Have you spent so long being the woman everyone depends on that you don’t know who you are outside of what you do for them?

You can be capable, independent, and successful while realizing the life you’ve built no longer reflects what matters to you.

In this episode of The Confident Woman Podcast, Rachel Brooks joins mother, author, and board-certified family nurse practitioner Chelsea Ann O’Brien to explore identity, inherited expectations, and redefining success.

Chelsea shares how divorce and motherhood challenged her priorities, drawing from her books, The Feminine Effect and The Feminine Frequency, to discuss feminine nature and receiving support. Rachel shares how grief challenged her identity, why she walked away from a working relationship, and how faith helped her open the heart she’d closed to protect herself.

What we get into

• How family beliefs shape who you think you have to be
• Why independence can be both a strength and a form of protection
• Chelsea’s perspective on reconnecting with feminine nature
• Defining your values and setting boundaries without proving your worth
• Rachel’s “just because I could doesn’t mean I should” realization
• Feeling safe, seen, and secure while learning to receive support

If you heard yourself in this

Asking, “Who am I without all the roles I know how to perform?” The Becoming… Identity Planner & Journal gives you somewhere to separate who you are from what you do and get honest about what still belongs in this season.

Begin The Becoming… Identity Planner & Journal

Create Your Own Story

Rachel continues exploring faith, identity, and the cost of proving your worth in Create Your Own Story. Subscribe for her writing on questioning the life you’ve built and deciding what comes next.

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Connect with Chelsea Ann O’Brien

Explore The Feminine Effect, The Feminine Frequency, and Chelsea’s work: Website | Books and resources | Instagram

Connect with Rachel Brooks

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The nutrition or exercise routine that worked years ago may not feel right in midlife. How do you take care of your health when your energy, body, and everyday responsibilities have changed?

In this episode of The Confident Woman Podcast, Rachel Brooks sits down with Meridan Zerner, an award-winning registered dietitian nutritionist and wellness professional with more than 30 years of experience in preventive health. Meridan shares her approach to midlife wellness and explains why she believes a sustainable health routine should fit the person and the life she’s actually living.

Rachel and Meridan talk about how hormonal changes can affect women’s midlife experience, the place of sleep, nutrition, movement, stress management, and connection in overall wellness, and why learning what to do is only part of making a lasting change. When Rachel asks how a woman can create her own recipe for health, Meridan begins with a surprisingly practical question:

What is already going well?

IN THIS CONVERSATION

• How to reassess your habits when what used to work no longer fits
• Why Meridan recommends starting with the supportive habits you already have
• How one or two small changes can be tested and adjusted within an ordinary week
• Why rest, social connection, and asking for support belong in a fuller conversation about health
• What Meridan’s The Thoughtful 30 offers as a framework for considering new wellness habits
• How to advocate for yourself, ask questions, and collaborate with qualified health professionals

YOUR NEXT STEP

Notice one thing you’re already doing that supports your health, then consider one small change you can realistically try this week. Give yourself room to see whether it fits before adding more.

THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY BENEVE

Beneve is a wellness brand Rachel uses as part of taking care of her health, energy, strength, and body in midlife.

See what Rachel is using → BENEVE

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Meridan Zerner, MS, RDN, CSSD, LD, CHWC, is a registered dietitian nutritionist, wellness coach, speaker, and creator of The Thoughtful 30: 30-Day Reset for Midlife and Beyond.

Learn more about Meridan and find her free Thoughtful 30 get-started resources: https://www.meridanzernernutrition.com

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION

This conversation doesn’t end with the episode. Rachel’s companion Create Your Own Story feature explores what happens when the way you’ve been taking care of yourself no longer fits the woman or the life you’re living now.

Subscribe and read the latest edition: https://iamrachelbrooks.substack.com

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Hosted by Rachel Brooks, author of Chasing Perfection and host of The Confident Woman Podcast.

Follow Rachel at @iamrachelbrooks: https://iamrachelbrooks.com/instagram

This episode is a general educational conversation and is not individualized healthcare guidance. Discuss personal symptoms or changes to treatment with your own qualified healthcare professional.

Are you paying the price to prove your worth?

Have you spent years working toward success, trying to meet everyone's expectations, or proving how much you can handle, only to realize that the life you're working so hard to create is costing you the very things that matter most?

Maybe you're building a career or business to create more freedom, but you barely have time to enjoy the people you love. Maybe you've become the person everyone depends on, and you're exhausted from carrying responsibilities you never consciously chose. Or perhaps you're navigating a season of change, trying to figure out who you are when your life no longer looks the way you thought it would.

In this episode of The Confident Woman Podcast, Rachel Brooks invites you into a conversation about knowing your worth, finding your voice, and what happens when you begin making decisions from the belief that your value isn't determined by what you accomplish, how much money you make, or how much you're willing to sacrifice for others.

Together, we're exploring how the pursuit of success can become tied to our identity, the difference between making necessary sacrifices and compromising ourselves in the process, and why becoming the woman God created you to be doesn't require spending another chapter of your life trying to prove you're worthy.

Inside This Conversation:

• Why knowing your worth and actually living from that belief are two different things.
• How success, productivity, and being needed can become tied to your identity and self-worth.
• Recognizing when your responsibilities and ambitions are costing you the freedom, peace, and relationships you were working so hard to create.
• The difference between making necessary sacrifices and compromising your dignity or self-respect.
• How to begin reconsidering what you're carrying and what you want to make room for in this season of becoming.
• What Colossians 3:23 reminds us about working wholeheartedly without allowing our work or someone else's approval to determine our worth.

This conversation isn't about giving up on your dreams, walking away from your responsibilities, or pretending that difficult circumstances don't exist. It's about getting honest with yourself about what you're pursuing, why you're pursuing it, and whether the way you're living actually reflects what matters most to you.

As you navigate your own messy middle of becoming, consider the question Rachel leaves you with this week:

Are you paying the price to prove your worth? And when you look at what it's actually costing you, is that a price you still want to keep paying?

Continue the Conversation

Read the companion essay, Are You Paying the Price to Prove Your Worth?, and join Rachel inside Create Your Own Story for weekly conversations about faith, identity, grief, ambition, and finding your way back to who God created you to be.

Read & subscribe to Create Your Own Story →

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Scripture referenced: Colossians 3:23–24