Mourning before a death. Loss before they leave. Endings before Beginnings.

On this week's episode, just effing surviving before, during and after loss.

Sometimes you lose someone before they die, like with dementia. Sometimes you're out of a relationship before you know, or well after you should have. The hardest, most would admit, is mourning a child you lost....and then, living to care for another.

Today, we talk to a mother who lost a child and dedicated her life to helping others in anticipatory grief, real-time grief or living grief.

Don't know the difference? Stay with us...grab a coffee or whatever you want, and let's talk about women's mental health.

This Holistic Grief Coach Margaret Dennis, is here. She lost a child and moved into a life dedicated to grief empowerment for women. But, she says healing is just the beginning.

We talk to her about the steps to building your emotional fortress, finding peace in vulnerability...and just surviving while finding out how to thrive, in time.

Guest:

Kelly Riley

Author, Coach and Podcaster

Book: The Pivot Playbook

Title: From Surviving to Thriving. Burnout to Bold.

On this episode, Amy Friesen and Kimothy Walker talk to our guest, Kelly Riley, who has written The Pivot Playbook, and coaches people through the process one-on-one - if reading about it isn't enough. She also has a podcast of the same title.

In full disclosure, Kelly is Kimothy's social media coach as Kim transitions to being a full-time digital nomad. Now, not everyone has to blow up their lives to pivot we learned...or travel across North America in an SUV. Ahem!

There are alternatives to blowing sh#t up and instead wanting a slow and, potentially, gentle transition to the life you want and need.

Whether you're burned out or bummed out, there are tools you can use in this podcast. Maybe you're just searching for a little inspiration, or to know it is possible to have the life you deserve. And, age isn't a factor here. Dreams are.

So, grab a coffee and spend an hour with us!

Sam Laprade hears a LOT, "How do you do it?"

The week of her recent book launch, Ottawa Made, she helped other organizations raise money and hosted other high profile events. The woman with many titles, author, entrepreneur, innovator, fundraiser, broadcaster and public speaker has two others, mom and daughter. And, she is an only child.

Having already lost her Dad and raised a successful teenaged daughter, Sam is now the lead on her mom's long term care. For the first time since Kimothy has known her (a very long time) she's learning to say a polite, "no" when her to-do list is already very long.

Sam talks to Amy Friesen and Kimothy Walker about the juggling act and the fear of dropping balls...and how to learn that fueling yourself is necessary to help others.

There is also talk about the book. Did you know a famous vibrator, the Instapot and basketball were all invented in the National Capital region? Well...some of us did, for different reasons.

YouTube Link : https://youtu.be/6acPoKhOoMY

Guest: Laurel GillespieCEO, Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association

On this week's episode of The Inner Shift Podcast, Amy Friesen and Kimothy Walker talk to the CEO of the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association. It's a really heavy job for a woman who beat breast cancer, went back to university for her Masters degree in business administration (MBA) and left a very difficult marriage.Now, after all of that, Laurel Gillespie, is talking openly about burnout in women and how we need to embrace it, rather than feel shame for not keeping up. The mother of three jumped off the treadmill of life to take of someone else for once...herself.Also, she gives her professional advice about the importance of planning for life's uncomfortable surprises.

Grab a coffee and join us to talk the sh#t out of sh#t.

If you believe almost everything you hear, the economies of many nations are in real trouble. You know who else is? Us… the women who live in those nations.

For those of us invested in “stuff” (that’s Kimothy’s technical term for it), the stress is real and impacts women more than men, simply based on a number of factors. It can range from the disparity related to single parenting or the enormous differences in leadership roles, so the decisions are out of your hands. Just look at the number of men on Fortune 500 boards versus women. Right?

So what the phuck to do? First, Amy and Kimothy like information. And, we’re not talking about reading manuals and economic reports (Kim failed Grade 10 math). We’re talking about getting someone who HAS experience to tell us how to brace for our own futures.

Janet Gray, an advice-only certified financial planner joins the podcast to speak directly to women unnerved by what happens next…and how to prepare for it.

Grab a coffee…and join us…

Communications leader and athlete Susan Marsh-Marconi had it all…or so it seemed. A series of traumas impacted her life in a profound way but she’s still standing.

She shares her story to help others because vulnerability, she says, is the key to her ability to cope. Reaching, teaching and preaching…she knows that we cannot pretend we’re okay!!

This advocate and change maker was a sexual assault survivor in a case that made national headlines a long time ago. And, as if that wasn’t enough trauma for one lifetime, she got a call one day that her oldest child had been in a very serious car crash, and would be - forever - changed.

The brain injury changed her daughter in a profound way, so her career-oriented mother pivoted to be the caregiver of her adult daughter, while raising two others and trying to honour their Indigenous heritage in that approach.

This podcast isn’t about showing how much you can endure. We don’t hand out awards for just getting sh+t done!. It’s about being authentic so you can shorten the path of learning for other women, and find your community for support.. And we have some belly laughs along the way.

Grab a coffee…and join us….

Feeling alone when your hormones hit the skids can be overwhelming and there is a LOT to learn. Why doesn’t someone get us all together to share what you’re thinking! Gee, you think, I wish Amy and Kimothy would do that show for us.

Presto!! You’ve come to the right place. Our first guest does that on her own podcast based in the United Arab Emirates.

Experienced Canadian journalist Ann Marie McQueen is a podcast expert with her multimedia platform Hotflash Inc., which focuses exclusively on information women need to get through the rollercoaster of life’s changes. Ann Marie and Kimothy do lose focus sometime,s talking about gruesome murders they used to cover in the “old days’ but Amy gets them back on track.

This is NOT one size fits all. It’s quite the contrary. Learn how individualized it actually is…and how it’s NOT just you that’s hot and bothered! Tune in to find out how tuning in to your own body might be the answer.

Grab a coffee…and join us..

Canadians Kimothy Walker and Amy Friesen bonded over a shared “piss off”…one of those life-changing kind.

We are not experts…but we know a lot of experts as we are professional communicators with a combined 50 years experience.

If we don’t know, we seek them out because we have some really tough questions about why so many women rank their mental health as pretty damn poor. Ya know what helps? Finding your people!!

Asking experts about every single subject we can think of…from menopause to grief and loss…to why we love our pets so much. The list is long.

And we want your ideas! So….who the Hell are we? Our first episode is like our first meeting with you. Please swipe and make a date with us (click subscribe actually…this isn’t Tinder), and join our community of women looking for answers.