A Soft Start to December: Reclaiming Your Energy & Rewriting the Season on Your Terms

In this calming, grounding episode of Chapter Two, we explore the gentle power of Soft Start December — a trending mindset shift designed to help you enter the month with softness, intention, and emotional clarity.

December often brings pressure, overwhelm, and the heavy mental load women carry during the holidays. But this episode invites you to slow down, breathe deeper, and choose a pace that feels aligned with where you are in your healing, rebuilding, and next-chapter journey.

Together, we unpack simple ways to reclaim your energy, protect your emotional bandwidth, and rewrite the expectations placed on you this time of year. You’ll also receive a reflection prompt rooted in early-December new moon energy, supporting you in setting a grounded tone for the month ahead.

Whether you’re feeling overstimulated, exhausted, or craving a softer, more intentional December, this conversation will help you create space for yourself — mentally, emotionally, and energetically.

✨ In This Episode, We Explore:

• What “Soft Start December” really means • How to release performance pressure during the holidays • Why women carry the emotional labour of December • A simple new moon intention ritual • How to lower the bar without guilt • Rewriting traditions to fit your current season of life • Reflection prompts for a calmer month

🎁 A Few of My Favourite Things

A cozy, grounding collection of items I personally love and use during December to support softness, slowness, and emotional comfort. Perfect for your Sunday resets, quiet evenings, or moments of winter reflection.

✨ A cozy oversized cardigan ✨ Fuzzy memory foam slippers ✨ A soft-glow candle warmer

Some links may be affiliate links, which support my work at no cost to you.

In this week’s episode of the Chapter Two Podcast, Amy dives deep into a stage of burnout recovery that almost nobody talks about — the quiet, disorienting, and transformational moment where you finally ask yourself: “What do I actually want now?”

Burnout doesn’t just exhaust your body. It reshapes your identity, your desires, and the way you see your life going forward. This episode explores why that happens, what the science says about how your brain and nervous system change during and after burnout, and how to gently reconnect with your wants, needs, and dreams when you’re no longer in survival mode.

You’ll learn a simple, compassionate clarity framework — Release. Reconnect. Reimagine. — along with two powerful self-reflection questions and three grounding action steps to help you move toward a life that feels intentional, aligned, and deeply yours.

If you’re in the “in-between place” after burnout, this episode will meet you right where you are.

Episode Takeaways

By the end of this episode, you will understand:

• What happens in your brain and body after burnout • Why your old life may no longer feel aligned • How identity naturally shifts during recovery • Why clarity is supposed to feel slow at first • The role of micro-moments in rebuilding your sense of self • How to reconnect with desire after survival-mode living • The difference between pressure-based dreaming and permission-based dreaming • How to gently begin shaping your next chapter

Self-Reflection Questions From the Episode

1. What would I choose for my life if nothing was expected of me?
2. What parts of my life feel outgrown, and what parts feel ready to expand?

Action Steps for This Week

✔ Make a “No Longer” List ✔ Rebuild one nourishing habit ✔ Write a one-sentence direction for your next chapter

Small steps. Big clarity.

A Few of My Favourite Things

Here are some of the tools and resources I love that can support your journey:

• Lined Journal 3-pack from Amazon
• Motivational Pens for Badass Babes from Amazon

Loved this episode? If you’re walking through the “after” of burnout, or you’re rebuilding your next chapter in real time, I’d love to hear what stood out for you today. Screenshot this episode, share it on Instagram, and tag me @amy.chaptertwo so I can cheer you on.

And if you want more tools, journal prompts, and gentle guidance like this, make sure you’re on the email list — that’s where I send the deeper notes and bonus reflections I don’t share anywhere else. You can sign up using the link in my bio.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for choosing yourself. And I’ll see you next week.

In this week’s episode of the Chapter Two Podcast, Amy dives deep into a stage of burnout recovery that almost nobody talks about — the quiet, disorienting, and transformational moment where you finally ask yourself: “What do I actually want now?”

Burnout doesn’t just exhaust your body. It reshapes your identity, your desires, and the way you see your life going forward. This episode explores why that happens, what the science says about how your brain and nervous system change during and after burnout, and how to gently reconnect with your wants, needs, and dreams when you’re no longer in survival mode.

You’ll learn a simple, compassionate clarity framework — Release. Reconnect. Reimagine. — along with two powerful self-reflection questions and three grounding action steps to help you move toward a life that feels intentional, aligned, and deeply yours.

If you’re in the “in-between place” after burnout, this episode will meet you right where you are.

Episode Takeaways

By the end of this episode, you will understand:

• What happens in your brain and body after burnout • Why your old life may no longer feel aligned • How identity naturally shifts during recovery • Why clarity is supposed to feel slow at first • The role of micro-moments in rebuilding your sense of self • How to reconnect with desire after survival-mode living • The difference between pressure-based dreaming and permission-based dreaming • How to gently begin shaping your next chapter

Self-Reflection Questions From the Episode

1. What would I choose for my life if nothing was expected of me?
2. What parts of my life feel outgrown, and what parts feel ready to expand?

Action Steps for This Week

✔ Make a “No Longer” List

✔ Rebuild one nourishing habit

✔ Write a one-sentence direction for your next chapter

Small steps. Big clarity.

A Few of My Favourite Things

Here are some of the tools and resources I love that can support your journey:

• Lined Journal 3-pack from Amazon
• Motivational Pens for Badass Babes from Amazon

Loved this episode? If you’re walking through the “after” of burnout, or you’re rebuilding your next chapter in real time, I’d love to hear what stood out for you today. Screenshot this episode, share it on Instagram, and tag me @amy.chaptertwo so I can cheer you on.

And if you want more tools, journal prompts, and gentle guidance like this, make sure you’re on the email list — that’s where I send the deeper notes and bonus reflections I don’t share anywhere else. You can sign up using the link in my bio.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for choosing yourself. And I’ll see you next week.

Feeling exhausted, no matter how much you rest? You’re not alone. In this episode of Chapter Two: Reclaim. Rebuild. Rewrite., we explore what burnout really looks like for professional women — beyond the clichés of overwork and stress.

Host Amy Smart breaks down the emotional and physical realities of burnout through research-based insights and gentle reflection. Learn why women are disproportionately affected, how systemic pressures contribute to burnout, and how to recognize the early warning signs before they turn into full-blown exhaustion.

This episode blends statistics, compassion, and healing-centred reflection to help you reconnect with yourself and take the first steps toward recovery — without guilt or shame.

✨ You’ll learn:

• The difference between burnout and ordinary tiredness
• Why professional women are at higher risk (including invisible labour and cultural expectations)
• Signs you may be in burnout — even if you’re still “functioning”
• How to begin reclaiming your energy with small, sustainable changes
• Reflective questions to help you check in with your body, mind, and heart

🪞 Reflective Moment: “What have I been calling ‘just a busy season,’ even though it’s been going on for months — or years?”

📘Free Resource: Download the Mini-Guide to Self-Reflection at www.chaptertwopodcast.com— your gentle starting point for reconnecting with yourself.

As Breast Cancer Awareness Month comes to an end, the world starts to move forward — but for those who’ve lived it, the healing continues quietly, long after the pink ribbons fade.

In this deeply personal solo episode, Amy shares her reflections on what it feels like when awareness month ends, when the noise dies down, and when you’re left to rediscover yourself in the silence that follows. She also reads her poem “Straighten Your Crown” — originally published in CURE Magazine — written during her own breast cancer journey after losing her hair, a moment that felt like losing herself.

This episode is for anyone navigating life after awareness, learning to find beauty, strength, and self-compassion in the in-between.

✨ In This Episode, You’ll Hear:

• How October’s awareness spotlight can stir both gratitude and grief
• The deeper emotional truth behind losing your hair — and what it symbolizes
• Amy’s award-winning poem, “Straighten Your Crown”
• What healing looks like after the pink fades
• Gentle reflections to help you release, reclaim, and rebuild

💌 Mentioned in This Episode:

✨ Free Mini-Guide to Self-Reflection Download your free guide at www.chaptertwopodcast.com — a gentle journaling resource to help you slow down, reconnect, and write your next chapter.

🪷 A Few of My Favourite Things

These are some of the tools and comforts that helped me through my own healing and rebuilding journey. (affiliate links where applicable)

• 📔 Journals & Notebooks: Lined journal notebook, perfect for quiet mornings and late-night thoughts
• ☕ Cozy Comfort: I LOVE this leopard print sweater – I am living in it this fall.
• 📚 Books that Healed Me: The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins

💫 Connect With Me

Website: www.chaptertwopodcast.com

Instagram: Chapter Two

LinkedIn: Amy Smart

After life-altering experiences like cancer or trauma, looking to the future can feel both exciting and terrifying. In this episode, I share why healing isn’t linear, why forward movement doesn’t always mean positivity, and how even small steps can lead to meaningful growth.

We explore:

• How to embrace uncertainty without guilt
• Why it’s okay to honour your emotions, even the difficult ones
• How small, intentional steps can add up to real progress
• Ways to trust the journey when the future feels blurry

Whether you’re rebuilding after illness, loss, or a major life change, this episode is a reminder that healing is happening — even when it doesn’t feel linear.

Free Resource: If you’re ready to continue your journey of self-reflection, I’ve created a free Mini-Guide to Self-Reflection. You can get it by joining my mailing list at www.chaptertwopodcast.com. This guide is a gentle companion to help you pause, reflect, and explore the next chapter of your life.

A Few of My Favourite Things

Here are some of the tools and resources I love that can support your journey:

• Lined Journal 3-pack from Amazon
• Motivational Pens for Badass Babes from Amazon
• The Raise Podcast with Carol Barwick

Follow & Connect:

• Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode
• Follow on Instagram: Chapter Two
• Website: www.chaptertwopodcast.com

What happens when the treatments end and life is supposed to go “back to normal”? In this deeply personal episode, Amy Smart explores the often-overlooked season of life after cancer — when the world celebrates your survival, but inside you’re asking, Who am I now?

Through honest storytelling and reflection, Amy shares what it really means to reclaim your identity after cancer: rebuilding self-trust, learning to love your body again, and finding the courage to redefine who you are on your own terms.

Listen in for gentle reminders that:

• Healing doesn’t end when treatment does
• You don’t owe anyone your old self
• Reclaiming identity is an act of grace, not speed
• You are allowed to rebuild slowly, beautifully, and wholly

This is your invitation to meet yourself again — and to embrace your second chapter with strength and softness.

In this deeply personal episode of Chapter Two, Amy opens up about the emotional side of breast cancer — the fear, the grief, and the quiet strength that grows when life falls apart. From crying alone in the shower as clumps of hair washed away, to learning how to stand back up again, Amy shares the unseen side of healing that so many women silently carry.

This conversation isn’t just for those who’ve faced cancer — it’s for anyone walking through a hard life transition. Whether it’s divorce, burnout, loss, or rebuilding after a storm, this episode reminds us that healing isn’t linear, and strength doesn’t always look loud.

You’ll Hear About:

• The emotional toll of breast cancer that few talk about
• What it means to grieve the version of yourself you used to be
• How fear can coexist with courage
• Why “being strong” often looks softer than you expect
• Simple ways to give yourself permission to rest, feel, and rebuild

Takeaway Message: You don’t have to be strong every day to be healing. Sometimes, strength is found in the quiet moments — when you let yourself cry, rest, and keep going anyway.

🩷 Follow Chapter Two on Instagram