Permission to Pause

I got to have this awesome conversation with life coach Emily Cheney about our personal perspectives on feeling “busy,” which is deep transformational work she’s done for herself and with clients. We look into what it means to stop automatically labeling our lives as busy and start looking at our time, choices, and responsibilities through a different lens. All within Emily's light, inviting,...

What if I told you the noise around us doesn't have to completely disappear for us to step away, slow down, and find stillness? I’m talking about a connection I made while walking my dog on a beautiful tree-lined path close to a loud street this past week that reminded me a lot of meditation and the way we can learn to separate ourselves from the mental noise around us. There will always be de...

Experts often market themselves as experts because of how many times they’ve succeeded, what they’ve figured out works. That makes sense, we want to know that they know what works. However, sometimes we forget that how they figured out what worked is often by also learning a lot about what doesn’t work.  As the expert of your life, you’re learning a lot about what does and doesn’t work for you, fo...

I have found that some of the basic concepts of a medical screening tool I use in my bedside nursing practice are useful as a framework to understand my own normal emotional experience without catastrophizing every down day. Because we all know some ups and downs are normal and even part of a good, whole life experience. Life would be kinda boring if we felt exactly the same 100% of the time, and...

Sometimes we want to create a new habit, let go of an old one, or step confidently into a new life stage…but it feels like we’re trying to force our way through a locked door that won’t let us give. Two things have helped me to move through these transitions with more ease and grace, and they are celebration and grieving. Celebration is often not our first thought (even mine!), and grieving seems...

If you've ever struggled to sit still without feeling like you should be doing something more "productive," this conversation is for you.  Let’s wrap up this impromptu summer series on Rest. It’s so funny how this happens. I’m recording this episode about the importance of rest, and then within 1 hour of recording I’m thinking that it’s too long so I should edit more, I remember a st...

Do you ever start to think that feeling rested simply means you just need more sleep (or less work)? Me too. But I think we both know it isn’t. It’s just one answer and often the easiest. That’s totally fine that our brains think of that first, and I’m curious enough to expand my “choose all that apply” options for living more rested. How about you?  I’m both realizing and remembering that what I...

Don't Rush to Rested: Another Way We Push Through Why rest is a lifelong practice and how to let go of grind cultureSHOWNOTES I don’t know about you, but some types of rest leave me feeling more alive and some types of relaxation leave me feeling actually more depleted. I’ve been contemplating this and share my recent insights today that are helping me keep steering, unrushed and unpressured,...

(This episode contains a few minutes longer than normal life update, if you’re not interested, scroll to the Time Stamps and get to the main content!) What if the most uncomfortable part of a breathing exercise could teach you something valuable about the way you live? In this episode, I share how a simple box breathing practice led me to reflect on my relationship with rest, pauses, productivity,...

This is one of my and my clients' favorite meditations. And one of the most popular podcast episodes from Season 1. For the woman who is in a season of giving and could use a few minutes to herself, to receive, let this be a nourishing pit-stop. I find a little goes a long way when you allow it to be enough for now. Connect with Me on Instagram https://instagram.com/meaganhubbardcoaching DM or...

Who do you admire more? The girl who looks like she's doing it all and got it all together? (But you don' t know how she does it) Or the girl who looks like she's doing pretty dang good, but you know she's not doing it all, and that it's on purpose? For me, it has started to be the latter. Let's look BTS of how not doing it all can sometimes look like "doing it all,&qu...

This week I have worked more than usual shifts at the hospital. I thought the easiest way to share a valuable podcast would be to still record a 5 min episode rather than the usual length. Then I remembered the series I did last year that contains some of my most downloaded episodes. And since I don't believe anymore that things "take time," what a better way to share by example than...

If personal growth feels exciting and exhausting right now, this episode is for you. I’m sharing the mindset shifts and reflective questions I use when I feel overwhelmed by all the things I could be working on.  You might be surprised at how much it actually isn’t a problem and how much of the solution is to celebrate! Timestamps (00:00) Welcome and guided pause (01:17) Why personal growth can fe...

What if I challenged you to consider that “It just takes time” is a false statement? That we’ve had a tendency to give time alone way too much credit for our wins or our complaints? Is the idea that “things don’t take time” a second-nature or a curious new mindset for your brain? I hope this is as exciting for you to explore as it has been for me! So, if it doesn’t take time, let’s open a conversa...

Are you going into or coming out of Spring Break? Are you starting a new job or getting ready for a child to graduate? Did you just buy a house? In case like me, and you forgot, this is a transition. And transitions are often challenges to our brains. But transitions don’t have to be all or nothing. They can be hard and beautiful, uncomfortable and meaningful. You're not starting from scratch,...

I had a surprising realization while reflecting on overwhelm. I imagined what it would be like if overwhelm suddenly disappeared and... the result wasn’t what I expected. Instead of immediate calm and clarity, I noticed a subtle sense of panic and wondered why. It was so interesting! I'm excited to share what I discovered with you. Timestamps (00:00) Intro and grounding breath (01:05) What I e...

This week’s quote is “Be gentle to yourself, love yourself, even when you’re not yourself.” -Kirsten Hill I come to you for this episode mores casual than usual: sans makeup and still in my athleisure clothes. I share that this week has had more moments of feeling low energy and down than I had expected and one way I have coped and continued to show up while decreasing self-judgment also allowing...

Meeting yourself or someone else where they’re at is a shift within you that bridges a gap in interactions with anyone, and even close relationships or yourself. You’ll see your relationships deepen, your confidence strengthen, and your inner critic soften. Timestamps (00:00) Grounding breath and introduction to Episode 13 (01:31) What it means to meet people where they are at (04:04) Story exampl...

Hard days happen. You can’t always control your first thought or reaction, but you can create space to respond with more calm and self-compassion. Every moment is new, and even small pauses can help loosen the mental and emotional knots that keep us stuck. You are allowed to feel discomfort without making it a problem. Timestamps (00:00) Grounding breaths and welcome, topic introduction (01:04) A...

Certainty and uncertainty initially seem complete opposites only, in competition. But they’re meant to often work together in ways that bring vitality to our lives. Certainty can allow us to more forward with purpose, patterns, and presence. Uncertainty invites new and creative perspectives, play, and permission. Let’s look into why both are important to a lived life that is a “story worth telling...

My youngest's school is celebrating an anniversary year. They have made t-shirts with the slogan "Honor the past, explore the future." Honoring the past is exactly what I want to talk to you about today as we step into a new year, the proverbial time to explore and plan our near futures. Take this review process that starts with celebrating wins and apply it to any time you are evalu...

Our amazing brains often do this thing where, left unchallenged, they think that doing “enough” actually means doing everything possible, the hard route, the grandest option. But the small, seemingly invisible things are always working. And when “enough” gets you to where you want to go, even though it’s less than 100%, it becomes 100% enough, even if just for this moment. And this is soil for sel...

Here on Permission to Pause this week, I am excited to introduce you to Meagan Pinckney, the Goal Getter Girl. We talk about goals, making them personalized and meaningful for you right now, and feeling success all along the way even if your goal is to do what you are already doing and just acknowledging that you are already being who you want to be. No extremes required. Because if your life does...

After beginning to introduce the Five P’s framework this season, I realized that a 6th P, purpose, is the foundation that ties every other P together—permission, play, patterns, presence, and perspective. When we understand the “why” behind what we do, we can align our energy, choose our yes’s and no’s more intentionally, and feel more at peace in our routines and relationships. Purpose doesn’t ha...

Breathing is usually automatic, but it can be intentionally used as a powerful tool to calm your nervous system. One particularly practical and useful time to use this is when eating. Taking even just 2 minutes can remind your brain that you are safe, it's ok to slow down, and escort your body from a fight or flight to rest and digest state, ensuring that your body receives more nourishment fr...