This Week in Life

Danielle Hickman
  • 5.0 (3)
  • SELF-IMPROVEMENT
  • UPDATED WEEKLY
This Week in Life

Welcome to This Week in Life. This is a podcast dedicated to honoring the human experience and the wisdom that we can extract from life’s ups, downs and everything in between. I’m your host, Dani Hickman. I’m a psychotherapist, personal growth enthusiast and, most importantly, a beautifully flawed human just doing her best to alchemize life’s struggles into potent wisdom. This week in life is a compilation of teachings and learnings from my own life in the hopes to support you in yours. I’m glad you’re here. I invite you to take what resonates and leave the rest.

Episodes

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    Embracing What We Can’t Control: Finding Peace in Surrender

    This Week in Life, we’re diving deep into the journey of surrender—the kind that takes us beyond just saying “I accept this” and into truly embodying that acceptance. In a world where control feels like power, surrender can feel like the opposite, yet it’s often the only path to peace when life throws us challenges we can’t change. Using personal stories from my own journey, I explore the reality of embodying surrender and letting go of control, even when every part of us resists. Together, we’ll walk through steps to soften into moments that feel hard, cultivating a practice that opens us to deeper acceptance and release. In this episode, we'll cover: Redefining surrender as an active state, not passive resignation How to recognize physical tension and soften into surrender, allowing the body to guide us in letting go Practical steps for accepting hard truths, without overthinking or interpreting them Allowing emotional release as part of surrender—making space for grief, fear or any feelings that arise I invite you to join me as we open to this practice of surrender together. If you’d like extra support, there’s a guided visualization linked below to help you embody surrender in real-time. Sending you lots of love as you navigate the art of letting go—one step at a time. Resource mentioned in the episode: Dowload the guided visualization here

    10 min

  2. JAN 13

    Reframing Shame: Finding Compassion in the Desire to Be Loved

    This Week in Life, we’re exploring one of the most complex emotions: shame. It’s a feeling many of us live with unknowingly, shaping our behaviors, relationships, and sense of self. But what if shame could be understood differently—as a sign of an innocent desire to be loved? In this episode, I share my personal journey of uncovering and confronting toxic shame, particularly during the challenges of pregnancy and postpartum. Together, we’ll discuss: How shame manifests in the body, mind, and behaviors. The role shame plays in our nervous system’s fight/flight/freeze responses. How to cultivate self-compassion as a powerful antidote to shame. This conversation is an invitation to approach your shame with kindness and curiosity rather than judgment. Whether shame shows up as self-criticism, defensiveness, or people-pleasing, this episode offers tools to gently shine a light on it and move toward healing. You are not broken—you are human. And your desire to be loved is a beautiful part of who you are. Listen now and start your journey toward self-compassion and acceptance.   Resource mentioned in the episode: To support you in meeting shame with compassion, download the guided visualization linked below. This practice offers a nurturing approach to connecting with and unburdening the parts of you that carry shame.  Download Here

    15 min

  3. JAN 6

    Beyond Self-Improvement Embracing the Parts of You That Feel Hard to Love

    This Week in Life, we’re shifting our focus from “fixing” to fully accepting ourselves, including the parts we’d rather ignore. In a world that pressures us to improve and overcome, I challenge the idea that self-improvement means rejecting the parts of ourselves we find uncomfortable or dysfunctional. In this episode, we’ll explore: Why many of our “problematic” parts, like anger or anxiety, developed as protective measures The concept of welcoming every part of ourselves, especially those that feel hard to love Practical steps to create a compassionate dialogue with your inner self without the goal of erasing or “fixing” it How true healing can emerge when we stop forcing change and start embracing who we are If you’re ready to find a different kind of growth—one rooted in self-love rather than self-improvement—join me. Let’s embark on a journey of gentle curiosity and acceptance, creating space for real connection with all aspects of who we are. Resource mentioned in the episode: To support you in meeting your parts with compassion, download the guided visualization linked below. This practice offers a nurturing approach to connecting with yourself, exactly as you are. Click here for the download!

    13 min

  4. JAN 6

    The Grief of What We Expected But Didn’t Receive

    Grief isn’t always about death or major loss—it can also arise in the quiet, unspoken spaces between our expectations and reality. This Week in Life, I’m opening the door to this subtle, often unacknowledged form of grief. I’m sharing my personal experience with the grief I’ve encountered during my pregnancy and postpartum journey, while exploring Francis Weller’s 4th Gate of Grief: What We Expected and Did Not Receive. In this episode, we’ll uncover how grief often lives under feelings of anger, frustration, and resentment, waiting to be seen and felt. Together, we’ll explore how to: Recognize grief that doesn’t always "make sense" but is very real. Hold space for unmet expectations with tenderness and compassion. Use curious questions and body awareness to give grief permission to be released.  Grief has wisdom to offer us, teaching us about our depths, resilience, and capacity for love. Join me as we honor this universal experience and explore the deep healing that can come from naming and feeling the grief we carry. Tune in now to begin this compassionate journey. As Carl Jung beautifully reminds us: “Embrace your grief, for there your soul will grow.” Resources Mentioned in the episode: Francis Weller’s The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief Guided visualization for sitting with grief found here

    9 min

  5. JAN 6

    Navigating the In-Between: Embracing Change and Transformation

    This Week in Life, I’m reflecting on the feeling of being lost during times of transition and change. Inspired by the work of Francis Weller, I explore what it means to navigate the liminal space between who we once were and who we are becoming. As I share my own experiences of chosen and forced initiations—like becoming a mother and coping with loss—I invite you to consider the emotional complexity that comes with these pivotal moments. In this episode, we’ll delve into: The concept of initiation and the significance of the in-between space as we undergo transformation. How we can choose to “ripen” in these moments, allowing our pain and grief to become sources of wisdom rather than obstacles. The challenges of navigating multiple identities, especially during significant life changes, and how to honor the grief that accompanies our growth. Practical strategies for embracing feelings of being lost and cultivating compassion within ourselves during these difficult times. I share a personal story about my journey through motherhood and the raw emotions that surfaced, reminding us that it’s okay to feel lost and to allow ourselves to grieve what we have left behind. This episode encourages you to pause, breathe, and acknowledge your own feelings of uncertainty, inviting you to surrender to the process of transformation. Join me in this exploration of the sacred in-between as we discover how to create space for our emotions, learn from our experiences, and step forward into our evolving selves with love and grace. As always, I’m sending you so much love during this initiatory season of life, and I invite you to take it one step at a time.

    14 min

  6. TRAILER

    Trailer

    Welcome to This Week in Life! I’m your host, Dani Hickman—a psychotherapist, personal growth enthusiast, and most importantly: a human doing my best to alchemize life’s struggles into wisdom. This is a podcast dedicated to honoring the human experience by exploring the ups, downs, and in-betweens of life, offering lessons from my work with clients and my own journey to support you in yours. Each week, we’ll dive into topics like mental health, spirituality, and relationships. I’m so glad you’re here—take what resonates and leave the rest.

    1 min

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Welcome to This Week in Life. This is a podcast dedicated to honoring the human experience and the wisdom that we can extract from life’s ups, downs and everything in between. I’m your host, Dani Hickman. I’m a psychotherapist, personal growth enthusiast and, most importantly, a beautifully flawed human just doing her best to alchemize life’s struggles into potent wisdom. This week in life is a compilation of teachings and learnings from my own life in the hopes to support you in yours. I’m glad you’re here. I invite you to take what resonates and leave the rest.

Information

  • Creator
    Danielle Hickman
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    6
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2024
  • Show Website
    This Week in Life

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