Hi SweetSmarties! I was so excited to interview Oona Hanson this month! I have been aware of her work for many years, so getting to talk to her directly was a dream come true! We both have a lot of theoretical knowledge about Body Image and developing a healthy relationship to food, eating, digestion, etc., and while I really appreciate that, I wanted to focus on practical applications during this conversation. We discuss concrete steps we can actually take in our daily lives to improve this, as well as warning signs to help identify more severe issues, such as a variety of disordered behavior. I also asked her for some confidence advice, and she shared the gems of validating our feelings and expressing compassion towards ourselves. If you're interested in athletics, there's some special content in this episode for you that's pretty rare for this show, because it's not a topic I often choose to feature. :) I hope you find our talk helpful, and enjoy listening to us. Until next time my lovelies! <3

P.S. This was a remote interview with some tech challenges, so I recorded a brief addendum explaining all that, and did my best to edit out all our misalignments to improve your listening experience. 🪻

Hi everyone, I got to interview Jennifer Maslar Teer from Beach Cities Literacy, and I’m so excited for you to learn about all her helpful services! She’s a reading interventionist, special education teacher, an executive functioning coach, accountability partner, IEP (Individualized Education Program) advocate, and so much more! We spoke about her background, her path to this beautiful, important, fulfilling work, and then dove a little deeper into the details of how she helps people in a variety of ways. We also discussed how overextended people tend to be these days, and some of the consequences of that, as well as psychological struggles of people under immense pressure to excel, such as the connection among perfectionism, procrastination, self-sabotage, shame, ego, and other complexly inter-related factors. There are so many gems here, so I hope you enjoy listening to this episode, and our conversation benefits you on multiple levels. If you’d like to collaborate with Jennifer, you can visit her website https://beachcitiesliteracy.com. Thanks for sharing our compassionate curiosity, openness to growth, and supporting this project I pour my soul into; talk to you next time, SweetSmarties! 📖💖🐚

Hi everybody, I had the best time talking to Natalie Croswell, Fit4Mom Torrance franchise owner, the second person to approach me for an interview! Can you believe it?! Two now! We're leveling up! :D

We spoke about the value of developing genuine bonds from a place of empathy and understanding, building a beautifully supportive community of connected caregivers, as I mentioned in my title. :)

We also discussed healthy, practical ways to nurture ourselves, and increase our capacity to care for others, while specifying that we don't always have to frame our existence through a caregiving lens.

We're multifaceted people who play many roles in our lives, and we need resources to fulfill all of them, so it's most important that we find ways to replenish what we spend, no matter how we choose to use them. <3

From our conversation, it seems like Fit4Mom helps tend to many of those aspects, from physical fitness to mental and social heath, and beyond!

We touched on so much more, learned and grew from each other, and shared some fun giggles, which I particularly enjoyed. 😄

I’m excited for the positive impact this episode will have, which Fit4Mom calls the ripple! That concept of our interconnectedness really exemplifies how this company cares for so many dimensions of our wellbeing! 💖

Although I haven’t experienced it directly, from Natalie’s account, the focus on relationships, vulnerable authenticity, realistic skill development, and general holistic approach all sounds very commendable! 🪽

I look forward to discovering how far our ripple will expand! 💓

Fit4Mom calls May the “Month of Mama,” and is doing many things to celebrate that!

You can attend a whole week of classes for free that month, using the link to this trial: https://torrance.fit4mom.com/month-of-mama

If you’re a local independent business (in the South Bay of Los Angeles County), you can also apply to participate in their event on Monday, May 12th, 10am-12pm at Charles H. Wilson Park in Torrance, California with this link: https://mom-torrance.paperform.co/

Lastly, you can visit the Torrance location’s website torrance.fit4mom.com or their Instagram page @fit4momtorrance.

Woo, what great timing for this episode publication! I hope you love listening to it, and that it helps you in some way! 🥰

Talk to you next time! 😇

Love,

T.J. 🪻