Podcast
Your Favorite You
Hosted by Melissa Parsons · EN
Welcome to Your Favorite You, a weekly podcast helping brilliant women like you with beautiful brains to create the life you've been dreaming of with intention so you can find your favorite version of you. Your host, Melissa Parsons, is a pediatrician turned life coach. She holds the titles of wife, mom, daughter, sister, and friend of many. She became a certified life coach after discovering that coaching held the secret to the universe, and knew she had to share this magic with everyone in her orbit. This podcast is for you if ... you're stuck in fear and perfectionism thinking that your value comes from what you do or what you don't do, rather than knowing that your value comes from who you are, and this is keeping you from dreaming and trying new things, or from remembering or doing what you used to love. Join Melissa on this journey to figuring out and remembering who you are; a journey to finding and becoming your favorite you. To learn more about Melissa, visit: https://www.melissaparsonscoaching.com/
31episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Ep 190: When Friendships are Complete
4d ago00:21:43Tap to summarizeWhat do you feel when you hear the word complete? Not failed, abandoned, lost, or broken–complete.The friendships that have run their course–that were real, meaningful, and good, but are no longer active parts of your life–are complete. And that word matters, because it doesn’t mean they were failures or that you’re a bad friend. It means the friendship did what it was meant to do in the season it was meant to be in, and now it’s finished. Like a good book, a perfect meal, or a chapter of your life you wouldn’t trade, even though it’s over.In this episode, we’re talking about the guilt and grief that can come with complete friendships, and how to give yourself permission to let some friendships be exactly what they were without it meaning something terrible about you or the other person. When you have that permission, you create space for the friendships that are meant to stay and the ones you haven’t found yet.Click HERE to get the full show notes.
Transcribe →Ep 189: The Finish Line That Keeps Moving
2w ago00:18:09Tap to summarizeWhen was the last time you truly celebrated something you accomplished? Not a quick “yay” before moving on or a fleeting moment of relief before you started on the next goal, but a real moment where you paused to let yourself feel proud.If you can't think of an answer, you’re not alone. This is one of the most common and quietly devastating patterns in brilliant, high-achieving women. We move from finish line to finish line, already focused on what’s next before we’ve even taken a breath.Today, I’m talking about what happens when success feels like nothing—or worse, when it doesn’t even register because you’ve already moved on. And I’m giving you simple ways to pause, celebrate yourself, and reconnect with the version of you who’s living this life.Click HERE to get the full show notes.
Transcribe →Ep 188: What You'd Never Say to a Friend
3w ago00:16:56Tap to summarizeHave you had a moment like this recently? You’re doing the work, making progress, and feeling proud of yourself, then your brain swoops in to criticize you for not doing it sooner or for how far you still have to go.This is common for everyone. But here’s what I want you to consider: if your best friend told you she’s been doing well and taking care of herself, would you respond with, “It’s too bad you didn’t do this sooner”? Of course not. You would never say that to someone you love, but we say it to ourselves all the time without even blinking.Today, I talk about that critical inner voice and what we can do about it. You don’t need a perfectly articulated internal dialogue. You just have to show up for yourself the way you would show up for someone you love.Click HERE to get the full show notes.
Transcribe →Ep 187: I Did the Thing (And I Left Out a Paragraph, and I'm Telling You About It)
4w ago00:15:32Tap to summarizeIs there an idea that’s been tapping you on the shoulder? Something you keep saying you’ll get to, and then you don’t? Today, I get to tell you about something I did. Not something I’m planning or thinking about, but something I actually followed through on.In this episode, I’m sharing the full journey of giving my TEDx talk, from the idea that wouldn’t leave me alone to the moment I stepped onto the stage, and what it actually felt like to finally do the thing. I also talk about what happened when it didn’t go perfectly, and how I made space for my disappointed parts to exist right alongside the parts of me that felt deeply proud.Being your favorite you means looking at the thing that keeps calling to you and deciding not to ignore it anymore. And it means letting every part of you come along in the process.Click HERE to read the full show notes.
Transcribe →Ep 186: Which Beliefs are Stopping You?
Apr 2100:18:49Tap to summarizeHow many of you are holding back your brilliance because of one thought your brain offers—usually in a moment of fear—that you accept as fact without ever questioning it?Today, I’m sharing a personal story about something that pushed me right up against that kind of thinking. I was selected to speak at TEDx UTD, and I was thrilled—until I realized what no one had fully emphasized: there are no teleprompters. No notes. Just you, a stage, and a fully memorized talk.My brain immediately offered the thought, you can’t do this. And for a moment, I almost believed it. But here’s the thing: belief may not do the work, but it allows the work to begin. I had to be willing to consider the possibility before I could take a step toward making it happen. This episode is an invitation to look at what beliefs may be holding you back and not let them stop you from finding out what you’re actually capable of.Click HERE to read the full show notes.
Transcribe →Ep 185: Tenacity - The Art of Not Giving Up
Apr 1400:13:49Tap to summarizeHow often are you so close to the thing you’ve been working toward—the breakthrough, the answer, the “yes”—and you give up just before it arrives? I’ve watched brilliant women get right to the edge of something life-changing and turn around because it got uncomfortable, took longer than expected, or they couldn’t see what was on the other side.In this episode, I’m talking about tenacity and what it actually looks like in real life. The version of you you’re becoming can feel far away, especially when you’ve been on this journey for a while. And that voice telling you to give up? It’s not wisdom. It’s fear in a trench coat pretending to be wisdom.Tenacity touches every area of your life. So if you’ve been working and waiting, and you’re starting to wonder if it’s worth it, I want to invite you to stay just a little bit longer. Because you might be closer than you think.Click HERE to read the full show notes.
Transcribe →Ep 184: The Best Thing About Anticipation
Apr 700:18:47Tap to summarizeWhen was the last time you booked a haircut, a massage, or something else just for you? Do you remember the moment of relief right after you hit confirm or hung up the call, when you felt good even though nothing had actually happened yet? You hadn’t gotten the hair cut or seen the result, yet something shifted the moment you decided.That’s anticipation, and it's one of the most underrated and underused tools available to us. Today, I explore what the act of looking forward to something has to do with the work of becoming your favorite you. If you’ve been on the fence about doing something for yourself—something meaningful that could genuinely change how you move through your life—I want you to hear this episode before you spend one more day waiting. Because the good feeling doesn't have to wait. It starts the moment you decide.Click HERE to get the full show notes.
Transcribe →Ep 183: Rock the Boat
Mar 3100:19:48Tap to summarize“Don’t rock the boat.” Have you ever heard this in relation to a career move, a family dynamic, or something you knew wasn’t right? Most women have been absorbing this message since we were very young, and for many of us, that voice is still quietly running the show.In this episode, I’m unpacking how the internal voice that tells you “don’t rock the boat” formed in the first place. Together, we’ll explore how to unravel the conditioning that may have protected you as a child, but is now keeping you small as an adult.It can feel scary to rock the boat. Sometimes it truly isn’t safe, but often that voice isn’t responding to present danger—it’s reacting to old information. The world doesn’t need us to be quiet when we have the safety to be loud. It needs women who can recognize the difference and choose consciously, not just to become our favorite versions of ourselves, but to help shape the kind of world we actually want to live in.Click HERE to get the full show notes.
Transcribe →Ep 182: Doubt
Mar 2400:20:54Tap to summarizeToday, I’m talking about doubt: the sneaky, shape-shifting, very convincing part of us that has probably cost us more than any failure we’ve actually experienced.Many of us were taught to fear failure, so our protective parts learned to keep us safe by hesitating, overthinking, and second-guessing. But failure is not your enemy—it helps you learn and decide what to do next. Doubt is what keeps you from trying at all.The parts of you that doubt are trying to protect you, and you can have compassion for them while still choosing to move forward. In this episode, I’ll walk you through four common flavors of doubt, why they feel so convincing, and how to work with the protective parts behind them so you can take imperfect action anyway. Click HERE to get the full show notes.
Transcribe →Ep 181: Breaking the Chain- Parenting Your Children and Yourself
Mar 1700:19:28Tap to summarizeDo you ever catch yourself responding to your child in a way that stops you cold? I work with so many brilliant, self-aware, deeply caring women who are doing everything they can to be good moms—including investing in coaching and doing their own healing work. And yet, there are patterns so deeply ingrained in our nervous system that they surface without us even realizing it.In this episode, I share three stories about women doing the difficult and courageous work of breaking generational patterns. These women are parenting their children differently than they were parented, and in doing so, they are learning to parent themselves as well.When we heal ourselves, we change more than just our own lives. We change the trajectory for our children and the generations that will follow. This is how chains get broken, one imperfect, compassionate moment at a time.Click HERE to read the full show notes.
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