There are days when I feel fantastic about being 53 years old. Maybe I've gone for a run, delved into an article about AI and understood more than half of it, or shared laughs with friends reminiscent of my teenage years.

Then there are those other days when I glance in the mirror and notice more wrinkles, or when my husband suggests going to see a band and I decline because I'd rather be in my pajamas by 8 pm. Truth be told!

So when I discovered Chip Conley, today's guest on Cracking Open and author of the New York Times bestselling book Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better with Age, I knew he would offer a wealth of wisdom on this complex phase called midlife.

In this episode, Chip and I delve deep into the topic. We discuss candidly how his loss of five close friends to suicide and his own near-death experience taught him that mortality serves as an organizing principle for life.

Chip shares insights from his early years of ballroom dancing, where he learned that it's a powerful metaphor for life: in the first half the ego leads the dance, but in the second half the soul takes the lead while the ego follows.

His primary intention is to shift people's perspective on aging, advocating for a pro-aging mindset rather than an anti-aging one. With this shift, he emphasizes the numerous benefits, including gaining an additional seven and a half years of life.

Chip Conley is on a mission to redefine midlife. Having disrupted the hospitality industry twice, first with Joie de Vivre Hospitality and then as Airbnb's Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy, he co-founded MEA (Modern Elder Academy) in 2018. MEA, the world's first midlife wisdom school, aims to reframe aging and empower individuals to navigate midlife with purpose and possibility.

Our conversation in this episode goes beyond simply discussing the science and stories around embracing midlife; we fully embody it. We share laughter and vulnerability, along with our personal experiences with aging, and as a result, we connected on a deeper level.

Since our discussion, I have felt lighter, more alive, and younger in my mind, body, and spirit. Chip Conley is truly a gift to the world and reframing what midlife could be like for all of us.

Love,
Molly

Have you ever had a moment where you get chills up and down your spine while listening to someone's story and how it transformed how they live, work, and exist in the world?

This is what happened to me when I first heard Dr. Ellen Langer speak, and she joins us today on the Cracking Open podcast to impart her wisdom, backed by decades of research and enriched by stories from her latest book, The Mindful Body: Thinking Our Way to Chronic Health.

Dr. Langer is one of the first women to achieve tenure at Harvard University and has dedicated forty-five years to pioneering research on aging, diabetes, autism, stress management, and overall health.

Her work underscores the profound connection between our minds and bodies, advocating for mindfulness as a powerful tool to enhance overall well-being.

Listening to our discussion today will shed light on Dr. Langer's belief that mindfulness not only benefits us personally but is also remarkably easy to integrate into our lives. She emphasizes that all our misery stems from being mindless, and by becoming more mindful and noticing things in our lives, we can alleviate stress and transform our experiences for the better.

Dr. Ellen Langer is not only a professor and researcher at Harvard but a prolific author, with eleven books to her name, including the internationally acclaimed Mindfulness, which has been translated into fifteen languages, and Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility.

Her contributions to psychology have garnered widespread recognition, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest from the American Psychological Association.

With over 200 research articles to her credit, Dr. Langer's pioneering work in social psychology has earned her a place in The New York Times Magazine's "Year in Ideas" issue. Dr. Langer is also an accomplished painter.

Our lively conversation left a lasting impression on me, especially when she emphasized that "it is not about making the right decisions, it is about making your decisions right". This resonated deeply with me, highlighting the importance of mindfulness in shaping our perceptions and responses to life's challenges.

Dr. Ellen's teachings have truly transformed my approach to daily living. I now navigate each day with a newfound mindfulness, drawing from her research to navigate life's challenges with greater ease and resilience. Tune in to learn more about how you can bring more mindfulness into your life today.

Love, Molly


Learn more about Dr. Ellen Langer and her work here
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Growing up, I often heard sayings such as “the harder the work, the luckier you get” and “nothing comes free in life". Adopting this approach to life inspired me to become a very hard worker. However, I also became someone who can have difficulty relaxing and letting go of work. I still tend towards pushing and striving to make something happen out of sheer will versus allowing the right things to come into my life at the right time.

If this resonates with you, then I invite you into the world of today's Cracking Open podcast guest and life coach Jill Rose, who is here to remind us that there is a kinder, easier, and more generative way to move through this world.

As a self-proclaimed overachiever, hustler, and hard-working mom of three kids, Jill learned to keep pushing forward to reach some unforeseen finish line. Then she had a "cracking open" moment when she lost her home during the housing crisis. Feeling ashamed, lonely, and isolated because she and her family had to move to a new city and start all over, Jill hit rock bottom.

Then one day she discovered a yoga class, which brought her the warmth and comfort she was so desperately seeking. She enrolled in yoga teacher training and began to feel alive again. She learned that she loved teaching women yoga, where she could create a space for them to slow down and step out of the rat race, and instead learn to trust their inner voice of rest, presence, and healthy community.

Today Jill is a life coach, speaker, and facilitator who loves nothing more than watching a woman unapologetically shine. Through her one-on-one work with clients, her group coaching program called Rest, Restore & Rise, her bi-annual women’s retreats, and her facilitation work with professional organizations, Jill is dedicated to helping her clients know their value, worth, brilliance, and importance so that they can rise into the women they are destined to be. And by doing so, they inevitably enrich and elevate those around them.

May we all learn from Jill the easier, kinder way of living that is more aligned with our true nature, and may it bring forth more abundance, joy, purpose, passion, bandwidth, and capacity to better care for ourselves and those we love.

Love,
Molly



Learn more about Jill Rose and her work here
Follow Jill on Instagram and Facebook
Learn more about Jill's upcoming retreats & courses here

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