This week, Larissa speaks with Marijke McCandless, mindfulness Life Coach, and author.

Marijke McCandless is a mindfulness life coach. Marijke’s second book, Naked in the Now: Juicy Practices for Getting Present, is a unique and playful guide for anyone feeling disconnected from their vitality and uninspired to make a change. It is coming out in July. She leads a popular online writing practice called Write Now Mind, which has been called out by media icons such as Arianna Huffington. She also leads guided awareness practice sessions, called Juicy Practices for Getting Present, plus other immersion experiences in meditation, writing, and enlivenment.

Larissa & Marijke chat:

• The challenges Marijke faced in her 36-year marriage
• How she and her husband choose to get to know one another on a deeper level
• Experiencing childhood sexual trauma
• Shame and facing the parts of our lives that had unknowingly affected us
• What it felt like to talk about shame and secrets for the first time
• Writing a memoir under a pen name
• Why Marijke chose to write under a pen name and not her real name
• Feeling it was unfair to have her story affect her family
• How her pen name allowed her not to feel her identity was forever attached to victimhood
• Dealing with perfectionism as a writer
• When Marijke hit rock bottom at a silent retreat
• Marijke’s freeing moment of realizing she is inadequate and will always be
• Her book Naked in the Now: Juicy Practices for Getting Present
• Why use “naked” in the title of a self-help book
• Using nakedness as a metaphor for what it’s like to shed outdated identities
• Shaking up stigmas around body image and ageism
• How the self-help world can feel so serious and stuffy
• Adding more play to self-help
• The importance of not taking your job too seriously

Follow Marijke:

• @MarijkeMcCandless (IG / LinkedIn)
• Learn more about Marijke at: marijkemccandless.com
• Check out Naked in the Now: Juicy Practices for Getting Present
• Link to Inner Striptease Starter kit

Follow Larissa:

• Sign up for Seriously Authentic Newsletter with resources, tips, insights on how to be your most authentic self to achieve your dream life.
• @larissavictoria (LinkedIn IG)
• Work with me (1:1 Coaching)

Original music by Haile Meirow “inside your tears”

Talent Advisor Serena Board