Thank You Heartbreak

"It’s so much more complicated than I came out of the closet and my mom didn’t like it and that was that,” Elizabeth Estochen, co-host of the LGBTQ+/sex podcast Sexdentified and author of the soon to be released poetry collection For Love and For Cruelty, shares with Chelsea in a recounting of her formative years. Starting with growing up as an only child amongst two young parents who were very much still growing up themselves to combating the awkward, chubby and bullied prone pre-teen years by immersing herself in the angsty, isolating and dangerous quest to become thin during middle school to entering into the strange new world of her mom’s second marriage where Agnosticism and feminism were soon abandoned for the ever-restrictive ideology of Catholicism and ever-expanding family of half-siblings, Elizabeth gets extra candid about the shame that left her estranged from her mother and her new step-family at the tender age of 15. Spoiler: This isn’t Elizabeth’s shame nor is it the shame of sexuality but,

Two-time author Dr. Tyra Manning joins Chelsea 13 minutes in to discuss her most recent book Your Turn—a master class in storytelling that emphasizes writing as a way of celebrating our stories, discovering our mentors, understanding our emotional histories with the gift of hindsight, and engaging in self-reflection for clarity, acceptance, and empathy. She opens up about the event that introduced her to drinking at a young age, her history of trading one addiction for another, the value of finding a community of support in times of sudden grief and the slow crawl toward recovery, and the heartache of losing the men in her life.__To connect with Tyra, visit her:Website: http://tyramanning.comPurchase: Your Turn: Ways to Celebrate Life Through Storytelling Purchase: Where the Water Meets the SandFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/drtyramanning__Work with Chelsea: www.breakupward.com/shopChelsea’s website: www.breakupward.comSign up for Chelsea’s newsletter: bit.ly/tyhbletterInstagram: www.instagram.com/thankyo

Conversation begins 13 minutes in. Midway into his 40s and still very much motivated by the having of things, America’s Leading Midlife Dating & Relationship Coach and author of What The Heck Is Self-Love Anyway, Jonathon Aslay, unexpectedly steered himself into the perfect storm aka the humbling event that forced him into realizing we each are the creators of our experiences. It began when he filed for divorce, lost his quarter of a million dollar job a few months later, then got wiped out financially not long after that and, unable to find a job, had to move into a retirement community and become roommates with his parents. Before his grand awakening, Jonathan spent his first year as a divorcee feeding his drug of choice—online dating/communicating with women—only to realize a 100 dates in that the ever elusive “something isn’t right” was really within him. Opening up to Chelsea, he shares the micro-moment that helped him shift his addictive relationship with dating and what his deep dive into selfhood

*In the spirit of Thank You Heartbreak, treat yourself to our Thanksgiving promo through 12/2 with "Thankful" for $100 off any service over $100. Solo episodes are back! In this episode, Chelsea talks about the reality that we can always be more ready, more prepared, more on, and more resilient before we step out and make a move and yet, that it's in the waiting game that our fire wastes away, our doubt begins to emerge, and showing up becomes more daunting than ever. She reflects on not waiting until you're healed and happy to connect with people and, so importantly, how we can appear interesting even on our most uninspired and insecure days. Also discussed is, how to navigate feeling left out when you're no longer the invited but the invitor and how to rethink romantic rejection so you can rise above any no's or just not that into you's and continue to lead with confidence, curiosity, appreciation, and instinct rather than resentment.

Relationship Specialist Aimee Hair teaches businesses and individuals how to break toxic cycles. Joining Chelsea 5:45 minutes in, she opens up about her own story of transformation—in particular how giving birth to a child with a rare illness was her greatest blessing, creating in her an urgency to consciously make stronger decisions—decisions, mind you, that would ultimately lead her out of a marriage that was killing her spirit and toward her new husband. She talks about the 18 months of hell they faced together as a new couple and how the death of a brother and father back-to-back inspired them to not wait for a new year to marry now, expand their family, and live in love.__To connect with Aimee, visit her:Website: https://www.aimeehair.com.auInstagram: www.instagram.com/iamaimeehairFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamaimeehair__Work with Chelsea: www.breakupward.com/shopChelsea’s website: www.breakupward.comSign up for Chelsea’s newsletter: bit.ly/tyhbletterInstagram: www.instagram.com/thankyouheartbrea

#1 International Bestselling author, Global Speaker and Empowerment Coach, Shannon Kaiser joins Chelsea 10 minutes in to talk about how losing her beloved companion Tucker urged her to give into her grief, embrace her solo journey without attachments, do what she’d never given herself permission to do, and discover that there really is another way to access joy and actually fill up that which has been missing from within—inevitably, an inner journey entirely independent of reaching milestones, receiving validation, and chasing the next high but rather centered in going home to ourselves and welcoming the world in to see the true you. Other gems to look for:+ defining ourselves by our goals keeps us stuck+ when you allow yourselves to be where you are, the journey becomes the true reward+ setbacks and growth = joy+ when we engage in comparison culture, that’s our ego playing mind tricks on us, saying that unless we’re doing what others are doing, we don’t belong+ the thing we think is missing isn’t outside our

Conversation begins 5:30 minutes in. __ To connect with Rabbi Shlomo Slatkin, visit his:Website: https://themarriagerestorationproject.comServices: https://themarriagerestorationproject.com/couples-counseling-servicesBlog: https://themarriagerestorationproject.com/blog__Work with Chelsea: www.breakupward.com/shopChelsea’s website: www.breakupward.comSign up for Chelsea’s newsletter: bit.ly/tyhbletterInstagram: www.instagram.com/thankyouheartbreakConnect and send in your questions and/or letters viawww.instagram.com/thankyouheartbreakOr by email: Chelsea@breakupward.com

Episode notes to follow soon: Conversation starts 8:30 minutes in about business evolution and having humility and faith as you make the best next moves. 28 minutes in: relationship talk__To connect with Evin, visit her:Website: evinrosecoaching.comWork with Evin: https://www.evinrosecoaching.com/work-togetherPrivate Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/empowereddatingwithevinroseInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/evinrose__Work with Chelsea: www.breakupward.com/shopChelsea’s website: www.breakupward.comSign up for Chelsea’s newsletter: bit.ly/tyhbletterInstagram: www.instagram.com/thankyouheartbreakConnect and send in your questions and/or letters viawww.instagram.com/thankyouheartbreakOr by email: Chelsea@breakupward.com

Janice Morgan, author of the newly released memoir Suspended Sentence, joins Chelsea 9:15 minutes in to talk about overcoming the shame of her son’s arrest and how, in the process of finding a community that both related and embraced her uphill battle, she was able to see her son’s mental illness, substance abuse, and arrest as a pathway to her own recovery, retire her mock-heroic role as savior in her son’s life, and uncover her own guilt as a mother who too often focused on the security of her career rather than the prosperity of her child. At the heart of it, this is a story of learning the value of letting your children struggle for themselves, that parents are human too, and how it’s never too late to parent differently.__To connect with Janice, visit her:Website: https://janicemorganauthor.comPurchase Suspended Sentence: https://www.amazon.com/Suspended-Sentence-Memoir-Janice-MorganBlog: https://janicemorganauthor.com/blogNAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illnesshttps://www.nami.org__Work with Chelsea:

Before having Transitions Expert and Prosperity Astrologer Elisa Robyn join Chelsea 17 minutes in, Chelsea talks about pride and why we win in life when we have less of it. Whether it’s extending an apology, acknowledging the motive and intention behind our less than becoming behavior, confronting our fantasy and finally meeting in real life, taking a chance and expressing romantic interest, or working extra shifts and side gigs to keep our lifestyle intact, the point is, filtering out the reality of who we currently are and where we’re currently at may make us look Instagramable but it doesn’t help us embrace our current circumstances or cultivate sincere connections.Then 17 minutes in, Elisa joins Chelsea to talk about the three lessons she learned on a 100 mile hiking adventure, gaining personal power, and prioritizing the life she’s always wanted over the life she already knows and has in order to transition out of a 20 year career after losing her mother and husband within two months of each other. Other

Author of the novel The Means That Make Us Strangers, Christine Kindberg joins Chelsea 6:30 minutes in to talk about the upside of singleness because, believe it or not, there is one. The catch is, the upside is a mindset that has to be cultivated and a trajectory that has to be pursued. For Christine, this pursuit began in her early twenties when she realized she didn't want to be in a holding pattern where she was sitting on her hands and just waiting for a partner to come along for life to begin. What she needed to do instead, she discovered, was find significant things to invest in that were independent of whether a romantic partner was in her life or not. Fast forward, and Christine has now found herself humoring her married friends when recounting a string of crazy and horrendous first dates, running marathons and taking flight to places like Chile for 2 1/2 months to research her next great novel—a passion and purpose that she may not have prioritized had she been tethered to an ill-fitting partne

131: The Dark Night Of My Soul with Makeda Smith by Chelsea Leigh Trescott

Author Elise Schiller joins Chelsea 16 minutes in to talk about what she discovered writing her first memoir, Even if Your Heart Would Listen: Losing My Daughter to Heroin. Through a collection of her daughter’s journal excerpts, planners, letters left behind as well as medical records, handouts from residential treatment, and her own research into today’s opioid crisis, Elise tries to weave together a clearer picture of what her daughter’s pathway toward recovery actually looked like and could have looked like were substance use disorders treated with medication first. What arises both in writing and in conversation is regret, resentment and, the single silver lining, advocacy. In terms of regret, it’s the guilt of a mother who now knowing what she knows believes she could have done more to protect her daughter not from her addiction so much as its archaic treatment method. As for resentment, it’s anger toward the experts and staff at the five residential and several outpatient programs who cut corners and h

Keynote Speaker and Personal Development Coach Jessi Beyer joins Chelsea 6 minutes in to talk about self-preservation within a relationship and the need to strike a balance between boundaries and empathy, the importance of figuring yourself out so your wants can guide you versus societal, familial, and self-expectations, the unhealthy compulsion to latch on to the wrong relationship for fear of having to start over, and how taking on the responsibility of keeping her now ex-boyfriend alive was unwise in retrospect yet also the catalyst for the career she has today. Gems to look out for:+ when you define yourself by the relationship you’re in and by the actions you take to maintain that relationship, the fear of losing the relationship becomes the fear of discovering how little of your own identity you have left+ the paradox of feeling relief after ending a tumultuous and toxic relationship and yet simultaneously feeling lost within your newfound freedom+ when you pour so much of yourself into an unhealthy rel

To connect with Janice, visit her:Broken Heart Repair Kit: https://www.brokenheartrepairkit.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/brokenheartrepairkitTwitter: https://twitter.com/breakupcoaching__Work with Chelsea: www.breakupward.com/shopChelsea’s website: www.breakupward.comSign up for Chelsea’s newsletter: bit.ly/tyhbletterInstagram: www.instagram.com/thankyouheartbreakConnect and send in your questions and/or letters viawww.instagram.com/thankyouheartbreakOr by email: Chelsea@breakupward.com

Psychologist and certified bereavement trauma specialist Sherry Cormier withstood a decade of personal loss and emerged to write about the promising path back to self-fulfillment in her memoir Sweet Sorrow. Joining Chelsea 15:30 minutes in, Sherry speaks to the dual nature of life and love, drawing a parallel between thank you and heartbreak and sweetness and sorrow. However, she acknowledges that gratitude doesn’t happen initially—even if you may find yourself relieved after leaving an abusive relationship, for instance, or no longer acting as the caretaker to a spouse—but rather unfolds through the management of chaos and stress, in starting to share yourself with the world instead of only a soulmate or best friend, in re-storying the grief and rebuilding a vision for how your life was meant to go. __To connect with Sherry, visit her:Website: https://www.sherrycormierauthor.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/sweetsorrowbookFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/SweetSorrowBookLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/

Author Kevin C. McCall joins Chelsea 7:45 minutes in to talk about his memoir For The Love of Family: How a Knock on the Door Changed Everything. The knock he is referring to is the unmistakable and ever dreaded sound of an officer whose come to announce tragedy. In 2009, Kevin lost his youngest son Ryan in an unthinkable act of homicide. Collected in For The Love of Family are his musings, charting his grief over the course of 6 years, giving us an intimate view into the life of a father and husband who feels the pressure to hold his family together while on the inside he is nothing short of falling apart. In this episode, he opens up about his slow crawl back to himself, how his marriage survived such anguish, the experience that showed him life does goes on and legacies are made (hint: Kevin became a grandfather), how therapy helped him and his wife face their heartbreak, release their anger, and hold hands again, and how he didn’t let depression keep him from ever missing a sunrise.__To connect with Kevin

After losing her mom to a terminal illness in high school, psychotherapist Susan Youngsteadt went on to lose her father to cancer not long after. Joining Chelsea 10 minutes in, Susan opens up about the things that go missing when your parents pass away—like, your sense of home and belonging, unconditional acceptance, as well as a living, breathing example to point to and say, “this is why I am the way I am.” She talks about what her patients sit and talk about most in her practice, why assuming positive intent works, what she did in the aftermath of grief—particularly, what she rushed to do—and how that either helped or hurt her, how she’s trimmed the hedges of her core circle and built a family of friends, what she does to feel close to her parents, and how hospice is a place where you find yourself rooting for death. All in all, this is a tender conversation about loving the heroes who raised us and growing through our parents even if they are no longer in the physical world.__To connect with Susan, visit h

Conversation starts at 7:45__To connect with Adrian, visit him:Hipster: The Mid-Night Hour PodcastOn Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/7AfbROWKsllRSNzDCuuJEOInstagram: www.instagram.com/flash_15kTwitter: https://twitter.com/flash15kSnapchat: @solodolo_15__50% all services during Chelsea's birthday week using the promo code "bday" at www.breakupward.com/shopWork with Chelsea: www.breakupward.com/shopChelsea’s website: www.breakupward.comSign up for Chelsea’s newsletter: bit.ly/tyhbletterInstagram: www.instagram.com/thankyouheartbreakConnect and send in your questions and/or letters viawww.instagram.com/thankyouheartbreakOr by email: Chelsea@breakupward.com