Inspiring Mama | A Happiness Podcast For Moms & Dads

It’s time to stop feeling frustrated by your productivity. Host Lauren Fire shares the harrowing tale of creating a time management system she actually likes and shares a new way to look at the To-Dos in your life.    How can we get stuff done and enjoy the process? Learn how to set yourself up to win and start working WITH yourself instead of fighting yourself. Stop cycling through organizational systems, books, and techniques that make no real impact and start creating your own.   Get free happiness practices delivered to your inbox every other week by singing up for 3 Minutes to Zen here: Get Instant Access      

Your personal style is a powerful tool in your transformational toolbox. With a few shifts in your wardrobe, you can re-ignite the AMAZING parts of YOU that get overlooked in the hustle of everyday parenting life.    Stylist Joui Turandot will teach us how to re-ignite ourSELVES by tuning into our personal style. Learn how to use your clothing to bring out the parts of you that you want to show the world.    Learn how to use your wardrobe to shift your emotional state and to create the confidence, sexiness, and joy that you're craving. Break through personal style barriers and negative self-talk and bring the fun back into your wardrobe.    Joui also shares a few style hacks and tricks that she uses to get more out of her closet and to find clothing that really inspires you.    To get my free happiness exercises delivered to your inbox every other week, sign up at: 3 Minutes to Zen  

What if we didn’t use shame to motivate ourselves?    Host Lauren Fire talks about the shame she’s been struggling with lately and teaches you a step-by-step process to transform your relationship with shame. Learn how to move from shame into appreciation and sef-acceptance.    “You can hate your decision and not hate yourself. You have that choice.” - Lauren Fire   In this episode, you will learn a new tool you can use to architect your inner world. What would it look like NOT to punish yourself when you make a mistake? What would it be like to say: “Yes, I made a decision and I don’t like the consequences. But so what!”  Can you can accept yourself anyway?   There are no “wrong” decisions, only consequences. Some we like, some we don’t. Either way, once you make a decision, it’s in the past. Shame only creates more suffering in the moment. If we can learn how to turn to appreciation and self-acceptance in the face of shame, we can create a positive feeling state that will counter the negative.    Get 10 t

Still trying to figure out what you want to be when you grow up? Many parents find that they feel frustrated by their jobs after they have kids. Maybe you want a more flexible work week, fewer hours, less stress, or just want to change careers entirely. But where do you start? In this inspiring conversation, mompreneur RB Fast will tell us her story of transitioning out of a busy career into her own profitable business while balancing motherhood. Learn how to open yourself to the dream of a different career and find the courage to ask yourself honestly: What would I love to do? Get jazzed to try new things, meet new people, and open yourself up to the dream job you didn't know you'd love.  Understand the danger of excuse-based thinking and start moving through fears blocks and transitioning while still keeping your day job. Learn how to create a support system with your family and friends. Get free happiness practices every other week by signing up for: 3 Minutes to Zen

How do you thrive amid the busyness and overwhelming details of parenthood? Host Lauren Fire discusses the two words that are finally allowing her to make real changes in her life.    "At some point it stops becoming about what happened to you, whatever you blame things on, and it starts being about what you’re doing today in your head to continue that pattern and recreate the situation that is causing your pain, depression or anxiety.” -Lauren Fire     Get Inspiring Mama’s free happiness practices every other week by signing up at: 3 Minutes to Zen

Ever feel like your mind is running you? Learn how to turn down your mind and turn up your enjoyment. In this episode, host Lauren Fire gets macro and discuses how to find your true self and let go of the stupidity that floods your mind. With this new tool, you can reduce anxiety, depression, overwhelm, or stress.     Learn how to stop taking the content of your mind so seriously. Get what it really means to find the SELF you’ve been looking for and create a new kind of relationship with your every day experience.     When you learn to enter the present moment state, something magical happens, whether you’re washing the dishes or sitting on a cliff top in lotus pose. You connect with your SELF and you find a new level of intelligence and a place of acceptance and love.    When you truly get this, you can stop trying to fix yourself and start trying to just be yourself.    Get free happiness exercises by joining my community: Get Instant Access to 3 Minutes to Zen     View the Show Notes Page, with links to th

I should be working out right now. I should be eating healthier. I shouldn’t be on Facebook. I should should should should! Using the word “should” in your head actually makes you LESS productive and MORE unhappy.    Learn a 3-step process to get rid of the “shoulds” in your head that will empower you and propel you toward what you want.    Use this exercise during times of high stress, anxiety, depression, or whenever you notice that you are feeling more guilt and shame than usual.    Get written exercises like this every other week, FREE by signing up here: Get Instant Access to 3 Minutes to Zen   Here is the 3-Step Process, called The Should-a-Nator:    Step 1: Notice your “shoulds”    What “should” you do? Ask yourself that question and I bet you’ll get a whole flood of all of the shoulds that your brain likes to beat you up with. You shouldn’t watch that much TV. You should be buying organic. You shouldn’t have quit breastfeeding so early. You should be running like that old high school friend on Facebo

How do you “have it all” without burning out? People keep telling you to “slow down” or “de-stress” but how do you slow down when life won’t slow down? How do you keep your body and mind healthy while trying to be, do and enjoy everything you want? Dr. Karen Osburn takes a new look at burnout. Instead of slowing down when life speeds up, Dr. Karen has learned how to step up. All while taking care of her body, mind, marriage, and children. Learn how she thrives when the going gets tough, and how you can too. "Burnout only happens when you are not fulfilling all your body's needs (physically, mentally and emotionally), OR if you are all in for one aspect of your life (i.e. business), and neglect everything else.” - Dr. Karen Osburn. View the show notes for this episode here: Burnout Get my free happiness exercises every other week by signing up here: Get Instant Access

Striving for “Balance” is like being a mouse in an endless maze looking for cheese that doesn’t exist. It can lead to guilt, shame, worry, anxiety, and unhappiness. In this episode, you will learn a new way to think of time management and balance that will reduce your guilt and have you quickly enjoying more of your life.    Society’s notion of balance has parents striving for some magical place where all parts of their lives feel equally cared for.  Given the complicated nature of a family, the whole notion of balance simply gives us food for our guilt monster.    You feel guilty when you work instead of spend time with your kid. Then you feel guilty when you leave work early to spend time with your kid. You feel guilty because you haven’t made time for your friends, then feel guilty leaving your kid with a sitter to go to dinner. It goes on and on.    When I gave up thinking that I could balance anything and started instead doing what I’m teaching in this episode, I felt a huge weight get lifted.    This ep

A sick child, a baby in the NICU, divorce, and loss...how do you cope with the most difficult struggles? Author Kayla Aimee shares her story of finding gratitude and hope through the flood of difficulties she faced when her daughter was born prematurely at 25 weeks.    How do you not hit anyone who says "Everything happens for a reason..."? How do you "stay strong" when you are crumbling and can't find anything to hold onto? How do you find any sort of peace or comfort when life is ridiculously difficult?    When she was born, Kayla's daughter weighed less than six sticks of butter. In her new book, Anchored: Finding Hope in the Unexpected, Kayla shares the life lessons that got her through the hardest and most traumatic time in her life.    "I want her to see me that way as her mom. I want her to seem me as someone who chooses hope and joy and laughter in the middle of hard things. Because I hope as she gets older, she will too. And I hope that will make her path a little bit easier." - Kayla Aimee    In thi

What does Dora the Explorer have in common with your intuition? Find out in an episode dedicated to finding YOU.   Find your true north voice of intuition and the place of inner compassion and self-love. It exists!  Through a riddle and discussion, you will discover the part of you that can guide you much more effectively and solidly. Find a soft place to land inside your internal world.  Calm the drama in your head. Learn a new way to think about your stories, habits, beliefs and personality traits.  Sign up for my list to receive episode summaries for each podcast eposide as well as other short happiness practices. Join here: Get Instant Access Episode Summary: I’m the Ground … I’m the Ground…I’m the Ground…I’m the GROUND!  The title of this episode occurred to me while I was attempting to meditate with Dora the Explorer stuck in my head: “I’m the map, I’m the map, I’m the map…” yea you get it.  Let's start with a riddle.  Riddle: Imagine you are on a halfway crowded dance floor, dancing to amazing mus

"It's never too late to have a happy childhood" - Tom Robbins   Learn a new way to think about your relationship with the voices in your head. How do you actually go about reprogramming your brain to change the patterns that cause things like stress, anxiety, depression, self-criticism, and addiction?    In this episode, you will learn how to recognize the destructive voices and patterns in your head and lay down new patterns that support and nourish you. Host Lauren Fire shares the concept of re-parenting and taking back control over the way that you talk to yourself.    This episode will show you how to start to reshape your patterns and reshape how you treat yourself. It’s time to finally change, to finally be the person you’ve always wanted to be. How do you get YOU to emerge? The you that you know you can be…    Show Summary:    I. Re-Parenting Yourself      “It’s never too late to have a happy childhood” - Tom Robbins    We all carry a parent with us in our heads. Most of our character, values, and pers

Do you ever feel trapped by the situation you are in or by what someone has done to you?  We create false limits for ourselves based on our circumstances. Guest Sonia Johnson, the founder of Box Me Mommy shares her powerful story of creating a beautiful life and business, despite growing up in an abusive family.     Your ability to create the life you want is not dependent on your income, family, or back story. Your happiness and success is inextricably tied to the way YOU see yourself and your life so far.    This means you have way more power than you are using. In this episode, learn how to let go of blame and anger at what happened to you and see yourself as MORE than your circumstances.    Sonia grew up with a drug addicted father, an abusive mother, an even more abusive step father, gangs and violence. But through it all, Sonia kept her vision for her life clear.    She always saw herself as more than her family or the abuse. No matter what happened, she kept believing she could create what she wanted a

We all have that critical voice in our heads that makes us feel guilty and ashamed. “You’re a bad parent because…” or “why didn’t you work harder and get more done?”  You can’t get rid of it, but you can change the way you relate with it and seize its power over your day-to-day experience. Host Lauren Fire takes you on a journey that will de-throne your judgmental voice and give you back the power to feel more confident, peaceful, and capable in your life. Learn a process you can start using immediately to give the middle finger to your inner judge. “At some point, you will just stop caring what your inner judge thinks of you.” – Lauren Fire Self-criticism is one of the worst ways to motivate yourself.  Although it feels like it’s working, inner judgment, shame, and guilt rob you of self-esteem and can spin you into depression and anxiety. The more you engage with your inner judge by fighting with it or complying, the more powerful it will become.  Numbing it out with alcohol, food or TV doesn’t work either.

Who does the dishes more often? Who wakes up more with baby? Who shuttles the kids around more?  While simple, these issues can create resentment that may spell trouble in a relationship.   Guests Marcus and Ashley Kusi of the podcast The First Year Marriage Show and authors of the book Communication in Marriage: How to Communicate with Your Spouse Without Fighting, share practical tips and advice for parents on communication, workload distribution, and negotiating the shared responsibility of caring for kids.    According to research, approximately 80 percent of couples experience a huge drop in marital quality during the transition to parenthood. One of the most common sources of marital tension comes from an unequal distribution of the workload that comes with parenthood.    "It’s important to remember that no one is perfect and you’re both going to fail every day…” - Ashley Kusi   Learn how getting on the same team, not keeping score, and appreciating instead of nagging can help balance the workload wit

This little trick is super useful when you’re feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, nervous or when your head feels noisy. Learn how to turn to your brain and say SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!    Get more exercises like this for free by joining 3 Minutes to Zen, my online series: Get Instant Access   Exercise Summary:   I spent years learning how to meditate, reading books, going to classes and even silent retreats. I remember sitting in one particular silent retreat just cursing my mind because no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t turn it off. Meditation felt awful to me.    Then one day I finally figured out that turning your mind off is impossible. Even serious meditators will tell you that trying to clear your mind is a useless endeavor. Instead of trying to turn OFF the noise in your head, try this exercise.    Turn your awareness to your body. When I saw awareness, I mean - what are you paying attention to? Ok, let me back up. To answer this question, you first have to realize that YOU are something completely separat

How do you cope with loss, grief, anger, or deep sadness? Host Lauren Fire discusses a recent loss in her life and explains how old patterns like self-judgment can rear their ugly heads in difficult times.    Understand your own emotional process a little better and feel inspired to bring self-compassion into your life in a stronger way.  

Creating a closer partnership with your body can skyrocket your personal growth journey. Guest Erin Burch, aka The Body Whisperer, shares a mind-blowing new way to think about body alignment and emotional health.    If you've been struggling to change something in your mind, this podcast could be the missing piece to your puzzle. Learn an exercise you can use right now to feel more secure and confident, and learn an awareness technique that can change your relationship with your body.    There is a place in your body where tension is designed to be held. Erin calls it your "core container."  When you learn how to stack your body's blocks properly and carry tension in this core container, you can uncover freedom of movement and emotion. In this episode you will learn how to discover this "core container" on your body to start changing your tension patterns.    Once I lined up my body and learned how to hold myself up the way my body was meant to work, I was able to think more clearly and feel more joy.  It tur

It takes a village. In this episode you will learn how to create one from "momlationship” expert Melanie Dale, the author of the new book Women Are Scary: The Totally Awkward Adventure of Finding Mom Friends. Learn how to take a new mom acquaintance through the four “bases” of mom dating to create the nourishing friendships you are craving. “We make each other better moms, better humans,” writes Dale. “We need each other, because mothering is just too darn hard." In this interview, Dale shares her unexpected journey into momalationships and the lessons she has learned as she has built her own support network. Learn how to develop real soul-southing relationships, avoid foot-in-the-mouth moments and navigate the pitfalls of new friendships. Sign up for Inspiring Mama's free online series 3 Minutes to Zen: Short Happiness Practices for Parents - Get Instant Access Learn more about Melanie Dale and buy her book: Show Notes

Got kitchen overwhelm? Feeding the family right has become a source of stress for many parents. Holistic nutritionist and mom Anastasia Hendryanto talks about strategies for preparing real food without getting overwhelmed or spending all day in the kitchen.   Learn a simple way to choose real food and create a plan for improving the nutritional intake of your family. Anastasia discusses the two big sources of kitchen stress, (hint - it comes back to perfectionism!). She then provides valuable advice on reducing the sources of your stress.    Change your strategy for organizing your kitchen, meal planning, and learn how to help your children create a good relationship with food.    Sign up for Anastasia’s meal-planning challenge and learn more about this topic at: Show Notes Page   Join my free e-series: 3 Minutes to Zen, happiness exercises designed for parents, delivered every other week. Get Instant Access