The Intentional Midlife Mom Podcast | Simple, Practical Life, Home & Mindset Solutions for Moms Over 40
Welcome to The Intentional Mom™ Podcast, where we provide simple, practical solutions for women over 40 and over 50 who are feeling lost in their lives as their kids are getting older & leaving the nest. Hosted by Certified Intentional Living Coach, Jennifer Roskamp, this empowering show is brought to you by Accomplished Lifestyle, dedicated to helping women and moms over 40 and 50 craft the life they truly desire within their homes & families.
Our mission is to help you find your purpose, your confidence, and yourself as a person since your kids are more independent & maybe even off on their own.
Each week, join us as we candidly discuss common pitfalls, challenges, and stumbling blocks that often leave us feeling overwhelmed, confused, and lost about what our purpose is when our kids aren't needing us like they did before. With Jennifer’s guidance, we’ll explore how to uncover & rediscover who YOU are and what YOU actually want. You’ll discover that you’re not alone in the emotions, challenges, and trials of everyday life. Instead, you’ll feel seen, understood, and inspired to move forward just one step at a time, stepping into the you you've always wanted to be!
The Intentional Midlife Mom Podcast | Simple, Practical Life, Home & Mindset Solutions for Moms Over 40
Ep. 152: Unhidden: Why This Bandage Felt Different
This one’s a little different.
In this episode I’m here to share the moment I realized she wasn’t just healing physically… I am showing up different emotionally — and finally refusing to hide.
This is for the woman who’s tired of pretending. Tired of performing. Tired of holding it all in.
Unhidden is not a program, and it’s not really even a concept — it’s a movement.
And this is the beginning.
Get some powerful mantras to inspire, encourage, and life you up when you need as little something intentional to focus on.
We have a beautiful pdf download of the 6 Mantras For Intentional Moms you can keep or print. Request them right HERE.
Visit The Intentional Mom
Follow us on Instagram HERE
Visit our YouTube Channel HERE
Rate & Review The Intentional Mom Podcast on Apple . We'd love to hear your thoughts on the podcast. If you listen on Spotify, you can rate & review us there, too.
All right, so I want to start this episode a little bit differently. And so if this is your first time listening to the Intentional Midlife Mom podcast, know that this one's a little bit different and welcome. We're so excited that you are here. And if you are listening to this episode and this is your first time especially, I know that you are probably someone who says, I'm tired of hiding. Maybe you're a little bit intrigued by that. Maybe you feel a little bit validated by that or understood by that. Man, am I excited to start to talk to you about this a little bit.
Right now as I'm recording this, my face is bandaged from yet another skin cancer surgery. It's not the first time that I've had to show up like this and it's not even the first time I've shared about my skin cancer journey publicly. And sadly, it's also not going to be my last skin cancer episode because literally as I am healing from this most recent surgery, my next...
treatment step is already mapped out for the fall. And the only reason it's happening in the fall and not in the summer is because I pleaded with my doctor to have the summer off. I wanted the summer off of any treatments of any kind. But as I share about this journey right now, this time, it just feels different because this time I realized I wasn't just showing the bandage. I was really finally showing myself.
The part of me that would normally still try to perform, to smile, to move on and to tuck it all away behind the I'm fine answer about things. And so many women hide behind the I'm fine status every day. And while they might not be dealing with skin cancer, they're not truly fine. They're not truly fine in dealing with something else.
that they're done pretending is okay, when it actually isn't okay.
So, back to a personal level, for years I've shown up for my family, for my friends, for my community, for my business, even for myself. I'm a first born, only child, type A personality. I honestly don't know anything but to just show up. But if I'm being honest, I would say that I've also spent years hiding. Not hiding physically, not even intentionally, but...
more so emotionally, quietly, invisibly, and constantly trying to hold it all together. Because what happens when you're the one that people count on? If you're listening and you're the one people count on, what happens? You don't fall apart. You don't let yourself be messy. You don't let yourself feel too much.
want too much or need too much. You just keep on keeping on. You push through, you move forward, you keep going. You smile, you cope, you keep showing up. Even when something inside you feels like it's disappearing. Now let me make this clear. I love showing up. I love meeting and overcoming challenges. I love being driven and being the ones, the one that others come to and the one that others can count on.
most of the time. But I know I'm not the only woman who has ever found herself saying, most of the time, but not all the time. There are times when I don't want to be any of those things. There are times when I don't want to pretend I'm someone else for anyone else or even for myself. Maybe you felt this way too at times. Maybe you've hidden behind a smile that wasn't real.
Maybe you've stuffed down your overwhelm because you didn't want to too dramatic. Maybe you've swallowed the tears because you should just be grateful. Maybe you've felt guilty for struggling when everything on the outside looks okay. Or maybe you've been handed a label, anxious, emotional, inconsistent. You've been given these labels, but they never truly fit.
but you started wearing it anyway just to explain your pain. And because nothing else seemed to be out there that described you any better.
friend, you are not broken. You're just tired of hiding. Me too. There's been a shift in me and maybe there's been a shift in you too. Maybe this episode has started to just eke out a little bit of a shift that's going to continue. Again, maybe you didn't even realize this shift until this moment. And in that case, I am so excited to give a name to what you've not been able to put a finger on.
The shift that I'm experiencing, I'm calling it unhidden. This isn't a program, it's not a challenge, it's not even a plan. In reality, unhidden is a movement. It's the decision to stop disappearing inside your own life. It's the moment you decide that even if you're still healing, even if you're still unsure, even if you're still figuring it all out,
you're going to stop tucking yourself away. You're not going to ignore the shift that's happened and the one that you're continuing to sort out. It's things like showing up when your face is bandaged. It's showing up when your heart is raw, when your voice shakes, when the old version of you would have waited until you looked more, quote, put together, unquote.
So, unhidden is for the woman who is ready to live truthfully, but not perfectly. It's for the woman who wants peace more than she wants approval. It's for the woman who wants to be real more than she wants to be right.
So if this has started to stir a little something in you, this is what I want you to know right now. Number one, as you're figuring this all out and as you go through life every single day, number one, you have permission to be human. You don't have to be okay all the time. Probably three to seven times a week, I say to one of my coaching clients, one of my private coaching clients, I say, permission to be human.
sharing her heart with me as we're trying to sort out the pieces of her heart. And she feels guilty and she feels shame and she feels like there's something wrong with her for feeling a certain way. Permission to be human.
Friend, you don't have to smile when you're hurting. You don't have to shrink your struggle just because someone else has it worse. You are allowed to feel without a performance attached. Permission to be human. Here's the second thing you need to know, something I so see every single day that midlife women especially are in need of this one. Number two, you are allowed to outgrow the version of you
who kept it all together. You're allowed to outgrow being the woman who never asks for help. You're allowed to outgrow being the woman who held everyone else up, usually at her own expense. You are allowed to stop being the woman who makes it all look effortless. In reality, this woman, the woman who did all those things,
who didn't ask for help, who held everyone else up and who made it all look effortless, that woman served you well. But you don't have to keep performing her role just to feel worthy. You're allowed to outgrow that version of you and grow into the version that's been hidden. Here's the third thing you need to know. You're not late to your own discovery.
There is no too far gone. There is no timeline. There is no shame in needing to begin again, to needing to figure it out again, even if you've done this before. This time, you're not setting out to, quote, fix yourself. Really, what you're doing this time, if you're in this movement to become unhidden with me, if you're even just intrigued by this movement.
This time you're going to be doing it to find yourself. So for us here today, I'm not here to tell you how to do it. I'm just inviting you to notice, to notice really the parts of yourself that you've been hiding and really to ask you if you're ready to stop. If something in you whispered yes when I just asked you that question, stay close. Something, something is coming.
and it's for the woman who's ready to become unhidden too. Thanks for listening here today. Make sure that you download this episode so that you can find it in the months to come when I share more pieces of this movement. And if you know a friend who needs to hear this too, share it with her. She needs to hear this too. So until we talk again, make it an intentional day.