Ep 66 - The hands remember - painting the unspoken with Leah Mariani

In this episode, I sit down with artist Leah — a former accountant turned figurative painter known for her portraits of women — to talk about art as a language for the body when words run out.

We trace Leah's path from the audit floor to the easel, sparked by an unexpected, almost hormonal pull toward painting during her first pregnancy, and unpack why the hands are one of our most primal, expressive tools — closely tied to speech, gesture and emotion long before we could name what we felt. Leah opens up about painting women as a form of self-discovery, why every portrait carries a bit of darkness, and how the studio became a grounding, almost meditative anchor through early motherhood.

We also get into archetypal territory — the "autumn woman," the Maga (sorceress) season of midlife, and what it means to move into the wise-woman, guardian role — plus a fun detour into colour psychology, why green and blue are so relaxing, and Leah's complicated love affair with pink.

A conversation about creativity, embodiment, motherhood and the seasons of a woman's life — through the eyes of a painter.

Find more of Leah's work at www.leahmariani.com. You can find Leah on Instagram @leahmarianiartspace or TikTok @leahmarianiartspace.

Ep 58 Understanding Human Design with Moira Cormack

Today I am talking to Moira Cormack, my multi talented colleague and friend about Human Design. I have to tell you this podcast was a lot of fun because Moira is fun. Moira is a coach, parenting expert, human design expert and all round super human being. This is Moira’s third time on my podcast, if you didn’t catch the last two on inner child and creativity you should check them out also.

Moira doesn’t so much go into the different human design profile, rather she gives us the bigger context of why we would use Human Design. How does it help us be more human, how does it help us connect with our deeper self.

We talked about:

Why we would use Human Design and how, at this point in time, Human Design is helpful to people to further their personal growth and development,
How life is made up of many decisions and choices we make each day and how human design helps us, through understanding our profile, how to better make decisions to align with our energy system in our body,
How many of us end up in careers, influenced by our family systems, not doing what we really love and how knowing our design helps us to choose work that is more aligned with our natural gifts and energy systems,
How energy systems in different types work and why not listening to our body leads to health issues,
How when we move outside our design, we often experience a discordant note or emotion and this is a sign we are not listening to our body.

You can find Moira on Gates of the Moon FB Group, on instagram she is @moira_coach and she has a substack she writes on.

Ep 50 Navigating life with self compassion with Belinda Haan

How do we navigate life with self compassion? What is self-compassion? Today I welcome Belinda Haan to my podcast, Talkin' about Midlife, to talk about how we can navigate life with self-compassion.

Belinda Haan is a mindfulness teacher, multidisciplinary coach and creator and humble guide to the full joy, catastrophe and sacredness of life. She is the creator of "Emotional Support for Mothers" - simple practice for difficult days. This toolkit is a thorough guide for simple exercises we can use when we are having a tough day.

In this podcast Belinda and I have a great chat about what self-compassion means, why it is so hard for us to demonstrate it to ourselves, how we can learn to demonstrate it and how it supports us to thrive in life. We talk about our own journey with self compassion and how challenging it can be.

Belinda shares many examples during the podcast of the ways we sabotage ourselves and how our inner critic can get in the way of accessing self compassion to support us in life.

An Ambassador of Compassion with Stanford University, Belinda founded The Compassion Project and created The Emotional Support for Mothers Toolkit. She also delivers classes, coaching and other experiences at belindahaan.com

You can buy the Emotional support for mothers toolkit at www.thecompassionproject.au and you can find Belinda on instagram at @thecompassionproject.au