Midlife Butterfly: Self-Discovery, Women Empowerment & Life Transitions
Midlife isn’t just a phase—it’s a powerful catalyst for transformation. Whether you’re navigating divorce, an identity crisis, a breakup, feeling lost, a spiritual awakening, empty nest syndrome, moving to a new city or country, or grief—this chapter of life is calling you to heal, grow, and reinvent yourself.
I’m Kena Siu, your host and Self-Love & Empowerment Guide, and I’m here to help you embrace midlife as a time of expansion, self-discovery, and joy.
Join me and my guests as we share personal stories, mindset shifts, self-care practices, and spiritual tools to support you on your journey. Midlife is not the end—it’s a new beginning. It’s time to prioritize yourself, reclaim your power, and create life on your own terms.
Follow and listen for inspiration, healing, and practical steps to transform your life from simply surviving to fully thriving.
You are the creator of your life. Let’s co-create together so you can spread your wings and fly.
Much love 💜,
Kena Siu
Midlife Butterfly: Self-Discovery, Women Empowerment & Life Transitions
#25 - The Intentional Midlife Woman: She Chooses How She Feels Each Day
Ever catch yourself rushing through the motions, waiting for the weekend, or wondering why life feels so...meh? In this raw and reflective episode, I open up about what it really means to live intentionally—not perfectly, but truthfully. I share the morning practices that changed my energy, how I broke free from autopilot, and why setting daily intentions has become my anchor. This one’s an invitation to slow down, breathe deeper, and remember: you’re not here to survive—you’re here to live.
Tune In If You’ve Ever Said:
- “I feel like life is just happening to me.”
- “I’m exhausted but I don’t know why.”
- “I want to live with more presence and peace… but how?”
🦋 In This Episode, You’ll Hear:
- Why intentional living is not just a morning routine—it’s a lifestyle shift
- How to break free from autopilot and stop surviving through your days
- A juicy morning practice to connect with your body and energy before the world gets loud
- What it really means to set an intention (hint: it’s more than journaling affirmations)
- The empowering truth about triggers, trauma, and your personal healing path
Reflection Questions:
- Where in your life are you living by default instead of by design?
- What is one simple action you can take today to live more intentionally?
- What intention can you set tomorrow morning that honors your truth?
Feeling the pull to live with more alignment, intention, and grace in midlife?
Let’s talk. Book your free Empowered Strategy Call with me, and let’s explore your Butterfly Path together.
📩 DM me on Instagram @midlifebutterfly or email hello@ midlifebutterfly.ca.
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You can find all the podcast details right here: http://midlifebutterfly.ca/podcast
Download the Midlife Butterfly Guide with 5 Radical Practices to Heal, Take Your Power Back & Rise
Follow Kena on Instagram: @midlifebutterfly
Join the Midlife Butterfly Community: http://www.facebook.com/groups/midlifebutterfly
For Coaching, Courses & More Visit Kena's Website: http://midlifebutterfly.ca/workwithme
Request a Free Empowered Call with Kena if you're interested in working with her: https://midlifebutterfly.ca/empoweredsession
Song: Reborn by Alexander Nakarada
Welcome to the Midlife Butterfly Podcast.
Kena Siu:I'm your host Ke na Siu. You know how caterpillars go through the gooey cocoon phase before emerging as butterflies. Yeah, that's midlife. One minute everything feels like it's falling apart and the next you're own cocoon. It's all about going from four to one. Four weddings, three countries, three languages, two husbands, two divorces and one soul awakening funeral.
Kena Siu:This podcast is all about embracing that messy, magical process of transformation. Whether you are going through a breakup, navigating change or waking up to your own power, I am here to guide you. Together. We'll explore empowerment, spirituality and how to bring more joy and pleasure into your life. We will dive into the mindsets and self-care practices that will help you fall madly in love with yourself again. You'll hear from inspiring guests, including clients I've coached and experts, and, of course, my own experiences. Get ready for laughter, tears, a little cursing and a whole lot of vulnerability every week. This is going to be raw and unedited. So if you're ready to shed all skins, embrace your messy midlife and step into the most authentic, joyful version of yourself, you're in the right place. Let's cocoon, grow and fly. Welcome to the midlife butterfly. Hey, beauty, welcome back to the midlife butterfly podcast Podcast.
Kena Siu:This is Kena, your host in here, and today we're going to be talking about intentional living. Yeah, because the thing is, we think we live. Other people think they are just surviving, which is very sad, to tell you the truth, because we're not here to survive, we're here to live responsibility over our lives and how we want to feel, what we want to create, how we want to ah our spaces, to be our energy, the people who are around us, how we want to experience life itself and the way I do it. Actually, since I wake up, of course, this has I need to mention this it has built up through the years as I keep adding more habits, self-care habits into my routine. But the thing is it's more than a routine. You know, intentional living.
Kena Siu:It's like when I, as soon as I wake up, I just feel my body and love listening to the silence that is in there, and I just start being grateful, grateful for another day, grateful for my health, and then I start just, you know, moving my body from toast up all the way up to my head and start being thankful for each part of it, and it's just so beautiful to connect with my body as soon as I wake up, and then I allow some time in there again in silence, to observe where my mind is. Sometimes it's quiet, sometimes you just start remembering things from the day before, so just to kind of like check where I am at that very moment as soon as I wake up. And then I like listening to a meditation. Listening to a meditation, either if it's from Joe Dispenza or one of my mentors or anything else that flows, or sometimes he's just staying there in stillness. It's just so good. It's just so good to start the day like that, in gratitude and with a meditation to connect with myself. Or could be a guided meditation where I want to reprogram my mind Right, to get it into a better frequency, to feel better, to change some limiting beliefs that are not serving me anymore, and that's also intentional, of course.
Kena Siu:And then from there I think of how do I want to feel, what's my intention for the day? Like what's resonating more that then from there, the intention of the day flows through, and sometimes his presence sometimes is like universe, show me the money, you know it it. I mean the range is wide open, I mean any possibility can come through, and it's just a way of enjoying and a way to tell the universe. I am here for this, like just, ah, let's allow it. You know, it's a way of surrendering at the same time and allowing and trusting and trusting, and it's not about more like getting into a goal itself, it's more into getting into that frequency of what the intention is to really go through the day with that. How do I want to, you know, to show up, how, which kind of energy I want to, I want to carry, how do I want to feel, you know, my alignment, and then, from there, create the reality. You know, create the reality, you know. So, yeah, it's creating the reality from there, and of course, there's gonna be ups and downs.
Kena Siu:I mean, life it's a roller coaster, but at least just by having that intention, see, that's that very moment it sets the tone differently throughout my day. I mean, at this moment I live on my own, uh. But if you are a mother, if you have a partner, and if you are wearing all these hats of the mother, of the wife or the worker, and then you know, or also the people pleaser, the feeling of worthiness and all these other hats that we, that we wear because of patterns, beliefs, the programming, you know really that con the conditioning that we've been through our whole lives. Um, so the idea is to get out of there. And how can I put it?
Kena Siu:This is, uh, yeah, it's simply by having that intention we shift, we shift, yeah, it's. It's really like getting into a different track, not walking the same path all day long, when we know that you know that this thought is going to come, that this pattern is going to come, that I'm going to get triggered because of this. So, just by taking another track and having that intention, it really shifts how you're going to create that day. And it's very important to by being intentional, uh, we can be more present during the day. Just by sitting, by setting that intention and by being more present, you're going to be able to choose your thoughts. You're going to be able to choose your actions instead of reactions, because by having that intention of flow, of whatever it is that you're feeling, it, that's what you're going to attract. As simple as that.
Kena Siu:And, yeah, you might get sometimes stuck with things that comes from trauma, from wounds, wounds, and again, it's about having that presence so you can shift when something triggers you, or if you have that time to actually process and say, okay, this is triggering me. What is this person, what is this situation mirroring back to me, reflecting back to me that I have to work on it, that I have gotta heal, because those triggers are really something in you that it has to be healed from again, from trauma, from from past wounds, for beliefs that were passed to you and you're probably not even aware of those. It's getting you out of that autopilot by living intentionally and I used to live in autopilot for such a long time and it's when I was feeling stressed, it's when I was feeling that life was happening to me, not for me. It's when I was looking for fights with my partner. It's when I will respond very harsh to some people, because I was in autopilot and my shell, my, you know this cover for me to protect myself for all my wounds and my trauma. I created this big uh warrior, uh suit in me and I would just, you know, I didn't realize how much I was living in autopilot by protecting myself.
Kena Siu:And then the thing is I was exhausted, I was resentful with other people, I felt disconnected from myself. I mean really mind, body, soul, forget about it. Those terms were not even in my vocabulary at all. Not at all and, of course, at that time, I was also, you know, like it's Monday to Friday. Oh yeah, finally it's the weekend, you know, you know. And then, oh, monday is coming again, and it's just this kind of cycle that we should not be living in.
Kena Siu:When we are in that cycle of really measuring the days we're living, it and the time that we're spending is because because we are not living, we are not enjoying life, we are not being present at all. Does this resonate with you? With you? So my invitation is to really start your days by taking a few minutes just to check in with your body as soon as you wake up to, to check with it, to feel grateful for what you have, for who you are at this very moment. It doesn't matter what the situation is, everything is impermanent, so allow it.
Kena Siu:At that same time, by living intentionally, you're gonna be able, with more ease and flow, to move towards those goals that you want to achieve, to take that action that is needed for you to create a life that you want, that life that you love and that you desire, because you fucking deserve it. You deserve it. And at the same time, I'm going to be very harsh and tell you that nobody's going to come and save you. The only savior in here has to be you. You are the one choosing. Be you, you are the one choosing, and sometimes those choices may not be the best ones that you want, but at least take the one that it can make you feel a bit better, even if it's a tiny one, a tiny shift. And the thing is, life it's not a sprint, it's a journey. So we keep walking in this journey. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's joyful, sometimes it's fucking painful. Hard, sometimes it's joyful, sometimes it's fucking painful. And that's when we have. We gotta embody that equanimity, that allowing of what is in life, to feel more at peace with whatever it is that we are going through, going through.
Kena Siu:So what do you think you can do today to start living intentionally? What is an action step that you can take to live intentionally? Are you taking a pause? Are you going to meditate? Are you going to stay one minute in silence? Are you going to go for a walk and just enjoy being in nature or focusing on your steps? Because there's always something available for you to be more intentional when you cook, when you are eating, being grateful for the meal that you are eating. Being grateful for your body because it has movement, because it might have a bit of pain somewhere, because it's digestingesting, because your heart is beating 24 7 and you don't have to do anything.
Kena Siu:Being intentional with the conversations that you have with your dear ones, with the people that is around you. Being intentional with the energy that you bring to the room. I used to have such a bad energy sometimes that sometimes you can feel actually the energy of a person when he comes to the room and you say like, oh my, that felt good. I used to have sometimes this heavy energy that I can even I was not even able to start on myself. It was like, oh my God. So doing the inner work is what it helped me shift all that. Doing the inner work is what it helped me shift all that, because living intentionally is that also. It's willing to do the inner work, to go deep into whatever.
Kena Siu:It is that you have to work on it, that you have to heal, because it's not allowing you to live the life that you desire. It's going to the roots of what is causing you that suffering because, as it is well said, pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. So what is it? That you have to heal, that you have to let go, that you have to forgive, for you to move forward in life with more intention. Life is not easy. Life is not easy and it's harder for one people, and it's harder for some people more than others. What I came to understand is that each person has their own journey. It's not that it's better or if it's worse, it's just the way it is. Who knows how many lives we have lived before to actually come to live this one at this moment? We don't know. Just be grateful for it. Be grateful for the life that you have now. Be grateful for the people that is around you. Be grateful for the material stuff that you have. Be grateful for being grateful.
Kena Siu:I've been feeling very frustrated lately because I have noticed how my sight for reading closely has um decreased and the fact that I really need to use my glasses lately. It creates a lot of frustration and it's not the lenses itself, it's the fact I mean, I've been using lenses since I'm 13, and I mostly use contact lenses, and it's either. It's not a vanity thing of oh no, I'm not using lenses, no, it's not that I choose to see, to be able to see, but the fact that I'm not able to see as I used to when I need to read something close and actually now I'm using it most of the time, also when looking at my phone it has created a lot of frustration, and I'm saying this out loud because I don't know what is in you that is probably something created so frustration and instead of being grateful for seeing, I'm just allowing that frustration. And it's okay to allow that frustration. And it's okay because I am grateful at the same time that I am in midlife and I am grateful that I'm able to age. It is a privilege that many people don't have, and if you're listening to this, it means that you have that privilege too. So it's about choosing up to what level we want to be grateful and intentional with what we have, with who we are, instead of all the time just complaining. I think it takes the same effort to complain that don't doing it, so just don't freaking. Do it and feel better.
Kena Siu:Yeah, intention, intention, because it's not just about the mindset, right, it's how we speak, how we act, how we move, how we love, how we accompany other people. It's everything if you think about it, if we really put that attention of what's my intention when I'm going to start working? What's my intention when I'm going to start working? What's my intention when I'm going for a walk? Sometimes I, you know, rather go in silence. Sometimes I want to listen to a podcast. What's my intention when I'm going to see a friend? What's my intention when I'm going dancing? It's to connect to other people, to connect to myself, to release stress. There's always an intention behind.
Kena Siu:Now that I'm thinking about it, it's about then are you aware of that intention or you are not? Huh, interesting, right, and living intentionally, it can become a lifestyle. It's not because, if we want to live better lives, to create better realities every day, that has to be the intention and it has to be something conscious. And no, it doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be honest. It just has to speak your truth and it doesn't matter if other people don't get it. It is your life, it is your truth. So it's about what you are choosing to experience, what you are choosing to live.
Kena Siu:I read this was kind of a quote that I don't even. It didn't say who was the author of it. Uh, so that trans. I read it in Spanish, so the translation in English will be the day that I understood that the only thing I will take with me is what I live. It's the day I start living the things that I want to take with me. It's very deep if you think about it, because we're not taking anything with us, nothing, not even this body. We're mainly taking our experiences, our memories, and some people don't even get to. We're mainly taking what our experiences, our memories, and some people don't even get to, to take that with them.
Kena Siu:So are you living or are you surviving? What is it that you want to create in this life that you can start doing it intentionally now, not in autopilot, not anymore. You are not here to survive, you are here to live. You are here to live. You are here to live and the thing is, the more aliveness you start getting, the more your environment is gonna start start showing you that, the more the people that is going to be around you, the more aligned it's going to be and the more opportunities you're going to get and the more miracles you're going to see and the more magic you're going to start creating by shifting into something that you want to create by intention. I invite you to reflect on where in your life you think you are living by default instead of by design, and what intention can you set today to honor your truth? And probably you can ask this question every morning as soon as you wake up what intention can I set today to honor my truth? Thank you so much for listening.
Kena Siu:I know this was a slow pace episode. I was just. I was just reflecting it and and feeling it. While I was saying it out loud, for some reason it came to me and and I realized it's. I don't know, I just needed to speak it up, speak it out loud in here and yeah, if this resonated with you, mmm, send me a DM at midlife butterfly in Instagram or send me an email, which is here below. It's hello at midlife butterfly. That's CA. And yeah, sure, how do you want to start living intentionally? And if you need guidance, I'll be more than happy to support you. Either, you know, you can take a free call with me, an empowered strategy call, and then, from there, if you would like to work with me, I have one on one coaching available and yeah, it would be my pleasure to work together and share this episode if you think that somebody else will feel inspired, thanks to this. Sending you much love, as usual, and have a beautiful day.
