Being honest about physical wellness
How often do you stop and really tune into your body? Do you take time to recognize what you are feeling and how it is impacting your physical wellness?
What if we allowed ourselves radical honesty without judgement? What if we gave ourselves the space to tell the truth about our health and wellness—without having to do something about it right this minute? What if we took advantage of this feminine tool and learned to trust what our bodies are telling us?
Molly Mahar was an overachiever who ‘did what she was supposed to.’ After earning her BS in Hotel Administration from Cornell, Molly spent five years in the industry and eventually landed a coveted job on the sales team of a sexy boutique hotel in Seattle. Then she had a quarter-life crisis and quit her job to travel the world with her now-husband Ken, figuring out what she was meant to do.
Creating space for wellness in practice
Molly started the Stratejoy blog in 2009 because she needed it. She needed a place to talk about ambitious dreams, fears that she didn’t want to admit to, and how she feels about everything—from work to sex to money to motherhood. Now Molly has built a thriving community where women can be themselves without judgement and support each other in the pursuit of authentically joyous lives. Through this joy, wellness can become something natural, not tedious.
Today, Molly shares the Stratejoy journey, from inception to its current exponential growth. I ask her about the stories women aren’t telling and her ‘word of the year’ practice. Listen in as Molly reveals how exploring the word ‘pleasure’ impacted her relationship with her husband and how she incorporates stillness into her busy life as a busy entrepreneur and mother.
The Startup Pregnant Podcast Episode #011
Some quotes from the episode
- “I played what I called in my head ‘the long game.’ If you don’t give up, you won’t fail. I understand maybe that’s not the wisest mantra to have, but it was mine.”
- “I’m really interested in how do we reclaim or hold onto the piece of ourselves that’s the ‘Sarah,’ that’s the ‘Molly,’ when we’re inundated with our roles: Mama, wife, entrepreneur. How do I get to just be Molly? Where is the space for that in my life?”
- “You get to decide: There is no right way to do life. There’s literally only your way, and within all of that crazy, busy multi-tasking … that has to be balanced with some level of silence, some place in your life that is quiet and still and just for you.”
- “How do you tell the truth about yourself, to yourself? It’s basically eliminating judgement about what’s coming up, or … there has got to be some piece of you that allows yourself to tell the truth without worrying about what you’re going to do with it.”
- “I knew I was living ‘neck up.’ I wasn’t in my body … ‘Let me think about this, let me plan for this, let me take experiments’—all the things that I value about myself. But I had this sense that there was more to access, and I had no idea how to do it.”
- “Just the idea of paying attention to [sexual pleasure], and talking about it, and making it a priority was such a game changer.”
- “I needed to build in some transition time to ‘be Molly’—not Mama, not entrepreneur—just myself, the self that wants to go into the bedroom and take off my clothes with my husband. And I wasn’t giving that any importance before.”
LEARN MORE ABOUT MOLLY MAHAR
Molly Mahar is the founder and CEO of Stratejoy, a vibrant training and coaching company aimed at empowering women to practice joy in a messy world. She is passionate about building a thriving community that helps women find joy in the tiny moments, go after the big dreams, and feel deeply connected to their personal truth. Molly has led workshops for lululemon, the US Army, and Ladies Who Launch, among others. She was named one of ProBlogger’s Top 20 Bloggers to Watch in 2012 and has been a featured speaker at the SXSW Interactive Conference.
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
- Erin Boyle on Startup Pregnant
- Lara Catone
- Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski
- Pussy: A Reclamation by Regena Thomashauer
- Women’s Anatomy of Arousal by Sheri Winston
THE STARTUP PREGNANT PODCAST & HOST
EPISODE SPONSOR & SPECIAL OFFER
Thank you to the sponsor of this episode: Aeroflow Breastpumps. They are dedicated to making the hassle of getting your breast pump a little bit easier—actually, a lot easier! Head to www.aeroflowbreastpumps.com/startup to have them help you qualify for a free breast pump through insurance.
All of our sponsor offers are available on our website for you to grab the perks and discounts offered to podcast listeners: https://startupparent.com/sponsors