Creating Midlife Calm: Coping Skills for Stress & Anxiety in Family, Work & Relationships

This is a delightful episode! Join MJ as she  wraps up her series on Ages & Stages with a guest who went back to law school in her 50's!! What kind of Ager are you? Hopefully an Engager! Not sure what that means? Listen to this episode whether you're 30 or 80 as our guest shares the Engager Mindset.  Most of us  have interests and dreams that are set aside as we raise or family, finish graduate school or work  jobs that feed our landlord but not your soul?  Today's  guest with humor and honesty inspires us to nudge ourself in small ways like taking an art class or an on-line course or big ways like going to law school or starting a small business.  Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

Listen as MJ shares the GPS from young adulthood to old age.  This episode starts where Ep. 38 left off, giving  accessible and vital information to help you navigate each life stage with more ease. Knowledge not only helps us cultivate mental wellness but  it just makes living a whole lot more fun!  One listener commented, "Why do I know more about my car and computer than my human lifespan?" That is the million dollar question--and for free all you  have to do is listen and learn. This is fascinating stuff!! Enjoy!Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

Listen as last week's guest takes on a topic he had not anticipated-- external self-awareness. In this episode, MJ helps guide this young man with  how to take feedback from others so he can answer the question, Who Am I? more fully.  Being open to  feedback  is a learned skill.  MJ shares a process she created to help manage the natural  demon of defensiveness which often causes us to shrug off helpful information about ourself. You'll love the practical application of this episode as this guest moves from being a shrugger to a hugger. Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

What Disney Princess are You? Is your Myers-Briggs type ENFJ or ISTP? Maybe your top two E-Colors are yellow/red. What number are you on the Enneagram? Yes, personality inventories are a fun and helpful way to give us words for what we often know about ourself. Join MJ as she talks with a 20 year old who shares how taking the Enneagram not only helped him answer the question, Who Am I? but allowed him to grow in self-acceptance and worth.  Listen and begin to understand how   self-awareness lays the foundation for a life of authenticity. You may be surprised to learn that there are two types of self-awareness  and that only 10-15% of the population are considered self-aware. No wonder many people don't feel good!Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

Want a GPS for your life?? Listen to this podcast series, as MJ shares with you information about human development: Ages & Stages?  Whether you are 1, 13, 25, 30, 60 or 80 years old you will learn the big question for each life  stage increasing   your self-awareness as well as enriching your relationships with others. Hey, if you use GPS to travel to a new place, turn inward and let ages and stages provide words and a few roadmaps to help you answer the life long question, "Who Am I?"Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

In this episode, MJ speaks with a listener who tried out the  two mindfulness exercises, Notice On The Inside and Notice On The Outside.  Mindfulness is often presented in a way that makes it seem woo woo or  something for Buddhist Monks.  Listen as today's guest helps all of us learn to apply these easy inner workouts to our daily life in practical ways that help us to  feel calmer and give us more mental clarity. I think you will be surprised that when it comes to inner workouts a little goes a long way! #stopfeelinglikecrap!Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

Let's Get Practical! Practical! Practical! If you sing this to the tune of Let's Get Physical you are singing my song! No fancy gyms, no expensive work out clothes are needed to up your Mental Wellness Game. In this episode, MJ shares with you her two foundational Mental Wellness Exercises used by literally thousands of people. They are junior high approved and if you know junior high students their approval means a lot. So, listen, learn and start to feel better today!  Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

Have you taken an attachment quiz-- one of  the latest fads on the internet? Maybe you read an article or heard attachment talked about on the news. Today's episode picks up where last week's left off--the little discussed topic of how do we lay the foundation for our child's mental wellness??  Babies are great teachers but it helps if we are willing to be students. The skills of attachment and attunement are used in all our relationships so even if you don't have a baby you will benefit as MJ talks about the skills of attuning with a baby, a teen and her favorite: family attunement! Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

 There are few things in life that change how we answer the question, Who Am I?  then becoming a parent. While timing and circumstances  are unique to each of us, as the due date gets closer, all of us ask, who am I now that I’m a parent? In today’s episode MJ talks with a  couple who are weeks away from delivering their first child. As you listen you can hear them broadening their identity.  They are  no longer  just someone's child, sibling, neighbor, friend, partner, or coworker. They are slowly stepping to the roles of  mother, father, a mom, a dad and all the love and complexity that comes with raising the next generation.  This  is one of the most fascinating transitions when it comes to our identity. It's perplexing to me how little we talk about the psychological and the inter and intrapersonal experience of becoming a parent. In Inner Challenge terms, how little we Notice on the Inside the transition from me to MWE, a term coined by Dr. Daniel Siegel. Listen to Part 1 as this couple prepares for  an identity update Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support. 

I want to lose weight! I have tried everything!I think about it daily! When I look at all the various diets they all are too much work, too expensive or too confusing. Today's guest is one of the few people I have talked to about losing weight, and trust me I have talked to thousands, that never said any of the above statements. Instead, one night at age 67 he could not get off the floor when he was giving medicine to his dog and he said to himself, I AM going to lose weight. Eighteen months later, he was 120 lbs. lighter and back to his childhood love of swimming. This man defied all the experts, all the commercials, and all the hype and used one powerful tool that guaranteed his success: his mind. Listen to his story which may help you to trust yourself a bit more, keep it simple and realize that all goals are met one meal at a time. As he learned, "I can eat cake, not just the whole cake!"Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.Send us Fan Mail****About the Host:MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and  practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.