Why I started this Podcast. Midlife Crisis or Midlife Awakening?

There Will Be Time Later | Adriana Carballo on Dreams, Intuition & the Cost of Waiting

How many of the things that matter most have quietly been placed in the "someday" category? In this heartfelt conversation, Debbie Thompson speaks with Adriana Carballo—storyteller, community builder, founder, mother, and creator of Spark Keepers—about the dream that changed the direction of her life. What begins as a story about her grandmother's wish to see the Norwegian fjords becomes a powerful reflection on time, intuition, adventure, and the assumptions we make about the future. When Adriana lost her grandmother before that dream could happen, she was forced to confront a question many women quietly carry: What am I postponing because I believe there will always be more time? Together, Debbie and Adriana explore the emotional patterns that keep us waiting, the hidden belief that we have to do everything alone, and the courage required to stop delaying what feels most alive. This conversation is for women navigating change, questioning what matters most, or feeling the pull toward something they can no longer ignore. In this episode you'll hear about: • The story that became Adriana's "stone in her shoe" • Why the things that matter most often get pushed into the future • The hidden cost of waiting for the perfect time • Learning to receive support instead of doing everything alone • Following a dream before certainty arrives • Creating space for joy, adventure, and possibility • What it means to become enchanted with your own life again Sometimes the stone isn't there to stop us. Sometimes it's there to wake us up. As you listen, notice what stays with you. Perhaps there is something in your life that has been waiting patiently for your attention. 👤 GUEST LINKS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hola.adrianacarballo [https://www.instagram.com/hola.adrianacarballo] Website: https://adrianacarballo.lovable.app/ [https://adrianacarballo.lovable.app/] Spark Keepers: https://spark-keepers.com/ [https://spark-keepers.com/] Substack: https://adrianacarballo.substack.com [https://adrianacarballo.substack.com/] 🌿 REWIRED & RADIANT Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rewiredandradiant [https://www.instagram.com/rewiredandradiant] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579968982281 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579968982281]

People Pleasing & Burnout: The Journey Back to Yourself | Karen Blair

What happens when you've spent so many years helping everyone else that you can no longer hear yourself? In this deeply honest conversation, Karen Blair shares the moment she realised that the life she had built around caring, achieving, helping and doing had come at a cost she never expected. For years, she believed her value came from being useful. She stayed busy, kept moving, supported others, and rarely stopped long enough to ask what she needed. What looked like commitment and capability on the outside was masking a growing disconnection from herself. The turning point came when she began to see the patterns she had been living inside for years. Patterns of people pleasing. Over-functioning. Constant doing. Avoiding stillness. Searching outside herself for something she could only find within. When someone asked Karen what her greatest loss had been, her answer was simple. "Losing myself." But this conversation is not only about loss. It is about the slow and courageous process of finding yourself again. In this episode, you'll hear about: * People pleasing and the hidden cost of constantly helping others * Burnout, over-functioning and tying self-worth to being useful * Losing connection with yourself while meeting everyone else's needs * Learning to slow down and listen to your inner voice * The discomfort of sitting with yourself instead of escaping yourself * Self-abandonment, identity shifts and personal transformation What it means to finally come home to yourself This episode is for women navigating life transitions, emotional disconnection, burnout, people pleasing, identity shifts, or the feeling that somewhere along the way they lost touch with who they really are. Karen's story is a reminder that the greatest transformation is often not becoming someone new. It's remembering who you were before you became everything for everyone else. 👤 GUEST LINKS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenconsciouslycoaching/ [https://www.instagram.com/karenconsciouslycoaching/] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-blair-a7260b207/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-blair-a7260b207/] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karen.blair.274039 [https://www.facebook.com/karen.blair.274039] 🌿 REWIRED & RADIANT Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rewiredandradiant [https://www.instagram.com/rewiredandradiant] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579968982281 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579968982281]

I Couldn't Ignore It Anymore: Victoria Solomon on Self-Worth & Relationships

Sometimes the moment that changes everything isn't a crisis. It's a question. A comment. A reflection from someone who loves us. In this deeply honest conversation, Victoria Solomon shares the turning point that forced her to see her life through a different lens. What began as a seemingly ordinary interaction with her teenage daughter became the moment she could no longer ignore the reality she had been living with for years. Together, Debbie and Victoria explore how relationship patterns become normalised, how self-worth can slowly erode without us realising it, and why awareness often arrives long before change. This is a conversation about the painful gap between what we know deep down and what we continue to tolerate. It's about survival, self-abandonment, identity, and the courage it takes to finally acknowledge the truth. For women navigating life transitions, questioning long-held patterns, or feeling disconnected from themselves, this episode offers a powerful reminder that recognition is often where transformation begins. In this episode we explore: • The moment Victoria realised her daughter was watching more than she thought • How unhealthy relationship dynamics become normalised over time • The hidden cost of constantly trying to be enough • Why awareness can feel both devastating and liberating • The impact our choices have on the people who love us most • The beliefs that keep women stuck in relationships and situations that no longer serve them • Moving from survival toward self-worth and self-trust • The freedom that comes from seeing clearly Sometimes the greatest turning points begin with a simple question: What am I teaching by what I'm willing to tolerate? 🎧 PODCAST LINKS YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcastSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ZplV0leGMT3TAfrbrvWz0?si=37jd6LVYTKKH0zI0yOqzYgApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-stone-in-my-shoe/id1869259267 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-stone-in-my-shoe/id1869259267] 👤 GUEST LINKS Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/victoria.j.salomon [https://www.facebook.com/victoria.j.salomon] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theixchelsystem/ [https://www.instagram.com/theixchelsystem/] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ixcheltherapies/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ixcheltherapies/] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IxchelTherapiesTheIxchelSystem [https://www.youtube.com/@IxchelTherapiesTheIxchelSystem] Website: http://www.ixchelsystem.com [http://www.ixchelsystem.com/] 🌿 REWIRED & RADIANT Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rewiredandradiant [https://www.instagram.com/rewiredandradiant] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579968982281 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579968982281]

I Adapted Until I Slowly Stopped Being Me with Valerie Ritchie

Have you ever looked around your life and quietly wondered: "When did I stop feeling like me?" In this deeply honest conversation, Debbie Thompson speaks with Valerie Ritchie — known as The Crone Goddess — about identity, silence, relationships and what happens when we spend years becoming who life asks us to be. Valerie shares the moments that slowly shaped her life: a childhood experience that taught her to become quieter, years of adapting to roles and expectations, and the unexpected feeling that surfaced when her marriage ended. Not heartbreak. Relief. Together they explore what it means to lose yourself gradually, the stories we carry for decades, and how midlife can become a return rather than an ending. This episode is for women who have spent years being: * the reliable one * the responsible one * the strong one * the woman who keeps everything together and are quietly wondering: "What's mine now?" Inside this conversation you'll hear: * how early experiences can quietly shape identity * the emotional cost of adapting yourself over time * people pleasing and self-abandonment patterns * recognising yourself inside life transitions * the difference between coping and truly living * what it means to return to yourself Maybe this isn't about becoming someone new. Maybe it's about remembering who was there all along. 👤 GUEST BIO Valerie Ritchie is a Midlife Empowerment Coach, speaker, and founder of The Crone Goddess. After more than 30 years in education, Valerie now supports women through midlife transitions, helping them reconnect with their identity, purpose, and inner power.  👤 GUEST LINKS Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valerie.cronegoddess [https://www.facebook.com/valerie.cronegoddess] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valerie.cronegoddess/ [https://www.instagram.com/valerie.cronegoddess/] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriej-cronegoddess [https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriej-cronegoddess] Website: https://www.transformationinaction.co.uk [https://www.transformationinaction.co.uk/] 🌿 REWIRED & RADIANT LINKS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rewiredandradiant [https://www.instagram.com/rewiredandradiant] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rewiredandradiant [https://www.facebook.com/rewiredandradiant]

Performing Strength vs. Living Truthfully | Riham El Hawary on Burnout & Midlife

What happens when the role you’ve spent your whole life performing suddenly disappears? In this emotionally honest conversation, Riham El Hawary shares the quiet identity collapse that came after years of responsibility, performance, achievement, and caregiving. From being conditioned from childhood to become “the strong one,” to building success through survival and eventually experiencing emotional and physical burnout, this episode explores the deeper emotional cost of living through performance instead of truth. But beneath the responsibility, the success, and the coping mechanisms was a more confronting question: Who am I when nobody needs me anymore? This conversation explores the emotional reality many women experience during major life transitions — especially when identity has been built around being needed, useful, responsible, and emotionally available for everyone else. Together, Debbie and Riham explore: * emotional burnout from high functioning * identity shifts in midlife * intuition and self-abandonment * loneliness after caregiving * success versus fulfilment * learning to reconnect with yourself honestly * what happens when performance stops working * the emotional discomfort of sitting with yourself without distraction This episode is for women navigating: * emotional disconnection * people pleasing * burnout from coping * life transitions * internal conflict between external success and internal truth * midlife awakening and self-discovery Sometimes the hardest part of transformation isn’t changing your life. It’s finally asking yourself what you actually want underneath the role you’ve spent years performing. 👤 GUEST LINKS: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rihamelhawary.official [https://www.instagram.com/rihamelhawary.official/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Website: https://www.personainternational.com [https://www.personainternational.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhawary [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhawary?utm_source=chatgpt.com] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/rihamelhawary [https://www.youtube.com/user/rihamelhawary?utm_source=chatgpt.com] 🌿 REWIRED & RADIANT: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rewiredandradiant [https://www.instagram.com/rewiredandradiant?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rewiredandradiant [https://www.facebook.com/rewiredandradiant]