Welcome to Season 5 of The Discomfort Practice! In this first interview of the new season, Betsy Reed is joined by Thea May, a communication coach for ‘Edgewalkers and soul-led leaders.’ Together, they explore the theme of ‘edginess’ and dive deep into the discomfort of breaking away from outdated communication norms to create a world where we can all thrive.

Thea shares her journey, the power of embodying discomfort, and how to ‘scale ourselves to meet the messages that move through us.’ This episode is packed with insights that will inspire you to embrace your own edges and communicate more authentically, but we’re betting you’ll feel like you were sitting at a kitchen table, just listening to friends.

Key Moments:

• [00:01:05] - Betsy reflects on over three years of podcasting and introduces the theme of Season 5: Edginess.

• [00:01:54] - Introduction to Thea May, her work as a communication coach, and her unique approach to soul-led leadership.

• [00:06:06] - Thea shares a pivotal uncomfortable moment that shaped her journey as an Edgewalker.

• [00:13:49] - Thea discusses her name change from Dolly to Thea, representing a significant shift in her identity and work.

• [00:21:04] - Diving into the edges of communication, poetry, and identity as core elements of Thea’s life and work.

• [00:30:06] - Thea introduces her three-part communication process: Tuning in, Hooking in, and Opening out.

• [00:32:15] - The power of confident introverts and the shift from power-over to power-with communication.

• [00:45:34] - The importance of scaling yourself to meet the size of your message.

• [00:51:03] - Betsy shares a personal story about receiving (the other) Betsy Reed’s hate mail and what it taught her about resilience.

• [00:52:07] - Thea emphasises the importance of building confidence through low-risk discomfort practices.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to The Discomfort Practice on your favorite podcast platform, and don't forget to leave a 5-star rating and a written review. Your support helps us grow our community and reach more people who are ready to embrace the discomfort of growth. Follow us on Instagram @thebetsyreed for more behind-the-scenes content and updates. Let's get uncomfortable together…

She's baaaack. Well, I'm back. If you don't know me yet, I'm Betsy Reed, and I'm obsessed with the value of discomfort. The juicy, hot, cold, annoying, uncomfortable feeling of being outside of our comfort zones... and pushed to expand. Pushed to perhaps discover things about ourselves that are getting in our way. Or forced to innovate, to forge new pathways, to walk away from the things we thought were forever and create a new reality.

Over the past four seasons, I've talked to some truly inspiring guests about the value of discomfort in shaping them and what they do in the world. And I've gotten a lot less uncomfortable doing solo episodes, where I just waffle on about myself and my life. (Apparently those are a lot of listeners' favourite episodes, so there you go - the subjective nature of discomfort!)

Season 5 will be launching fully in early September 2024 so please subscribe, like and leave me 5 stars and written reviews wherever you listen to podcasts. I record this podcast out of love, rather than any fancy-pants ambitions to make money from it, so you sharing it really does help it reach new ears and I need your help.

Settle yourself in, have a good listen, and let's get uncomfortable together. xx

In this final episode of Season 4 of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy looks back at some themes that arose over the course of the year+ it has spanned, before taking a brief hiatus to prep the launch of Season 5 in March 2024.

What she found in looking back was some striking themes - the greatest of which was love. This has woven its way into many episodes, including:

Episode #76 with Kim Polman, founder of Reboot the Future, whose ethos is based on the Golden Rule

Episode #84 with Daze Aghaji, who talked about creating change from a place of love
Episode #86 with Pilar Garrido, Minister for the Economy in Costa Rica during the Covid-19 pandemic
Episode #110 with Dr. Terence Lester, a public policy advocate for people experiencing homelessness

Betsy’s own solos have focused a lot on love, with a couple of favourites linked below:

Episode #82 On loving all parts of yourself

Episode #98 A love letter to introverted moments

Betsy would love to hear from you. Get in touch via any of the platforms listed below to let her know what you have found helpful, uplifting or positively challenging, as well as what you’d like to hear more about or hear an interview with in Season 5.

Connect with Betsy:

• Betsy on Instagram

• Betsy on email

• Betsy on Linkedin

Rate, Review, Learn and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media! Be sure to come back for Season 5, launching in March 2024.

In this solo episode, Betsy journeys her way through a personal question at the moment: 'What am I meant to be a channel for on this earth? What is meant to come through me?' It's a very personal question, and there are no wrong answers. She talks about experimenting with being a channel for love, and how that has transformed her life in just a short span of a few months.

As with most of Betsy's solo episodes, she leads listeners through practical steps to uncover their own answer to the question she's pondering. What 'special sauce' are you meant to bring to whatever is meant to flow through you? And what is that 'thing' you already probably channel into this collective existence?

Settle yourself in and prepare to enjoy this brief, meaty episode.

Connect with Betsy:

• Betsy on Instagram
• Betsy on Linkedin
• Betsy's website

Rate, Review and Share.

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. Please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop her a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into Betsy's other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media.

In this episode, Betsy speaks to Dr. Terence Lester, an activist and scholar who focuses on bringing justice to those suffering from poverty and racism.

The founder of LoveBeyondWalls.org and The Dignity Museum, he is also the author of three books: 'I See You: How Love Opens Our Eyes to Invisible People,' 'When We Stand: The Power of Seeking Justice Together' and 'All God's Children: How Confronting Buried History Can Build Racial Solidarity.' Three ideals drive Terence: (1) anyone can make a difference, (2) we don’t live forever, (3), and it’s worth dedicating one’s life to ensuring no one feels invisible. This explains his life and work.

Betsy and Terence chat about Terence's own life path, from highschool dropout who himself experienced homelessness and spent time in jail, to accomplished scholar, public policy PhD and an advocate for those experiencing homelessness who has received numerous awards for his work. They discuss the impact being un-seen and excluded from community has on a human soul experiencing homelessness and dive into the concept of dignity as something every human intrinsically deserves. 

Settle yourself in to listen and prepare to be inspired (and possibly challenged) by this interview. 

Connect with Dr. Terence Lester:

• Website: terencelester.org

• The Dignity Museum and Love Beyond Walls

• Twitter / X: twitter.com/imTerenceLester

• Instagram: @imterencelester / @lovebeyondwalls / @dignitymuseum

Connect with Betsy:

• Betsy on Instagram
• Betsy on Linkedin
• Betsy's website

Rate, Review and Share.

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. Please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop her a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into Betsy's other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media.

Looking back at your life, at some of the things that have been difficult or even traumatic, how have those things actually been part of your path to becoming who you needed to become? And how have some of the most difficult things you might have gone through actually been divinely chosen training to create the ‘architecture’ of your life, or gain skills you needed to deliver your mission in the world?

Betsy thinks out loud while asking these questions and shares how she has come to appreciate how she now appreciates her own Fundamentalist Christian upbringing for the spiritual practices and discipline it provided. Because those are the practices that helped her to become who she now is.

Give yourself space and a bit of time to dive inside and apply the questions Betsy asks to your own life and background, then feel free to get in touch! Let Betsy know how this episode lands for you, and what gems emerge as you ask the questions she poses. Settle yourself in, and let’s get uncomfortable…

• Betsy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebetsyreed/

• Betsy on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebetsyreed/

• Betsy’s Website: https://www.betsy-reed.com/

Rate, Review and Share.

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. Please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop her a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into Betsy's other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media.

We're trying a new thing over here and have dug out a great episode from our archives. This is a revisit of Episode 55, which is a juicy, insightful interview with Paul William Davis, an intuitive personal advisor, an entrepreneur, a best-selling author, an award-winning business growth consultant, speaker with the best Irish accent you're likely to hear all day, lol.

Betsy and Paul deep dive into how you go about figuring out what your personal purpose is and how important intuition - your 'knowings' - are (and you'll get an idea of why Betsy includes it in the coaching framework she has developed and uses with her own clients).

Tune in for some beautiful insight into how you can 'tune into' your intuition and create the life you truly want because you've taken the time to listen to signs you might be being sent by the Universe. Rushing through life and missing them could be causing you immense frustration or struggle, but that doesn't need to be the case.

So if you're struggling or know someone who is, or might even be encountering some mental health challenges, Betsy and Paul cover that. They talk about how not knowing your purpose in life can be the greatest trigger for depression (and how to address that).

So whether you're listening to this toward the end of the year in 2023 or another time of year, take some time to consider your own purpose and how you might live it more deeply, more powerfully, and more easily and happily in the coming year or months.

• Paul’s Website: www.paulwilliamdavis.com/

• Paul on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauldavisdublin/

• Listen to his Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-executive-code-personal-mastery-insights-with/id1509268157?uo=4

• Betsy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebetsyreed/

• Betsy on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebetsyreed/

• Betsy’s Website: https://www.betsy-reed.com/

Rate, Review and Share.

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. Please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop her a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into Betsy's other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media.

This solo was recorded in November 2023, off the back of a 5-day spiritual retreat with teacher Sabrina Lynn in Ibiza, in which 22 wild souls went deep into their shadows. And healed themselves, their ancestral line and things they didn't even know they were healing for the collective.

Shadow work is a term that many know and some of you might not. They are the part of us we haven't yet owned. The things we're ashamed of, don't want to deal with, won't look at, don't want to acknowledge are part of us. We stuff them in the basements of our souls, convinced that dealing with those things will kill us. But what they actually need is love - to be escorted into the light of consciousness and integrated, so we can decide what role they should (or shouldn't) play in our lives. Because if you look around you in the world out there at conflict, at the painful things we do to each other as humans, you can bet at the root of all of it is unhealed personal and collective shadows.

Betsy talks about her own path into shadow work, of healing her inner child so she can step more fully into herself as a mature adult. So settle yourselves in and prepare to get uncomfortable. See if any part of this episode speaks to you. And if it does, feel free to reach out. DM Betsy on Instagram or contact her through her website. She always loves to hear from you.

Connect with Betsy:

• Betsy on Instagram
• Betsy on Linkedin
• Betsy's website

Check out Betsy's teacher Sabrina Lynn talking about shadow work on her podcast, Rewilding with Sabrina Lynn here.

Rate, Review and Share.

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. Please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop her a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into Betsy's other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media.