SHE Asked Podcast
Welcome to The SHE Asked Podcast with Anna McBride—a space where the stories we tell ourselves are challenged, reimagined, and rewritten to unlock personal transformation.
Hosted by former therapist, storyteller, and lifelong seeker Anna McBride, this podcast dives deep into the power of narrative. Through personal stories and intimate conversations with guests, we explore how shifting our internal dialogue can change not just how we see our lives—but how we live them.
Each episode offers what Anna calls “practical hope”—real tools, lived experience, and emotional honesty for anyone feeling stuck, lost, or ready for change. Whether you’re navigating divorce, grief, reinvention, or simply trying to understand your past, The SHE Asked Podcast invites you to become the author of your own story—and the hero in it, too.
Follow along for weekly episodes filled with compassion, perspective, and the courage to ask yourself:
What story am I telling—and is it still serving me?
SHE Asked Podcast
How I Changed My Life In 2025 By Learning To Let Go
In this reflective episode, co-producer Jennifer Martin sits down with host Anna McBride to reflect on Anna's transformative year of healing, identity reclamation, and spiritual growth.
From legally changing her name back to her maiden name to breaking old relationship patterns and committing to emotional sobriety, Anna shares the practices, insights, and truths that have shaped her in 2025.
If you’re navigating a transition such as divorce, identity changes, emotional healing, or stepping into a new version of yourself—this conversation will help you feel seen and supported.
✨ Perfect For:
Women in transition · Divorce recovery · Spiritual seekers · Personal growth · Emotional healing · Sobriety · Empowerment · New York life · Identity transformation · Journaling + shadow work · Mind-body healing
✨Learn More about Jennifer Martin
🔔 Subscribe for more conversations on identity & spiritual growth.
📩 Join the newsletter for workshops, retreats, and 2026 offerings.
Welcome back to She Asked. It is my pleasure to be co-hosting today. My name is Jennifer Martin, and I am a co-producer of this show, which we will get deeper into details in a little bit. But first I wanted to just say thank you, Anna, for being an amazing host, an amazing boss, and an amazing coach. This episode is mostly to celebrate you, but also to see what is possible when you put your mind to something. So before we get started, how are you feeling? It's December 2nd, 2025. Was life going on for you right now?
SPEAKER_00:Well, thank you. Thank you for being a part of this journey with me. It's meant a lot. So how am I doing? The holiday season is always full of lots of emotions and full schedules and social connections or commitments. And I think that what I have worked to do this year is how to pare down and let go of the tendencies towards overdoing anything, being a bit more intentional about what I'm choosing to be a part of, and learning how to slow down. Although I'm not quite at the version of me that is really feeling the effect of that, I can see the practice happening. So I am doing better than I was this time last year. Let's put it that way. Amazing.
SPEAKER_01:I can say the same. And something I like to say is that we're always recreating ourselves. And I know that is especially true for you, and not just as a I'm gonna decide to get into running this year, but you legally made a decision this year to change your name back to your maiden name. So I wanted to talk a little bit about that and ask you was there anything that was surprising that happened when you went through this arduous process of changing your passport, your license, getting like deeds and all of these other things that like we don't think about.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And yet it is one of the first defining factors of who we are. Right how you are called.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. Yes, I what was unexpected was just the emotional part of it. I thought I knew when we did a podcast on this, on all the bureaucracy, all the paperwork, all the hoops you have to jump through. It is truly harder to change your name back than it is to change it to begin with when you get married. I kind of wish, and I think we said this in the podcast, that somebody had warned me, I don't know that I would have listened, yet it would have been good to know, hey, FYI, if and when you need want to change your name again, it gets harder and harder. And that's what I found true. Yet the hardest part wasn't really the paperwork, it was the emotional side. And what I mean by that is although I was emotionally committed to change my name, I had been divorced for a few years, my ex-husband was about to get remarried, so I had that incentive to be different. And yet I didn't consider how it was going to really affect to go through it. There were many times when I do think like the harder the process got, there was a part of me that kind of was saying, What difference does it make? And so I had to really keep checking in with myself. Because with every hoop I jumped through, there was more emotion that came up. And where it really mattered, like when financial part of it, when I got to my banking system, when I got to my certain organizations that I had been a part of with my husband, that I then had to claim my space still there, yet on my own. That was that that really called for some deep digging into reclaiming who I was.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah, especially when those things that are a little bit deeper than just filling out like your application for a gym, thinking about financial ties and the security a marriage can seemingly provide. You're really forced to ask yourself, okay, how am I taking care of myself financially moving forward? Now I'm curious because there was a delay between separation and divorce. Take me back to the first time you filled out a form and you put McBride versus your married name, and what was that like for you?
SPEAKER_00:So that all happened this year. Really? So, yeah. When it was a paperwork of consequence, meaning anything related to, let's say, taxes or banking or real estate paperwork and all of this, but putting down my name and really having to clarify that my name was McBride and not my married name. I think having to do it over and over again and correct people in the process got a little irritating, and yet at the same time, it really raised my awareness to just how I had spent decades as this one version with that one name. And so it wasn't lost on me that I was standing up with a new name. So, how did it feel for the first time? I think the first time I was a little nervous, and maybe I was overly explaining about what I was doing. Felt uncomfortable to say my name changed because of divorce, and then it eventually just came, I changed my name. I've legally changed my name and let that be enough. And then eventually it became my name is Anna McBride, and no explanation necessary.
SPEAKER_01:Right. So pivoting into what brings us here right now, the show. What was it like to hit record that first episode and say, hi, welcome to She Asked. This is your host, Anna McBride. How did that feel for you?
SPEAKER_00:It certainly felt uh amazing. I'm so grateful that I had this opportunity. I think I was so nervous compared to now. I'm far more relaxed. All these episodes that we've been able to get out, I've become more and more relaxed doing it. At the very beginning, I was really, really nervous. I was, I had a lot of thoughts in my head about what how great it needed to be, how perfect it needed to be, how the message had to be on point, how the look, etc. And it was really more about can I just be me? And and that's what I want. My real work with this podcast is really just to speak for myself. Like I'm having conversations with people. At first it was a little more rigid or a little bit more tight. I was tight, and now I think I'm I've find my I found my pace.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I absolutely agree. Whenever we start anything the first time, we want room for improvement, or else we lose interest, honestly. Who wants to hit a home run their first time up to bat? But I've definitely had some joy watching you evolve after 26 episodes in just half a year, which is a huge accomplishment. I'm curious, besides the message and offering all of this beautiful advice, and also not only just talking about your experiences, but being able to pedestalize some amazing women on your show as well. I'm curious to hear about the true starting the point and if you had any dreams as a kid of being a broadcaster, or like where does this idea to be behind the mic and the camera derive from?
SPEAKER_00:As a young girl, I was always writing, always telling stories. Started in front of my father at the dining room table where he invited us to tell stories or a joke at dinner time for his entertainment, and I was quick to do that. He was a big lover of broadcast news, watched them incessantly, and me along with him. So I shifted my dream to become, I wanted to be a broadcast journalist, and so that's I think where some of this really truly comes from is that wanting to be performing in a way that had not just a performative aspect to it, but a meaningful, purposeful, intentional aspect to it, and to be of service with the message. That's where it came from, and I think this is just an extension of those thoughts and ideas and those dreams that I had as a kid.
SPEAKER_01:It's funny how that works out like that sometimes, right? Little Anna, little 12-year-old Anna is now so proud of what you are creating. Right. So, for all of those women or young girls out there that have a dream, what can you say to them in terms of getting started and making that first song or writing that first line in their book?
SPEAKER_00:The first thing to do is just to begin. Begin a discipline of writing if you're gonna be a writer. Begin a discipline of telling the story if you're gonna be a storyteller. Begin a discipline of singing if you're gonna be a singer, right? So find a way to get to the practice. For me, what it looked like, like I have been performing with Moth, our for Moth, which is a storytelling community, for over seven years now. And I did that initially, I was doing it weekly, and now a little less regularly. I write daily, I record stories, if not daily, three times a week. I'm always practicing the thing that I want to be doing all the time, and for me, what that looks like is telling a story that I believe needs to be told so that somebody can learn something, gain something, and have a bigger, better life as a result of it. Amazing.
SPEAKER_01:So I heard a lot of discipline and knowing that whatever you put your attention to will grow. Right. I'm going to pivot into another area of your life that I know you're very disciplined in, and that is your recovery program. And without getting too detailed, you have shared publicly that you have blocked some boyfriends that no longer serve you. Okay. Without getting too detailed, too personal. I'm just curious what you can share with us around the way that you're approaching dating this year.
SPEAKER_00:Like right now, I'm not. I made a conscious decision. Gosh, I think I I started really focusing in the recovery of this area of my life seven months ago. And the blocking came later as a result of realizing that even though I made a commitment to not stay connected with the men that I had previous romantic relationships with or sexual relationships with, I still found it difficult not to connect with them if they were to reach out. I wouldn't initiate it, however. I've always had this challenge around displeasing people, and they were part of that story. So to really heal, I realized I had to cut off any potential contact by them because what you learn in these programs is that there's a bit of time known as withdrawal. Whether it was a substance or a relationship, you the time after you stop being in contact, they consider that a withdrawal period. And what I was doing by leaving the potential for them to reach out was keeping that withdrawal period extended, extended, which is not fair to me. And I wasn't aiding my ability to heal. So I, yes, I made a conscious decision to block them. And what did that do? That just relieved me. It took a huge distraction away, which then opened up more energy for other areas of my life creatively, as well as just being able to relax. My nervous system could relax, and I haven't regretted it a single moment. Yeah. And although I'm not ready to date yet, I know that I am for closer or further along in the process because I made that conscious decision and took that action.
SPEAKER_01:Amazing. Yeah, and you definitely freed up a lot of energy for your clients. Yes. For the show, for the children. Yes. So if you could speak to that version of you who kept choosing the wrong men, what would you tell her?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, sweetheart, you weren't choosing men. What you were choosing was just mirrors of the parts of you that still needed healing. So that's what they all represented was just a mirror of the parts of me that had this idea, that's what love was supposed to look like. It was people who had one foot in, one foot out, or not unable to make a commitment, or really just wanted something physical and nothing emotional, and that's not who I am now. So I'm looking forward to finding the mirror that really reflects back the part of me that knows who she is, that knows what she wants and is not going to sell for less.
SPEAKER_01:Could you give us a little glimpse of what that reflection might look like in an ideal relationship?
SPEAKER_00:Somebody who's emotionally available, somebody who's all in, somebody who accepts me the way I am 100%. I always attracted men that were fun, that were fit, that were very physical, and those are still okay. It's just that they lack those other parts because I wasn't fully healed emotionally. I wasn't fully healed, even attending to me 100%. This is why I kept attracting that other version.
SPEAKER_01:And she's also very fit. She's about to do an Everest next year. Yeah, but we just say what that is.
SPEAKER_00:So it's 29029 Everesting. It's a thing. It's been around at least for a few years, five plus years. And what it is is 29,029 feet is the base camp elevation for Everest. And they have replicated this experience at various ski resorts around the country and in Canada. And so it's a 36-hour challenge where you work to climb that exact elevation. And so the one I'm doing is called Trail. So I have 36 hours spread out over three days, so 12 hours each day, that I will tend to cover at least a marathon length of 26.2 miles, upwards to 30 miles a day, and all with an increasing elevation climb. So yeah, all right. Doing that next October.
SPEAKER_01:Take notes. Maybe you can find love on the trail. Maybe we'll see. We've got to keep up with this one. Which I guess gets me into another big feat that may not take any athleticism, but surely endurance, and that is in New York real estate. So I wanna I just wanted to commend you on this achievement is finding a home in Manhattan. So just tell us briefly what it's meant for you to not just have a home in your own name, but to renovate it with your children and really live somewhere that you can call your own.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. It means everything. This is the first home that is in my name only that I own, that I live in. I had a previous home post-divorce that I used as a rental for income, but yet I never lived there. So this is the first one in which I'm actually living in. I moved to New York City seven years ago when I separated from my husband. However, I was going back and forth to Philadelphia where the rental home was. So I felt like I was an in-between kind of girl. I wasn't all the way into New York and I wasn't all the way out of Philadelphia. And that seemed to make sense because I didn't know where I fully belonged. When the divorce happened, I made a decision to sell that property so that I could be all in in New York. So I had made a decision. I'm not, I had a lot of advice given to me by local New Yorkers. I just rent, be a renter, and the more I thought about it, I'm just not a renter. I'm somebody who's always owned, been privileged to own many homes throughout my marriage, and I didn't want that to change just because I was divorced. Yet buying a home in New York City has got to be one of the hardest things I've ever done. I've owned, I think, nine, over nine homes in my life, and this was the hardest one to buy. And I just think that New York City is uniquely challenging. However, it was also around the time when I was changing my name. It was paired with that theme of real sovereignty. So making the home my own has been a part of the process. This is the first time I never had to consider anybody else but me. Yeah, so that's been interesting and in a good way. Like I feel like I'm an adult.
SPEAKER_01:Oh wow. So given your very disciplined nature and how well traveled you are, how do you make sure that you feel at home no matter where you are? What's something that you can ground yourself with despite where you land?
SPEAKER_00:I am disciplined, so I have that means I have things that I do consistently, and that doesn't differ regardless of travel. So I was just away in Portugal and I did the same things every day that I would do here. Like I get up every morning and I meditate every morning and I pray every morning and I read spiritual texts every morning, and that didn't change just because geography changes, even time zones change. I do exercise every day. There it wasn't going to the gym, it was hiking, walking, exploring. I still went to bed early because that's how I am. I get up early because that's who I am. So a lot of things don't change like that. I think what to answer your question, what makes me feel at home is that I carry with me the parts of me that I need to feel comfortable. And so that can be my journal. That can be, I always have pictures of my kids that I carry with me, that can be teas that I like to have, so that I feel that comfort. Can be a certain sweater that I like to put on, my pajamas that I like to wear, so that I know that I'm I'm never that far away from home. I don't leave myself at home and become somebody else just because I travel. That's all.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and the way I want to crap this next question is to put a spotlight on how you have both very stagnant practices that you don't like to deviate from, and yet you've created so much change in your life in just 12 months. So, what advice would you have for someone who wants both growth but also is afraid to change?
SPEAKER_00:That's that sounds like a trick question. So, you something new can't take root unless you're willing to let go of something else. So I had to identify pretty early, which I did in the year, what are the things that I was gonna work on to let go of? The real first one was my name. I was gonna finally get around to changing my name. And the second thing that I was definitely working on was any story related to my divorce, my married life, and then my divorce, those relationships, anything that were wasn't gonna wasn't serving me anymore. And so what that looked like was I have done more than my fair share of people pleasing, more of my fair share of worrying what people think about me, more of my fair share of just taking care of other people caretaking. And those were three behaviors that I was going to let go of. So I identified what I was going to let go of, and then I became up with a process that I worked on throughout the year to let go of it. I've gone on a few retreats that were really specifically geared towards rewriting those narratives so that I could do the healing work that I needed to do, really create the new version of me and that I was becoming, and then do the daily practices that would support that new version versus the old version. We all know how to be what we've always been. What we don't know necessarily is what do we need to do in order to become who we want to be. And so people want to change or grow. If they're afraid to change, I would challenge that. Like just consider is it really about would you be able to be disciplined to do the new version of you? Or what what would be the cost of letting go? I had to let go of people pleasing, and when you stop pleasing, people stop being pleased. And there were people that I had to let go of as a result of that. I had to block those men that we talked about, and that wasn't easy for me. It was I'm a girl who loves attention, and so I had to be willing to seek out healthier forms of that attention so that I didn't keep recreating that old version of me. Because until I was really ready to let that version go, could this other version take root?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah, it sounds a lot like pruning, pruning your garden, right?
SPEAKER_00:In a way, there's so there's a phrase that goes around in recovery a lot, although it applies here too. Once you have the awareness that something isn't working or you want something different, you have to go through an acceptance process. And acceptance looks like what are the things that I'm doing that's contributing to the problem, owning your part. So you really have to know yourself in and out and be willing to look at yourself in that detail. Then, as a part of the acceptance might also be forgiveness or letting go of old story or behavior patterns, and really just accepting that this is what it's going to take for me to change. And then and only then are you ready to take the action. That's the next step to towards this new version. I kept wanting to jump into the action. Like I was aware that I was unhappy, and let me just go about this new thing. When in fact, you can't begin something new and have it stay without letting go efficiently, consistently, truly of the old version.
SPEAKER_01:Right, because then you'll just end up dating the same men unless you finally let go of that people pleaser in you.
SPEAKER_00:Right, so there was lots of pet behavior patterns and things I was contributing to the problem. And I think like that level of honesty is what made the difference for me.
SPEAKER_01:Wonderful, Anna. What you just explained in terms of the process of really knowing who you are and then having that groundwork to then rewrite your story because you said you can't just like swing without the ball in front of your face, like you can't just take action, you have to set things up. I don't know if that metaphor made sense, but I liked where I was going with it. But again, to your point, like I moved here knowing that I had some limiting beliefs around New York and what it takes. You mentioned buying a house is the hardest place that anyone could do in this market, but I told myself, like, oh, I don't actually think New Yorkers are scary or smarter than me or prettier than me, and yet when I got here, there was evidence in my reality to show that I still believed in that in different ways. Like I could look at you and be like, oh, this is a very well-to-do, sophisticated New Yorker. She seems very kind, but there's a part of me that's scared of you, like things that I am not worthy to be sharing the same breath as you. Now, clearly, that's I've worked on that, and I'm not saying that's how I first thought of you when I met you, but that's how I thought of everyone in New York when I first came here. So, again, I just want to bring it back to like action is absolutely needed, but it's a formula.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, action intentional, clear action can only come about when you really work through getting to know who you are. Like, what is it that you were bringing to this reality that you were just describing? The way you were seeing New Yorkers, the way you were experiencing women like me, as you described, or and the belief systems that we live out every day are so unconscious and they're not necessarily ours. We inherit them, we grew up with them, I know I did. A lot of what I had to work on this year was letting go of these limiting, we call them limiting beliefs, constricted thinking, that were really creating the biggest obstacles for me to be able to change. And once you identify them and then really go about a process, and it is truly a process, this is why I coach people on it, to work through the letting go part and then also at the same time create the process to enliven the new version. And jumping from one to the other, in my experience, doesn't work. It may work in the short term, but yet in the long term, it doesn't last, and that's what we're working on is lasting change. That's what growth really is means.
SPEAKER_01:Amazing. I think you just advertised some workshops we will be rolling out in early 2026 pretty well, so stay tuned for more information on how Anna will be leading those towards rewriting their narrative. So before we officially wrap up, I'm going to ask you a question that is very millennial of me, in that we like to do this thing on the internet during the New Year's called In and Out. So, what is your one thing? Let's start with that you're throwing out on the way into 2026.
SPEAKER_00:What are you letting go of? Okay. I am definitely letting go of people pleasing. Okay. I'm letting go of that, and what that looks like could be caring too much about what other people think about me. Caretaking other people's emotions and curating my story or my message to please people. I'm not doing that shit anymore.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, she ain't. She is not. Alright, what you bringing in?
SPEAKER_00:What you calling forth? I am bringing in the comfort of being seen. Up until this year, I've been the one behind the camera, the one behind the work. I've been working in this field, therapeutic, healing, you can call it a mind-body, for decades. And I really thought that to be humble, to be really meant like I wasn't going to let my ego put me out front. And what I've realized is that the work by itself to really land needs a messenger, needs someone who is in flesh and blood that people can relate to. And I want to be, I'm going to be, I am bringing in 2026 this visibility factor, being seen, that may be surprised to some people who know that they've already seen me in many forms of social media. I'm going to do it more in the community here. I'm going to do it more in face-to-face contact retreats that we're going to be doing, webinars that we're going to be offering. You're going to maybe be too sick of me in 2026, but that's what I'm doing. I am going to up my commitment to being more visibly a part of the healing process.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you're easy on the eyes, so we won't get too sick of you. No, as we're talking about what you need for a man, I'm like, man, we are perfect partners, just if we are sexually compatible. I'm also in this scene in one of my acting classes where I have to hit on a woman, so I'm like in this like mode where they're like, that's part of the scene. It's yeah, but you're not a man.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I have friends. I have friends, I even have a daughter who's gay, and they always say, Mom, women are so much better. And I'm like, Yeah. And they said, You should you would be great in the lesbian community. And I was like, Yeah, however, there is a big problem. I'm I'm heterosexual. Yeah. I'm attracted to men. Same, unfortunately. So there's that. I think you're born this way. Yeah. I know I am.
SPEAKER_01:You know what? I take back what I just said, unfortunately. There's a lot of emotionally available men that do their work. Yes. They're out there. That's what my dating story says. Introduce them to me, please. I will. I guess to the last question, is there any landing message you want your listeners to know?
SPEAKER_00:I want them to know that She Asked is a podcast that is meant to expand lives, to expand experience, to really help people invite in more curiosity, more love, more freedom in their lives. And we're going to be offering many different conversations as we continue that are going to expand people's perspectives. And that's what I want them to know that we're the go-to podcast when it comes to just all topics. We're not going to shy away from things thinking that the public can't handle it because we know they can. Anything is up for conversation. And I love talking about lots of things that we have yet to bring forward. So I'm looking forward to those kind of conversations and those topics. I want people to know we're here. We're just gonna keep growing.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. That's right. Okay, I think that wraps us up and hopefully add some excitement for what we're about to bring out in 2026. I'm talking workshops and webinars and some lovely women's retreats here in New York, and I don't know. We haven't talked about elsewhere, but maybe we'll uh plant that seed right now. I know how you like to end off, so I'm gonna pass it on to you, Anna McBride. Okay, thank you for joining us on She Ask where healing meets practical hope.
SPEAKER_00:We're so glad you were here. Jennifer and I have put our heart and soul into this podcast, and I hope you can feel that through our words in this connection. So until soon, be well.