Lighten Up with Melanie Dale

Latest Episodes:

Lighten Up #113: Melissa Camara Wilkins Jan 28, 2020

Show notes

We're in the middle of our series, Lighten Up about Hospitality, and today I'm chatting with Melissa Camara Wilkins, author of Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of the Rest. She tells the story of the time she wore jeans to a yoga class and actually learned kind of a profound lesson through it. Melissa extends to us an invitation to soul-level simplicity, giving yourself permission to be who you really are. We chat about making life simpler and how we apply simplicity to hospitality. She shares her Three Breaths Rule, we talk about our go-to hacks for having people over, and as a bonus, I pick her brain about her number one practical piece of advice for launching kids to college, and it's a good one. Whether you're joining us from your commute or your treadmill, your laundry room or your kitchen, listen in and lighten up!

Links from the Show:

Melissa's book, Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of the Rest

Lighten Up #112: Leslie Verner Jan 21, 2020

Show notes

Today I'm kicking off a new series, Lighten Up about Hospitality, with a conversation with Leslie Verner, the author of Invited: The Power of Hospitality in an Age of Loneliness. We talk about why we're lonely, how smartphones and our culture of independence are contributing to loneliness. Leslie lived in China and Uganda, studied the differences in culture, and talks about what she's learned from other cultures, like putting people above tasks. We chat about how we can cultivate a love of strangers and actively put ourselves in the path of strangers to meet. And then we talk practically about prepping before people come over, what doesn't matter to us when inviting people over, and how the practice of solitude is important for filling up in order to provide hospitality. Whether you love meeting people and practicing hospitality or would rather live deep in the woods by yourself surrounded by woodland animals, there's something here for everyone, so listen in and lighten up!

Links from the show:

Check out Leslie's book, Invited
Find her on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
Leslie's site, Scraping Raisins (On the show, she shares the really cool reason she named her site this!)

Lighten Up #111: Melanie Shankle Oct 08, 2019

Show notes

Today we're wrapping up our Friendship Over 40 series with New York Times bestselling author Melanie Shankle! Ahh, you guys, she's so funny. I laughed my way through this whole thing. We chat about her 30-year friendship with her best friend Gully and how it's hard making new friends during this stage of life, as well as the things we're talking about with our friends, sexy things like waning eyesight and needing readers to see a menu, the joys of perimenopause, and our 40-something periods. (Women in their forties are so hot, and I do mean literally.) Between her funny memoirs, Big Mama blog, and Big Boo podcast, Melanie has kept me laughing for years, and today we're hanging out right here, so pull up a chair, listen in, and lighten up!

Links from the show:

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Lighten Up #110: Callie Feyen Oct 01, 2019

Show notes

Today for our friendship over 40 series I'm talking with my friend Callie Feyen, author of The Teacher Diaries: Romeo & Juliet and Twirl. We chat about how making friends has changed for us as we've gotten older and how our conversations have morphed from nap schedules to navigating our teens' technology and talking about our jobs. Callie introduces us to her friends in her memoir Twirl, so we talk about she's maintaining these friendships from high school all the way into her forties, as well as what she would tell her thirty-year-old self. We talk about hanging out without the kids, how we coach our kids to be kind to each other so the adults can still hang out during these volatile middle school years, and how, thankfully, we are separate from our kids, with separate friendships. Come on over and hang out with Callie and me, listen in, and lighten up!

Links from the show:

Check out Callie's books:

Find Callie on Twitter and Instagram

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Lighten Up #109: Kathy Khang Sep 24, 2019

Show notes

We're continuing our series on friendship over 40, and today I'm talking with author, speaker, and yoga teacher Kathy Khang. She's the author of the book Raise Your Voice, and she has great advice for us as we navigate the difficult subjects with our friends. How do we speak up about things we care about with the people we love? We also chat about making your own friends without your kids as a buffer, maintaining your friends as your kids' friendships change, letting go of friendships when you grow in different directions, and mom drama. And, we talk about that thing when your kids get older and want to join you and your friends at the grownup table. Ugh, I miss the old days of spelling swear words so they wouldn't understand. Pour a cup of coffee, pop a squat on your yoga mat, listen in, and lighten up!

Links from the show:

Check out Kathy's book Raise Your Voice
Find her on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
Check out Kathy’s website
Kathy was my guest on episode #78!

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As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Lighten Up #108: Jamie C. Martin Sep 17, 2019

Show notes

We are in our series Lighten Up about Friendship Over 40 and today I'm talking with one of my longest-running friends, Jamie C. Martin, author of Introverted Mom. We chat about what friendship over 40 looks like, specifically in regard to introverts and extroverts. As an extrovert, I'm always worried about being annoying, so Jamie equips us with fantastic advice on how to engage our introverted friends. She shares how she likes to get to know someone, her favorite things to do with friends, and how she maintains friendships during this busy season of life. If you don't already know Jamie, I'm so excited to introduce you to MY friend, so screw in your earbuds or airpods, crank up Alexa, push the button thingy on the interwebz, listen in, and lighten up!

Links from the show:

Check out Introverted Mom
Take the Introverted Mom quiz!
Find Jamie on Instagram
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Educated by Tara Westover
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

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As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Lighten Up #107: Elisha Beach Sep 10, 2019

Show notes

Today by popular demand, I'm starting a new series called Lighten Up about Friendship Over 40. Back when I wrote Women Are Scary, about finding mom friends during the early childhood years, I had women ask me when I was going to write a book about finding mom friends later in life, and finding mom friends when you have teenagers. My response was always, hold on lemme get there first. Well I'm here now and several of you have asked me about friendship over 40 so we're going to explore this over the next few weeks. I'm excited about this series because I've got some fantastic guests coming on to unpack all this with me. And this series is for everyone. If you're in your twenties and thirties, there's some relationship gold in here, so enjoy hearing people a little farther along prepare you for what's coming. If you're in your forties, you know what we're talking about, so pull up a chair and come help us solve all our problems. If you're out of your forties, send us all your thoughts and prayers and feel free to laugh at us behind our backs. Wherever you are in life, text a friend, grab a cup of coffee, and keep working hard at those relationships.

To kick us off, my friend Elisha Beach, founder of The Mom Forum, is joining me. Elisha and I met on the set of Moms Everyday, a TV show we were on several years ago, and I just love her. She's so easy to talk to and open and honest - so open and honest in fact that a photo she posted of herself nursing while on the toilet went viral a few years ago. I knew we had to be friends immediately. She was on the show all the way back on episode 27, back when I think we both were still in our thirties, in fact, so let's welcome her 40 year old self back on the show. And I'm so glad YOU'RE here joining us today, so get comfy, listen in, and lighten up.

Links from the show:

The Mom Forum

Find Elisha on social media:

Want more Elisha? She was on episode 27 of Lighten Up, too!

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As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Lighten Up #106: Stephanie Tait Aug 06, 2019

Show notes

Hey welcome to episode 106 of Lighten up with Melanie Dale. BONUS ILLNESS EDITION. I know I said we concluded the Lighten Up with Illness series, and I'm well into working on our next series, Lighten Up about Friendship Over 40, but recently Stephanie Tait ran across my path and she has a new book called The View from Rock Bottom so, I mean, I was dying to talk to her about how she lightens up down there at rock bottom. Stephanie talks about her tenacious 15-year journey to getting diagnosed with Lyme Disease, what it's like living with Lyme, and how she learned to lighten up and let herself have a life in the midst of disability, instead of waiting indefinitely until everything was all better. She asked herself, "What if this is my life...what am I waiting for?" Stephanie is hopeful and real and I know you'll love hanging out with her as much as I did, so listen in and lighten up.

Links from the show:

The View from Rock Bottom
Check out Stephanie's website: www.stephanietaitwrites.com Find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Under Our Skin documentary
Glorious Weakness by Alia Joy, who was just on episode 105 of Lighten Up
Disability and the Way of Jesus
Light from Distant Stars by Shawn Smucker, who was on episode 43 of Lighten Up

Lighten Up #105: Alia Joy Jul 23, 2019

Show notes

Today for the finale to our series, Lighten Up about Illness, I'm talking with Alia Joy. You may remember her from episode 99, and now I'm happy to share that her new book, Glorious Weakness: Discovering God in All We Lack, is available now. Today we talk about her bipolar disorder, how it's impacted her life and her kids, and the unpredictability that comes with illness. She says, "I have to be okay with undone things." We talk about what she's learned from bipolar disorder, and Alia says, "Everybody goes through seasons. Mine are just more noticeable...Bipolar is like you're making sandcastles and they're just constantly being swept away." She shares about looking for beauty and wonder in places you'd never expect to find it, and the way she lightens up in the middle of everything is by raising funny kids. We talk about the amazing comedic timing of her kids and the blessings of having a funny family. Through her book and our conversation, Alia is teaching me so much, so grab a fuzzy blanket, get comfy, listen in, and lighten up.

Links from the show:

Check out Alia’s new book, Glorious Weakness: Discovering God in All We Lack
Find Alia on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Alia’s website
Listen to Alia's previous visit to Lighten Up Podcast, Episode #99
Alia’s essays:
The Atlas of Reds and Blues

Lighten Up #104: Lauren Gaskill Jul 16, 2019

Show notes

We are in the middle of our series "Lighten Up about Illness" and today I'm talking with Lauren Gaskill, author of Into the Deep: Diving into a Life of Courageous Faith, and host of the podcast She Found Joy. Lauren has hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), which affects her collagen, joints, and muscles. We chat about her road to finding a diagnosis, her treatments for EDS, and how she is lightening up and finding joy while managing her symptoms. Lauren shares how keeping an eternal perspective helps her lighten up about her circumstances, how she figures out the safe people to talk with about her disorder, and her advice for developing a supportive community. I'm so glad you're with us, so pull up a chair, listen in, and lighten up.

Links from the show:

She Found Joy podcast
Find a She Found Joy event near you
Check out Lauren's book, Into the Deep: Diving into a Life of Courageous Faith
"A Stink Bug Tried to Mate with Me" - my bug essay on Coffee+Crumbs
Letters to the Church by Francis Chan
Winning the Worry Battle by Barb Roose (Barb was on Lighten Up episode #75!)
The Writing Desk by Rachel Hauck
Pet Sematary by Stephen King
Divergent by Veronica Roth

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