No Shrinking Violets Podcast for Women
No Shrinking Violets is all about what it truly means for women to take up their space in the world – mind, body and spirit. Mary Rothwell, licensed therapist and certified integrative mental health practitioner, has seen women “stay small” and fit into the space in life that they have been conditioned to believe they deserve. Drawing on 35 years in the mental health field and from her perspective as a woman who was often told to "stay in your lane," Mary discusses how early experiences, society and sometimes our own limiting beliefs can convince us that living inside guardrails is the best -- or only -- option. She'll explore how to recognize our unique essential nature and how to use that to empower a new narrative.Through topics that span psychology, friendships, nature and even gut-brain health, Mary creates a space that is inspiring and authentic - where she celebrates the intuition and power of women who want to chart their own course and program their own GPS.
Mary's topics will include sleep and supplements and nutrition and how to live like a plant. (Yes, you read that right - the example of plants is often the most insightful path to knowing what we truly need to feel fulfilled). She’ll talk about setting boundaries, communicating, and relationships, and explore mental health and wellness: trauma and resilience, how our food impacts our mood and the power of simple daily habits. And so much more!
As a gardener, Mary knows that violets have been misjudged for centuries and are actually one of the most resilient and ecologically important plants in her native garden. Like violets, women are often underestimated, and they can even mistake their unique gifts for weaknesses. Join Mary to explore all the ways the vibrant and strong violet is an example for finding fulfillment in our own lives.
No Shrinking Violets Podcast for Women
Unapologetic Seeds: How Plants Teach Us to Be Ourselves
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A bright orange wildflower taught us something bold about being human. Jewelweed doesn’t ask permission to exist—it launches its seeds with gusto, outcompetes invaders, and even soothes poison ivy. That unapologetic presence became our lens for talking about essential nature, the blend of genetics, environment, and epigenetics that shapes how we move through the world. We celebrate the joy of finishing the manuscript for Nature Knows: Growing and Thriving Through the Wisdom of Plants, and we open the door to a community-powered launch that lets ideas travel farther than any one person can carry.
We dig into how early messages—be quieter, be softer, be less—teach us to shrink, and how that shrinking can feel safe but slowly starves our growth. Plants don’t compare themselves to sunflowers; they match their needs to their habitat and reach. Translating that into daily life, we explore why being labeled “too much” often signals a mismatch of ecosystem, not a flaw in your design. There’s practical wisdom here: filter feedback by fit, honor your wiring, and choose spaces where your expression is an asset. Along the way, we ground the science of epigenetics in plain language, showing how experience affects gene expression without changing DNA, and why that context can turn shame into usable information.
If you’re curious about early access to the book, honest review copies at cost, and a few fun perks like sneak peeks and cover input, we’re building a small launch team to help this project take root. Listen, take the jewelweed lesson to heart, and if you feel the nudge, email nsvpodcast@gmail.com to join. If this resonated, subscribe, share with a friend who needs permission to take up space, and leave a quick review so more people can find their way back to their essential nature.
Comments about this episode? Suggestions for a future episode? Email me directly at NSVpodcast@gmail.com.
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Hi, and welcome to a mini episode of No Shrinking Violets. So before I jump into my topic today, which is going to be related to what I'm about to tell you, I want to share that I have finished my book draft. It is ready to head off to the editors. It is called Nature Knows: Growing and Thriving Through the Wisdom of Plants. And I'm I can't even tell you how excited I am about this. So one of the things that I need that you can help me with is I need a launch team. The people on my launch team will read the book before it is officially for sale. They get a link to buy the book for cost, basically. And in this case, it will be the physical book, which I am so excited about that because I have someone very special to me that is actually doing hand-drawn illustrations for this book. And I mean, there's so many parts about it that I'm so excited about. But the launch team will read the book before it's officially for sale and review it. And honest reviews so that when it launches, it will have some street cred, so to speak. And my launch team will also get some special things. I haven't decided yet, but it might be some sneak peeks ahead of time. You might be able to weigh in on what the cover is going to look like. You may get a little gift from me. I don't know yet, but I love sending gifts in the mail. But um what I need to do is start to get my launch team together. So if you would like to be a member of my launch team, just use the email that is in the show notes. And it is actually nsvpodcast at gmail.com. So no shrinkingviolets, nsvpodcast at gmail.com. All I need is for you to say yes, I want to be on your launch team. You will just get updates from me about the book, which actually it is several months away, but we got to plan ahead for these things. So let me now transition to what I want to talk to you about today, which is one of the main concepts in the beginning of the book. What I base a lot of the content of the book on is that we all have an essential nature, and I'm sure you've heard me use that term before. And what I mean by that is we are nature, we're how we're wired, what our genetics are, and we're also nurture, how the things in our environment impacted our development. And there's a concept called epigenetics, which means that the things that have been experiences for even prior generations, they don't physically change our genes, but they can impact what parts of our genes are expressed. So when I talk about the idea of essential nature, one of the parts of that that is so important to recognize is that whoever you really are, and I believe we know this from when we're kids. I think before society comes in and tells us we're weird or strange or we shouldn't be that way, we know the things that we love. And we change those because we feel like we're not okay the way we are, because we're getting messages, and sometimes they're from parents, and sometimes, you know, it can happen later in life when you hit middle school and you think, you know, like for me, I was a tomboy, and all of a sudden that was weird because I was starting, I was a teenager, and that was just not okay to be kind of that tomboy, and you know, my friends were starting to get into fashion and boys, and those things were cool, but you know, anyway, so um one of the examples that I think about when I think of an unapologetic plant, because plants just are, they don't change who they are, they don't look at the plants down the road or across the street or in the other field and think, I really wish I looked more like the sunflower, or I really wished I looked more like a morning glory. They just embrace their plantness and they do everything they can to first survive if they're in a difficult situation, but they want to thrive. So there's a plant called a jewelweed. Sometimes it's also called a touch me knot. It's a lot of times common plant names vary geographically. It is called jewelweed because it is an iridescent orange color. It's really beautiful. Touch me knot is because when you touch this plant, the seed pod literally explodes and sends seeds out. It's a member of the impatience family. The Latin name is impatience capensis. And it's native to where I live, and it's one of the only plants here that can outcompete garlic mustard, which is an invasive plant, and it's taking over some areas of our woodlands. But jewelweed is also something that can help to treat poison ivy, and it's interesting that they often grow near each other in the woods. And I know on the property where I live, this is for sure true. But the reason I love the jewelweed is it is unapologetic in the way it shares its seed, and it makes me think about when I hear women say they're afraid they're too much for some people. And this is a common thing that I hear women say, and it's why I use the words take up your space so often. I myself have been too much for certain people. And you probably know what I'm going to say. If you're too much for someone, they're not your people. But it is a consistent fear that I think many women that are successful, have strong opinions, or even have been told along the way, you know, use your inside voice, or you're being too loud, or your laugh is weird. The jewel weed does not give two craps. It just sends the seeds out. And if it was able to think, if it actually had a human brain, it might be like, well, maybe this is a little much. Maybe I'm kind of encroaching on those plants over there. If it had that human brain and it tried to keep itself small, it wouldn't be able to do the amazing things that it can do. It was a plant that the Native Americans used for some types of healing. And again, it helps to treat poison ivy. It can outcompete one of the most problematic invasive plants in my area. So be a jewelweed. You know, if you have something to share, share it. Put it out there. Be the plant version of the person that you are. So again, just a reminder drop me an email if you want to be on my launch team. Until next time, go out and be the amazing, resilient violet or jewelweed that you are.
