Top 5 Podcasts for Personal & Professional Development (Plus 1 Bonus Podcast!)

If you’ve ever wondered what my number 1 conversation starter is, it’s time I let you in on a secret. It’s me saying: “So I was listening to a podcast and…” then launching into a story that I got from a podcast.

I listen to a lot of podcasts. Like a lot. Right now, I’m a little behind and have about 45 different episodes to catch up on. I have a few that I always listen to every single week no matter what (usually my true crime podcasts), and then I have some podcasts that I sort of pick and choose from depending on how I’m feeling.

In that second category of podcast is the “personal and professional development” category of podcasts. I love listening to podcasts about marketing, but I’ve learned over time that I have to listen to less of them if I want to stay sane and not get super burnt out. The same goes for personal development podcasts. I want to be able to pick and choose, listen to what I need when I need it. That’s sort of the beauty of personal & professional development podcasts: you don’t have to keep up with any kind of story or narrative.

If you are hoping to make 2020 a bigger year, both personally and professionally, I’ve rounded up my top 5 favorite podcasts that fit neatly into the personal and professional development category.

1. The BossBabe Podcast

The use of the word “bossbabe” aside (full body physical cringe), this is one of my favorite podcasts. Hosted by the creators of BossBabe, a service that provides coaching to help women scale their businesses and launch more products, it combines a lot of elements of personal development with professional advice. I really enjoy this podcast because I find BossBabe to be incredibly informative; I’ve done a lot of their free video trainings and have really enjoyed them.

Top 3 episodes:

• Overcoming Depression, Being Guided by Intuition and Unleashing Your Super Attractor Powers

• 5 Ways to Heal Your Relationship With Food & How it Directly Impacts Your Daily Life With Sarah Stewart

• Wounds To Wisdom: Turning Grief Into Action, Creating Authentic Content + Finding Your “Why” With Mandy Ansari

2. Grow & Glow Show

Grow & Glow was created by Vix Meldrew. in the interest of full disclosure, I am a member of Grow & Glow, a community for bloggers to learn more, connect, and “glow” their audiences. The podcast covers a lot of the same topics as the membership. I really love Vix (and her voice is shockingly soothing). I really enjoy bot the podcast and the membership, and if you’re interested in joining, the doors are currently open. Check out Grow & Glow and join here.

Top 3 episodes:

• Writing a Blog Series for SEO

• Your Instagram Captions are Shit

• My 3 Pronged Approach to Content Creation

3. A Beautiful Mess Podcast

I’ve been reading A Beautiful Mess for probably 10 years, potentially more, at this point. I have to admire both Elsie and Emma because they are truly astounding businesswomen. They have consistently pivoted their business, grown, changed, and continue to dominate the blogging industry. They’re also both really interesting, with a lot to say and teach. Their podcast has been one of my favorites since it launched and I love hearing more about the behind-the-scenes world of ABM. I love that as they’ve grown older, they’ve moved their blog away from fashion and more towards home decor, DIY projects, and sustainability—I feel like that’s true to my life and experience as well!

Top 3 episodes:

• Elsie’s Forever-Ish Home

• How to Decorate Affordably (Not Just from Target!)

• 3 Things that Make Our Homes Happier

4. Natch Beaut

I think I’ve included Natch Beaut on nearly every single podcast round up I’ve ever posted, but it’s one of my absolute favorites. It’s technically a beauty podcast, but I think Jackie Johnson (my girl Jackie J!) sells herself short: Natch Beaut is so much about personal development and being the best person you can be (both for yourself and the world), it goes beyond beauty. (Although we can love beauty too, hunnies!) Jackie had a big 2019 and so many of her episodes have fallen into my favorites list… so picking 3 was hard. But if there is one podcast you listen to on this list, I hope it’s Natch Beaut; Jackie has been a huge inspiration and continues to be one of my favorite people to listen to, follow on Instagram, and aspire to be best friends with.

Top 3 episodes:

• Self-Acceptance with Jeffrey Marsh*

• Kegelbell with Stephanie Schull, PhD

• Snatchural with Loey Lane

*If you listen to one episode from Natch Beaut, this is such a great one—but does include Jackie’s divorce announcement at the beginning, which is very emotional.

5. Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness

WHO doesn’t love Jonathan Van Ness? And YES, he has a podcast and it is as lovely as he is. There isn’t much more to say about it: it’s a podcast about learning more about the world, answering questions that Jonathan himself has about just about everything. It’s good to learn things, even if those “things” aren’t necessarily anything to do with our lives—but knowing more about other people, other cultures, science, and more can help us be better people, make better decisions, and generally be more well-rounded.

Top 3 episodes:

• What Does Inequality Have to Do With HIV?

• Are You My Tanny Bananny? With Tan France*

• Is It Possible I Am the Most Gorgeous Hypochondriac That Has Ever Lived?

*Funny title, but very serious episode about racism that Tan France experienced growing up in the UK, and his new project.

Do you have a personal or professional development podcast you think I would love? Share it with me in the comments! I’m always looking for new things to listen to.

Bonus! 6. The Jet Set Life Podcast

This is a newer podcast that I've come across by Brittany Ryan, aka "the jet set blonde." Sometimes the episodes focus on travel while others focus on personal development. Each episode is a great mix of inspiring yet informative—you never feel like you’re just getting fluff! Brittany is down-to-earth and her episodes feel like I'm just catching up with a friend who has a much cooler life than me! (Those are my favorite kind of friends, honestly!) I appreciate the personal stories she shares to help women get unstuck and start creating the jet set life of their dreams.

Top 3 episodes:

• How to Handle Transitions in Life

• 3 Areas to Upgrade to Live a Jet Set Life

• How to Make Your Home Feel Like a Luxury Hotel

How a Shanti Bowl Can Help with Meditation

You might be wondering: Michelle, what is a Shanti bowl?

Well, let’s start at the beginning.

Ever since July when I got laid off, I’ve been struggling a lot with anger. Sometimes, I will get so angry, I just want to scream at somebody. I’ve never really had a temper before and while I think I can be a bit of a whiner (I just took a DNA test, I have a Taurus rising, yo I got whining problems, it’s the Taurus in me), I never would have called myself angry. I don’t like arguing or fighting; I’ve never raised my voice at someone in my life unless it was to stop them from stepping out into the street or something.

But after being laid off, I was angry. I was mad at everyone and damn if they didn’t know it.

My therapist recommended a lot of techniques to help me get this under control. I don’t like being angry; I don’t like feeling like I can’t control an emotion. I especially didn’t like that my anger was irrational and illogical; big things would leave me feeling blank (like finding out I would probably never receive payment for my 265 hours of PTO) and little things would send me careening over the edge (like finding a bug on the wall). I started doing breathing exercises and journaling and slowly, my anger started to get better.

But it was still there, like a tagalong friend that I didn’t want around.

So when Shanti Bowl reached out to me recently, I was excited. Shanti Bowl is a company that makes Tibetan singing bowls. It’s also a company owned by the same person who owns Prana Brush, which I reviewed here. I love being able to support small businesses, especially when I’ve had great results in the past. I’ve been using my Prana dry brush religiously since I received it, so of course I wanted to try a singing bowl!

Funny enough, Danny was perhaps a little bit more excited about the singing bowl than I was: he has used it in his classroom before to help his students practice mindfulness. It was him who taught me how to use it and who primarily plays it for me in the evening.

Here’s a full description of a singing bowl in case you’re still confused:

“According to ancient Tibetan teachings, the existence of singing bowls dates back to the time of Buddha. Singing bowls produce beautiful music which invokes deep meditative and peaceful states. Singing bowls are often used in yoga, reiki, music therapy, and sound healing. The rich harmonies produced by singing bowls help balance the body’s chakras, eliminate stress, and promote holistic healing.”

Basically: it makes a nice noise that helps in meditation, can help relieve stress, and help you feel better.

Sold.

One of the techniques my therapist recommended for both anger and anxiety was to take a big breath in and imagine a pitcher filling with water; then when you exhale, imagine pouring the pitcher out. Over and over, this is very soothing: imagining the feel, the sound of the water, everything. I have found that the singing bowl works especially well when I’m doing this exercise; the sound helps me focus on what I’m doing (breathing, imagining) and nothing else.

In the evening, Danny will often play it while I lie in bed or on the couch and we just have a nice, quiet time together. It sounds boring, but for two people with a young child, who both work jobs that are stressful in different ways… it helps so much.

The best part about this singing bowl from Shanti is that it’s gorgeous! I keep it on a shelf in my living room and I have gotten so many questions about it from people when they visit or watch my Instagram stories. Here’s another quote from Shanti Bowl:

“Our handmade singing bowls are unparalleled in beauty and quality. Each bowl is carefully hand-crafted by skilled Tibetan artisans using traditional techniques. In accordance with an ancient Tibetan formula, our singing bowls are made of “panchaloga”, which is a Sanskrit word meaning a five-metal alloy that includes copper, zinc, iron, and traces of gold and silver. Our bowls create an incredible sound with rich, warm and vibrant overtones. Each bowl also comes with a gorgeous hand-carved wooden mallet. The result is a beautiful piece of functional art with incredible healing properties.”

Whether you are more interested in how pretty they are or how they can help you meditate (or you just want to make fun music), a Tibetan singing bowl would make a great, unique Christmas gift for someone in your life (or yourself, let’s be honest).

If you’re struggling with anxiety, anger, or depression, they can help so much with meditation and focusing in on your breathing, how you feel, and releasing the negative feelings you’re holding onto. I highly recommend it!

To learn more about Shanti Tibetan singing bowls, click here. You can also learn how to play a singing bowl (super helpful as a novice!).

The Moving Diaries: Is It Normal to Feel Sad?

5 years ago, Danny & I bought our first home together. It wasn’t perfect. There were a lot of things, right from the get go, that we didn’t love. We had our home built on land I already owned, so we considered it our forever home.

Fast forward a few years: several job changes, a pregnancy, a newborn turned toddler turned preschooler… and suddenly that house just wasn’t right anymore. It felt tiny. We were cramped, on top of each other, and the prospect of adding another child felt absolutely impossible.

A year ago, we decided to build a second home. We would make better decisions this time! We will pick a better plan, build in a better spot, do all the things we didn’t last time. (I will write more about the process of building your own home later. I know this is a totally privileged thing that many people can’t imagine, so just know, if you’re gaping at your computer, I totally acknowledge that.)

Our home was completed last week. It was about 2 or 3 weeks behind schedule by that point. And when I say completed, I don’t mean… “completed.” It wasn’t really completed. (Again: I can write about this later.)

But either way, we started moving our things out of our home into our new forever home. I was ecstatic.

We moved things for 3 days in the evenings: piece by piece, it felt like the slowest process ever. But there was only so much we could do as two people! On Friday, we went to IKEA to buy some new furniture (including a new kitchen table) and then thankfully Danny’s parents arrived and helped us move boxes and furniture.

Friday night, we all slept in our new home for the first time. Forrest’s room was mostly put together, but in our room, we only had our mattress on our box spring on the floor (our bed frame is still on a delivery truck somewhere!). I had a suitcase and my toiletries and that was about it.

I told Danny, “it feels like we are on a really weird, shitty camping trip.” That feeling isn’t helped by the fact that our contractor hasn’t really finished our upstairs toilet in the master bathroom (again, more on this later!) and 50% of our possessions are still in a different house.

My anxiety was high Friday night. Like really high.

Remus is also an anxious being (in that specifically hyper chocolate lab sort of way), so he woke me up 3 times during the night. He would run outside and pee, then look at me as if asking, “Can we go home?”

And at 3am, my last wake up, I briefly thought: let’s just go home. I started to panic. Do I really want to live in this strange house that doesn’t smell like me? Do I really want to leave all my memories behind?

I thought of all the memories I have of our old house. I let Remus back inside, locked the patio door, went upstairs, and cried while Danny slept. I panicked and cried and felt horribly sad.

I thought of bringing Forrest home—anxious, swollen, bleeding, looking wretched—and seeing the sign my sister-in-law Amy made and put on our front door. I remember sitting upstairs with him, pumping and feeding him, while my family sat downstairs. I thought of the hours I spent holding him during naps on the couch: the light shining through our windows in such a specific way.

I thought of painting our living room wall grey last summer, our breakfasts in our kitchen, standing at the counter making Christmas cookies with Fo.

For once, I thought not of all the things that I didn’t like about that house (the cramped layout, the lack of a closet in the master bedroom, the teeny tiny bathrooms) and I thought about all the things I loved. Sitting with Forrest in his room, reading him Harry Potter. Being in his room when he was 2 weeks old and wouldn’t stop crying and not knowing what to do. The long nights I spent awake and pumping. The sink where I washed all his bottles. Seeing him walk for the first time. Getting home from Disneyland with him and being so relieved and sad.

When Danny finally woke up, I told him I felt panicked. I think a lot of it was the feeling of being totally overwhelmed: we still have so much to pack and move and I feel rushed and anxious to get it done. I want to do it, but I also wish I could hand off the wheel and let someone else (anyone else!) do it! Mostly, I just felt sad.

Danny assured me that this seemed normal: we’re in a new house that doesn’t feel like “us” yet even though it is very “us”. We will get used to it and we will love it.

The same feeling hit me later on Saturday. (I’m actually typing this up Saturday, so it’s a particularly fresh memory.) I ran to the old house one last time—at 8pm, of course—to get my computer. I needed, in order to feel sane, to set up my computer. To get all my desk things and arrange them on my new desk and sit and work and feel normal. I went to the house and packed up my office… then I went into Forrest’s room.

Forrest has gotten a big bed in the new house. He’s incredibly proud of it. But in his old bedroom, his toddler bed is still sitting there, along with some of his toys and some boxed up clothes. About half his books are still there too. (Like I said, so much to move still!) I collected up all his clothes to pack into the car and as I walked out of his room, I started to cry. Again.

It hit me like a wave. To me, that was Forrest’s room. It always will be. I took all his weekly and monthly progression photos in that room on his chevron carpet. I rocked him to sleep every single night for two years—and have read him a story and sang him 3 songs every single night for about 1 and a half more. That room is his room: it feels like him, it smells like him. But we’re emptying it out, shaking out all the things that are Forrest to make into a new space. And while he loves his new room, I can’t help but think of him crawling across the floor, the nights I ran in when I heard him sick and crying, reading him Harry Potter while he drank his last bottle for the night. That toddler bed will be moved to the new house and have the front put back on in anticipation of a new baby: one I don’t know yet, who will fill our lives the way Forrest does.

Moving is hard. As someone said to me on Twitter, moving is nothing but trauma. Change is hard and locational change is particularly difficult for me, someone who is incredibly anchored by my physical space. Not being able to clean and organize the way I want makes it hard for me to feel anything but adrift.

I don’t know if it’s totally normal to be sad over moving. I cried when I moved out of all of my college dorms, however; I cried when I left my college apartment. I cried when I drove away from Caldwell, Idaho, a town I had viscerally hated for 4 years (and now return to on vacations at least twice a year). I cried when I moved out my parents’ house. I cried when I moved in our old house. I suppose for me it is normal, but it feels like this time it has hit me a lot harder than it did before.

It’s a total cliche, but it’s true: moving is hard. It stresses everyone out. And now being the one in charge of the moving (no one is holding my hand and helping me make these decisions!), it’s even more stressful.

I don’t have a real clear message to end this post on. It’s a much more personal one than I usually post. I guess what I’m saying is: I don’t know if it’s “normal” to feel sad when you’re moving, but with emotions running so high, I can’t imagine it’s a new phenomenon either. If you’re moving and feeling sad, tell me about it!