Middling Along Emma Thomas

My guest this time is Lou Featherstone - aka Luinluland: fashion legend and accidental midlife influencer who is proud to be growing old disgracefully!
Lou’s story of midlife reinvention is simultaneously hilarious and heart wrenching. Tune in to find out how and why a vicar’s daughter ended up leaving behind her marriage of 20 years and driving from one side of the USA to the other in a bus with over 400 vibrators on board!
Lou and I talk about:
how moving to America was the catalyst for the breakdown of her marriage
the dramatic event that sparked her mission to drive 6,000 miles from one coast of the USA to the other in a converted school bus…
the story of how Lou came to own Susie the 32 foot long converted schoolbus and create the Self Love Revolution Tour
the most defining - and hairiest - moments of her US trip
what she misses about living in the US and what she definitely doesn’t
and much, much more besides!
You can find Lou at:
https://luinluland.com/pages/about-me 
https://www.instagram.com/luinluland
You can also find us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and you can listen to past episodes at https://middlingalong.com  
Join our newsletter, The Messy Middle, for fortnightly goodness into your Inbox: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/323784/90772270045202190/share 
We’re delighted to be listed as one of the Top 25 podcasts for midlife and menopause here: https://www.lattelounge.co.uk/podcasts-about-the-menopause/
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us to share the love and help others find the podcast too! 
You can also find me at https://www.instagram.com/managingthemenopause  or at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer 1-1 coaching and workplace training. 
Get our free 'Guide to your GP appointment' at https://www.managingthemenopause.com/free-resources 

My guest this time is Tanith Carey: Tanith is an award-winning writer and author of 12 books on psychology, parenting and social history, her writing has been featured in the Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times, The Spectator and the Sydney Morning Herald. Her latest book is called ‘Feeling ‘Blah’?: Why anhedonia has left you joyless and how to recapture life’s highs.’
 
In this interview we cover:
How she noticed a ‘lack of joy’ in her own day to day life and subsequently discovered the term “anhedonia” for the first time whilst late-night Googling
the clash between our 'cave-dweller brain' and our 'always-on/more, more, more' modern world of comparison culture and how this hijacks our dopamine reward circuits to create a perfect breeding ground for anhedonia 
what dopamine is actually ‘for’ - it may not be what you think…
our inbuilt ‘negativity bias’ and how to combat it
“glimmers” - little moments of joy that can help reduce cortisol levels
how oestrogen and our other hormones impact the 'feel good chemicals' in us as cyclical beings and especially in peri/menopause
how stress is the greatest enemy of joy there is…and how anticipation of ‘planned in’ activities that bring rest, enjoyment, or feed our ‘spark’ can make such a big difference to how we feel
how joy is actually made up of three different components, rather than being just one thing
how behavioural activation works 
how we 'get our mojo back' - the ‘water pump’ analogy
the impact of exercise and gratitude on our mood
the difference between anhedonia and depression
 
And much, much more!
You can find Tanith at https://www.instagram.com/tanithcarey and https://www.instagram.com/no_more_blah_book and you can buy Feeling Blah fromhttps://www.waterstones.com/book/feeling-blah/tanith-carey/9781801292375 or wherever you buy your books!
 
You can also find us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and you can listen to past episodes at https://middlingalong.com  
 
Join our newsletter, The Messy Middle, for fortnightly goodness into your Inbox: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/323784/90772270045202190/share 
 
We’re delighted to be listed as one of the Top 25 podcasts for midlife and menopause here: https://www.lattelounge.co.uk/podcasts-about-the-menopause/
 
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us to share the love and help others find the podcast too! 
You can also find me at https://www.instagram.com/managingthemenopause  or at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer 1-1 coaching and workplace training. 
Get our free 'Guide to your GP appointment' at https://www.managingthemenopause.com/free-resources 

My guest this time is Katie Windle: Katie is a qualified hypnotherapist and psychotherapist and uses solution focused methods to help those who are being held back in life by anxiety and limiting beliefs to get control back and live a life of joy and ease.
Katie’s own experiences with anxiety, brain fog, overthinking and sleep problems, combined with a stressful teaching career caused her to seek both a solution to her symptoms, and ultimately a change of career. 
In this episode we cover:
How our brains work under stress and why living in constant ‘survival mode’ with a full ‘stress bucket’ creates so many problems
How getting back into the intellectual part of our brains makes us calmer, more motivated, happier and can cope more easily (sounds good right?!)
How our brains work whilst we sleep to empty our ‘stress bucket’ and how hypnotherapy can help us to do the same – and create new patterns of responding
How long it generally takes to create new neural pathways in the brain
The range of issues that hypnotherapy may be able to help with
 
Fascinating stuff! You can find Katie at https://www.thehypnotherapyden.co.uk/ and https://www.instagram.com/thehypnotherapyden
You can also find us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and you can listen to past episodes at https://middlingalong.com  
 
Join our newsletter, The Messy Middle, for fortnightly goodness into your Inbox: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/323784/90772270045202190/share 
 
We’re delighted to be listed as one of the Top 25 podcasts for midlife and menopause here: https://www.lattelounge.co.uk/podcasts-about-the-menopause/
 
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us to share the love and help others find the podcast too! 
You can also find me at https://www.instagram.com/managingthemenopause  or at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer 1-1 coaching and workplace training. 
Get our free 'Guide to your GP appointment' at https://www.managingthemenopause.com/free-resources 
 

My guest this time is Steve Rawlings, founder of Cool Embrace. Steve and his wife Lisa moved from London to leafy, rural Shropshire after Lisa suffered a brain tumour, to get away from their hectic business life and adopt a slower and more tranquil way of life. They were both involved with the fabric industry, Steve in a career spanning 50 years, mainly in specialist textiles relating to military, police, aerospace and temperature-controlling applications.
When Lisa started having night sweats, Steve harnessed his knowledge of the use of these types of fabrics to invent the Cool Embrace intra-blanket, as he couldn’t bear to see her suffer any longer. After Lisa tried the intra-blanket for the first night and slept through for 8 hours straight, she was determined that he should share this revolutionary invention with other women who could benefit from it’s permanent cooling properties. 
Steve talks us through how the blanket works - which is a combination of heat dissipation and moisture control - fascinating if you’re a science geek like me! The blanket has five different layers which in combination help to move water and heat away from the body and spread heat throughout the blanket to ensure the user stays at an optimal and comfortable temperature all night. 
I’ve road-tested the blanket myself over several months, and whilst I don’t suffer from severe night sweats, I can definitely see a difference in how well I sleep and, let’s say, ‘comfort levels’ especially on hotter nights. Cool Embrace has a couple of versions of the blanket in different fabrics and sizes, as well as a silk pillow case that incorporates the cooling technology. 
They have kindly offered listeners a 10% discount code - just enter MTM23 at checkout. They also have a full money back guarantee if you find that the blanket does not work for you - that’s how confident they are that you will love yours too! 
 
https://coolembrace.com/
 
You can also find us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and you can listen to past episodes at https://middlingalong.com  
 
Join our newsletter, The Messy Middle, for fortnightly goodness into your Inbox: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/323784/90772270045202190/share 
 
We’re delighted to be listed as one of the Top 25 podcasts for midlife and menopause here: https://www.lattelounge.co.uk/podcasts-about-the-menopause/
 
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us to share the love and help others find the podcast too! 
You can also find me at https://www.instagram.com/managingthemenopause  or at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer 1-1 coaching and workplace training. 
Get our free 'Guide to your GP appointment' at https://www.managingthemenopause.com/free-resources 

My guest today is Clare Bourne - Clare is a specialist pelvic health physiotherapist and author, based in London, with a passion for supporting women and men throughout their lives. She believes in talking openly about taboo topics and ensuring everyone feels comfortable to get support for problems that may feel embarrassing to talk about.
She worked extensively in the NHS before starting up her own private practice she’s the co-founder of the Pelvic Health Practice, a specialist team of pelvic health physios providing home visits across London and the founder of All About Mum which provides postnatal education cards, webinars and ebooks to support women with all the information they deserve.
Clare is also the author of Strong Foundations: Why pelvic health matters, an empowering guide to your body, which aims to support women to understand their bodies better. 
 
In our chat we’ll cover:
Why our full life story - from childhood onwards - it critical in getting a full picture of our pelvic floor health
Why the first part of her book looks at basic biology and unpicking the lack of understanding we have around our own anatomy
Constipation in childhood and later in life and why this is so important to address
The importance of oestrogen for our pelvic floor health
Why kegels are just one tool in the toolkit and what is the bare minimum she recommends we do daily…
Clare’s three part strategy: Fluids, Fibre, and Movement
Prolapse - it’s more common than you think, and how to advocate for yourself with your GP
You can find Clare at https://www.clare-bourne.com/ and her new book at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strong-Foundations-Clare-Bourne/dp/0008604223
You can also find us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and you can listen to past episodes at https://middlingalong.com  
 
Join our newsletter, The Messy Middle, for fortnightly goodness into your Inbox: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/323784/90772270045202190/share 
 
We’re delighted to be listed as one of the Top 25 podcasts for midlife and menopause here: https://www.lattelounge.co.uk/podcasts-about-the-menopause/
 
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us to share the love and help others find the podcast too! 
You can also find me at https://www.instagram.com/managingthemenopause  or at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer 1-1 coaching and workplace training. 
Get our free 'Guide to your GP appointment' at https://www.managingthemenopause.com/free-resources
 

Jackie Jarvis is a Walking Business Coach and author of Transform Your Life by Walking which documents her time walking the various pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. She runs Netwalking events, and helps business owners and professionals use ‘walking and talking’ as a transformational tool to stimulate clarity, change, strategy and greater wellbeing. 
After the breakdown of her relationship, Jackie took the decision to go solo to walk the rest of the Camino routes, and we talk in this episode about all the life (and business!) lessons that her solo travels to date have provided. We cover:
lessons in letting go of the things get attached to (ie too much stuff, people, a plan);
solo travelling as a woman, learning to love the silence, and getting out of your comfort zone;
trusting the process, and trusting ourselves;
advice for anyone considering a solo walk like this (including the Buen Camino app which Jackie used to navigate);
what was her one non-negotiable travel ‘luxury’; 
the liberating joy of less.
You can find Jackie at https://www.walkingbusinesscoach.com/about-jackie-jarvis and buy a copy of her book here https://theendlessbookcase.com/books/transform-your-life-by-walking/
 
You can also find us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and you can listen to past episodes at https://middlingalong.com  
 
Join our newsletter, The Messy Middle, for fortnightly goodness into your Inbox: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/323784/90772270045202190/share 
 
We’re delighted to be listed as one of the Top 25 podcasts for midlife and menopause here: https://www.lattelounge.co.uk/podcasts-about-the-menopause/
 
It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us to share the love and help others find the podcast too! 
You can also find me at https://www.instagram.com/managingthemenopause  or at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer 1-1 coaching and workplace training. 
Get our free 'Guide to your GP appointment' at https://www.managingthemenopause.com/free-resources