If you’ve ever felt uncomfortable and squirmy about celebrating your accomplishments, you have tall poppy syndrome AKA an upper limit problem. Unfortunately, because of how we’ve been conditioned to focus on others, women are more likely to struggle with this.

You’ll often find us downplaying our greatness, making ourselves smaller, and having a lot of difficulty sitting in something we should be proud of. You might even go as far as apologizing for doing something well. We’ve been taught that if we rise up too high, we’re in danger of getting chopped down to size, so it’s safer not to draw attention to ourselves.

Where does this come from? How does it manifest and what can we do to change it? How do you stop twisting your aliveness to make everyone else comfortable? In this episode, we talk about tall poppy syndrome and why women are so prone to it.

Be careful, don’t bring too much attention to yourself - that’s the tall poppy syndrome. If you look at the stats, you’ll find that’s how most girls are raised. -Katie Hendricks

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-Why women are uncomfortable in their muchness

Women are raised to believe that it’s our job to care for others, speak when spoken to, and not to declare too much. Is that why pride feels so unfamiliar and uncomfortable?

-How to stop abandoning yourself

It’s really easy to talk yourself out of celebrating your greatness. What are some of the ways women do that?

-Dare to be authentic

As women, we tend to spend time making the people around us comfortable, even if it’s at our own expense. How do we learn to take up the space that’s rightfully ours without apologizing?

Recent stats show only 20% of women say they are truly happy, so it’s clear that we’re in the middle of a huge unhappiness epidemic. For centuries, we have been conditioned to abandon ourselves, not pay attention to what we need and externalize our experiences. No wonder so many of us live in a constant state of angst.

In order to make happiness happen, we need to shift to taking action on our own behalf and connecting with ourselves. Happiness is like a house, we can build it within ourselves and create a state that sustains our souls. What are the aspects that make the house stable, nurturing and beautiful?

How do we create inner ease for ourselves? In this episode, we’re joined by #1 New York Times bestselling author, world-renowned transformational teacher and expert on happiness, success, and unconditional love, Marci Shimoff. She talks about the root of our unhappiness, how to partner with yourself in growing and sustaining your happiness.

Where there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. Where there is beauty in the person there will be harmony in the home. Where there is harmony in the home there, will be honor in the nation. Where there is honor in the nation, there will be peace in the world. -Chinese proverb

Four Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-Self-esteem vs. self-love

We’ve been taught that self-esteem is a great thing, but it’s actually conditional. How do we shift to loving ourselves regardless of our circumstances?

-How to hold both happiness and sadness

Happiness doesn’t mean you’re not going to feel sad in sad moments. How can you possess both sadness and a backdrop of peace and wellbeing?

-How to practice happiness

What are simple but effective steps we can take to increase our happiness in the moment?

-Happiness isn’t selfish

As women, we’ve been taught to think wanting to increase our happiness is a selfish act. Does our happiness actually serve the people around us more?

Guest Bio

Marci Shimoff is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a world-renowned transformational teacher and an expert on happiness, success, and unconditional love. Her books include the international bestsellers Happy for No Reason and Love for No Reason. Marci is also the woman's face of the biggest self-help book phenomenon in history, as co-author of six books in the Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul series. With total book sales of more than 16 million copies worldwide in 33 languages, Marci is one of the bestselling female nonfiction authors of all time. Marci is also a featured teacher in the international film and book sensation, The Secret and the host of the PBS TV show called Happy for No Reason. She narrated the award-winning movie called Happy. Marci delivers keynote addresses and seminars on happiness, success, empowerment, and unconditional love to Fortune 500 companies, professional and non-profit organizations, women's associations and audiences around the world. Marci is currently leading a one-year mentoring program called Your Year of Miracles. Her opening seminar has been heard by more than 500,000 people.Marci earned her MBA from UCLA and holds an advanced certificate as a stress management consultant. She is a founding member and on the board of directors of the Transformational Leadership Council, a group of 100 top transformational leaders. Marci currently hosts a podcast called Living in the Miracle Zone and leads a global online program called Your Year of Miracles. Through her books, programs and presentations, Marci's message has touched the hearts and rekindled the spirits of millions throughout the world. She is dedicated to helping people live more empowered, happy and miraculous lives.

For more information, go to http://www.marcishimoff.com and https://happyfornoreason.com/.

Intuition is something every single human being has access to. That wise and timely inner voice that seems to drop information from nowhere and *just knows* something we don’t. Though it may feel like information coming from another realm, it’s actually coming from within. It’s just another sense we’ve been given, and it takes many forms.

You feel an explicable pull to reach out to someone, only to find out they need you in that moment. You feel the gentlest nudge to do something and it ends up being the right thing to do. You hear an inner voice telling you not to do something, and that ends up saving you from harm.

These are all features of your intuition, and the more we listen, the better our lives get. Our surroundings are filled with so many things that speak louder than intuition, so how do we hear it? In this episode, we talk about the power of intuition and why we should add it to our senses.

Intuition is almost as much a guide for information as what we see, hear or taste. When we don’t have it or use it, we shrink our sense of the world. -Sophie Chiche

Four Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-Intuition never yells

Because intuition doesn’t shout at us or draw massive attention to itself, it can go ignored. What lies on the other side of not listening?

-The mission to diminish your intuition

Our lives are filled with stuff that can overpower the quietness of our intuition. How do we suss out our intuitive voice amidst the noise of our surroundings?

-How to find your intuition again

From childhood, we’re taught that our intuition isn’t a legitimate source of information, that the cognitive and the data-driven are the only things worth listening to. How does this dilute our intuition?

-How to trust your inner friend

Fear muddies the waters of our intuition because it can’t coexist with inner openness. How do we distinguish between intuition, fear or a story we’re telling ourselves?