Whole Again: Mindfulness and Resilience Through Kintsugi Wisdom

Can you actually rush your way to resilience, or does healing only happen once you're willing to sit in the mess?Welcome to episode six of season 4 and the messy middle.Jamie's back, and he's still, with love, a bit of a prick. Roy's nursing an injury and some relationship drama. Coach Beard is having an identity crisis. Ted and Michelle are working through the wreckage of divorce. And Alice looks like she's being quietly set up for the biggest Kintsugi moment of the whole season.If you're expecting the usual warm, fluffy Ted Lasso energy, this isn't that episode. But through the lens of resilience, it might be one of the best episodes of the series.Michael walks through why the messy middle, not the tidy comeback, is where the real work happens, using Joseph Campbell's hero's journey and the Thich Nhat Hanh teaching "no mud, no lotus" to unpack what's actually going on beneath the surface of this episode.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, I travel to The Dominion State and connect with Katy Talento.Katie's mission is to pull medicine back from what she calls the "corporatocracy" and return it to a true healing built on real food, sleep, sunlight, movement, and connection.She shares how she was "brutally vicious" to herself inside her own head, and the years of work it took to build radical self-acceptance, which she now calls the greatest gift she can give her family. Once you stop attacking yourself, she says, it's so much easier to stop attacking everyone else.You can connect with Katy on LinkedIn and AllBetter Health. And her next question for you and our next guest is:Of the 10 items in the Bill of Rights, which one matters most, and why?You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

A simple way to welcome the day.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, I travel to the Tar Heel State to speak with Madhavi Parikh.She left India in 1988 for an arranged marriage and built a life and a career around helping people heal.We talk about assimilating into the Bible Belt as a new immigrant, why she believes people who lash out are usually offloading their own pain, and the day she realized she was turning into the kind of parent she never wanted to be.That moment led her to meditation, and years later she landed on the insight that changed how she saw herself: the word hole is literally part of the word whole. Real kindness, she says, starts with accepting our own fractured pieces before we can extend it to anyone else.You can connect with her on LinkedIn. And her question for you and our next guest is:What do you do to spread or increase kindness in the world?You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------Where were you twenty-five years ago today?Michael was in a rehab session at the Kessler Institute in West Orange, New Jersey, when he overheard a therapist mention a plane hitting the Twin Towers. He called his wife and told her to turn on the TV—it didn't matter what channel.In this episode of Whole Again, Michael revisits September 11, 2001 through the lens of Rumi's poem "The Guest House," and the grief, shock, and unexpected gratitude that arrived that morning like uninvited guests. But this episode isn't only about remembering. It's about what we've let ourselves forget, and the one thing Michael says we've never really talked about in twenty-five years of "never forget": forgiveness.This is the heart of tip #36.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfectly Union, I travel to the Big Sky State to connect with Carrie Haney.I love Carrie's grounded energy, and I know you will as well.She is a meditation and yoga teacher who left a fast-paced marketing career behind to live a slower, more intentional life, currently based in Montana and traveling the country seasonally in her bus.She talks about the fracture she sees in America: how deeply we've been programmed into fast, demanding lifestyles that our bodies were never built for.Her prescription isn't complicated: take the full hour for lunch, stop multitasking, take real vacations, and give yourself back the time technology promised but never delivered.And she makes the case that connection shows up in unexpected places like the Olympics, a Taylor Swift concert, even a "designation day" like National Meditation Day. Really anywhere people set aside their differences long enough to feel something together.Her question for you and our next guest is: What is one of the most important moments in your life story so far, and where did it happen?Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love and who could also benefit from slowing down.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What if the fastest way to build trust with your team is to let them see you at your most embarrassed?That's the question at the center of this week's Ted Lasso recap, where Michael unpacks episode five of the show's final season through the lens of vulnerability.When the Lady Greyhounds fall apart in the first half against Chelsea, Alice calls the team an embarrassment and Ted, instead of deflecting or defending, leans right into the word. He opens up to his players about his divorce, his dating life, and why he eats hot dogs alone, reframing embarrassment not as a fatal flaw but as a defense mechanism that keeps us small.Press play to hear how one halftime hot dog story became a masterclass in leadership, trust, and the golden repair of our own imperfections.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, I travel to the "Live Free or Die" State to connect with Celia Jarest, host of the podcast Sunflowers: Grow Through What You Go Through and a single mom of three.We talk about fear and how it shapes almost everything we do, whether we notice it or not. She traces her own healing back to naming her complex PTSD and realizing just how much fear was running the show in her life. Her answer isn't more armor. It's grace, compassion, and boundaries, starting with ourselves.We also get into New Hampshire's spirit, the shifting politics of a state where people move for the freedom and then try to change the values, and why she finds some of her deepest connection to fellow Americans not in New Hampshire's quiet but in Massachusetts, where she works alongside people from all over the world.You can connect with Celia on LinkedIn. Her question for you and our next guest is:What is a piece of yourself that you will not back down from and will defend and fight for?Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------This Monday's microdose meditation helps you rise up. Drawing on an image as old as it is simple, a mighty oak, rooted deep so its branches can reach high, I'll guide you through a short breath practice built around one mantra: rooting, to rise. Inhale rooting, exhale to rise, until strength and stability start to feel less like something you chase and more like something already underneath you.It's a quick reset, not a big commitment. A few grounded breaths before the week gets loud.Find it, along with 700+ other microdose meditations, free on the Pause Breathe Reflect app (Apple App Store and Google Play).If it grounded you even a little, share it with a friend who could use some rooting today too.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What if the biggest regret people carry isn't something they did, but a road trip they never took?In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, I travel to The Mount Rushmore State to connect with Jeffrey Gould on this question.Jeffrey believes America is a story worth telling, one built on possibility rather than perfection. He also believes we've forgotten how to tell it, trading gratitude for outrage because outrage gets more clicks.He shares what 700 funerals have taught him about regret, and why the road trip is almost always the thing people wish they'd taken. We also get into South Dakota's particular brand of curiosity, the kind that starts with "where you from" and ends in finding someone you both know.Please connect with Jeffrey via his website or LinkedIn. And his question(S) for you and our next guest are: 1) Have you been to South Dakota, and 2) what's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten?Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------When someone shows you who they are, do you actually believe them?Tip #35 in my year-long series of lessons from his last bad day comes straight from Maya Angelou.September is my birthday month - go Virgos!All month the tips center on poetry, starting with the poet whose words already open his other series, A Perfectly Imperfect Union: "We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike."But I speak to a different Maya Angelou line here, one she gave Oprah in 1997: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." Not as a license to write people off, but as an invitation to trade wishful thinking for acceptance, hold first impressions loosely, and then decide who belongs in your peloton.Whose first impression did you choose to believe or not believe?Drop it in the comments, and share this one with someone building their own Toll House cookie recipe for a meaningful life.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What does true tolerance actually look like, and are we anywhere close to it?In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, I travel back to my old stomping grounds, Our Nation's Capitol, to connect with Tiffany Rider. She's an emergency medicine PA turned health policy writer with infectious energy.She believes tolerance is at an all-time low in America. She also believes freedom here, imperfect as it is, is still unmatched anywhere she's lived.Tiffany shares what the emergency room taught her about connection: no one asks who you voted for before saving your life. We also talk about her Cajun French family, how they punished her for speaking their own language as a kid, and why she thinks real tolerance means respecting other people's choices even when you disagree with them.Before you go, Tiffany has a great question for you and our next guest:If you really knew me, what would you know about me? Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------Can a team of guarded strangers ever really trust each other?In this installment of Whole Again's Ted Lasso series, I dig into what's really holding the Lady Greyhounds back. It's not talent. It's not effort. It's trust.As Dr. Fieldstone puts it: "A team is simply a collection of guarded strangers until they believe they are safe to fail in front of one another."And trust gets built in reps, in the "figurative gym," in tiny unscripted moments.Michael turns the episode into four practices you can start using today:Recognize your control mechanisms as survival tacticsOffer up micro-moments that create psychological safety for someone elsePractice collective responsibility over blameAnchor yourself in self-trustWatch (or rewatch) Episode 4 through the lens of trust.What's one small, unscripted moment when someone did something that made you trust them more?Drop it in the comments and share this episode with your favorite Ted Lasso fan.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, I travel to The Silver State to connect with Kate Quay.Kate believes freedom is the simplest answer to what America means to her. She also believes that answer gets complicated fast, because freedom has never been equally distributed.She shares how leaving the Bay Area's political homogeneity for Reno's purple streets actually made her feel more connected, not less. And why detaching people from their politics might be what heals us.To connect with Kate, you can find her on LinkedIn and her website. And her question for you and our next guest is: How do you find joy in your life?You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------Who's sitting at your table?In this Monday microdose meditation from Whole Again, I walk you through a visualization I return to often. You picture that table. You fill it with the people who genuinely love you. Then you invite your higher self to sit down. Then your higher power, however you define it.And you ask each one the same question: do you love me?It sounds simple. It isn't always easy to sit with the answer. But once that room is full — full of people, full of your own wiser self, full of whatever you call the bigger thing — a different question opens up: what do they need to tell you right now? What do you most need to hear?This practice reminds us that we're rarely as alone as our hardest moments convince us we are. Support surrounds us, even the support we forget to ask for.This episode is a microdose meditation from my Pause, Breathe, Reflect app — free on the App Store and Google Play, with over 700 meditations if this one resonates.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What's one small step you can take today to honor your health?Francesca is originally from Madagascar and has called Rhode Island home for the past 12 years. She's the founder of an organization doing healing work on two continents, work born out of her own story as a survivor of verbal, emotional, and psychological violence.She sees the American Dream as the idea that your past doesn't have to define your future.If you've ever wondered whether healing a family relationship is even possible, or what it actually takes to break a cycle, this episode is for you.You can connect with her on LinkedIn and her website.And her question for you and our next guest is:What is one thing you can do for your health today? Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What would you do if someone else were beating you up?You'd fight back. You'd get out of the situation. You wouldn't just stand there and take it.So why do we let ourselves get away with it?In this Growth Mindset Tip, part of his 25th Anniversary of his Last Bad Day series, Michael O'Brien shares Tip 34: stop beating yourself up.We're quick to defend ourselves against cruelty from others. But when it comes to the voice inside our own heads, the one telling us we're too much or not enough, we let it run the show. That self-critical conversation isn't harmless background noise. It's actively holding us back from the ripple effect we're capable of creating.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, I travel to The Peace Garden State and connect with Peter Schott.Peter is a Kintsugi artist, community builder, and North Dakota native who spent nine years running a monthly potluck that brought together 50 to 250 people at a time.He shares how he found Kintsugi through a book on the Enneagram and eventually traveled to Tokyo for a 12-day master class with a traditional Japanese artist.And in true perfectly imperfect fashion, his answer for the place that makes him feel most alive isn't a mountain or a coastline. It's the Walmart parking lot, where he sees the full, messy, beautiful spectrum of who we are as a country.To connect with Peter, you can find him on LinkedIn and Substack.His question for you and our next guest is:What's something that sparks joy for you, beyond your kids, your work, or your hobbies?You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What does it take to keep getting the most out of something you love, right up until it ends?That's the question running through this week's Whole Again as Michael dives into Episode 3 of Ted Lasso Season 4, part of his ongoing weekly recap series.In this solo monologue, Michael pulls back the curtain on why he's spending several weeks unpacking the final season one theme at a time, not to spoil the show, but to mine it for the mindfulness lessons hiding inside it. This episode's theme is Take a Chance on Me.Three new players join the Lady Greyhounds, each one simply asking for the opportunity to prove what they're capable of, and Michael connects that hunger to something universal: the first date, the job application, the promotion nobody thought you were ready for.He also gets honest about a harder thread running through the season, the uneven playing field in women's sports, and why the discomfort some viewers feel watching that storyline is exactly the kind of tension mindfulness asks us to sit with rather than dismiss.As a girl dad, longtime sponsor of a women's cycling team, and co-author of a book on allyship, Michael brings real stakes to the conversation about who gets a chance and who has to fight twice as hard for the same one.Michael ties it all back to Kintsugi. Taking a chance on someone, even someone with a checkered past, is what makes golden repair possible in the first place. Sweep the broken pieces into the trash too quickly, and there's no gold left to add.By the end, he leaves you with a challenge: look around your own life this week and ask who's on the sidelines waiting for a shot, and whether you're willing to be the one who says yes.Before you go, celebrate your scars as golden symbols of your strength and resilience. And don't forget to have fun storming the castle.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What would it take to truly see someone else's humanity, even when it's easier not to?In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, I travel to The Pelican State of Louisiana to connect with David Robinson-Morris as a hurricane came to shore.David founded The Reimagination and the Center for the Human Spirit and Radical Reimagining. (I just love this).He talks about America as a paradox, a promise not yet fulfilled, and why he believes the real work ahead is repairing our inability to see one another's humanity. When asked what he'd need to give up that he loves in order for us to unite, his answer was simple and hard: the idea that we are separate.His question for you and our next guest is: As you imagine America in its next 50 years, what kind of future would you create where everyone, not just some of us, can truly flourish?You can discover more about him here: https://www.reimaginelution.com/Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What does it take to simply be?That's the invitation at the heart of this week's microdose meditation, a short practice designed to help you drop into the present moment before the busyness of the week pulls you in a hundred directions.Michael guides you through a simple, grounding practice from the Pause, Breathe, Reflect app. It's not about doing anything more. It's about giving yourself permission to just be, to notice the breath, a sensation in the body, or a sound in the distance, and to rest your attention there the way a puppy rests its chin on your thigh, quietly seeking connection.And when your mind wanders off, as minds do, you're invited to come back without judgment, because that's simply what it means to be human.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What are you willing to give up in order for us to unite?That's the question Jerry Colonna leaves us with in this conversation for A Perfectly Imperfect Union.Jerry is an executive coach of 25 years, former investor, author of Reboot and Reunion, and a previous guest on The Kintsugi Podcast. Today he calls Centennial State Home.Jerry believes disunion has a beneficiary. Someone always gains when the rest of us turn on each other, and naming that is the first step toward healing.He traces his own family's story, immigrant ancestors who came to America out of poverty and survival, sons who served in World War II, a grandfather who registered for the draft before he was even a citizen, and uses it to make the case that America has always been a process of transformation, not a finished thing.You can connect with Jerry via his website: https://www.reboot.io/Share your thoughts on Jerry's question and share this episode with someone you love.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What does it really mean to be wealthy?The answer showed up at his dad's 90th birthday party, complete with a theme borrowed from his father's signature line to every doctor who asks how he's doing: "Did you bring the coffee and donuts?"Michael's dad spent his career in the moving industry, and at the party, his former coworkers spoke about how he always showed up. He wasn't rich by the usual measure, Michael says, but he was wealthy in the way that matters most.Here's Michael's blog post about his Dad's birthday. You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, we travel to The Palmetto State and sit down with Emma Ambrose.Emma grew up in Sag Harbor, New York, and now calls Charleston home, though she joined this conversation from the Bahamas mid-move into her first apartment.Emma built a social media career from scratch, selling over $700,000 in her first eight months on TikTok Shop, and she's now launching her own jewelry line, Popped by Ambrose, while also pursuing a real estate license.Her take on America centers on freedom and permission, the encouragement to chase what you want even if it means reinventing yourself, something she watched her own father do when he left a Wall Street career to become a chef.You can follow her on TikTok @emmambroseeAnd her question for you and our next guest is:What's a moment in your life you wanted to change, not for anybody else, but for yourself?Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------After three years apart, Ted Lasso is back for Season 4, sliding into our DMs like an old college flame asking to grab "just one beer."But can you truly rekindle that pandemic-era magic without ruining your favorite memories?Michael breaks down the awkward initial reconnect, the lingering nostalgia, and whether that folksy Lasso charm still holds up in a brand-new era.This week, Michael dives into the highlights, emotional beats, and subtle commentaries hidden within Episodes 1 and 2:Ted isn't returning to coach the FC Richmond men's side. Rebecca has a completely new challenge in store: the Lady Greyhounds.A detour to the Negro Baseball Hall of Fame delivers a memorable reminder from Satchel Paige: “No man is born uncommon.” Being uncommon isn't about trophies or social media followers—it's about showing up daily with dignity, empathy, and excellence.Finding the Spark: Episode 2 brings back that classic 2022 warmth while introducing Assistant Coach Alice Chilton.The Coaching Gap: Beneath the humor, the show shines a light on a stark reality: only 22% of women’s sports teams are coached by women, and zero women hold head coaching roles in men’s major professional sports.Ted Lasso has always been more than a comedy; it's a playbook for human connection.Real inclusion isn't about falling back on comfortable defaults. It’s about representation, allyship, and creating spaces where people feel they belong.Just like repairing broken pottery with gold, our experiences and our scars make us stronger.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What does it take to actually hear each other again?In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, I travel to the Last Frontier State to speak with Laura Norton-Cruz. She's a licensed social worker, documentary filmmaker, and policy advocate based in Anchorage. Laura believes the deepest fracture in this country right now is informational. We're all working from different sets of facts, fed by algorithms and shrinking newsrooms, and she thinks the way through is simple to name and hard to do: get more stories from people with the least power in front of more people. Survivors, immigrants, disabled folks, foster kids, home health aides, the people whose lives rarely make the front page. Amen! She holds two things at once: the fear that comes with raising brown, bilingual kids in this political climate, and a genuine belief that common ground is still findable, one relationship at a time.To connect with Laura, please visit her website: https://www.lauranortoncruzconsulting.com/And her question for you and our next guest is: How are you helping advance the wellbeing of pregnant people and young children so we have a healthier future? Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In this week's microdose meditation from the Pause, Breathe, Reflect app, Michael guides you through his own morning ritual, a practice he returns to each day to greet the day with clarity and purpose.Starting with a few generous, expansive breaths, you're invited to check in with your body, release any tension held in the shoulders, forehead, or jaw, and arrive fully in the present moment.From there, Michael leads you into the heart of the practice: setting an intention for the day, the half day, or even just the next hour and visualizing yourself showing up exactly as you wish to be.It's a simple, judgment-free practice you can do in bed, seated, standing, or on the go, designed to help you put a little more of the ripple you want to see out into the world.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------Have you ever had one of those days where absolutely nothing goes right, right down to a door that won't open the way you expect it to?That was Michael earlier this week. Not a bad day, not compared to July 11, 2001, but a day. Errands piling up, arms full of packages, and a post office door that stubbornly pulled open instead of pushing. Just as his frustration peaked, a stranger stepped in with four simple words: "Hey, let me get that for you." That small moment sparked tip number 32 in Michael's 25 Lessons in 25 Years series, celebrating the 25th anniversary of his last bad day.It sounds almost too small to count as a tip. Hold the door open for someone? But Michael digs into the psychology behind it, what researchers call the shared effort model, and shows why this tiny, split-second exchange between strangers does real work. It signals to another person that they're seen, that someone has enough time and generosity to slow down for them, even for a second or two.In a world that can feel lonely and divided, Michael makes the case that these small, subconscious social pacts matter more than we realize. They won't solve your biggest problems, but they can pull you out of the story that tells you you're on your own.Discover how to scroll less and live more by taking my Free Smartphone Wellness Audit by clicking phone.Did you know that stickers are wonderful visual cues to help you create healthy habits? You can get one of my free Pause Breathe Reflect sticker by clicking sticker.To discover more and sign up for My RIPPLE EFFECT newsletter by clicking Ripple Effect.We can also connect on LinkedIn. or at [email protected] to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am. If you feel you need more mental health support, please contact NAMI. With Whole Again: A Fresh Approach to Healing, Growth & Resilience after Physical Trauma through Kintsugi Mindfulness listeners explore resilience through personal stories of trauma, scars, and injury while learning to overcome PTSD, imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and perfectionism with self-compassion, self-love, and self-worth. Through insightful discussions on stress management, mindfulness practices, and digital wellness, the show offers practical tools like breathwork, micro-dose meditation, grounding techniques, visualization, and daily affirmations for anxiety relief and stress relief. Inspired by the art of kintsugi, the podcast embraces healing as a process of transformation, encouraging a shift in perspective from worry and being overwhelmed to gratitude and personal growth. By exploring the mind-body connection, micro-dosing strategies for emotional well-being, and holistic approaches to self-care, this podcast empowers listeners to cultivate emotional resilience and live with greater balance and intention.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, we travel to Ohio and speak with fellow James Madison University grad, Howard Miller. What does it really mean to have a choice, and to be accountable for it?That's the throughline for Howard Miller, a City of Cincinnati sustainability official and geologist by training, in this episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union.Howard's Cincinnati is a city of crossroads, geographically and culturally, and he sees that same tension play out nationally: incredible freedom of choice, paired with a growing unwillingness to own the consequences. He traces his own shift in perspective back to leaving private consulting for public service, where he found a level of connection to his community he hadn't felt before. It also shows up again in his years coaching youth lacrosse, where the real lesson was never about the sport. Howard's question for you and our next guest is: What is your vision of America in 2050? Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.Go Dukes! Discover more about Howard on LinkedInYou can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What if the secret to healing has been hiding inside a 3,000-year-old poem the whole time?That's the question Michael found himself sitting with as he prepared for Christopher Nolan's new film adaptation of Homer's Odyssey. Everyone is talking about the movie, but almost no one is talking about the one theme in the poem that might matter most right now, a concept the ancient Greeks called xenia.In this episode of Whole Again, Michael shares what he discovered while restudying The Odyssey ahead of seeing Nolan's film. Xenia was the ancient code of guest friendship, a kind of radical hospitality where strangers were welcomed into your home before you even asked their name.The belief was that any traveler could be a god in disguise, so how you treated a stranger revealed who you really were. Compare that to today, where so much of our social life feels guarded, transactional, and quick to judge before we even get to know someone.Michael draws the bridge from xenia to the contemplative practice of dana, or generosity of spirit, and to Rumi's poem The Guest House, which teaches us to welcome every emotion we feel, even the difficult ones, as a teacher rather than an intruder.The idea is simple but not easy. When we practice hospitality internally, welcoming our own feelings without judgment, we get better at offering that same welcome to the people around us.You will discover:The ancient Greek concept of xenia and why it mattered so much to Homer's worldHow radical hospitality differs from the guarded, transactional way we often treat strangers todayThe mindfulness practice of dana, or generosity of spirit, and its connection to presenceWhat Rumi's poem The Guest House teaches us about welcoming our emotions instead of resisting themA simple question to carry with you about where you could practice more xenia in your own lifeYou can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, we travel to Oklahoma and sit down with Jessica-Rose Johnson.She's the host of the Unbreakable Hope podcast and a recent widow, after caring for her husband Andrew through six years and a second brain cancer diagnosis.Jessica Rose talks about a family lineage of service that traces back to the Revolutionary War, and how Oklahoma's history of hardship, from the Dust Bowl to the Oklahoma City bombing, taught her community to rebuild without asking whose side anyone is on.But the heart of the conversation is what she and Andrew built before hardship arrived. They had the hard conversations early, so when he became non-verbal for the last three years of his life, they'd already built a way to keep communicating without words.Her wish for America isn't a thing: it's a way of being remembered. Not for what we built, but for how we loved each other.I hope you enjoy our conversation and share it with one of your fellow neighbors.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What if the fastest way to shift your mood wasn't found in a lengthy meditation, but in a single breath pattern you can do anywhere?Stanford researchers recently compared several breathwork techniques and found that cyclic sighing outperformed the rest at elevating mood, and in this week's microdose meditation from the Pause, Breathe, Reflect app, Michael walks you through exactly how to practice it.You'll settle into a comfortable position, ground yourself with three slow breaths, then learn the simple pattern behind cyclic sighing: two inhales through the nose, one long exhale through the mouth.It's a practice you can return to whenever today's uncertainty asks a little too much of you, and a reminder that sometimes the most grounding thing we can do is simply breathe.You will discover:The Stanford research behind cyclic sighing and why it's uniquely effective for moodHow to practice the double inhale, slow exhale breathing pattern step by stepA short, guided version you can use anytime you need to resetWhere to find hundreds more practices like this one, completely freeYou can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What are you doing to steward the gift you've been given?In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, we travel to Connecticut and sit down with Veronica Sommers.Veronica believes trust in this country has been broken, not by politics, but by a lost moral foundation.She traces it back to COVID, when friendships she thought were unshakeable fell apart over vaccine status and voting choices. Her answer wasn't to retreat. She gave up her income, her apartment, and nearly everything she owned to pursue a calling around protecting children and restoring what she calls moral clarity in the digital age.If you've ever wondered what it looks like to bet everything on your convictions, this conversation will stay with you. Veronica doesn't hold back, including a hard truth about what's for sale on Amazon that will make you think twice about your next order.Veronica has a question for you and our next guest is:What are you personally doing to steward what you've been given? Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with one of your neighbors.You can connect with Veronica on LinkedIn and learn about her mission of Sacred Leadership.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What if the story you've been told about recovery is wrong?You know the one.The one that suggests that progress is a straight line, up and to the right, like a slide in someone's PowerPoint deck.We are up to tip #31 in Michael's year-long series of tips to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of his Last Bad Day.One year ago, on a normal bike ride, he was clotheslined by a low-hanging, unmarked utility cable. He broke his femur in five places. And in the twelve months since, his recovery hasn't moved up and to the right at all. Some weeks brought real progress. Others brought frustration and what felt like steps backward.That gap between the story we've been sold, mostly by social media highlight reels, and the messy reality of healing is the focus of this episode.Michael introduces the R in his GRACE framework: reflecting and reframing. Instead of measuring how far you moved today, he invites you to ask a simpler, truer question. Did you stay in the process?Whether you're recovering physically, emotionally, or professionally, or chasing a big goal that isn't cooperating with your timeline, this episode offers a different way to measure whether you're actually growing.You will discover:Why recovery and growth are bumpy, not linear, and why that's normalThe GRACE framework and how the reframe step changes everythingA simple weekly question to replace tracking progress with trusting the processWhy extending yourself grace leads to a more connected life, and worldPress play to hear Michael's honest reflection on a year of recovery he didn't expect, and the mindset shift that's helping him trust the process instead of grading each day.And once you're done, don't miss tomorrow's episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, Michael's series of conversations with everyday Americans as the country turns 250.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In our latest episode, we travel to Michigan and sit down with Larry Walsh. He's an Army veteran, cyclist, author, husband, father, and someone who splits his time between Northern Michigan and Williamsburg, Virginia.Larry pushes back on the narrative that America is hopelessly divided. He's ridden across the country twice, once as a tour and once as a race, and what he found wasn't division. It was small towns, five-minute conversations, and people who are, in his words, 99.9% good.He also opens up about what he thinks we're missing as a country: humility and curiosity, the willingness to say "I don't know" instead of pretending to have all the answers.And his question for you and our next guest:What is your next adventure? To discover more about Larry and check out his books, click or head to https://larry-walsh.com/books/.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------One year ago, Michael was lying on the asphalt waiting for EMS, clotheslined by an unmarked utility cable that broke his femur in five places. In this episode, he opens up about the anniversary of that accident and what actually helps us get through the hardest moments, not the highlight reel version, but the quiet work that happens after everyone stops watching. Michael shares why building a strong personal foundation before the bumpy moments arrive is the key to weathering them when they do, and how two often overlooked qualities, hope and grace, carried him through his recovery. He also reflects on the difference between the outpouring of support that shows up right after a crisis and the deeper, quieter support we need long after the algorithm moves on. This is an honest look at resilience in real time, not as a finished story, but as a work still in progress.You will discover:Why building your personal foundation now, before a crisis hits, makes all the difference when one doesThe cornerstones of a strong foundation, including your values, your peloton, and your inner conversationThe distinction between hope and grace, and why both are essential to recoveryWhy the real work of healing begins after people stop watching, not while they're watchingPress play to hear Michael's honest reflections on foundation, patience, and what it really means to become whole again.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In this episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, we travel to Texas and visit with Taylor Lopez.She's a Texas native who spends her days helping brands grow responsibly and her nights writing about mental health, especially in women.Taylor opens up about breaking her life apart in 2019 and rebuilding it into something more beautiful than she could have imagined. She first learned about Kintsugi from an art therapist during a stay at a behavioral hospital, and it became a cornerstone of her healing.To Taylor, America isn't a place. It's a feeling. Promise, optimism, and the belief that reinvention is always possible.She also shares how she and her husband turned their home into a safe haven for their kids and any child who needs one, no questions asked. It's a small, local ripple effect she believes can spread outward.To connect with Taylor, use this LinkedIn link.Taylor has a question for you and our next guest is:Do you think people have enough awareness of the different types of therapy available, or does "therapy" get boiled down to just one thing in most of our minds?Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with one of your neighbors.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------After the peanut shop owner finished bagging his dad's cashews, she would ask a simple question. And something else? Michael thought it was brilliant.The whole store suddenly felt full of possibilities. He carried that question into his corporate career, pulling it out anytime he or his team got stuck on the first idea that came to mind.In this Microdose Monday practice from the Pause, Breathe, Reflect app, Michael guides you through the same question so you can see that you likely have more options than you first realized.You will settle into your body, bring to mind something you are working on personally or professionally, and gently keep asking "and something else" until new possibilities rise to the surface.There is no judging what comes up, just an open curiosity designed to help you get unstuck and move forward.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, we stay in Maryland and have our second conversation. Today it's with Ashley Houghton.I love her question and how it frames her thinking of America: What if we stopped electing boxers and started electing legislators?Ashley talks about America the way you'd talk about a beloved, frustrating family member, someone you love deeply even when they disappoint you.She traces her path from national security and civil liberties work to her work today on democracy reform, and lays out her belief that structural fixes like proportional representation and ranked-choice voting could change who we elect and why.To discover more about Ashley, visit her at FairVote.orgAnd her question for you and our next guest is: What are some tangible small things you're doing right now to build community and resilience where you live?Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with one of your neighbors.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In this episode, Michael shares Growth Mindset Tip #30 as he celebrates 25 years since his Last Bad Day.This one comes straight from life with his dog-loving wife: the idea that our energy travels down the leash. Just as our pets can sense when we're joyful or anxious, the people around us pick up on our energy, whether it's at a concert, in a stadium, or as we walk into a room.Michael revisits the acronym GRACE he created during his hospital recovery and reminds us that, no matter what we're going through, we always have a choice about the energy we bring into any space. And that doesn't mean bypassing hard emotions. Sometimes the most honest thing we can do is feel them fully, maybe with a good snuggle from a fur baby along the way.You will discover:Why your energy travels down the leash, and how your pets (and people) can sense itThe GRACE framework Michael created in the hospital: Gratitude, Reframing, Awareness/Acceptance/Action, Community, and EnergyWhy choosing your energy doesn't mean suppressing your real emotionsA simple reminder that you're always at choice, even in hard momentsPress play and share this episode with one of your neighbors.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, we travel to Maryland and sit down with Heather Wagner.She runs a nonprofit in DC, works in the anti-human trafficking space, and identifies openly as an autistic ADHD leader raising two neurodivergent kids. She's also been a minister, an executive coach, and a "rail fan mom" chasing trains with her son across Maryland.Heather shares that her views of America have shifted across different seasons of her life, from the girl who grew up near Seneca Falls believing she could change the world, to someone who now sees the country's story as a bit of a tragedy, one she still holds hope for.She shares a vivid image from a trip to Italy, sitting near the Colosseum and realizing America is like a petulant teenager, sure it has all the answers but still nowhere near fully grown.Her prescription for healing isn't complicated. Stop looking for difference. Start anchoring into what we all actually share: grief, love, fear, the wish to be seen and valued.To discover more about Heather, please use this link to connect on LinkedIn.And Heather's question for you and our next guest is: If you could sit down and have coffee with one person, past, present, or future, who would it be?Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with one of your neighbors.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In this episode of Whole Again, Michael shares a story from a recent corporate off-site where a team had been running on empty for six months. So they paused and did the thing most of us never do: took a deep breath.It turns out we take somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 breaths a day, and we're rarely present for a single one. That's the tension at the heart of this episode: we're moving through our days on autopilot, and our energy is leaking out into every space we enter without us even noticing.The anchor here is a sign Michael found at an Indiana University Health Center years ago, asking people to take responsibility for the energy they bring into a space before they enter it. It's a simple idea with a big ripple effect: when we're reactive, our words and behaviors can cause real harm. When we're intentional, they can do real good.This episode also builds on yesterday's A Perfectly Imperfect Union conversation with Robina from Maui, who left listeners with a question of her own: Are you breathing deeply?Before you go, try this: take one deep breath before your next meeting, conversation, or doorway you walk through today.Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with one of your neighbors.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In this episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, we travel to Hawaii and visit with Robena.We talk about aloha as currency, life on an isolated island where everyone has to take care of each other, and why she believes America is, at its core, an aspirational line of thinking.She traces her family's roots back to 1600s Virginia and a long westward pull that eventually landed her in Hawaii.Her prescription for healing the country is simple and hard at the same time: more empathy, more patience, and more deep breathing to calm a nervous system stuck in fear.And her question for you and our next guest is: Are you breathing deeply?Visit Robena's Galley via this link. Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with one of your neighbors.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In this Microdose Monday practice from the Pause, Breathe, Reflect app, Michael shares the Ho'oponopono prayer, a healing meditation that originated in Hawaii and carries a simple but profound message: I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you.Michael first learned to repeat this mantra while cycling up Mount Haleakala in Maui, and he brings that same spirit of forgiveness and connection into this guided practice.Rooted in the belief that we are all one and that changing the world begins with changing ourselves, this meditation invites you to place your hands on your heart, breathe into it, and let your higher self offer you the compassion you may be withholding from yourself.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What does it look like when honesty becomes the foundation for healing?In our next episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, we travel to the great state of Mississippi and sit down with Jessica Starks, entrepreneur, writer, storyteller, and community builder.I love how Jessica pushes back on Mississippi's reputation, pointing to a state full of hospitality and accomplished, well-read people that outsiders rarely see.As a creative, she's candid about AI too, calling it a "frenemy" that can help the process but can never replace the human soul behind real art. And through her genealogy work, she's uncovered a family story that includes both the weight of slavery and the surprise of being welcomed by white relatives she once feared would turn away.You can discover more about her via this link.And Jessica's question for you and our next guest is: If you could build a museum on anything you chose, what would it be about?Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------Once you're gone, will anyone remember your Strava feed?We are up to Growth Mindset Tip #29, as I celebrate 25 years since my Last Bad Day.Fitness apps like Strava can be genuinely useful. They track progress, map new routes, and connect you with other athletes. But Michael digs into the flip side.These same platforms can quietly pull us into comparison, ego, and shoulding all over ourselves, chasing a version of fitness that has nothing to do with the life we actually want to build. He's honest that his own posts still matter to him, but his happiness can't be tied to them.Because at the end of it all, no one will remember your mile splits. They'll remember how you made them feel.If you've ever caught yourself comparing your pace, your body, or your progress to someone else's feed, this one's for you.Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with an athlete you love.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, I sit down with Nelson Wang, a huge NY Knicks fan, at a Capital One Cafe in New York City.Nelson believes America's real strength is the willingness to be stronger for our differences instead of weaker because of them, and he's watched that play out on the streets of New York every day.The story that anchors it all is his father's, a man who fled Shanghai for Hong Kong ahead of the Cultural Revolution and eventually built a new life in America, a life Nelson was the first in his family to be born into here.You can discover more about Nelson via this link.And Nelson's question for you and our next guest, Jessica, is:What subject do you wish documentarian Ken Burns would tackle next?Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------Do you need someone's permission to change?That's the question a leader Michael coaches recently put to him: before his accident, was he ever given permission to become someone new?It's a question most of us are quietly asking ourselves too, even if we've never said it out loud. In this episode, Michael unpacks why we don't need anyone's permission to shift, evolve, or outgrow the groove we've settled into, and why staying stuck there creates a quiet, constant tension.He calls out the corporations that profit from our self-doubt, the ones selling us a fix for a story we were never meant to believe in the first place. He also revisits the rocks in our backpack, the DO HAVE BE trap so many of us live inside without realizing it, and why finding the right peloton matters more than finding permission.You will discover:Why change never actually requires anyone else's approval, including your own past self'sHow to recognize when you're stuck in a groove that no longer fits who you're becomingThe DO HAVE BE trap and how corporate culture profits from keeping us in itA simple set of questions to ask yourself about what still fits and what you've outgrownWhy surrounding yourself with the right peloton matters more than waiting for permission.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------What is something you wish almost everyone truly understood?That's the question Shannon Ross asks in this episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union: Reflecting on America 250.Shannon is the founder of The Community, a criminal justice reform organization based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, doing work with advocates, impacted individuals, and crime survivors alike.Shannon spent 17 years in prison, from age 19 to 36. For Shannon, the real fracture in this country isn't politics. It's narrative. It's how we tell our stories, and how quickly we let those stories calcify into ideology before we've paused long enough to actually think them through.He also shared something essential: we like to believe we live our lives off truth and facts, when really we live off stories. You don't realize you're living inside one until you tell yourself a different story and your life changes.Here's Shannon's question for you and our next guest:What is something you have heard in your time that you wish almost everyone you meet understood well?Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with a fellow neighbor or friend.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.-------That's the invitation behind this week's Microdose Monday meditation from Michael's app, Pause, Breathe, Reflect. In a season where uncertainty seems to be everywhere, Michael offers a gentle reminder that joy and worry can coexist. You don't have to wait for the hard things to pass before you're allowed to feel good again.This short practice walks you through settling into stillness, softening the extra weight we carry (the rocks in our backpack, as Michael likes to call them), and opening space for two simple doorways into joy: gratitude and mudita, the appreciative joy we feel when someone else is thriving. It's a practice designed to meet you exactly where you are, even on your heaviest days.You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.