I'm touched out. I say that all the time. Before I became a parent I didn't know that was possible. But once I became a mom my body was no longer my own; it belonged to my children. But I didn't have a way to talk about the feeling of being touched out until I read the stunning book by Amanda Montei of the same name—TOUCHED OUT. There is an expectation gap between what we imagine motherhood looks like and what it actually is and the cultural script for motherhood has often been written by men.

Today we get into the loneliness and alienation of motherhood, what it means to be touched out and what sex looks like after becoming a mom.

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Bestselling author Elle Cosimano (of the famed Finlay Donovan series) was miserable in her job working in real estate. Then her mother offered to care for her children for the summer and take on the physical and mental load of parenting so that Elle could try to write her own book. That moment of receiving permission to do something for herself, completely changed Elle's life and put her on the path to writing her first book, to finding an agent, to publishing a book and then many books and then hitting the bestseller lists.

And along the way Elle connected with other women who were also blowing up their lives to switch careers to become authors. Those women inspired her every single day to keep going.

This is about women lifting each other up and supporting one another unconditionally. It is about the fear and shame and guilt many of us have about doing something that seems selfish, that is for ourselves.

Elle Cosimano has inspired me so much on my own journey and I know that she is going to inspire you.

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On today's Sunday Nice things we have an episode of the podcast Your New Life Blend with my dear friend, soul mate and constant companion Glynnis MacNicol talking all about her new memoir about eating all of the cheese and delicious food and having all of the sex in Paris with host Shoshanna Hecht.

Glynnis MacNicol spent the long stretch of COVID lockdown mostly alone in small Upper West Side apartment, mostly without really touching another person. So by summer 2021, after vaccines had rolled out and restrictions were finally lifting, she jumped at the chance to stay at a friend's apartment in Paris, and immediately bought a plane ticket out of her pandemic-imposed solitude. Landing in Paris she found a city just waking up from its own lockdown, and felt in Parisians all around her the same urgent, greedy desire to enjoy every pleasure life had to offer - food (cheese, croissants, chocolate), community (in-person, Zoom be damned), and connection (very much in person, very pleasurable, very much enjoyed). She recounts it all and then some in her joyful, decadent, and insightful new memoir, "I'm Mostly Here To Enjoy Myself: One Woman's Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris," coming in June, which dares to suggest that women have the right to enjoy themselves - and their choices - fully and gloriously, without needing permission. In this episode of "Your New Life Blend," Glynnis talks to host Shoshanna Hecht about how seeking & claiming pleasure is actually a radical feminist act; the power of a free woman freely making her own choices; the joys of embracing your life unfolding at any age; and why we all deserve to truly enjoy ourselves.

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