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You know, in 2016, I got divorced and left a toxic relationship in which I was so busy accommodating the needs of everyone else, I really lost who I was. So, at the encouragement of a friend I picked up a book called "The Miracle Morning" by Hal Elrod, which advocates 6 new habits that highly successful people do, one of which is journaling. And if you've gotten to know me by now, you know when I decide to do something, I'm ALL IN. So, I adopt this new habit of getting up earlier in the morning and go through the practices in the book and really found the journaling piece therapeutic. Before I knew it, I was journaling in longer increments of time each day 15 minutes became 30 and even 45 minutes sometimes. It helped me to heal. I identified patterns that I wanted to let go of. I identified goals I wanted to work towards and held myself accountable to achieving them. It was an amazing practice that helped me heal in so many ways AND it truly helped me to reflect and remember who I was...that woman that had been so lost.

Our guest today, Jessa Frances, also found healing in the power of the pen and uses a signature memoir writing program that helps people holistically work their way from past to present to future. Through the program, they are able to recognize their patterns and their limiting beliefs where they stemmed from and to finally process them and release them with self-awareness self forgiveness and self-love.

Jessa is a badass and is not only a holistic writing coach, but also a USAF veteran, a black belt in tae-kwon-do and a trauma informed yoga instructor. In this episode, she helps us to understand that our story is our roadmap to finding our purpose and meaning in life by finding our selves! You are the open book. Get curious not judgmental and discover yourself.

She runs an incredible holistic community membership called "The Empowered Path" that supports people in overcoming their past, becoming present in the now, and feeling confident, aligned, and empowered. She uses her gifts of writing, yoga, mindfulness, and meditation to help her clients rewire their own neuropathways for healing.

In this episode, Jessa teaches us:

1. A memoir is a theme-based story about You. To truly write your memoir, interview others who know you well, family members with whom you've lived and grown up. Reflect on old photographs to draw the memories forward and in this space, learn to love yourself again OR uncover the secret to what is holding you back.
2. Using writing as a technique for healing is so powerful because it pulls memories and emotion from your limbic and using the logical brain (the prefrontal cortex) to make sense of these emotions and memories.
3. By combining writing and encouraging her clients to REwrite their story and acknowledge the trauma, using mindfulness to rewire neuropathways, and yoga to process the trauma through your body, you can find a new way to think and feel.
4. When you are feeling a certain way (blame, shame, anger) dig in and ask yourself "why" you're feeling that way and keep asking why like that 3 year old child until you can find the shadow side of why you feel this way. Then see if you can reframe those thoughts.
5. If there is anything you MUST do for self-care, it is nervous system regulation. Because when we take care of our nervous system, we also are taking care of our digestive system, our heart rate variability, our lymphatic system, our immunity...because this puts us into a place where we are operating in our parasympathetic nervous system. When we operate in fight and flight mode...it has a profound impact on our overall health. One way to do this is through breath work.

To find more of Jessa:

Website | Unintoxicated.world or jessafrances.net

Instagram | @jessafrances

If you are feeling stuck in the same old patterns and are struggling to envision a future for yourself where you are clear on the path forward...follow us. So many women in midlife are just like us, trying to remember who they were and figure out who in the hell they want to become. If this is you...join our tribe of badass women to find out what you are made of. Follow us on Instagram and find us on Facebook and let's do midlife together.