Life is Delicious- Mindset Mastery, Midlife Empowerment, Joy, Purpose, Vitality, Inspiration, Women's Health
Ever feel like midlife has you running on an endless hamster wheel of responsibilities while your own dreams gather dust? Is the crazy chaos of caring for everyone else leaving you exhausted and overwhelmed? Are you in desperate need of some self care, balance and reconnection with your most authentic self?
I’m so glad you’re here! This podcast isn't about surviving midlife; it's about crafting a next chapter overflowing with purpose, joy, and delicious possibilities.
I'm Marnie Martin, a multi-passionate entrepreneur, daughter and a hot midlife Mama (literally) and over the last decade, I've been through career pivots, a divorce, and I survived the empty nest, only to have it fill up again. I spent the next several years travelling miles and miles every month to care for my elderly parents and my time and attention was so torn in every direction that I lost track of who I was, and I found myself in an endless cycle of people pleasing, putting out fires and running on empty. I know how it feels to be stuck in chronic overwhelm, stress and chaos and trust me, it's not a pretty picture.
I decided that it was time to take MY OWN life and health back and I worked hard to reclaim my health through radical self care practices, recalibrating my nervous system and setting healthy boundaries that allowed me to start living my life "on purpose" again. I'm here to show you that midlife doesn't have to be a crisis, but instead a beautiful invitation to remember who we are, to rediscover a new version of ourself, or to completely re-invent our life to reflect who we are becoming now-intentionally crafting a life by design that truly nourishes our soul. If you are ready to take back YOUR "Joie de Vivre", then you are in the exact right place!
Each week brings conversations with health and wellness specialists, spiritual growth experts, and guests with courageous and transformative stories that will inspire you to break free from the overwhelm. You'll walk away with practical strategies, meaningful insights, inspiration and the permission to prioritize yourself again.
We were born to thrive and experience life as the delicious feast it's meant to be. Subscribe now and join a community of midlife women who are turning up the volume on their inner voice and writing their own recipes for a life that feeds their soul.
Life is Delicious- Mindset Mastery, Midlife Empowerment, Joy, Purpose, Vitality, Inspiration, Women's Health
29: Thanksgiving-Not Just A Holiday But A Practice
What if one honest sentence could change a day—or save a life? We dive into gratitude not as a platitude, but as a biological reset that lifts mood, calms the body, and strengthens community. Drawing on research from UC Davis and Harvard, we unpack how simple acts of thankfulness lower blood pressure, improve sleep, and reduce inflammation, while flooding the brain with dopamine and serotonin that reinforce joy and connection.
I share Kevin’s unforgettable lobby-board story: a rain-soaked apartment building, a quiet Post-it prompt, and a slow bloom of handwritten lines that turn neighbors into a network. From “my son called—he’s staying sober” to “I didn’t cry in the shower today,” these small truths become a social safety net. When a note appears—“I was going to end it today… Thank you.”—the whole building’s rhythm shifts. It’s a powerful reminder that gratitude is not fluff; it’s infrastructure for belonging.
From science to practice, we walk through five simple tools you can start today. Keep sticky notes on hand to leave kind words in the wild. Write a thank-you letter—even if you never send it—to train your mind toward empathy. Build a gratitude jar or board to collect daily wins and reach for them on hard days. Turn your Thanksgiving table into a circle of appreciation with personal notes and a single line of thanks from each guest. And try the reverse bucket list to celebrate what you’ve already braved, rebuilding self-trust in midlife and beyond. Along the way, we reframe midlife as an invitation to prioritize yourself, craft purpose, and savor small, delicious moments that add up to a life you recognize.
If this conversation lifted you, share it with a friend who could use a gentle nudge toward hope. Subscribe, leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts, and tell me one good thing that happened today—I’m listening.
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Hey beautiful friend, it's Marnie. And welcome back to Life is Delicious. As most of you know, if you are in Canada, it is our Thanksgiving weekend. And as we move into the season of Thanksgiving, I want to talk about something that costs nothing, takes only moments, and yet somehow has the power to extend our life, deepen our joy, and transform our relationships. Today's episode is all about gratitude, how it shapes our brain, our body, and even affects our longevity. Did you know that gratitude isn't just an emotion, it's actually a biological booster? Research from the University of California, Davis, and Harvard has found that people who regularly practice gratitude actually have lower blood pressure, stronger immune systems, and even sleep better. Psychologist Robert Emmons, who spent decades studying gratitude, says that grateful people are about 25% happier than those who aren't intentionally thankful. And here's the truly amazing part about that. There are lots of studies that show that gratitude can even reduce inflammation, which is one of the leading drivers of aging and disease. So gratitude doesn't just make us feel good, it actually can help us live longer. And I'm all for it. When you focus on what's good in your life, your brain releases dopamine and serotonin, which are your good mood elevators. And when we do it regularly, we start to train our brain to notice joy, to seek connection, and to savor those little moments that sneak up on us that sometimes we take for granted. So today I've got five delicious ways that you can add more gratitude into your life. So pop in those earbuds, light a candle, and let's dive in. Welcome to this episode of Life is Delicious. I'm Marnie Martin, and I'm so glad you're here. And if this is your first time here, welcome to the Life is Delicious family. This podcast isn't about surviving midlife. It's about crafting your next afterlife, overflowing with purpose, joy, and delicious possibilities. Listen, midlife doesn't have to be a crisis. It can be a beautiful invitation to remember who we are, to rediscover a new version of ourselves, or to completely reinvent our life to reflect who we are becoming now. So if you're tired of being exhausted living life on autopilot and putting everyone else first, then you are in the right place. Each week will bring you thought-provoking ideas and practical strategies as well as inspiration to help you prioritize yourself again. It's time to take back your join de beam. So grab a notebook and pen and pop in those earbuds and let's go get it. More than 50 million Americans have sleep disorders, and according to the National Institute of Health, insufficient sleep is estimated to have a negative annual impact on the economy of more than 400 billion. When you're not sleeping, everything else in your life suffers. 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Get the sleep you deserve with Superpatch. That's lifeisdelicious.superpatch.com for a 25% discount. This is the time of the year that we stop and we reflect back on all that matters to us. The people in our life that make our world better, the little things that we can do for other people. And it's just amazing to be able to sit and have a meal with people that we love and to be able to say thank you for being in my life. Thank you for being in my world. So this weekend, I wanted to inspire you with some tips about how you can add gratitude into your life every day, not just on Thanksgiving. And we've got some powerful little tools that we will get into shortly. But before I do that, I wanted to share a really cool story that I actually found on social media. And honestly, I was reading it to my dad because he's just moved into an assisted living place not long ago. And he said, you know, sometimes it's really hard because there's so many people in there that just because they're older and they're going through challenges with their health, quite often that's all they think about. They don't look for the reasons to be grateful in their day. And he said it's kind of hard to watch sometimes. And I want to do something to change it. And I love that about him. So when I found this story, I read it to him across the table. And by the time I was done reading it to him, we were both in tears. So I wanted to share it with you in hopes that it maybe will touch your life the way it did mine. Here goes. My name is Kevin. I'm 66. I live alone on the third floor of a brick apartment building in Seattle. Rain has been falling for weeks straight, just gray and dripping like the world forgot how to be sunny. Before I retired from fixing printers, my days had noise, machines humming, people chatting, community. Now, just the radiator clicking and my own thoughts. After my divorce ten years back, I kept to myself. The neighbors would say hi, but their eyes stayed distant. Nobody really engaged. We were all just kind of passing through. Downstairs in my building, the lobby has this old bulletin board. It has yellowed flyers for lost cats, garage sales, and even evicted notice papers. It looked like a graveyard for sad things. And one Tuesday, soaked from the rain, I stared at it. I thought, why does nobody put up happy news? So I dug an index card from my pocket, and in shaky letters I scribbled, write one good thing that happened today. No names, just one sentence. I taped it to the board and I walked away. And to be honest, my heart was pounding. This is stupid, I told myself. People are gonna think I'm lonely, or worse, maybe they'll think I'm crazy. For three days, nothing changed. Just my card flapping in the draft from the front door. Mrs. Gable from 2B, who walks with a cane, gave it a confused look, and the young couple from 4A snickered. I almost ripped it down. Then, on Thursday, a new note appeared, right beside mine. Blue pen rushed writing. My son called. He's staying sober. I read it five times. My throat got tight. Someone else was hurting, but also hoping. The next morning, two more notes. I found twenty dollars in my coat pocket. Feels like a gift. The next one said, My neighbor brought me soup. I didn't ask. People started stopping by the board, not smiling, just pausing and reading. Sometimes adding their own. A nurse wrote, a patient held my hand and said thank you, like she meant it. A teenager wrote, Mom didn't yell when I burned dinner. And one rainy Friday, a single line said, I didn't cry in the shower today. It wasn't grand. No heroes, just tiny lights in the gray. But something shifted. In the elevator, people didn't just stare at the floor numbers. Mrs. Gable actually nodded at me. And the young couple said, Rough weather instead of nothing at all. Then Mr. Henderson, the building manager, tore down my card. He said rules, Kevin, not unkindly, but he said no postings without permission. Landlord's orders. So the board went back to lost cats and eviction notices, and somehow the light had faded. People stopped pausing, and the hallway felt colder. I was putting my recycling out when I saw it. Taped to my door was a sticky note. Your umbrella saved me. 5C. Below it, another said my chemo wasn't so bad today. The next day, notes were everywhere, on mailbox doors, taped to elevator buttons, slipped under car wipers in the parking lot. Someone even wrote on the back of an eviction notice, got a job interview tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Mr. Henderson found me. Kevin, this is against the rules, he mumbled, but he wasn't looking at me. He was reading a note stuck to his clipboard. Thanks for fixing my sink, Mr. H. It meant a lot. And his eyes got shiny. He cleared his throat. Landlord says, as long as it's not damaging, maybe just this board? He pointed to the bulletin board, but only this board and no names. Now that board is alive. Rain or shine, people add their line. My plants didn't die. I made it through the grocery store line without panic. I saw Robin. Spring's coming. Now I don't feel alone in hallways anymore. We don't hug or throw parties, but when it's pouring and misses Gable's cane slips, three hands reach out at once. And when the young couple down the hall argues, someone leaves a bag of cookies at their door. We're not fixing the whole world. Just this building, just today. Last week a new note appeared. Different handwriting and shaky like mine. It read, I was going to end it today. And then I read this board. Thank you. We never found who wrote it. But the next day, two more notes were added right beside it. You matter, and we're here. That's all. Just words on paper. But sometimes that's enough to hold someone up. Sometimes the bravest thing isn't a big speech. It's admitting you're not fine. And trusting that someone else might not be fine too. You don't need a park bench or a fancy project. Just a little space to say, this was good today. And maybe that's how we rebuild the world, one honest sentence at a time. Isn't that beautiful? A lady named Mary Nelson wrote that, and it's a huge reminder of how those little, little things that we can do every day sometimes impact people on a very large scale. We forget that we can make a difference in someone's life every single day. I heard this quote once you don't have to change the world, but you can change the world of one person every day. So that's what I'd like to leave you with today when you think about your Thanksgiving. Who has taken the time to make your day? And how could you take the time to make someone else's? Because we're not in this alone, and we can do beautiful things together. So here are a few tips on how you can take gratitude to the next level and add a little more joie de vive to your Thanksgiving weekend or dinner, and maybe just to every day. Number one, get a package of sticky notes and put them in your purse or in your pocket or in the glove box of your car. And make sure you have a marker of some kind in there as well. And look for reasons where you can leave a beautiful little note, just like what we talked about in the previous story. For years I would carry sticky notes in my purse, and if I would just go into a gas station bathroom, I would bring it with me and I would just write, you are loved, or you are beautiful, and just stick it to the mirror and leave it there. And I don't get to have any knowledge at all about whether that does or doesn't do any good, but I know for sure that it doesn't do any harm. And why not? It's just one little way to add a little more value to the lives of others. Number two, write a thank you letter, even if you never send it. Most of us are not accustomed to getting mail so much anymore, but I am a huge proponent of the good old greeting card. And I have a whole box of them that I like to just every once in a while, in a very random way, just write a note to a friend or somebody that matters or somebody that's done something to impact my life. And sometimes it's just to say thank you for being you. And even if you don't send it, it makes you feel really good. It allows you to lean into the gratitude with that person. And the simple act of writing, I don't know, it activates the empathy and kind of rewires our brain for joy and to look for the reasons that we can celebrate other people. And if you do send it, it's a beautiful ripple effect that will make both of you feel the appreciation and gratitude. Number three, create a gratitude jar or a board. Um, I'm a big proponent of the jar for myself, where when great things happen to you, whether it's you got a little bonus at work or somebody let you into traffic today, or you know, something really, really small, but just something that brightened up your day, write it on that sticky note and slip it into the jar. It's a fun thing to actually start on New Year's Day, but being that we're in October, it's never too late to start. And by the end of the year, you'll have a jar full of joyful memories and proof that beauty and goodness are everywhere. Number four, celebrate Thanksgiving in gratitude style. This year, make your Thanksgiving table an experience of appreciation. Invite each guest to share one thing that they're thankful for. Maybe place a leaf-shaped note at each setting with a heartfelt compliment or memory about them. Light candles, play soft music, and truly savor your meal. Not just for the taste of really good food, but also for the gratitude of the togetherness and the community that you share. Number five is one of my favorites. And this is a little exercise I like to call the reverse bucket list. And what's amazing about this is instead of looking ahead at the things you haven't accomplished and going, I need to get all of these things done before I kick the bucket, it's more of a let's look back on my life, at what I did right, what I was courageous enough to try, what I have accomplished, what I'm really good at, and all of the different experiences that I've had that led me to this moment right now. And when you do that, it amplifies your gratitude in a huge way. And it also brings massive appreciation for all the times when we only look at our shortcomings. We're all human and we have those little insidious negative thoughts that do come into our head. But one of the things that matters is that we combat that with little moments or big moments of gratitude. And this reverse bucket list, I promise, will be a wonderful antidote to that. So as we celebrate the Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, I want to wish all my friends and colleagues and family and acquaintances, and of course, all of you beautiful podcast listeners, a beautiful Thanksgiving. And I want to extend how much gratitude I feel just knowing that you're out there when I step behind the microphone. It has been about 10 months since I started this podcast, and every week I can see the show growing, and I'd love to hear from you about the things that you're enjoying about the show and the things that have touched your heart. Happy Thanksgiving, my friends. I hope you loved today's episode. I hope it inspired you or motivated you in some way to keep going and create your very best life. If you did, would you stop and take five minutes to leave me a review on Apple Podcasts? It's the best way for me to know that you're enjoying the show, and it helps other listeners find us as well. And while you're at it, head over to lifeistelius.ca and sign up for email updates so you'll get notified every time a new episode drops. And I'll send you a free copy of my ebook, The Midlife Manifesto, inspiring strategies for mastering the eight most important areas of your life. Sign up today at lifeisdelicious.ca. And if no one has told you today, there's not one person on this planet that is exactly like you. And the world is a better place because you're here. So thank you for being here. I'll be back next week, and I hope you'll join me right here on Life is Delicious.