What if you didn't have to love every inch of your body to finally feel at peace with it?

For women navigating midlife, perimenopause, and menopause, changing bodies can bring unexpected emotions, self-doubt, and pressure to look the way we did 10 or 20 years ago. But what if we could stop fighting our bodies and start appreciating everything they do for us?

In this heartfelt episode of the Wise Divine Women Podcast, Dana Irvine welcomes author, body image coach, and educator Anne Poirier, author of The Body Joyful and The Body Neutrality Playbook.

Anne shares her deeply personal journey through childhood body shaming, anorexia, decades of dieting, and eventually discovering a healthier relationship with her body.

Together, Dana and Anne explore how body neutrality can help women move away from self-criticism, reconnect with their personal values, and embrace the changing seasons of life with greater confidence, compassion, and joy.

• Body neutrality vs. body positivity: Why you don't have to love your appearance to respect and care for your body.
• Healing negative self-talk: How childhood experiences and societal expectations influence our beliefs about weight, food, and self-worth.
• Menopause and body image: Giving ourselves permission to grieve physical changes without getting trapped in the past.
• Movement for longevity: Shifting exercise away from weight loss and toward strength, independence, and quality of life.
• Breaking generational cycles: Modeling a healthier relationship with food, movement, and body image for our daughters and future generations.

00:00 – Anne's journey to body acceptance
02:48 – Childhood messages and societal beauty standards
05:32 – Breaking free from lifelong body criticism
08:32 – Understanding body neutrality
11:27 – Appreciating what your body can do
14:09 – Movement, strength, and confidence
16:52 – Inside The Body Neutrality Playbook
21:18 – Challenging beliefs about food and body image
22:47 – Changing the conversation for future generations
24:15 – Discovering your values and motivation
26:36 – Curiosity and compassionate self-talk
29:07 – Anne's books and personal growth
30:27 – Grieving the changes in our bodies
32:04 – Letting go of the perfect-body illusion
35:30 – Choosing a healthier relationship with yourself
38:58 – Why our thoughts are "choiceable"
39:56 – Anne's free body confidence guide

Website: Anne Poirier

Free Resource: Body Confidence Unlocked: Feeling at Home in Your Body Regardless of Size, Shape, or Age. Visit Anne's website for more information.

Dana Irvine, FDNP, is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, breast health educator, and host of the Wise Divine Women Podcast, helping women over 40 understand their hormones, metabolism, breast health, and whole-body wellness.

Explore functional nutrition, personalized wellness, and root-cause health support at:

https://danairvine.com

https://wisedivinewomen.com

From fed up to faith fueled — becoming the Wise Divine Woman you were called to be.

Are you financially prepared for the next chapter of your life?

We spend so much time caring for our families, managing our health, and planning for everyone else's future. But what about our own financial security?

In this empowering episode of the Wise Divine Women Podcast, Dana Irvine welcomes Marcia Mantell, retirement planning expert, author, and Social Security and Medicare specialist, for an honest, practical, and surprisingly fun conversation about women's financial independence.

Whether you're in your 40s, approaching retirement, already retired, or navigating life after the loss of a spouse, Marcia shares why it's never too early—or too late—to take ownership of your financial future.

Together, they explore retirement planning, rising healthcare costs, financial literacy, estate planning, and preparing financially for a longer life.

1. Start saving now. Automate retirement contributions and build consistent savings habits.
2. Protect your financial identity. Understand your credit history, account ownership, and access to household finances.
3. Schedule financial check-ins. Review savings, investments, and future goals at least twice yearly.
4. Know your retirement milestones. Understand Social Security, Medicare, and important retirement decisions.
5. Prepare for rising costs. Plan for healthcare, inflation, housing, and living into your 90s.
6. Organize your estate documents. Review wills, powers of attorney, beneficiaries, and family wishes.
7. Create your Freedom Fund. Build a personal financial account that supports your independence.

00:00 – Financial Awareness for Women
05:26 – Starting Your Retirement Planning Journey
10:01 – Economic Challenges and Organization
14:18 – Creating Your Retirement Checklist
19:13 – Important Retirement Age Milestones
24:43 – Healthcare Costs and Inflation
27:02 – Marcia's Books and Resources
27:53 – Understanding Social Security
30:40 – Planning for Longevity
34:06 – Communication and Financial Legacy
38:21 – Estate Planning and Life After Loss
41:58 – Protecting Credit and Retirement Planning
46:17 – Financial Independence and Your Freedom Fund

Website: Marcia Mantell

Books: What's the Deal with Retirement Planning for Women?

This episode primarily discusses U.S. retirement programs. Canadian listeners should consult Canadian financial planning resources.

Dana Irvine, FDNP, is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, breast health educator, and host of the Wise Divine Women Podcast, supporting women with hormone health, metabolism, breast health, and whole-body wellness.

Functional Wellness: https://danairvine.com

Wise Divine Women: https://wisedivinewomen.com

Subscribe to the Wise Divine Women Podcast and share this episode with a woman who deserves greater financial confidence!

For educational purposes only. Not individualized financial, legal, or tax advice.

Is it menopause, Lyme disease, chronic stress, or something else entirely?

For women navigating perimenopause and menopause, symptoms such as brain fog, fatigue, joint pain, anxiety, inflammation, and disrupted sleep can be confusing. But what happens when these symptoms may be connected to an underlying tick-borne infection?

In this episode of the Wise Divine Women Podcast, Dana Irvine welcomes Dr. Jaquel Patterson, ND, MBA, a nationally recognized leader in naturopathic and functional medicine, educator, and author of Women and Lyme.

Together, they explore the complex relationship between Lyme disease, hormonal changes, immune dysregulation, and women's brain health.

Dr. Patterson shares her clinical experience working with chronic illness, explaining why Lyme disease is sometimes called the great imitator, how testing challenges can delay appropriate care, and why a personalized, integrative approach matters.

This conversation also explores neuroinflammation, mental health, gut health, stress resilience, and the importance of being heard throughout your healthcare journey.

• Why Lyme disease symptoms may overlap with menopause, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and autoimmune conditions.
• Why Lyme disease can be difficult to diagnose and how false-negative tests complicate the journey.
• How estrogen, progesterone, immune function, and inflammation interact.
• The role of antibiotics, herbal approaches, and individualized integrative care.
• How chronic inflammation and infections may influence mood, memory, and cognitive function.
• Why gut health, stress management, and foundational nutrition support overall wellness.
• How to advocate for comprehensive testing and meaningful healthcare conversations.
• Why small, consistent steps can make a difference in rebuilding health.

00:00 – Is It Lyme Disease or Menopause?

02:01 – Recognizing Lyme Symptoms and Testing Challenges

05:56 – Immune Regulation and Functional Medicine

14:11 – Herbal Remedies and Treatment Options

16:36 – Lyme Vaccines and Prevention Research

18:05 – Women's Hormones, Lyme Disease and Brain Health

21:52 – Rebuilding Health and Addressing Root Causes

25:32 – Integrative Healthcare and Being Heard

29:51 – Empowering Women to Advocate for Their Health

33:07 – Small Wins, Hope and Final Words of Wisdom

Book: Women and Lyme

Practice:Fairfield Family Health

Dr. Jaquel Patterson is a nationally recognized leader in naturopathic and functional medicine, an educator for integrative healthcare providers, a sought-after speaker, three-time Amazon bestselling author, and Forbes contributor.

Dana Irvine, FDNP
Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner | Breast Health Educator | Host of Wise Divine Women Podcast

Are you struggling with hormonal changes, brain fog, inflammation, fatigue, or unexplained symptoms?

Discover how a personalized functional nutrition approach can help you better understand your health and identify your next steps.

Visit: https://danairvine.com

Wise Divine Women: https://wisedivinewomen.com

Your body is not the enemy. It is communicating. Let's learn how to listen.

This episode is provided for education and is not a substitute for individualized medical evaluation, diagnosis, or treatment.

Dana Irvine sits down with health coach Jill Gordon to talk about women’s health after 50, why food sensitivities can drive symptoms that get mislabeled as “just aging,” and how mindset changes the way the body responds to healing. Jill also shares the story behind her book and her practical framework for making health feel simpler and more doable.

We discuss how Jill’s work with women over 50 grew out of her daughter’s Crohn’s disease journey, why real food often creates dramatic changes fast, and how stress can block digestion and recovery even when diet is solid. The conversation also covers her FREEDOM framework, NLP, and the importance of choosing curiosity over panic when symptoms show up.

Key topics

• Jill shares why she wrote You’re Over 50, Not Effing Dead after helping more than a thousand women and wanting to reach more people with her approach.
• In this episode: the origin of her health coaching journey, which began with her daughter’s Crohn’s diagnosis and a shift toward real food and holistic care.
• Jill explains how a week of real food changed her daughter’s health and how four months later she was off medication.
• We discuss NLP, how language shapes behavior, and why the body responds to the messages you repeatedly send it.
• Jill breaks down her FREEDOM framework as a simple health guide for women over 50:
  • Find what you want
  • Rest, relax, release
  • Eat real food
  • Engage in community
  • Dig deep
  • Own it
  • Mindset.

Timestamps

00:00 - Dana introduces Jill Gordon and her mission for women over 50
00:56 - Why Jill wrote a book to help more women at scale
02:34 - The Crohn’s disease crisis that started Jill’s food and health journey
03:30 - A real-food reset that changed Jill’s daughter’s health in one week
05:03 - Why symptom panic makes healing more complicated than it needs to be
05:33 - Eliminating inflammatory foods and discovering hidden triggers like corn
06:32 - Get curious instead of assuming symptoms are random
07:05 - Challenging the idea that symptoms are just “old age”
07:31 - Why this life stage needs a different approach to stress and recovery
08:15 - Corn, wheat, carrageenan, and other hidden inflammatory ingredients
09:47 - Why Jill’s book uses a guidebook style instead of a complicated rulebook
10:40 - Why community support is part of real healing
11:09 - Mold toxicity, brain fog, and digging for root causes
11:39 - The “own it” part of taking action in small daily steps
12:38 - How the FREEDOM framework helps rewire habits and thinking
13:45 - Menopause as a new chapter, not a dead end
15:37 - Why doing everything at once usually fails
16:07 - Test, don’t guess, but start with simple food experiments first
17:02 - A family example of congestion improving after air quality changes
18:35 - Why reintroducing trigger foods often brings symptoms back
19:34 - Why lactase does not make dairy safe for everyone
20:25 - Jill’s daughter and the long-term reality of gluten and dairy sensitivity
23:40 - Why wheat in Europe can feel different than wheat in North America
25:50 - Travel, less stress, and the parasympathetic state
26:13 - You can’t control everything, but you can control your reaction
27:17 - Jill’s wisdom word: choose
27:46 - Where to find Jill and her book
29:54 - Closing thoughts and how to connect with the show

Connect with Jill Gordon

Grab her bookYou're Over 50. Not Effing Dead: The FREEDOM System for Women Over 50 to Live, Look and Feel Better

What if the answers you've been searching for aren't found in another supplement, health protocol, or wellness trend—but in learning to listen to the still, small voice within?

In this inspiring episode of the Wise Divine Women Podcast, Dana welcomes Gina Marie Boyd, an integrative health practitioner, Ayurvedic practitioner, and spiritual counselor, for a powerful conversation about spirituality, intuition, functional wellness, and the connection between mind, body, and spirit.

• The mind-body-spirit connection: Why physical wellness is only one part of the whole-person health journey.
• Spiritual awakening and self-discovery: How Gina's recovery journey transformed her understanding of faith, purpose, and healing.
• Ayurveda and personalized wellness: Understanding your unique constitution, or dosha, and why one-size-fits-all approaches don't work for everyone.
• The power of intuition: How creating quiet moments can help you reconnect with your inner wisdom.
• Stress, skin health, and emotional wellness: Exploring how our internal experiences may influence how we feel and look.
• Meditation and grounding: Simple practices including breathwork, spending time in nature, and transcendental meditation.
• Grace and compassion: Releasing perfectionism and learning to honour your individual healing journey.

"Listen to the small still voice within." — Gina Marie Boyd

You don't need a perfect meditation routine, complicated wellness protocol, or another program promising all the answers.

00:00 – Welcome and introduction to Gina Marie Boyd
00:45 – Skin health, aging, and inner wellness
02:40 – Gina's journey from corporate success to recovery
05:07 – Faith, spirituality, and whole-person health
09:19 – Ayurveda and the emotional aspects of wellness
10:52 – Carolyn Myss and Anatomy of the Spirit
12:12 – Learning to listen to your body's signals
15:04 – Cultivating intuition through everyday practices
18:59 – Grounding, breathwork, and mindfulness
21:27 – Understanding Ayurveda and your unique constitution
24:28 – Functional medicine and personalized wellness
26:23 – Transcendental meditation and inner awareness
30:04 – Spiritual awakening and navigating life transitions
36:01 – Gina's REALIGN framework
39:15 – Words of wisdom: Listen within
39:49 – The importance of grace and compassion

Website: https://ginamarieboyd.com
Instagram: @gina.marie.boyd

Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner | Breast Health Educator | Host of Wise Divine Women

Are you ready to stop guessing and begin understanding what your body needs?

Explore personalized functional nutrition, hormone health, breast wellness, and root-cause testing.

Website: https://danairvine.com
Wise Divine Women: https://wisedivinewomen.com

Subscribe to the Wise Divine Women Podcast and share this conversation with a woman who needs encouragement to slow down, reconnect with herself, and embrace her healing journey.

Where Faith Meets Functional Wellness.

Spiritual awakening, Gina Marie Boyd, Ayurveda for women, mind-body-spirit connection, integrative medicine, functional wellness, holistic health for women over 40, intuition and healing, transcendental meditation, stress management, spiritual health, emotional wellness, faith and healing, Wise Divine Women Podcast.

What does it take to overcome life-threatening health challenges, navigate personal loss, and turn your experiences into a passion for helping others?

In this heartfelt episode of the Wise Divine Women Podcast, Dana Irvine welcomes back Lisa Mack, founder of Lisa's Thermography & Wellness, for an inspiring conversation about determination, resilience, holistic health, and the importance of listening to your body.

Lisa shares her remarkable journey, beginning with a childhood diagnosis of congenital heart disease, followed by a heart attack at just 24, open-heart surgery, serious lung complications, and the challenges of becoming a mother despite difficult medical predictions.

Her search for answers to her children's health challenges eventually led her to holistic nutrition and a passion for thermography.

Together, Dana and Lisa explore how personal experiences, emotional stress, inflammation, and lifestyle choices can influence our well-being—and why understanding the whole person matters.

Thermography: Looking Beyond the Surface

Discover how thermography uses non-invasive infrared imaging to assess skin temperature patterns and observe changes over time. Lisa explains why she believes in combining thermography, nutrition, stress management, and compassionate care with conventional healthcare.

In This Episode, You'll Discover:

• How Lisa transformed her health challenges into a mission of helping others.
• The importance of advocating for yourself and your family.
• Why stress management and emotional healing matter.
• How thermography can complement a whole-body wellness approach.
• The value of reviewing reports and monitoring thermal patterns over time.
• Why compassionate practitioners and personalized wellness plans make a difference.
• Lisa's exciting expansion into equine thermography.
• The power of determination, happiness, and finding peace after adversity.

00:00 – Welcome & Lisa's Journey
02:07 – Congenital Heart Disease Diagnosis
03:52 – Heart Surgery & Motherhood
05:57 – Lung Complications & Recovery
08:12 – Discovering Holistic Medicine
10:00 – Her Daughter's Health Challenges
11:49 – Personal Loss & Finding Joy Again
14:05 – Why Thermography Matters
15:55 – Understanding Your Report
17:56 – Making Thermography Accessible
20:02 – Stress, Prevention & Whole-Body Health
21:54 – Lisa's Personal Thermography Experience
24:01 – Follow-Up Imaging & Lifestyle Changes
26:01 – Compassionate Care & Future Expansion
27:56 – Equine Thermography & Lisa's Mission
29:45 – Lisa's Final Words: Determination & Peace

Lisa's Thermography & Wellness
Website: https://lisasthermographyandwellness.com

Explore full-body thermography, clinic locations, and wellness education.

Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner | Breast Health Educator | Host of Wise Divine Women

Website: https://danairvine.com

Explore functional nutrition, hormone health, breast wellness, and personalized testing options.

Final Thought

Lisa reminds us that life will always bring challenges, but determination, faith, happiness, and peace can help carry us through.

Your body has a story. Are you listening?

#WiseDivineWomen #LisaMack #Thermography #HolisticHealth #FunctionalNutrition #WomensHealth #Inflammation #StressManagement #PreventiveWellness #HealthAwareness #Determination #HealingJourney

What if healing sexual shame was the first step toward rediscovering your confidence, joy, intimacy, and connection with yourself?

In this empowering episode of the Wise Divine Women Podcast, Dana Irvine welcomes Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers, sexual and relational health expert, author, and educator, for an honest conversation about sexuality, spirituality, cultural conditioning, and breaking free from shame.

Dr. Tina shares her upbringing in a Swedish immigrant family where conversations about bodies, sexuality, and pleasure were natural and shame-free. This experience inspired her life's work helping individuals recognize how religious teachings, family beliefs, and societal expectations can shape their relationship with sexuality.

Because pleasure, love, and authentic living aren't things we need to earn.

In This Episode, You'll Discover

• How cultural and religious messages influence sexual confidence and self-worth.
• Why sexual shame can follow women into adulthood and intimate relationships.
• How midlife offers an opportunity to rediscover authenticity, pleasure, and connection.
• Ways parents and grandparents can raise children without passing down shame.
• What it means to create sacred, intentional intimacy.
• Why self-compassion, communication, and personal responsibility matter in healthy relationships.
• How choosing joy can become a radical act of self-love.

Episode Timeline

00:00 – Meet Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers
01:07 – Growing up with shame-free conversations about sexuality
03:14 – How religious and cultural shame develops
06:30 – Honouring our bodies and responsible pleasure
08:40 – Why humans are wired for connection
10:02 – Midlife, menopause, and rediscovering authenticity
12:13 – Challenging inherited beliefs about sexuality
14:43 – The history of sexual education and cultural change
19:21 – Healing shame and rebuilding trust
22:46 – Parenting without passing down sexual shame
24:35 – Healing your inner child while raising children
27:26 – Creating sacred and intentional intimacy
29:58 – Exploring desire and communicating with partners
32:21 – Reclaiming joy, pleasure, and self-love
35:28 – Dr. Tina's books, resources, and how to connect

Words of Wisdom

"Trust is built on truth and transparency."

"Radical rebellion is living your joy and happiness."

Connect With Dr. Tina

Instagram: @drtinashameless

Website

Books:

• Sex, God, and the Conservative Church: Erasing Shame from Sexual Intimacy
• Shameless Parenting: Everything You Need to Raise Shame-Free, Confident Kids and Heal Your Shame Too

Connect With Dana

Dana Irvine, FDNP
Functional Nutrition Practitioner | Breast Health Educator | Host of Wise Divine Women

Explore personalized support for women's hormone health, menopause, breast health, and whole-body wellness.

🌐DanaIrvine.com
🌐 WiseDivineWomen.com

Listen, subscribe, and share this episode with a woman who needs permission to embrace her authentic self.

Sexual shame healing, women's sexual health, menopause and intimacy, sexual confidence after 40, religious shame, sacred sexuality, healthy relationships, self-love, shame-free parenting, midlife empowerment, Wise Divine Women Podcast.

October is Breast Health Awareness Month, but breast health is about more than waiting for your next mammogram, ultrasound, or screening letter.

In this episode of the Wise Divine Women Podcast, Dana Irvine, FDNP, Breast Health Educator and Medical Thermography Practitioner, opens a month-long conversation about functional breast health after 40—and how women can move from fear and uncertainty toward curiosity, awareness, and proactive care.

Dana encourages women to create a relationship with their breasts by learning their own normal. Instead of approaching breast self-awareness like a frightening search for something wrong, she explains how regularly observing and touching your breasts can help you become familiar with your unique texture, tenderness, appearance, and changes over time.

But breast health doesn't exist separately from the rest of the body.

Dana explores how hormones, estrogen metabolism, gut health, mineral status, stress, sleep, blood sugar, inflammation, lymphatic movement, nutrition and environmental exposures can all be part of the bigger wellness picture.

You'll also hear about functional tools Dana uses in her practice, including thermography, Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA), gut testing and hormone testing, and how these tools may help practitioners ask better questions about whole-body health.

• Breast health beyond traditional screening
• How to “know your normal” through breast self-awareness
• Creating a monthly breast map and tracking changes
• Hormones, gut health and estrogen metabolism
• Stress, lymphatic health, inflammation and lifestyle
• Thermography and functional testing
• Changes that should be discussed with your healthcare provider
• Moving from fear toward curiosity and respect for your body

“Breast health begins with understanding your normal.”

Your body is constantly communicating. Rather than waiting until something feels wrong, Dana encourages women to become active participants in their health—observing patterns, asking questions and building supportive daily habits.

If you notice a new or persistent lump, nipple discharge, new nipple inversion, skin dimpling, redness, swelling, or another unexplained breast change, document it and speak with your healthcare provider.

Coming this month: more conversations about breast awareness, hormones, gut and oral health, lifestyle foundations, functional testing, thermography and proactive breast wellness.

Wise Divine Women Podcast

Hosted by Dana Irvine, FDNP, the Wise Divine Women Podcast explores women’s health, personal growth, functional wellness, breast health, hormones and the wisdom that comes from truly learning to understand ourselves.

Ready to Better Understand Your Own Body?

For support with hormones, metabolism, breast health, digestion, stress, and whole-body wellness, DanaIrvine.com and book a Health Clarity Call.

Subscribe to the Wise Divine Women Podcast, leave a review, and share this episode with a woman who is entering a new season of life, love, identity, or self-discovery.

Keywords: breast health after 40, functional breast health, breast awareness, thermography, hormone health, HTMA, gut health, estrogen metabolism, breast self-awareness, holistic wellness