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How To Run Away (& Other Handy Hints for Your Next Bit)
Formerly A Grown Up's Gap Year.
How To Run Away (& Other Handy Hints for Your Next Bit) is a podcast about the next bit of life: health, long marriages, ageing parents, young adult children (kidults), friendship, community, travel, purpose, and how midlife women stay properly engaged with it all.
Hosted by bestselling Australian author, clinical nutritionist and wellbeing coach Monique van Tulder, the show explores the emotional logistics of adult life: mental load, caregiving, solo travel, brain health, longevity, healthspan, perimenopause and menopause, financial wellbeing, long-term relationships, healthy ageing, empty nest, reinvigoration, and what the next decades might actually look like.
Through expert interviews, storytelling, cultural observation, and useful conversations, Monique asks:
What kind of woman do we want to become, how would we like her to age, and how do we start designing her life now?
The 90-year-old version of you? She is watching.
Part conversation. Part perspective shift. Part useful nudge.
There will occasionally be hotels (Monique loves a hotel stay), golf (happy place for her and The Bloke), emotional admin, hearing aids, resentment, cold-water swims, and discussions about wearing the good dress on a Tuesday.
Nothing is off the table if it means our epitaph will never read, "F**k, I forgot to live my life."
New episodes weekly. For midlife women, sandwich generation carers, and anyone asking what comes next.
How To Run Away (& Other Handy Hints for Your Next Bit)
Ask Why Not You: How Values Become Your North Star
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Hello and Happy New Year. During January, I'm replaying four of our most downloaded, most messaged about episodes. Think of them as a short series to ease you into the year and ask, what about me and what about right now? So we're going right back to the Foundations.
Season 1, episode 5:
Ever feel like you’re circling the same question - What now? Why not me? - without actually moving forward? This episode of A Grown Up’s Gap Year takes you straight to the compass you’ve been missing: your values.
In less than half an hour, you’ll learn how to uncover your 3–5 non-negotiables - the litmus test for every yes, no, and “not for me.” Monique van Tulder guides you through her five-step “Values Lab,” weaving in real-life stories, Joan Didion wisdom, and practical micro-actions you can try this week.
Episode Resources & Links:
- Download: Grown Up's Guidebooks - Core Values List
Additional Resources:
- Your SPACE Prescription
- Free Weekly Newsletter
- Dear Blokes Downloadable
- Setting Boundaries That Stick - checklist
- 52 Ideas for YOUR Version of A Grown Up's Gap Year
📚 Get your copy of A Grown Up’s Gap Year the book, from Amazon, moniquevantulder.com, bookshops and libraries, subscribe to the podcast, and take the first step toward your own A Grown Up’s Gap Year.