<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:googleplay="http://www.google.com/schemas/play-podcasts/1.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[It's Your Turn with Shari Biery]]></title><description><![CDATA[Honest writing and real conversations for midlife women navigating identity shifts, burnout, and the quiet work of choosing themselves.]]></description><link>https://sharibiery.substack.com</link><image><url>https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GRsK!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb03e1bc4-cfed-4e15-b70d-34acc9c9af8f_500x500.png</url><title>It&apos;s Your Turn with Shari Biery</title><link>https://sharibiery.substack.com</link></image><generator>Substack</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 16 Jul 2026 18:26:58 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><copyright><![CDATA[© 2026 Alive With Purpose Health & Life Coaching]]></copyright><language><![CDATA[en]]></language><webMaster><![CDATA[shari@sharibiery.com]]></webMaster><itunes:owner><itunes:email><![CDATA[shari@sharibiery.com]]></itunes:email><itunes:name><![CDATA[Shari Biery]]></itunes:name></itunes:owner><itunes:author><![CDATA[Shari Biery]]></itunes:author><googleplay:owner><![CDATA[shari@sharibiery.com]]></googleplay:owner><googleplay:email><![CDATA[shari@sharibiery.com]]></googleplay:email><googleplay:author><![CDATA[Shari Biery]]></googleplay:author><itunes:block><![CDATA[Yes]]></itunes:block><item><title><![CDATA[The Moment I Realized It Was My Turn ]]></title><description><![CDATA[A Navy retirement ceremony. A folded flag. Four words that changed everything. This is where It's Your Turn begins. Finding yourself in midlife.]]></description><link>https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/the-moment-i-realized-it-was-my-turn</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/the-moment-i-realized-it-was-my-turn</guid><pubDate>Wed, 15 Jul 2026 23:01:03 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/207209979/eefb29ebee46493d34adbbd13b93f77a.mp3" length="0" type="audio/mpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><em>It&#8217;s Your Turn with Shari Biery is a weekly podcast for midlife women who are ready to take their turn and create space for new passions, purpose, and possibilities.</em></p><div><hr></div><p>If you&#8217;ve spent years being the steady one, the reliable one, the one everyone counted on, you&#8217;re in the right place. Shari shares the moment that cracked something open, a Navy retirement ceremony, a folded flag, and four quiet words that gave her permission to finally take her turn. Learn the story behind It's Your Turn and why midlife might be your homecoming.</p><div><hr></div><h2><span>Key Takeaways</span></h2><ul><li><p>Midlife is not a crisis to survive, it&#8217;s a homecoming to find your way back to.</p></li><li><p>Many women feel off even when life looks fine on the outside, because something quietly went missing along the way.</p></li><li><p>The C.A.L.M. Method has four parts: Clarity, Awareness, Learning, and Mindset, and each one supports women in coming back to themselves.</p></li><li><p>This show isn&#8217;t about hustle, pressure, or quick fixes. It&#8217;s about honest conversation and grounded support.</p></li><li><p>You don&#8217;t have to blow up your whole life to come back to yourself.</p></li><li><p>You&#8217;ve held a lot for a long time. This podcast is a reminder that you count too.</p></li></ul><div><hr></div><h2>Resources</h2><ul><li><p><em><a href="https://sharibiery.com">It&#8217;s Your Turn</a></em><a href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/its-your-turn">, Shari&#8217;s book</a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://sharibiery.com/quiz">Take the free Midlife Spark Type Quiz</a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/its-your-turn-founding-essay">Related Substack Article</a></p><div class="digest-post-embed" data-attrs="{&quot;nodeId&quot;:&quot;1f4dbad5-5c06-4e14-adca-885c06d213af&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;My husband had just finished his speech.&quot;,&quot;cta&quot;:null,&quot;showBylines&quot;:true,&quot;showDescription&quot;:true,&quot;showImage&quot;:true,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;sm&quot;,&quot;isEditorNode&quot;:true,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;It's Your Turn&quot;,&quot;publishedBylines&quot;:[{&quot;id&quot;:318062069,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Shari Biery&quot;,&quot;bio&quot;:&quot;Helping midlife women come back to themselves after years of putting everyone else first. National Board Certified Health Coach | Author of It's Your Turn | Speaker | Creator of the C.A.L.M. Method\&quot;&quot;,&quot;photo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/cf379d2f-5450-4dc9-a617-1e9715f806a3_1365x1365.jpeg&quot;,&quot;is_guest&quot;:false,&quot;bestseller_tier&quot;:null}],&quot;post_date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-25T20:12:01.782Z&quot;,&quot;cover_image&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/7ab62af1-b213-4841-8219-a363bdee1e73_1200x630.png&quot;,&quot;cover_image_alt&quot;:null,&quot;canonical_url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/its-your-turn-founding-essay&quot;,&quot;section_name&quot;:null,&quot;video_upload_id&quot;:null,&quot;id&quot;:202444864,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;newsletter&quot;,&quot;reaction_count&quot;:2,&quot;comment_count&quot;:0,&quot;publication_id&quot;:4794942,&quot;publication_name&quot;:&quot;It's Your Turn with Shari Biery&quot;,&quot;publication_logo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GRsK!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb03e1bc4-cfed-4e15-b70d-34acc9c9af8f_500x500.png&quot;,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;youtube_url&quot;:null,&quot;show_links&quot;:null,&quot;feed_url&quot;:null}"></div></li></ul><div><hr></div><h2>About Your Host, Shari Biery</h2><p>National Board Certified Health &amp; Wellness Coach, author of <em>It&#8217;s Your Turn</em>, speaker, and creator of the C.A.L.M. Method&#8482;.</p><p>An avid podcast listener herself, Shari knows what it means to find a voice that gets you through a hard season. Now she&#8217;s bringing that same honesty to midlife women everywhere. New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe so you never miss one.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://pod.link/6788453366&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Listen on Your Favorite Podcast Platform&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://pod.link/6788453366"><span>Listen on Your Favorite Podcast Platform</span></a></p><p>This show lives on Substack, but there&#8217;s more waiting for you here.</p><div><hr></div><h2><a href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips">It&#8217;s Your Turn on Substack</a></h2><p>There's more waiting for you on Substack.<br>Subscribe for free and receive written reflections and honest writing about coming back to yourself in midlife. When you're ready to go deeper, the It's Your Turn Circle is a paid community with live conversations, community chat, and a monthly Q&amp;A.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Kind of Tired That Sleep Doesn't Fix]]></title><description><![CDATA[Why you feel exhausted even when life looks fine, and what's actually driving the Spin Cycle for women in midlife.]]></description><link>https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/the-kind-of-tired-that-sleep-doesnt</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/the-kind-of-tired-that-sleep-doesnt</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Shari Biery]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 15 Jul 2026 17:57:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/c53d2e0d-1024-453a-820a-84c184477bc5_1200x630.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There&#8217;s a kind of tired that has nothing to do with how many hours you slept.</p><p>You know the one.</p><p>It&#8217;s there when you wake up. It was there yesterday. It&#8217;s been building for a while now.</p><p>The appointments are made. The meals get handled. The people who need you are taken care of. From the outside, your life looks completely functional.</p><p>You&#8217;re not sick. Nothing catastrophic has happened. You can&#8217;t point to the exact thing that&#8217;s wrong.</p><p>But something is. You feel it. </p><h2>The Spin Cycle</h2><p>In my work with midlife women, I see this so often I've given it a name. </p><p>The Spin Cycle.</p><p>It&#8217;s that feeling of being in constant motion without ever feeling like you&#8217;re actually getting anywhere that matters. You&#8217;re busy. You&#8217;re productive. Things are getting done.</p><p>But at the end of the day, when everything finally quiets down, you feel empty instead of satisfied. Your body feels like it can&#8217;t keep up with your mind. </p><p>You might recognize it as waking up already behind. Saying yes before your mind has a chance to say no. Carrying everyone else&#8217;s needs in your head while your own stay at the bottom of the list. And then come the feelings that are harder to admit. Feeling resentful but guilty for feeling that way.</p><p>Maybe even wondering when it will finally be your turn.</p><div><hr></div><h2>What&#8217;s Actually Driving It</h2><p>This kind of exhaustion is not a discipline problem. It&#8217;s not a time management problem. It&#8217;s not a willpower problem.</p><p>Most of the time, it's a nervous system problem, driven by patterns of thinking that have been running quietly in the background for years.</p><p>Most women in midlife have been running on overdrive for years. The gas pedal is stuck. The brakes have forgotten how to work. We&#8217;ve been so wired for doing, managing, and showing up that slowing down doesn&#8217;t feel natural anymore.</p><p>It can even feel dangerous.</p><p>Because somewhere along the way, slowing down got confused with falling behind. Resting got confused with failing. And the woman underneath all that doing got completely buried under the weight of everything she was holding for everyone else.</p><p>In my book, I write about something I call the Messy Web. It&#8217;s the tangled layering of things that makes it so hard for women to put themselves first. Purpose. Sacrifice. Identity. Life transitions. Financial pressure. The expectation to be everything to everyone.</p><p>These threads are woven together. Pull one and the others tighten.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AFCi!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F716880dd-3eff-4cd0-a4b2-b5bd3f030e75_1200x630.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AFCi!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F716880dd-3eff-4cd0-a4b2-b5bd3f030e75_1200x630.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AFCi!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F716880dd-3eff-4cd0-a4b2-b5bd3f030e75_1200x630.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AFCi!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F716880dd-3eff-4cd0-a4b2-b5bd3f030e75_1200x630.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AFCi!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F716880dd-3eff-4cd0-a4b2-b5bd3f030e75_1200x630.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AFCi!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F716880dd-3eff-4cd0-a4b2-b5bd3f030e75_1200x630.png" width="1200" height="630" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/716880dd-3eff-4cd0-a4b2-b5bd3f030e75_1200x630.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/1219caef-f345-4abd-bc19-3b781204df23_1200x630.png&quot;,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:630,&quot;width&quot;:1200,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:80996,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/i/207081031?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1219caef-f345-4abd-bc19-3b781204df23_1200x630.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AFCi!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F716880dd-3eff-4cd0-a4b2-b5bd3f030e75_1200x630.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AFCi!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F716880dd-3eff-4cd0-a4b2-b5bd3f030e75_1200x630.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AFCi!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F716880dd-3eff-4cd0-a4b2-b5bd3f030e75_1200x630.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AFCi!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F716880dd-3eff-4cd0-a4b2-b5bd3f030e75_1200x630.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>As I was researching for It's Your Turn back in 2020, I found that nearly half of women said their workload has increased while also shouldering the majority of responsibilities at home. The numbers were striking, but perhaps not surprising. </p><p>The mounting pressure has a name. The World Health Organization calls it burnout.</p><p>But we&#8217;ve used that word so many times it&#8217;s stopped really meaning anything. We say it casually. We laugh about it. We put it on mugs.</p><blockquote><p>What we don&#8217;t do is stop and ask what it&#8217;s actually costing us.</p></blockquote><p>Because burnout isn&#8217;t just being tired. It&#8217;s what happens when a woman has been running on empty for so long that her body, her mind, and her sense of self have all started to quietly shut down. It&#8217;s not a bad week. It&#8217;s a pattern. And patterns don&#8217;t fix themselves with a spa day or a good night of sleep.</p><p>It&#8217;s not just happening at work. It&#8217;s happening in our lives. In our bodies. In the quiet moments when we can&#8217;t remember the last time we felt like ourselves.</p><p>This is the pattern most of us have never stopped to name, let alone question.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/its-your-turn&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;It's Your Turn Book&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/its-your-turn"><span>It's Your Turn Book</span></a></p><div><hr></div><h2>When Pushing Harder Stops Working</h2><p>For a long time, the answer to exhaustion was more effort. More discipline. A better morning routine. A tighter system.</p><p>And for a while, that worked.</p><blockquote><p>But midlife changes the equation. Hormones shift. Your nervous system becomes more sensitive. Your tolerance for constant pressure gets lower, not because you&#8217;re weaker but because your body is wiser.</p></blockquote><p>I have a physical signal that shows up when my body is in overdrive.</p><p>For me, it feels like marbles in my throat, an uncomfortable pressure that makes it hard to swallow.</p><p>When I hit my early 40s, it was there every single day. I went to the doctor. They ran the tests. Gave me medication for gastric issues but nothing was helping it.</p><p>I can see now, years later, what was actually happening. Perimenopause and chronic stress were feeding each other. Perimenopause was the fire. Stress was the gasoline.</p><p>My body was whispering the whole time. I just kept choosing to push through.</p><p>It wasn&#8217;t until I decided to start listening and respond differently to those signals that things began to change. I rarely have that symptom anymore. But when it shows up now, I know what it means. I reach for the toolbox I've built for myself.</p><p>That&#8217;s the thing about the Spin Cycle. Your body knows before your mind is willing to admit it. </p><blockquote><p>What&#8217;s yours? What&#8217;s the signal you&#8217;ve been ignoring or pushing through?</p></blockquote><p>A woman I worked with said something that has stayed with me.</p><p>&#8220;I kept trying to do more, optimize more, find the right system. And I kept hitting a wall. Once I stopped trying to push through and started actually listening to what my body was asking for, things started to shift.&#8221;</p><p>That&#8217;s the shift. From forcing to listening.</p><h2>What Slowing Down Actually Means</h2><p>Slowing the Spin doesn&#8217;t mean quitting. It doesn&#8217;t mean dismantling your whole life.</p><p>It means starting to question the patterns that have been running quietly in the background.</p><p>The pattern that says your worth is tied to how much you do for others. The pattern that says rest is something you earn. The pattern that says everyone else comes first and you&#8217;ll get your turn eventually.</p><blockquote><p><em>One question that can begin to change things: what is actually mine to carry right now?</em></p></blockquote><p>Not everything on your list belongs to you. Not every request requires a yes. Not every responsibility that found its way to you was meant to stay there.</p><p>When women start asking that question honestly, something begins to lift.</p><p>Not all at once. Slowly. One small decision at a time.</p><p>And in that space, something becomes possible that wasn&#8217;t possible before.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><div><hr></div><h2>A Place to Start</h2><p>If any of this felt familiar, that recognition is worth paying attention to.</p><p>Your body has been trying to get your attention. The question is what you do with that now?</p><p>A good place to start is understanding where you actually are in this season. Not where you think you should be. Where you actually are.</p><p>The free Midlife Spark Type Quiz will help you see what your body and energy need most right now. Not a generic prescription. Something that fits where you are.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.sharibiery.com/quiz&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Take the Spark Type Quiz&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.sharibiery.com/quiz"><span>Take the Spark Type Quiz</span></a></p><p>You don't have to have it all figured out to begin. You just have to be willing to slow down long enough to hear what your body is actually trying to tell you.</p><div><hr></div><p style="text-align: center;">This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical or mental health advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider or mental health professional with any questions about your health.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[It's Your Turn with Shari Biery Official Trailer]]></title><description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s Your Turn with Shari Biery is a weekly podcast for midlife women who are ready to take their turn and create space for new passions, purpose, and possibilities.]]></description><link>https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/its-your-turn-with-shari-biery-trailer</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/its-your-turn-with-shari-biery-trailer</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Shari Biery]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2026 16:25:02 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/204928321/f29e082b83b88d89e76ca4225c3e09a1.mp3" length="0" type="audio/mpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><em>It&#8217;s Your Turn with Shari Biery is a weekly podcast for midlife women who are ready to take their turn and create space for new passions, purpose, and possibilities.</em></p><div><hr></div><p>In this short trailer, Shari introduces the show, who it&#8217;s for, and what you can expect every week. If you&#8217;ve spent years showing up for everyone else and quietly lost the thread back to yourself, this is for you. </p><div><hr></div><h4><strong><span>CONVERSATIONS WE&#8217;RE HAVING</span></strong></h4><p>Each week, Shari shares honest reflections on the patterns shaping how you live, what your body is trying to tell you, and what becomes possible when you finally choose yourself.</p><ul><li><p><span>Why do I feel so exhausted all the time?</span></p></li><li><p><span>Why does taking care of myself feel so hard?</span></p></li><li><p><span>Why do I feel guilty when I put myself first?</span></p></li><li><p><span>Why don&#8217;t I recognize myself anymore?</span></p></li><li><p><span>What is my body trying to tell me?</span></p></li><li><p><span>Why does rest feel so uncomfortable?</span></p></li><li><p><span>How do I stop putting myself last?</span></p></li><li><p><span>What do I actually need right now?</span></p></li><li><p><span>How do I create a life that includes me?</span></p></li><li><p><span>What becomes possible when it&#8217;s finally my turn?</span></p></li></ul><div><hr></div><h3><strong>About Your Host, Shari Biery</strong></h3><p>National Board Certified Health &amp; Wellness Coach, author of <em>It&#8217;s Your Turn</em>, speaker, and creator of the C.A.L.M. Method&#8482;.</p><p>An avid podcast listener herself, Shari knows what it means to find a voice that gets you through a hard season. Now she&#8217;s bringing that same honesty to midlife women everywhere.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://pod.link/6788453366&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Listen on Your Favorite Podcast Platform&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://pod.link/6788453366"><span>Listen on Your Favorite Podcast Platform</span></a></p><p>New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe so you never miss one.</p><p>This show lives on Substack, but there&#8217;s more waiting for you here.</p><div><hr></div><h3><strong>It&#8217;s Your Turn on Substack</strong></h3><p>There's more waiting for you on Substack.<br>Subscribe for free and receive written reflections and honest writing about coming back to yourself in midlife. When you're ready to go deeper, the It's Your Turn Circle is a paid community with live conversations, community chat, and a monthly Q&amp;A.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[ Here’s a thought for It’s Your Turn Monday]]></title><description><![CDATA[I keep thinking about Martina McBride&#8217;s song Independence Day today after hearing it on the radio this weekend.]]></description><link>https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/heres-a-thought-for-its-your-turn-monday</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/heres-a-thought-for-its-your-turn-monday</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Shari Biery]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 06 Jul 2026 15:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!mnmX!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3592d96d-ae49-42e7-a4b6-a41598b74014_424x565.webp" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!mnmX!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3592d96d-ae49-42e7-a4b6-a41598b74014_424x565.webp" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!mnmX!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3592d96d-ae49-42e7-a4b6-a41598b74014_424x565.webp 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!mnmX!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3592d96d-ae49-42e7-a4b6-a41598b74014_424x565.webp 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!mnmX!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3592d96d-ae49-42e7-a4b6-a41598b74014_424x565.webp 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!mnmX!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3592d96d-ae49-42e7-a4b6-a41598b74014_424x565.webp 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!mnmX!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3592d96d-ae49-42e7-a4b6-a41598b74014_424x565.webp" width="424" height="565" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/3592d96d-ae49-42e7-a4b6-a41598b74014_424x565.webp&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:565,&quot;width&quot;:424,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:44576,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/webp&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/i/205823284?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3592d96d-ae49-42e7-a4b6-a41598b74014_424x565.webp&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!mnmX!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3592d96d-ae49-42e7-a4b6-a41598b74014_424x565.webp 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!mnmX!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3592d96d-ae49-42e7-a4b6-a41598b74014_424x565.webp 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!mnmX!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3592d96d-ae49-42e7-a4b6-a41598b74014_424x565.webp 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!mnmX!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3592d96d-ae49-42e7-a4b6-a41598b74014_424x565.webp 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Here&#8217;s a thought for <em>It&#8217;s Your Turn Monday</em></p><p>I keep thinking about Martina McBride&#8217;s song Independence Day today after hearing it on the radio this weekend.</p><p>Not because of the literal story in that song, though it stays with you.</p><p>But because of the question underneath it.</p>
      <p>
          <a href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/heres-a-thought-for-its-your-turn-monday">
              Read more
          </a>
      </p>
   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Friendship Nobody Warned You About Losing in Midlife]]></title><description><![CDATA[Lisa moved back to Ohio recently.]]></description><link>https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/the-friendship-nobody-warned-you-about-losing</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/the-friendship-nobody-warned-you-about-losing</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Shari Biery]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2026 20:12:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e2221c26-02f3-4007-a426-e9c7def106ae_1200x630.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span>Lisa moved back to Ohio recently.</span></p><p><span>She had grown up there, in Northeast Ohio, where her family put down roots and stayed. While my husband and I were moving around the world with the military, Lisa and her husband had anchored back to familiar ground. They built their life in Northeast Ohio, surrounded by the people who knew them longest.</span></p><p><span>Then life moved them. Her mom and brother were in Florida, and her husband landed a new job, so they packed up and went south. Their son followed too. For a few years, Florida became home.</span></p><p><span>But hearts have a way of pulling people back.</span></p><p><span>They missed their family. They missed what felt like theirs. And so they made the decision to go back to Ohio, to the ground that had always held them.</span></p><p><span>What that meant for us was a gift I didn&#8217;t fully appreciate until it was ending. Their time in Florida brought them close enough that we actually got to be in each other&#8217;s lives in a way our military moves had made hard for years. More visits. More afternoons. More of the kind of time that thirty-year friendships are built to hold.</span></p><p><span>I was driving home from one of those afternoons, a few days before she left. We had spent the afternoon at her pool, the easy kind of hours that happen when you&#8217;ve known someone long enough that you don&#8217;t need a plan. And somewhere on that drive home I felt something I didn&#8217;t have a word for.</span></p><p><span>Not grief exactly. Not loneliness exactly. Something in between. The particular ache of watching a chapter close that you didn&#8217;t know was ending until it already had.</span></p><div><hr></div><h2><span>The Friendship Nobody Warned You About Losing</span></h2><p><span>There are some things that nobody tells you about midlife friendships.</span></p><p><span>They don&#8217;t end with a fight. They don&#8217;t end with a betrayal or a falling out or a dramatic conversation you&#8217;ll replay for years. They end quietly. With a move. A retirement. Kids leaving home. A career change. A life that takes someone three states away and leaves you on a long drive home wondering how this happened.</span></p><blockquote><p><span>The friendships of early adulthood had structure holding them together. School. The neighborhood. The military community. The office. The playgroup. The kids sporting events. You didn&#8217;t have to work that hard to stay connected because the structure did it for you.</span></p><p><span>Midlife removes the structure.</span></p></blockquote><p><span>And when the structure goes, so do the access points. The casual Tuesday coffee. The afternoon at someone&#8217;s pool where you stay longer than you planned because the conversation is good. The shared context that made everything feel less alone.</span></p><p><span>Nobody warned us that this would be one of the losses. We talked about kids leaving. We talked about bodies changing. We talked about careers pivoting. Nobody sat us down and said: some of your most important friendships are going to quietly drift, and it&#8217;s going to feel like something is wrong with you, and nothing is wrong with you.</span></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><div><hr></div><h2><span>It Isn&#8217;t Personal. It&#8217;s Structural.</span></h2><p><span>The loneliness that settles into midlife isn&#8217;t a personal failure. It&#8217;s structural.</span></p><p><span>The systems that used to create connection without effort have dissolved. And rebuilding those access points as an adult, intentionally, is genuinely hard work that nobody prepared us for.</span></p><p><span>The Survey Center on American Life found something that stopped me when I read it. In 1990, about four in ten women reported having six or more close friends. Today in 2026 that number has dropped to roughly one in four. Women aren&#8217;t becoming less interested in friendship. The conditions that made friendship easy have quietly disappeared.</span></p><p><span>This is not a you problem. This is a season problem.</span></p><p><span>That distinction matters more than it might seem. Because when we think it&#8217;s a &#8220;us&#8221; problem, we turn inward. We decide we&#8217;re too much or too boring or too busy or too out of practice. We stop reaching out. We accept the quiet as permanent.</span></p><blockquote><p><span>When we understand it&#8217;s structural, we can start building differently.</span></p></blockquote><div><hr></div><h2><span>What Lisa Reminded Me</span></h2><p><span>Thirty years is a long time to know someone. Long enough that she remembers versions of me I&#8217;ve almost forgotten. Long enough that we can sit in comfortable silence or talk for four hours without noticing.</span></p><blockquote><p><span>What that drive home reminded me is that I can&#8217;t take the connections I have for granted. And I can&#8217;t wait for the structure to come back, because it isn&#8217;t coming back. This season requires something different from us. It requires us to be intentional about who we gather around ourselves and how.</span></p></blockquote><p><span>It requires us to decide that our friendships are worth tending. That we are worth the effort of showing up for each other. That the loneliness we feel isn&#8217;t a sign that something is permanently broken. It&#8217;s a sign that we&#8217;re human and we need people and that is nothing to be ashamed of.</span></p><div><hr></div><h2><span>You Don&#8217;t Have to Figure This Out Alone</span></h2><p><span>One of the reasons I built the </span><em><span>It&#8217;s Your Turn Circle</span></em><span> inside this publication is that I believe midlife women need a room. A real one. A place where the conversation goes somewhere honest and the connection isn&#8217;t accidental.</span></p><p><span>If you&#8217;ve been feeling the particular loneliness of this season, you&#8217;re not imagining it. And you&#8217;re not alone in it.</span></p><p><em><span>It&#8217;s Your Turn</span></em><span> is also a book about coming back to yourself, and part of that is coming back to the people and connections that actually feed you. If you haven&#8217;t read it yet, it&#8217;s waiting for you at</span><a href="http://sharibiery.com/its-your-turn-book"><span> sharibiery.com/its-your-turn-book</span></a><span>.</span></p><p><span>And if you&#8217;re ready for a room, The </span><em><span>It&#8217;s Your Turn Circle</span></em><span> is here. There&#8217;s more waiting for you inside. You&#8217;re invited. </span></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p style="text-align: center;">This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical or mental health advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider or mental health professional with any questions about your health.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[What Nobody Is Telling Women About Their Own Health]]></title><description><![CDATA[I sat in my car after a doctor&#8217;s appointment and cried.]]></description><link>https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/what-nobody-is-telling-women-about-their-own-health</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/what-nobody-is-telling-women-about-their-own-health</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Shari Biery]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2026 20:12:32 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/01c55aa4-c268-4639-8ac9-818e014140c9_1200x630.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span>I sat in my car after a doctor&#8217;s appointment and cried.</span></p><p><span>Not because the news was terrible. Because the appointment had answered nothing.</span></p><p><span>I had walked in with a list of symptoms I could no longer explain away. Night sweats. Insomnia. Weight that wouldn&#8217;t move. A fatigue that sat in my bones and a foggy restlessness I didn&#8217;t have language for yet. I walked out with a prescription and more questions than I&#8217;d arrived with.</span></p><p><span>I had worked in healthcare. I had family members in medicine. I knew how to navigate a clinical setting. And still, I could not find a provider who would look at what was happening to me as a whole picture. Who understood the intersection of hormones and stress and midlife and a body that was clearly trying to tell me something nobody around me seemed trained to hear.</span></p><p><span>Around that same time, I did something small. Something that turned out to matter more than I knew at the time.</span></p><p><span>I wrote a note to myself and tucked it into my daily calendar, somewhere I would see it every single morning.</span></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0X9B!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbbd1648d-d8f5-47e4-a7ce-ad28c05011c5_720x960.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0X9B!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbbd1648d-d8f5-47e4-a7ce-ad28c05011c5_720x960.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0X9B!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbbd1648d-d8f5-47e4-a7ce-ad28c05011c5_720x960.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0X9B!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbbd1648d-d8f5-47e4-a7ce-ad28c05011c5_720x960.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0X9B!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbbd1648d-d8f5-47e4-a7ce-ad28c05011c5_720x960.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0X9B!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbbd1648d-d8f5-47e4-a7ce-ad28c05011c5_720x960.jpeg" width="294" height="392" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/bbd1648d-d8f5-47e4-a7ce-ad28c05011c5_720x960.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:960,&quot;width&quot;:720,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:294,&quot;bytes&quot;:99486,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/i/202745216?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbbd1648d-d8f5-47e4-a7ce-ad28c05011c5_720x960.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0X9B!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbbd1648d-d8f5-47e4-a7ce-ad28c05011c5_720x960.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0X9B!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbbd1648d-d8f5-47e4-a7ce-ad28c05011c5_720x960.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0X9B!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbbd1648d-d8f5-47e4-a7ce-ad28c05011c5_720x960.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0X9B!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbbd1648d-d8f5-47e4-a7ce-ad28c05011c5_720x960.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>Not a grand declaration. Not a plan. </span></p><blockquote><p><span>Just a quiet promise I had to keep renewing, every day, until I actually believed it.</span></p></blockquote><div><hr></div><h2><span>Taking Care of Yourself Is Advocating for Yourself</span></h2><p><span>That note became the beginning of something.</span></p><p><span>It took time to find the right provider. Someone who looked at the whole picture, who understood hormones and stress and the way midlife can quietly dismantle a woman from the inside out while she keeps showing up for everyone else. But I found her. And that support changed everything.</span></p><p><span>That was 2018. There are some things to know about where we are now compared to then.</span></p><p><span>The conversation has changed.</span></p><p><span>There are clinicians, researchers, and advocates in women&#8217;s health who are using their voices and their expertise to shift what care actually looks like for midlife women. There are providers who specialize in this season of life in a way that simply wasn&#8217;t as accessible a few years ago. Private funding is beginning to flow toward women&#8217;s health research in meaningful ways. The face of women&#8217;s healthcare is changing, slowly and imperfectly, but it is changing.</span></p><blockquote><p><span>And a significant part of why it&#8217;s changing is because women started talking and knowing we deserve better.</span></p></blockquote><div><hr></div><h2><span>You Have More Power Here Than You Think</span></h2><p><span>The system has gaps. Real ones. That&#8217;s not a personal failure on the part of any one provider. It&#8217;s a structural problem that has been building for decades, one that researchers, advocates, and clinicians are actively working to address.</span></p><p><span>The fact is you don&#8217;t have to wait for the system to catch up before you start advocating for yourself inside it.</span></p><blockquote><p><span>Asking a different question at your next appointment is advocacy. Seeking a second opinion is advocacy. Finding a provider who specializes in midlife women&#8217;s health is advocacy. Writing a note to yourself and putting it somewhere you&#8217;ll see it every morning is advocacy.</span></p><p><span>Taking care of yourself is not selfish. It is the most direct form of self-advocacy available to you right now.</span></p></blockquote><p><span>Your body has been communicating. The fatigue, the sleep disruption, the symptoms you&#8217;ve been minimizing or pushing through, those aren&#8217;t signs of weakness. They&#8217;re signals worth taking seriously. </span></p><p><span>You deserve to be supported by a medical care practitioner that is trained in women&#8217;s health and we have to keep asking questions. </span></p><div><hr></div><h2><span>The Conversation Is Just Getting Started</span></h2><p><span>There is so much more to say about this. About the research gaps, the funding shifts, the advocates doing extraordinary work to change what women&#8217;s healthcare looks like. That conversation deserves its own space, and we&#8217;ll be going deeper on the podcast and inside the paid community.</span></p><p><span>For now, the most important thing I want you to take away from this is simple.</span></p><blockquote><p><span>You are allowed to ask for more. You are allowed to keep looking until you find the support that actually fits. You are allowed to put a note in your calendar and mean it.</span></p><p><strong><span>It&#8217;s your turn to take care of you.</span></strong></p></blockquote><p><span>If this resonated and you want to go deeper, we are continuing this conversation inside The </span><em><span>It&#8217;s Your Turn Circle</span></em><span>. It&#8217;s where midlife women are talking honestly about their health, their bodies, and what it means to finally advocate for themselves. There&#8217;s more waiting for you inside.</span></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><div><hr></div><p><em><span>If you&#8217;re not sure where to start, the Midlife Spark Quiz will help you understand where you are right now and what your body might be asking for. Take it at</span><a href="http://sharibiery.com/quiz"><span> sharibiery.com/quiz</span></a><span>.</span></em></p><div><hr></div><p style="text-align: center;">This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical or mental health advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider or mental health professional with any questions about your health.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Who Am I Now? The Identity Shift Nobody Warns You About in Midlife]]></title><description><![CDATA[There&#8217;s a particular kind of quiet that settles in after years of being needed.]]></description><link>https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/who-am-i-now-the-midlife-identity-shift-nobody-warns-you-about</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/who-am-i-now-the-midlife-identity-shift-nobody-warns-you-about</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Shari Biery]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2026 20:12:17 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/9e0b4a6d-1c12-4d52-ba7b-d3b74dfcfd26_1200x630.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span>There&#8217;s a particular kind of quiet that settles in after years of being needed.</span></p><p><span>Not peaceful quiet. Not the kind you&#8217;ve been craving while the calendar was full and the demands were endless. A different kind. The kind that arrives when the kids don&#8217;t need you the same way anymore, when the role that organized your days starts to loosen its grip, when you look around and realize the life you&#8217;ve been so faithfully building has shifted shape without asking your permission.</span></p><p><span>And in that quiet, a question surfaces that nobody prepared you for.</span></p><blockquote><p><em><strong><span>Who am I now?</span></strong></em></p></blockquote><div><hr></div><h2><span>The Roles That Held You</span></h2><p><span>For most of us, identity in the earlier seasons of life was built inside our roles.</span></p><p><span>Mother. Partner. Professional. Caregiver. The one who kept things running. The one people counted on. Those roles weren&#8217;t just things you did. They were how you understood yourself. They gave shape to the days, direction to the decisions, and a sense of purpose that felt like enough.</span></p><p><span>And they were enough. For a long time, they were more than enough.</span></p><p><span>But roles are scaffolding. They hold things up while the building is under construction. And in midlife, the construction changes. Kids start navigating their own lives. Careers pivot or pause. The relationships and responsibilities that once filled every corner of your days begin to shift. The scaffolding loosens.</span></p><p><span>What&#8217;s underneath isn&#8217;t emptiness. But it can feel that way at first.</span></p><div><hr></div><h2><span>The Grief Nobody Names</span></h2><p><span>The reality is that there&#8217;s something we don&#8217;t talk about enough: this transition often comes with grief.</span></p><p><span>Real grief. Not dramatic, not debilitating, but genuine loss. The loss of a version of yourself that was deeply familiar. The loss of a role that gave you clear purpose even on the hard days. The loss of knowing exactly who you were and where you fit.</span></p><p><span>Maybe it&#8217;s watching your kids step into their own lives and realizing with a complicated mix of pride and ache that your role has shifted. You&#8217;ve done the job. You did it well. But somewhere in the doing, you quietly moved from director to supporting role. You were the one who held the vision, managed the chaos, made a thousand invisible decisions that kept everything moving. And now the production is changing.</span></p><p><span>That is something to celebrate. Genuinely. A child who steps into their own life is a child you raised well.</span></p><p><span>And it is also something to grieve. Both things are true at the same time.</span></p><p><span>Maybe it&#8217;s a career that got quietly set aside season after season. Not with a dramatic goodbye, just with a series of practical decisions that made sense at the time. And now you look back and realize you&#8217;ve been grieving it in small pieces for years without fully naming it as grief.</span></p><p><span>Maybe it&#8217;s simply the accumulation of all of it. The roles are shifting and the question that&#8217;s been waiting patiently in the background is finally loud enough to hear.</span></p><blockquote><p><em><span>Who am I, outside of all of this?</span></em></p></blockquote><div><hr></div><h2><span>What This Season Is Actually Asking</span></h2><p><span>Midlife doesn&#8217;t take things away to punish you. It takes things away to make room.</span></p><blockquote><p><span>The identity shift that feels like loss is also an opening. When the scaffolding loosens, what remains is closer to the actual structure of who you are. Your values. Your curiosity. The things that lit you up before you got so busy being everything to everyone. The woman who was always there underneath the roles, waiting for a little space.</span></p></blockquote><p><span>She didn&#8217;t disappear. She adapted. She became extraordinarily good at showing up for other people. And now the season is asking her to show up for herself.</span></p><p><strong><span>That is not starting over. That is coming home.</span></strong></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><div><hr></div><h2><span>The Woman You&#8217;re Becoming Is Already Here</span></h2><p><span>The question of who you are now is not a small one. It deserves real attention, real reflection, and a space where you can explore it without pressure or performance.</span></p><p><span>If you&#8217;re standing in that quiet right now, the Midlife Spark Quiz is a good place to start. It&#8217;s designed to help you understand where you are in this season and what you need most right now. Take it at</span><a href="http://sharibiery.com/quiz"><span> sharibiery.com/quiz</span></a><span>.</span></p><p><span>And if you&#8217;re ready for more than a quiz, The </span><em><span>It&#8217;s Your Turn Circle</span></em><span> is where midlife women are having exactly this conversation. It&#8217;s our private community inside this publication &#8212; including our monthly Talk Time, a private gathering where nothing is off the table. There&#8217;s more waiting for you inside.</span></p><p><span>You don&#8217;t have to wait until you have it all sorted to show up.</span></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center;">This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical or mental health advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider or mental health professional with any questions about your health.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[It's Your Turn]]></title><description><![CDATA[A founding essay]]></description><link>https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/its-your-turn-founding-essay</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/its-your-turn-founding-essay</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Shari Biery]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2026 20:12:01 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/7ab62af1-b213-4841-8219-a363bdee1e73_1200x630.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span>My husband had just finished his speech.</span></p><p><span>Twenty years of service. Twenty years of moves, deployments, goodbyes, and starting over in cities where most of the time we didn&#8217;t know a soul. The guests had laughed and cried and laughed again. Now the room had gone quiet.</span></p><p><span>Four Navy service members stood in a line, each one representing a rank he had held. They passed a folded American flag from one set of hands to the next, slowly, deliberately. Until it reached my husband&#8217;s hands.</span></p><p><span>He walked it over to me. He kissed me. And then he said it quietly, just for me:</span></p><p><em><span>&#8220;I love you. And now it&#8217;s your turn.&#8221;</span></em></p><p><span>I held that flag and held myself together, and somewhere in my chest something exhaled that had been holding on for a very long time.</span></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Se93!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0db451c2-c0f2-4f67-a85f-78c16f635d60_5760x3840.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Se93!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0db451c2-c0f2-4f67-a85f-78c16f635d60_5760x3840.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Se93!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0db451c2-c0f2-4f67-a85f-78c16f635d60_5760x3840.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Se93!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0db451c2-c0f2-4f67-a85f-78c16f635d60_5760x3840.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Se93!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0db451c2-c0f2-4f67-a85f-78c16f635d60_5760x3840.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Se93!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0db451c2-c0f2-4f67-a85f-78c16f635d60_5760x3840.jpeg" width="1456" height="971" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Se93!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0db451c2-c0f2-4f67-a85f-78c16f635d60_5760x3840.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Se93!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0db451c2-c0f2-4f67-a85f-78c16f635d60_5760x3840.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Se93!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0db451c2-c0f2-4f67-a85f-78c16f635d60_5760x3840.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Se93!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0db451c2-c0f2-4f67-a85f-78c16f635d60_5760x3840.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><div><hr></div><h2><span>The Quiet Ache Nobody Talks About</span></h2><p><span>You know that quiet ache of always being last on your own list? Most women I know have stopped naming it. They&#8217;ve just accepted it as the way things are.</span></p><p><span>Not your turn to be handled, fixed, managed, or shown up for. Just quietly, consistently not your turn. Not the center of your own life. Not the one asking what she actually wants.</span></p><p><span>For most of us, that moment of </span><em><span>your turn</span></em><span> hasn&#8217;t happened yet.</span></p><p><span>And if we&#8217;re being honest, we stopped expecting it to.</span></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><div><hr></div><h2><span>Twenty Years of Starting Over</span></h2><p><span>I spent twenty years as a military spouse and a mother, and I worked the whole time. Every city we landed in, I found a way to contribute, to build something, to stay relevant in whatever world I&#8217;d been dropped into. Healthcare, business, community work. I adapted to each move like a chameleon, reinventing my professional self again and again because that&#8217;s what the life required.</span></p><p><span>I was good at all of it.</span></p><p><span>What I didn&#8217;t know was how to include myself in any of it.</span></p><p><span>I was living what I now call the Sacrifice Syndrome. Not dramatically. Not resentfully (most of the time). Just quietly, consistently putting myself at the bottom of the list until I forgot I was on it at all.</span></p><p><span>By the time my husband retired, I was capable and exhausted and quietly lost. I had no idea who I was outside of the roles I had been so faithfully playing. And I hadn&#8217;t slowed down long enough to notice.</span></p><p><span>That flag changed things. Not because someone gave me permission. But because I started to think I might be able to finally give it to myself.</span></p><div><hr></div><h2><span>What Your Body Already Knows</span></h2><p><span>The exhaustion you feel isn&#8217;t a personal failing. It&#8217;s a pattern. A pattern of living outside yourself for so long that coming back feels unfamiliar. Strange. Maybe even a little selfish.</span></p><p><span>It isn&#8217;t selfish. It&#8217;s necessary.</span></p><p><span>And for many women, this season brings something else layered on top of all of it. The hormonal shifts of midlife arrive quietly and then all at once, disrupting sleep, flattening energy, making the body feel like unfamiliar territory. Nobody warned us it would feel like this. And somehow we&#8217;re still expected to keep the same pace, carry the same load, and smile through it.</span></p><p><span>Your body has been trying to tell you something. The fatigue that doesn&#8217;t lift even after sleep. The restlessness that shows up on Sunday evenings. The feeling of being off that you can&#8217;t quite explain to anyone because from the outside everything looks fine.</span></p><p><span>That feeling is not a problem to fix. It&#8217;s an invitation.</span></p><div><hr></div><h2><span>This Is What This Space Is For</span></h2><p><span>This publication, this podcast, this work, all of it exists because of that moment in a Navy ceremony hall when I held a folded flag and finally understood that taking my turn wasn&#8217;t something I had to earn.</span></p><p><span>It was something I had to choose.</span></p><p><em><span>It&#8217;s Your Turn with Shari Biery</span></em><span> is a space for women in midlife who are ready to make that choice. Not perfectly. Not all at once. But one honest moment at a time.</span></p><p><span>Every week I&#8217;ll be here with an essay, a conversation, a reflection, something real to sit with. Because I believe the women who find their way back to themselves don&#8217;t just change their own lives. They change the rooms they walk into and the lives of others.</span></p><p><span>You&#8217;ve been showing up for everyone else for a long time.</span></p><p><span>This is your turn.</span></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><div><hr></div><p><em><span>If you&#8217;re not sure where to start, the Midlife Spark Quiz will help you see exactly where you are and what you need most right now. Take it at</span><a href="http://sharibiery.com/quiz"><span> </span><span data-color="rgb(17, 85, 204)" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">sharibiery.com/quiz</span></a><span>.</span></em></p><p><em><span>And if something in this essay felt familiar, the book that started it all is waiting for you at</span><a href="http://sharibiery.com/its-your-turn-book"><span> </span></a></em></p><div class="digest-post-embed" data-attrs="{&quot;nodeId&quot;:&quot;e20258ef-72a5-4228-8c03-3609028878c5&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;I never thought I would write a book. Me?&quot;,&quot;cta&quot;:null,&quot;showBylines&quot;:true,&quot;showDescription&quot;:true,&quot;showImage&quot;:true,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;sm&quot;,&quot;isEditorNode&quot;:true,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;It's Your Turn Book&quot;,&quot;publishedBylines&quot;:[],&quot;post_date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-15T18:52:35.880Z&quot;,&quot;cover_image&quot;:&quot;https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ytrx!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdd8a75cd-b87e-4376-b4a7-a3aced6a5164_2400x800.png&quot;,&quot;cover_image_alt&quot;:null,&quot;canonical_url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/its-your-turn&quot;,&quot;section_name&quot;:null,&quot;video_upload_id&quot;:null,&quot;id&quot;:188056785,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;page&quot;,&quot;reaction_count&quot;:0,&quot;comment_count&quot;:0,&quot;publication_id&quot;:4794942,&quot;publication_name&quot;:&quot;It's Your Turn with Shari Biery&quot;,&quot;publication_logo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GRsK!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb03e1bc4-cfed-4e15-b70d-34acc9c9af8f_500x500.png&quot;,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;youtube_url&quot;:null,&quot;show_links&quot;:null,&quot;feed_url&quot;:null}"></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Start Here]]></title><description><![CDATA[Welcome.]]></description><link>https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/start-here</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/start-here</guid><pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2026 20:11:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/8d14f705-12bf-4458-9441-133287f8f7f8_1200x630.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8kVu!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9ae06168-36f9-4dea-9add-d6d2a7f709f7_1200x630.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8kVu!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9ae06168-36f9-4dea-9add-d6d2a7f709f7_1200x630.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8kVu!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9ae06168-36f9-4dea-9add-d6d2a7f709f7_1200x630.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8kVu!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9ae06168-36f9-4dea-9add-d6d2a7f709f7_1200x630.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8kVu!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9ae06168-36f9-4dea-9add-d6d2a7f709f7_1200x630.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8kVu!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9ae06168-36f9-4dea-9add-d6d2a7f709f7_1200x630.png" width="1200" height="630" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/9ae06168-36f9-4dea-9add-d6d2a7f709f7_1200x630.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:630,&quot;width&quot;:1200,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:622768,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/i/202452141?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9ae06168-36f9-4dea-9add-d6d2a7f709f7_1200x630.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8kVu!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9ae06168-36f9-4dea-9add-d6d2a7f709f7_1200x630.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8kVu!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9ae06168-36f9-4dea-9add-d6d2a7f709f7_1200x630.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8kVu!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9ae06168-36f9-4dea-9add-d6d2a7f709f7_1200x630.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8kVu!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9ae06168-36f9-4dea-9add-d6d2a7f709f7_1200x630.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p><span>Welcome. You found the right place.</span></p><p><span>If you&#8217;re new here and not sure where to begin, this page is for you.</span></p><p><em><span>It&#8217;s Your Turn with Shari Biery</span></em><span> is a space for midlife women who are ready to stop putting themselves last and come back to themselves. Each week, you&#8217;ll find a new article or a new podcast episode dropping.</span></p><p><span>Start wherever feels right.</span></p><div><hr></div><h2><span>Read First</span></h2><p><span>These are the best places to begin if you want to understand what this publication is about and why it exists.</span></p><h4><span>It&#8217;s Your Turn &#8212; A Founding Essay</span></h4><p><span>The story behind this work and the moment that started everything.</span></p><div class="digest-post-embed" data-attrs="{&quot;nodeId&quot;:&quot;e84e094a-2be3-4d8b-836a-d2e3824368f8&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;My husband had just finished his speech.&quot;,&quot;cta&quot;:null,&quot;showBylines&quot;:true,&quot;showDescription&quot;:true,&quot;showImage&quot;:true,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;sm&quot;,&quot;isEditorNode&quot;:true,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;It's Your Turn&quot;,&quot;publishedBylines&quot;:[{&quot;id&quot;:318062069,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Shari Biery | It's Your Turn&quot;,&quot;bio&quot;:&quot;Helping midlife women come back to themselves after years of putting everyone else first. NBC-HWC Coach | Author | Speaker | Creator of the C.A.L.M. Method&quot;,&quot;photo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/cf379d2f-5450-4dc9-a617-1e9715f806a3_1365x1365.jpeg&quot;,&quot;is_guest&quot;:false,&quot;bestseller_tier&quot;:null}],&quot;post_date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-25T20:12:01.782Z&quot;,&quot;cover_image&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/7ab62af1-b213-4841-8219-a363bdee1e73_1200x630.png&quot;,&quot;cover_image_alt&quot;:null,&quot;canonical_url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/its-your-turn-founding-essay&quot;,&quot;section_name&quot;:null,&quot;video_upload_id&quot;:null,&quot;id&quot;:202444864,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;newsletter&quot;,&quot;reaction_count&quot;:1,&quot;comment_count&quot;:0,&quot;publication_id&quot;:4794942,&quot;publication_name&quot;:&quot;It's Your Turn with Shari Biery&quot;,&quot;publication_logo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GRsK!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb03e1bc4-cfed-4e15-b70d-34acc9c9af8f_500x500.png&quot;,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;youtube_url&quot;:null,&quot;show_links&quot;:null,&quot;feed_url&quot;:null}"></div><div><hr></div><h4><span>Who Am I Now? The Identity Shift Nobody Warns You About in Midlife</span></h4><p><span>For the woman who has spent years showing up for everyone else and is now quietly wondering what comes next.</span></p><div class="digest-post-embed" data-attrs="{&quot;nodeId&quot;:&quot;4907e895-1c59-4cc0-b20b-d2550ae45eec&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;There&#8217;s a particular kind of quiet that settles in after years of being needed.&quot;,&quot;cta&quot;:null,&quot;showBylines&quot;:true,&quot;showDescription&quot;:true,&quot;showImage&quot;:true,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;sm&quot;,&quot;isEditorNode&quot;:true,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Who Am I Now? The Identity Shift Nobody Warns You About in Midlife&quot;,&quot;publishedBylines&quot;:[{&quot;id&quot;:318062069,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Shari Biery | It's Your Turn&quot;,&quot;bio&quot;:&quot;Helping midlife women come back to themselves after years of putting everyone else first. NBC-HWC Coach | Author | Speaker | Creator of the C.A.L.M. Method&quot;,&quot;photo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/cf379d2f-5450-4dc9-a617-1e9715f806a3_1365x1365.jpeg&quot;,&quot;is_guest&quot;:false,&quot;bestseller_tier&quot;:null}],&quot;post_date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-25T20:12:17.747Z&quot;,&quot;cover_image&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/9e0b4a6d-1c12-4d52-ba7b-d3b74dfcfd26_1200x630.png&quot;,&quot;cover_image_alt&quot;:null,&quot;canonical_url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/who-am-i-now-the-midlife-identity-shift-nobody-warns-you-about&quot;,&quot;section_name&quot;:null,&quot;video_upload_id&quot;:null,&quot;id&quot;:202744947,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;newsletter&quot;,&quot;reaction_count&quot;:1,&quot;comment_count&quot;:0,&quot;publication_id&quot;:4794942,&quot;publication_name&quot;:&quot;It's Your Turn with Shari Biery&quot;,&quot;publication_logo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GRsK!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb03e1bc4-cfed-4e15-b70d-34acc9c9af8f_500x500.png&quot;,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;youtube_url&quot;:null,&quot;show_links&quot;:null,&quot;feed_url&quot;:null}"></div><div><hr></div><h4><span>What Nobody Is Telling Women About Their Own Health</span></h4><p><span>For the woman who has felt dismissed, minimized, or handed a quick answer that didn&#8217;t fit what she was actually experiencing.</span></p><p></p><div class="digest-post-embed" data-attrs="{&quot;nodeId&quot;:&quot;7deade0b-bf72-4f34-8a23-bb46988975b9&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;I sat in my car after a doctor&#8217;s appointment and cried.&quot;,&quot;cta&quot;:null,&quot;showBylines&quot;:true,&quot;showDescription&quot;:true,&quot;showImage&quot;:true,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;sm&quot;,&quot;isEditorNode&quot;:true,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;What Nobody Is Telling Women About Their Own Health&quot;,&quot;publishedBylines&quot;:[{&quot;id&quot;:318062069,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Shari Biery | It's Your Turn&quot;,&quot;bio&quot;:&quot;Helping midlife women come back to themselves after years of putting everyone else first. NBC-HWC Coach | Author | Speaker | Creator of the C.A.L.M. Method&quot;,&quot;photo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/cf379d2f-5450-4dc9-a617-1e9715f806a3_1365x1365.jpeg&quot;,&quot;is_guest&quot;:false,&quot;bestseller_tier&quot;:null}],&quot;post_date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-25T20:12:32.175Z&quot;,&quot;cover_image&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/01c55aa4-c268-4639-8ac9-818e014140c9_1200x630.png&quot;,&quot;cover_image_alt&quot;:null,&quot;canonical_url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/what-nobody-is-telling-women-about-their-own-health&quot;,&quot;section_name&quot;:null,&quot;video_upload_id&quot;:null,&quot;id&quot;:202745216,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;newsletter&quot;,&quot;reaction_count&quot;:1,&quot;comment_count&quot;:0,&quot;publication_id&quot;:4794942,&quot;publication_name&quot;:&quot;It's Your Turn with Shari Biery&quot;,&quot;publication_logo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GRsK!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb03e1bc4-cfed-4e15-b70d-34acc9c9af8f_500x500.png&quot;,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;youtube_url&quot;:null,&quot;show_links&quot;:null,&quot;feed_url&quot;:null}"></div><div><hr></div><h2><span>Listen to the It&#8217;s Your Turn with Shari Biery Podcast</span></h2><p><span>If you&#8217;d rather start with your ears than your eyes, the </span><em><span>It&#8217;s Your Turn with Shari Biery</span></em><span> drops a new episode each week. Honest, grounded conversations about coming back to yourself, listening to your body, and building a life that actually includes you.</span></p><div class="digest-post-embed" data-attrs="{&quot;nodeId&quot;:&quot;8319c858-7c25-460b-94c9-893f84774b9d&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Something new is here. It's Your Turn with Shari Biery is a weekly podcast for midlife women ready to stop putting themselves last and come back to themselves. In this short trailer, Shari introduces the show, who it's for, and what you can expect every week. 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Method&quot;,&quot;photo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/cf379d2f-5450-4dc9-a617-1e9715f806a3_1365x1365.jpeg&quot;,&quot;is_guest&quot;:false,&quot;bestseller_tier&quot;:null}],&quot;post_date&quot;:&quot;2026-07-07T16:25:02.423Z&quot;,&quot;cover_image&quot;:&quot;https://substack-video.s3.amazonaws.com/video_upload/post/204928321/002cd396-45a8-43e2-9433-e5886f2e714d/transcoded-1783090651.png&quot;,&quot;cover_image_alt&quot;:null,&quot;canonical_url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/p/its-your-turn-with-shari-biery-trailer&quot;,&quot;section_name&quot;:&quot;It's Your Turn Podcast&quot;,&quot;video_upload_id&quot;:null,&quot;id&quot;:204928321,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;podcast&quot;,&quot;reaction_count&quot;:0,&quot;comment_count&quot;:0,&quot;publication_id&quot;:4794942,&quot;publication_name&quot;:&quot;It's Your Turn with Shari Biery&quot;,&quot;publication_logo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GRsK!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb03e1bc4-cfed-4e15-b70d-34acc9c9af8f_500x500.png&quot;,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;youtube_url&quot;:null,&quot;show_links&quot;:null,&quot;feed_url&quot;:null}"></div><div><hr></div><h2><span>Not Sure Where You Are Right Now?</span></h2><p><span>The Midlife Spark Quiz was designed for exactly this moment. In just a few minutes, it will help you understand where you are in this season and what you need most right now. It&#8217;s the best first step if you&#8217;re feeling off but can&#8217;t quite name why.</span></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.sharibiery.com/quiz&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Take the Midlife Spark Type Quiz&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.sharibiery.com/quiz"><span>Take the Midlife Spark Type Quiz</span></a></p><div><hr></div><h2><span>The It&#8217;s Your Turn Book</span></h2><p><em><span>It&#8217;s Your Turn</span></em><span> is the book that started this work. A practical, compassionate guide for midlife women who are ready to come back to themselves after years of putting everyone else first.</span></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.sharibiery.com/its-your-turn-book&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Get Your Copy of It's Your Turn&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.sharibiery.com/its-your-turn-book"><span>Get Your Copy of It's Your Turn</span></a></p><div><hr></div><h2><span>There&#8217;s More Waiting for You</span></h2><p><span>The It&#8217;s Your Turn Circle is a paid, private community within this publication. It&#8217;s where monthly and annual members gather for It&#8217;s Your Turn Monday, monthly Talk Time, and the ongoing conversation between essays and episodes.</span></p><p><span>There&#8217;s more waiting for you inside. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span>Join the It&#8217;s Your Turn Circle </span></strong></em></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://sharibiery.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><h2><span>Looking for More Structured Support?</span></h2><p><span>At different points during the year, I open enrollment for </span><strong><span>Reclaim You</span></strong><span> &#8212; my signature small-group coaching program for midlife women who are ready to stop putting themselves last and build a life that actually includes them.</span></p><p><span>Reclaim You is for the woman who knows she needs more than content. She needs a container, a community, and someone to walk the path with her.</span></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.sharibiery.com/reclaim-you&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Learn More About Reclaim You&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.sharibiery.com/reclaim-you"><span>Learn More About Reclaim You</span></a></p><div><hr></div><h3><span>That&#8217;s It. No Pressure, No Rushing.</span></h3><p><span>Start with one essay. Listen to one episode. Take the quiz. </span></p><p><span>Let this place find its rhythm in your life.</span></p><p><span>It&#8217;s your turn.</span></p><p><span>Shari</span></p>]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>