243 - You’re More Than Your Relationship Status: Overcoming the Fear of Being Alone | Life Happens
Life Happens with Barb & Michelle
Michelle Maros & Barb Schmidt
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2026
⏱️ 49 minutes
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Summary
Hard truth: Staying because it’s comfortable might be the loneliest choice you make. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is stop ignoring the red flags and choose to end a toxic or misaligned relationship.
In this week’s episode of Life Happens with Barb & Michelle, we’re unpacking the pressure around relationships, singleness, and breakups — and what it really means to choose yourself. From recognizing when a relationship has run its course to building a strong sense of self, this conversation will empower you to create healthier relationships with yourself and others.
💬 Barb opens up about ending a 33-year marriage and how she stepped into a new chapter with confidence, clarity, and freedom.
💬 Michelle shares her journey of being alone and finding peace in choosing singleness over settling for less.
✨ What We Talk AboutSelf-Identity
Releasing the belief that our worth or purpose is defined by our relationship status.
Being Okay With Being Alone
Singleness isn’t failure — it can be a powerful season of growth, healing, and self-love.
Listening to Yourself
Learning to trust your feelings and needs so you can take the next right step.
Choosing Differently
Sometimes the uncomfortable path is the one that leads to joy, peace, and real alignment.
Reminder: You are more than your relationship status. Your identity, purpose, and fulfillment are defined by you — not by timelines, labels, or societal expectations.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | My peace, which means like my mental well-being, my confidence within myself, my self-love is more important to me than just having a person. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Life Happens with Barb and Michelle. We are so thrilled that you are listening and watching with us again this week. Hey, Mom. How's it going? Hi, Michelle. I feel like we're very matchy-matchy today. We didn't plan that at all. No, no, we kind of are. We kind of are. That happens a lot. Yeah, I was in the mood for blue and bright, bright and cheery and because we're talking about relationships today, so it's going to be another heavy episode, I think. Well, yeah, you know, it's |
| 0:37.9 | February. I think we often think about relationships a lot during this month with Valentine's Day |
| 0:43.5 | and just this time of year. And yeah, we had a lot of conversations between the two of us about |
| 0:50.9 | relationships. I know we've talked a lot on the show about divorce |
| 0:54.6 | and breakups. And I think we're at an interesting time in our society and our world where |
| 1:01.0 | relationships just tend to feel, especially romantic relationships, tend to feel a little stickier, |
| 1:07.2 | trickier. You know, I know from my age and my generation, dating is just a challenge |
| 1:14.2 | for a lot of people. So people often tend to feel more inclined to stay in relationships that maybe |
| 1:21.5 | they know aren't, you know, what's good or healthy or right for them because what else is out |
| 1:27.3 | there. You, you know, |
| 1:29.1 | recently within the past few years, ended up 30-something year marriage. And within all of those |
| 1:36.8 | dynamics and in all of those conversations, you and I really were coming to an interesting point |
| 1:42.0 | of what is it, what are the processes and steps and |
| 1:48.0 | thought processes behind you know knowing when it's time to end a relationship romantic or not |
| 1:56.4 | sorry and how can you claim or reclaim your identity when you feel like it's lost in a relationship, |
| 2:06.5 | especially a long-term one? And then for me, which I think will be a really interesting conversation |
| 2:11.5 | today is working through releasing the fear or the scarcity that if I end one relationship, |
| 2:19.5 | that doesn't mean that I'll never find another relationship. |
| 2:23.1 | And especially in this time that we're living in, |
| 2:26.8 | I think all of those dynamics are very unique. |
| 2:30.2 | And as to say, like, in other times, |
| 2:33.3 | I don't think we had some of these dynamics like we do now. |
... |
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