This episode was recorded in December 2020 with embodied movement specialist, Susan McCulley.While the conversation begins with menopause it swiftly moves into the realms of how it is to care deeply for ourselves - from a multi-faced approach. These topics are relevant for us all - whatever gender you identify with, or life stage you find yourself in.Susan McCulley has been a teacher, movement coach and writer since 2000. She is the creator of The Age of Becoming: Embodied Practices Empowering Women over 50 community, which offers free movement practices & workshops, connection, community and more.Susan began by sharing she had recently been asked... "Has anything happened to you recently that made no sense at all - and yet made all the sense in the world?" It was a wonderful way to begin...What can support us during menopause - from accepting and trusting external and internal support to connecting intellectual knowing with embodied experience and engaging differently with foodHow everything shifts and changes in mid-life - and the importance of the both/and of trusting an expert… leading to trusting yourself. With the importance of the question: “are you willing to make a change?”Next we cover habitual thinking, comfort in the discomfort leading into the distinction between awkwardness & pain. And how, for some of us, it’s like physical movement has been trained out of us.The power of being endlessly tender. We can see fear as birds fluttering until we sit with them with compassion - and then they settle. Which led Susan to share how instead of telling the fear voice (her ‘Pointy Girl’) to shut up, instead hold Pointy Girl with tenderness.This led to reflections on the acts of aggression we can direct to tender parts of us - and an exploration of the differences between feminine power & leadership and masculineSusan then share how fascia connective tissue holds everything together - leading to a me trying to remember the word for mycelium (we got there in the end!) and our connection to natureWe end with the beauty of The Crone and the alchemy of living to come to these qualities of presence and non-hierarchical respectGRATITUDEThank you as always to Angus at changomusic.com for his music and production.WELCOMEJoin the community, THE REGROUP HOUR on FACEBOOK - a place for further exploration. Everyone welcome! REFERENCESThe podcast Susan referenced: https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-with-elizabeth-lesser-on-the-power-of-womens-stories/ABOUT SUSAN www.susanmcculley.comSusan has two illustrated books, Buddha Cat: Learning Awareness, Presence & Self-Care from a Teacher Who Sometimes Barfs on the Bed and Octabusy: Letting Go in a Sea of Doing. on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/susanjmcculley/ and via email at sjmnia@gmail.com.Join the FREE Age of Becoming: Embodied Practices Empowering Women over 50  Join the mailing list & receive the mini-course '3 little acts of self-compassion', completely free https://hennyflynn.ck.page/6e83d0227eExplore Henny's coaching, books, retreats, courses & events https://www.hennyflynn.co.uk/