EP063: Navigating guilt to find fulfilment: Valerie Knopik on brain science, family harmony and chasing your dreams

Ever felt conflicted about wanting recognition, fulfilment and challenge outside your family context? Get ready to feel a warm wash over your heart and a burst of inspiration as you get to know my guest this week on the MamaFuel podcast. 

Valerie Knopik has navigated the guilt-ridden conflictual waters of maternal love and personal aspiration and, with her husband and children, has forged a life she and her family love. I love hearing how her she and her post-doctorate thesis advisor got creative to cobble together a maternity leave for her. I love how she and her husband waded through all the ICK they faced individually and as a team to land here, twenty years into their marriage, in a solid, mutually-supportive place.

I love how Valerie, her dreams, her talent and her career get to fully breathe, expand and flourish in the container of her family. A container where everyone’s dreams have a place and enough space to grow.

If all of that wasn’t enough, those of you who are curious about how and why our brains work the way they do will LOVE hearing Valerie talk about epigenetics (her speciality), brain plasticity and how it’s hard but entirely possible to rewire your brain, and in doing so change your life.

If you’d like to connect with any of the resources we mention during our talk or quickly find any of the podcast episodes I mention, click here for all the goodies. And if you’d like to be part of the ongoing conversation about this podcast and so much more, join us in the MamaFuel Virtual Village here.