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Vital Presence - Shaping the new story

Explore how to thrive and live more creatively after midlife Author and coach Dr. Sally Jean Fox is reshaping the story of what is possible—at any age but especially as we age.
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Vital Presence - Shaping the new story
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Now displaying: 2023
Oct 16, 2023

younger?

Author Sally Jean Fox made it her quest to discover what could bring heart and meaning to the second half of her life. She chronicles her story in her new memoir Meeting the Muse After Midlife: A Journey to Meaning, Creativity, and Joy. In this episode, she is joined by Dana Lynne Andersen, her friend, colleague, and teacher to explore what it means to follow an artful, transformative path into one's last decades.

Dana Lynne Andersen is the Director of the Awakening Arts Academy in Assisi, Italy, where she offers courses and also leads a Transformative Arts Certification program, which Sally has taken.

Sally Jean Fox is an author, coach, performer, and artist who writes about the search for meaning in the post-midlife years. She writes the Engaging Presence blog and hosts (with exceptions like this) the Vital Presence podcast. 

Oct 9, 2023

Legacy educator Merle Saferstein teaches the power of legacy journaling—capturing thoughts and memories that might be only for the writer's eyes but from which lessons might be shared with others. 

For 48 years, Merle Saferstein journaled, amassing a collection of 380 journals. From there she distilled key passages into two books Living and Leaving My Legacy Vols. 1 & 2 and interspersed her writings with tips on how to begin legacy journaling.

Prior to writing her books, Merle spent twenty-six years as a Holocaust educator helping hundreds of Holocaust survivors to share their legacies.  After retiring, she created Leaving Your Legacy®. Through classes, workshops, and lectures, she has guided thousands of people in sacred legacy work, writing for wellness, and journaling.

Aug 28, 2023

 

Mik Kuhlman is an actor, physical theatre comedian, performance artist, theatre-maker, and teacher who has worked and taught globally. Building on her twenty-five years experience with original ensemble and solo theatre, she recently created a stunning outdoor performance and celebration of our connection with nature called, "The Standing Nation."  Merging science and feminist inspiration, she performs a piece of art and activism that will forever change how you see trees.

 

Jul 9, 2023

Gretchen Staebler is an award-winning author in the Pacific Northwest who wrote a moving memoir about returning to her childhood home to care for her mother. It's a candid, complex, and well-crafted story that will be useful to anyone faced with providing end-of-life care or support for a family member. Gretchen also provides advice and support for caregivers at her website GretchenStaebler.com.  In this interview, she offers some of her top tips for caregivers while talking about her own writing journey and how she produced her first book after sixty.

Jul 5, 2023

Priscilla Long, Seattle-based author or Dancing with the Muse in Old Age, Minding the Muse, and The Writer's Portable Mentor takes us behind the scenes of her fascination with late in life creators. 

May 15, 2023

 

Dana Lynne Andersen is a multimedia artist, writer, playwright, and teacher who has taught and exhibited on three continents.

She is the founder of the Awakening Arts Academy, with programs in Assisi, Italy, and online.

In this conversation, we explore the nature of the Transformative Arts Certification Program she offers—why it is so needed in the world and what it represents.

May 1, 2023

When her beloved husband took his life, and with it her life as she knew it, Suzanne Anderson faced a choice: would she be broken down and defeated, or broken open and transformed? Join this conversation about walking an unexpected path to a powerful outcome.

Apr 22, 2023

Executive and entrepreneur turned community builder and advocate for women in the 3rd act of life, Diana Place shares wisdom from her journey and the inspiration for the online 333 Collective she created.

Mar 4, 2023

When Debbie Weiss lost her husband of 30 years before she was 50, she learned life lessons that she has shared through her recent memoir Available As Is: A Midlife Widow's Search for Love. 

 

We talk about the challenges of love, loss, midlife dating, and what it was to begin her writing career. after fifty.

Debbie Weiss

Jan 26, 2023

Lois Holzman is a “ performance activist” who uses her academic background and experience to organize people—as individuals and communities—to participate in creating new development, hope and possibilities. Trained as a development psychologist, she gives new meaning to what it is to develop. Practicing “Non-knowing growing, ” she helps people ask questions, have interactions, and question assumptions in order to create new ways of becoming. Her tools include play, improv, and performance, and great, provocative questions.

Jan 17, 2023

Isidra Mencos' debut memoir Promenade of Desire—A Barcelona Memoir (October 2022, She Writes Press) is a sensual coming of age story tracing her journey from repressed Catholic virgin to seductive Mata Hari, as Spain transitioned from dictatorship to democracy. 

Jan 2, 2023

Alex Doman is in the business of learning, brain enhancement, and healing through the science-based applications of music and sound. He is a third-generation pioneer in sound healing, and his businesses, Advanced Brain Technology and Vital Neuro, build on the history of innovation begun by his father and grandfather.

We talk about how to support brain health and thrive in times marked by rapid change as well as the aftermath of the pandemic. 

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