Episode 14 - Daily Unapologetic Living with Bridget Belden

By Jessica Garrison

This week’s guest, Bridget Belden, is the founder and CEO of Magenta Counseling, “a coaching organization providing world-class tools to empower women to discover who they are beyond being a mom.” Bridget’s journey to unapologetic living has shown itself through disciplined self-care, challenging boundaries, and discovering ways to support women in everyday life.

When Bridget was younger, “self-care” was all about physical activity, but it has since evolved into a more mental and spiritual process. There’s been a lot more conversation recently about self-care, and Bridget has used habits, routines, and sustainable practices to help her navigate through life and her self-care practices.

Bridget used to be very focused on life’s “vision,” meaning she was working hard on getting the house, marrying someone, having children, and creating society’s “perfect life.” Feelings of guilt also arose because she had all the things in the “vision” and still felt like something was missing. The reality is that her life wasn’t complete because she left out the most important person of all: herself.

Boundaries are still a challenge for Bridget, especially since she was brought up in a world that told her not to rock the boat. However, Bridget realized that her boundaries come down to a sense of self-worth, which is a common baseline for people. What is okay and what is not? Is this person respecting me as a person or just thinking of what would benefit them? Do I have the time for this? Is it worth my time? I can personally attest that asking yourself these questions can be quite helpful, especially if you have to decide between a few different requests.

While supporting women, Bridget tries to create a space day to day where women can be honest with her. She wants people to be able to say how they are truly feeling, rather than just a robotic response of “I’m good.” In addition to her value of supporting women, Bridget’s “why” also comes down to what she’s passionate about. It’s important that she checks in with herself to see if she’s still passionate about what she’s doing or if it isn’t fulfilling her the same way anymore.

Embracing her layers and living out F.E.E.L. has been a complicated journey, but it’s also been a beneficial self-love journey for Bridget. We can’t pick and choose the parts of ourselves we like; we have to accept ourselves as we are, even if we aren’t happy with all of our layers. Bridget’s journey is a reminder to us that it’s okay to change your mind, it’s okay to go through a difficult time, and no matter what happens, you are your own person.

Check out Bridget’s website for more information and discover the empowerment of being your own person.

Ways to Engage: Something that really resonated with me during this episode was Bridget working towards “the vision,” but once she had it, she realized there was more to life than living for other people. What part of this episode resonated with you and why? Is there a certain “vision” you have or had for yourself in life? How does it compare to you now?