#MM, S2.e5

#MM - Toxic Gratitude

This week’s episode digs into the shadow side of gratitude. You know that moment when someone tells you to just be grateful—even though you’re drowning? Yeah. That. Gratitude is powerful, but only when it’s authentic. Forced gratitude doesn’t heal you—it hides you. ✨ You don’t owe survival your silence. ✨ You don’t owe your trauma a silver lining. ✨ You do deserve the space to feel what’s real. #MondayMinutes #MentalHealthMatters #ToxicGratitude #CEOShowgirl #ShowgirlScience #UnmaskingPain

#MondayMinutes - Masking

Hey everyone, This week’s Monday Minutes digs into something deeply personal for a lot of us: Masking. You know the drill: Pretending you’re okay when you’re not, smoothing your voice, hiding your stims, editing your tone to be “easier to digest,” or even reshaping your identity just to feel safe, accepted, or employable. Masking is something many neurodivergent, queer, disabled, and trauma-surviving folks do to survive. It’s a strategy. It works. But it also costs—energy, authenticity, relationships, sometimes even our sense of self. This week’s short video is your reminder that if you feel exhausted, disconnected, or like you’re playing a character just to get through the day… you’re not broken. You’re adapting. And it’s okay to start unmasking at your own pace. 🧠 Let’s reflect: * When did you first learn to mask? * What parts of you feel safest to show now? * What parts are still hiding? Drop your thoughts in the comments—let’s be real together. And if you need the reminder: Your weird is not too weird. Your truth is not too much. You are allowed to take off the mask. 🖤 Lavinia / Dr. Chrissy

#MondayMinutes + Updates

What a year this has been. On January 28, I flew to Harrisburg, PA, because my sister informed me that our mother was not likely to make it through that weekend. She ended up having the Momdacity to hold on til February 12. I was in PA in a sort of indefinite manner. I had been doing my Monday Minutes there and was keeping up on things, but then I got back to OR and things sorta fell apart. My house was a disaster. I'd spent 3 months on hands & knees, scrubbing and cleaning it from top to bottom...only to return to it being utterly left to its own devices. That socked me in the gut and left me reeling in a depressive state for a number of months. I was also throwing myself full-force into my role as COO of The Asylum Project [https://theasylumproject.org], a grassroots nonprofit that Jonanthan Jones founded. The mission is to help members of the LGBTQIA+, BIPoC, and Disabled communities relocate from the U.S. to friendlier EU countries, starting with Portugal as a landing zone. Then, I also started my own consulting business [https://meritworksinstitute.com] with a 6-Week Skill Transference Bootcamp that is currently in a Soft Launch phase. If you're interested in learning how skills from your hobbies can be translated or reframed into skills for your corporate life, check it out! [https://meritworksinstitute.com/6week-skill-transference-bootcamp] It's available for $149 until January 1, when it will be offered for my actual rate of $349. As part of the development for this Bootcamp, I also came up with a mini Oracle deck that I hope to have available soon for download via Deckible! You're gonna love how it works (but I'm not going to say anything until it's live)! I just produced a show here in Coquille on Saturday. It was much better attended than my last 3 combined, so that was nice. Everyone had such a good time, too. All of that said, the focus of my #MondayMinutes has shifted a bit. I'm exhausted. I'm burnt out. I'm overwhelmed. I'm dealing with emotional grief, physical grief, and so much more. I'm building community and focusing on helping others who are also dealing with stress and burnout. I do Lives, periodically, on TIkTok with Fridays being the night I do my live #WeekendWhispers theme (I couldn't get into doing that for OnlyFans, so I let that go). Instead of a YouTube channel with full-length videos, I have a substack [https://ceoshowgirl.substack.com] that has more in-depth articles on various topics that I use for MondayMinutes and the like. It's completely free, so feel free to check it out. If you'd rather I post that content here, I'm happy to do so! Just let me know in the comments. Thank you all for sticking with me on this. I promise I will get back to the Podcast proper soon. There's so much to do with Asylum Project, and Jonathan and I are both on the burnout spectrum. My goal is to have weekly MondayMinutes posts available to everyone (since I post those on TikTok), Weekly Recap posts for my paid supporters, a monthly freemium Meritworks Update post, a monthly Meritworks supporters post, and of course, the monthly podcast episode once I'm able to get those going again. That is my year-to-date. Thank you for your understanding, and I will see some of you on Friday for the Weekly Recap! I need a better name for that...

#MM, S2.e5

I apologize for the lateness of this post. The past two weeks have been a bit... insane. I'm finally back on the West Coast in Oregon. I spent a week with Jonathan who so graciously drove me back to my house. My house was a disaster zone. We'll leave it at that. I was every flavor of hurt, devestated, angry, hopeless, and I'm sure a few others. I ended up staying with some friends for a few days, which included Monday this week. David had the video ready for me to post. I was going through Some Things and failed to post it. I apologize for the lateness, but I think it's safe to say that my life since January 24 has not been what one would consider normal. This week's Monday Minute is all about the science behind Red Lipstick! I have half a mind to do an entire podcast on Red Lipstick from an historic perspective because, believe me, my darlings, there IS a history! From the origins to the subversive uses to the reason it became so popular during World War II, the history of Red Lipstick is fascinating and I would love to share it with you all! Please enjoy this minute of chaos! Script: Lavinia Vale Voice Over: Jonathan Jones Video Editing: David Dukellis

#MM S2.e3 - World Burlesque Day

World Burlesque Day is April 26; however, April 27, is the record-breaking attempt to be last year's World Record Setting event! The World Burlesque Academy and Sapphira made a new world record for the World's Largest Online Burlesque Class with 155 students from 80 countries! We collectively shimmied our way into the records and this year, I've teamed up with Sapphira to go bigger, Bolder, and BOUNCIER--and YOU can be a part of it! You can register here [https://www.worldburlesqueacademy.com/course/world-record-attempt-2025] and use the code ECLIPSE10 for 10% off the class fee. Come join us and learn about body positivity, how to do a glove peel, and our "Oo La La!" dance challenge! So, if you're a seasoned showgirl, or just show-curious, grab a boa, strike a pose, and join us on April 27 to break our own world record! Script: Lavinia Vale Voice Over: Jonathan Jones of The Asylum Project [https://theasylumproject.net] Video Editing: David Dukellis