Cait
Hello, and welcome to today’s episode of The Born to Rise podcast. Today’s guest Brooke Weinstein is a literal gem. Brooke keeps it real about mama hood tips and tricks to childhood development and how to live in your mama truth. She’s a doctor of occupational therapy with over a decade of experience who built a thriving business in New Orleans called therapeutic Learning Center, which focus on treating the child and educating the entire family on coping skills and strategies on how to manage societal changes children face. With life experience having to preemies running in business and a household Brooke began to feel the struggles of motherhood being stretched too thin. This ultimately led her to selling her business stepping away to readjust her priorities and focus more on her own family and home. Brooke during this time went on an exploration of self and dove into the why of her career burnout. And the aha moment came when she recognized the missing link between trading children and parent education. We as mothers need support and guidance to get through this life. It’s simply too much to do on our own. Having support as a mother is what our children need most in this world to thrive. Brookes expertise in child development, sensory regulation and parental connection led her to begin coaching moms and families through this difficult phase of life. Brooke now helps mamas tap into their individual strength, teach them how to trust their gut and support growth in building emotional connections with their children and family that they’ve always longed for. This conversation with Brooke you guys was truly a revolution whether you are a mom or not. We went into so many important facets of emotional regulation in ourselves first and how that is so crucial for being able to cultivate a sense of stability, and groundedness in our homes. I am so excited for you to hear this I cannot wait to hear your top takeaways please leave them for us in Instagram tag us both and let us know what you loved about this episode. Without further ado, I’m going to introduce you to Brooke but before I do that, I want to go ahead and remind you to head to decided kate.co. To check out the newest free training that I am hosting at the end of this month of March. It is going to be the most fire hot today live training that I’ve ever created. I am so excited. And if you are a business owner who is looking to amplify your impact and income in the world you need to get in this room. We have so many women already signed up and I cannot wait to see you there. decided.kate.co. Without further ado, here’s my conversation with Brooke. Hello, and welcome to today’s episode of the boys rise podcast. I’m your host Kate scoter. And I am so excited to welcome our amazing guests, Brooke Weinstein onto the show today, Brooke, thank you so much for being here.

Brooke Weinstein
Of course, thank you for having me.

Cait
So, for those of you who do not already know Brooke is an amazing doctor of occupational therapy. She is a mama, business owner and badass woman who is creating so much space for women specifically to let themselves really thrive like a mother and have the space that they need to be able to lead lives run their businesses, if they’re entrepreneurs lead their companies in the most regulated and spacious way possible. Brooke, I am so inspired by you I started following you. I think I found you on the discover page with your freaking hilarious reels. Like the mother that I think I should be the mother that I am in one of those like Technicolor dancing videos. And I was like brand new mama and I’m like this is my woman. Yes, girl. Yes. So I appreciate you so much. And I’m so happy to be chatting with you today on the show.

Brooke Weinstein
Thank you. Thank you so much. I have a lot of fun doing it. And it brings out my creative side which I’ve always said.

Cait
Yeah, yeah. So beautiful. I love it. So for those of our listeners who do not know you super well or who haven’t been super involved in like following you. I would love for you to start to take us back to how you got started in this business. I mean, obviously you’re a doctor of occupational therapy. So you’ve worked with with all sorts of people in sensory regulation, but tell us how you got started specifically helping parents regulate their own emotions and nervous systems. And then bringing that work in the way that you had in such a big impact way to the audience that you now have?

How Brooke started helping parents regulate their emotions and nervous systems

Brooke Weinstein
Sure. Well, I have been in this industry for over a decade. And what I mean by industry is I would call it the healthcare industry, I worked in a hospital setting right out of the gate, I was so excited to do that. And I got to see such an incredible foundation of any and every diagnosis. I mean, I did the NICU to Down syndrome to spinal cord injury to traumatic brain injury to amputees, burns, like, you name it, I got to be able to experience it. But it wasn’t just with the clients and the kiddos it was with the parents as well. And as I began to start doing the 30 minute sessions and saw that the parents were just holding on every single moment, I recognize that within the hospital system, it doesn’t allow us very much time to really give the client and the child as well as the family what they need. And what I learned in school was, was based on client centered practice, meaning put the client first and when you’re doing back to back to back sessions every 30 minutes, it doesn’t leave much room for creativity, it doesn’t leave much room for taking into consideration the whole brain child and I got burnt out very fast. And so I wanted to do things differently. And as a very young clinician, I ended up opening my own clinic, freestanding clinic with a business partner. And she still owns it today in New Orleans. And it was very much centered on parent education as well as treatment. So we were really trying to incorporate with the parents what we were teaching the child because in reality, like I said, based on the model of health care in the hospital system, I’m only getting about 30 minutes to an hour with your child a week, that’s not much time to make progress and meet those goals. And at the same time, as I owned a brick and mortar, I also became a mom of my own, I had to premies, three years apart. And I jumped into motherhood and what that looks like. And I recognize how much I was doing for so many, right, I was a business owner, I was a mom, I was a caretaker as a wife. And long story short, Jonathan, my partner got a job offer here in Texas, and we decided to take ourselves up on that opportunity. But that didn’t come without its challenges. I had to really take some time to sit with Wait a second, what do I want, and what was right for me. And at that time I recognized I was stretched too thin. And I as a mom, and a parent didn’t feel like I was doing one thing well enough because I was doing so many different things. And so I took some time off when we moved here to Texas, that the kids settled. So I became a stay at home mom. And I was able to see the highs and lows of my business in New Orleans, I was able to see what was done well, and what I would have done differently. And I also really took a step back to think about why the model that I created within my brick and mortar didn’t work. Like why didn’t I still feel that I impacted the child and the family in the way that I wanted. And what I recognized is that it’s because of exactly how I was feeling like exactly how I myself was feeling. We as parents, we’re exhausted and we’re tired and we don’t have any more to add to our plate we just don’t and with the way the world works now and immediacy culture and how fast we need to go and keep up right. Homework from your OT is not high on the list. It’s it’s one more thing to add to the plate. And then I recognize what was going on in my own home and the type of bomb I was and waking up feeling exhausted and depleted and like this can’t be it. Like this is not what I thought this would be. And so I took all of my knowledge and I took I was like I went to school for this. Like I learned this, like, the things I wanted to teach the parents like it was time for me to implement them into my own home. And so that’s what I did. And even, you know, with my own personal story, for the listeners listening if you’re just meeting me, I am just a recently widowed mommy. So now I’m living the single life as mom and dad and I very much feel that if I had not implemented this into my own home, my children and I would not not be doing as well as we are right now. And that just goes to show that it starts with us. So now I’ve gone to the root of like, what I was trying to like, why is my kid doing that, like why like to help me understand, we’re not going to understand unless we first understand our own bodies and brains. And so that is what I implement.

Cait
That’s so powerful. Brooke, thank you so much for sharing that and that backstory and just your own. Moving from that, like traditional clinical brick and mortar setting, too. Okay, relocating, having a fresh start and becoming a mom yourself, with kids born prematurely. So you’re no like, so much more hands on stuff to deal with. And that and then evolving into now being you know, mom and dad in your household, I think it’s so powerful the mirror that you hold up of like, anything that we want to any kind of leadership that we want to have in our families, any kind of tone that we want to set for our kids any kind of behaviors we’re witnessing. And then there’s such a back and forth pattern between how are we if we’re expecting them to emotionally regulate, and we’re all over the place? Like, how on earth is that going to happen? So I think it’s I’m so inspired by the fact that you took both your like clinical training and background in your own lived experience to identify really such a huge gap in the parenting conversation and even hearing you talk like, my daughter is currently 16 months old, I’m pregnant. I saw that. Yeah, and there’s so much of this that I am like, I didn’t even think about until I got pregnant with Ella my first. And I will never forget reading somewhere that our biggest job this was like during my first pregnancy, I save this, I printed it out for assignment, like printed something on a printer and forever and hung it on my wall, like our biggest work as parents is not to control our kids, but to regulate our own emotions. And it just really hit home and for my audience, and a lot of people in my community all are female entrepreneurs at some stage of their journey. Many are mothers, although not all of them. But several are. And I think that this is the lessons that we learn in parenthood and in motherhood are so applicable to so many different areas of life, including in our business, if we’re expecting, you know, our clients, or our communities, or even our audience to respond in a certain way. But we’re all sort of out of whack. Like, how are we expecting things to go the way that we want if we don’t even possess the ability to regulate ourselves first. And so I would love for you to share with us a little bit more of like, take us inside a, you know, a day in the life of the work that you do with your clients, what are some of the things that you support them on to identify where they’re being either overly stimulated, or where their their nervous system is not regulated, where they’re, you know, in sensory overload how that plays out and impacts them in a negative way. And some of the ways that you start to coach them to come back to really get in more of a rhythm that’s going to support them in the thriving of their families?

What Brooke does to support her clients so they can get in the rhythm of thriving with their families

Brooke Weinstein
Yeah, absolutely. What I would say is, I start with an assessment, and I give every single one of my clients an assessment, that’s called the sensory profile. So I can literally see how their brain functions. And I give it to the parents, I give it to dads and moms like the whole family gets it, as well as the kids. And so I help them understand their child’s brain and it breaks it down to four different categories as well as each individual stimuli. So I can understand if you are overstimulated by light, or if you are just drastically dysregulated when there’s screaming and sound all around you with loud toys. Or maybe you’re living in fight or flight as a high performer. I have a lot of dads I work with dads as well, on a one on one basis, and also doing the Thrive like a father program soon. But most dads are let’s call it the patriarchal view of society. And I shouldn’t say most, but I should say that and how we have viewed society is dads are the breadwinners. And so there’s so much pressure on them to perform and to perform at that level and to maintain that level that they release everything else off their plate. And so because they are able to lift themselves to that heightened state of fight or flight and stay there, that is how they end up showing up feeling exhausted and maybe not as tuned in and so I really help the entire family literally entire family because that’s one area of my business and career that I’ve been not happy with is what If you’re treating one person, you’re treating the entire family. And that’s the responsibility that I take on as a clinician, I am unwilling to help one part of the puzzle like that, it’s just one piece. And we, as adults, like our generation, our parents generation, never learned this. And so, if you are in any type of profession, you need to do continuing education to keep your credentials. And so as parents, we have placed so much pressure on ourselves to just be like, perfect from the moment a child pops out, but there’s no dress rehearsal to parenthood. And if you yourself did not understand your own brain makeup moving through life as a child, and not understanding the conditioning, from societal norms, as well as the conditioning from your own home that you grew up in for many, many, many, many years, there is no humanly way possible, you are going to be able to regulate yourself to then be able to co regulate with your child.

Cait
Yes, it’s so so true. And I’m so glad that you mentioned like the blueprint that we all inherit from our childhood and how much that impacts us. And, you know, it’s it’s so interesting hearing you talk about, like that patriarchal view of society. And a lot of the pressures that you witnessed in working with the whole family that you see fall on to the Father, one of the things that’s really interesting and true in the industry that I’m in and a lot of my community is in is that there is a real shifting of the tide and a real shifting of the norms. And a lot, I would say, over 80% of the women that I work with, or have in my community are the breadwinners of their family, and many of them are either moms or want to be moms. And so while they may, you know many of them may have a partner at home, supporting with the parenting, they feel that pressure to perform in such an extraordinary way. And then you also have all of the pressure of, you know, being a good mom and making it look effortless and easy. And here’s the birthday cake for the party and the healthy snacks. And oh, by the way, here’s my million dollar business and like, like, we’re just supposed to be able to be circus performers with 75 Balls spinning, and nobody’s talking about what’s actually going on. So I think that for anybody who is listening who feels like that, and they’re like, Yep, you’re describing me, you need to speak to Brooke, because this is exactly what she does. And I think it’s so, so needed, because I know for a fact that there are so many women who are feeling like they’re doing the circus performing thing of the plates spinning and the balls spinning, and yet they feel like at any given moment, the balls are about to drop. And, you know, I think it’s you, you brought up a really interesting point in your recent share about regulating ourselves in our own nervous system first, but then this piece of CO regulation with our kids. So can you for anybody who’s hearing that and is like, Oh, that’s interesting, but I don’t really know what that means. Can you kind of describe like, first of all, what does it mean to sensory regulate, emotionally regulate, regulate our nervous system? Like, do the work inside of ourselves first? And then what does it mean to co regulate alongside of our kids?

What does sensory regulation, emotional regulation, and nervous system regulation mean?

Brooke Weinstein
Sure. So when I work with my clients, I am very much tracking their patterns, I work with them for a minimum of 10 to 12 weeks. And that’s really enough time for me to be able to see not just the landscape of their brain, but also how it functions and the highs and lows. And so when clients come to me, I say that they’re basically living in big peaks and valleys they go up, right they have that my burnout cycle where you can see what stage you’re in, and then you crash and burn but what ends up happening is you guilt and shame yourself. And you say that it’s me I need to change like you’re saying the circus person right? Like i It’s me, I should be able to keep it all together and look as as not just a female entrepreneur or someone who is very much loving my career, my job, but also like I said earlier as mom and dad so I understand that pressure we as women are now facing right to perform as well as continue our caretaking roles that we have historically always done. And so what I do is I help track their fight or flight system really to see when they’re regulated and when they’re not and what’s coming up and maybe what time of year it is what’s going on in the family what’s going on the children at the any kind of shifts and change and I help them get to where it’s just like will hills so like you are still wanna feel the burnout? Sometimes you are going to still feel all the feelings you are going to still spite, let’s say at times, but it’s not this drastic feeling of like that rage cleaning, right? Like all of a sudden you’re like, oh, like there’s a mess everywhere, like what is going on right when you’re already in fight or flight? If you can’t literally feel that on yourself if you have no idea how to feel that on yourself. There is no humanly way, excuse me way possible, right? Like I said, Why is my child doing that there is always a reason behind our behavior, like always. And at no point did someone hands you a certificate and say congratulations, you’re now an adult. So I’m sorry, but we have meltdowns. We have tantrums, just like the rest of us, right? We’re just, it’s just your brain is older. Like that’s, that’s it, there’s no child behavior versus adult behavior. It’s human behavior. And so what I help understand is, your children feed off of the energy, right? And so if you’re heightened, what ends up happening is kind of like a curve, your child goes up the curve with you. Now they follow, they’re not going to be ahead of you unless something has happened. And it triggers you to go up. But usually they will be following you because you are the big kahuna in the house, right? You’re a parent. And so what ends up happening is I watch as my my parents go up and fight or flight, and they’re kind of stressed out, and we move through some stuff. And then we’re able to regulate them back down. And then they’re saying, oh my gosh, like my child is just today, like, oh, like it’s a day or two after you have regulated. And so what we as parents don’t realize is it’s not this, I was reading through conscious parenting, like the list of like, what it means to be consciously parenting or like gentle parenting. I’m telling you, the list was like, well do this and then don’t do that. But then do this, but don’t do that. But you can say no. It’s like, what are you like, what the hell is it? Like, what are we talking about here, like, that’s more stress, more pressure to show up. And to really give yourself the allowance or give yourself the allowance of saying, I’m doing enough. It’s like, there’s no humanly way possible, I was going to be able to get these parents to do what I wanted their child to do, or to support that child with the behavior that I was seeing. Because the parent didn’t understand what I had learned in school, the parent didn’t understand how it felt inside and for all intensive purposes until I did my own work. I myself didn’t understand it until I built this model to figure out how to support my children and their emotional and sensory regulation like how to support them in terms of simple steps to take right that incorporates problem solving, and feeling how you’re feeling within your body checking in are your shoulders razor, your jaws clenched, like, you know, one way I explained this to people and a lot of people they’re like, oh my gosh, like, I like that never thought of that is emotional eating right? Like your jaw is a joint and if you are seeking input, or you are in a heightened state, or you are anxious and your brain is like a hamster wheel, you’re going to want to satiate that anxiety, you’re going to want to like your body, naturally, your body naturally knows how to regulate itself. Yeah, so like all the kids that are scaling the walls, like they are attempting to regulate themselves, but what do we do with social norms? Sit down, stay at the table, finish your meal, right? Exactly Stop squirming is sit in your desk all day at school, right? Don’t even get me started on like slashing PE so in some schools, right, but back to the emotional eating point. Like I tell my clients like this is a chewy to like, let your child chew on it. And the Where does a cute necklace it looks like a Lego and you know, some kids will chew on their shirts. Some kids will bite their nails. Adults bite their nails, adults pick their skin like that is all attempting to naturally regulate your body. And so I help my clients understand like, how am I feeling right now when we’re like nibbling the whole bag of I don’t know popcorn at night, right just like mind numbingly watching something like moving your jaw to get input into your body. And so we just kind of take a look at what’s going on and how it is manifesting within their body as well as their children’s. And because there’s so much awareness of how they’re feeling and where it’s coming up and what they need and how to take care of their emotions and their sensory system. They’re able to come down off that curve of fight or flight so much faster, and be able to be more present, right? Like the idea is to be calm, available and present to be able to enjoy the life that we’re all working so hard for, right? Like, what’s the point of building a million dollar business if you’re not going to sit there and actually enjoy the money that you’ve created a work so hard for? Because let’s not like fluff this any. And I know that’s like what you teach, right? You teach how to scale a business or just business coaching in general. But like, no matter how, which way you slice it, fish, it’s hard. Like, yeah, it still requires effort, and it still requires work. And I can tell you for myself, I did not get here overnight. And I did not just flip a switch and be like, tada, she’s so lucky. Like, it takes hard work, hard work. And so if you right, so if you can’t enjoy it, like you can’t slow your brain down or even know how to slow your brain down and stop, like, mind numbingly scrolling, because your body is transitioning down, or zoning out, right. Like, if you’re not actually watching your child on the seesaw and enjoying it. What is it? What is what is it worth? Like? What is the point?

Cait
100%? I couldn’t agree with you more. This is so powerful. I’m so glad that you’re sharing this because it’s it is everything. What is the point and I think that that’s where a lot of entrepreneurs get lost in the chase, they get lost in the climb, they get lost in like, what’s the next accolade that I can brag about. And the expensive that I think for a lot of people is I’m not even going to look at my nervous system. I’m not even going to like try to go there about what’s happening fight or flight wise, because I’m just chasing the thing. I’m not actually tuned into how I’m feeling. And so I love everything that you just shared, shared about the process that you go through with your clients and the parents and the moms and the families that you work with about really, you said something that I think is so important about being aware, like cultivating that awareness and curiosity, first of like, oh, when am I just like blinking my eyes open? And I’m like three quarters of the way through a bag of Doritos. Or where do I think another place that this manifests and this isn’t like that sensory input with the mouse. But you mentioned scrolling. I know, like so many of my clients that I speak to if they’re like, Hey, I had a big day. The last thing that I actually want to do is be on my phone. And yet, I just find myself like getting lost in a real hole scroll hole. I love that you say like, Hey, that’s your brain trying to come down trying to end that.

Brooke Weinstein
And what I love about disassociation, it’s attempting to, to zone out as a way to slow your brain down. The wait like where you were at in terms of being in the work environment for the day, let’s say fast pace, right? To be present and available for our children requires a completely different patience and almost like breath work wise, right? Like really like, hi, like, how are you like, taking deep breaths, right? But the in between is, what do you do with that energy? The in between is how do you down regulate? How do you get off the curve? To take a deep breath, relax your shoulders and say, Okay, I’m home.

Cait
Hmm. Right, even if you work from home, but like to actually arise to walk out the office? Oh, yeah, totally. I love that so much. And the thing that I want to highlight about what I’m hearing and what you’re saying, which I think is so freakin important that a lot of moms especially miss is the neutrality of it. Like I don’t hear you saying, Hey, if you emotionally eat, you’re doing it wrong. Or hey, if you’re in a scroll hole, you’re doing it wrong, or hey, if you have been like, not present, you’re doing it wrong, like the neutrality of noticing and cultivating the awareness of, hey, you’re in a heightened state, it sounds it feels to me and the way you’re describing this is like that neutral observer. And that neutral awareness creates the space to then down regulate in a much more easeful way. And I think that’s really important, because I know, a lot of moms in the work that I do like, and I obviously don’t do the exact same work as you but I see like, there’s almost this guilt of I can’t get there. And that almost makes it in my opinion, and I’m curious what you see in your practice, like, if you see a lot of moms or parents who feel guilty about not being able to be present with their kids, it’s almost like guilt just compounds the fight or flight it doesn’t actually help being able to drop in. So um, yeah, I would say to or what you do say to your clients who really struggle with that guilt story, like how you help them unhook from that so that they can just be neutral. Okay, cool. Maybe I have been not present or whatever, that’s okay. And now we can bring it down.

How to unhook from your guilt and remain neutral

Brooke Weinstein
Yeah, um, what I would say is it’s not It’s just gonna be me, it’s not as simple as to just come down. But with the awareness of it and with the understanding of like, okay, I know what’s going on within my body. And I know what’s going on with my brain. And I know why. And I know that I’m in fight or flight right now, because this feels a certain way, like, I teach my clients to be able to understand how their body is feeling. And to like your body is your compass, like you have to listen in every single moment. And you can then understand if that feels good, or if that doesn’t feel good, right? And then you can make a choice to either do it again or not do it again. Or you can literally build your entire career or lifestyle based off of guiding your guidance system of your competence and saying, What does feel good for me, especially as individual entrepreneurs, like, what do I want my life to look like? How many days a week do I want to work? How much rest do I need? How much off time do I need? How much phone time do I need? Like? What do you want it to look like? And then from there, you can start to create that because you’re recognizing, well, does this work for me? How do I feel is that too much time to be working? While I wasn’t really regulated because I felt so heightened and like, I’m spinning and so I had didn’t really pay attention to the kids tonight. And they just watched their tablets all night. And like, like you, if you can understand that it’s your brain, if you can understand that it’s your nervous system, if you can understand that you it takes your brain time to down regulate and time to move through the steps of saying, like your amygdala saying like, okay, there’s no threat here, like Bear wise, right? Like, no bears chasing me, I’m safe. Like, it’s okay to calm down and relax. And the most interesting thing is that our amygdala is our, your, your fight or flight system is like a smoke detector. And anytime it senses or sniffs out smoke, your body is going to jump up into fight or flight. And because of the way we function because of the society, like just because of social norms at this point, like 99% of my moms like night and dads like all are consciously living in fight or flight like, and I teach them how to be able to come down. And so the guilt and shame behind it gets lost and gets flushed away because they recognize that this is their brain. This like, what we’re doing here is basically I’m like a physical therapist for your brain, right? Like we’re we’re milking or pumping the iron here with your brain. We’re doing reps, we’re putting in reps. And so if you can understand, okay, like, that’s where I’m at today. But tomorrow, that might not be where I’m at. Or like, this is where I’m at for the moment, or, yeah, I felt angry in that moment. Like, that’s just where I’m at. And that is okay. As well as then understanding what do I need? Like? How do I feel? Where do I feel my body? What do I need? Maybe you need a rest? Maybe you need a run? Maybe you need a kickboxing class. Maybe you need yoga, or to read a book, or a movie night, right? Like, what do you need? Because you’re literally tapping in and asking your brain like, hey, what do you need right now? How am I going to take care of you in this moment, you could release the guilt and shame behind self care and taking care of yourself because you understand that whether I snap at my kids, yeah, it must mean that I’m dysregulated or in fight or flight at the moment and whether you need to go take a few hours for yourself. You release the guilt and shame mine that too, because you’re like, Yep, I’m gonna come back stronger and more present parents for this.

Cait
So powerful and such an important message. And I love how you talked about like, this is just your brain. It’s neutral. There’s nothing. It’s just information. And with that information, you get to make a different choice that serves you better and helps you serve your family better as well. I think that’s so so important. One of the things I always love to ask on this show is it’s called borns rise like I would love for you to describe for us a moment in your because I mean, you’ve shared some of your tidbits of your personal journey and just the unfolding of your trajectory, both in terms of your career and your life. If there’s been a moment that you can think of that stands out that in building your business and the evolution that it’s taken in the way that you now serve so many families parents mom’s if there’s a moment that you found yourself on your knees falling down and how you lead yourself to rise up through that to continue to serve Have you in the way that you serve lead your business in the way that you do like what has been a moment that you’ve had to rise from and what has helped you to do that?

A moment that Brooke had to rise from and what helped her accomplish that

Brooke Weinstein
Well, like I said, I am just Brockton, I’m blind. But there hasn’t just been a moment. Like, there’s moments all the time. There’s moments every week, there’s moments every month. And I think we, as women and humans, in general, we have a really hard time admitting that that like, like I said earlier, like shits hard, like, life is not so simple and easy, right. And in order to move through those moments, like you said, like, I’ve been down on my knees, like crying, and I’m like, Holy God, this is this, like, I feel anger, I feel sad, like, just leaning in and feeling at all I’m having a hard moment is, is like the end of a rainbow. And what comes after it is a pot of gold. And I explained to my clients, like I said to you earlier, tantrums, and meltdowns are definitely different. And when you’re at your wit’s end, and like, you are there and you’re curled in a ball in the corner of your closet, like that is your meltdown, like you are there and you are releasing those tears, to be able to move that energy and get to your pot of gold. And the next time that your child has a tantrum, watch, like, watch the pot of gold, all of a sudden, they’re like, Okay, Mom, let’s go, like what the heck just happened there. And so there’s been many, many moments in my life in the past handful of years, and over the course of my relationship with Jonathan for 10 years, into a very uncomfortable and difficult ending. And each moment that I have like that, I know that it’s where I need to be. It is literally where I need to be. And it’s what I need to feel to be able to, right, feel it to heal it. And for any of you listening, or watching on Instagram, you know, like I’ve said, today life is has its challenges and ups and downs. And it’s okay to feel at all like, we push feelings away so desperately because they’re so uncomfortable. But it’s like, all takeout. It begins to smell after a while. And so just leaning into those moments and saying this is okay. Like, I’m, I’m screaming into a pillow, but this is okay. Like this is where I’m supposed to be. And this is for a reason. And you release it.

Cait
So powerful, so powerful, not making it bad or wrong. I love that. It’s so beautiful. Oh, Brooke, this was so incredible. Thank you so much. I would love for you to share more about your work more about the ways to work with you. I know you have an amazing program coming up or ongoing thrive like a mother tell us all of what that is about?

What is Thrive Like a Mother

Brooke Weinstein
Yes. My I would say hop is my Instagram page, which is broken in half of my last name Weinstein. And you can find tons of valuable information there with lots of videos. But if you’re wanting to learn more, I run a program that is a 12 week program. And it’s a really intimate time for women to come together and share like they’ve never shared before. And go there, share those feelings and literally put in the reps and practice. What it looks like to feel what they’re feeling and figure out what that how their body ticks and how to take care of their body and their brain so that they can become more present and available and thrive rather than survive. Which I absolutely was doing at one point in my life of just waking up and surviving and getting through the day. And it’s a place where I help you move through that space and not just teaching you like the steps to take but like trying them on and implementing them in real time. And it’s an incredible process to watch. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. Like I feel so blessed and grateful for my clients to trust me and to go on that journey with me. And yeah, so that’s coming up at the end of March and there’ll be other opportunities to join as well. But I would love to To help any mom and every mom out there.

Cait
So beautiful Brooke, thank you so much. So we’re gonna put that in the show notes. If you’re listening to this on the podcast, we’ll include the links to thrive like a mother for you to be able to check that out. And the link to your Instagram as well, which, again, I just fell in love with you because of your reels. And obviously, there’s so much more than just your humor. You’re just a wellspring of so much information and so much. I feel like the needed breath of fresh air for so many moms and families to be like, Okay, I’m not doing it wrong, there just gets to be a way that I get to take care of myself and like lift up the hood, see what’s really going on in here and support myself to not just survive, but to thrive. So thank you for the work that you do. And it is just so so beautiful to be on the show. If you had to leave one, our listeners with one piece of advice, one nugget of wisdom. I mean, you’ve been dropping them all episode. But if you had to leave them with one piece of advice, what would it be?

Brooke Weinstein
I would say that you’re doing enough. And if you worry at night, and the fact that you are worried that you’re not doing enough means that you are and for the ones who are struggling and not willing to share. There’s a safe space for you, whether it’s me or anyone else that you find a liking to you. You have that right like you get that and it is okay to just simply be where you’re at. And you’re enough.

Cait
So powerful. Brooke, thank you so much. This was such an incredible conversation, and I can’t wait to share it with our community. Absolutely. It has been so beautiful to be here with you guys. And Brooke, thank you once again. You’re incredible.