Sue spent more than 30 years helping other people tell their stories while feeling invisible in her own. After divorce, a visit to a crystal booth led her toward Angelic Reiki, sound meditation, and a growing collection of instruments she never expected to own.

In this episode, I talk with Sue about returning to music without the pressure to play perfectly, what happens during her sound meditations, and how her spiritual practice helped her become more comfortable being seen.

We also get into the everyday side of finding yourself: wanting more alone time, learning to pause before reacting, and following an interest without knowing where it will lead. Along the way, there’s a skeptical dog, my unexpected motorcycle story, and a message Sue believes came from her late brother.

IN THIS EPISODE
• Starting over after divorce and exploring unfamiliar interests
• Angelic Reiki and Sue’s relationship with spiritual guidance
• Sound bowls, intuitive playing, and music without perfection
• Becoming visible after years of supporting other people
• Finding community when you genuinely enjoy being alone
• Boundaries, grief, and personal experiences of connection

CHAPTERS
00:00 “I was invisible for a really long time”
00:24 Welcome to Fate, Forty & Beyond
01:46 Meet Sue
03:37 A crystal booth and an unexpected new direction
05:54 Returning to music without perfection
07:33 Exploring Angelic Reiki
11:25 Why being still can feel difficult
13:07 Ask Your Guides by Sonia Choquette
13:46 Sue’s first Reiki experience
18:37 Bringing sound, meditation, and Reiki together
22:04 Personal accounts from sound meditation sessions
25:41 Ocean drums and trying sound bowls
26:39 A sound bath, a date, and a motorcycle
28:32 Intuitive playing and responding to the room
32:48 Dogs have opinions about sound bowls
33:54 Resonance and spiritual interpretations
37:34 Becoming visible and putting yourself out there
40:17 Alone time and finding your people
43:25 Responding differently to conflict
44:54 How Sue prepares a sound meditation
47:32 Grounding and spiritual practice
48:20 Sue’s story about her late brother
51:00 Closing thoughts
52:34 Where to find Sue

MENTIONED
Ask Your Guides by Sonia Choquette

Content note: This conversation includes divorce, sibling bereavement, and personal accounts involving pain, fear, and spiritual experiences. These stories reflect individual experiences, not established treatment outcomes. Reiki and sound meditation are not substitutes for medical or mental health care.

If you love warm, real midlife conversations with humor and heart, you'll feel right at home here.

Follow the show & connect with Gen:

Gen's Website: https://www.soulfulexistence.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulfulxistence

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@soulfulxistence

Podcast Homepage: https://www.fatefortyandbeyond.com

Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fatefortyandbeyond

Podcast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fatefortyandbeyond

CONNECT WITH SUE

Sue Huss is the practitioner behind Pure Works Energy. With a background in journalism and more than 30 years of corporate experience, she shares how Angelic Reiki and sound meditation became part of her life. She also co-hosts Sounds for the Soul with Bob and Sue.

Website: https://www.pureworksenergy.com/

Podcast: Sounds for the Soul with Bob and Sue — available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, as shared in this episode.

What happens when the beliefs you've held your entire life no longer make sense for the person you're becoming? This week, I'm chatting with Sam, whose spiritual journey has taken her from Catholic school to a convent, a Hare Krishna temple, and eventually into Reiki, reflexology, massage therapy, and end-of-life care. And somehow, with all the different paths she's explored, I found myself relating to so much of her story.

We get into what it's like to question the religion you grew up with, let go of beliefs rooted in fear, and figure out what spirituality looks like on your own terms. We also talk about manifestation, parallel realities, the idea that we're all connected, and how unexpected life changes can lead us toward work that actually feels right. And because neither of us can resist going a little deeper, we explore grief, the signs we sometimes experience after losing someone, and how our experiences with death can change the way we look at life.

• [02:28] – Sam's spiritual journey begins with Catholic school, an interest in the paranormal, and an unexpected introduction to Buddhism.
• [06:21] – What led Sam to enter a convent, why she eventually left, and how she found herself exploring Hare Krishna traditions.
• [12:03] – How 15 years working in the Catholic Church affected her relationship with religion and her sense of purpose.
• [20:32] – Getting laid off, returning to massage therapy, and finding opportunities in Reiki and reflexology when she least expected them.
• [23:47] – I share my own Catholic upbringing and how divorce gave me the freedom to explore spirituality differently.
• [34:03] – Our conversation takes a turn toward collective consciousness, manifestation, parallel realities, and the possibility that there's more to existence than what we see.
• [40:32] – Sam shares how losing her parents shaped her understanding of grief, spiritual connection, forgiveness, and end-of-life care.

Sam offers massage therapy, Reiki, and reflexology in Roswell, Georgia, and is continuing to explore birth and end-of-life doula work.

Book a Session with Sam

• Radiant Physique – Massage therapy, Reiki, and reflexology
  https://www.radiantphysiqueinc.com/
• Many Paths Wellness – Reiki and reflexology
  https://www.manypathswellness.com/

Follow Sam

• TikTok: @thetaoofsam
• YouTube: @thetaoofsam

Sam is also working on launching her own website, so be sure to follow her social channels for updates!

• Soulful Existence – www.soulfulexistence.com
• The Cosmic Brief – www.thecosmicbrief.app

If you enjoyed this episode of Fate, Forty, and Beyond, don't forget to follow the podcast, leave a rating or review, and share it with someone who might relate.

What happens when you've spent years doing the inner work, but life still doesn't seem to get any easier? Sometimes the biggest shift in our healing journey comes from changing what we expect healing to actually look like.

In this episode of Fate, Forty & Beyond, I'm talking with Sheila Doerfler, a certified Biofield Tuning practitioner, about the reality of personal growth, the challenges of midlife, and what happens when we stop expecting our healing work to fix everything.

Sheila shares how decades of exploring alternative healing practices, astrology, and Human Design have helped her make sense of a life that hasn't always followed the path she imagined.

We get into the fascinating world of biofield tuning, a sound healing practice that uses tuning forks to work with the body's energy field. Sheila explains how practitioners approach emotional patterns and unresolved experiences through this modality, along with her own experiences as both a client and practitioner.

But the conversation goes well beyond sound healing.

We talk about Saturn returns, spiritual bypassing, the pressure to constantly improve ourselves, and how Human Design can offer a different perspective on our experiences.

One of my favorite parts of this conversation is our discussion about uncomfortable emotions and why we don't necessarily need to label everything we feel as good or bad.

Because maybe healing isn't about making every difficult experience disappear. Maybe it's about learning how to experience life differently.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How biofield tuning works and Sheila's experiences with tuning forks, energy healing, and emotional patterns.
• Using astrology and Human Design to understand life's unexpected turns, especially during midlife.
• Why doing years of inner work doesn't guarantee an easier life.
• Recognizing spiritual bypassing and the expectation that healing practices should fix everything.
• Understanding Human Design centers, gates, and planetary transits through personal observation.
• Learning to accept uncomfortable emotions instead of constantly trying to change them.

EPISODE CHAPTERS

00:00 | Introducing Sheila Doerfler
07:00 | What is biofield tuning?
17:57 | Spiritual awakening, healing, and Saturn returns
21:18 | Why inner work doesn't always make life easier
37:51 | Experiencing biofield tuning firsthand
48:02 | Spiritual bypassing and looking for external fixes
51:26 | Human Design, daily energy, and self-awareness
1:01:49 | Why there are no negative emotions

CONNECT WITH SHEILA DOERFLER

Sheila is a certified Biofield Tuning practitioner who incorporates her knowledge of energy work and Human Design into her approach to personal growth.

Website: https://souldeepjourney.com
Social Media: @SheilaDoerfler

CONNECT WITH GEN

Soulful Existence: https://soulfulexistence.com

The Cosmic Brief: www.thecosmicbrief.app

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this conversation. Have you ever felt frustrated because you've done so much inner work, but life still feels just as challenging? Let me know what your experience has been.

What if a spiritual awakening isn’t about becoming someone new—but finally realizing which patterns, fears, and stories you’re ready to stop carrying? In this episode, I’m joined by Laura Swan, a self-described spiritual alchemist, medium, energy healer, and horse trainer, for one of those conversations that goes everywhere in the best possible way. We talk about shifting our language from “what could go wrong?” to “what could go right?”, how horses mirror what’s happening inside us, and why becoming aware of our habits gives us the power to actually choose something different.

We also get into mediumship, recovery, self-awareness, healthy boundaries, hyper-independence, the need to be liked, and what it really means to move away from suffering and toward joy. Laura and I explore how our perspectives shape the realities we experience, why community becomes so important on a spiritual path, and how midlife can be less about winding down and more about waking up. And, of course, I pull a few cards along the way—because apparently the universe had some things to say about everything we were discussing.

[02:30] - Laura shares one deceptively simple mindset shift: replacing “What could possibly go wrong?” with “What could possibly go right?”

[06:19] - We talk about horses, why Laura says you can’t fake your emotional state around them, and the surprising ways animals can mirror what’s happening inside of us.

[12:25] - Laura and I dive into mediumship, what makes a message truly connect, and why the strange little details can sometimes be the most meaningful ones.

[19:03] - We explore spiritual awakening through a very different lens: breaking our addiction to suffering, changing familiar patterns, and learning what joy can feel like on the other side.

[37:03] - The conversation turns toward perspective, non-duality, being misunderstood, and learning to question our own assumptions about other people.

[52:44] - Laura shares a powerful idea about habits, awareness, and choice that completely shifts how I think about some of my own patterns.

[1:02:53] - We talk about finding—and building—spiritual community, getting ourselves out of the house even when we really don’t want to, and what it means to rediscover that hunger for growth.

• Laura Swan / Unicorn Maker – Laura shares that she can be found as Unicorn Maker on Facebook.
• Rainbows and Unicorns – Laura’s work combining alchemy crystal bowls, spiritual alchemy, healing, and moving from suffering toward joy.
• Soulful Existence – My work with women through tarot, mediumship, and past life regression.
• The Cosmic Brief – My app for bringing astrology into everyday life and making sense of what all those stupid planets mean.
• Journey of Souls – Mentioned during our conversation about the soul, life between lives, and the idea of Earth as a kind of school.
• Many Lives, Many Masters – Another book I mention when talking about past lives and our existence beyond this lifetime.
• Bashar – Referenced during our discussion about following joy, safety, habits, awareness, and choice.

If this episode made you think a little differently, gave you something to sit with, or simply reminded you that midlife is absolutely not the end—we’re just getting started—make sure you follow the podcast wherever you listen. And if you enjoyed the conversation, please rate and review the show and share this episode with a friend who might need to hear it too.

This week, I’m sitting down with Ashley Langford for one of those conversations that somehow goes everywhere—and still manages to come right back to what it really means to find yourself in midlife. Ashley is a fractional marketing consultant who found herself navigating back-to-back layoffs, a major career shift, and becoming an empty nester all around the same time. We talk about what happens when life starts changing the roles you’ve gotten comfortable in and you have to ask yourself: Okay, who am I now, and what do I actually want?

We get into trusting your intuition (especially when your gut has been trying to tell you something for a while), recognizing your worth in your career, creating something of your own, and then actually having the courage to put it out into the world. We also wander into spirituality, technology, AI, motherhood, aging, body image, social media, and animals that very clearly choose their humans. It’s honest, funny, a little woo, and very much a conversation about giving ourselves permission to do midlife differently.

[06:43] - Career changes, empty nesting, and the identity shifts that happen when we start figuring out who we are outside of being a mom, wife, employee, or whatever other roles we’ve carried.

[09:02] - Ashley opens up about experiencing back-to-back layoffs in B2B tech, finding her voice on LinkedIn, moving into fractional marketing consulting, and becoming more selective about what she actually wants from her career.

[15:11] - We talk about spirituality, intuition, and how being technology-focused and business-minded can absolutely coexist with trusting that little internal voice telling you something isn’t right.

[20:05] - Is it intuition, fear, trauma—or some combination of all three? We get into learning how to listen to ourselves, pay attention to our bodies, and recognize signals we may have ignored in the past.

[31:27] - Ashley shares how the stress of sending her daughter to college inspired her to create Dorm HQ, an app designed to make dorm planning and packing a whole lot easier for students and their families.

[35:29] - From Dorm HQ to The Cosmic Brief, we talk about building digital products, “vibe coding,” watching complete strangers use something you created, and the weird vulnerability that comes with putting your work out into the world.

[57:52] - We wrap things up with a couple of card pulls around manifestation and abundance before Ashley answers one of my favorite questions: What would you tell your twenty-year-old self?

Dorm HQ
https://dormheadquarters.com/

Connect with Ashley Langford on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleymlangford/

The Cosmic Brief
https://www.thecosmicbrief.app/

Soulful Existence
https://www.soulfulexistence.com/

Fate, Forty, and Beyond
https://www.fatefortyandbeyond.com/

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you’re following Fate, Forty, and Beyond so you don’t miss what’s coming next. And if something in this conversation made you laugh, think, or feel a little less alone in this whole midlife thing, share it with a friend who needs to hear it.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, take a minute to rate and review the show. It helps more women find these conversations, and I appreciate every single one.

There is something strange happening in my house right now. What started as clearing out the space above my washer and dryer has somehow turned into a full-blown decluttering mission—and somewhere between expired medicine, abandoned hobbies, random charging cables, and things I haven't touched in years, I realized this isn't really about cleaning anymore.

In this episode, I'm talking about the deeper, sometimes spiritual side of decluttering and why the things we keep can become physical anchors to old identities, relationships, guilt, grief, and even versions of ourselves we thought we'd become. What happens when our homes become archives of lives we've already finished living? And what could happen if we finally made room for what's next? We're getting a little vulnerable, a little existential, and, obviously, a little woo.

[Approx. 2:30] - When clutter stops being “stuff” and starts becoming a physical archive of who we've been.

[Approx. 6:00] - The hundreds of unfinished decisions hiding around our homes—and why they can feel like 300 open tabs running in our brains.

[Approx. 9:00] - Meeting “Fantasy You”: the hobbies, clothes, equipment, and aspirations we keep for a version of ourselves we may not actually want to become anymore.

[Approx. 12:00] - Why guilt is a terrible storage system, especially when we're keeping things because of how much they cost or because someone gave them to us.

[Approx. 16:00] - The harder side of letting go: belongings connected to grief, relationships, people we've lost, and previous versions of ourselves.

[Approx. 20:00] - Why I believe our homes can become altars to the lives we're creating—and the question we rarely ask when we're trying to manifest something new: Where are we actually going to put it?

[Approx. 25:00] - A simple decluttering experiment you can try in 20 minutes to discover what the things around you might actually represent.

Soulful Existence: www.soulfulexistence.com

The Cosmic Brief: www.thecosmicbrief.app

What happens when we stop forcing spirituality and mental health to live in separate worlds? In this episode of Fate, Forty, and Beyond, I sit down with Joelle Doherty, a licensed professional counselor, shamanic practitioner, and Akashic Records reader, and we have one of those conversations that somehow touches everything—EMDR, spirituality, soul contracts, intuition, plant medicine, grief, past lives, death, and what it means to actually feel at home in your own life.

Joelle and I talk about what it looks like to bridge traditional mental health care with spiritual practices, why medication and spirituality don't have to be opposing forces, and how grounding can help sensitive and intuitive people navigate the very real human experience we're having right now. We also get into visitation dreams, reincarnation, divine timing, finding purpose, motherhood, and the idea that maybe our lives have a blueprint—but we still get to decorate the house. It's a deep, honest, sometimes hilarious conversation that I think will give you plenty to think about.

[06:15] - Exploring the connection between EMDR and shamanic soul retrieval

[08:54] - When spirituality and science start colliding—and what that means for the future

[17:35] - Soul contracts, life paths, and why some of us need to try all the things

[20:16] - Nonlinear time, reincarnation, other dimensions, and the idea that we're experiencing more than one version of ourselves

[27:06] - Bridging mental health and spirituality: medication, empaths, grounding, boundaries, and protecting your energy

[45:54] - Plant medicine, psychedelic therapy, and why intention and responsible use matter

[54:34] - Visitation dreams, messages from loved ones, and recognizing when a dream feels different

[59:33] - Joelle's spiritual awakening, grief, Reiki, and how one friendship changed the direction of her life

[1:04:34] - A little goddess guidance, a message about rebirth, and an unexpected card about health and accepting our bodies

• Joelle Doherty — Find Joelle on Facebook by searching her name: Joelle Doherty or search her on Psychology Today to work with her.
• Soulful Existence — Explore my work with tarot, mediumship, past life regression, and spiritual healing. www.soulfulexistence.com
• The Cosmic Brief — www.thecosmicbrief.com
• Fate, Forty, and Beyond — www.fatefortyandbeyond.com
• Email — Get in touch with me at gen@soulfulexistence.com
• TikTok — @soulfulxistence on TikTok
• Instagram — Follow me on Instagram for tarot, astrology, spirituality, and podcast updates. @soulfulxistence on Instagram
• Facebook — Gen Rodriguez on Facebook

If something in this conversation resonated with you, share this episode with someone who might need to hear it, and don't forget to follow, rate, review, and leave a comment.

What if you’re way more woo than you think you are?

In this episode of Fate, Forty, and Beyond, I’m taking you on a walk through what I lovingly call the Woo Buffet—because spirituality is a whole lot bigger than crystals, tarot cards, astrology, and talking to dead people. We’re talking intuition, synchronicities, numerology, sound healing, nature, family superstitions, religion, grandma woo, and all those little experiences we have that we can’t quite explain.

And here’s the thing: you don’t have to believe in all of it. You don’t even have to call yourself spiritual. Curiosity doesn’t require commitment. So whether you know your entire birth chart or you just refuse to put your purse on the floor because obviously that’s bad luck, pull up a chair. You might realize you’ve been eating at the Woo Buffet for years—you just never knew what to call it.

[00:17] - Welcome to Fate, Forty, and Beyond and my theory that a whole lot of people are more woo than they’d ever admit at a dinner party.

[~03:30] - Why spirituality is a buffet, not an all-or-nothing belief system—and why curiosity absolutely does not require commitment.

[~06:00] - Astrology, tarot, psychic work, mediumship, numerology, angel numbers, and synchronicities: exploring some of the more obvious items on the Woo Buffet.

[~10:00] - Moving spirituality into the body through sound baths, meditation, breathwork, yoga, aromatherapy, somatic work, and other practices.

[~13:00] - The stealthiest form of woo: nature, the moon, beaches, trees, gardening, animals, and those moments that make us stop and actually pay attention.

[~16:00] - Welcome to “grandma woo”—family superstitions, lucky objects, inherited traditions, recipes, home remedies, folklore, and the unexplained things families have passed down for generations.

[~20:00] - Prayer, manifestation, intuition, signs, energy, and the bigger question underneath all of this: where do you make meaning, feel connected, and find yourself secretly curious?

The following resources and practices are mentioned in this episode. Specific website URLs were not provided in the transcript:

• Soulful Existence — My work with women through tarot card readings, mediumship, past life regressions, and reconnecting with who they truly are. www.soulfulexistence.com
• The Cosmic Brief — My app bringing astrology and day-to-day life together. www.thecosmicbrief.app
• Practices mentioned: Astrology, tarot, oracle cards, psychic readings, mediumship, crystals, Reiki, energy healing, chakras, auras, pendulums, manifestation, numerology, past life regression, sound baths, meditation, breathwork, yoga, aromatherapy, somatic work, acupuncture, nature-based practices, prayer, and ancestral or family traditions.

If something in this episode made you think, Wait...maybe I am a little woo, share this episode with somebody who needs a trip to the buffet too.

And if you’re enjoying Fate, Forty, and Beyond, please take a minute to follow, rate, review, and share the podcast. It helps more people find the show, and I appreciate it more than you know.

Until next time—stay curious, and if you need to, just go get a bigger plate.