In today’s episode of the podcast, I am sharing Brené Brown’s Ten Guideposts for Wholehearted Living, as described in her book, The Gifts of Imperfection. I am also telling you which Business Mamas Podcast episodes relate to each of the ten guideposts. I hope that you will review the ten guideposts, and that as you are working on the guideposts, you will also listen to The Business Mamas Podcast episodes I’ve done that are geared to that particular guidepost. 

Towards the end of this episode, I let you know that I am going to be spending some of my time working on Guidepost #7- Cultivating Play and Rest: Letting go of Exhaustion as a Status Symbol and Productivity as Self-Worth. As I lean into creating more play and allowing more rest in my life, I hope that this latest episode of my podcast will provide you with useful tools. 

Other ways you can connect with me: 

Follow @karasteinconaway on Instagram. 

Sign up to download my Morning Routine Guide and receive my email newsletter.

Also, visit https://www.karasteinconaway.com/linktree to sign up for my email newsletter, so that you’ll be informed when I release another episode of the Business Mamas Podcast after enjoying this pause.  

In this season, which is Season 4 of the podcast, I am sharing with you about my journey with meditation. I'm also sharing a particular meditation in each episode that I love, and that I hope you will love too.

The meditation that I'm talking about in today's episode is a body scan. In case you haven't done a body scan before, I'll tell you a little bit about my experience. You're guided by the person doing the meditation to give attention to different parts of your body, usually starting with one end of your body and ending with another end of your body. 

It's a really special experience to be still and to give your body that much attention, which is part of doing a body scan.

Resting your awareness on each part of your body is a special experience.

When I am engaged in a body scan, what comes up for me is this immense gratitude for:

• how my body takes care of me,
• how it functions in a way that allows me to be in this world in a way that I want to be in this world, and
• how it allows me to be active to run up hills, to play with my children, and to do all these beautiful things that having a healthy body allows me to do.

By engaging in a body scan, for me it’s a gratitude practice of being appreciative for my body as a whole, and also being appreciative of every little aspect of my body.

Are you ready to develop more love for your body? 

Are you ready to develop deep appreciation of your body? 

When you develop love and appreciation for your body, and for all aspects of you, you will experience more peace, more presence, and more joy in your life, and I hold all those hopes in my heart for you. 

The meditation I am sharing  with you today, that is a twenty-four minute meditation that I love, is called Bodyscan With Rumi and it’s by Schalk Neethling.  

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

Follow @karasteinconaway on Instagram. If you try out this meditation, I’d love for you to send me a message on Instagram and let me know if you enjoyed it, or let me know if you have any feedback about the podcast. I’d love to hear from you. 

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In this season, which is Season 4 of the podcast, I am sharing with you about my journey with meditation. I'm also sharing a particular meditation in each episode that I love, and that I hope you will love too.

I'm excited to have this conversation with you about meditation, and what I have seen as the benefits of meditation in my life since I've started practicing slowing down my mind.

If you are like me, then sometimes you feel like you are moving so quickly through your day that you barely have time to breathe, and you certainly aren't making the time to take deep breaths, where you observe yourself breathing the air in and you observe yourself breathing the air out.

Being a person who has spent much of my life to-date working at a very fast pace, slowing down my mind is something that if you would have talked with me about it a few years ago, I'm not sure that I would have seen the value in it.

As professionals, and career people, we value our minds. We value our minds’ ability to process information quickly, to make decisions, to weigh advantages and disadvantages of different situations that we come across.

Thinking about slowing down our minds isn't something that might immediately sound like it has value. But it does.

Now, having practiced meditation for some years now, I have found immense value in being able to slow down my mind.

You may have heard the term ‘Namaste’ before as being used in meditation. It's commonly translated as “the light in me honors the light in you.” By choosing to meditate, you are honoring the light within yourself, and it also naturally leads to you honoring the light in others. The more we see our own light, and the more we honor the light in others, by doing this internal work, we not only make our internal experience of our lives more beautiful, but we also make the world a better place.

Are you ready to give yourself the gift of slowing down your mind? 

Are you ready to accept the beauty that unfolds when you give yourself that gift? 

I hope you'll take the time to tune into this episode and learn about the value of slowing down your mind.

The meditation I am sharing  with you today, that is a twenty minute meditation that I love, is called Slowing Down Your Mind and it’s by davidji.

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

Follow @karasteinconaway on Instagram. If you try out this meditation, I’d love for you to send me a message on Instagram and let me know if you enjoyed it, or let me know if you have any feedback about the podcast. I’d love to hear from you. 

Sign up to download my free Morning Routine Guide or my free Affirmations Guide and receive my email newsletter.

In this new season, which is Season 4 of the podcast, I am sharing with you about my journey with meditation. I'm also sharing a particular meditation in each episode that I love, and that I hope you will love too.

Meditation for me is about discovering that Mind, Body, Spirit connection.

The more that I practice meditation, the more I am able to encounter my feelings in a productive and healthy way.

In this episode, I talk with you about a mediation I tried that incorporated working with our chakra energy centers and also incorporated affirmations. 

I hope that as you listen to this episode and as you try out meditation, that you also feel that sense of wonder, that sense of joy of getting to learn something new, and that sense of freedom that comes with practicing being more present in this one precious life that we get to live. 

Could you use a little more joy in your life? 

Could you benefit from feeling a sense of wonder? 

Could trying a little something new and different be just what you need right now? 

Are you ready to be fully present for this one precious life that you get to live? 

If so, I hope you'll tune into this episode! 

The meditation I am sharing  with you today, that is a twelve minute meditation that I love, is called Unlock Energy - Chakra Meditation and it’s by Amanda Sellers. 

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

Follow @karasteinconaway on Instagram. If you try out this meditation, I’d love for you to send me a message on Instagram and let me know if you enjoyed it, or let me know if you have any feedback about the podcast. I’d love to hear from you. 

Sign up to download my free Morning Routine Guide  or my free Affirmations Guide and receive my email newsletter.

In this new season, which is Season 4 of the podcast, beginning with Episode 32, I am sharing with you about my journey with meditation. I'm also sharing a particular meditation in each episode that I love, and that I hope you will love too.

If you haven't already listened to Episode number 2 of this podcast, My Breakdown That Led to My Breakthrough: Why I don't Work on Sundays or Go Without My Morning Routine, I would encourage you to click the “click here and listen now” button below and to go back and listen to Episode 2. Then, after you've listened to it, come back and listen to this new episode. In Episode 2, I told you about what led me to developing my morning routine. I also talked with you about all of the different components of my morning routine. One of those components, and the component that I want to talk with you more about today, in this episode, is meditation.

Have you tried meditation and found it frustrating? 

Do you wish that you could feel the benefits from meditation but it just hasn't worked for you yet? 

Are you ready to be so present in your joy, so that when you finish a meditation, you are in an incredibly beautiful, peaceful state, where you feel like you are limitless? 

If so, this episode is for you! 

The meditation I am sharing  with you today, that is a five minute meditation that I love, is called I Am the Sea and it's by Carmen Warrington. 

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

Follow @karasteinconaway on Instagram. If you try out this meditation, I’d love for you to send me a message on Instagram and let me know if you enjoyed it, or let me know if you have any feedback about the podcast. I’d love to hear from you. 

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In this season of the podcast, I am singing you a song that I sing to my children at night when I'm putting them to sleep. After I share the song with you, I'll tell you the lesson that I hope to be teaching both myself and my children with the song and I hope it's a lesson that will resonate with you, too.

My Favorite Things was sung by Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music, and it is one of my favorite songs to sing at night to my kids when I am putting them to bed. 

When we lay down at night, and we're getting ready to go to sleep, we slow ourselves and in that slowness, I think it's natural that it's a time where concerns can come up or things that are troubling you can come to the surface. They find that space, in that stillness that is being created by the night time ritual of slowing down and of getting ready to sleep and getting ready to rest.

When those concerns or worries have come up for my children, as I am getting them ready for bed, one thing we have done is to use this song to identify their favorite things. We swap out the words, so that we're singing about something that really resonates for them.

I think it’s really important, and something that I work on with my kids, that we identify and acknowledge those things that are the dog bites and the bee stings and the things that make them feel sad. Because by identifying what those things are and voicing them and discussing them and naming them, it gives us the ability to release those worries.

This song teaches us that when the dog bites and the bee stings are happening, then we can also think of our favorite things. To me, what this really means is coming back to gratitude. 

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

Follow @karasteinconaway on Instagram. 

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In this season of the podcast, I am singing you a song that I sing to my children at night when I'm putting them to sleep. After I share the song with you, I'll tell you the lesson that I hope to be teaching both myself and my children with the song and I hope it's a lesson that will resonate with you, too.  

Somewhere Over the Rainbow, sung by Judy Garland, has always been a song that I find soothing, and comforting. And it is definitely one that I love to sing to my kids at night. 

Somewhere Over the Rainbow is such a powerful reminder that you can allow yourself to dream those big dreams!

Someday I’ll wish upon a star 

And wake up where the clouds are far behind me

Where troubles melt like lemon drops

Where is the place where troubles melt like lemon drops?

I feel like I have experienced this place in my own life.

And when I sing this song to my children, it's my hope that they too will come to realize that the place where troubles melt like lemon drops is within your own mind and within your own heart. And that by creating and nurturing a safe space within yourself, you can always find the place where troubles melt like lemon drops.

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

Follow @karasteinconaway on Instagram. 

Sign up to download my Morning Routine Guide and receive my email newsletter.

In this new season of the podcast, beginning with Episode 29, I am singing you a song that I sing to my children at night when I'm putting them to sleep. After I share the song with you, I'll tell you the lesson that I hope to be teaching both myself and my children with the song and I hope it's a lesson that will resonate with you, too.  

This beautiful Beatles song that I'm sharing with you today, Blackbird, is one of my favorite songs that I sing to my children at night when they're going to sleep. I've been singing it to them for years. I'm taking the time right now to slow down and to think about why this song is one of my favorite songs to come back to, and why this song holds a special place in my heart and feels like the message that I want to leave dancing around in their minds before they trail off to sleep.  

Take these broken wings and learn to fly. 

Isn't there something about all of us that at times feels broken and yet we can still learn to fly?  

Having a broken wing, doesn't mean that you don't get to fly as a blackbird. You can still learn to fly and I want to teach my children that even though they feel that a part of them is broken or a part of them is struggling or having trouble with something, that they can still fly. I want them to know that they can still be who they want to be and do what they want to do.

I want them to understand that feeling broken is just part of the beautiful human experience. I feel broken sometimes too and leaning into that part of myself that may feel broken or down or not as in the zone as I like to feel, leaning into that and examining it and giving compassion to it, that's what allows us to learn to fly even while having a broken wing.  

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

Follow @karasteinconaway on Instagram. 

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In her book, Girl on Fire, Cara Alwill explains:

“Every time a woman rises up and celebrates herself, she shows another woman that it's okay to do the same. Every time a woman showcases her wins, she shows another woman that it's possible to achieve great things. When you choose that perspective, you owe it to the world to shout about your success from the rooftops!”

When we stay silent, it perpetuates a cycle of women feeling ashamed of their success, so I'm done.

I’m done downplaying what I've learned, what I've accomplished, and who I am.

There have been so many times when I've been enveloped by deep gratitude for the love and beauty I'm experiencing but I've held back and not shared out of fear that people will think I'm bragging or because I'm worried that someone might think I'm trying to discourage them by sharing my joy. This is ridiculous. When I see another person experiencing joy, to me, it's contagious. I take it as inspiration to create more joy in my own life. And I appreciate it every time I experience it.

I am not going to assume that me sharing my joy is going to harm others.

In this episode, I share resources with you that help us understand why so many women minimize their success and accomplishments, and I provide you with tools for how we can change this! I hope you’ll listen in. I'm ready to shout my success from the rooftops, and I hope you'll join me in shouting your successes from the rooftops too. You never know who might really need to hear what you've got to say. 

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

Follow @karasteinconaway on Instagram. 

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Today, in the latest podcast episode, I am talking with you about making the heart-guided decision to be empowered to make the work-life balance choices that are right for you. When I opened my law firm in January of 2017, my oldest son had just turned four years old, and my baby was 10 months old. During the entirety of 2017, I was in a constant state of hustle. Not only was I continuing to be an advocate and counsellor for my clients, but I was also figuring out what needed to be done to run a business. I was working seven days a week and I was doing far less than half of the care for our children.

I remember that one Sunday morning, I had just arrived at my office, and when I tried to start working, I collapsed on the floor. My exhaustion was so total and complete that I was physically and emotionally incapable of working that day. I literally spent hours on my office floor. And you know what? I felt terrible about not doing more to take care of my babies.

I felt like anyone who knew the truth of my situation would conclude that I was a bad mom.

Believing that a mom who did less than half of the childcare responsibilities was a bad mom was a belief that I had to let go of.

It wasn't serving me.

It was just making me feel not good enough.

So, I worked hard to switch my belief around that topic.

The new belief that I decided to embrace was that I was a brave mom, who was jumping into new territory, knowing that by taking this jump into the unknown, I would be in a much better position to provide for my family, and have the balance I wanted in the future, and that the learning curve was steep and time consuming. After this day that I spent on the floor of my office, I started working six days a week instead of seven, and Sunday turned into my day off.

Importantly, I moved into this greater balance from a place of appreciation for myself, and my ability to use focus and structure to be more effective with my time rather than from a place of believing that I'm a bad mom and beating myself up.

Letting go of the belief that a good mom has to look a certain way allowed me to open my heart to the possibility of how I could be the best mom that I could be.

I was a good lawyer, and I was a good mom, when I was starting a business and working seven days a week.

I was a good lawyer, and I was a good mom, when I limited myself to six days a week of work.

I was a good lawyer, and I was a good mom, when I transitioned to working from home and increased the amount of time that I got to have with my kids.

In each of these different ways that I have structured my work, one thing has remained consistent. When I love and appreciate myself, I am so much happier and healthier than when I criticize myself for what I'm not doing. As career women and as mothers, we all have different balances of what's right for each of us and our families.

I hope that you will listen to this episode and that you will:

Love yourself, Mama. 

Love others.

Be empowered to make the work-life balance choices that are right for you. 

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

Follow @karasteinconaway on Instagram. 

Sign up to download my Morning Routine Guide and receive my email newsletter.

Don Miguel Ruiz’ Four Agreements are:

1. Be impeccable with your word;
2. Don't make assumptions;
3. Don't take anything personally; and
4. Always do your best.  

- Imagine for a moment, what it would feel like if you were immune to the opinions and actions of others.

- Imagine for a moment, what it would feel like if you knew that nothing others do is because of you.

- Imagine for a moment, what it would feel like if you knew that what others say and do is a projection of only their own reality. 

In this episode, I share with you how I have used the Four Agreements to transform my life. I hope that you will listen to this episode and that you will begin using the Four Agreements too!  In doing so, I hope that it will help bring the peace and presence to your life that they have brought to me. 

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

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“Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.” ~ Don Miguel Ruiz, one of my favorite authors, explains what it means to be impeccable with your word in this way. 

In today's podcast episode, I share with you how my friend's choice to speak openly and honestly to me about actions I was taking that left her feeling unappreciated initially hurt my feelings but ultimately led to me realizing the value of honest communication in relationships. 

Is there a relationship that you're in where you know you have a truth to speak but you've just been holding it inside for a long time? 

I hope you'll listen to this episode and join me in challenging ourselves to come from a place of love, and speak our honest, loving truth to others. 

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

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I am here to remind you of a truth you know in your heart but that you might sometimes forget: You are enough and your best is always good enough! 

Today on the podcast, I'm sharing with you my transition from being someone who was never satisfied with anything less than perfection to becoming someone who gives myself so much appreciation for doing my best. Here are some reasons why you should choose to do your best rather than striving to be perfect: 

1. Perfect is unattainable.
2. Your best is always good enough.
3. When you strive to do your best, you think more creatively.
4. Making mistakes allows you to redirect. 

Are you ready to shed your perfectionistic tendencies that are holding you back, and step into the grounded energy of being someone who knows that your best is good enough? I hope you'll tune in so we can explore this journey together. 

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

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Are you, or have you ever been, a breastfeeding mama? Or are you thinking that breastfeeding might be in your future? If so, this episode is for you. 

This is the story of my transition from appreciation, but some criticism for my pre-childbirth body, to having total reverence for my post-childbirth body, and especially how breastfeeding helped me develop that reverence. This is a story of surviving and then later thriving with breastfeeding. 

Seriously, Mama, your body is totally magical, and 100% amazing. I hope you'll listen in and that you'll choose to love your body, Mama!

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

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Today on the Business Mamas Podcast, we are talking about making the heart-guided decision to bravely and unapologetically love your body, mama! I'm sharing with you the story of my transition from appreciation, but some criticism for my pre-childbirth body, to having total reverence for my post-childbirth body. 

If you're a mama who has given birth to a baby, you can allow your birth experience to empower you to love your body. I hope you treat yourself to listening to this episode, and that you allow yourself to learn how giving birth to your baby, and your birth story, can empower you to love your body more now than ever before. Cheers to fully loving all parts of ourselves! 

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

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In this episode, I share a story about a time when work was extra demanding and I felt like I was failing as a mom, and how I used the framework of stop and feel, look, choose, and vote to practice self-kindness and turn a disappointment into a magical evening of connection with my sons. 

Life will constantly present us with opportunities to tear ourselves down and to see life both as something we are failing at and something that others are messing up for us but when instead, we stop and feel, look, choose, and vote to do the things that are kind to ourselves, we show up and we create so much beauty in the world.

I encourage you to listen to this episode, so you can try this out in your life and experience how the magic unfolds!  

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

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Do you want to learn how to be kinder and more compassionate with yourself?

I know that sometimes it can feel difficult to do. 

We can be so hard on ourselves for feeling the way that we do, but what if instead of fighting against those feelings, we just let them have space? 

What would happen if we allowed ourselves to feel whatever it was that was going on inside of us without judgment or criticism?

Let’s get started today on learning how to allow your feelings instead of pushing them away. This is one of the best ways I care for myself now and I hope it becomes one of the ways you care for yourself too!

I encourage you to listen to this episode and learn what you can do when you start feeling big emotions like sadness, anxiety, or frustration. 

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

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Could you use a little inspiration? If so, this episode is for you!  

In this episode, I am focusing on how you can surround yourself with people who inspire you! 

Surrounding myself with people who inspire me has helped me grow as a person and as a career woman. Sometimes someone else's perspective who has already been where you are now is so valuable! 

In this episode, I talk about eight different ways you can surround yourself with people who inspire you. If you need some ideas for how you can be inspired, listen in.

For more information and to learn more about Kara Stein-Conaway please visit The Business Mamas Podcast.

Follow @karasteinconaway on Instagram.

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One important part of living your best life is learning to say no when you know it's not a hell yes. 

In this episode, I encourage you to be true to yourself and practice saying no to spending time with people and to accepting invitations that don't resonate with you. By doing this, you make space to say yes to the wonderful things when they come your way.

I’ll tell you about a time when I was 20 years old and I said NO to something and it then opened me up to say YES to an amazing life-changing opportunity - living in South America. 

If you’re having difficulty saying no, you should listen to this episode for tools to help you exercise your NO muscle so you can also start exercising your HELL YES muscle to accept those special invitations that are waiting for you.

For more information about the Business Mamas podcast and Kara Stein-Conaway, please visit: www.karasteinconaway.com/podcast

I’m @karasteinconaway on Instagram. 

Sign up to download my Morning Routine Guide and receive my twice-monthly newsletter at The Business Mamas Podcast.

In today’s episode, I focus on inclusivity versus exclusion and being the person who makes the invitation to others. 

Sometimes in order to not get hurt, we can hide our vulnerabilities and we don’t expose who we really are to others. By doing this, we prevent ourselves from truly being seen and also from being in meaningful relationships with others.

In this episode, I speak of a dear friend who always made an invitation when she enjoyed another person's presence. She showed me that the best relationships are built by opening up, and that all starts with making an invitation. 

If you want to learn some practical tools for how to open up and bring others into your circle, this episode is for you.

For more information about the Business Mamas podcast and Kara Stein-Conaway, please visit: www.karasteinconaway.com/podcast

I’m @karasteinconaway on Instagram. 

Sign up to download my Morning Routine Guide and receive my twice monthly newsletter at The Business Mamas Podcast.