Have you ever been in a room full of brilliant, accomplished women — genuinely inspired, genuinely moved — and then found the comparison spiral creeping in when you were alone with your thoughts? That's Comparanoia. And I had a bad case of it recently.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak at Quest, a remarkable storytelling event for women in their third act created by Diana Place of Third Act Quest. I was also there as the event photographer, which meant I spent days behind my lens watching incredible women take the stage and share their most powerful stories. I loved every minute of it.

And then my turn got closer. And in the quiet moments alone, running through my talk for the hundredth time, the voice showed up. Her story is more dramatic. She's more accomplished. She's more everything. Who am I to be up here after that?

In this episode I share what finally got me out of my own head — it came down to one word — and why I've come to believe that curiosity and Comparanoia genuinely cannot exist in the same moment. I also share four practical tools for getting out of the spiral the next time it shows up for you.

You are not behind. Your path is not finished. This one's for you.

Beauty culture is loud. And most of us have been listening to it for so long we've forgotten it was never actually our voice.

Writer, meditation teacher, and midlife coach Skylar Liberty Rose joins me for a conversation that kept surprising me. We're talking about beauty standards, the invisible pressure women carry around their appearance, and what it feels like to finally start shedding expectations you never consciously agreed to.

Skylar believes midlife is both a reckoning and an invitation. And in this conversation she makes a compelling case that the rules we've been handed about how we should look and how we should age were never really ours to begin with.

We get into her essay in Midlife Private Parts, her "is this mine?" practice for interrupting negative self-talk, why she started doing over-the-top mirror monologues (and why they actually work), how guided meditation carried her through a brain tumor diagnosis and craniotomy in 2022, and what aging has given her that her younger self simply couldn't have received.

This one is for any woman who's ready to stop shrinking and start becoming.

🔗 Find links to Skylar's work, her guided meditations on Insight Timer, and her ceremonies for midlife women in the show notes at [latebloomerliving.com/episode271]

🌻 If you’re feeling inspired, I’d love for you to share your thoughts about this episode on social media and tag me @latebloomerliving.

🌻Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode!

🌻 Need a little more FUN in your life? Come to The PLAYshop! Sign up for the waitlist and get in on the fun! 🛼 💥

You can also join the Age Agitators Club for more fun and inspiration as we navigate midlife together. Find out more at https://www.latebloomerliving.com/

Have you ever had one embarrassing moment — one failed public speaking experience, one bad drawing, one time you couldn't keep up — and quietly decided that was just who you are?

That's what this episode is about.

After a conversation with psychologist Gail Rice about re-storying our lives, something clicked for Yvonne — and it came straight from her work as a photographer. When she shoots headshots in burst mode, she captures dozens of frames of the same person in seconds. One frame? Guarded. The next? Laughing. Same person, completely different story.

And yet most of us are walking around defined by a single frame — one moment, usually from childhood, with very little context and even less life experience.

In this solo episode, Yvonne explores what happens when we confuse one awkward moment for the whole truth about who we are — and what it looks like to start creating new frames instead.

Because you are not the worst photo ever taken of you. You are the entire album. And the next frame hasn't even been taken yet.

🎧 If this one resonates, go back and listen to last week's conversation with Gail Rice — it's the episode that sparked this one.

Late Bloomer Living — because midlife is not the end of becoming.

🌻 If you’re feeling inspired, I’d love for you to share your thoughts about this episode on social media and tag me @latebloomerliving.

🌻Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode!

🌻 Need a little more FUN in your life? Come to The PLAYshop! Sign up for the waitlist and get in on the fun! 🛼 💥

You can also join the Age Agitators Club for more fun and inspiration as we navigate midlife together. Find out more at https://www.latebloomerliving.com/