A Grown Up's Gap Year
How to Runaway, Seek Joy, & other Handy Mid Life Hints.
Episodes
40 episodes
For The Busy Woman: How To Find Space To Go Explore
The final piece of your SPACE Prescription is here: Explore. The part where you remember you used to just try things — before every decision required three people’s approval.In this episode:why life satisfaction follows a U-s...
Solo Travel Over 50: How to Put Guilt-Free Time Out in Your Calendar (And Actually Go)
THIS EPISODE WAS RECORDED PRIOR TO THE CURRENT FUEL CRISIS ETCMonitor Travel Advisories: Check your home country's official travel advice for the most up-to-date information.You've simplified. You've planned. You...
Hiroko Yoda on Eight Million Ways to Happiness: Finding Hidden Meaning in Everyday Life the Japanese Way
If you've ever felt drawn to Japan - its quiet beauty, its rituals, its unhurried way of moving through the world - this conversation is for you.Today I'm speaking with Hiroko Yoda, Tokyo-based author, translator, folklorist, and certif...
Why Your Mid-Life Tribe is a Wellbeing Strategy: Community is Everything for Healthy Ageing
Loneliness has the same health impact as smoking many cigarettes a day. Not a typo. In this episode — the fourth in our SPACE framework series — Monique van Tulder makes the evidence-based case for why connection is as critical as sleep, nutrit...
Your 2nd Act: Saying “Why Not Me?” in Mid-life with Michelle Parsonage (Host of Your 2nd Act)
What if midlife isn’t the beginning of the end, but the start of your 2nd act?In this episode of A Grown Up’s Gap Year – The Podcast, Monique sits down with Michelle Parsonage, host of the Your 2nd Act podcast and community for women naviga...
If You Have Stopped Acting On Your Dreams In Mid-Life: These Ideas Will Help You
You've made the plan. You can feel what you're chasing. But you still can't quite see the shape of what comes next - and that fog is exactly what's keeping you stuck.This episode is about closing the gap between knowing and doing - and w...
How to Turn Your Big Ideas Into a Visible Personal Brand with Michelle B. Griffin
Have you ever had a head full of ideas about what comes next, and absolutely no idea how to turn any of them into something visible?Last week we introduced our P is for PLAN episode — treating yourself like a project worth designing, an...
How to Plan Your Next Chapter When You Know What You DON'T Want (But Have No Idea What Comes Next)
If you've cleared the decks, simplified your life, and still have no clue what comes next - this episode is for you.Most planning advice gets it wrong. It starts with "what do you want to DO?" - jobs, trips, projects, hobbies. But that's...
Overwhelmed and Over It: How to Simplify One Part of Your Life This Week
Overwhelmed and Over It: How to Simplify One Part of Your Life This Week ...so there’s more time for what you actually want to do.In this solo episode of *A Grown Up’s Gap Year – The Podcast, author and health and wellbeing professional ...
Life After Menopause: Strong, Supported & Informed with Dr Joanna Bruce Womens Health Expert
Today we’re talking about something that doesn’t get nearly enough airtime: life after menopause. Not the hot flush headlines, not the “is this peri?” panic – but what comes once the immediate hormone storm has settled and you’re looking at you...
The Anti-Guilt Calculator: From Mental Load to Real Time-Out and Space for You
If you’re the one who remembers everyone’s everything – the logistics, the appointments, the emotions – but can’t remember the last time you had proper time-out, this episode is for you. In this Season Three opener of A Grown Up’s Gap Year – Th...
A Grown Up’s Gap Year, From “I Can’t” to “Of Course I Can": My Year of Choosing Yes
Hello, for the first episode of season three, I'm going to replay one of our most downloaded, most messaged about episodes to ease you into the year and ask, what about me and what about right now?Season 2, episode 8:If you’ve ever l...
Ask Why Not You: How Values Become Your North Star
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 b...
Emptier Nest And Everyday Resets That Work: with Prue Francis
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 b...
Why More Women Over 50 Are Travelling Solo: And Loving It
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 b...
Treat Yourself Like a Project: How Small Actions Lead to Big Clarity
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 b...
A Grown Up’s Gap Year, From “I Can’t” to “Of Course I Can": My Year of Choosing Yes
If you’ve ever looked around your life and thought, “Is this it?” while simultaneously being needed by everyone, this one’s for you.In the final episode of Season Two, author and nutritionist Monique van Tulder looks at what actually hap...
Ditch the “New Year, New You” Resolutions: Pick Up a Notebook, Not a 75-Day Challenge
If “New Year, New You” makes you want to throw your phone in the sea, this one’s for you. In this episode, Monique van Tulder – author of A Grown Up’s Gap Year – calls time on the standard New Year resolutions and 75-day “transformation” challe...
Mid-Life Maintenance Mojo: Just Wear the Bikini & Other Handy Hints
In this episode of A Grown Up’s Gap Year – The Podcast, Monique unpacks mid-life maintenance mojo – from mammograms and strength training to swimsuits, perimenopause, and why you should just wear the bikini (if you want to).You’ll hear:&...
Happyish Holidays: Festive Season Boundaries & What Feels Like Home
Design a festive season that actually fits: clear, kind boundaries and small rituals that help you feel at home when “utterly joyful” feels like a stretch. In this short episode of A Grown Up’s Gap Year – The Podcast, we explore Happyish Holida...
Dreaming of Your Own Greek Island House? A Chic Local Shares Her Mid-Life Reset on Hydra
Ever caught yourself scrolling Greek property listings, wondering what it would be like to trade your commute for cobblestones, donkeys and Aegean light? In this episode of A Grown Up’s Gap Year – The Podcast, I sit down with award-winning arti...
Mid-life Mental Load and Guilt: Your SPACE Prescription for Better Boundaries
If you’re a mid-life woman who’s somehow ended up at the top of everyone else’s “people we need” pyramid and the bottom of your own, this one’s for you. In this episode, Monique talks about what happens when you finally admit you’re exhausted –...
Streamline Your Lifestyle: Declutter, Create SPACE, and Feel Better Now
Feeling better starts with space — physical first, mental next. In this candid, useful episode, Monique reads from her book, A Grown Up's Gap Year, on the beauty of simplicity, then gets real about the sandwich-generation juggle: a kitchen-tabl...
Your Two Minute Travel Prescription Reset: Find Space in Mid-life
Feeling stretched thin and a little invisible? This episode gives you a simple, two-minute Travel Prescription Certificate to start reclaiming space—without dismantling your life. We talk the hot coffee moment (after decades of lukewarm), why s...
Reinvention With Monique van Tulder and Michelle Cox on One Question Podcast
This episode is part of a ‘series’ on the podcast One Question with host Michelle Cox - where she is talking to all guests about the same topic, and that topic is REINVENTION!It is a topic she is often asked about; how she reinvented he...