Midlife Muse: Things Your Mother Never Told You

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. And if you are ready to lead your life from truth, steadiness, and self-knowing, join me inside CROWNED. 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/ Join the Crowned Mastermind http://www.amandahanson.com/crowned  

Most of us were taught some version of the same story:  Good women are modest. Quiet. Selfless. Desire is dangerous. Pleasure is suspicious. But that story is not holy. It is a tool of control. In this conversation, I sit down with my dear friend Dr. Kimberly Rose Pendleton - intimacy scholar, coach, and former evangelical insider - to talk about how purity culture, patriarchy, and religion have shaped our bodies, our bedrooms, our marriages, and our sense of worth as women. We speak about the heartbreak of watching purity culture move from private dogma into national policy...while raising daughters in the midst of it. And we name something I see every day in my work: women who are exhausted from doing it all, flirting with "trad wife" fantasies, simply because they're desperate for one place to finally surrender. Inside this episode, we explore: How purity culture quietly trains women to disconnect from their bodies, their desire, and their pleasure. Why so many powerful women secretly fantasize about being dominated - and what's really underneath those fantasies. The rise of "trad wife" culture and the hidden longing for safety and rest that makes it so seductive. How to hold both: being a woman in her full power and having a place to soften, lean back, and be cherished. What happens in our marriages when we stop dimming, start telling the truth, and allow our identities to expand. Why your pleasure is not frivolous - it is a form of spiritual and political rebellion that liberates everyone, including the men you love. This conversation is for the woman who feels a million miles away from her own body...the woman who is quietly wondering, "Is it selfish to want more?" It is not selfish.  It is your birthright. If this episode stirs something within you, share it with another woman who is ready to step out of martyrdom and into her own aliveness. And if you are ready to remember who you've always been - to reclaim your desire, your voice, and your pleasure - join me at MAGNETIC in Phoenix, December 5-6. The revolution begins within. Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/ Connect with Dr. Kimberly Rose Pendleton: https://www.instagram.com/drkimberlyrosependleton/ https://www.kimberlyrosependleton.com Join the Movement at MAGNETIC in Phoenix – December 5–6 http://www.amandahanson.com/magnetic  

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 too long, women have been told that good mothering means perfection - tidy homes, obedient children, unshakable patience. But perfection is a prison. What our children truly need is our presence. In this conversation, I sit down with Dr. Shefali Tsabary, clinical psychologist, best-selling author, and the woman who shattered the myth of the "perfect mother." Through her pioneering work in conscious parenting she has given women permission to break generational patterns, to stop parenting from fear, and to finally turn inward - toward their own healing. Dr. Shefali reminds us that parenting is not about control, it is about connection; that our children are not ours to mold, but mirrors showing us where we are still unhealed. Inside this episode, we explore: The radical truth that our children don't need perfect mothers - they need conscious ones. How to dissolve the guilt, martyrdom, and self-betrayal that women have been conditioned to carry. Why healing our own wounds is the greatest gift we can give the next generation. The epidemic of disconnection among our boys - and how mothers can help bring them back to life. The urgent need for the matriarchal voice - for women to lead not like men, but as mothers of the world. This conversation is a mirror - one that invites you to look tenderly and honestly at yourself. It is a reminder that true liberation is not a battle cry, it's a homecoming. If this episode stirs something within you, share it with another woman ready to step out of perfection and into presence. And if you're ready to remember who you've always been - to soften, awaken, and rise - join me at MAGNETIC in Phoenix, December 5–6. The revolution begins within. Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/ Connect with Dr. Shefali Tsabary https://www.instagram.com/doctorshefali/ https://www.drshefali.com 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