With Danielle Collins

In this week’s episode of With Danielle Collins, I’m joined by women’s health expert and board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner Chelsea Ann O’Brien for a fascinating conversation about why constantly striving to do more may be having a much bigger impact on women’s health than we realise. Yes you can have a great life and career but it shouldn’t take its toll on your wellness.

Chelsea has spent over a decade working across labour and delivery, reproductive medicine, IVF, integrative medicine and women’s health. Through thousands of hours working closely with women, she began to notice recurring patterns around chronic exhaustion, anxiety, fertility struggles, burnout and disconnection from the body.

In this conversation, we explore Chelsea’s belief that many women have been conditioned to keep pushing, achieving and climbing what she calls “the staircase that never ends”, always searching for the next accomplishment, body, career milestone, relationship or version of motherhood that will finally make us feel like we’ve arrived.

We talk about what can happen when women spend too long operating from stress and survival mode, and why Chelsea believes reconnecting with our bodies, intuition and feminine nature can be such an important part of our wellbeing. We also talk about how you can be wildly successful and financially free with a thriving career AND feel well.

We delve into the huge physical and emotional transformation of motherhood, particularly the first three years; nervous system regulation; the patterns and conditioning that can pass from mother to daughter; balancing motherhood with a career; and what it really means to reclaim femininity without losing yourself.

Chelsea also shares her own story of rebuilding her life following the end of her marriage and an international lifestyle, and how that experience ultimately led her to write The Feminine Effect and The Feminine Frequency.

Chelsea is the author of five books, including Mystical Motherhood and The Feminine Effect, and is building The Feminine Effect as a resource for women navigating conscious conception, pregnancy, motherhood and their changing relationship with themselves.

It’s a thought-provoking conversation about women’s health, motherhood, burnout, intuition, identity and what can change when we stop believing that the answer is always to do more.

Connect with Chelsea Ann O’Brien

Website: chelseaanneffect.com
Instagram: @chelseaanneffect
Facebook: Mystical Motherhood
YouTube: Chelsea Ann O’Brien

Connect with Danielle

Website: faceyogaexpert.com
Instagram: @faceyogaexpert

How do you know if that feeling inside you is your intuition guiding you or simply fear holding you back?

A few weeks ago, I had an amazing conversation on the podcast with Sarah Gregg and Jill Ritchie, where we touched on the fascinating subject of intuition versus fear. It really stayed with me afterwards and made me want to dedicate a whole solo episode to something I’ve become increasingly interested in: how to really know when your intuition is talking.

Because it isn’t always as obvious as we might think.

In this episode of With Danielle Collins: The Podcast, I delve deeper into intuition, fear, gut instinct and overthinking, and share some of the things I’ve learnt through my own life and career about trusting that inner knowing.

One of the biggest things I’ve realised is that intuition is often surprisingly simple. It can be the first quiet answer that comes to you before your mind has had time to analyse it, question it and create all the reasons why you should or shouldn’t do something.

Fear, on the other hand, often comes with a story.

It can be repetitive, noisy and filled with “what ifs”. And the more we overthink a decision, the harder it can become to hear what our intuition was telling us in the first place.

But I also explore an important distinction: fear and intuition can exist at the same time.

You can intuitively know that a decision, change or new direction is right for you and still feel frightened about taking that step. Fear doesn’t automatically mean “no”. Sometimes it simply means that what you’re considering is new, uncertain or taking you outside your comfort zone.

I also share one of my favourite questions to ask when I’m struggling to distinguish between intuition and fear:

If I knew everything was going to work out either way, what would I choose?

In this episode, I talk about:

How intuition can feel different from fear and overthinking

Why your first instinct can sometimes be your clearest answer

The difference between a quiet inner knowing and a fear-based story

Why feeling afraid doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong for you

How overthinking can make it harder to hear your intuition

Learning to trust yourself when making important decisions

Why intuition has become increasingly important in my own life and career

Simple questions you can ask yourself when you don’t know which voice to trust

I certainly don’t have all the answers, and trusting my intuition is something I’m continuing to learn and practise myself. But the more I listen to it, the more I realise that sometimes we already know the answer — we just need to get quiet enough to hear it.

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering, “Is this my intuition or is this my fear talking?”, this episode is for you.

Connect with me:

Website: faceyogaexpert.com

Instagram: faceyogaexpert

What is it really like to work with your husband, run a business together, raise a family and somehow keep your relationship strong through all the different seasons of life?

In this week’s episode of With Danielle Collins, I’m joined by husband-and-wife physician team Dr John and Dr Cristina, founders of The Longevity Protocol.

This conversation went in so many interesting directions. As two couples who have experience of working together while also raising daughters and navigating family life, we talk very honestly about the realities of being in business with your husband or wife, the good parts, the challenges, how you separate/integrate work from home life and what happens when the lines between the two inevitably become blurred.

I also share some of my own experiences of working with my husband, Bruce, and what we’ve learnt from building a business together while raising our two daughters.

But our conversation goes much deeper than business.

With nearly 40 years of combined experience in hormone optimisation, sexual wellness and regenerative medicine, Dr John and Dr Cristina share their perspective on some of the common changes women, and couples, can experience in their 40s and 50s.

We talk about hormones, relationships, intimacy and sexual wellness, as well as how both partners can change during this stage of life and why understanding what is happening physically and emotionally can be so important.

We also explore the bigger topic of longevity and healthy ageing. Is our increasing obsession with optimisation actually making us healthier or can trying to do everything perfectly become another source of stress?

Dr John and Dr Cristina believe longevity shouldn’t simply be about adding more years to your life. It should be about staying strong, connected, curious and capable of really enjoying those years.

We chat about muscle and strength as we age, hormone health, relationships, pleasure, connection and why our sexual health may tell us more about our overall wellbeing than we realise.

This is such an open and interesting conversation about marriage, working with your spouse, raising a family, women’s health, hormones and longevity and ultimately what it means to create a life that feels good to live, rather than simply trying to live for as long as possible.

In this episode, we talk about:

What it’s really like to work with your husband or wife

Running a business together while raising children

How we navigate working together as husband-and-wife couples

Relationships and marriage through your 40s and 50s

Perimenopause, menopause and changing hormones

Intimacy and sexual wellness as we age

Why sexual health can be connected to our wider health

Muscle, strength and staying capable as we get older

Whether we can become too obsessed with wellness and longevity

Finding a sustainable approach to healthy ageing

Why longevity should be about living well not simply living longer

If you’re navigating your 40s or 50s, working with your partner, experiencing hormonal changes, thinking more about longevity, or simply wondering how to create a healthier and more fulfilling life as you age, I think you’ll get so much from this conversation.



Connect with Dr John & Dr Cristina:



Website: https://www.longevityprotocollife.com
Instagram: @thesexdocs

I am so excited to launch With Danielle Collins: The Podcast — the new name and new look for The Face Yoga Expert Podcast.

After six and a half years, over half a million downloads, millions of views on YouTube and a brand-new episode every single Sunday, I felt it was time for the podcast to have a little facelift… a natural facelift, of course!

In this special episode, I’m sharing why I’ve decided to rename the podcast, what inspired With Danielle Collins, and what you can expect from this next chapter.

If you’re a regular listener, don’t worry — the heart of the podcast isn’t changing.

Over the years, Face Yoga itself has only ever made up a small part of what we talk about here. The podcast has naturally evolved into a space for conversations around wellness, natural beauty, holistic health, mindset, business, lifestyle and real-life stories and experiences.

You’ll still hear my solo episodes where I speak from the heart, alongside conversations with inspiring guests. But you may also notice a little more of me — more of my own stories, what I’m learning and experiencing, and conversations that feel genuine, open and connected.

The new name simply feels like it has caught up with what this podcast has already become.

Because ultimately, this is a space where you can simply be with me — whether I’m talking directly to you or you’re joining me for a conversation with one of my guests.

In this episode, I also talk about why I believe we don’t always need to completely close one chapter before beginning another. Sometimes we simply need to evolve, own who we are now and step more fully into the chapter we’re already in.

That’s exactly what With Danielle Collins represents for me.

Thank you so much for being part of this journey, whether this is your very first episode or you’ve been listening for years. I’m so grateful you’re here, and I’m really excited for what’s to come.

New episodes every Sunday.

Watch on the Face Yoga Expert YouTube channel or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, my website or wherever you usually listen to your podcasts.

More information:

https://www.faceyogaexpert.com

In this solo episode, I’m sharing three moments that changed my life, business and career forever.

This is a really honest and open conversation where I speak from the heart about some of the pivotal moments that, looking back, completely changed the direction my life was taking.

The first happened when I was just 21 and was diagnosed with a chronic illness that left me bedridden for around a year. I talk about my journey back to health, how I immersed myself in holistic wellness and natural healing, and how this incredibly difficult chapter ultimately helped me understand what I felt my soul’s purpose was. It led me to train, begin teaching and eventually start my own wellness business.

I then take you back to the early days of my career, when I was teaching yoga and relaxation and incorporating facial massage into my work. This eventually led me to discover Face Yoga and become a Face Yoga teacher, including speaking about it at my first national event. At the time, Face Yoga was almost completely unknown and some people even found the idea funny! But something inside me knew to keep going. I stayed consistent, continued teaching and sharing these natural facial exercises and techniques, and slowly began building what would eventually become the Face Yoga Expert brand.

My third story takes us to the end of 2019, when I made the decision to move my business from predominantly in-person work to online.

What makes this story particularly interesting is that at the time I had a very strong intuitive feeling that something big was going to happen in the world. I felt that it was connected to health, although I had absolutely no idea what it would be. At the same time, my intuition was strongly telling me to take my Face Yoga business online.

Of course, only a few months later, the world changed with the Covid lockdowns.

Looking back, I’m so grateful I listened to that intuition. Moving my business online before everything changed meant I was already in a position to reach and support people around the world from home, and it became a hugely important turning point for my business from 2020 onwards.

Throughout this episode, I reflect on intuition, consistency, trusting the path that feels right for you and how sometimes the moments that initially feel like challenges or unexpected changes can ultimately lead us exactly where we need to go.

I also tell you about my 7 Day Natural Facelift with Face Yoga course. It’s a simple, easy-to-follow Face Yoga programme with lifetime access to seven 12-minute videos, designed to help you naturally lift and tone the key areas of your face using my Face Yoga techniques. The full course is just £21 here

https://www.faceyogaexpert.com/natural_face_lift