Life Turned On: Stories of Sexual Self-Discovery in Midlife & Beyond

(CW: Sex trafficking.) In this episode, we talk with coach and trauma-conscious practitioner Joanna Ari about what it really means to reclaim intimacy with yourself. Joanna shares her path from survival and disconnection to deep embodiment and pleasure, all while never having experienced orgasm. Through vulnerability and self-honesty, she’s cultivated a rich, beautiful sex life rooted in presence, not performance. This conversation explores how true intimacy begins within and how self-connection can transform every part of how we love and live. Welcome to Season Four. We’re not just talking about shedding—we’re doing it. In our bodies, our breath, our choices, and our stories. If you're feeling the pull to go deeper this season, here are a few ways to connect beyond the podcast: Connect with our Guest Joanna Arai IG: joanna.arai FB: arai.joanna email: joanna_arai@yahoo.com [joanna_arai@yahoo.com] Register for the SHED Retreat A weekend for women ready to release the rules and reclaim what’s real. 👉 SHED Retreat Website [https://shedretreat2025.com/shed-retreat-website] Join the RECEIVE Retreat Waitlist A luxurious, slow, deeply restorative retreat designed to support you in receiving rest and pleasure. This experience will remind you what it feels like to fully be. 👉 Receive Retreat Waitlist [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf2buTLIMTb4BxDAYhqns1EhQFHZGr017a6gq09vHQeJv-MGw/viewform?usp=header] Work with Shauna 1:1 Explore private coaching opportunities to reconnect with your sexuality and live a more turned-on life. For individuals and couples.  👉 Coaching with Shauna [https://lingerboutique.com/pages/sexuality-education-intimacy-coaching] Learn More About Ziva Meditation This is the method that helped resolve my 8-year health issue and radically changed my relationship to rest, anxiety, and presence. Highly recommend. Try the Free Masterclass:  “How to Reduce Stress, Overcome Anxiety and Improve Sleep (in 15 Days or Less)”  👉 Ziva Masterclass [https://cd371.isrefer.com/go/z-masterclass/Linger] Explore Ziva Online:  The full meditation program that changed my life (and my sex life, yes for real).  👉 Ziva Online [https://cd371.isrefer.com/go/zivameditation/Linger/] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2220069/support]

This Kinktober, we’re shedding one of the biggest myths about pleasure — that kink isn’t for “people like us.” Shauna shares her journey from accidentally “coming out” as kinky at a professional dinner to discovering how kink is really about presence, play, and freedom. A story of curiosity, courage, and reclaiming desire — both in intimacy and in life.  Follow us on Instagram @lifeturnedonpodcast  @linger.u Register for the SHED Retreat A weekend for women ready to release the rules and reclaim what’s real. 👉 SHED Retreat Website [https://shedretreat2025.com/shed-retreat-website] Join the RECEIVE Retreat Waitlist A luxurious, slow, deeply restorative retreat designed to support you in receiving rest and pleasure. This experience will remind you what it feels like to fully be. 👉 Receive Retreat Waitlist [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf2buTLIMTb4BxDAYhqns1EhQFHZGr017a6gq09vHQeJv-MGw/viewform?usp=header] Work with Shauna 1:1 Explore private coaching opportunities to reconnect with your sexuality and live a more turned-on life. For individuals and couples.  👉 Coaching with Shauna [https://lingerboutique.com/pages/sexuality-education-intimacy-coaching] Learn More About Ziva Meditation This is the method that helped resolve my 8-year health issue and radically changed my relationship to rest, anxiety, and presence. Highly recommend. Try the Free Masterclass:  “How to Reduce Stress, Overcome Anxiety and Improve Sleep (in 15 Days or Less)”  👉 Ziva Masterclass [https://cd371.isrefer.com/go/z-masterclass/Linger] Explore Ziva Online:  The full meditation program that changed my life (and my sex life, yes for real).  👉 Ziva Online [https://cd371.isrefer.com/go/zivameditation/Linger/] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2220069/support]

Shauna and guest Melissa Schafer explore how diet culture fuels body shame, restricts pleasure, and disconnects us from ourselves. Together, they share personal stories and practical wisdom on cultivating food neutrality, body compassion, and a more liberated relationship with our bodies.  Welcome to Season Four. We’re not just talking about shedding—we’re doing it. In our bodies, our breath, our choices, and our stories. If you're feeling the pull to go deeper this season, here are a few ways to connect beyond the podcast: Connect with our Guest Melissa Schafer at melissashafer.com [http://melissashafer.com/] or @_melissashafer_ on Instagram. If this conversation resonates, we encourage you to also learn from and follow other powerful voices leading this work: Virgie Tovar, Ericka Hart, Glo V. (Nalgona Pride on IG), Shana Minei Spence (thenutritiontea on IG), Christina (encouragingdietitian on IG), Chrissy King, Lucie Vallee, Summer Innanen, Sonalee (thefatsextherapist on IG), Caleb Luna (dr_chairbreaker on IG), Vinny Welsby, Aubrey Gordon (yrfatfriend on IG), and Stephanie Yeboah. Follow us on Instagram @lifeturnedonpodcast  @linger.u Register for the SHED Retreat A weekend for women ready to release the rules and reclaim what’s real. 👉 SHED Retreat Website [https://shedretreat2025.com/shed-retreat-website] Join the RECEIVE Retreat Waitlist A luxurious, slow, deeply restorative retreat designed to support you in receiving rest and pleasure. This experience will remind you what it feels like to fully be. 👉 Receive Retreat Waitlist [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf2buTLIMTb4BxDAYhqns1EhQFHZGr017a6gq09vHQeJv-MGw/viewform?usp=header] Work with Shauna 1:1 Explore private coaching opportunities to reconnect with your sexuality and live a more turned-on life. For individuals and couples.  👉 Coaching with Shauna [https://lingerboutique.com/pages/sexuality-education-intimacy-coaching] Learn More About Ziva Meditation This is the method that helped resolve my 8-year health issue and radically changed my relationship to rest, anxiety, and presence. Highly recommend. Try the Free Masterclass:  “How to Reduce Stress, Overcome Anxiety and Improve Sleep (in 15 Days or Less)”  👉 Ziva Masterclass [https://cd371.isrefer.com/go/z-masterclass/Linger] Explore Ziva Online:  The full meditation program that changed my life (and my sex life, yes for real).  👉 Ziva Online [https://cd371.isrefer.com/go/zivameditation/Linger/] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2220069/support]

Guest Natalie Blair shares her journey through perimenopause, burnout, and disconnection—and how bioidentical hormone therapy reignited her energy, libido, and joy. As an ASSECT-certified sex therapist, she now helps others reclaim their sexuality. Together we explore how intention, authenticity, and connection can transform midlife into a life fully turned on.  You can connect with our guest at @authenticallyyou_sd and www.beauthenticallyyou.net [https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.beauthenticallyyou.net&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1759107477344558&usg=AOvVaw0TUqhqQLqSroIjnHr7X__r] Follow us on Instagram @lifeturnedonpodcast  @linger.u Register for the SHED Retreat A weekend for women ready to release the rules and reclaim what’s real. 👉 SHED Retreat Website [https://shedretreat2025.com/shed-retreat-website] Join the RECEIVE Retreat Waitlist A luxurious, slow, deeply restorative retreat designed to support you in receiving rest and pleasure. This experience will remind you what it feels like to fully be. 👉 Receive Retreat Waitlist [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf2buTLIMTb4BxDAYhqns1EhQFHZGr017a6gq09vHQeJv-MGw/viewform?usp=header] Work with Shauna 1:1 Explore private coaching opportunities to reconnect with your sexuality and live a more turned-on life. For individuals and couples.  👉 Coaching with Shauna [https://lingerboutique.com/pages/sexuality-education-intimacy-coaching] Learn More About Ziva Meditation This is the method that helped resolve my 8-year health issue and radically changed my relationship to rest, anxiety, and presence. Highly recommend. Try the Free Masterclass:  “How to Reduce Stress, Overcome Anxiety and Improve Sleep (in 15 Days or Less)”  👉 Ziva Masterclass [https://cd371.isrefer.com/go/z-masterclass/Linger] Explore Ziva Online:  The full meditation program that changed my life (and my sex life, yes for real).  👉 Ziva Online [https://cd371.isrefer.com/go/zivameditation/Linger/] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2220069/support]

In this episode, we're stepping away from our season’s theme of shedding to talk about something burning at the center of my heart right now: erotic leadership. The world feels heavy. Systems are collapsing, crises keep repeating, and it’s easy to go numb. But here’s the thing: when we disconnect from our erotic selves, we disconnect from the very life force that could carry us through. The erotic isn’t just about sex. It’s our creativity, our vitality, our pleasure, our power. It’s what makes us magnetic. And when we lead from that place, we stop running on fumes and start leading with fire and presence. In this episode I introduce you to LIT: Erotic Leadership for a World on Fire, my self-paced course designed to put pleasure back at the center of how you live and lead. This is your invitation to trade exhaustion for aliveness and to lead in a way that feels clear, embodied, and lit from within. Follow us on Instagram @lifeturnedonpodcast  @linger.u Register for the SHED Retreat A weekend for women ready to release the rules and reclaim what’s real. 👉 SHED Retreat Website [https://shedretreat2025.com/shed-retreat-website] Join the RECEIVE Retreat Waitlist A luxurious, slow, deeply restorative retreat designed to support you in receiving rest and pleasure. This experience will remind you what it feels like to fully be. 👉 Receive Retreat Waitlist [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf2buTLIMTb4BxDAYhqns1EhQFHZGr017a6gq09vHQeJv-MGw/viewform?usp=header] Work with Shauna 1:1 Explore private coaching opportunities to reconnect with your sexuality and live a more turned-on life. For individuals and couples.  👉 Coaching with Shauna [https://lingerboutique.com/pages/sexuality-education-intimacy-coaching] Learn More About Ziva Meditation This is the method that helped resolve my 8-year health issue and radically changed my relationship to rest, anxiety, and presence. Highly recommend. Try the Free Masterclass:  “How to Reduce Stress, Overcome Anxiety and Improve Sleep (in 15 Days or Less)”  👉 Ziva Masterclass [https://cd371.isrefer.com/go/z-masterclass/Linger] Explore Ziva Online:  The full meditation program that changed my life (and my sex life, yes for real).  👉 Ziva Online [https://cd371.isrefer.com/go/zivameditation/Linger/] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2220069/support]