Meet Kuel Life’s Confidence Builder, Julie DeLucca-Collins

Julie is a Confidence Builder and a member of our Kuel Life Thought Leader Roster.

I met Julie during the pandemic on Clubhouse, a chat-only social media app. We spent hours together in virtual rooms discussing all things midlife and beyond. It didn’t take long for me to realize that Julia had a wealth of information and wisdom to share with our Community. Thankfully, she realized it as well.

Julie speaks to our community about Midlife Matters. A confidence builder in women, she gives us tips and strategies for increased confidence in addition to actions to build our confidence.

A Little Insight Into Julie DeLucca-Collins:

1. What makes me feel alive?

Julie: The one thing that makes me feel alive is laughing so hard until it hurts. I know it is silly… but I love a good gut-wrenching laugh. The kind that leaves you breathless, crying, and perhaps with a bit of pee in your pants.

“The one thing that makes me feel alive is laughing so hard until it hurts”

Every time I laugh this hard, I am reminded that life is good, that I have deep emotions and feelings, and that being in the “feels” can also feel good. It is like a release of pent-up emotions.

2. What habits, patterns, or beliefs are my greatest assets?

Julie: My faith! This is my greatest asset. As a Tiny Habit certified coach, most people would think my habits would be the answer. However, I grew up Catholic.

I was taught to love and serve God. That I was a child of God. I am not a practicing Catholic, but my faith in a greater being, a loving being, keeps me going. It drives my values of how I show up in the world. How I serve others, and what I fall back on when all seems grim and hopeless.

Boundaries Are Key:

3. What boundaries work for me? Are there any I need to rethink?

Julie: I love boundaries. It took me a while to figure them out and to create some that worked for me. My top boundary is knowing that I am enough, followed by it is okay to say no, and it is not my job to fix others. All wonderful confidence builders, by the way. As a high achiever, I have always wanted to be successful. Success without these boundaries leads me to burnout, overwhelmed, and low self-confidence. 

4. What gives me energy, and how do I energize other people?

Julie: One thing that I have learned that gives me energy is silence, stillness, and most of all, guarding my rest. I began meditating a few years ago. It was one of the best things I could have started doing for myself. 

5. What is really most important to me?

Julie: After my faith and loving myself, my husband Dan is the most important thing to me. We married after both of us had previous marriages that hurt us deeply. Our practice spouses are okay people; they were just not the people for us.

Dan is my person, and our home and our relationship trumps everything else. I am so grateful to have been given a second chance at love. We work daily to ensure we are in a good place and I show him how grateful I am for his love and our life together.

6. How do I create joy for myself?

I have little nooks in my home where I love to spend time and my reading chair in our bedroom is cozy. My Zen-den, where I see the sunrise as I practice yoga, also gives me joy. In addition, I love to sit outside, weather permitting. I enjoy the birds at my bird feeder and watching my roses grow. 

Evolution Is OnGoing:

7. How can I keep on evolving?

“I want to learn more about others.”

Julie: I read a lot. I also love to learn new things. Moreover, I am also always open to meeting and learning from people who are different from me. We often isolate ourselves into communities that look like us, think like us, believe like us, and more. This is a deprivation to us and our world. I want to learn more about others. When we get to know others who are different, we can find that we are more alike than we think. We can appreciate our world and different perspectives more. 

8. What legacy do I want to leave behind?

Julie: This is a tricky question for me. Perhaps the most incredible legacy I leave behind is for my nieces and other young women to have a world where they don’t have to conform to the unwritten shoulds that the world gives us. I want to leave a world where we learn to love and appreciate who we are in our 20s, 30s, and 40s rather than in our later years. 

Confidence Building Through Play:

9. Here are my top three PROAGING tips? This is how I “proage” in today’s world.

Julie: My biggest pro-aging tip is simple, wash your face before bed, and remember to play. As we grow older, we forget the joy we get from being curious, using our imagination, and pretending to be the heroine of our own story. Playfulness can lead to laughter, and that can keep us young.  

10. Why am I Kuel Life Thought Leader?

“When I found Kuel life, I felt understood and embraced.”

Julie: I know the importance of not being alone on the journey. I started my 50s in the middle of a global pandemic. And I felt alone and wish I had known in advance that a lot of what I feel, and think is sometimes normal. When I found Kuel life, I felt understood and embraced. I also felt at home with other incredible women who are redefining this stage of our life. 

Did you enjoy this article? Become a Kuel Life Member today to support our ad-free Community. Sign-up for our Sunday newsletter and get your expert content delivered straight to your inbox.