What story do you tell yourself when things don’t go as planned? Self-compassion for women over 50 isn’t about lowering your standards. It’s about releasing the grip of perfectionism that keeps you stuck. In this episode, I share the mortifying moment I almost ghosted three women who registered for my workshop… all because I made the fatal mistake my mother warned me about: assuming no one was there! What happened next reminded me why showing up matters more than showing up polished. And how my L.O.V.E. Method helped me move from self-criticism to self-grace in real time.

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This episode offers a real-world example of what self-compassion look like in action. Whether you’re running a business, navigating a transition, or simply trying to silence that inner critic, you’ll learn that self-compassion is a practice you can return to whenever things threaten to fall apart.

What you’ll take away:

• Why assuming silence means rejection is a limiting belief worth examining
• A simple way to notice when self-criticism is running the show, and how to gently interrupt it
• How to apply the L.O.V.E. Method when you mess up (without spiraling)
• The gift of showing up imperfectly for yourself and those waiting for you

If you’ve been holding back because you’re not “ready enough,” this episode is for you. Sometimes your greatest teaching moments come wrapped up in your biggest mistakes.

Finding purpose after 50 starts with grace. Midlife reinvention begins when you stop waiting for perfect.

Resources:

Join the Soulful Women’s Network: https://www.facebook.com/groups/soulfulwomensnetwork

Receive daily inspirational email messages: bit.ly/LoveLightNotes

Need support? Go to engagewithgloria.com to schedule a call.

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TRANSCRIPT

Self-Compassion for Women Over 50: From Self-Criticism to Self-Grace

Introduction: What Self-Compassion Really Means After 50

Namaste.

On the day of my awakening your inner light workshop, I almost ghosted three women who wanted to explore my love method. Not because I didn’t care, but because of one tiny notification setting and a big story I was telling myself. So today I am sharing what really happened and what it taught me about perfection and self trust and how you can use the love method the next time you mess up in your own life or business. But before we dive into all that, I want to welcome you to Live Love Engage. I am Gloria Grace, confidence catalyst who empowers women over 50 through my signature love method and energy healing to boldly live life on their terms.

The Story Behind the Almost-Ghosted Workshop

So if you, if you’re a regular subscriber to the podcast and you’ve listened to the last couple of episodes, I think I mentioned, or especially the last one, I think you I mentioned that I was doing this workshop and I was really excited because I had done it in person here in Florida, I guess almost two months ago now, and, and it was really lovely and I thought, well, if I could do it in person, why not do it online with Zoom and we can have breakout rooms and all that fun stuff. So that’s what I did. I, you know, decided I picked a date and, and set up the event and, you know, posted about it. And I wasn’t getting any emails from Zoom about anybody registering. And in fact, even right up until I know a lot of, lots of people wait until the last minute.

And so I was doing some last minute promotion as well. And the day before the workshop, I, I’m checking my email, you know, searching for Zoom, and it’s like, nothing. I’m like, no. Oh, well, I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. And I went about my day and, and then the morning of the workshop, you know, again, I checked again to see if anybody had registered and you know, you know, again, there were no emails from Zoom.

When Limiting Beliefs Almost Won

You, you may be guessing where this is going already, right? So it got to be about, I don’t know, maybe 10 minutes before 2 o’. Clock. I was going to do this at 2 o’ clock in the afternoon, I think Eastern time. So, but I don’t know, 15 minutes or 10 minutes before I, for whatever reason, my higher self was telling me, go log on to Zoom.

Log on to Zoom and check and just double check to see if anybody had registered. And so I did. And when I logged on, I saw that three people had registered.

I’m. For those of you who are listening, I’m doing my home alone impression of, oh shoot. What was, what was the character’s name that Macaulay Culkin played? I forget. Oh God, I should know it.

But anyway, I’m doing my best, you know, or, and it’s also the, what is it? The Munch painting of the. Oh, so holy. Holy moly. I’m like, okay, I’ve got three people that are expecting me to do a workshop in like a few minutes.

Showing Up Imperfectly: What Happened Next

So I like hurriedly went around my office trying to find the notes I had. I had like these like, I don’t know, three by five cards or maybe even five by seven cards that I. Index cards that I had put together for the, the in person workshop that had all my lovely notes about everything. And so I still never found them. I don’t know where they went.

One of these days they’ll show up, I guess. But thankfully I also knew before I created the cards that I had put an outline together on Google Drive. So I went to Google Drive, found that, printed it out. I was like, okay, all right. It’s like.

Because I, I knew in general what I wanted to do, but I also wanted to refresh my memory and so, so I did that. So I got, so I got my notes and I, I went into the Zoom and there was one woman, someone I, I know actually I knew all three people who had signed up as well. So they, they weren’t complete strangers, which was very fortunate for me. So, so this one woman was there and, and she showed up and, and I said, you know, I’m so sorry. I like explained the whole thing to her that I didn’t get any notifications and I didn’t know anybody had signed up and, and, and, and she was the only person there.

Now it was already about couple minutes after the start of the workshop and so she’s like, well, maybe you should check with the other people. And I’m like, yeah, I think that’s a good idea. So, so I left the room and went and sent emails out to the other two ladies and, and then came back into Zoom. And then sure enough, within a couple more minutes they both came in and now I’m going to breathe. Ah.

Because that’s what I was able to do then is to breathe and apologize and say, and to thank them for showing up and, and I went into the workshop what I wanted to share and it wasn’t as polished as I had intended it to be.

The Power of Done Over Perfect

And I know I had. Yeah, I didn’t quite do things in exact order that I wanted to do them either, but I did get all the we. I did the explanation of what the love method stands for. We did some experiential exercises. They got to do some, you know, reflections back and forth.

We did some sharing, they did some journaling. And all in all, it turned out lovely. And they gave me some wonderful testimonials, which I just realized that I didn’t. I was going to look them up before I started recording this podcast to tell you what they are. So you know what?

I’m going to pause for one quick second and find them and then I’m going to come and then I’ll continue the recording so I can get them. Because I can do this. I have control. Haha. So I’ll be right back and you won’t even notice how long I’ve been gone.

What the Workshop Participants Said

I love technology because, see, I’m right back and I have, I have their feedback forms. So I’m going to share with you a little bit about what they said. So one of the comments said, thank you for a delightful workshop. The processes you shared were simple to grasp, very meaningful, and showed exciting originality. I recommend it to anyone seeking fresh tools for enlightening their life.

And let’s see, the other next person said, yeah, the workshop was simple, interactive, personally fulfilling and informative. I’m open to this information and appreciate your personal guidance. And I also shared some light language and she loved that as well. She hadn’t heard that before. And let’s see.

And then the last person said that, yeah, what, what they liked about the workshop was that it teaches you to listen to your inner intuition and to trust in God. And she loved breaking in, you know, doing the breakout rooms. And yeah, so I felt, I felt so great reading these, this feedback and knowing that showing up, showing up, that’s, that’s, that’s one of the lessons learned here is that it’s important to show up. And, and the, the first lesson, actually. Well, one of, one of the lessons that came to me also was I should have heeded my mother’s warning.

Never Assume: Lessons Learned from Tech Mistakes

She always taught me to never assume. You know why? Because you make an a-s-s out of you and me. And so I just assumed that, that everything was right, set up with, with zoom, and that, you know, maybe it was some fault of theirs that they didn’t send me notifications. Well, joke’s on me because it was operator air.

I am the person who didn’t set up the notifications so that it would let me know when someone registered. So I put a note on my notes for the workshop that the next Time I run it when I set it up in zoom to check, check and make sure that I have those notifications on. Ah. Oh, my goodness.

What. What an interesting.

What an interesting experience. So what does all this mean for you? Well, before I get into that, I just want to take a moment. Hopefully you’re not turned off so far, but I want to invite you to subscribe to the podcast if you aren’t already, because, you know, either on your favorite podcast platform like Apple or, you know, wherever, Spotify, or on YouTube. And, you know, it’s the holiday season now, so maybe when you’re wrapping gifts, you could listen to an episode, listen to one of our past episodes, see what, see what calls to you and just wanted to want to put that plug in there.

Practicing Self-Compassion When You Mess Up

So, like I said, what does this mean for you? Well, give yourself grace. When you mess up, don’t worry about being perfect. You know, I, I was honest with the participants and I, you know, I let them know that I almost didn’t show up, you know, because I didn’t, I didn’t think anyone had registered. Talk about a limiting belief there.

And double check settings when using automation, for sure. And it’s really, when I think about it, it’s about practicing the love method. So for those of you who don’t know what that is, the L stands for let go and let God. So in this case, it is letting go of perfection and after the fact, letting go of self criticism.

The L.O.V.E. Method for Overcoming Self-Doubt

The O is opening your heart to receive, so it’s opening your heart to unexpected blessings. The V is valuing your uniqueness. So in my case, it was valuing the content I had to share and the exercises that I knew would be valuable to my attendees and, and showing up. And then, and then finally the E is embrace your divinity. And so that is acknowledging that I’m a perfect spiritual being living in an imperfect human body and encompassing this imperfectly human life.

Yeah. Oh, my goodness. The. You know, and there’s probably more lessons and if you know of any that I missed, you know, reach out to me. I’m on social media.

LinkedIn is, is one of the places that I am hanging out the most these days. So connect with me on LinkedIn at Gloria Grace Rand. And yeah, pointed out to me because I, I feel like I’m missing something else. But I do think that the most important thing, actually, now that I think about it, yeah, I think the most important thing was that, and this is something that I pride myself on, is I, I could have just showed up to that zoom when, when I logged into the Zoom Room and I saw the one woman there, I could have said, you know, and in fact I had was even thinking that, you know what? I, why don’t we just reschedule and I’ll come back, you know, we’ll do it again later.

Why Showing Up Matters More Than Being Ready

And I could have very easily done that, But I don’t like giving up and I don’t like quitting. I, yeah, that, that’s just not something I like to do. I, and it was, it was my responsibility. I set up this event and I needed to show up. Those people were kind enough to register.

The least I could do, the very least I could do was show up.

So, yeah, I, I, I think that’s so important. So I thought what I would do right now is share with you.

Light Language Healing: Connecting with Your Higher Self

A message from, from multi, the multi dimensional places that I share messages from. And this was, this was part of, when I did the, the workshop with them, as I, I mentioned. I. Part of embracing your divinity is embracing that we are spiritual beings and emotional and we have this connection with source, God, the universe, however you respond to it. So my way of connecting with all of that is through a modality called light language.

And it is something that I share on the podcast when I do solo episodes like this. And it’s, it’s truly a language of love. It’s, it’s something that speaks to your heart, speaks to your soul, and it’s very healing. It’s, it’s helps you release what doesn’t serve you anymore, really. It’s, it’s clearing out what doesn’t serve you anymore.

And yeah, I, I’m, I’m just really being called to just share that with you right now. And, and don’t wor, you don’t necessarily understand what I speak or sing, depending. Just trust that this message is for your soul’s highest good. And that’s the intention that I’m going to set, is that it is for your soul’s highest good. So if you’re listening to this while you’re driving your car, I would encourage you to pause it right now and come back to this sometime when you can be seated and so that you can really be hopefully not disturbed so you know, somewhere quiet and, and just set an intention for yourself that what you’re going to hear is for your soul’s highest good.

How to Receive This Energy Healing Message

And if you have a particular challenge that you’re going through right now, ask that it will help you with that as well. Because again, this is, it’s, it’s a multi Dimensional form of communication, and it addresses whoever is listening to it. It addresses what you need. That’s what’s so cool about it. And, and for me, sharing it helps me as well.

So I, I, it’s. I do it for selfish reasons, too, because it’s, it’s really good for my soul and, and releases what I released or what I don’t need to carry anymore. I should say so. Yeah. So, okay, so I invite you right now.

I’m hoping that you have already paused this and you’re back now listening and that you’re comfortable. And I was very, very excited talking today, so I’m going to take a deep breath right now and encourage you to do the same. Let’s just take one together. Breathe in and let go.

Let me do one more.

Oh, yeah, that feels better. I feel a little more grounded now. That’s important. I need to be grounded, especially when I decide to connect with the, the ethers. So I want to be grounded first.

All right, let’s see what comes through for you today and for me…

After the Light Language: Invitation to Go Deeper

I hope you received that with the love it was intended, and hopefully it lightens your heart today because, yeah, that’s what it’s intended for. And if you would ever like to have a personalized session with me, please reach out. You can, you can schedule it at Bitly Forward, slash, capital L, capital L, capital E, lowercase podcast 30.

Oh, that’s right. I’m like, what does the LLE stand for? Oh, yeah, Live Love Engage. Hello. Name of the podcast.

Oh, my goodness. Yeah, you know, it’s, it’s as I’m recording this, it’s the day before. Thanks. Thanksgiving. And, you know, I think there’s a lot of energy in the air, a lot of holiday angst.

And yeah, I was going to tell you a story, but I’m thinking that might be a good story to share with you next week, especially as we get really into the thick of the holiday season. So, yeah, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna share it right now. Sorry. See, you got to be subscribed if you want to. If you want to know what’s coming up.

Podcast Rebrand Announcement: Design Your Life, Your Way

And, And I will tell you again, just as a, As a quick reminder, Live Love Engage, as it in this format only has about. We’re going to do about four. At least four more episodes. There may be a few more, but I’m hoping my intention is in January. I’m not sure exactly when, but I’m hoping in January of 2026 that we will have a new name.

The podcast is going to be called design your life your way. And that’s what we’re really going to be talking about in detail every week. And I’m also going to bring on some wonderful guests who will also share from their perspective how you can really create a life that you want to live that serves you, that really does serve you. So, yeah, today’s episode is a little bit shorter than I normally do, but you know what I think? I think that’s a good thing because we’re busy.

We’re all busy this time of year, right? Absolutely.

Final Thoughts: Your Gifts Are Needed Even When It’s Quiet

So if there is one thing I hope you take from my almost ghosted workshop, it is this. Your gifts are needed even when our notifications are silent. Let go of perfection.

Open your heart to the unexpected. Yes. Value what you have to share. Embrace that part of you that showed up anyway. And maybe take a moment this week to ask yourself, is there a place in your life or business where you’ve assumed no one’s there and is it a time to check it again?

So, yeah, give that a thought. And until we meet again next week, these episodes drop on Tuesdays. By the way, I encourage you to go out and live fully, love deeply, and engage authentically.