Self/Talk: a pep talk for your self.

This week's episode of Self/Talk is all about using our imagination to visualize the life we actually want. I believe you must see it before you can be it and one of the biggest roadblocks or hurdles blocking us from the life we truly want, is our own ability to see ourselves actually living that version of our life before it comes to fruition.

We see other people who have what we want (often identified through envy and comparison), but we cannot see how we can achieve the same things for ourselves and therefore talk ourselves out of ever starting. This is where imagination and creative visualization come in, we can begin to imagine a life different than our own and to manifest whatever it is we desire through repeated thoughts. Albert Einstein once said, "Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” and I couldn't agree more. To imagine is to build something in your mind, to visualize is to focus your thoughts through pictures.

On this week’s episode of Self/Talk we are talking about money. This is a topic that we, as women, have been told to avoid at all costs, and yet I cannot help but notice how many of us are limiting ourselves based on outdated and harmful narratives. The gender pay gap coupled with societal conditioning has taught women to expect less.

While society has conditioned us to believe that achievement and financial success is what we should be striving for, women receive mixed messaging when it comes to work in the midst of motherhood. Just as our expenses increase (i.e. childcare) our salaries decrease and mothers are routinely forced to reevaluate the work they do. 

On this week’s episode of Self/Talk I am exploring the impact work and motherhood have on our sense of self. Work is defined as an activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result. We live in a society that expects women to work as if they don’t have kids and mother as if they don’t have work, but I know two things to be true, my kids need me and I need ‘work’ which leaves me (and probably many of us) at an interesting crossroads.

I do not believe there is one right way to approach work and motherhood, but I do believe the best thing any of us can do is check in with ourselves. Being honest about which needs can be met through motherhood and which needs must be met through the continued development of self.

This week’s episode of Self/Talk is all about Self-ish motherhood, what is it, why I practice it, and how it fundamentally changed my life. 

We live in a society that will repeatedly tell you that your value as a woman, your career, your independence, and your mental health are less important than your children, but your children would not exist without you. 

We have been taught and told and sold a narrative that motherhood is selfless work and that quote unquote “good” mothers repeatedly abandon themselves in order to be more available for their kids, but motherhood is not martyrdom and we need to stop glorifying it as such. 

This week's episode is all about the name Self/Talk  - why I chose it, what it actually means, and what I hope this podcast will ultimately become. 

This week on Self/Talk we we are talking all about envy, a topic I happen to love despite the fact that it often gets a bad wrap. I believe envy is a fantastic way to identity what is missing in our own lives and unlock what we truly want. I want to help you unpack what your envy is trying to tell you and use it to propel yourself forward. Envy can be the key to understanding the things you wish you had.

We tend to avoid envy and rarely want to admit that we envy others, but parts of envy can be incredibly helpful in understanding ourselves. If we are only viewing envy as a negative then we will never be able to understand our own longings, we will never be able to uncover the things that we truly want and need. I have found that it is often the thing that is triggering us most that needs our attention. Have you ever stopped to think about who you envy and more importantly why?

For the very first episode of self/talk, I thought I would share what it actually took for me to bring this podcast to life. Truth be told, I have been actively trying to talk myself out of this very idea for YEARS; repeatedly making excuses, starting and stopping, refusing to commit, ignoring the not so subtle signs that this is the thing I actually want, and convincing myself that whatever it is that I want to say has already been said. Because well, it probably has. There are plenty of perfectly polished and edited podcasts. There are plenty of women already doing this work and the idea of putting myself and my voice out into the world in this way is terrifying, even more so because the path from idea to execution is anything but clear. 

I have spent the better part of the past 4 years trying to avoid starting this podcast and I have the receipts to prove it. My phone is quite literally full of unedited and unused podcast trailers, all of which never came to be. If I felt like I had any other choice but to finally sit down and try and record this podcast and actually get this idea off the ground, I would take it. The desire to run the other way is real, very very real. But I have learned, from my own experience talking myself into and out of my dreams, that when an idea simply won't quit, it is always worth the risk. This idea has continued to resurface again and again and again, so I have finally decided to show up for it. In the spirit of transparency and in an effort to pull back the curtain and offer you a glimpse behind the scenes, I thought I would share a few of the many terrible first drafts I have recorded over the years. None of them are fancy and all of them were recorded rather imperfectly on the voice notes app on my iPhone. So I have to ask, what is your version of this podcast, what is the idea that simply won't quit and what would it take to start showing up for it. 

Welcome to Self/Talk: a weekly pep talk for your self. I am your host Tiffany Madvig and I believe that when we change the way we think and talk to ourselves, we change our lives. Each episode is meant to be bite-sized, offering you the inspiration and motivation you need to deepen your sense of self and realign you life through words. You can expect stories that help you shift your perspective, questions designed to help you connect with yourself, tools to help you change your life, and prompts to push yourself forward fearlessly.