Semi-Together

Heads up that we talk about some serious personal health issues in this episode with a good bit of emotion and swearing. If any of this is too much for you right now, feel free to skip this episode, read the summary in the forthcoming show notes or come back to it later. In this episode, we discuss how to show up for people in tough times, such as serious illness, loss, or other challenges they’re...

We imagine that we’re not the only ones going through intense ups and downs right now, with the ongoing pandemic and winter weather. We’ve really been feeling the need to have things to look forward to, as well as everyday highlights we can count on, so in this episode we talk about Building Joy & Meaning into Every Day.  We share the activities that bring each of us joy and meaning, with...

It’s been a wild ride during pandemic times, with many opportunities (welcome or not!) for us to practice the strategies we talk about on this podcast. Managing relationships in a new way -- with coworkers or friends, your family of origin or chosen family -- has been important but often challenging, especially when quarantining together at length. Our husbands, Brian and Darren, are back for thei...

Happy New Year! We recorded this episode on the last day of 2021 (together in person, yay!!). Our topic is Start the New Year with a Vision – which is especially timely as we’re ringing in 2022, but you can do this any time you want to reflect on and reset your goals and intentions. In this episode, we: Share a 2021 Get It Together / Got It Together roundup Discuss why having a vision helps s...

As the busyness of the holiday season ramps up, we're feeling the need to simplify our tasks. We’ll talk about how we’re doing with the holiday hustle, then share tips for shrinking your list down to the things that really matter to you. By letting the rest go, you’ll feel calmer and have more quality time with your loved ones. Find us on the web for show notes and extras: https://www.semitogether...

Today’s episode is a little different. We often mention our dear friend Katie, who has transformed herself over the years from a melancholy teenager into a contented adult. After healing past traumas and learning to practice radical acceptance through years of therapy, she became a therapist herself. Now she helps her clients make the same kinds of positive changes in their lives. When Katie visit...

Perfectionism is a recurring theme of Semi-Together – and the root of many of the things we struggle with, as we learn to show up authentically and treat ourselves with compassion. We went back and listened to Episode 25: Perfectionism & Self-Compassion , which we released almost exactly two years ago, to see where we’ve evolved and where we’re still growing. We share: A quick review of w...

Buckle up: it’s Halloween season, and we’re talking about fear! Fear is a primitive emotion that evolved to protect us from real threats, but it can also hold us back from taking risks that would likely benefit us. We discuss: How fear affects our brains and bodies – keeping us safe from short-term threats but causing harm in an ongoing state What scared us as kids and what scares us now – both th...

October is ADHD Awareness Month. Even if ADHD is not a part of your life, as far as you know, we hope you listen – because it’s likely that you know someone or are someone with undiagnosed ADHD whose life could change with treatment. And if you don’t have ADHD but struggle with some of the symptoms, like distractibility and procrastination, you’ll likely find the same kinds of strategies helpful....

Our topic in this episode is a fun one: making time for more play! We know how important play is for kids. But when we grow up, we somehow start thinking about play as optional or frivolous or childish. Spoiler alert: it’s none of those things and is actually fundamental to our health and well being! We share: - The science behind the importance of play at any age - Examples of types of play and p...

We are so happy to be back with a new season after our summer break. We missed you, and the opportunity to talk things through with each other. Our last minisode at the end of May was called Emerging from Our Cocoons. Welp! How innocent we were. Now we’re halfway back in our cocoons, trying to navigate this weird in-between period. We check in on what’s been going on and share five ways to deal wi...

As we re-enter the world and find our new normal, we want to be intentional about what we’re putting back into our lives and what we’re leaving behind. We revisit our minisode from April 2020, “What Do We Carry Forward?” to see what still resonates. Melia geeks out over the process of metamorphosis, which her daughter’s preschool class has been observing. Did you know that caterpillars dissolve th...

We both share how we’re feeling after speaking so honestly about our mental health journeys in Ep. 54: Let’s Talk About Mental health. We get emotional as we each recount a terrifying close call that made us grateful to be alive, a wake-up call to remember in tough times. Melia sets the record straight in a For the Record segment, on topics like medication and how to talk about mental health. We e...

We talk about mental health – ours, yours, and everyone’s – and why it’s so critical to normalize talking about it. We share our own personal experiences, terms to use and avoid, strategies to care for your mental health, and tips for supporting others. Note: We get into some serious topics including suicide and use adult language, so you may want to listen with headphones. Find us on the web: htt...

As we reach the anniversary of pandemic quarantine, we talk about the ways we have evolved during the past year -- not necessarily in ways that we expected or asked for, but have experienced nonetheless. This is NOT a list of achievements; it's about recognizing the fundamental ways we’ve grown during the toughest year of our lives to date. We encourage you to reflect on how you've evolved, too, a...

Nostalgia is powerful – and it turns out, experiencing it regularly can boost our mental health, especially during difficult times. In this episode, we share: Our own experiences with leaning into nostalgia this past year (hello, ‘90s jams, TV show revivals, and fave childhood books!) Research about nostalgia’s many benefits – like counteracting loneliness, boredom, anxiety and meaninglessness, an...

We look back on the concepts, tips, and takeaways from our first 50 episodes, choosing 10 that have changed us the most and inspired the most listener response: Concept: Get It Together/ Got It Together (a segment in nearly every episode) Minisode: Practice the Pause Episode 13: Stop Shoulding Episode 10: Making Your Dreams Real, with Kristen Ley (“You don't have to be the best to do what you love...

Join us in a fun and liberating exercise: The F**k It List. Think of it as the anti-Bucket List. Instead of “Things to do before you die,” it’s “Things to stop doing so you can fully live.” It’s a list of things that don’t bring you closer to the life you want, and therefore bring you farther away from it. The F**k It List can include big or small things that you may have done out of obligation, o...

Back in Ep. 13, Stop Shoulding, we discussed why “should” is a word rooted in expectation, obligation, and criticism. Since then, we’ve mostly eliminated it from our vocabulary, which has felt liberating and has significantly boosted our happiness. Even so, there are still plenty of silent shoulds lurking in our thoughts. Though we may not even be aware of them, they are nonetheless driving our fe...

Do you ever feel anxious about not knowing what your calling is, because you’re interested in so many things? Well, you may be a Scanner, and the good news is that you don’t have to limit yourself to just one thing. When Melia talked in In Ep. 47 about identifying her core purpose, Gill shared some anxiety about still figuring hers out. Soon after (perhaps by kismet!), she discovered the book Refu...

Happy New Year! It’s FINALLY 2021. Melia and Gill talk about what they’re taking forward with them from last year, and what they’re happy to leave behind. They check in on how their 2020 goals ended up going in spite of it all, share how they’re paring down their goals for the new year, and offer a few tips to help you think about your own goals. Big caveat: Survival is still the primary goal righ...

It’s going to be a different kind of holiday season this year, and it’s important to acknowledge and accept the range of emotions we’re feeling. "Good vibes only" isn't realistic or helpful. We are human, and living through very challenging times. Even in normal years, the holidays can be tough or emotional for a lot of reasons, and the expectation that we will be merry all the time can make us fe...

Melia and Gill interview Daman Tiwana and Khyati Thakur, hosts of the excellent podcast Brown Girls Read. They chat about books, cocktails, and cultural differences – plus the habit-changing strategies that have helped them the most after reading the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. Daman and Khyati met for the first time at a women’s book club meetup and started their podcast earlier this year....

We’ve all been through a lot in 2020, and the weeks leading up to the presidential election were especially stressful and emotional. It’s time to press the reset button to renew our energy and hope. Melia and Gill recorded this episode two days after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were announced as the next president and vice president of the United States. They talk about how they’re dealing with in...

October is ADHD Awareness Month, and Melia has some surprising news to share: she was recently diagnosed with ADHD, at age 40. 😲 ADHD is often missed in girls and women – and a big misconception is that it’s limited to physically hyperactive boys. In this episode: Melia talks about her experience, the grief and relief she feels with her diagnosis, and the resources and strategies that are helping...