The Reinvention Queen Podcast | Reinvention After 40, Midlife & Your Next Chapter
The Reinvention Queen is a podcast for women over 40 who are ready to figure out who they are now, what they actually want, and what comes next.
Sometimes life blows up for you. Divorce. Career changes. Financial upheaval. Loss. Empty nest. Relationships that end. And sometimes you finally realize the life you built simply doesn't feel like yours anymore.
Either way, you're standing at the same crossroads:
Who am I now?
What do I want?
What does my next chapter look like?
I'm Maria, and I'm The Reinvention Queen. I explore midlife reinvention, starting over after 40, self-trust, confidence, career, relationships, purpose, identity, and the messy, beautiful process of coming back to yourself.
Through deeply personal stories, honest conversations, spiritual insight, and practical reinvention tools, I help women let go of outdated identities, reconnect with themselves, and consciously create a life that actually feels like theirs.
Because sometimes what looks like your life falling apart is actually an invitation to evolve.
And sometimes the woman you thought you were supposed to be is the very thing you're ready to leave behind.
If you're a woman over 40 who knows there has to be more, you're in the right place.
Your reinvention begins now.
The Reinvention Queen Podcast | Reinvention After 40, Midlife & Your Next Chapter
The Shipwreck Dream That Changed Everything: Learning to Surrender, Trust Yourself & Begin Again
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What if the thing you’re fighting so hard to escape is actually the doorway to your next chapter?
In this deeply personal episode of The Femme Cast, I share the shipwreck dream that became a powerful map for the season of life I’m navigating right now: caregiving, financial uncertainty, career upheaval, and the uncomfortable process of rebuilding myself from the inside out.
In the dream, I was rising from a shipwreck in dark, deep water, desperately fighting to reach the surface. I was panicked, exhausted, and trying to force my way back to safety. But then I heard a voice say: relax, keep going, and let yourself rise.
What happened next changed the way I see reinvention forever.
As I stopped fighting the water, I started moving faster. And as I surrendered, I noticed treasures rising from the wreckage around me.
This episode is an invitation to look at the moments in your life that feel like collapse, failure, or loss and ask a different question:
What if this is not happening to me? What if this is happening for me?
Together, we explore:
🎤 Why resistance, overthinking, and trying to control every outcome can keep us stuck
🎤 How surrender and faith become powerful tools during seasons of uncertainty
🎤 Why slowing down can actually help you move forward faster
🎤 How to rebuild self trust when the path ahead feels unclear
🎤 The role of intuition when the life you’re creating is bigger than what you can currently see
🎤 How to find the hidden gifts inside the moments that break you open
For the woman who has spent years achieving, performing, proving, and holding everything together, this episode is a reminder:
You do not have to earn your next chapter. You are allowed to become her.
Your reinvention may not come from pushing harder. It may come from releasing what no longer fits and trusting what is trying to emerge.
Your next chapter might be closer than you think.
If you've been listening and thinking, "Okay, I know something needs to change. I just don't know what comes next," The Reinvention Circle was created for exactly that moment.
A monthly membership for women ready to come back to themselves, rebuild self-trust, and create a life that actually feels like theirs.
Your first month is FREE. Then $27 USD/month. Cancel anytime.
Curious? Come take a look:
https://www.thefemmecast.com/reinventioncircle
Welcome And Real Life Context
SPEAKER_00Hey you guys, what is up? Welcome back to the show. I'm so excited and grateful to have you guys here. Welcome if you're new. Today I want to talk about the shipwreck dream that literally explained this entire era of my life that I've found myself in recently. And I talked about it in last week's episode when I talked about surrender in faith. And this is kind of a continuation of that conversation. Which, by the way, I'm still staying with family. I'm we're still, we've still got a hands full taking care of our dad. I am on a lapel mic, and I'm really hoping that you can't hear my me constantly brushing up against it. It's really annoying. Um so I'm trying, I'm doing my best to stay super still so I don't do that. So a couple of weeks ago, I had this dream that I was literally, I was in the water and I was literally rising up from a shipwreck. I didn't see the shipwreck happen. I just saw the point in time when I was coming up. I was in really deep, dark water, it looked like it was night out, it was very dark, but there was a light, and I don't know where it was coming from. And I was kind of trying to swim up from the shipwreck for air. And I I was just struggling, I was panicking. I was, you know, I just wanted to get to the surface as fast as I could to get some air in my lungs, right? And so as I'm coming up, I can I look down and from the shipwreck, I
The Shipwreck Dream In Detail
SPEAKER_00literally saw, and you go, you guys know, like I've been struggling financially. I've been out of work now for a year, and the struggle is real. I literally saw like many coming up from the shipwreck and just like force like like blowing like past me. It was like somebody was like literally torpedoing it from the bottom of the shipwreck up to the surface of the water. And I heard a voice just saying, just keep going, just just relax, just relax and let yourself flow to the top. Grab what you can, everything will be fine, right? And so I woke up before I got to the top, but as I started to relax, and this was the really genius part, as I started to just relax and just go with the flow, I started to move so much faster. And now I started to move with all the money and all the jewels and all the coin that was kind of floating around me, right? And I was able to actually like grab hold of some of it. So this really goes back to what we were talking about last week about surrender and faith. This dream was literally telling me if you just relax and go with the flow and trust where you're at, trust the season that you're in, everything is going to be just fine. You're gonna have everything that you need. And what was really symbolic about this dream was that, you know, when I looked at the shipwreck, right, that was like the point of devastation. That was the collapse, that was the disaster, that was the everything falling apart and nothing working and all that nonsense. And from that, something was meant to come out of that. So, whatever situation that I find with myself in this last year, whatever collapsed, whatever fell apart, whatever wrecked, and I'm I mean like there's wreckage,
What The Wreckage Symbolizes
SPEAKER_00right? Like there is wreckage around me in this season of my life. Each and every one of those wrecks is there for a reason. And there's something, it's serving a greater purpose. But fighting it and resisting it and trying to quickly swim away from it and avoid it, and and and you know, it's not serving me. And I think that's what the dream was trying to show me. I think the dream was trying to show me I need to just slow down, hold my breath, be present, and I will start to move faster. Number one, I will move faster out of it, and I will be able to see the purpose and why a lot of these things unfolded the way that they did. Because I will say one thing I life is never random. Never. Nothing that ever happens to you is random. Everything is serving you in a powerful way, doesn't always feel good. It's not always a good experience, but it is serving in some way, shape, or form. Sometimes, you know, that may take time for us to really see and observe how it worked in our greater good. Sometimes it comes quickly, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes we never really realize how things were serving us, you know. It just is what it is, you know. There are things that happen in in in life that are extremely painful, and we may never see the blessing in them. But I do try and trust that it's always there, even if I can't see it. And I think that has really helped me move through a lot of some of the things that I've moved through in my life. And so I say all that to say, and I think this is going to be another short episode, and there are probably gonna be a few short episodes while I'm taking time to help with family and do all the things that I'm doing. But, you know, I just kind of, you know, I wanted to send you an invitation to, you know, if you're moving through a difficult phase of your life, what would it look like if you were to just be open to the possibility that whatever is happening right now, no matter how difficult it is, no matter how scary it is, no matter how uncomfortable it is, no matter how dysregulating it is, and trust me, I've been wildly dysregulated through this entire season, how is it maybe serving you? And if you can't see it, because I'm gonna be honest, I still can't see
Looking For The Hidden Blessing
SPEAKER_00how this is serving me. I think that maybe, you know, having the podcast and and being somebody who's a speaker, a healer, an advocate, like all, you know, all these things, I I I do believe that some way I'll be able to use the story to help others, right? And maybe that is maybe that is the the the what's it called, the blessing in all of this. I'm not sure. So even if you can't see it, being being open that there's a blessing there, even if you can't see it, ask yourself what it might be. Maybe you might see what the blessing is. It's possible. Maybe you might be open to some possibilities, like I am, like saying, okay, well, maybe maybe one day this story will help heal others, who knows, or inspire others. That could be a possibility, not sure, but I am open to the to the to the I am open and what's it called? I do believe that everything happens for a reason and that there is a blessing in all of it somewhere where it's a or it's supporting us in some way, or it's supporting the greater collective in some way, even though we can't see how. So I'm I'm committed to that philosophy that this is happening for me or for others in some way, shape, or form, that this will serve a greater good at some point in time. I don't know what that looks like, I don't know when, I don't know how, I don't know anything. But I'm trusting that that is there, and I'm open to seeing it when the time comes, even though I can't see that right now. And that that is the key to helping me to say, okay, be here now. Stop fighting, stop resisting, stop forcing, start stop scrambling, stop hustling, stop grinding, stop all the things that you're doing to try and get out of this as quickly as possible, and again, just surrender, take a breath, come back into your body, and you will move so much faster through this than trying to resist it. Whenever we resist something, we only make it take longer. And I know that I have been in resistance to this era season that I've been in for a very long time. And the fight has exhausted me. The resistance, because resistance is fighting, it's fighting the flow, it's fighting where you're being guided, where you're being led, what's wanting to unfold for you, what's wanting to. Sorry, I just hit my mic. Shoot. Hopefully, I can edit that edit that out. I will try and do my best, but I don't even have my editor with me right now. So it's trying to unfold for you. It's trying to move you in a direction that maybe you don't even see. You know, I always talk about the story about the podcast, and I had a vision that I was speaking on a stage in front of thousands of people, but on this, but I was on a stage with a mic and I had the lights in my face, but I couldn't actually see the people. It was just black. It was like I was speaking into a black hole. There was people there, thousands of people listening to me, but I couldn't see them. And at the time, podcasting wasn't even a thing. So sometimes, you know, life is trying to take us someplace that we don't see, that we haven't witnessed, that we don't know is a possibility or even an option that exists. Right? Or maybe it does exist, but it's not even on our radar, you know, because we don't think it's a possibility for us. Whatever the case may be, life is always trying to move us in the direction that is most highly aligned
Intuition Versus Control And Strategy
SPEAKER_00for us. And I truly believe that. And everything that happens is working in our favor, and it's how we move through these things and the decisions that we make that really make the difference. And I've always, you know, throughout my entire life, throughout every reinvention, I can literally brand myself the reinvention queen, through every time I've ever reinvented and rebuilt my life has always been through this process of trusting my intuition, trusting the next step, having blind faith that everything will unfold in my favor, and just trusting that I'm being guided and being led through the entire process. And every time I start to think, strategize, or control, everything falls apart. I am not even kidding. It's like every time I do what the world taught me to do, which is to think, strategize, and plan everything, everything starts to fall apart. I'm not even kidding. And so, you know, it reinforces that I don't know, this idea that sometimes, you know, what we've been taught isn't always the way that our soul wants us to move through life. You know, sometimes our soul wants something bigger, something better, something that maybe our world isn't really even aware of or encourages for us. And I think that, you know, when we're in this time of great change, we all need to be open to those possibilities because everything is changing right now. Literally everything is changing. And if we're constantly just doing things the same way, the way we've always done it, doing, you know, making the same decisions, following the same paths, we're never gonna change. So we need to find a new way to move through change. So rather than planning, rather than hustling, rather than organizing, rather than trying to control everything, again, going back to last week's episode, just surrender and have faith. And trust that you're gonna be taken care of, that you're gonna be supported, that you're gonna be guided, and just take the next aligned step at each and every moment. And trust that each step builds on the next, which builds on the next. And you'll get to a point where suddenly it will all make sense. But it means being here now, being present now, being really aware with where you are right now, and reminding yourself that you are safe, that you are supported, that you can breathe, that you can stop trying to constantly swim and survive, and and and you know, you'll move through the I'm I'm remembering like the worst boss that I ever had who always used to tell me you have to slow down to speed up. And that's literally what the dream was trying to tell me. Slow down, stop fighting, stop trying to swim, stop like like fighting to get to the top, just relax and let the water take you, and you'll move so much faster. And I think that's what many of us need to be doing right now as we move through these, you know, times of change. Because the reality is a lot of what we've believed to be true, I think, is probably gonna be, you know, we're probably gonna think twice about it going forward. Even like I said, even with me, like all the strategizing and the optimizing I've done my entire career. Why can't I get it to work with my life? I don't think it's supposed to, because I think that sometimes we get too in our head. And I know that for me, you know, when I look at the last year, there's been so many times that I've pushed and strived and and and hustled and tried to grind my way through everything. And that is just not the way to move through this. I know that the way through this is to just relax, to just be present and to trust that I'm being supported and to let this experience be here and let it be present and to be to remind myself that I am safe being here, that I'm here for a reason, and that I'm being supported, and that I'm being guided, and that I'm being led, and that there is something here that I meant to kind of take with me. And it's a good thing, right? There's like a gift in all of this. I just need to stop resisting it. So, where are you in resistance to what's happening around you? Where are you in resistance to what is showing up for you right now in life? And how can you relax into that resistance and just be really be present in where you are and let go and relax and take a deep breath and come back into your body and just you know, really just sit still for a minute and allow yourself to be there and see what's there for you. Why is it there? Why are you in that situation? What might be the blessing that you're not seeing? I'll be honest, I still don't see the blessing in all of this. I'm just trusting that it's there. I'm trusting that it's there, and I'll know what it is when the time comes. I really do think there's something to be said for just sharing the story. Because I don't think I'm the only one in this boat. So
Questions To Find Your Next Step
SPEAKER_00let me know if that resonates wherever you're seeing this. I'm not sure. We shall see. Certainly wherever you find your podcast, you'll see this. And if there's nowhere to leave a comment, you can just email me at Maria at the funcoach.com. Let me know how this landed for you. Let me know how it resonated. Let me know what's going on for you. Like, you know, we're all in this together. So what's going on for you? What's what's shipwrecked in your life lately? Lord knows I've had a few shipwrecks that I've had to swim through. So, but this has been by far, I think, the most intense. So, but I will get to the other side. I always do, and I will always share what helped me get there. So, until next time, you guys, massive love.
