The Daily Ascent

At my fifteen-years-sober party, I invited a friend from my recovery community, someone who's in the rooms but stays on the edges.  I figured he'd drop in for five minutes. Instead he showed up on time and stayed to the very end, and watching him get fed by a community he doesn't let himself have was one of my favorite moments of the whole night. This is an episode about walking away from the very thing we're aching for.  Question to carry into your day: What are you walking away from right before it could actually feed you? Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

A friend told me she was jealous of a couple at a party, and she said it like a confession, like she'd done something wrong. It reminded me of a client I had years ago, a sweet man coming out of a really dark time, who told me he'd felt awful and jealous watching his friend get married.  And I surprised him. I said, that's so exciting. It means your heart's still beating in there. It means you still want love. This is an episode about jealousy as information, not as a judgment on your character.  Question to carry into your day: What has your jealousy been trying to show you that you actually want?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I threw myself a party for fifteen years sober, and I planned every piece of it alone, right down to buying my own birthday cake. For days my friends kept asking what they could bring, and I kept saying I'm fine, I got it.  Then the day before, my spiritual advisor Stephanie asked if I was excited, and I heard myself say: I'm realizing I asked no one for help. This is an episode about why we call it strength to do it all alone.  Question to carry into your day: Where are you calling it strength to do it alone, when it's actually a door you're keeping shut?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I do this wild Pilates class on a crazy machine, where you can work off the front, which is the regular hard, or off the back, which is brutal. First day back this fall, the instructor had written the whole class off the back, and I wanted to see if I could do it, no modifications. I could, and I was so proud. Then I was so wrecked I couldn't work out for two days. This is an episode about the difference between the hard that builds you and the hard that just wrecks you.  Question to carry into your day: Where are you going all the way to the back of the machine, when the front would build you more?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

One of my closest friends, a gorgeous storyteller who puts her real life online, posted the other day about how lonely she was feeling.  And my stomach dropped, because I don't reach out to her much, and when I looked at why, the reason was that her life looks so full I'd decided she couldn't possibly need me.  So I texted her: I'm here, and I'm going to be your little stalker, so stay tuned. This is an episode about the story we tell ourselves to avoid being the one who reaches first.  Question to carry into your day: Who have you decided is too busy to need you, when the truth is you're scared to be the one who reaches first?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I sent a friendly note to someone I barely know, the kind you forget about in an hour, and got something clipped back. So I wrote again and asked if she was okay.  What came back was that we needed to clear the air, in person, and she wouldn't tell me what it was about. And that little text glued itself to my brain for days. In the shower, on a walk, at two in the morning.  Then my spiritual advisor Juliana said the line her own spiritual advisor says to her: does this matter in Chicago?  This is an episode about the two questions to run when something gets its hooks in you.  Question to carry into your day: What are you spending your life on that never deserved it?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

My spiritual advisor was in Africa, shoveling garbage to clear a path to where people were living.  And I sent her a voice memo about something bothering me, with a big disclaimer at the front: I know this is nothing compared to what you're seeing. What she said back changed something in me. This episode is about why comparative suffering doesn't make your pain smaller. It just makes you suffer alone. Question to carry into your day: Where have you been minimizing your own pain because someone else has it worse, and what would it look like to tend to it anyway?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

About five years ago I was deep in a yoga retreat phase, and an email came in about one, and I read half of it. Then I put down the full deposit that same afternoon, glowing. Ready, fire, aim.  Then the actual directions showed up: fasting, no caffeine, rigorous exercise with no breaks. A boot camp with incense.  So I called my spiritual advisor Bessie looking for sympathy, and instead she handed me the guideline I've run my life on ever since. This is an episode about why the fast yes isn't a decision at all. Question to carry into your day: What are you about to say yes to that hasn't had a full day to become yours? Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

My friend put off a root canal because she didn't have time. By January she was in agony. And that same week, a woman in one of my groups was asking how to get out of despair.  And I kept thinking about that root canal. Because most of us don't end up in despair because life is unbearable. We end up there because we didn't tend to our sadness when it was still just sadness. This episode is about why your feelings deserve your attention now, not later, not when it's convenient, not when you have time.  Question to carry into your day: What sadness are you postponing right now, and what would it look like to tend to it before it becomes despair?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I was at a meeting last week, settled in my seat and deep in my own head, when my friend Pam walked in late. She was happy to see me, and I just glanced at her and sank right back into my own stuff. I didn't think twice about it.  Turns out Pam spent the whole meeting sure I was mad at her or didn't recognize her. When I hugged her at the end, she told me, and I realized I've been Pam a hundred times, spinning a story about a cold look that was never about me at all.  This is an episode about giving people the most generous interpretation, because everyone's carrying weather you can't see. This is an episode about why we take other people's moods personally, and how the most generous interpretation is usually the true one. Question to carry into your day: Whose coldness have you taken personally lately, that might have had nothing to do with you at all?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

My yoga teacher said something at the end of a brutal sequence that stopped me cold. And I immediately thought of my best friend, who had just started a dream job and was completely falling apart trying to adjust. This episode is about why the first time through anything feels like drowning, and why that's not evidence you made a mistake. It's just evidence that you don't have rhythm yet.  Question to carry into your day: What transition are you in right now where you're still on the first side, and how would it feel to trust that rhythm is coming?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I've been out on the East End of Long Island, where the whole place runs on a couple of roads with almost no traffic lights, so making a left turn means sitting and waiting with no help coming.  And every single time, I catastrophize: I'm going to be late, this'll take forever, I'm never getting out of this lane.  And every single time, the traffic clears and I make the turn. Sometimes a generous stranger even stops and waves me through. It hit me that this is exactly what the mind does with every hard thing, it looks at a temporary jam and swears it's permanent.  This is an episode about the lie that you're stuck forever, and why the tide always turns. This is an episode about why the mind treats every hard moment as permanent, and how to remember the turn is always coming.  Question to carry into your day: Where are you treating a temporary hard stretch like it's your permanent address?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

Today I'm fifteen years sober, and I want to tell you about the day it happened. I always had a hard time with alcohol, and by my early thirties I was doing the things I swore I never would. After I browned out at my own thirty-fourth birthday party, I drove to Cape Cod carrying a shame I couldn't shake, went down to the beach alone, and called a sober woman I was sure wouldn't answer.  She answered. And when she gently asked if I'd drink that night, I heard myself negotiating, the line went quiet, and she just said my name. Something broke open. Standing in front of the ocean, I knew I couldn't stop on my own, and instead of defeat I felt relief.  The fight was over. This is an episode about surrender, about how the white flag is where you start winning, and about the trust and connection that catch you once you let go. This is an episode about how surrender isn't losing the fight, it's admitting you can't win it alone, and what becomes possible once you stop believing the thing you were most sure of. Question to carry into your day: What are you still insisting you've got handled, that actually has you?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I stood in a parking lot completely falling apart. Convinced my creative life was over. And my friend looked at me and said, one day we are both going to laugh about this. I did not believe her. This episode is about what unfolding actually looks like when you're inside it, and why the middle of the story is not evidence that the story is over.  Question to carry into your day: What moment in your life are you treating as proof that something is over, when it might actually be the beginning of something you can't see yet?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

It's my birthday week, and birthdays make me honest. I lost a lot of my life, years of it, to my eating disorder, to addiction, to depression, long stretches where I was here but stuck behind a glass wall, unable to feel any of it.  What put the first crack in that wall was realizing I could think differently, though at the start choosing a new thought felt like pushing a boulder uphill. With practice it became a pebble. I'm not behind the glass anymore and I love my life now. But the old thinking still drifts back, and this year's intention is to keep catching it and reclaiming the life I fought for. This is an episode about recovery, guarding the good you fought for, and reclaiming appreciation for your life on purpose.  Question to carry into your day: Where has the old thinking quietly drifted back in, that it's time for you to reclaim?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

Two years ago I was completely sure I hated hot yoga. My best friend Josh twisted my arm, I went, and I hated every single minute of it.  And then I had one small thought: what if I could teach myself to love it? Not tolerate it. Not white-knuckle through it. Actually love it.  So I got a two-week pass and went every single day. Whether I felt good or terrible. Whether I wanted to or not. Just showed up. This episode is about what happened next, and why commitment will always carry you further than motivation ever could.  Question to carry into your day: What's something you've written off as "I just don't like that," and what would it look like to commit to showing up for it and see what changes?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

A friend of mine was apartment hunting with an agent who kept insisting there was nothing good out there, and this genuinely positive woman started to catch his hopelessness.  So I stopped her. You don't need fifty apartments, you need one, and there's always one good one, so don't make his belief your belief. And I told her what my spiritual advisor used to tell me: God is the ultimate real estate broker. She shifted her belief, and found the top floor of a two-family home with everything on her list. This is an episode about how belief shapes perception, why the brain shows you what you expect to find, and how spirituality is really a shift in how you choose to see.  Question to carry into your day: Where have you decided there's nothing, before you've actually looked with hopeful eyes? Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

A client and I came up with an analogy years ago: she's the unicorn in a family of horses. And if you've ever felt like the different one, the too-sensitive one, the one who just doesn't quite fit, you already know exactly what that feels like.  A unicorn is still a horse. Just a magical one. This episode is about how to love your family without expecting them to be something they're not, and how to stop punishing people for limits they can't help, while still getting your own needs met.  Question to carry into your day: Where are you asking someone to give you something they simply don't have, and what might shift if you let them be who they are while giving yourself permission to find the people who truly see you?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I hadn't cut my hair in eight months and had convinced myself that perimenopause had hijacked it. I finally went in and stood there complaining to my stylist about my dry, unruly hair, when a stranger came over and told me it was beautiful.  I brushed off the compliment. And she said, I'm losing my hair, I'd do anything for hair like that. Every single thing I was complaining about was something she was praying for. My problem was her prayer. It gave me real perspective, right there in the chair, not guilt, just a second pair of eyes on my own life. This is an episode about why we can't see what we have, how spirituality is really a shift in perspective, and how to give yourself that shift instead of waiting for a stranger to hand it to you.  Question to carry into your day: What are you complaining about today that someone else would give anything to have?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I'm out in Long Island with my dearest friends, where I go to my meetings a few times a week and everyone knows it. One Sunday night at dinner, I said I had to leave early for a second meeting, and as I got up, my best friend Jason quietly pulled me aside. He asked if everything was okay, said he'd noticed that was two meetings that day, and put his hand on his heart: I just wanted to check in with you. I didn't feel judged for a second. I felt loved. It turned out I was the speaker that night, so he was wrong, and it didn't matter at all. It was a masterclass in how to check on someone you love. This is an episode about the difference between checking up on someone and getting curious, why silence and confrontation both miss, and how to ask the real question with an open hand.  Question to carry into your day: Who in your life could you get curious about today, not because you've decided something's wrong, but because you love them and you want to know?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I started a podcast with two dear friends. It was magic. And then slowly, it wasn't. But I kept pushing through, telling myself good friends and good projects deserve endurance.  Then one of them sent an email saying it was time to come to a natural close. My stomach dropped. And after a long walk with Danny, I realized the truth: I'd just been too scared to say it first. This episode is about the quiet endings that sneak up gently and whisper, this has run its course, and how to meet them with grace instead of grief.   Question to carry into your day: Where in your life might you be gripping too tightly or cutting too quickly, and what would completion look like if you met it with grace instead of fear?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I've been collecting rituals for years, from different teachers and traditions. Full moon ceremonies, burns where I write out what I'm carrying and set the paper on fire, nights with friends where we say our intentions out loud.  I don't do all of them and I skip whole seasons. But every time I do one, I get calm and I get connected. I had a boyfriend once who thought it was bizarre and asked why I did this, and I said, what's the downside?  I've thought about that for years. His question is the question. Not why do I do it. Why did he need a reason.  Today's reading is from Wintering by Katherine May, quoting D.H. Lawrence: "We must get back into relation: vivid and nourishing relation to the cosmos and the universe." This is an episode about what rituals actually do for us, why a culture that measures everything quietly cut them, and what moved into the empty slot where they used to be.  Question to carry into your day: What are you not doing because you can't explain what it's for?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

My friend Michelle pulled up to teach our class together holding her laptop, completely fried, planning to keep working in the car. And I said, put it down. Let's just talk.  By the time we got to class, I could see it. So I told her, let me teach the whole thing. Just rest. She cried in the closing circle. She said she didn't realize how badly she needed to not be in charge for a minute. This episode is your permission slip.  Question to carry into your day: Where in your life could you give yourself permission to pause, ask for help, and stop holding everything together on your own?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I was staying with friends in North Carolina, and every morning I took all three dogs on a walk. It was my contribution, lifting a real thing off my friends' plates. And at first it was chaos: three dogs, tangled leashes, wet dogs climbing all over the car. But almost a month in,  I noticed it had become the most peaceful part of my day. I even took all three to a roadside coffee shop on the trail and they sat there like little angels. It didn't get easy, I got fluent, and the only thing that made me fluent was doing it over and over when it was still hard.  This is an episode about the clumsy beginning of every worthwhile thing, why we quit right before it gets good, and how repetition quietly turns chaos into intuition.  Today's reading is from Kathleen Norris's The Quotidian Mysteries, on how the thing we think we're only getting through has the power to change us.  This is an episode about staying through the hard beginning. Question to carry into your day: What are you thinking about quitting, that might just be in the clumsy beginning part, not the wrong part?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I was in North Carolina watching a friend's dog, and my mom was supposed to come stay with me for the week. Then she got the stomach flu. I was so bummed, and I told my friend Michelle I was stuck in the monastery. Michelle has two kids and a life so full I get tired watching her Instagram stories, and she said, "Oh my God. What I wouldn't do for four days alone."  So I used the monastery. I journaled, I did a full moon ritual, I took a bath in the middle of the afternoon, and a couple of days I did nothing at all on purpose. I did what Michelle would do with four days alone.  Today's reading is from Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh: "Certain springs are tapped only when we are alone."  This is an episode about the difference between solitude you chose and solitude that got handed to you, and how to sign for a week you didn't order.  Question to carry into your day: What are you enduring right now that you haven't decided what it's for?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

A client came into my office completely depleted. People around her were sick, dying, falling apart. She was holding so much suffering that she was disappearing inside it. And she kept saying, "I just can't fix it. I can't fix any of it."  And I said quietly, "What if fixing isn't the only option?"  This episode is for everyone who has ever felt helpless in the face of someone else's pain, and needed permission to just be there instead.  Question to carry into your day: Where in your life are you trying to fix what simply needs your witness?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I'm away with friends somewhere beautiful, and I got here more tired and stressed than I want to be, doing all the restful things and still feeling empty, because I was never actually present for any of them. At dinner but thinking about work. On the walk but in my head.  My friend Sarah, who just came through a hard season, cracked it for me: self-care was never the activity, it's the presence you bring to it. She started practicing being one-minded, fully in one thing at a time, and it's what finally filled her back up. I've been practicing it all week, and it's changed things.  This is an episode about why doing all the self-care can still leave you empty, and what actually fills the cup. This is an episode about being one-minded, and being home for your own life.  Question to carry into your day: Where are you doing all the right things to care for yourself, but never actually there for any of it?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

You're trying so hard to do something meaningful. Something good. And it just falls apart. This episode is about what happens in that moment, the hot flush of shame, the stories we tell ourselves, the voice that says maybe you should just stop, and why staying in the room anyway is the whole point. There's a difference between humiliation, which makes you want to hide, and humility, which opens you up. This one is about learning to tell them apart.  Question to carry into your day: Where in your life are you being invited to keep going, not because it's easy or perfect, but because it's yours?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

My friend and I took a yoga class where the teacher would not tell us what to do. He just kept saying "maybe." Maybe you'll take the triangle, maybe you'll hold it longer. It got on my nerves, until he explained that yoga was meant to be a personal practice, and he didn't want us obeying him, he wanted us listening to ourselves.  And it cracked something open, because I once read the research on self-determination early in my recovery and gasped, since it explained my whole life: we heal when the choice is ours, not when it's an order. And yet, even knowing all that, I still stood there wanting to be told.  This is an episode about how deeply we're trained to look outside ourselves for the answer, and how to start trusting the teacher who's been inside all along.  Today's reading is from Martha Beck's The Way of Integrity, on learning to trust your inner teacher. This is an episode about taking back the authority over your own life. Question to carry into your day: Where in your life are you waiting to be told, when you already quietly know?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

Two hundred episodes. I can hardly believe it, and thank you for being here for it.  Here's what's perfect: today's episode is about not waiting for the good day to start, which is exactly how we got to two hundred. I'm living in the mountains with three dogs right now, where the weather does whatever it wants, sunny one minute, pouring the next.  So I stopped checking the forecast and made a rule: we walk rain or shine. And somewhere in there I stopped tolerating the rainy walks and started loving them. I've basically become one of the dogs. Because they were never going to postpone their lives for the weather, and it turns out neither should I.  Today's reading is from John Muir's Our National Parks, on how the winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their energy.  This is an episode about not waiting for a clear forecast to start living. Question to carry into your day: What have you been putting off until conditions are perfect, that you could go do today, exactly as the day is? Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I was sitting at brunch with one of my oldest spiritual advisors, telling her I was in a hallway. Gray, heavy, can't see what's next.  And she looked at me and said, in her British accent, "Molly, you are not in a hallway. You are ascending. This is what it feels like to ascend." Something cracked open.  This episode is about what happens when we stop labeling hard seasons as regressions and start recognizing them as the steepest, most sacred part of the climb.  Question to carry into your day: Where in your life can you shift from "it's murky" to "it's moving"?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

My friend Michelle and I built a movement together called Connecticut Women's Club, and we were planning an event with my friend Jess. From the first second it felt like the easiest, most aligned thing I'd done in ages, like we were simply meant to be doing it together.  And then we sat down to plan and immediately started gripping the wheel, whose house, how many people, how do we manage it. So I stopped us and said, why don't we just see who wants to come, and then plan it from there. There's a line I've held onto for years: we row, and the universe steers.  This is an episode about the difference between rowing and steering, why gripping the wheel is so often the thing that sinks us, and how the universe never roars, it just carries.  Today's reading is from Mark Nepo's The Book of Awakening, on how struggling to stay above the water only makes things worse, and how surrender can hold us up.   This is an episode about doing your part and letting go of the outcome. Question to carry into your day: Where are you gripping the wheel of something you were only ever meant to row?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I was at the beach, surrounded by my favorite people, with the ocean as my backyard. And inside, I was completely empty. So I prayed. Hard.  I was ready to spend money, travel, do whatever it took. And the answer came as a quiet woman in one of my fellowships, two lattes, and a Tuesday morning at a coffee shop.  This episode is about what happens when we stop waiting for the burning bush and finally open our hands to what's already been placed right in front of us. Question to carry into your day: What prayer have you been waiting for an answer to, and could you open your hands just a little wider this week to see what's already here?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I had a night I'm not proud of. Depleted and scared, with a dog who can get aggressive around food in the house, I roared when my dog stole something, and I scared everyone. I apologized, Michelle said there was nothing to repair, I called my spiritual advisor, and I still couldn't shake it. I even started planning to leave two weeks early.  Then the next morning, Michelle thanked me for emptying the dishwasher, and when I apologized again she said: that was last night. We're family. We have moments. This is an episode about why shame keeps us stuck in the past, and what it takes to finally come home to today.  Today's reading is from Kristin Neff, on how compassion is not only for the blameless, but for those whose suffering comes from their own failures and bad moments.  This is an episode about being loved through your worst moment, not despite it. Question to carry into your day: What are you still punishing yourself for that everyone around you has already let you leave?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

In November I'm going to Bhutan, the one place that's topped my bucket list for years, where my singing bowls come from.  When the trip walked into my kitchen, there was an immediate, quiet yes, and then all the reasonable doubt: the money, the time. But the yes came first, and it was truer, because I never want to look back as the woman who skipped her dream to save a little money on a Tuesday.  Then my friend Lauren, who's basically my sister, said, "There are no terms under which you are not going." She said yes to my yes.  This is an episode about trusting the knowing that arrives before the fear. This is an episode about the difference between a knowing and a decision.  Question to carry into your day: What's a yes you already know is true, that you've been letting your fear put on trial?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

One of my closest friends has the biggest heart I have ever encountered. And it was hurting her.  She'd done the healing work after a painful relationship, brought her ex back into her life, and found herself carrying their fears and health concerns as her own. So I asked her something simple: "Of course you can handle this. But do you need to?"  This episode is about why your heart doesn't always know the difference between caring about someone and being responsible for them, and why sometimes the most loving thing you can do is release what was never yours to carry.  Question to carry into your day: What are you carrying that isn't yours to carry, and what would it look like to release it and trust that the other person can handle their own journey?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

After my episode on making hard decisions, a listener wrote in with the other half of the question: what do you do when you've already decided, but your mind won't stop spinning?  She's unhappy at her job and staying on purpose, for the insurance, while she goes through fertility treatments to have another baby. Smart, clear, loving decision. And her brain still runs a mile a minute. As the reigning queen of buyer's remorse, I get it.  This episode is about the Harvard research on why an open door keeps the mind spinning, the difference between settling for and settling in, and how to stop being a victim of a choice that was yours all along. Today's reading is Wendell Berry's poem "The Real Work," on how the impeded stream is the one that sings. This is an episode about learning to settle into a decision you don't love but chose on purpose.  Question to carry into your day: Where are you being a victim of a decision that was actually yours to make?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Questions or want to share your story? Email me at [email protected]  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

A friend read me one line from a Substack and I felt completely exposed. "Casual indifference protects you from joy."  This episode is about the sneaky way we soften our excitement, downplay our dreams, and act like we don't care, just in case someone doesn't respond the way we hope.  It feels like self-protection. It's actually self-abandonment.  Question to carry into your day: Where are you still playing it cool when what you really want is to go all in?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

My friend Eileen and I were making a very practical, very sensible plan for our trip to Nepal — and then I heard something a teacher of mine says about levels of thinking.  Stone thinking. Water thinking. Wine thinking.  And I realized we were being stone thinkers when water thinking was right there. What happened next is today's episode. Happiness Now says it like this: "Circumstances and situations do color life, but you have been given the mind to choose what the color shall be."  This is an episode about the level at which you are allowing yourself to think — and what becomes possible when you go one level higher.  Question to carry into your day: Where in your life are you accepting the Kathmandu solution when something bigger might be available?  Want to go deeper into Robert Holden's work? He is one of my new favorite teachers and his books, workshops, and writing will change the way you think. Start at robertholden.com.  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront Write me at [email protected] and tell me about your Singapore. I read every one.  An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

A woman said a sentence to me on a call last week, and it's the one I hear more than any other: "I think I can probably do this myself." She'd spent decades and a fortune trying to fix her relationship with food alone.  And I said six words back that changed the whole conversation: "Here's the thing. You already would have."  Today's episode is about why "I can do it myself" is almost never a plan, and what it's actually protecting.  This is an episode about the hidden cost of doing it alone, and what asking for help really is.  Question to carry into your day: What are you still trying to do alone that the evidence says needs another hand?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

The world was feeling heavy. My nervous system was doing what nervous systems do.  And then I looked out the window and saw Danny, flat on his back in the yard, sunbathing like it was his full-time job.Something shifted. That's a glimmer.  And this episode is about why those small, ordinary moments of safety aren't distractions from the hard stuff, they're the antidote to it.  Question to carry into your day: What's one glimmer you can notice today, one small moment that reminds your body that you're safe, alive, and deeply blessed?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I'm staying with friends whose older dog resource guards. We kept the food and toys put away, and he was still growling at my dog over nothing.  So I read about it late into the night and learned there's a third thing dogs guard: closeness. The person they love. And I recognized it, because I've felt that same quiet math start up at a dinner table when an old friend of mine pulled up a chair for a newer one.  This is an episode about why we keep score with the people we love, and what the fear is actually telling us.  Question to carry into your day: Where are you keeping score, as if there isn't enough love to go around? Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I spent five days with my godkids, which I love. And I came home steady, present, and not crashed. That had never happened before. The difference? I included myself in the circle of care before I left. This episode is about the line between caretaking and overgiving, why what we call love is sometimes just fear, and why your steadiness is actually your greatest act of generosity.  Question to carry into your day: Where in your life are you overgiving in the name of love, and what would it look like to include yourself in that same circle of care?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I hadn't been on a date in seven months, and those were good months. I wasn't hiding, I just wasn't called to it. Then, packing for a few weeks in the mountains, a quiet thought arrived: maybe I could date a little there. See what I'm even like dating as this person, because I've done a lot of work and I'm not who I once was. So I did some love cardio.  Three hours, a wonderful man who lives a few states away, no expectations at all. And I called my friend from the car and said, this guy is an omen. The good things are coming for me, I can feel it. It wasn't the whole meal. It was a foretaste. Today's reading is from The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn, on the "signs of land" that always arrive before the thing you're waiting for. This is an episode about why we refuse to practice the things we most want to be good at, and how to recognize a taste of what's coming when it shows up.  Question to carry into your day: What have you been calling nothing that might actually be a taste of what's coming?  Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

For years I've told the same story about the three years I lived in Charlotte. Beautiful chapter, met my spiritual advisor, never really made friends, easy to leave. Then last weekend I went back and walked into the women's group I'd attended every Saturday for three years, and the whole room lit up. Hugs, my face in people's hands, tell us everything. And I realized the story wasn't true. It was a leaving story, the shrunken version we write so a goodbye won't take us down with it.  Today's reading is from The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn, about a woman who talked herself into a trunk.  This is an episode about the stories we tell to make leaving easier, and what happens when you go back and let the evidence get a vote.  Question to carry into your day: What are you remembering as smaller than it really was, so it would be easier to leave behind?  Want to work together? Me too!!! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

This one is personal. I've struggled with eating disorders my whole life, and for a long time, my body and I were not friends.  A hip injury, a treadmill class, and a moment of choosing to stop instead of push through taught me something I didn't expect: sometimes growth looks like slowing down. This episode is about what it really means to honor your body, not the fantasy of what you want it to be, but what it actually is right now.  Question to carry into your day: Where in your life could you choose to honor your body instead of trying to prove something?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

My teacher said something at the end of the retreat that knocked me sideways. What I wasn't expecting was what came out of me when it did. This episode is about the last day in Lourdes, a hard conversation, and the moment I realized my healing had gotten strong enough to hold its ground in the hardest room. There's a passage in Consolations about disappointment that I keep returning to. It says that to be disappointed is to be called to a foundational reality that lies beyond any false self we had only projected onto the outer world. And that what we call disappointment may be just the first stage in our emancipation into the next greater pattern of existence.  This is an episode about what it means to finally see someone you love as fully human, and what becomes available when you do.  Question to carry into your day: What are you afraid you would lose if the person you've put on a pedestal turned out to be human?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a discovery call: https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

I was watching Shrinking when Harrison Ford's character stopped me cold. One line. I paused the show and said out loud: that's the episode. If you're spinning on a decision right now, going back and forth until you've exhausted yourself and still don't have an answer, this one is for you. We're talking about why worry is not a form of preparation, and what it actually takes to get out of the spin cycle and into motion.  Question to carry into your day: What decision are you spinning on that you actually already know the answer to?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

My social media coach kept saying she couldn't guarantee results. After the third time, I stopped her and said she never had to say that to me again. What I told her next surprised even me — and it's what today's episode is about.  The Awakened Heart says it like this: "Love should come first; it should be the beginning of and the reason for everything. Efficiency should be how love expresses its why. For love to reign over all service."  This is an episode about the difference between doing something to get results and doing something because you genuinely want to give something — and what changes when you finally know which one you're doing.  Question to carry into your day: What are you doing from love right now, and where has the pursuit of results quietly replaced the reason you started?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

At a spiritual retreat this week, someone asked my teacher if she believed in the power of prayer. She didn't answer. She turned the question around: do you believe in the power of an angry mob?  Because if collective negative energy is real — if you already feel it in a room before a single word is spoken — you can't logically close the door on prayer. Our final night in Lourdes gave me something better than a logical argument. It gave me proof in my own body.  This is an episode about the double standard we apply to collective energy — and what opens up when we stop.  Question to carry into your day: What are you demanding proof for that you've already accepted in a different form?  Ready to do this work with real support? Book a discovery call: https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic  Let's Stay Connected:  Subscribe on YouTube Instagram: @mollycarmel Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast