Cracked Open by Grief: A Tender Return to Life

Freedom from the Midlife Money Fog

A version of this episode was released in Season 1 and is back by popular demand — because the conversation about women and money is far from over. This is freshly edited and includes closing insights from Sheila. So many women have told me they feel uneasy around their financial lives. Not incompetent — uneasy. Like there's something they should know, something they should be doing. If that's you, this episode is for you or for the people who love you. Mikelann Valterra is an author, speaker, financial therapist, and master money coach who has spent twenty-five years as a thought leader in financial psychology. She helps women around the world rise above the money fog, transform their relationship with money, and design their ideal lives. Her book Rise Above the Money Fog is available now. In this conversation we get into what money fog actually is — and the sneaky ways it shows up in midlife. We talk about the stories and beliefs we inherited around money, why women carry more financial anxiety than men, and what it means to treat your finances as a sacred resource for designing a life you love. We also talk about mimetic desire — the great romantic lie that our desires are actually our own. This is not a budgeting episode. It's a freedom episode. What we cover: * The FOG framework — Fear, Overwhelm, and Guilt — and how to recognize it in yourself * Why midlife transitions bring money fog roaring back * Elegant financial simplicity — and why fewer accounts means more peace * The seeds of possibility that money fog quietly kills * How to ask better questions of yourself and your advisors * Where desire actually comes from — and why it matters Find Mikelann:Website: seattlemoneycoach.comGrab her free money fog quiz at the same linkLinkedIn: Mikelann Valterra Crazy Beautiful Truth is hosted by Sheila Delaney, executive facilitator and leadership coach, who believes there is always a Crazy Beautiful Truth at play, working for us, guiding us into the life we most want to live. Allowing it is a game changer.

From 'Almost' to 'Arrival.' Reclaiming Inner Authority

Sheila Delaney is joined by Amar, creator of The Coherence Method and a former healer who works with professionals who are successful on paper and privately exhausted. He helps them stop managing themselves like a problem to fix and start operating from coherence. Most of us have outsourced our authority without knowing it. To the next healer, the next strategy, the next version of ourselves we are still trying to become. And the nervous system, running on seven-year-kiddo-old code, is perfectly happy to keep us circling the airport, never landing. This conversation asks the question most practitioners never do: what comes after healing? Amar and Sheila explore: * Why driven people get addicted to almost * What it actually takes to reclaim inner authority * How to tell the difference between building from pressure and building from presence * Why the nervous system prefers familiar chaos to unfamiliar peace and what to do about it Coherence, Amar says, isn't something you build. It's something you return to. You were born with it. If you have been doing the work, achieving what you set out to, and something still feels unresolved? This episode is for you. Find Amar and his programs and one on one work at https://withamar.com/ Instagram @amarenergy

Cracked Open by Grief: A Tender Return to Life

What do you do when grief drops you into the deep end and you can't find the shore? Sheila Delaney is joined by Laing Rikkers — award-winning author, entrepreneur, and executive coach — whose sister's sudden death sent her searching for a way back to life through nature, poetry, and the simple rituals that hold us together when everything falls apart. Laing's book Morning Leaves (Red Hen Press, second edition) was born from that journey, written during pandemic lockdown, illustrated by botanical artist Kelly Leahy-Ratting, and offered to the world as an act of radical vulnerability and hard-won courage. The second edition is out now. It's gorgeous. In this conversation: * The grief that doesn't go away, but gets integrated * The rage that lives beneath the even-keeled surface * The daughter who held up a mirror and asked are you really doing this? * The moment a reader said it felt like I read your journal * The crazy beautiful truth Laing carries now — that how we spend our days is a choice, and it takes real elbow grease to choose joy Find Laing at laingrikkers.com Instagram @morning_leaves_and_poetry LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/laing-rikkers/

I Tried to Wrestle My Ancestors — They Won. On Coming Home to Yourself

Author Harper Bailey joins Sheila Delaney to talk about what does it can look like to love yourself back into life. For Harper, it started with a dream she couldn't outrun and a book she didn't want to write. Harper is a public health leader, the first Black woman to lead a prominent national women's healthcare nonprofit, and the author of It Was Her: A Memoir — a deeply personal account of grief, healing, and the courage it takes to reclaim your own narrative. In this conversation, she talks about nine years in the wilderness of grief, the Reiki session that showed her a little girl hiding in a closet, the psychedelic journey that cracked her open, and the small promises that rebuilt her trust in herself. This one is rich, honest, and worth every minute. Find the book wherever you get your books. Order ⁠here⁠ [https://a.co/d/0fSrPwYj]. Find out more about Harper Bailey and follow her writing on her website: ⁠https://www.harperabailey.com/ [https://www.harperabailey.com/]

Every Future You Imagined and Lost is Worthy of Your Grief.

What if grief isn't just about death — but about every future you imagined and lost? We open season 3 with Sheila Delaney joined by Dr. Megan Shen, TEDx speaker and social psychologist specializing in grief. She redefines what we're actually carrying, what grief actually is, why we go numb, and what it takes to love yourself back into life. Dr. Shen has been featured in Forbes, USA Today, Huffington Post, NPR and CBS News. Find and follow her work at: * Light in the Wound on Substack: meganshen.substack.com [https://meganshen.substack.com] * How to Grow Hope on Psychology Today: psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-to-grow-hope [psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-to-grow-hope] And please like and follow/ subscribe here to stay up to date as new episodes drop.