In this week’s episode of Wild Wise and Curious, we are joined by Laura, calling in from Spain, for a beautifully honest conversation about navigating perimenopause while parenting teenagers and managing the realities of single‑parent life.

Laura shares how she first recognised she was entering perimenopause when her period became increasingly irregular over eleven months, followed by brain fog and memory challenges that made daily life feel heavier. She talks openly about the coping strategies that help her stay grounded - meditation, mindfulness practices and writing exercises that support her emotional well-being.

The conversation also explores the complexities of parenting teens, setting boundaries and practicing patience, especially while working from home and carrying the mental load alone. Laura discusses her practical tools... like keeping to-do lists, staying present with family and the deeper emotional work of offering oneself compassion during difficult seasons.

It’s a tender, relatable and deeply human episode about holding many roles at once - and finding moments of steadiness in the middle of it all.

To find out more about what Laura is up to, check out her info & website below:

Laura Brodie is an Operations and Outreach Coordinator, Resilience Trainer, and facilitator specialising in emotional regulation and performance under pressure.

She designs and delivers practical, experience-based trainings that support teams and professionals working in high-responsibility or support roles, particularly in educational and rehabilitation settings. Her work helps individuals move from overwhelm and uncertainty to clarity, confidence, and purposeful action.

As the founder of Adventures in Albinism and creator of The Teacher’s Compass, Laura brings a unique perspective that combines education and positive psychology. Through these mindfulness-based initiatives, she supports individuals with albinism, as well as the parents and teachers who guide them, while also working more broadly with professionals navigating complex challenges, including those related to visual impairment.

With over 25 years of teaching experience and lived experience with low vision, Laura integrates theory and practice to create accessible, impactful learning experiences.

She believes resilience is not about pushing through, but about learning to pause, choose, and respond with intention.

Linked in-(3) Laura Brodie | LinkedIn

Website- https://adventuresinalbinism.com/home

Perimenopause often arrives quietly, disguised as something ordinary - a restless night, a stressful week, a sudden wave of heat you put down to a new deodorant. In this episode, Angie shares her personal journey into recognising those early signs for what they truly were: the beginning of a profound hormonal transition.

We talk about the moment of realisation, the overlap between perimenopause and her work in women’s health, and how supporting rites‑of‑passage ceremonies deepened her understanding of this life stage.

From drumming to sleep rituals to stepping away from alcohol, Angie opens up about the self‑care practices that help her stay grounded. And woven through it all is the reminder that listening to the body, making space for expression, and sharing stories with other women can transform this transition from something endured into something deeply held.

Find out more about Angie’s work below:

https://www.angielitvinoff.com

https://www.instagram.com/angie_the_medicine_woman

https://www.angielitvinoff.com/podcast

This week, Kerstin shares a story that began with a body in distress and a mind trying to make sense of it. She experienced heart palpitations, shortness of breath, adrenaline‑rush reactions to food and almost fainted at work. She also had an electrical sensation in her chest that eventually led to a small cardiac procedure. When she finally saw a cardiologist, he told her, ‘Women can get this in perimenopause’, and it was the first time anything she was experiencing made sense.

Alongside the physical symptoms came something she didn’t expect: emotional numbness. She didn’t feel anything - no joy, no sadness, no spark - and the flatness left her feeling... nothing.

With no guidance from her mum, who’d had a hysterectomy in her 30s and never went through natural menopause, Kerstin had no roadmap. Her symptoms fed into health anxiety and she became convinced something was seriously wrong with her.

In this episode, Kerstin talks about the anxiety, the numbness, the impact on her marriage and the frustration of being dismissed or left without answers. She also shares the relief she found through hormone therapy and lifestyle changes, and why she now believes women deserve far better information and support.

This is an episode for anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed, numb or anxious about symptoms they didn’t recognise - and for anyone who has had to find their own answers when no one else could give them.

*There are a couple of moments of lag and the odd bark from the dog, but none of it takes away from the importance of adding Kerstin’s voice to the growing chorus of women whose stories need to be heard so they can help others find their way.

Dani’s midlife turning point didn’t arrive with the classic symptoms - it arrived through tension at home. What she jokingly calls 'teenage 1.0 versus teenage 2.0' became the moment she realised something deeper was shifting inside her. That moment opened the door to understanding perimenopause and sparked a deeper journey into holistic healing and self‑reconnection.

In this beautifully honest conversation, Dani shares how somatic healing, drumming circles and cold sea swimming helped her regulate, soften and return to herself. She talks about the supper clubs that began around her friend’s kitchen table and have since grown into a thriving community space - with dreams of a tea room rooted in nourishment and connection.

This is a story about starting small, listening to your body, and letting midlife become a powerful re‑rooting. A remembering. A reclaiming. A return to who you were always becoming.

To find out more about what Dani is up to, check out her website, mother-daughter podcast and socials below:

Website: www.warmthandwellness.co.uk

Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569320312494

Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/warmth.and.wellness?igsh=MXhhMzV2cDdodnZneQ==

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556012971637

Blog: https://blog.danishiftingtides.com/blog-661355

Dodwell dialogue (mother-daughter podcast - also available on Spotify) https://www.youtube.com/@danidodwell4627

https://www.instagram.com/dodwelldialoguepodcast/

Dani & her friend, Katie, who run the supper club together, have signed up with a small local, female-owned tea business, Mother_Cuppa, to serve Candice's (Mother Cuppa creator) tea blends at their supper clubs. They love her sustainable, environmentally-friendly and proper tasty tea. Here is their affiliate link to the lovely brew! https://mothercuppatea.refr.cc/BrewCrew/u/warmthandwellness?s=sp&t=cp

We talk about the shock of perimenopause simply arriving, the frustration of being told ‘this coil will stop your periods’ (it didn’t), and the way midlife can make women feel invisible - even though in many cultures, women at this stage of life are treasured.

And woven through it all is something deeply Rowena: she has never conformed to what society thought she should do. Not in her work, not in her choices, not in how she moves through the world. So when her body threw her a plot twist, she met it with honesty, humour, rebellion and a determination to find her own way through.

This conversation is warm, funny and proper relatable.

We explore:

• the moment her body changed the rules

• why menopause education needs to start in schools

• how she stopped caring what people think

• the hippie humour, honesty and wisdom that carried her through

• and how she’s slowly finding her way back to something softer, steadier and way more grounded

Rowena is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, Mindfulness Practitioner and Midlife/Menopause Coach, blending holistic tools with lived experience to support others through their own midlife plot twists.

To find out more about Rowena’s work or to connect with her, visit her on her socials:

Instagram @LilacLotusWellbeing

Facebook @LilacLotusLifeCoaching

In this episode of Wild, Wise & Curious, we explore what it feels like to experience a permission shift in midlife - the moment you start choosing differently, listening inward and treating your body with the care it’s been asking for all along.

Our guest, Nix, talks about being in a deeply curious place: noticing how her body responds, how it communicates and how rest becomes something to value rather than something to earn. We explore acceptance, self‑worth and the quiet confidence that comes from tuning in rather than pushing through.

We also dive into the story of how a single drumming session at a retreat sparked something unexpected - leading from one drum to thirty‑nine and the creation of a local drumming circle that just keeps on growing.

It’s a conversation about rhythm, permission, curiosity and the small midlife shifts that change everything (and every time we write permission - we think percussion - ha ha ha).

🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts

📺 Or watch the conversation unfold as a video podcast over on YouTube

To reach out to Nix:

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FS1SBVdCK/?mibextid=wwXIfr

https://www.facebook.com/Enkindlelifecoaching

https://www.instagram.com/enkindlelifecoaching

https://www.enkindlelifecoaching.com/drumcircles

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-m8PZy7qVP6L46L7LHmFJScnZRd7F4UZ&si=i4hlPHkIZeuMdoLN

In this episode of Wild, Wise & Curious, we meet Sarah and explore how life’s experiences can quietly - and sometimes radically - alter the trajectory of our lives.

Sarah shares what it was like becoming a mum again at 40, the joy and euphoria of welcoming her youngest child and the shock of perimenopause arriving soon after. What followed was a profound crash: a body that suddenly felt like it was crumbling, all while caring for a young family and managing emotions tied to a deeply personal time in her life.

We talk honestly about physical symptoms - aches and pains, fatigue, hair and muscle loss, erratic periods - and the emotional toll of trying to make sense of it all when you didn’t even realise perimenopause was a thing.

There’s also a beautiful thread of connection running through this episode, as Sarah reflects on navigating this journey alongside her twin sister, and how shared understanding, stress, life experience and support, shape the way we move through this stage. It’s also where we begin to see the seeds of why Sarah eventually trained as a hypnotherapist - a way to steady her own anxiety and better understand the inner worlds of the people she loves.

This is a conversation about motherhood, menopause, resilience and the weight many women hold by midlife - and that quiet (and sometimes noisy) strength it takes to keep going.

🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts

📺 Or watch the conversation unfold as a video podcast on YouTube

To reach out to Sarah:

Website: www.yourbestmind.co.uk

Email: sarah@yourbestmind.co.uk

FB: https://www.facebook.com/yourbestmindhypnotherapy

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahlcowardhypnotherapist

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/your.best.mind/?hl=en

Meet:

1. Miss Trunchbull Sweats

2. Peanut Butter Brain Fog

3. Tom Selleck Facial Hair

4. Hey Macarena Skin Itching

5. Pilates' Nails

6. Volcano Spots

(Yes. Really.)

What unfolds is part confessional, part comedy, part deep nodding-along-in-recognition. Lou says it feels like a book. Michelle says it’s more like a lucky dip. We’re not really sure which it is - probably both - but we are sure it’s most definitely relatable!

This episode is about finding language for the weird, the uncomfortable and the downright baffling changes our bodies go through - and discovering that naming them can bring relief, laughter and connection.

If you’ve ever thought 'What on earth is happening to me?' - this episode’s for you.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts Or watch the conversation unfold as a video podcast on YouTube

Follow Tina on Facebook @Wellbeing Socials Tina A Wood

And on Instagram @wellbeingsocials