Navigation

You are here: Home

Take up all the space you deserve

By on April 2, 2019 in podcast, Season 4

What does it feel like when you are not taking up the space ion the world that you deserve?

It might feel like resentment or anger – because people are stepping on your boundaries and you are not pushing back.

It might feel like living in confusion, or blankness. Like you don’t know your own opinions, desires, or preferences.

It might feel like anxiety. What will people think of me if I speak up? Speak out? Have an opinion that differs from the norm?

It might be just never listening to your own music in the car, or watching the show you really prefer to watch on Netflix, or ordering the food you actually like.

The truth is, even those of us who believe strongly in equality for women, equality in parenting, equality in relationships (and that’s me), still let ourselves be small. We don’t insist. We don’t speak out. We don’t get pissed off and say, “I deserve this. Make room for me at this table.”

And I’ll be honest, that’s me, too, not taking up the space I know I deserve. But I’m learning to do better. And I know that the more I take up my own space, the more I give you permission to take up your space.

This episode is about what it looks like to give up your space, why you need to quit doing that, and what it can look like to begin take it back.

Listen to Episode 37 now in the play bar below (reload your browser if you don’t see it). Or open the episode in iTunes. This show is also available in Google Play and in Stitcher.

Links for this episode

Get sensual: How and why you need to nurture your senses

By on March 19, 2019 in podcast, Season 4

Did you know that there’s bacteria in dirt that can elevate your mood? I didn’t either, but the spring after my ex and I separated, I would come home from work and head straight out into the garden to get my hands into the dirt. I didn’t know why it helped me feel better, I just knew that the feeling of my hands in dirt and on plants was soothing to my soul. And the beneficial bacteria was probably helping, too.

Humans are sensual beings. But when your life is busy and you are focused on just keeping everything running and everyone safe, you aren’t noticing the sensations that are entering your body all the time. This is such a simple form of self-care, and accessible all the time – anytime.

And the benefit of noticing your sensations and also tuning into them is that you will feel more in your body and out of that swirling to-do list and worry in your mind. You will be more aware of what your body and your heart are hungering for, and then can take the steps to feed yourself even more deeply.

It is a win-win-win process.

Listen to Episode 36 now in the play bar below (reload your browser if you don’t see it). Or open the episode in iTunes. This show is also available in Google Play and in Stitcher.

Links for this episode

How to get your fire back.

By on February 26, 2019 in podcast, Season 4

If your experience of motherhood feels often harder than you expected or imagined it would be, you aren’t alone. If you have been feeling like you lost track of your real self somewhere in the midst of laundry and homework and doctors appointments, you aren’t alone there, either.

I’ve been taking stock of my own life, and also looking around at my friends and lots of women I know, and I’m starting to see something common and troubling. We aren’t happy. Our middle years, filled with motherhood and careers and marriage, looked a lot easier and more fulfilling from the rosy glasses of our 20s than it looks now that we’re hip deep in it. We’re worn out, struggling, frustrated and quite a bit lost.

Obviously this is not an episode on how to nurture yourself in business, as recent episodes have been. No, this is me changing directions a bit, with a new focus in my business and on this podcast. Listen now to find out where I’m going, why I’m so excited about it, and what it means for you – especially if you felt like I was describing your life just now.

Listen to Episode 35 now in the play bar below (reload your browser if you don’t see it). Or open the episode in iTunes. This show is also available in Google Play and in Stitcher.

Links for this episode

Find your strengths as an introvert, with Nicole Burgess

By on February 12, 2019 in podcast, Season 3

When I worked at Apple, I felt out of place and like an alien a lot. I was soft spoken in a world of shouters. I was slow and deliberate  in a field where first to market was everything. I often thought of the point I needed to make in the morning’s meeting while driving home from work in the afternoon, totally exhausted from the number of interactions I’d had with other people that day.

What I didn’t know at the time, but am beginning to see now, is that exactly the things that felt a liability at the time, are absolutely my strengths. I don’t say anything until I’m really sure about it, and when I say it, my colleagues know to pipe down and listen up. I’m fantastic at 1:1 interactions – I listen deeply, absorb all the nuances and hear what they are not saying as much as what they are. I can synthesize a huge amount of information into clarity, and find patterns in what others see as chaos.

That’s some powerful stuff.


Have you ever seen your introverted personality as holding you back, especially in a job or how you run your business?

Well, this episode is for you, then.

My guest, Nicole Burgess, is a licensed psychotherapist, host of the podcast Soulfilled Sisterhood, and empowerment mentor for introverted professional women. She helps women remove their good girl masks, end people pleasing behaviors and blaze their own soul-filled trail in life. Nicole’s mentoring blends the practical with the spiritual to support women in increasing self-confidence and their capacity to handle any challenges they are faced with and a sense of accomplishment as they take the action they know they need to take and see positive results.

Listen to Episode 34 now in the play bar below (reload your browser if you don’t see it). Or open the episode in iTunes. This show is also available in Google Play and in Stitcher.

Links for this Episode

Where you can find Nicole

How setting priorities can set you free

By on January 29, 2019 in podcast, Season 3

I have a spreadsheet in Google Drive called Life Priorities.

No joke.

You may be far less geeky then me and have zero interest in listing our your life’s priorities in a spreadsheet, but let me tell you why I did that. Because I felt overwhelmed by all that I wanted to do with my time, and all that I was not getting done.

So I wrote it all out.

Build a business. Be a great mom. Work on my shit in therapy. Sew my own wardrobe. Knit all the things. Keep a beautiful English style garden. Read 50 books a year. All of it.

And then I put them in order. What did I want most? What was next? When I got them all sorted out that way, I realized that there would need to be five of me to do all those things, but that if I worked on the top three reliably, I’d be pretty happy with my life. And if I made time for the ones near the bottom once in a while, that would feel like a treat.

So I’m working on my shit in therapy so I can be a great mom and keep building my business. I keep my knitting in the car for times when I’m waiting for Stella somewhere and I regularly go to bed early to read. I’m ignoring my garden right now and I occasionally sew something wearable.

And you know? I have a really good life. It no longer feels so overwhelming or like I’m failing at everything.

We can do everything we want – just not all at once. Prioritizing is the way to keep that truth from driving you crazy.

Nurturing Habit with Dona Bumgarner, How setting priorities can set you free
In this week’s podcast I’m talking about how getting really clear about your priorities can help you feel more in control and successful in your life, too. I’ll share how you can figure out the things you want to prioritize, if you aren’t really sure right now, and I give lots of examples from my own life about how I shift priorities on the fly when circumstances demand it.

Listen to Episode 33 now in the play bar below (reload your browser if you don’t see it). Or open the episode in iTunes. This show is also available in Google Play and in Stitcher.

Links for this episode

Growing A Business Organically And Authentically, with Stephanie Lee

By on January 8, 2019 in podcast, Season 3

The work that fits your life best before you have babies is not likely going to be the same as the work that fits best after. Nor is is likely to look like the work that fits best when you kids get older, or after they move out. That doesn’t mean it has to be a different business altogether, but what you and your family needs in those seasons is going to be really different.

But how do you navigate those changes? How do you know what opportunities and ideas to pursue at any time, and how do you trust that if you don’t follow an idea, that you aren’t making a mistake?

Stephanie Lee is an artist, teacher, maker, and a mom, who has been navigating this windy path for a couple of decades now. I invited Stephanie to talk here because over the years I’ve known her, I’ve watched her business evolve over and over. Some years she’s doing gallery shows and others she’s selling her paintings online. Some years she’s making things out of metal and beads, and some years out of plaster and wax. Sometimes she’s touring and teaching a lot, and others she’s holed up writing a book. Through all of this, she’s been growing her family, who are now all big and out of the house. Because I’ve always admired the apparent fluidity and ease with which she’s shifted and changed her work ofer all this time, I wanted to ask her about what that was really like, because as we all know, life is often not all pretty like it looks on Instagram (although Stephanie doesn’t hesitate to include her gritty bits on Instagram).

Listen to Episode 32 now in the play bar below (reload your browser if you don’t see it). Or open the episode in iTunes. This show is also available in Google Play and in Stitcher.

Links for this episode

Where you can find Stephanie

Create Goals That Get You Where You Want To Go

By on December 24, 2018 in podcast, Season 3

Are you one of those people who sets New Year’s Resolutions but quit them (or forgotten them) by the end of January? Have you set goals and then not made any progress toward them, and you aren’t sure why they feel so hard? You aren’t alone! Achieving goals can feel really hard, but that’s because most of us are approaching them all wrong.

Create Goals That Get You Where You Want To Go

In this episode, you’ll learn some new ways to approach goal-setting, and some tips to how to actually achieve the goals you set (without making yourself crazy). You CAN create goals that get you where you want to go, if you set them the right way.

Listen to Episode 31 now in the play bar below (reload your browser if you don’t see it). Or open the episode in iTunes. This show is also available in Google Play and in Stitcher.

[convertkit form=5262400]

Links for this episode:

Did you enjoy this show? Please leave a rating or a review. That feedback helps more people find the show, and helps me get a greater variety of guests for you to listen to. I read every review and I love hearing what you have to say!

Show Your Roots – Blending your cultural story into your life and business, with Emily Halpern

By on December 10, 2018 in podcast, Season 3

Who are you? Who are you beyond the surface level – wife, mom, entrepreneur, sister, friend? There are so many ways we can describe ourselves that go so much deeper. I’m a second-generation immigrant, a teacher in a long line of teachers, a feminist, the daughter and the granddaughter of a feminist, I come from a history of war and poverty and service.

Who you are is shaped by your culture, your history, your heritage, as well as what you are doing in your life in the present. And our lives, and our businesses, are so much more interesting, rich, and meaningful if we bring all of that history to light and include it in our story. Is who you are fully part of the story you tell of yourself?

Guest Emily Halpern on Nurturing Habit episode 30 with Doña Bumgarner

This week’s guest, Emily Halpern, is a coach for creative professionals, a classical soprano, and a lover of all things heritage, culture, and food. Her career has taken her from the stage of the New York Philharmonic to the kitchens of Chez Panisse, to the halls of the Tenement Museum, to the adventures of entrepreneurship.For over 15 years, her focus has been consistent: exploring and expressing the practices, attitudes, and ideas that help us to understand ourselves and one another.Whether face to face with clients, on stage, or in the kitchen, her drive to enrich every day with beauty, meaning, and genuine connection is at the core of everything she does.

Listen to Episode 30 now in the play bar below (reload your browser if you don’t see it). Or open the episode in iTunes. This show is also available in Google Play and in Stitcher.

Links for this episode:

Where to find more from Emily:

Did you enjoy this show? Please leave a rating or a review. That feedback helps more people find the show, and helps me get a greater variety of guests for you to listen to. I read every review and I love hearing what you have to say!

Designing work that fits the life you want – Season 3 kickoff!

By on November 28, 2018 in podcast, Season 3

I grew up believing work was what you did to earn money, so that you could pay for the things you enjoy, but they had to fit around the edges of your work.

That was a pretty limiting belief system. And really not very much fun. No wonder I had a whole string of jobs that I basically hated, but felt tied to.

When it came to me starting my own business, that belief almost made me quit before I’d even started. Because I believed that in order to succeed as an entrepreneur, I had to hustle, and not sleep, and work in all my spare moments – because that fit my old model, and it was I saw so many other people doing. But I really really didn’t want to be that person, in order to run that business.

Luckily, I had a perspective-shifting conversation with a coach that inspired me to see the world of work differently. After this conversation, I determined to build a business that supported the life I wanted – and did not detract from or crowd it. I now have that business, and it works.

And you can do it, too.

Designing entrepreneur work that fits your life - Nurturing Habit Podcast

In this first episode of Season 3, where I’ll be talking about how we nurture the work we do in the world, I’m talking about a whole new way of structuring a life and a business, and braiding the two of them together. Whether you are just starting a business or have an established company that just isn’t working quite right for the rest of your life, I’m sure you’ll find some new ideas in this discussion.

Listen to Episode 22 now in the play bar below (reload your browser if you don’t see it). Or open the episode in iTunes. This show is also available in Google Play and in Stitcher.

Links for this episode:

Did you enjoy this show? Please leave a rating or a review. That feedback helps more people find the show, and helps me get a greater variety of guests for you to listen to. I read every review and I love hearing what you have to say!

How to find more time to listen to more podcasts

By on November 5, 2018 in general podcast

If you’ve been around here for more than a few minutes, you’ll probably be aware that I’m a strong advocate for making more time to do more of the things that you love. If listening to podcasts is one of those things, this post is for you!

10 great ways to listen to more podcasts

A while back, I polled listeners (and everyone else I talked to that week, let’s be honest) about where they listen to podcasts. I got so many great ideas! Here they are:

10 great times to listen to a podcast

  • In the kitchen, while cooking or cleaning up – a small bluetooth speaker makes this really easy.
  • While folding laundry or doing other cleaning.
  • While doing yard work – you might want cordless headphones for this.
  • In the car – my personal go-to!
  • While walking or running – again, cordless headphones.
  • While working on a project – I listened to a bunch of episodes of Seth Godin’s Akimbo while painting the inside of my new shed.
  • With your kids, if you listen to storytelling podcasts or are confident that the content is appropriate. A friend recently told me that she and her daughter like to listen to Nurturing Habit in the car!
  • While knitting, drawing or crafting.
  • While exercising at the gym, though for all the times I’ve been told my voice is calming, the gym might not be the best place to listen to THIS show.
  • While commuting by public transport – just be sure to download the episode before you go underground, if you are on the subway (ask me how I know).

Do you listen to podcasts in some other way? Share it in the comments below!

Older posts

https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-107311018-1