00:00 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

Betting on yourself is the catalyst to what you want in life. It's the catalyst to who you need to be, and who you need to be. You can only find that inside, internally. So, going deep within, betting that I can do all things if I want to, if I put my mind to it, if I try hard enough, and even if it doesn't turn out exactly the way that I want it to, I can always bet on myself to reinvent.

00:37 - Wendy Battles (Host)

Welcome to Reinvention Rebels Stories of brave and unapologetic women, 50 to 90 years young, who have boldly reinvented life on their own terms to find new purpose and possibilities. I'm your host, Wendy Battles. I need to kick your fears to the curb, do it scared and step into who you are meant to be in midlife and beyond. These amazing women, these Reinvention Rebels, can help light your reinvention path. Come join us and let's get inspired together. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Reinvention Rebels podcast. I am your host, Wendy. I am so excited you are here. The Reinvention Rebels podcast is a top 2% globally rated podcast that is all about how we get inspired and activated to reinvent ourselves in midlife. If we're 40, 50, 60 and beyond, as many of us know, it is never too late to see new possibilities and reimagine what midlife can look like. And I have the honor and pleasure of interviewing the most extraordinary women, women who are up to the coolest things, and today is no different than many of our episodes. You are going to meet the amazing Dixie Lincoln Nichols. I can't wait for you to listen to the powerful, impactful, insightful conversation that we had, and it's a reminder that a couple of weeks ago, I interviewed Monique Cupid and Monique and Dixie worked together to curate and host an amazing midlife conference called Life in the Paws. It's coming up on Saturday, October 5th. Monique talked about her own reinvention story and how she helped to co-create this conference. This week, dixie is talking about her really unique reinvention path and how she stepped into her creative space and has reinvented after what she calls a self-care sabbatical. So you're in for such a treat today with this episode and if you didn't listen to Monique's yet, it is full of so much wisdom and so much fun and so much play. So you have to listen to that. I'm going to link to it in the show notes. But first can I share something with you.

03:23

I've been drinking Magic Mind daily for almost 3 months. It's a mental performance shot, aka my little green elixir. I drink it every morning with my coffee and it's made a huge difference. It's helped me increase my focus at work. In the past I could get easily distracted, but I've noticed that I've found my zone. It's easier to concentrate, which has helped with my productivity Plus. I love the state of calm I feel when I drink Magic Mind. My busy, overactive mind feels well less busy. That's a total win, and you know what else. It's been easy to integrate Magic Mind into my daily routine. While I sometimes struggle with my daily water drinking habit I can never seem to drink enough I've got my Magic Mind and coffee habit down in the morning. In fact, I look forward to it every day.

04:20

Have you tried Magic Mind yet? The good-for-you ingredients like matcha for focus, lion's mane mushrooms for energy and ashwagandha for less stress are a winning combination that means you can get into the zone and power up your days too. I invite you to give Magic Mind a spin and find out how it helps you with increased focus, productivity and some super cool chill vibes. You can save up to 40% off your first subscription or 20% off a one-time order with my code REBEL20. Go to magicmind.com slash rebels. At checkout, be sure to use REBEL20 to score this deal that's R-E-B-E-L 2-0. Details are in the show notes.

05:07

And now let's get on to this amazing conversation with Dixie Lincoln Nichols. Dixie Lincoln-Nichols is a 52-year-old post-menopausal science and health teacher and educator. Qigong instructor, host of the Pause Pod, founder of former award-winning beauty and wellness retailer Inside Outer Beauty Market, beauty and wellness consultant and co-founder of Life in the Paws. Her work exists to support women on their health and wellness journey, including those experiencing peri and post-menopause, so that they can thrive through the transition. She believes in the sacredness, wholeness and expansiveness of well-being, including the menopausal passage, and cares deeply about creating and curating resources, experiences and safe spaces that support longevity and vitality. Dixie Lincoln Nichols. Welcome to the Reinvention Rebels. Guest chair.

06:24 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

Yay, thank you so much. I am so super excited to be here with you, wendy, to chat. Let's do this.

06:33 - Wendy Battles (Host)

I am too. We have been talking about this, dixie, for so long I want to put that in caps so long, and I love the fact that we're actually doing it, so thank you for gracing me with your presence. I do want to begin by telling our audience how we met, which was last year, because, as you'll talk about today, you and your co-founder, Monique, who I recently interviewed you founded this amazing menopausal festival called Life in the Paws, and that's how it was, when you two reached out to me, that we connected last year. So I feel like we got a little history right. We've actually are like friends in real life, not just on Instagram, and so it just feels like, you know, I'm going to be my sister and I love it.

07:26

Yep, I love it. So thank you. There are so many things I want to ask you today, dixie, and I want to start by talking about your reinvention story. Like many of us, you've reinvented many times as an adult. Your most recent reinvention, however, leaving a tenured teaching position, which some of us are like I would never leave, but you did, and that seems especially impactful.

07:54 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

So take us through what prompted you to reinvent Such a great question, wendy, I tell you it was God, life, the creator, the one source, whomever, that channeled thoughts of. I don't want to say not enough, but I was beginning to feel a bit resentful of the people around me, like I was not getting enough for myself. So I was giving to my husband, my children, my community family, I was giving to my students, but I was not giving enough to me. And so what I came to realize was I was a woman undone. I was doing for everyone else and not for myself, and that was to the detriment of my own wellbeing. I was not exploring who I wanted to be, what I wanted to do, because I was a mother at 19. And so, the minute you become a mother, what do you do? You give yourself over to your child, right, you are at their disposal, and so that's what I did. I was the caretaker, the nurturer, the provider, co-parenting, of course, with my husband, but doing a lot of the deep, deep nurturing that so many women do, and not thinking that, dixie, you've got to prioritize your own needs. So self-care was not a thing for me back then. However, as I got older, I began coming into this place of dissatisfaction. I felt like my needs weren't being met. Like I said, I was beginning to feel resentful to the people who I was just dishing out to.

09:29

And around 38, this awakening began and I started to feel the need to do for myself, without having to make excuses or without having to validify why. I was like girl, you need care, you need to dive deep into yourself and figure out what it is you need, what makes you happy, what your dreams are, what your desires are, what your purpose is. And the feeling would not go away. It was just getting stronger and stronger. Simultaneously, I started to experience some bodily changes that, at the time, I was not aware was perimenopause, but it was. And so it started with uterine fibroids and which I connected back to the beginning of perimenopause. But all of the changes just seemed to come together and everything was screaming change, change. You need a change.

10:28

So, upon examining all of the bodily changes that were happening, the physical changes that were happening, looking at the emotional changes that were happening, I realized I had to do something, and I had to do it now, don't wait. Because the urge was just so intense. And so I asked myself well, what are you going to do? You're a teacher, you've got children, yeah, your husband has a job, but you've got to do something. And I decided to take a self-care sabbatical.

10:58

And this was almost 12 years ago. This coming October, the 12th would be 12 years since I left my job. I packed up yes, my tenured teaching job. How crazy.

11:10

I remember my principal asking me well, what's going to happen if you get divorced and Zoe doesn't have health insurance? And I started thinking, girl, you better go back. You better go back into that classroom. Because, yeah, what if the courage to jump and allow God and life to catch me was so much deeper than the fear that started to seep in after her question. And so I jumped, I left, I resigned and I was like, okay, what does life have out there in store for me? And I started to explore, I started to ask questions, I started to brain dump all the things that I wanted to do, all the things that I'm good at. I was good at and still am good at. But I needed to connect with what my heart wanted, I needed to be in alignment with my passion and I needed to pursue whatever that was. So I gave myself the freedom to explore and not push or pull, just allow, mind you, it was harder.

12:07

It's so hard to do that it's easy to say but I kept oscillating between fear and faith, fear and faith, and either you have one or the other. But I kept bouncing back and forth until I landed closer to faith. But I kept bouncing back and forth until I landed closer to faith. Now, faith is an ongoing act. Every day. You have to be faithful every day.

12:32

So it's not something you just are and then that's it for the rest of your life. You have to tap into that faith every single day, and sometimes several times a day. And so I kept tapping into faith and allowing, and life led me to tremendous experiences, including to this experience here today and including this conversation with you here today, which I'm so thrilled at. But had I not taken that leap to find out what life had in store for me, to nurture my passions and my purpose and my body, mind and spirit, I would not have had the amazing phenomenal experiences. I would not have had the amazing phenomenal experiences, I would not have had the growth, the healing and the love for life and adventure that I do currently Wow.

13:12 - Wendy Battles (Host)

I'll just start by saying wow, because that's such a powerful experience and you said so many different things. The first thing I heard that resonated with me is that you had an awakening, that your radar was on, that you were tuning into what does Dixie need? Because, as you pointed out, we all spend so much time taking care of other people and not enough on ourselves. So it feels like the genesis of this was what was inside, and listening to that to help guide you, even through the fear of it. Because I think it takes a lot of courage to reinvent ourselves. It takes courage to get out there when we're not sure. It takes courage to overrule our thinking, rational mind when someone says, well, you know, dixie, what about X? And not get caught up in that narrative or sometimes other people's limiting beliefs. They might not even be ours, but we can take that on, it can be projected on us.

14:19

So I love that you looked within, you listened to yourself, you were scared, but you had the courage to do and you relied on your faith is what I also heard you say to help guide you, and then it led to all of these amazing things that have unfolded. So, for everyone that's listening, this is a master class in this idea of when we look within, we can find the answers that we seek, and even when we're scared, we can get out there and try new things. Because you said you got curious, you explored, you tried all these different things. What that says to me, dixie, is that you decided to bet on yourself. You bet Right, right. You were like that's it, I can do this, and I'm curious as to what role you think betting on yourself. What role does that play in reinvention when we decide we want to reinvent?

15:22 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

Everything, it's everything. Because if you do not believe in yourself, no one else will. You know your body best. You know your mind best. You should know your spirit best right, you should know all of you better than anyone knows you or would ever know you. And if you tap into that, if you go within right and I'm big on inside outer if you go within, you will find the answers that you need for yourself. You don't need permission from anyone. You don't need anyone to tell you what you need.

15:52

Most of us already know Betting on yourself is the catalyst to what you want in life. It's the catalyst to who you need to be and who you need to be. You can only find that inside, internally. So, going deep within, betting that I can do all things if I want to, if I put my mind to it, if I try hard enough, and even if it doesn't turn out exactly the way that I want it to, I can always bet on myself to reinvent. I mean you can reinvent as many times as you want and need to.

16:27

So remove the limits, remove the preconceived notions about what reinvention should look like and what betting on yourself should look like. Betting on yourself means showing up for you every single day, getting up no matter how hard you fall and how many times you fall, betting that I can do this even in the hardest of times, even in the most impossible. I can do this even in the hardest of times, even in the most impossible, seemingly impossible situations. I can do this seeking help, seeking community and doing whatever it takes for you to arrive at that place that you've imagined and you've envisioned and you want to. It takes work, but if you bet on yourself, you will continue to move into the work and through the work and you will get where you want to go, wherever that is for you, yeah.

17:14 - Wendy Battles (Host)

That's really powerful, this idea that we can really manifest that which we seek if we're willing to do the work, to look within, to build our confidence and really to take the actions. You're talking about. That go with betting on yourselves, which I'm just going to say girl, this summer I ate my way and you know things are tight and I was like, girl, you need to bet on yourself and get your act together. Okay, so I will just say that this morning, yesterday, I determined I'm going to really up my healthy eating and you know, this summer's fun, you're doing all these things. You're perhaps paying less attention because you're just enjoying yourselves, and that's part of the key to life.

18:01

But I said that betting on myself meant that this morning I usually wait till after I've done all my podcast stuff to like exercise. And I said you know, wendy, today you're gonna do it in between. You're gonna work on it for an hour, then at 6.30, you're gonna go do this strength training workout, then you're gonna go walk around the block once and after you do that workout then you can go back to your other work. So that's how we bet on ourselves, right In big and small ways.

18:26 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

Yes, there is no size limit to betting on yourself. You can bet on yourself to implement rituals into your life every day. You can bet on yourself to eat healthy as much as you can. You can bet on yourself to drink as much water I mean, that's one of the bets I have on myself, like Dixie you can do it. You can drink the maximum amount of water that's needed for your body to function healthily, and it's a daily practice. But I do believe that there's this saying it takes a thousand tries to become good at something. So if you tell yourself I can do it every single day a thousand times, you will see the difference that it's going to make. If you try a thousand times, you will see the difference that it's going to make. And here's an example I used to have a huge problem asking people for support, and when I started venturing into the entrepreneurial world, you know how that is you have to ask, and so I struggled with asking.

19:26

Struggled, but I pushed through and I'm like ask the most you can hear is no, or you may hear the yes that you want. Sometimes I hear crickets, but I take through and I'm like ask the most you can hear is no, or you may hear the yes that you want. Sometimes I hear crickets, but I take that as a no. The fact is I ask and now those muscles are so firm. I've built them because I continue to just show up and ask and ask and ask. I did it the thousand times and now I'm pretty good at it. I don't bat an eyelash to ask for support and I either hear yes, no or nothing, and it's all good.

19:59 - Wendy Battles (Host)

Yeah, I think that's an interesting point, because we live in a world where society says we should be good at things like really quickly, and I think it's easy to give up on ourselves. We're talking about this idea of betting on ourselves, but I think that sometimes we don't offer ourselves enough space and grace to do that. So this idea of you got to do it a thousand times, which I mean, let's be real that's a lot.

20:23 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

That's no small task. It is no small task and for some people it may take more than a thousand tries. But consider, like if you do a thousand, you're well on your way. If you got to do 500 more, even a thousand more, you're still on your way. You're going to get there. Keep trying If it's that important to you, and that's really it. If it's not important, you'll never go the thousand tries right. You'll fall back. But if it's that important to you, you'll keep trying, you'll keep working and I know that betting on yourself is important. Betting on myself is important to me. So I will do it a thousand times, I will do it 2000 times because it's that important to me. Yeah.

21:02 - Wendy Battles (Host)

I agree and I think this idea you're talking about about persistence. I think a lot about persist, no matter what, because in the past, when I've reinvented myself, I've given up Exactly and thought oh, I don't know if I can do it, oh, you know it's so hard. But you know, a lot of things are hard and I've come to realize we're all capable of doing hard things. We all can look within. We're all much more capable than we often give ourselves credit for.

21:29 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

Absolutely.

21:30 - Wendy Battles (Host)

Right, and that is part of that mindset we're talking about. When it comes to, if you want to reinvent yourself, you got to be in it to win it.

21:39 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

Exactly. I love that. You've got to be in it to win it, and I usually use three really important principles for me to help me through, and I call it AAA. So it's awareness, acceptance, or it could be acceptance, slash, acknowledgement and action.

21:57

Going in requires awareness, like where am I now on my journey, or what is it that needs my attention? Immediate attention, short-term attention, long-term attention, what is that? Get in touch with that. So I do, I become fully aware. Whether it's something good or it's something bad, I'm aware of it, no matter what it is, and then I acknowledge it. I'm like it's there, dixie, whether it's a good thing or bad thing, it is here. Acknowledge that right, be in awareness, acknowledge and then take action. Once you become aware, once you acknowledge, then the only thing left to do is take action. But if you're not in awareness of what's happening, if you're not acknowledging what's happening, then what is there to take action about? You can't take action for something that you're not aware of or haven't even acknowledged. So those three letters awareness, acceptance or slash acknowledgement, action guides me through every single decision or every single thing that I need to do for myself, or anybody else for that matter.

23:03 - Wendy Battles (Host)

Yeah, I really, really love this idea of AAA Girl. I love that. I love that because you know how it is. We can have one, but maybe not the others. Or we can become aware, but you know we're in denial Exactly Not that I've ever done that, and so and it's hard though I think what's it's hard to become aware. And then this idea of acknowledging something. It's very difficult because there's so many things in life. I just want to sweep it under the rug, but you know that doesn't do any good, it doesn't.

23:39

I've tried that and I realized that's really not successful. It's not a good strategy.

23:44 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

So it leads to disappointments right. And I mean so many things lead to disappointment, but that's a sure way to disappointment, because you know the outcome is not going to be what we want, simply because we did not acknowledge something right, Even though we are aware of it.

24:02 - Wendy Battles (Host)

Not acknowledging it, no, bueno, I agree, I agree. And then this idea of then getting into action and actually because then also, even if you have the awareness and the acknowledgement, but you're afraid to take action or you don't know how to take action, or I love how you said that you just ask people, you know, you ask people, some people said yes, some people said no, but you, let's taking action by asking right, that's action.

24:25 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

That is action, and I'll show you how it works. So, dixie, we need like three vendors for our event. I'm in awareness of that. I know this Well. Good, acknowledge that this is an issue that needs to be addressed, right? Okay, I acknowledge that this is something that I have to address. What's the next step? What do I have to do in order to make sure I have these three vendors? I take action. I pick up the phone and I call, or I get on my computer and I email, or I put out a notice on Instagram that, hey, this is what we need. I'm looking for so-and-so for this event. This is how you take action. Now, I can certainly sit around and be in awareness that this needs to happen and do absolutely nothing. I don't have to acknowledge that I need to do something about it and I don't have to do anything about it. But is that going to get me the outcome that I want? Absolutely not. So it sounds simple, but it takes practice.

25:31 - Wendy Battles (Host)

Yeah, and that's the key practice, like all of this that we're talking about, it does take practice. I know that in our pre-interview chat you talked about how, when you're reinventing yourself, at the beginning it was a lot of going it alone. It was hard to find your tribe, and I think that there's power in finding the people with whom we connect. That can help us. And I know that these days especially, so many of us feel much more isolated. We feel more alone, partly from the pandemic and for lots of other reasons that so many of us are just trying to all figure it out. What shifted for you and how did you find your people?

26:20 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

Great question. I think, as an introvert, it's easy for me to operate in a silo. But again, that self-care sabbatical sent me on a path of discovery and I quickly discovered, when I started my first business, that you need support, you need allies, you need a community. You cannot do this in a silo, because I had to ask for resources, I had to ask for direction, I had to ask for direction, I had to ask for feedback and I couldn't give myself all of these things. I can certainly do some of it, like, okay, let's do a reflection. And then, self-reflecting, I ask all of those questions, but I needed to hear it from other people. I needed others to support me with resources. So when I realized that things weren't moving in the direction that I needed it to move, because I was trying to do everything by myself, it dawned on me hmm, dixie, acknowledge, acknowledge that you need support, you need others. And so that's when I started networking.

27:27

So, after leaving my job, I started moving closer to people that were aligned with what I was doing in the entrepreneurial world. I started to attend networking events, making friends who were entrepreneurs or who were advisors and coaches. I started to communicate more online because social media started to become a thing, and so I started to communicate my love and my passion for what I was doing, and I started to become a lot more vulnerable and a lot more open with my process and what I was going through and what I was leaving and what I was hoping to move toward, and so all of this helped me to create a community. All of this helped me to create a community. Also, forming a blog, a website and collecting emails and sharing information, resources and my own story with others helped me to cultivate a community that was in alignment, a community that's been there for me, a community that I've been able to turn to to support me with my work, my education work, with my business retail store, with now life in the pause.

28:39

It's all been community, and I have to say this Sometimes some people come into your life and they come into your life for a reason, and there was this young lady whom I became friends with early in my entrepreneurial journey. Her name is Chana Ewing and she had a company called Genie, and she played an integral role in cultivating community and including me in these communities, bringing me into these communities. So she would invite me to events and I observed how phenomenal she was in curating communities, in creating discourse, in creating conversations around topics that were important, in wellness, in marketing, in branding and all of these different areas that I found myself dabbling in. And so she's younger than me, so one of my age gap friendships friend, don't know if that makes sense.

29:39

She's younger than me, she is a millennial but she's super smart. And so I started to lean into people who were younger than me, who knew more than I did, trying to be in one of those people. And then I also started leaning into people who were older than me, who were wiser than me, who knew more than I did, trying to be in one of those people. And then I also started leaning into people who were older than me, who were wiser than me, who knew a lot more than me and had a lot more life experiences than I did. And tapping into these individuals on both spectrum helped with my growth and it helped with my development and it helped with the community that I now have and that I'm still fostering, because these people are still a part of my community that I lean into and we lean into each other for support.

30:20 - Wendy Battles (Host)

I think it's interesting that your community is so diverse that you've drawn people in from many different experiences, different age groups, in different parts of your life, and I think that says a lot about this idea that I call a reinvention dream team. It's those supporters, those people, those coaches who encourage you, who remind you it's possible, and just like there's no limits to reinvention, there's no limits to who can be part of that tribe. For any of us as we're going through this, it can be as big or small as you like. It can be people from all different parts of your life who can really contribute, because so much of this is the evolution. We're all evolving and those people, our community, our tribe.

31:07

They help us in this process. And that brings me to the Life in the Paws Festival girl, where it is all about community. This is all about building this community. And when I think about this I see you, dixie Lincoln Nichols, as what I call a reinvention whisperer. Oh, I love that.

31:39

Because, through this festival, you're giving women permission and opportunity to reinvent the experience of menopause and invite in new possibilities. Can you share a little bit about the festival? I had a chance to interview Monique a couple of weeks ago, who talked about it. Some of you may have missed that episode, but tell us a little bit about Life in the Paws, the festival and why it's so impactful for midlife women.

32:11 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

Absolutely so. The mission of Life in the Paws is to transform the menopausal but not just a menopausal the aging journey into something that's celebrated, and we do that through education and resources and community spaces like the Life in the Paws Festival, because we believe that well aging is important, with menopause being a part of that experience. And the menopausal experience has long been shrouded in secrecy. People have been fettered to shame around menopause, and what we want people to understand is that this is a passage. Regardless of how you ended up in menopause, whether it's because you aged into it, whether it's because of ovarian insufficiency, whether it's because you had cancer and you are on radiation or chemotherapy, whether it's because you had a total hysterectomy whatever the reason for you being in menopause, it should be celebrated in some way, form or fashion. The celebration for you, of course, will be unique, based on your experience, and your timeline is your timeline for the experience, but what we want to do and aim to do is support people through the experience and help them to see themselves as enough as being worthy during this phase, as they have been worthy in every other phase of their lives, and be a part of the community that celebrates them, be a part of the community that celebrates them, be a part of the community that upholds them, be a part of the community that pours into them. And so this experience, this passage in life, should be one that is so powerful and so transformative that you don't want to experience it alone. You shouldn't have to experience it alone, because when I say it's transformative, I'm not trying to paint a picture that it's perfect and it's all bells and whistles. There are some bells and whistles like, hey, I don't care about what other people say or think about me anymore. I do what I need to do because I'm fully confident in myself.

34:18

There is events and instances of discomfort and, for some people, pain because of the symptoms that they experienced, but what I do know is that, because of the shame that's been associated with menopause, because of the narrative that we've heard for so many years, women are still silent and so many are still suffering in silos, and so that's what we're trying to move past.

34:44

We want women to be in caring, safe communities to experience this extraordinary transition in their lives, and I think, once you have the right resources, you have the right community, it makes it so much easier to navigate the menopausal transition so much easier. But when you are in a silo, you are home alone, you don't have anyone to talk to, you have no community to tap into, you have no friends to call, you don't even know the questions to ask your doctor. You don't even know what to ask your friend. You can't even have a conversation with your loved ones, including your spouse, your partner, your children, your coworker, your HR. When you don't have those resources, it can be hell, and I've heard women explain it as hell and we don't want that. We don't want that. So Life in the Paws is here as a medium for empowering women and celebrating them during this incredibly pivotal time of their lives.

35:50 - Wendy Battles (Host)

That is such a perfect way to put it to empower us during this pivotal time of our lives and really to thrive, instead of just surviving, which we've all done that, but to thrive through this is completely different, absolutely To find your people, to get support, to feel encouraged.

36:14

As you pointed out, to feel like you are not alone is powerful. As you pointed out, to feel like you are not alone is powerful. The conference is coming up on Saturday, october 5th, and, of course, not everybody is in the New York City area. It's going to be in New York City, but there are lots of people that are listening, though, that are in the tri-state area or the mid-Atlantic region. I mean, this is the place to come. As someone who has been involved, who's been a speaker, who's involved again this year, I have to say that it is just a phenomenal experience as a participant. I was a speaker, but also a participant, and I learned so much. Even when we feel like we know a lot, there's so much to learn. We don't always know what we don't know, feel like we know a lot.

37:00 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

There's so much to learn. We don't always know what we don't know Absolutely yes. So, yes, yes, yes, it is coming up on October the 5th. It will be in New York City from 10 am to 6 pm. It is a phenomenal experience and I think I need to say this because it's really important.

37:14

One of the reasons Monique and I created Life in the Pause was so that we can address our needs. Monique and I were meeting every Wednesday routinely during COVID, and we were meeting for a project that had nothing to do with menopause, and every Wednesday we kept talking about what we were experiencing and what we were doing to manage or navigate the menopausal experience. At the time, we were both in perimenopause and we quickly realized that there weren't enough resources, there wasn't enough discourse, and especially for black women, whose experience is very different from their counterparts, from their white peers and Asian peers. Black women experience very severe symptoms. They are most likely not to report those symptoms to their doctors or to their HR offices, their workplace, and so black women are at such a disadvantage.

38:17

So this event is open to everyone, but we really want to see Black women come out and support and be a part of the experience, because we know, because we are Black women, we know that our experiences can be very different and we are addressing those issues what they are and how you can seek support. We look at the research and the indicators as to why these differences occur, but there are also solutions in terms of what you can do to navigate some of these issues and aches and pains that you may feel during the process, right. So I'm calling on all women to come on out, enjoy the experience, be a part of the experience, learn, be in community. It is going to be a fantastic day of learning and celebrating and being in community, just like it was last year, even better, and Wendy can attest because, like she said, she was a participant and she was also on the panel, so she enjoyed it from two different perspectives, and this year she's going to be back again moderating a panel.

39:34 - Wendy Battles (Host)

Monique and I created this for us and for our needs. All I do agree it is transformative and empowering and just really an amazing chance to find your tribe, to connect with women that are your people. You're like yes, there are people like me that I can identify with, and that is everything that I can identify with, and that is everything.

40:04 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

Absolutely, it is everything, because I also want to say that we are more than our menopause journey, and within the menopause journey, there is a lifestyle, right? So what does that lifestyle look like? What are some of the things that we should be doing every day? What are some of the conversations that we should be having with our healthcare practitioners? What are some of the conversations that we should be having with one another, with our family members, our peers, our lovers, our partners, et cetera? What do those things look and sound like? And so that's some of the information that we will be providing to you, because we want you to age with vitality and we know, for some, the menopausal experience is a part of the aging experience and we want you to be healthy as you move into, move through, I should say, perimenopause and into postmenopause, because once you are in postmenopause, you're there for the rest of your life.

40:58 - Wendy Battles (Host)

And I learned that at the conference I'm just going to say, I actually learned what it means to be postmenopausal. Right, right, there's so much to learn as we are wrapping up. Dixie, I want you to tell us one how we can get tickets to go to Life in the Paws the festival on October 5th, and also how can people find you individually? How can they find you on social media? How can they reach out, how can they get connected to stay inspired by you? Give us the details.

41:36 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

Okay, here are the deets. So before I get into the deet deets, I just want to encourage you to practice triple A. Be in awareness. If you know you need this event and you're in the tri-state area, be in awareness of that, acknowledge that you need it and take action. And you know what the action is. Go to lifeinthepausecom and click. There's an icon there that says get ticket and you click that and it'll take you to purchase the tickets and you'll be there and you would have practiced triple A. We would love to see you there.

42:08

I love that triple A literally Triple A your way to life in the pause, okay.

42:13 - Wendy Battles (Host)

I love how you connected that girl girl. Oh yeah, that was, that was.

42:20 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

Okay. So once you do that, then you can stay connected with us. So, of course, you can stay connected with us via life in the pausecom. You know, just continually keep checking back to the website see what's new. We have some great things. We have super surprises coming for you with some things that we're going to launch, so you don't want to miss it. So definitely stay connected. Sign up for our newsletter on life in the pause. You can also connect with us on Facebook at life in the pause, and you can connect with me at Dixie Lincoln nickelscom. When you get there, there are forms for you to fill out. You can sign up to my newsletter. I'm all about well aging aging with vitality, because you know the goal is to grow old. So you can connect with me on there. And then you can connect with me at Dixie Lincoln Nichols on Instagram I am Dixie Lincoln Nichols, also on threads and on Facebook. And, of course, there's the pause pod you can tap into.

43:16 - Wendy Battles (Host)

I'm starting my second season next month, but would love to stay connected with you so that we can age well in community and also navigate this menopausal experience, find them for tickets and also to connect to you and the bigger mission and the pause pod podcast, which we didn't even have time to talk about, which is awesome, and I've had the pleasure to be a guest on and congratulations for starting season two.

43:49

Yes, go girl, I love it. Yes, I love it. Dixie, I literally cannot thank you enough for sharing your wisdom, your, your energy, your insights.

44:01 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

Triple.

44:02 - Wendy Battles (Host)

A girl, I didn't know about triple A. I learned something today girl.

44:07 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

What I love it. Thanks to Self-Care, sabbatical triple A came to be for me, oh my gosh, it is just been fantastic.

44:15 - Wendy Battles (Host)

Thank you for all of your wisdom and you know I'm going to see you in a couple of weeks at this amazing conference, which I can't wait to see you again in person.

44:25 - Dixie Lincoln-Nichols (Guest)

But thank you so much for your time today. Thank you, wendy, it's been an honor and a pleasure. I appreciate you.

44:42 - Wendy Battles (Host)

Didn't you love that conversation with Dixie? She is amazing and that triple A I'm going to be using that. I love the insight she shared. I loved her inspiration and her wisdom about this time in our lives, in midlife, and living as vibrantly and healthfully as we can menopause can look like and how we can navigate it with more ease and more joy in new ways that I certainly hadn't thought about when I started going through perimenopause. If this episode inspired you, do me a favor and share it with a friend or two or 10. The women in your life that you know are looking for some guidance, inspiration, new possibilities in perimenopause, in midlife, postmenopausal all of those things.

45:47

People need to hear this. And if you are in the New York City area, please come and join us on Saturday, October 5th at the Life in the Paws Festival. It is going to be an amazing day of community connection and all kinds of information and inspiration to help spur you forward during this really juicy, exciting time of our lives. All the details, of course, are in the show notes and I'll look forward to seeing you here again in just a couple of weeks. And one last thing don't forget to check out Magic Mind All the details I mentioned earlier are in the show notes. A great way to increase your focus and productivity and welcome in more calm. Until next time, keep shining your light. Rebels. The world needs you and all that you have to offer.