Ripen | Own Your Feminine Power

Welcome to Season 2 of Ripen. I’m thrilled to bring you this incredible interview with plant medicine maestro Javier Regueiro. Kit Murray Maloney and I sat down with Javier to work through our confusion and stuckness around anger 13 months ago. For various reasons we hadn’t yet hit publish, but now in the summer of 2020 it has become increasingly clear that this powerful transmission needed to be made public. Listen in as Javier shares the meaning behind anger and other challenging emotions, how we can actually drop in and feel what we feel, and the healing and empowerment available to us as we do. Connect with Javier at https://www.javierregueiro.com/ Connect with Kit at https://www.kitaralove.com/ Connect with Rachel at https://www.rachelsizemore.com/  

This episode is the Season 1 Finale.. I'll be back with new episodes of Ripen mid August!    Now onto this week's show...   There's a lot of underlying pressure in our world to figure out "the best" of all of our options, the best foods to eat, the best restaurant to go to, the best partner to marry, the best school for your kids. We are both blessed and cursed to have so many options, and one way we cope is to focus on the elusive "best."   But searching for the best can be exhausting and overwhelming. And frankly, it can be limiting, too.   In this episode, I share a simple alternative framework for how to easily navigate decision making when you're flooded with options and feel pressure to figure out the best one.   For more information on this episode, visit www.rachelsizemore.com/episode14   ABOUT RACHEL SIZEMORE Rachel Sizemore is a Sex, Love & Relationship Coach who helps women reawaken to their bodies and their sexuality. She is passionate about getting women out of their heads and back into their bodies so they can experience pleasure and desire again. Rachel is also the creator and host of Ripen, the podcast for turning women on to their desires and truth. If you're looking to reignite the spark in yourself and with your love, check out Ripen on iTunes or Stitcher and connect with Rachel at www.rachelsizemore.com.    LOVE AND FEEDBACK Thank you so much for being a part of the Ripen community. If you're a fan of the show, I'd love to have your feedback. Please head over to iTunes to leave a review and rating. Don't forget to subscribe while you're there!   www.rachelsizemore.com/episode14

Tuning into your unique intuition and desires - sounds lovely in theory but can be a bit tricky in practice - particularly if we are in the habit of racing through life and filling any downtime scrolling on the phone.  But if we don't slow down to do the inner work of connecting with ourselves and clearing out old pain and resistance, we often find ourselves stuck in a rut, recreating the same crappy situations over and over again. In this episode of Ripen, I chat with Connie Chapman about what it really looks like, step by step to go within, even when it feels incredibly uncomfortable.   Listen in as Connie and I discuss… +  A step by step process to finally clear old recurring patterns and habits +  The magic that comes from connecting with yourself and aligning to your truth +  Anxiety and how Connie has been able to make peace with her life long struggle with it +  Connie's daily practice that keeps her living in her truth while still achieving her goals     For more information on this episode: www.rachelsizemore.com/episode13   ABOUT  CONNIE CHAPMAN Connie Chapman is a Life Coach, Speaker and Writer empowering big dreamers and soul seekers to create lives they love (from the inside out). Through her international 1:1 coaching practise she has personally guided hundreds of women and men to break free of their limitations and unlock their true potential. Connie is the creator of The 90 Day Transformation Project, and host of the top ranking podcast Awaken Radio, which shares heart-felt conversations and inspiring interviews with experts and thought leaders from all over the world. Known for her authentic, honest and soulful approach, Connie's transformative work is all about re-connecting with your heart and inner wisdom, embodying more love, peace and freedom, creating a mindset that empowers you, and learning to truly accept and value yourself.   LOVE AND FEEDBACK Thank you so much for being a part of the Ripen community. If you're a fan of the show, I'd love to have your feedback. Please head over to iTunes to leave a review and rating. Don't forget to subscribe while you're there!   For more information on this episode: www.rachelsizemore.com/episode13  

Paradoxically, one of the simplest ways to get what you want is to start by accepting and even appreciating where you are now. But sometimes the dance of desire and acceptance feels counterintuitive, tricky, impossible even. How can you stay grateful and present for what is while working to create more? How can you accept what is when things are painful and hard? After spending quite a few hours thinking myself in circles around this idea, I asked my teacher and dear friend Brittany Hopkins what she thought. And Brittany, being a master manifestor, creator, and an all round rad human being has some pretty powerful insights for us on today's episode of Ripen.   Listen in as she and I discuss… +  A simple practice to reduce your stress and change how you show up for your life +  How to use a spirit of play and daydreaming to help you create what you want  +  The power of hard work and a perspective shift that makes concentrated effort feel easier +  Why gratitude isn't just a trend and how it can help you transform your life starting now - regardless of how down you feel +  How to make the most of where you are in your life now, even if its miles from where you want to be   For more information on this episode: www.rachelsizemore.com/episode12   ABOUT BRITTANY HOPKINS Brittany Hopkins is owner of and teacher at Container Collective Yoga. As an YACET E-RYT 500 certified Baptiste Yoga Instructor, that has been teaching movement since 1998, she creates space for students to feel comfortable and confident to stretch and move beyond their imagination, on and off their yoga mats. With a background as a professional dancer and dance instructor in Chicago, IL; Central Utah; Denver, CO; and internationally in Beijing, China, her yoga classes are fun, fluid, and challenging, and inspire students to embody a sense of ease and unconditional love that impact their lives outside of the studio. She trained with the Baptiste Institute. She is also trained in Yoga Nidra "Yogic Sleep" and Silver Sneakers Chair Yoga. Brittany's warm-hearted spirit brings light and joy wherever she travels. Whether she is dancing, rock climbing, practicing/teaching yoga, or cruising around town on her bamboo bicycle, Brittany is hoping to inspire others to use their bodies to create a sense of peace for themselves.   LOVE AND FEEDBACK Thank you so much for being a part of the Ripen community. If you're a fan of the show, I'd love to have your feedback. Please head over to iTunes to leave a review and rating. Don't forget to subscribe while you're there!   For more information on this episode: www.rachelsizemore.com/episode12

The "negative" emotions - sadness, anxiety, anger, despair - can make us so uncomfortable that we push them down and turn to our devices, Netflix or a glass of wine to check out. We simply haven't been taught how to deal with them.   And not only do we stuff down or numb these emotions, we often tell ourselves negative stories about what it means that we have these emotions. These stories hold the emotions, and us, hostage, causing us to feel stuck and even hopeless.   The good news is it's actually relatively simple to change your perspective on your emotions and handle them with a lot more ease.   In this episode, I help you out with just that! I share... +  How the stories our brains tell about our emotions powerfully influence our lives and how we show up +  The enlightening framework of primary vs secondary emotions +  How I used this framework to heal my depression +  3 steps to deal with secondary emotions and release the pain of "negative" emotions +  How we can use our emotions to get clearer about what we want and what's true for us +  A simple mindset shift that can free up so much energy for motivation and taking action   For more information on this episode: www.rachelsizemore.com/episode11   ABOUT RACHEL SIZEMORE Rachel Sizemore is a Sex, Love & Relationship Coach who helps women reawaken to their bodies and their sexuality. She is passionate about getting women out of their heads and back into their bodies so they can experience pleasure and desire again. Rachel is also the creator and host of Ripen, the podcast for turning women on to their desires and truth. If you're looking to reignite the spark in yourself and with your love, check out Ripen on iTunes or Stitcher and connect with Rachel at www.rachelsizemore.com.   LOVE AND FEEDBACK Thank you so much for being a part of the Ripen community. If you're a fan of the show, I'd love to have your feedback. Please head over to iTunes to leave a review and rating. Don't forget to subscribe while you're there!   For more information on this episode: www.rachelsizemore.com/episode11

This is without a doubt one of the most empowering episodes of Ripen yet! I interview the incredible Lisa Foster whose big beautiful mission on this earth is to empower victims of sexual violation to continue past the survivor stage and heroically reclaim the treasure of their true selves.  In the episode, she shares with us a powerful framework for creating transformation with velocity which can help you shift things in your life whether you have experienced sexual violation or not.  Lisa and I cover SO many impactful and inspiring topics… +  How to create transformation quickly by using the framework of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey +  A simple + powerful exercise for when you find yourself in a funk and you want to shift back into action +  The myriad of ways we can experience sexual violation, including and going beyond what we typically think of +  The moment when you recognize you are not getting the level of emotional and physical intimacy that you desire and the courage it takes to acknowledge that and ask for it +  Reawakening to your beauty and desire after sexual violation, divorce, or disconnection from yourself +  How to create sexual wholeness working with a partner and/or on your own    For more information on this episode: www.rachelsizemore.com/episode10   ABOUT LISA FOSTER Lisa Foster has been active in transformational ventures, both here and abroad, as an entrepreneur, non-profit founder, public speaker, facilitator, and program developer.  Her proudest accomplishment is her transformation from survivor to thriver after long-term childhood sexual abuse.  She is committed to shifting the national conversation about sexual violation from one of shame and silence to one of heroism and fierce hope.  As founder of parillumeTM, Lisa empowers victims of sexual violation to continue past the survivor stage and heroically reclaim the treasure of their true selves shining in the world without shame.  For more information, visit parillume.com or email lisa@parillume.com.   LOVE AND FEEDBACK Thank you so much for being a part of the Ripen community. If you're a fan of the show, I'd love to have your feedback. Please head over to iTunes to leave a review and rating. Don't forget to subscribe while you're there!  For more information on this episode: www.rachelsizemore.com/episode10

Being decisive - easily making decisions that are right and true for us - is a skill many of us find challenging, particularly these days as our lives are often overflowing with offers, obligations, distractions, and more.  That is why I am so excited to bring you this interview with Katarina Arneric, as we dive into how you can use the wisdom of your body to easily make decisions according to what's really true for you.   Listen in as Katarina and I jam on… +  The science behind "gut feelings" and where the wisdom of the body comes from +  The subtle ways your body shows you who your right people are or whether a situation is right for you +  Katarina's simple but powerful practice for quickly tuning into the wisdom of the body to make decisions +  Exploring what a "Yes" and a "No" look like in your body and how you can start to tease out what your body is communicating to you   Consider this your invitation to get out of your head and into your body! Learning this practice has helped me feel more confident in my decisions, get healthier, have more fun, be a better wife and friend, and so much more. I'm so excited for you to give it a try!   For more information on this episode: www.rachelsizemore.com/episode9   ABOUT KATARINA ARNERIC Katarina helps ambitious women transform their relationship to stress so the chaos around them no longer dictates their health and happiness. If you want to stop waking up at 3am with worry, are constantly getting knocked down by colds and always feeling behind, and want to uncover if you’re making the #1 mistake that keeps women stuck in the on and off Healthy Bandwagon drama cycle, grab one of her FREE Stop Your Stress Struggle 20 minute Calls. If you’re interested in a safe, non-judgemental space to release your stress, be heard, uplifted and supported during a stressful time, join her support Facebook group From Chaos to Centered for the Busy Woman.   LOVE AND FEEDBACK Thank you so much for being a part of the Ripen community. If you're a fan of the show, I'd love to have your feedback. Please head over to iTunes to leave a review and rating. Don't forget to subscribe while you're there!   For more information on this episode: www.rachelsizemore.com/episode9

The Jade Egg Episode is finally here! Without a doubt since baring my soul and sharing my experience reawakening my connection to my body in the first episode of Ripen, the question I have been asked the most  is, "What's the deal with that Jade Egg thing you talked about?!?!" The Jade Egg is a small, egg shaped stone you can use for what are essentially, at the most basic level, more elaborate and effective Kegel exercises that can reawaken loads of sensation in your vagina (hello more interest in and enjoyment of sex!). Sounds crazy, I know, but the Egg has truly been a major healing tool for me, and I'm excited to share more about it with you. To that end, I've brought in the lovely Violet Lange of The Pleasure Path to talk about all things Jade Egg!     Listen in as Violet and I jam on… +  How to get started and the benefits of working with a Jade Egg +  The two ways to approach using your Egg - As Violet describes them, the "Brushing Your Teeth Mode" (for the busy gal) and the "Intentional Practice Mode" (for bigger benefits) +  How to inserting the Egg and the powerful practice of checking in with your vagina before penetrating her +  Using the Jade Egg for restoring vaginal sensation and healing - from sexual trauma, from residual shame from a sex negative upbringing, or even from simply not treating your vagina with TLC over your sexual lifetime    Violet and I both share a lot about our personal experiences with using the Egg and our healing journeys. I hope this helps you feel normal (YOU ARE!) and inspires you to get started working with the Jade Egg. I'm planning a Q&A on all things Jade Egg - if this episode brings up questions for you please submit them to rachel@rachelsizemore.com and I'll answer them (anonymously!)  on an upcoming episode.   For more information on this episode: www.rachelsizemore.com/episode8   ABOUT VIOLET LANGE Violet Lange is the founder of The Pleasure Path. She loves to help women find pleasure even after pain, trauma, or heartbreak. If you're looking to add more passion to your relationship or create lasting love, request to join her free Facebook group, The Art of Passionate Intimacy. If you're interested in the healing, pleasure, and power of Jade Eggs, you won't want to miss the Jade Egg Summit -- click here to get alerted to details and to receive your free Jade Egg Basic Guide. Violet recommends only these eggs.   LOVE AND FEEDBACK Thank you so much for being a part of the Ripen community. If you're a fan of the show, I'd love to have your feedback. Please head over to iTunes to leave a review and rating. Don't forget to subscribe while you're there!   For more information on this episode: www.rachelsizemore.com/episode8

If you and I have had a conversation in the past few months, you've probably heard me rant and rave about my new favorite book, Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski. This book rocked my world, and in today's episode I am sharing two of the most impactful takeaways I had around the science of sexual desire (fun sexy science, not the dry boring kind!). In many ways, the dominant narrative around sexuality in our culture is based on the male experience. Arousal looks like this; a "successful" sexual encounter looks like this; most of the instructions we have around sex are based on men's sexuality. And when we consider the female sexual experience within this framework, it looks like something is wrong or broken with the way many women experience sex. But the female sexual experience isn't wrong or broken. It's just different.   Listen in as I share… +  Essential keys to understanding how sexual desire really works that are totally absent from what we are taught in sex ed or Cosmo magazine +  How sexual desire is a product of both an accelerator AND brakes and how this fact alone totally changed how I relate to my sexual desire +  Why context (then when, where, how, why) of sex really matters, particularly for women, from a scientific point of view +  How there are TWO types of sexual desire, Spontaneous (the one culture teaches us about)  and Responsive (the way many women experience desire)   If you could relate to what I said in Episode 1 about feeling tired, not sexy; if you have ever wondered if there is something wrong with your body; if your sexual desire isn't what you want it to be, this episode will be very empowering for you. I can't wait to hear what you think! For more information about this episode: rachelsizemore.com/episode7

Wake up exhausted. 5 cups of coffee to get through the day. 2 glasses of wine to fall asleep. Crappy night's sleep. Exhausted when you wake up again.  It's a cycle many of us fall into as we try to survive our stressful, busy lives. And it's where my guest today, Amanda Testa, found herself a few years after becoming a mom.  In this episode, Amanda shares with us her journey from always putting herself at the bottom of the list to rediscovering what she needs and refueling herself with desire.  Amanda Testa is the creator of "Find Your Feminine Fire," which is all about helping women find their powerful feminine essence again. And that is something we dive into really deeply on the show today. Listen in as Amanda and I jam on... +  How to get started reconnecting to yourself and to your desire, even if you're feeling exhausted, stressed out, numbed out, or overwhelmed +  How women's bodies are different from men's when it comes to arousal and what that means for you (hint: you are NOT broken!) +  Why it's worth the effort to reconnect to your body and your sexual self +  How to communicate with your partner in a loving and effective way as you discover new things about yourself and your turn on +  How to transition from super busy lady or mommy mode to being open and even excited for intimacy There is so much juicy goodness packed into this episode. I hope it is really impactful for you. Make sure to let me know what you think, leave me a comment on the blog or email me at rachel@rachelsizemore.com. I love hearing from you! For more information on this podcast, head to: rachelsizemore.com/episode6

The night I met Tiffany, I first saw her across a crowded room. She was wearing this smokin' hot red dress and had this beautiful mane of hair and red lips. She got up to lead the group in a meditation around the senses, and, well, you can just picture me sitting in the audience, wide eyed, jaw hanging slightly open, like ahhhh yeah, "I want what she's having!" In that pursuit, I learned that Tiffany can command a room with that kind of magnetism because of the work of her soul, the work of bringing the magic of the soul realm into her daily life. That idea might seem abstract or even unreal if you've never been exposed to it before - I know it did for me - but that's why I love this interview so much. It eases you in and has the potential to blow your heart wide open. This interview is deep. It's powerful. It's inviting you to go beneath the surface of your life, to go within, and to begin a process that isn't always easy, but is certain to be filled with expansion and possibility… and magic. Tiffany was one of the first people to inspire me to discover something greater and deeper within myself and to bring more magic into my life. It is my sincere hope that this interview brings a little bit of that magic to you. Listen in as Tiffany and I go deep on… +  That moment when you realize your life has to change; you just can't keep going the same way, and how we can begin to change and to take that journey into ourselves +  How we can bring the magic of the soul realm into the reality of our daily lives and the strength and joy we can access if we do +  Scouring the wisdom of your own soul vs looking outside of yourself for the prescription or the right way to do it +  Exploring the masculine and feminine energies that are within all of us and how we can shift the balance of those energies to show up more fully and effectively in our lives +  A simple practice you can use when you find yourself feeling behind, comparing yourself to others, and wondering, "Why am I not there yet? And loads, loads more!

I first met Kit Murray Maloney in the summer of 2015 when she wrote me and the other members of her tribe a giant permission slip for pleasure. At the time I had no idea the ripple effect this permission slip would create in my life, but without a doubt it and my friendship with Kit are a big part of how this podcast became Ripen. When I met Kit I was fully entrenched in the doing, doing, doing, stressed out, push myself mode of being, and it was through my connection with her that I first started to discover a more pleasurable way of living. Listen in as Kit and I jam on... +  The power and necessity of celebrating women’s pleasure +  Talking about sex with your friends, why it matters and how to get started +  Taking the feelings of guilt and selfishness out of the pleasure conversation +  How to bring more pleasure in your life even if it feels lightyears away from your current life or you’ve never had an orgasm +  What vulnerability has to do with intuition and how you can use it to get in better communication with yourself   For more information on the resources mentioned in this podcast, head to rachelsizemore.com/episode4

This episode is all about desire - juicy, joyful, magical, but sometimes elusive, desire. The goal of Ripen is to explore how we can create lives that are more aligned with and turned on to our desire. But far and away, the most common answer I get when I ask another woman, "What do you want?" is "I don't know."  Well it's going to be pretty dang tricky to live more in alignment with our desires if we don't even know what they are!  So in this episode, we explore... +  Why desire and knowing what you want matters +  The common fear many of us have about whether we even have desires +  The real reasons why we don't know what we want +  Why it can be scary to acknowledge our desires +  How we can start to get to know our desire and what we truly want right now   For more information on the resources mentioned in this episode, head to: rachelsizemore.com/episode3

Annette Sloan is mind body nutrition coach and a close friend and mentor to me. This episode is so dear to my heart because it relates to my own personal struggle over the years to love and accept my body. Annette shares the healing balm I wish I had back then and that still feels good to hear today.  This episode is for you if... +  You are working tirelessly to hit a goal you just can't seem to accomplish and feel shame and pain because of it +  You have areas in your life that you are holding on and trying to control so tightly +  You have had the control pendulum swing back the other way and felt completely out of control, binging with food or alcohol or something else +  You struggle to feel good about your body and feel caught in self-judgment and negativity +  You've ever questioned yourself, frustrated, "How is this still a struggle? I thought I healed this already!" Annette and I explore the process of how we heal from these struggles and what becomes possible for us as we move through them.  For more information on the resources mentioned in this podcast, head to: rachelsizemore.com/episode2

For the very first episode of Ripen, I am introducing you to myself and the vulnerable parts of my journey that lead me to this moment. In January of 2016, I launched a new brand - Sexy In Your Own Skin - and as I describe in the episode, I had no idea the can of worms I was opening. Turns out, you can't just try to eat healthy and wish yourself into feeling sexy, energized, and confident in your body! I needed to bring feminine energy and sexuality to the table, too. It's been a wild (and fun) ride, and I've loved it so much I'm currently completing a Sex, Love, & Relationship Coaching Certification to help me go even deeper in these areas with my clients. In this episode, I bring you up close and personal and jam on… +  How I realized as I launched my "Sexy In Your Own Skin" brand that I didn't feel sexy… I felt tired +  Why I am talking about sex and the impact reclaiming this part of myself has had +  The three main actions that have guided my journey as I've deepened into feeling sexy in my own skin and started to create Ripen +  The surprising (and vulnerable to admit) thing I discovered when I began connecting to my body and working with a jade yoni egg   +  The self doubt I had around whether I even have intuition +  What it means to be a woman TURNED ON - a woman who is confident, energized, powerful, sexual, fully alive Welcome to Ripen! I'm so grateful you are here. Enjoyed hearing my story? I'd love to hear yours... drop me a line at rachel(at)rachelsizemore.com.  For more information on the resources mentioned in this episode, head to: rachelsizemore.com/episode1