The Stone in My Shoe

The Stone in My Shoe is a podcast for women who find themselves questioning, shifting, or sensing that something more is calling. Hosted by Debbie Thompson, an educator, counsellor, and life coach, each episode shares real stories from women who learned to trust a quiet nudge or push, listen to their intuition, and follow what felt true. These conversations offer insight, inspiration, and lived wisdom. Whether you’re feeling stuck, curious, or simply longing for something deeper, it reminds you that life can be a doorway to refining, expanding, or reimagining the life you're here to live.

The Stone in My Shoe is a education podcast hosted by Debbie Thompson, with 25 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Debbie Thompson hosts The Stone in My Shoe, a education show with 25 episodes published.

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  The Stone in My Shoe

  Self-Abandonment: When Your Perfect Life Stops Feeling Like Yours | Kim Costa

  Sep 27, 202641 min

  Have you ever looked at a life you worked hard for and quietly wondered when it stopped being yours? Self-abandonment rarely arrives as a crisis. It usually arrives as being reasonable, for years. In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe, Debbie speaks with Kim Costa, a realtor, author, speaker and creator of Lifestyle Foundations and the Wheel of House Assessment. With more than thirty years in residential construction, design and real estate, Kim helps people recognise when their homes no longer reflect the lives they are living. Kim's own stone was conforming to what everybody else needed from her, no matter what her gifts were. She is a creative who spent decades doing the books for a family business because someone had to, on a forty acre horse farm that was magazine worthy and nowhere near the life she actually wanted. It took a bolting horse, a broken back and a refused invitation from The Oprah Winfrey Show before she began to listen. Together they explore how people pleasing turns into a loss of identity, why the childhood lesson that pretty girls are not athletic can decide the next forty years, and how to tell the difference between genuinely outgrowing something and simply giving up. Kim also shares the practical inventory she uses with clients: walking through your own home, room by room, and asking honestly what you feel standing in each one. What you will hear How self-abandonment begins with a reasonable decision rather than a dramatic one Why people pleasing is often about being needed rather than being liked What it costs to build an identity around the role other people require How a small childhood belief can quietly shape decades of choices Kim's room by room method for taking an honest inventory of your life Why finding yourself again in midlife is a course correction, not a failure If you have been wondering why you do not feel like yourself anymore, or why a life that looks good from the outside does not feel like yours, this conversation is a gentle place to begin. Connect with Kim Costa Website: https://lifestylefoundations.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kim.e.costa Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kimecostarealtor LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimecosta Connect with Debbie Thompson Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thestoneinmyshoe/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestoneinmyshoe/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcast Website: www.thestoneinmyshoe.com

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  The Stone in My Shoe

  How to Change Limiting Beliefs and Stop Feeling Stuck | Giorgia Bettili

  Sep 20, 202650 min

  Have you ever felt stuck without knowing why? Limiting beliefs and subconscious patterns can quietly shape what we think is possible, even when life looks fine from the outside. In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe, Debbie speaks with Giorgia Bettili, clinical hypnotherapist, dream coach and founder of Lucid Mind Hypnotherapy. Giorgia shares how leaving Italy in her twenties began a much deeper journey: questioning the beliefs and expectations she had absorbed, recognising that her thoughts were not her identity, and learning to feel at home within herself. Their conversation explores how beliefs formed in childhood or reinforced by society can remain long after they stop being useful. Giorgia reflects on meditation, life in Buddhist monasteries and the subconscious patterns that shaped her identity. Through mindfulness, self-compassion and curiosity, she began to relate differently to her inner critic and open up a different way of seeing her life. What you will hear How limiting beliefs can narrow the possibilities we are able to see Why a thought can belong to you without defining your identity What it can mean to question expectations you never consciously chose How mindfulness and self-compassion can change your relationship with difficult thoughts Why small, repeated shifts can support personal growth and greater authenticity over time How a career change or other life transition can raise deeper questions about identity and purpose If you have been wondering how to change limiting beliefs, why you feel stuck in life or whether the rules guiding you are really yours, this conversation offers a thoughtful place to begin: with curiosity rather than judgement. Connect with Giorgia Bettili Website: https://lucidmindhypnotherapy.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucid_mind_hypnotherapy/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lucidmind.therapy/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucidmindhypnotherapy Connect with Debbie Thompson Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thestoneinmyshoe/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestoneinmyshoe/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcast Website: https://debbiethompson.lovable.app/

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  The Stone in My Shoe

  She Left the Job But Kept Grading Her Own Worth | Connie Kwan on Self-Worth & Identity Change

  Sep 11, 202643 min

  Why does your sense of self-worth disappear the moment there's nothing left to point to? Have you ever finished a day with nothing "produced" and felt strangely uneasy about it, like the day didn't quite count? In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe, Debbie Thompson sits down with Connie Kwan, a former Silicon Valley product executive who spent over twenty years in leadership roles at companies including Microsoft and Atlassian, to talk about the belief she's carried since childhood: that her worth comes from what she does. Connie traces this belief back to growing up in Hong Kong, where achievement was simply the language everyone around her spoke, through immigrating to Canada and needing something legible to be recognised by, and into two decades of a career that rewarded exactly this pattern with promotions, paycheques and praise. Seven years after stepping away from traditional corporate life to build something of her own, she's honest about what hasn't disappeared: the quiet audit she still runs on herself, and the moment she realised the real work wasn't a new career — it was identity change at the root. This is a thoughtful conversation about self-worth, achievement and what it actually takes to stop needing proof that you were enough today. What you'll hear: Why growing up between Hong Kong and Canada shaped Connie's relationship with achievement The contradiction of being entrepreneurial while calling yourself "a very low-risk person" What it looks like to still audit your own worth, seven years after leaving the system that used to do it for you Why she believes real purpose has no guarantee attached to it What she means by "getting rid of my stone" Sometimes the hardest part isn't leaving the job that measured you. It's learning to stop measuring yourself. Connect with Connie Kwan Website: https://conniekwan.com/ Newsletter (STORYHabits): https://conniekwan.substack.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/conniekwan ✖️ X: x.com/ConnieKwan_ Product Maestro: productmaestro.com Connect with Debbie Thompson Facebook: facebook.com/thestoneinmyshoe Instagram: instagram.com/thestoneinmyshoe ▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcast Website: debbiethompson.lovable.app If this conversation resonated with you, please follow the podcast, leave a review and share it with someone who may need to hear it. Every conversation helps another person recognise the stone that's been quietly shaping their own journey.

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  The Stone in My Shoe

  Why We Say Yes When We Really Mean No | Kirsty Tait on People Pleasing & Boundaries

  Sep 3, 202650 min

  Why do we keep saying yes to things we don't want to do, even when it leaves us feeling resentful and exhausted? Have you ever agreed to something before you'd even decided if you wanted to? Said yes to a hug, a favour, a plan not because you wanted to, but because saying no felt harder than just going along with it? In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe , Debbie Thompson sits down with Kirsty Tait , founder of Confidence in Connection, to talk about the quiet, everyday ways we abandon ourselves in the name of being liked. Kirsty shares a moment from a retreat that changed everything: “I didn't know I didn't have to hug people.” That single sentence unravelled something much bigger. Kirsty realised she'd spent years letting people override her in small, easy-to-miss ways without ever understanding she had a choice. Together, Debbie and Kirsty trace this pattern back to a childhood memory, through years of over-giving in friendships, and into the moment Kirsty finally understood that belonging was never something she needed to earn. This is a thoughtful conversation about people pleasing , setting boundaries , self-worth and relationship patterns and what changes once we notice we've been carrying them. In this episode you'll hear: Why we unconsciously say yes when we mean no. How a childhood memory can quietly shape a lifetime of people pleasing . The difference between being kind and seeking approval. Why setting boundaries often starts with something as small as a hug. How self-abandonment develops without us ever noticing. What Kirsty now understands about belonging and self-worth . Sometimes the hardest part isn't saying no. It's realising you were always allowed to. Connect with Kirsty Tait Website: https://confidenceinconnection.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taitface/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirstytait/ Connect with Debbie Thompson Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thestoneinmyshoe/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestoneinmyshoe/ ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcast Website: https://debbiethompson.lovable.app/ If this conversation resonated with you, please follow the podcast, leave a review and share it with someone who may need to hear it. Every conversation helps another person recognise the stone that's been quietly shaping their own journey.

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  The Stone in My Shoe

  Choosing Herself Over Staying Fine | Amala on Self-Abandonment, People Pleasing & Finding Her Voice

  Aug 27, 202646 min

  Self-abandonment rarely feels dramatic. It looks like calling something fine, long after part of you already knows it isn't. Have you ever stayed somewhere — a job, a relationship, a version of yourself — long after you first felt it wasn't right? You knew something wasn't working, yet naming it out loud felt harder than simply enduring it. In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe, Debbie Thompson sits down with Amala, a former medical scientist and humanitarian worker who spent over a decade with organisations including the United Nations, the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders, working across more than ten countries, many of them active conflict zones. After a career spent serving others in some of the world's most demanding environments, Amala found herself asking a quieter question: when do I get to matter too? That question became the beginning of a long, unglamorous unlearning. That same pattern, she explains, ran through much more of her life than one job. From the age of seventeen, she lived inside a marriage that shaped nearly every choice she made — what to study, where to live, who to become — until, thirteen years later, one small decision to do something for herself became the first crack in a habit she hadn't fully recognised. Amala also opens up about surviving a hotel bombing in Jakarta, and the fear she didn't let herself feel until she had safely landed on the ground. She talks candidly about the physical and emotional toll of years spent in conflict-zone humanitarian work, and the eight months it took her to find her feet again afterwards. This is an honest, unhurried conversation about identity, self-worth, service, and learning to include yourself in your own circle of care — not as an act of selfishness, but as the missing piece that makes everything else sustainable. In this episode you'll hear: Why Amala kept telling herself a job was fine long after she felt it wasn't What thirteen years inside someone else's rules taught her about trusting her own voice Surviving a hotel bombing in Jakarta, and the fear she didn't let herself feel until she was safe What genuine humanitarian work in active conflict zones actually costs, physically and emotionally The eight months it took her to find her feet again afterwards Why she believes real alignment, once it arrives, never asks you to look back The sanctuary she's building for women in France, and what it means to finally include yourself Why noticing is always the first step, long before you know what to do next What “walking the way of love” means to her now, after everything she's carried Whether you're navigating a job that no longer fits, a relationship you've quietly outgrown, or simply wondering why you keep calling things fine that aren't, Amala's story offers an honest, unhurried way of understanding what might be happening beneath the surface. Sometimes the hardest part isn't leaving. It's admitting you already knew. About Amala Amala is a former medical scientist and humanitarian worker who spent over a decade with organisations including the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and Doctors Without Borders, working across more than ten countries, many of them active conflict zones. She is now building Maison de Rêve, a sanctuary and pilgrimage experience for women in France centred on rest, reflection, and reconnecting with one's own voice. Connect with Amala Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amalasoulsanctuary/ ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avanyathizephyra Connect with Debbie Thompson Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thestoneinmyshoe/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestoneinmyshoe/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-thompson-b3b1b715/ ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcast Website: https://debbiethompson.lovable.app/

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