Why do midlife women stop trying things? Not the big rebellious things — the small ones. The new café, the different route home, the conversation with the woman next to you on the plane.

This episode is the final part of the SPACE method — a five-step framework Monique developed for midlife women drowning in everyone else's needs. E is for Explore: how to put novelty back into a brain that has stopped expecting it.

You'll hear:

• Why life satisfaction follows a U-shaped curve through your forties and fifties (and why the curve rises again) • Neuroscientist Dr David Eagleman's Novelty Rule and how it changes the way your brain experiences time • The 52 Yes List — one new thing a week for a year — and how to actually start

Plus a Dear Blokes note for the men who love us, and what listeners wrote in when asked: where do you escape when you need a moment?

If this is your first episode, welcome. Start anywhere. Stay for the conversation about what comes next.

Additional Resources:

• Your SPACE Prescription - Anti Guilt Calculator
• Free Weekly Newsletter
• Dear Blokes Downloadable
• Setting Boundaries That Stick - checklist
• 52 Ideas for YOUR Version of A Grown Up's Gap Year

📚 Get your copy of A Grown Up’s Gap Year the book, from Amazon, moniquevantulder.com, bookshops and libraries, subscribe to the podcast, and take the first step toward your own A Grown Up’s Gap Year.

• Monique's LinkedIn
• Monique's Instagram

This episode was recorded before the current fuel crisis. Please check current travel advisories and official government advice before booking or travelling.

You’ve simplified. Planned. Acted. Connected.

Now — what if you actually went somewhere?

Did something?

Said yes to the thing that’s been quietly calling you?

In this episode, Monique explores why solo travel over 50 can be so much more than a holiday. Research suggests novelty changes how we experience time, which means the antidote to feeling life rush past may not be a mid-life crisis. It might just be a Tuesday afternoon somewhere you’ve never been.

Less Eat Pray Love. More Shirley Valentine. Minus the Greek love affair.

Reader stories, the 52 Yeses concept, running away lite, why a tiny trip counts just as much as a plane ticket, and why the U-curve of life satisfaction suggests many of us are already climbing the good side.

For women who have done everything for everyone else and are starting to wonder, very reasonably:

What about my life?

Season Four is coming.

But first — go explore something. Anything.

Rebecca Kaye:

• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Facebook

Additional Resources:

• Your SPACE Prescription - Anti Guilt Calculator
• Free Weekly Newsletter
• Dear Blokes Downloadable
• Setting Boundaries That Stick - checklist
• 52 Ideas for YOUR Version of A Grown Up's Gap Year

📚 Get your copy of A Grown Up’s Gap Year the book, from Amazon, moniquevantulder.com, bookshops and libraries, subscribe to the podcast, and take the first step toward your own A Grown Up’s Gap Year.

• Monique's LinkedIn
• Monique's Instagram

If you've ever felt drawn to Japan - its quiet beauty, its rituals, its unhurried way of moving through the world - this conversation is for you.

Today I'm speaking with Hiroko Yoda, Tokyo-based author, translator, folklorist, and certified kimono consultant. Her book Eight Million Ways to Happiness is the culmination of more than a decade of research, exploration, and living in Japan. It's a cultural history of the Japanese spiritual landscape - and a roadmap for anyone questing for meaning in the modern world, without locking themselves into any specific faith or belief system.

And I am thrilled to say this is her first Australian podcast interview.

In this conversation, we explore:

• What Japan's eight million gods and spirits tell us about finding meaning in the everyday
• How Japanese spiritual traditions - from shrine visits to seasonal rituals - can help us feel more grounded and present
• The concept of awe and why seeking wonder in ordinary life changes everything
• What Japan's elders have taught Hiroko about what really matters in the second half of life
• How to reconnect with nature and the seasons as a doorway to something deeper
• Whether Japan's quiet everyday spirituality translates to our busy Western lives - or whether it's a simplistic outsider fantasy
• How to weave a meaningful experience into a trip to Japan without it feeling like a tourist checklist

This is a conversation about slowing down, finding hidden meaning in the everyday, and what an ancient culture might offer a modern world that is moving very, very fast.

Episode Resources:

• Hiroko's website: hirokoyoda.com
• Hiroko's Newsletter: blog.hirokoyoda.com
• Instagram: @hi_yoda_1

Additional Resources:

• Your SPACE Prescription - Anti Guilt Calculator
• Free Weekly Newsletter
• Dear Blokes Downloadable
• Setting Boundaries That Stick - checklist
• 52 Ideas for YOUR Version of A Grown Up's Gap Year

📚 Get your copy of A Grown Up’s Gap Year the book, from Amazon, moniquevantulder.com, bookshops and libraries, subscribe to the podcast, and take the first step toward your own A Grown Up’s Gap Year.

• Monique's LinkedIn
• Monique's Instagram