to be a guest on the show, please fill out this form

    If You Don't Try, You're Guaranteed Not to Make It: Pivoting, Pirouettes, and Pictures
  5. Sep 2

    God Doesn't Want Us To Be Safe

    She got herself to cross country practice. She paid for it. Her mom never chased her about piano, or hair, or being on time — she just loved her kids, and never once judged herself for how she was doing it. Decades later, Nicole has driven her own family through thirteen countries in five months, and once lay in bed paralyzed with fear over a $10 Spanish lesson. In this episode, Nicole and Becky talk about moms who provide everything versus moms who provide nothing, why she told her first grader's teacher "no," and why she thinks safety is quietly killing our communities. Meet Nicole Gardner Nicole Gardner is a mother of six, the tenth of eleven children, and a certified life coach trained through the Brave Thinking Institute and Jody Moore's Better Than Happy Coach Training Program. She and her husband once shipped their van to Spain and spent five months driving their kids through thirteen countries, from Morocco to Egypt. In the middle of raising teenagers, she's learning Spanish and taking piano for the first time in her life. She loves easily, drops judgment fast, and is quietly compiling her ninety-year-old mother's life story one sibling interview at a time. @momcoachnicole nicolegardnercoaching.com Podcast - Becoming with Nicole Gardner Takeaways - Do it scared - There is no perfect way to raise a family - Letting a six-year-old fail at turning in homework is cheap - What you focus on increases - Safety isn't the goal. Growth is - Your job as a mom is to make them not need you - Notice how you talk to yourself. Then answer yourself the way you'd answer a friend. Chapters: 00:33 Doing it Scared with Preply 03:54 Tenth of Eleven: Childhood and Her Parents' Divorce 06:49 The Mom Who Never Judged Herself — And Why That Mattered 12:14 Chores, Consequences, and Raising Kids Who Don't Need You 23:46 5 Months, 13 Countries: What a Family Sabbatical Really Looks Like 27:36 Midway 29:23 At a Crossroads 30:33 The Forge: Her Husband's Radical Homeschool Dream 35:55 25 Years a Mom — Then What? Finding Her Next Chapter 36:53 Organization Hacks 47:05 The 3 Skills Every Life Coach Needs: Love, Neutrality, Space 49:59 "What You Focus On Increases": Radical Acceptance in Marriage & Motherhood 51:24 Is Too Much Safety Hurting Our Kids? A Mom's Take 55:17 Rapid Fire Questions If you liked this, you'll love these: 1. Radical Acceptance with Miriam Wood 8. Fierce Family Love: Traditions, Europe Bike Trips, and Courage Letting Go So You Can Soar: 4 Lessons in Courage Resources: "I Just Did It Anyway": 4 Lessons in Courage from Nicole Gardner Subscribe: Sendymom.com sendymom.com/freecoaching

    God Doesn't Want Us To Be Safe
  6. Aug 8

    Letting Go to Make Room for Everything

    Allison Lee has let go of a lot: her own degree, a "perfect" interview, control over the weather on every family trip. What she's found on the other side is a marriage built like a team, four kids who choose their own hard things, and a life she wakes up grateful for every morning. In this episode, Allison and Becky talk about raising resilient kids without forcing them, going back to work after 20 years at home, camping in a tiny van across Iceland, and the line her sister-in-law dropped on her: "Your whole life is an interview." Meet Allison Lee Allison Lee is a wife to an ultra-runner, mother of four, and full-time administrative secretary at a junior high who moves through challenge, change, and chaos with quiet, unshakable faith. She's the fourth of six kids, a lifelong "starter" of clubs and ideas, and someone who believes the best version of life is usually just on the other side of what scares you. Off the clock, she's chasing northern lights from an empty road in Iceland, filling a gratitude journal one line at a time, and building family traditions — from cardboard-airplane "vacations" to road-trip playlists — that keep her big, close-knit family coming back to each other. Takeaways Growth needs exiting comfort zones and real choice.Letting kids quit, once thought through, builds resilience."Your whole life is an interview" — show up before you need anything.No perfect plan needed. Book the trip.Gratitude is a practice — one line a day changes what you notice. Chapters 00:00 Introducing Allison Lee 01:50 "Let Go of the Life You're Living" — Where the Quote Landed 04:13 Growing Up the Peacemaker of Six 08:54 Health Scares and a Lifelong Fascination With the Heart 13:29 Marriage as a Team: Ultra Running and Raising Courageous Kids 18:49 The Tackle Football Story: Letting Kids Choose Their Own Hard 23:22 Family First: In-Laws, Holidays, and Letting Kids Leave the Nest 26:48 From Volunteer to Junior High Secretary: Going Back to Work 32:43 "Your Whole Life Is an Interview" 37:22 Building a Life of Goodness: Gratitude and "The Cup" 39:41 Making Memories: COVID Pretend Trips and Road-Trip Playlists 44:10 Extended Family Reunions and Staying Connected 47:49 Camping in Iceland: Taking the First Courageous Step 52:19 The Northern Lights and Embracing the Unplanned 59:12 Rapid Fire Questions Resources Letting Go So You Can Soar: 4 Lessons in Courage If you loved this episode, try: - Fierce Family Love: Traditions, Europe Bike Trips, and Courage with Kim Jonas  - How to Do Hard Things: Pain, Purpose & Personal Growth Coaching & Subscribe 👉 Subscribe: sendymom.com 👉 Email Becky: becky@sendymom.com If you want help to be more sendy, click here (https://beckybcoaching.com) If you're feeling Sendy and would like to be a guest on the show, please fill out this form

    Letting Go to Make Room for Everything
  7. Aug 1 ·  Bonus

    Bonus: Mighty Be Our Powers: The Courage of Leymah Gbowee

    Close your eyes and imagine a world where children as young as eight are carrying AK-47 rifles down your street, where young girls are used for sex daily just to survive. That was Liberia during fourteen years of civil war — and it's the world Leymah Gbowee decided to stand up against, not with a weapon, but with a white t-shirt, hours spent sitting on bare ground with her sisters in the rain and heat, and a refusal to leave a room until peace was signed. In this Sendy Spotlight, we trace Leymah's path from a childhood marked by poverty, an abusive relationship, and crushing depression, through the moment a single conversation turned her personal pain into a political calling, to the day she and hundreds of Liberian women — Christian and Muslim, standing together — locked arms around a peace conference and refused to move until Charles Taylor's government and the rebel factions signed an agreement to end the war. We'll also explore the historical roots of Liberia's conflict, the philosophy of reconciliation and restorative justice that shaped Leymah's life after the war, and what her 2011 Nobel Peace Prize–winning story teaches us about courage, forgiveness, and refusing to keep running. Key TakeawaysYour pain can become your qualificationPersonal pain is often politicalCourage doesn't always require a weaponForgiveness is about your own freedom, not the other person's innocenceSomeone believing in you can change everythingThe people closest to a problem often understand the solution bestChapters00:00 Sendy Spotlight on Leymah Gbowee 01:43 THE LIBERIA SHE WAS BORN INTO 04:21 LESSON 1: WHAT ARE YOU RUNNING FROM? 11:41 LESSON 2: EQUALITY DOESN'T MEAN EQUAL 15:39 LESSON 3: IT SOMETIMES TAKES ANOTHER PERSON TO LIFT YOU 18:26 LESSON 4: RECONCILIATION IS HOW YOU GET FREE 24:44 CLOSING If you loved this, try: 9. From Trafficking Survivor to Advocate: Faith's Story 24. Women Doing Something! Teaching Love with Rachel Miner of Bellwether International 30. How You Can Help End Poverty: From Crickets to Crops and Feeding the 7,000 If you are considering a church mission and want it to be easy and fun, e-mail "easy mission" to beckybcoaching@gmail.com.

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

The hardest part of achieving a goal is starting. Being sendy means making courageous decisions to try something before you have all of the answers. This podcast will remind you of the remarkable life you are living and will give you new ideas to make your life more meaningful and exciting and give you courage to accomplish your goals by stopping the negative voices in your head and just sending it!

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