Midlife Muse: Things Your Mother Never Told You

Most women believe they are struggling in relationships because they are choosing the wrong people. But what if the pattern began long before them? What if the way you learned to seek love, hold love, or even lose yourself in love…was formed in the very first relationships you ever experienced? Attachment has a way of shaping everything. Not just how you love, but how you trust, how you express your needs, how safe you feel being seen, and how you respond when connection feels uncertain. In this conversation with Eli Harwood, we explore what it means to understand those patterns, not from a place of blame, but from a place of awareness and responsibility. Because when you can see the pattern…you can begin to change it. In this episode, we explore: Why attachment patterns formed in childhood continue to show up in adult relationships. The difference between seeking a partner and unconsciously seeking a parent. How self-abandonment becomes a strategy for staying connected. The grief of not receiving what you needed, and why it must be faced to move forward. Why one secure relationship can shift your sense of self and your capacity for connection. How the mother wound can influence sisterhood, trust, and connection with other women. The importance of emotional maturity in leadership, healing, and relationships. What many women discover is that the ache they feel in relationships isn't about this moment. It lives deeper than that…in something that was never fully seen or safely held. And while you cannot go back and change where you came from, you can begin to meet your life differently now. In the way you choose. In the way you love. In the way you stay with yourself. This conversation is for the woman who is ready to stop repeating the same cycles… and start creating relationships that feel safe, steady, and real. If this episode resonates, share it with a woman who is learning to love without losing herself. Because this is work we were never meant to do alone. And if you feel called to go deeper into reclaiming your sense of self and emotional safety, my book Muse is available now. It is a guide for women returning to themselves. Order your copy of Muse https://amandahanson.com/muse/?utm_source=attachment&utm_medium=podcast&utm_content=eli&utm_campaign=podcast Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/ Connect with Eli Harwood: https://www.instagram.com/attachmentnerd/

There is a moment in a woman's life when something quiet but irreversible happens. It isn't loud. It isn't dramatic. And it isn't the breakdown we've been taught to expect. Menopause is often framed as something to manage, fix, or endure. A list of symptoms to brace for. A season to survive. What I was never offered, and what so few women are, is the deeper truth of this passage. Menopause is not the loss of self. It is the reorganization of self around truth. There is a spirituality to this experience that our culture rarely names. Ancient societies understood this threshold. They prepared women for it. They listened to the women who emerged from it. Today, we tend to rush her, medicate her, and ask her to return to normal even though there is no normal on the other side of transformation. This reflection names what becomes possible when menopause is honored as a rite of passage rather than treated as a hormonal inconvenience. I speak to meeting physical changes with curiosity instead of fear, allowing ritual to replace resistance, and listening for the deeper intelligence inside each shift. In this episode, I explore: Why menopause is not a breakdown, but a profound internal shift How fear-based narratives disconnect women from their bodies What happens when a woman stops bending, explaining, and bleeding energy Why discernment sharpens and tolerance drops in this season of life The difference between patriarchal and matriarchal stories of aging How choosing a different narrative can change the experience entirely Here, I share my experience…not from a medical or prescriptive lens, but from a lived, embodied one. I offer this for the women walking that path now. And for the younger women who deserve a different imprint than fear. Because menopause does not diminish a woman. It reveals her. If this conversation resonates, consider sharing it with a daughter, a friend, or a woman you love. To continue this work of reclaiming inner authority across every season of womanhood, my book Muse is available now…a guide for women returning to themselves. Connect with me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/ Order your copy of Muse https://amandahanson.com/muse/?utm_source=menopause&utm_medium=podcast&utm_content=episode64&utm_campaign=podcast

This week I am joined by the incredible Gary Vee…a visionary who often speaks about hustle, but today, sits with us to talk about heart. The conversation began before the microphones turned on. With my own children gathered around him, asking questions and soaking up his words. He took the time to talk with them and share his wisdom. It spoke volumes about who he was, how he relates to people of all ages, and the valuable words he has to offer. Once we started recording, he continued the conversation with the same authenticity. We stripped away the layers of "shoulds" and expectations that society places on us. We explored what it really looks like to stop apologizing for who you are and start celebrating it. Gary shares his unique perspective on why the fear of judgment is what's standing between you and the life you crave, and how self-awareness is the ultimate form of self-love. Inside this episode, we discuss: Why success doesn't shape character…it exposes it How fear gets passed down quietly through generations Why so many adults are still waiting for approval long past childhood How entitlement replaces gratitude and erodes resilience without us noticing Why failure is formative, not damaging What happens when self-awareness replaces performance The moment adulthood actually begins If you have been feeling the call to reinvent yourself, to pivot, or simply to show up more boldly in your own skin, this episode is for you. Remember, it is never too late to become the woman you were always meant to be. If you want to continue this work of remembering who you are beneath the noise, my book Muse is available now. A guide for women reclaiming identity, authority, and their inner voice. Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/ Connect with Gary Vee: https://www.instagram.com/garyvee/ Order your copy of Muse https://amandahanson.com/book/

So many women tell the same quiet story: "I'm fine. I'm grateful. I'm doing it all." And yet… There's a glass of wine waiting every evening just to soften the edges enough to keep going. In this week's episode of Things Your Mother Never Told You, I sit down with Colleen Freeland, the woman redefining what sobriety means for high-achieving, overwhelmed women. Her work is not about labels or lifelong abstinence. It's about emotional sobriety - the art of living without the chaos, pressure, and self-abandonment that make us reach outside ourselves for relief. Colleen brings a radically compassionate perspective: Most women don't have drinking problems. They have disconnection problems. Inside this conversation, we explore: Why Type A, hyper-capable women often use alcohol as a bridge to survive the life they've built. How emotional numbing becomes a default for women who never learned to feel their own needs. Why shame-based sobriety models can backfire - and what actually creates lasting change. The truth about "mommy wine culture" and the billion-dollar industry marketing alcohol as self-care. How creating small, honest moments of pleasure and regulation can begin to untangle long-held patterns. What happens when a woman finally tells the truth: I'm not okay, and I can't keep living this way. The real reason midlife becomes a turning point, and why so many women "wake up" during these years. This episode is an invitation to pause. To listen inward. To meet the woman you've been overriding for far too long. If something in this conversation lands in your body - share it with someone who needs to hear it. Your revolution begins within. Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/ Connect with Colleen Freeland: https://www.instagram.com/thehangoverwhisperer/ https://emotionalsobrietycoaching.com/

For generations, women have been taught to quiet themselves in love - to shrink, to compromise, to hold the emotional weight of the relationship while asking for so little in return. But something is changing. In this episode, I sit with my daughter Ava, and with the man she chose, Chris, and together we step into a conversation that feels less like an interview and more like a blessing. What they are building together is not naïve young love - it is intentional, emotionally intelligent, a deeply human partnership. What unfolds in this conversation is not perfection. It is evolution. It is a story of a young woman who would not abandon her truth, and a young man who chose to rise and meet her. A story of the next generation doing what so many before them could not: building a relationship from intention rather than inheritance. Inside this episode, we explore: What happens when a young woman refuses to abandon her values in order to be loved. What it looks like when a man chooses curiosity over defensiveness - and growth over comfort. The importance of accountability, communication, and repair in healthy partnership. How generational healing happens through the relationships our children create. The power of raising boys - and men - to listen, witness, and emotionally attune. Why the next generation of love demands emotional intelligence, not perfection. This is not just a relationship conversation. It is a generational conversation. It is a window into what becomes possible when daughters are raised to honor themselves, and when sons are encouraged to feel deeply rather than armor up. It is the embodiment of the evolution so many of us have prayed for. It is proof that the next generation is not waiting for change. They are creating it. If this episode moves you, share it with your daughters, your sons, your partners, or the people in your life who are crafting their own path in love. And if you are ready to deepen into your own becoming - to soften, awaken, and rise - join me at MAGNETIC in Phoenix, December 5–6. The next generation is rising. Let us rise with them. Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/ Join the Movement at MAGNETIC in Phoenix – December 5–6 http://www.amandahanson.com/magnetic

For centuries, women were taught that the sacred lived outside of us - in churches, in scriptures, in the hands of men who told us how to pray. But there was a time before that. A time when women gathered in circles, when our emotions were seen as holy, our bodies as sacred, and our desires as divine. In this conversation, I sit down with Sarah Jenks, ordained priestess and co-founder of The Living Temple, a woman who has remembered what was once ours and is bringing it back to life. Sarah once had everything she was told she should want: marriage, success, motherhood - and yet felt empty inside. The moment she stepped into her first women's ceremony, her body remembered something ancient. And from that remembering, her true life began. Inside this episode, we explore: The moment Sarah stopped living by the patriarchy's checklist and began living from her soul. How ceremony and sisterhood are not "woo" - they're ancient medicine. The deep conditioning that keeps women small, silent, and disconnected from themselves. That equality inside the home is the next frontier of women's liberation. Why reclaiming the sacred feminine is not rebellion - it's remembrance. This conversation is an invitation to bring the holy back into your daily life. To find the divine in the chaos, the beauty in the ordinary, and the power that's always been yours. If this episode stirs something in you, share it with another woman ready to come home to herself. And if you're ready to experience this work in person - to gather, release, and rise - join me at MAGNETIC in Phoenix, December 5–6. Your remembrance begins now. Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/ Connect with Sarah Jenks https://www.instagram.com/sarahjenks/ https://www.sarahjenks.com Join the Movement at MAGNETIC in Phoenix – December 5th & 6th http://www.amandahanson.com/magnetic

The beauty industry is out of control. Women are being sold an endless stream of shame disguised as "solutions." When did being a woman become something to fix? When did our natural bodies become the enemy? In this candid and fiery conversation, my COO Diana joins me as we unpack some of the most absurd, dangerous, and heartbreaking trends being marketed to women today. Together, we laugh, rage, and call bullshit on the cult of beauty that profits from our self-doubt. Inside this episode, we also discuss: Why the chase for "eternal youth" has become both grotesque and dangerous. The porn culture fueling procedures that rob women of their humanity. The double standard: endless products telling women they're broken, while men remain untouched. Why complying with beauty absurdities keeps us complicit in our own objectification. The radical truth that your body - every wrinkle, every line, every curve - is already worthy. Behind the absurdity is a sobering reality: beauty culture was never created to honor women, but to profit from our insecurities. I hope this episode inspires you to see the absurdity for what it is - and to choose reverence for your own body instead. No more fixing. No more apologizing. Just you. Whole. Sacred. Enough. If this conversation stirred something inside you, share it. And if you're ready to lay down the impossible standards once and for all, come join me at MAGNETIC. Your freedom is waiting. Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/ Join the Movement at Magnetic in Phoenix – December 5th and 6th http://www.amandahanson.com/magnetic

What if everything you've been told about birth was a lie? In this unforgettable episode, I sit down with Eyla Cuenca, a sacred birthkeeper who has stood witness to over 200 births—and what she reveals will forever change how you view the process of birth, the postpartum period, and the systems that surround it. Her message is clear: You were never meant to shrink inside the most powerful moment of your life. This isn't about shame. It isn't about doing it "right." It's about awakening. To the stories we've inherited. To the choices we didn't know we had. To the wild, intelligent, ungovernable truth of the female body. Together, we explore: The traumatic ripple effects of birth trauma and postpartum neglect Why disconnection from the body begins long before labor How shame and silence shape a woman's first experiences of her own body The politics of pain management, C-sections, and "safe" birth narratives What's truly at stake when a woman is not informed or supported in her choices The raw power of surrender, sovereignty, and body-led birth This is not a birth class. This is remembering. A return to the body. A dismantling of every story that told you birth was something to numb, hide, fear, or endure. This episode is not just for mothers. It's for every woman who's ever handed over her power because she didn't know she had a choice. Listen with your whole heart. And if it stirs something inside you—share it. Connect with Eyla: Instagram: @eyla_cuenca_birth Website: https://www.uncoveringbirth.com/ Learn how to better navigate choice within the medical system: The Sovereign Birth Map Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/ Join the Movement at Magnetic in Phoenix - December 5th and 6th http://www.amandahanson.com/magnetic

Have you ever swallowed your truth to avoid conflict? Said yes when your entire body was screaming no? So many women are taught to fear their own truth—to tuck it in, make it more digestible, less disruptive. But here's the truth: Self-abandonment in the name of kindness is not kindness. It's quiet, daily betrayal. There's a high cost to being the "nice girl." It's paid in quiet resentments, tight throats, and sleepless nights. And most women don't even realize they're still paying it. We've been conditioned to be agreeable, to soften the edges of our truth, to be kind—no matter the cost. But when kindness comes at the expense of our own well-being, it's no longer kindness. It's self-abandonment. In this episode with a special guest, Dr. Kelly Brogan, we explore the invisible contracts women have signed: to be agreeable, palatable, and never too much. We walk through the subtle ways women abandon themselves in the name of being kind, polite, or easy to love. The small moments that don't look like trauma—but feel like erosion. We explore: The invisible ways you betray yourself (and why it's so hard to stop) How your nervous system was trained to keep you "safe" through silence Why people-pleasing isn't just a habit—it's survival How to begin honoring your truth without guilt or apology This is an invitation to reclaim your voice. To stop editing yourself to be loved. To tell the truth—and let it set you free. You can still be kind. You can still be loving. But the truth must include you. If something inside you stirred, share this with a woman who's ready to stop apologizing and start remembering who she is. Connect with Kelly: Instagram: @kellybroganmd Website: www.kellybroganmd.com Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/ Join Dr. Amanda for The Sacred Assessment at Omega https://www.eomega.org/workshops/sacred-assessment-women

Who were you before the world told you who to be? Somewhere inside you, she still lives—the little girl who moved freely, dreamed without limits, and hadn't yet learned to apologize for her existence. She was 7, maybe 8 or 9, untouched by expectation. Before the performance began. When our schedule threw a curve ball and we found ourselves with a free hour, Aram, my incredible videographer, decided to ask me some questions (with the help of ChatGPT) lol. In this episode, I share: The one ritual I return to when I feel lost Why I've never once considered giving up this work The quiet, modern behaviors still keeping women small What it truly means to live the work—not just talk about it And why the real revolution starts with walking out what we already know We talk about legacy, intimacy, and the difference between consuming healing and actually living it. We talk about raising daughters in a safer world. We talk about silver hair, sacred aging, self-trust—and the power of women who refuse to stay silent. And if you're feeling late to your own life, this is your invitation to begin again. Right here. Right now. You're not too late. You're right on time. Come home to yourself. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a woman who also needs to hear this conversation. Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/ Join Dr. Amanda for The Sacred Assessment at Omega https://www.eomega.org/workshops/sacred-assessment-women

Is non-monogamy really the higher path to spiritual awakening—or just another way to avoid commitment? Lately, I've been watching a growing trend in the spiritual and wellness world that claims non-monogamy is a sign of higher consciousness, an enlightened way of loving that transcends the old, tired ideas of monogamy. Yet, so often, when spirituality merges with social media influence and unchecked ego, it becomes a smokescreen that leaves women doubting their own desires and boundaries. Join me as I pull back the veil and invite you to remember that your boundaries, your voice, and your choice matter deeply. You don't owe your evolution to anyone else's journey. As a woman who has been married for 28 years, I have explored these questions in my own relationship. I share honestly why I have chosen monogamy as my personal path—not out of rigidity, but because of the power and spiritual growth that comes from meeting yourself again and again with the same partner. And beyond my story, we talk about how this trend often leaves women with nothing but confusion, deep wounds, and a longing to be chosen. In this episode, we explore: The cultural narrative that non-monogamy is an evolved spiritual path Why women are so often the ones "going along" to please a partner, despite feeling the sting of not being chosen The power of monogamy to reveal every hidden part of yourself—and how that is its own sacred spiritual practice The way our bodies speak up when we are in situations that don't feel safe or aligned How to honor your own desires, even when they don't fit the latest trend or influencer narrative The critical difference between choosing from power and abandoning yourself in the name of someone else's idea of expansion Building a foundation of self-love as the deepest trust you can offer yourself If it resonates, please share it with another woman who might need this perspective today. Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/ Join Dr. Amanda for The Sacred Assessment at Omega https://www.eomega.org/workshops/sacred-assessment-women

After decades of working with women, witnessing their patterns, pain, and awakening, I come back to one question: Why are women hurting so much? In this powerful conversation, my COO Diana, turns the mic toward me once again to dive into the ache so many women carry—and what actually heals it. We explore the invisible expectations placed on women, the cultural scripts we're handed, and what it really looks like to reclaim your power. I share my own story of nearly leaving my marriage, what I see in women who come to this work after trying everything else: the moment they stop outsourcing their power, the moment they remember who they are and the moment everything begins to shift. In this episode, we talk about: The cultural blueprint women are handed—and why it's failing us What it means to truly lead your life (and why no one is coming to save you) The early days of my own marriage and how I nearly walked away The real cost of shrinking, shape-shifting, and silencing ourselves How Midlife Muse is not just a program, but a philosophy What I've seen over and over again in the women who do this work—it's not just transformation, it's liberation We are not here to perform, to please, or to prove. We are here to lead, to feel deeply, to reimagine womanhood—on our own terms. If this resonates with you, share it with a sister who is ready to begin her healing journey. Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/ Join Dr. Amanda for The Sacred Assessment at Omega https://www.eomega.org/workshops/sacred-assessment-women

This episode is unlike anything I've ever done. In this raw, unscripted, and unfiltered conversation, I'm joined by my COO and producer, Diana, who flips the script and interviews me. We talk about what most people avoid: aging, womanhood, leadership, rage, beauty, purpose, and the resistance we face as women who refuse to conform. We expose the hard truths, the hidden pain, the sacred rage, and the relentless commitment it takes to lead in a world that often misunderstands and misjudges powerful women. This is not a soundbite conversation. It's soul work in motion. In this episode, we discuss: Why I embrace aging—and what it really means to age naturally in a world that fears women's wrinkles. The assumptions people make about me—and the reality of my deeply human journey. What spiritual resilience looks like in the face of threats, rejection, and misunderstanding. How women are being conditioned to obsess over youth instead of owning their power—and why this is the revolution I've committed my life to. What happens when women finally stop performing and start living. What I see for the next 40 years of Midlife Muse—and why I will never retire from this sacred calling. Come sit with us in this space where nothing is off-limits and everything is real. This is womanhood, unfiltered. Listen now and share with a sister who's ready to stop performing and start becoming. Connect with Dr. Amanda Hanson on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/ Join the movement at Midlife Muse: www.amandahanson.com/themuses