The Michelle Chalfant Show — Life from the Adult Chair

We all experience emotional pain off and on throughout our lives. Relationships end, people and pets die, jobs end. Pain could be just around the next corner! The problem is that as humans we think that facing pain means putting it away, hiding from it, dealing with pain as we so love to say. We don't need to deal with our pain, we need to feel our pain and that is where we go wrong. This week on the show we're talking all about experiencing emotions and I have some tried and true techniques that will help you work through your own pain, anger, frustration … whatever! … and get right back to the important work of living your life! Links & Notes Unlock the Secret to Truly Helping Others in Pain What I do with my Feelings and Emotions

When we are met with a friend or family member in pain — or grief, sadness, really any emotion — our instinct is to console them, to somehow help relieve their discomfort or even fix their pain. Here's the problem: that doesn't help. There is way to help others with their pain but it's not what you'd think. When we demonstrate awareness, love, and willingness to be present in another's pain, it provides a platform for change, and that's what we're going to teach you how to do on the show today. Links & Notes Workshops with Michelle Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor

Have you ever found yourself listening to us talking about connecting to our inner child, and wondered, "right, I get it, but how?" We're going to help you today! The hardest part about doing this inner child work on your own is getting past the awkward feeling, the self-judgement that you're not doing it right. It will likely feel strange to start, but once you get into the practice, you'll feel right at home with the practical visualization of actually connecting with your inner child, and get to the peace, support, and love that follows!

As our kids move into their teenage years, they begin to distance themselves from us as parents. It's perfectly normal! But that doesn't make it any easier on us, and it forces us to change our approach to communicating with them. As they push back on us in an effort to find space themselves, we're tempted to push back on them, to control and make demands of their time and attention. It's a recipe for disaster in your relationship! Instead, try guiding them, focusing on their explorations as a reflective listener. These are just some of the tools talking about today to help you come to terms with your budding adult child!

According to Arielle Ford, one in three relationships that end in marriage start online today. And she ought to know; her work in the field of relationships over the last 30 years has earned her the title, "The Fairy Godmother of Love." She's on the show today to talk to us about soulmates, our search for love, and the law of attraction that can help us to find our next perfect partner. Already found your soulmate? Don't worry, Arielle has some great advice for you, too, that will help you rekindle the excitement in your relationship no matter how long you've been together! About Arielle Ford Arielle Ford has spent the past 30 years living and promoting consciousness through all forms of media. She is the author several books including THE SOULMATE SECRET: Manifest The Love of Your Life With The Law of Attraction, Turn Your Mate Into Your Soulmate and her latest Inkspirations Love by Design: Coloring the Divine Path to Manifest Your Soulmate a unique, transformational coloring book. She's been called "The Cupid of Consciousness" and "The Fairy Godmother of Love" and you might have read her article "Finding Big Love is possible at any age" in our February edition of Michelle's Magazine! Links & Notes Soulmate Secret — Sign up for Arielle's Newsletter! Soulmate Secret 7 Week Online Course Find Arielle's Books on Amazon Follow Arielle Ford on Facebook Follow SoulmateSecret on Facebook

Our relationship with food is supposed to be one of healthful nurturing, building a strong family and community connection, growth and bounty. But what happens when our food connection becomes spoiled? Today on the show, Karly Randolph Pitman joins us to share her insights on food struggles, especially when it comes to sugar and addiction. She brings some truly surprising insights around where our relationship with food and sugar goes wrong and how we can get back on track and love ourselves along the way. Karly Randolph Pitman is a teacher, and the woman behind Growing HumanKindNess where she works with those looking for a new way of relating to food, body and sugar struggles. She's author of Overcoming Sugar Addiction: How I kicked my Sugar Habit and Created a Joyful Sugar Free Life! And offers a number of courses herself including Overcoming Sugar Addiction: The 30 Day Lift, and her signature course, When Food is Your Mother. Links & Notes About Karly Randolph Pitman When Food is Your Mother Growing Humankindness Facebook Group Karly Randolph Pitman on Amazon.com

If you're a regular listener, you know how much I love meditation. While most of us don't actually have a regular meditation practice, that doesn't mean a regular practice isn't something to aspire to. This week on the show, we talk plainly about why meditation can be such an important role in your emotional and physiological health. We have a number of recommendations for apps that can help you get started, suggestions for treating yourself well as you begin to integrate mediation in your life each day, and of course, I invite you to review and download my own guided meditations, available for free for you to use in your journey into The Adult Chair! Links & Notes Guided Meditations with Michelle Thunderspace for iOS Heartmath

Your life is a revolving door. You date the same people. You report to the same bosses. Over and over again, in spite of the effort you're making to change your life, you find that you're stuck in the patterns that have defined you and now you want to get out. This week on the show, we're talking about those patterns, and how you can take steps to own them, control them, and break them in favor of a new and more empowered YOU. First, you have to learn where they come from, and that can be the hardest lesson of all. Take that step today! Don't forget to register for my next intensive! Coming next month in Nashville! We've got people coming from all over the country and YOU should be there! Links & Notes Spring Intensive — Register Now!

Navigating the murky waters of middle school can be tough on a kid. But navigating the murky waters of parenting a middle schooler can be even tougher! Today on The Adult Chair, our middle school maven Michelle Icard joins us to talk about how middle school has changed since we had to face it (and how it hasn't!). From social skills to hormones to technology to the parental relationship, Michelle has some fantastic insights that will help you keep a strong relationship with your middle schooler! About Michelle Icard Michelle Icard is the author of Middle School Makeover: Improving The Way You and Your Child Experience The Middle School Years, recognized by Publisher's Weekly as outstanding in its genre. She is a member of the TODAY Show parenting team and NBC's Education Nation. Michelle is also a contributor to the Washington Post OnParenting section and Your Teen Magazine. In addition, her work has been featured in The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, Redbook, Time, People Magazine, and A Mighty Girl. Michelle's social leadership programs, Athena's Path & Hero's Pursuit, have been implemented at schools across the country. Links & Notes MichelleIcard.com Middle School Makeover: Improving The Way You and Your Child Experience the Middle School Years by Michelle Icard Follow Michelle on Twitter Like Middle School Relief on Facebook Join Michelle's Private Parenting Group on Facebook

We cover our feelings with numbing agents. Food. Alcohol. Work. The drive of our adolescent chair tells us that if we only had something to fill these holes in our lives, we'd be better, so we eat more, drink more, work more. Maybe we get married or have a child, always expecting that this next great thing will heal us. But the holes keep growing, and as soon as we stop for bit, stop covering up, we feel the sadness, loneliness, emptiness that fills us. Today's conversation comes thanks to the closed Facebook group and the wonderful members there sharing their own experience feeling sad, lonely and empty. Today we're talking about how to heal it, how to move through it from the inside out, and how to count on your own inner child as your guide.