“You want to fly? You’ve got to give up the shit’s weighing you down,” Toni Morrison in the book Song of Solomon.

Welcome to Midlife Woman Redefined, a podcast for women near retirement who are ready to step into a new chapter of freedom, travel, and fulfillment. If you’re ready to focus on figuring out who you are and what you really want, this is the place for you. Here’s your host, master certified life coach, travel addict, and midlife maven, René Washington.

Hello, hello, hello, I’m C. René Washington, your life coach and midlife maven and we are here for episode 12 of Midlife Woman Redefined. And today, I’m talking shit show; why it’s critical, even lifesaving, to give up the shit that’s weighing you down. So let’s get to it.

Before we do that, what do we do, we celebrate. Celebrate something that is personal to you, something that you’ve accomplished, something you can say, yes, I did that. And I’m celebrating getting out of my own way, which connects to our topic for the day.

I have gotten so much better at focusing on what’s important and I’m enjoying life. I’m enjoying my time with Mr. Washington more and more. I don’t nag him as much as I used to about little stuff that’s really not important. I’ve gotten so much better at acknowledging fear, that false evidence that’s appearing real fear, and I’m doing the thing anyway.

Next week, I will be doing a reappearance, a series of appearances on the local talk show, Talk of Alabama. I’m so excited about that. And my husband and I are in serious talks. We are moving to Portugal next year. Thrilled about that. That’s been a long-term dream to live outside of this country. And what better time to do it than now, because we’re in a major shit show here, for real.

So yes, just stepping out and experiencing things that, a few years ago, I didn’t think were possible, but they are. And we’re going to help you do the same thing.

One of my favorite coaching mantras, as I’ve talked about before, is let your shit go. And you know, you see it on T-shirts everywhere, coffee mugs. It’s a yoga mantra too, let that shit go. And it is so true.

And the reason I use it – I’ve had women say to me, “Why do you say that?” Because it’s real. Because what we don’t eliminate, we store. And because we know, from a physical perspective that it is highly important to let shit go.

Here’s a quote from a doctor, an internist, “People can tell the measure of their health by their bowel movement.” And physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually, are you living a stuffed-up life? A constipated life? And there are five main causes that can contribute to physical constipation. And this is from – my resource is health impact news.

The first one is eating sporadically or eating meals that are too small to encourage movement. Now, think about that. Let’s apply that outside of the physical. Easting sporadically or eating meals too small to encourage movement.

What are you consuming? What are you consuming that is helping you to move or keeping you stuck, keeping you backed up? Are you consuming media, conversations, books, whatever?  Are you consuming what will move you forward or are you consuming what keeps you backed up?

Number two, not going when you feel the urge to go. Now, I mean, how much more literal can we get than that? Not going when you feel the urge to go. Some of you are getting messaging all the time, every day, that it’s time for you to leave this particular chapter of your life. And yet you remain. Yet, you remain. It may be a relationship, a job, a group of people, whatever. You are getting that messaging that you need to get up and go, and yet you stay.

Number three, lack of a healthy intestinal lining. What is your foundation? What is your internal foundation for how you live your life? As I’ve said before, for me, it’s my faith. That’s my foundation. I filter everything through seeking god’s will for my life. What is your foundation. How strong is it? How much attention do you pay to it?

Number four, insufficient intake of water and fiber-rich foods. Water is the elixir of life. What is flowing through your life? Fiber is what sticks to you and helps move things out of your body? What are you doing to support what you say you want in your life? And the final one, which should be no surprise; stress.

So, these are the five main causes of a backed up physical system, and also can connect to how you are backed up in your life. This is why I am doing this series, and I’m calling it End How You Want to Begin – a seven week journey for you to eliminate what’s weighing you down and kick off next year, the New Year like, “Hey, I’m ready, I’m ready to fly in 2020.”

So, End How You Want to Begin is going to be the seven-week series. Last week, I talked about the shoulds and oughts that are keeping you stuck. Today, I’m talking about the shit that’s weighing you down. And next week, I’m going to kick off seven weeks, even weeks. I want you to go on this seven-week journey with me for yourself.

What will you need for this journey, this epic life-changing trip that we’re going to take together? And I am in this too. I’m not just saying this to you. Yes, I do this work with women and also for myself and it requires daily vigilance. This is not set it and forget it. So I will be doing this with you.

What you will need, you will need an open mind. A mind that’s open to the possibility of what’s waiting for you in your life. You will need a commitment to listen to the episodes, subscribe, my sisters, subscribe. And you will need a commitment to do the suggested action steps.

And if you want to – you don’t have to – I will be referencing three books. So if you love to read, if you love books that are helpful, these are the books that I will mostly be using; the BARE book, by Susan Hyatt. I am a certified BARE coach.

And all that means is that, you know, we, particularly around this time of year, we start thinking about how much weight do I want to lose, you know. I don’t want to carry this weight into 2020. Or you kick off the new year, you know, going to the gym, starting to exercise, starting to eat better, and then you fall off.

Well, BARE is a body image program that really helps you click into the internal reasons for why you are carrying too much weight. And not just physical weight – weight in all areas of your life, which is what I talk about all the time.

And so I am certified to coach women in that and I’m going to take you through the BARE process over these seven weeks. And it’s going to be about so much more than dropping some pounds. That’s probably going to be a side benefit as we go through this process, but it will be about your dropping all of the weight, all of the things that are keeping you stuck and weighed down.

The other book that I’ll be using is The Crossroads of Should and Must by Ella Luna, which I’ve mentioned before, and The Year of Yes, by Shonda Rhimes. So those are the three main books that I’ll be using for this journey. Again, you don’t have to get them. They will be helpful if you do have them or you can just listen to me.

So, I hope that you join me in this journey so that you can end the year how you want to begin the New Year. And, as always, I hope that if you found something helpful in this episode, that you will take a few minutes to rate and review. If you don’t like something, take a few minutes to let me know that too.

I want to make this program so much better for you. I had a woman this week and she said, “Oh, I just wait for you to come on. I just can’t wait for the new episode because I am changing my life by listening to your podcast.” I love hearing that and I want this to be as meaningful for you as possible, so let me hear it all.

And I’ve been talking about giving out gift cards if you do leave a review, that you can be entered into a drawing for a gift card. One change, I was giving away $100 Amazon gift cards, and because I do stay socially and politically and culturally aware, I’m not real happy with Mr. Amazon, Jeff Bezos right now because he has now decided to remove health benefits from the part-time employees at Whole Foods.

They have the opportunity to become full-time, but maybe that’s not where they want to be in their life. And I just think that a man who is one of the richest men in the world running a billion-dollar company could do a little better. So I’m not feeling supporting Amazon right now, so instead, I have something that’s even better because it directly connects to ending how you want to begin, and I’m giving you an option.

You can get a 90-minute coaching session with me, or you can get a $100 gift certificate to your favorite spa. So, I want you to, again, take the time because that 90-minute session with me is worth way more than $100. And the link to enter yourself in the drawing to tell you how to rate and review is in the show notes, or you can go to crenecoach.com/podcastlaunch.

Now, one thing you need to realize is that, when you leave a review, your tag name is not going to help me be able to contact you. And it will require you, if you want to be entered into the drawing, to email me your contact information. So just be aware of that. But again, I hope that you are enjoying the show. I hope that you’re getting something life-changing out of it and I hope that you will take the time to rate and review because I am here for your dreams, your desires, for the change you need in your life to help you get a plan to make those dreams come true.

So, come back and remember, we are here because living well is the only option.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Midlife Woman Redefined. If you’re ready to learn more and reclaim your time, head over to crenecoach.com.