The Life Shift | Conversations About Life Before and After

Maybe you know this feeling. Someone died and you kept going, because that was what you were supposed to do. You stayed busy, you stayed capable, and somewhere along the way you convinced yourself that you had handled it.Rebe Huntman lost her mother to cancer at 19. The grief counselors told her to move forward. So she did, with discipline and determination and a full, successful life. But 30 years later, on the edge of turning 50, she realized she had never actually let herself miss her. Not really.This episode follows Rebe's pilgrimage to Cuba, a country where the dead are not gone, where ancestors are spoken to daily and the veil between worlds is treated as thin and navigable. What she found there, in the dances, in the drumming, in the quiet workroom of a spiritist in El Cobre, was not magic for its own sake. It was permission. Permission to stop moving past her grief and start staying in it.What You'll Hear:How Rebe mastered the art of moving forward and the cost it quietly carriedThe moment in Cuba when her understanding of death, grief, and ancestry completely shiftedWhat it felt like to reimagine the hospital room scene she had been carrying for 30 yearsHow a country with a different relationship to death gave her a new way to love her motherThe small, daily rituals she brought home from Cuba and what they have meant for her healingWhy showing up fully as yourself can become a quiet gift to everyone around youGuest Bio:Rebe Huntman is a writer, former Latin dancer, and choreographer who has spent her career at the intersection of movement, storytelling, and spirit. She spent decades running a professional dance company and teaching college and high school before turning her full attention to writing. She splits her time between Delaware, Ohio and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her debut memoir, My Mother in Havana: A Memoir of Magic and Miracle, was published in 2025 and chronicles her transformative pilgrimage to Cuba in search of her mother and herself. Find her at rebehuntman.com and on Instagram @rebehuntman.Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/followSubscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/grief after mother's death, ancestral healing, Afro-Cuban spirituality, pilgrimage and transformation, learning to talk to the dead, disenfranchised grief, mother loss, life after 50 identity, Santeria and healing, memoir of magic and grief

Some moments do not ask to be fixed. They ask to be felt. To be witnessed. To be held gently until something inside us loosens just enough to breathe again.In this conversation, I sit with someone who understands that grief is not something to get over. It is something to learn how to live with. Day shares what it was like to lose his father, lose a relationship, and find himself standing in a quiet in-between space where nothing felt stable. Instead of rushing through that season, he slowed down. He listened. He followed a small impulse into the woods. And in doing so, he discovered a way to turn pain into presence.This episode is about thresholds. About endings and beginnings that overlap. About how creativity, ritual, and attention can help us stay open when life changes shape. It is an invitation to soften your grip, trust what is unfolding, and remember that even in loss, something meaningful is still possible.What You’ll HearWhy grief is not just an emotion but a skill we can learnThe power of slowing down when life feels unrecognizableHow ritual and creativity can help metabolize lossLearning to hold endings without closing your heartThe quiet role of pleasure in times of deep heavinessFinding meaning in the space between goodbye and helloGuest BioDay Schildkret is an award-winning queer author, artist, ritualist, and teacher known for Morning Altars, a practice rooted in nature, art, and ritual. His work helps people navigate change, grief, and life transitions with intention and care. Day teaches internationally and creates spaces where people can slow down, remember what matters, and reconnect to themselves through creativity and presence.Sign up for Day’s Newsletter: https://www.morningaltars.com/Morning Altars Teacher Training: https://www.morningaltars.com/teachertrainingPurchase Hello, Goodbye: https://www.morningaltars.com/hellogoodbyePurchase Morning Altars https://www.morningaltars.com/morningaltarsbook/1Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morningaltars/----Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morningaltarsListen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/followSupport the show for ad free and early release episodes: www.patreon.com/thelifeshiftpodcastSubscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/

If you have ever looked at your life and thought, this is not what I imagined, this conversation is for you.If you have carried love and grief in the same breath, you will recognize yourself here.Sharon’s story moves through absence, devotion, and the quiet reshaping that happens when life asks more of you than you feel ready to give. From early experiences of not knowing where she belonged, to the long years of loving and caring for her son Michael, she shares what it means to live inside uncertainty without closing your heart. This is not a story about fixing what cannot be fixed. It is about learning how to stay present when the future feels fragile.This episode holds space for the kind of grief that does not follow a timeline. The kind that lives alongside laughter. The kind that changes your identity and slowly teaches you how to carry love forward. There is no rush here. Just permission to feel what you feel, and to trust that it all belongs.What You’ll HearWhat it feels like when the life you expected quietly disappearsThe difference between surviving grief and living alongside itHow love deepens when certainty is no longer availableNavigating identity after loss without forcing closureHolding joy and sorrow in the same momentLearning to feel seen after years of feeling unseenGuest BioDr. Sharon Spano works with high-impact leaders who appear successful on the outside but feel something is quietly missing inside. With a PhD in Human and Organizational Systems, she helps CEOs, consultants, and entrepreneurs understand what is actually holding them back, not just in their work, but in their relationships and sense of self.Much of Sharon’s work centers on what she calls the emptiness of success. The feeling that can linger even after you have done all the right things. Through a blend of science, developmental psychology, and deep personal insight, she guides leaders to uncover hidden barriers, including generational patterns and unresolved grief, so they can lead with more clarity, integrity, and wholeness.Sharon is the host of The Other Side of Potential, a podcast exploring leadership, growth, and what it means to live beyond pressure-driven success. She is also the author of The Pursuit of Time & Money. At the heart of her work is a simple belief. True success is not about doing more. It is about becoming more fully yourself.Website: https://sharonspano.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharonspano/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sharon.spano.902Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drsharonspano/Blog: https://sharonspano.comPodcast: The Other Side of Potential: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-other-side-of-potential/id1397898049Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/followSupport the show for ad-free and early release episodes: www.patreon.com/thelifeshiftpodcastSubscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/

Burnout does not always look dramatic. Sometimes it looks like a successful career, a stable job, and a life that makes sense on paper. And still, your body knows something is wrong. If you have ever found yourself in the middle of a midlife career shift, questioning your work, or wondering why you feel exhausted even when everything seems fine, this conversation will meet you right where you are.In this episode, I talk with Ellen Whitlock Baker about the quiet unraveling that led to her line-in-the-sand moment. Years of people-pleasing, pushing through, and trying to belong in systems that were never built for her finally caught up with her in the most unexpected place. Sitting in a theater, watching the musical Beetlejuice, Ellen broke down. Not because the show was sad, but because her body had reached its limit. What followed was a brave decision to walk away from a very stable job and begin rebuilding a life and career rooted in alignment instead of obligation.This is a story about workplace burnout and listening to yourself before everything falls apart. About honoring the signals you have learned to ignore. And about trusting that even when the next step feels risky, there is another way to live and work that does not cost you yourself.What You’ll HearWhat burnout feels like before you have language for itHow belonging, or the lack of it, quietly shapes our career choicesThe moment Ellen’s body finally said enoughWhy leaving a stable job can feel terrifying and deeply right at the same timeWhat rebuilding looks like when you choose alignment over approvalA reminder that it is not you that is broken; sometimes it is the systemGuest BioEllen Whitlock Baker is the founder and CEO of EWB Coaching, where she helps professionals learn how to prioritize themselves in a world that often tells them not to. With empathy and honesty at the center of her work, Ellen supports leaders in understanding their strengths and building careers that feel sustainable, human, and aligned.With more than 20 years of workplace experience and certification through the International Coaching Federation, Ellen works with individuals and organizations through one-on-one coaching, workshops, and courses. After navigating her own experiences with burnout and self-doubt, she is on a mission to help others never reach that breaking point. Ellen is also the host of the Hard at Work podcast, which identifies what isn't working in today’s workplaces and explores how we might change them.Connect with EllenWebsite: https://ewbcoaching.comPodcast: https://hardatworkpodcast.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenwhitlockbaker/Instagram: @ellenwbcoaching------Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/followSupport the show for ad-free and early release episodes: www.patreon.com/thelifeshiftpodcastSubscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/

Maybe you’ve had that moment too. The one where burnout shows up quietly, and you sit in your car before work holding back tears, wondering how your life became so small. For anyone experiencing career burnout or questioning their sense of self, this conversation may feel familiar.For Lin Yuan-Su, that moment was a quiet breaking point. She had the job, the title, the security. But none of it felt like her. What began as a career built to please others became a life that asked her to finally listen to herself. That morning became a line in the sand moment where she realized success alone was not enough.Her story is about what happens when you stop performing and start trusting your own truth. It’s about learning to make peace with the child who only knew how to survive, and letting her grow into the woman who can finally breathe.What You’ll Hear:The hidden pressure of living up to other people’s expectationsThe breaking point that began in a silent parking lotHow cultural and familial stories shaped her sense of worthThe moment she chose to walk away from success that no longer fitReconnecting with her inner child after years of silenceBuilding a life that feels aligned instead of approvedGuest Bio:Lin Yuan-Su is a transformational success coach who helps high-achieving professionals simplify their path to success so they can create lives they love without burnout or hustle that no longer serves them. With a background in nutrition and healthcare, Lin once looked accomplished on paper but felt deeply unfulfilled. She works with leaders and entrepreneurs who look successful on the outside but feel disconnected on the inside. A spontaneous moment of truth set her on a path toward purpose, ease, and flow. Today, she guides others to align with their truth, quiet the noise, and live in a way that feels like freedom.Discover more about Lin at: www.enlightenedsuccess.comListen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/followSupport the show for ad-free and early release episodes: www.patreon.com/thelifeshiftpodcastSubscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/

This episode is part of The Things We Carry, a solo series shaped by the themes that stay with me after the conversations on The Life Shift. Today, I am talking about identity and what happens when the life you have been holding together finally cracks open. Identity is not fixed. It shifts and bends. It breaks down and rebuilds. It grows through fear and through honesty. And most of us do not realize how much we have been holding until something inside us asks for change.In this reflection, I talk about the messy work of letting old selves fall away, the long, slow unwinding of perfection, and the courage it takes to face the parts of you that have been hiding for years. Growing into yourself is not clean or linear. Some days you feel brave. Some days you fall back into old patterns. The important part is noticing the opening. Noticing the small truth that something old is no longer working.If you are standing in that breaking open, I hope this episode meets you gently. You do not have to rush toward clarity. You do not need to fix everything at once. You can sit with the crack for a moment. You can let the rawness be real. Because inside that openness is the beginning of who you are becoming.

This episode is part of The Things We Carry, a solo series shaped by the themes that stay with me long after the conversations on The Life Shift.Today, I am talking about the way grief shows up differently for each of us. Grief is not a single feeling. It is not one path or one expression. It shifts. It breaks open. It softens. It surprises you. And sometimes it says the opposite of what you think it should.In this reflection, I talk about the pressure many of us feel to grieve a certain way, the fear of getting it wrong, and the quiet shame that comes from comparing our grief to someone else’s. Some days you may cry. Some days you may laugh. Some days you may be numb or angry or exhausted. All of it is real. All of it is allowed. Grief has no finish line and no proper form. It simply becomes part of who we are.If you are carrying grief in any shape, I hope this episode gives you space to be honest about what it looks like for you. You do not need to perform it. You do not need to justify it. You can name the feelings, even the unexpected ones, and let them belong. There is room for your version of grief. There always has been.