Podcasts about emotionally

Why are we wired to want what's bad for us? Emotionally unavailable? I'm intrigued. Criminal record? I'm listening. Still lives with his ex? Send me his instagram. This week Tray & J are talking about the red flags that somehow make people MORE attractive, why we're drawn to them, and what the psychology says about our questionable choices.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Send us a messageEpisode 232: How to Help Your Adult Child Feel Heard and Emotionally Safe: Helpful Therapy Words, part 2Your adult child may be telling you they don't feel heard, understood, or emotionally safe with you. And if you're a parent who genuinely loves your child and wants a close relationship, those words can be painful and confusing.You may be thinking, I am listening. I do care. Why doesn't my child see that?In Part 2 of Therapy Words That Can Actually Help, we're talking about three relationship skills that can change the way difficult conversations with your adult child feel: curiosity, attunement, and emotional safety.These words are not about agreeing with everything your adult child says or taking responsibility for every feeling they have. They are about learning how to understand your child's experience before trying to explain, correct, defend, or solve it.When an adult child feels misunderstood, criticized, dismissed, or pressured, they may begin sharing less. Over time, difficult conversations can become something both parent and adult child avoid. Curiosity, attunement, and emotional safety give you a different way to approach those moments and can help create the conditions for more honest communication and stronger connection.In this episode, you'll learn:How curiosity can improve communication with your adult child by replacing defensiveness, assumptions, and problem-solving with a genuine desire to understand what they are experiencing.What attunement means in a parent-adult child relationship and why listening to the emotion underneath your child's words can sometimes matter more than finding the perfect response.What emotional safety actually looks like between a parent and an adult child, especially when you disagree about choices, beliefs, relationships, or painful events from the past.Why making your adult child feel heard does not require you to agree with them, accept their interpretation as the only truth, or abandon your own perspective.How to have difficult conversations with your adult child without immediately defending yourself, explaining your intentions, or trying to fix the problem, so there is more room for understanding and connection.In Part 1 of this series, we talked about differentiation and acceptance: staying grounded in yourself while accepting what is actually happening in the relationship. Those skills create the foundation for what comes next. Curiosity, attunement, and emotional safety are about what happens when you turn toward your adult child and try to understand their experience.You do not have to say everything perfectly for your adult child to feel more comfortable talking with you. Often, the biggest shift begins when they sense that you are trying to understand them instead of preparing to defend yourself.And that can change the entire direction of a conversation.In Part 3, we'll take the next step and talk about repair and accountability, especially when there has already been hurt or conflict in the parent-adult child relationship.If you know another parent who is struggling in their relationship with an adult child, share this episode with them. They may need to hear it too.Click Here to download the free guide: 5 Steps to Take Before Trying to Repair the Relationship with Your Adult Child Tina Gosney is the Family Conflict Coach. She works with parents who have families in conflict to help them become the grounded, confident leaders their family needs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------If you want support putting what you're learning into practice, come join The Connection Community in Bridge to Connection. This is the perfect spot where you can learn, connect and get targeted help to start moving your relationship with your adult child in a different direction. Set up a Connection Clarity Call with Tina to see if this is a good fit for you: CLICK HERE TO SET UP A CALL---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tina is certified in family relationships and a trauma informed coach.  Visit tinagosney.com for more information on coaching services.

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen talk all about emotionally immature parents and in-laws, the boundaries that can get blurry in family relationships, and how to protect your peace without losing yourself. They explore why understanding emotional immaturity and childhood emotional neglect can be so validating, especially when family members see the relationship very differently than you do.They answer listener questions about setting boundaries with in-laws, navigating a partner's relationship with their parents, witnessing unhealthy family dynamics, and breaking patterns when both partners grew up with emotionally immature parents. Along the way, they get into lowering expectations, sharing less, and figuring out what parts of yourself feel safe to bring into difficult family relationships.Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! PS: Fast forward to around 5:45 to skip the intro and get straight to today's content.⁠Get Matched With One of Our Therapists⁠ at The Therapy Group!⁠ShrinkChicks on Instagram⁠Our ⁠Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal⁠!!Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! ⁠https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg⁠A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners:Skims: Shop SKIMS Cotton, and all of our favorite pieces, at SKIMS.com. After you place your order, be sure to let them know we sent you! Select "podcast" in the survey and be sure to select our show in the dropdown menu that followsOneSkin: Get 15% off OneSkin with the code SHRINKCHICKS at https://www.oneskin.co/SHRINKCHICKS #oneskinpNine to Kind: Go to ninetokind.com and use code SHRINKCHICKS for 20% off your orderZenni: Go to Zenni.com/podcast and use code PODCAST15 for 15% off your first orderTumble: For a limited time only, our listeners get 10% off + free shipping at tumbleliving.com/SHRINKCHICKSQuince: Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠quince.com/shrinkchicks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for free shipping on your order and 365-day returnsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There's a subtle moment in dating when everything can start to change. At first, you're paying attention to them. Do I like this person? Do I feel good around them? Are they kind? Interesting? Emotionally available? Do I want to see them again? Then you start to really like them, and suddenly the focus flips. Do they like me? Now you're checking your phone. Analyzing texts. Wondering why they took three hours to respond. Replaying the date and looking for clues. And without even realizing it, you've stopped deciding whether you want them and started trying to figure out how to make sure they want you. That shift matters. Because once being chosen becomes the goal, it's incredibly easy to abandon your own experience. You can overlook how anxious you feel around someone, make excuses for behavior you don't actually like, or become so focused on whether you're enough for them that you forget to ask whether they're enough for you. And this doesn't only happen while we're dating. It's one of the reasons rejection and breakups can hurt so much. Sometimes we're grieving the person. But sometimes we're also grieving the fact that they didn't choose us, and those are two very different wounds. In this Language of Love Bite, I'm talking about why we can become so consumed with being wanted, what attachment and old relationship wounds have to do with it, and the question I often ask people after a breakup that can completely change the way they see what they've lost. Because yes, you deserve to be chosen. But you're doing some choosing, too. In this episode, you'll learn: How to recognize when you've shifted from getting to know someone to auditioning for their approval Why uncertainty can make you obsess over texts, conversations, and tiny changes in someone's behavior The difference between actually wanting someone and wanting the validation of being wanted by them Why rejection can hurt even when the relationship itself wasn't right for you The question I ask after a breakup that can change the story you're telling yourself How to notice what your own experience is telling you about a relationship How to date without abandoning yourself in the process Whether you have experienced dating anxiety yourself or love someone who has, this episode will help you understand what is really happening beneath the surface and offer practical, compassionate tools to move forward with confidence. If this hits home, follow The Language of Love wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. If someone came to mind while you were listening, make sure to share this episode with them. You can also email me at languageoflovepod@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at languageoflovepod.com to have your own question answered in a future session. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sometimes the feelings we cannot explain directly become easier to recognize when we meet them inside someone else's story. In this episode of Healthy Mind, Healthy Life, host Swati sits down with Nigerian American author and physician Nneka Oluoha to explore how fiction can create a safer reflective space for conversations around mental health, emotional struggle, family relationships and healing. Nneka shares how her upcoming novel, Live for Me, Nkem, explores depression, motherhood, marriage, cultural expectations and the struggles people can carry quietly behind closed doors. Rather than announcing everything a character is experiencing, she uses story, behavior and perspective to allow readers to gradually understand what is happening. The conversation explores why people sometimes remain silent when they are struggling, what happens when we recognize ourselves in fictional characters, and how stories can give us language for emotions we have never been able to describe. Nneka also speaks candidly about the emotional weight of writing difficult material. While writing from the perspectives of children affected by a parent's mental health struggles, she found some sections especially difficult. Her response was not to force the work, but to pace herself, walk, spend time in nature, lean on supportive relationships and sometimes put the manuscript away until she could return with greater clarity. Importantly, Nneka emphasizes that fiction is not a clinical textbook or a substitute for professional mental health support. Characters make mistakes, hold false beliefs and take actions that should not automatically be treated as real-world guidance. About Nneka Oluoha: Nneka Oluoha is a Nigerian American writer and physician. She completed medical school in Nigeria before moving to the United States, where she completed an internal medicine residency and now works as a hospitalist. Her writing is influenced by her Igbo heritage and an interest in family dynamics, identity, cultural expectations and the silent battles people carry. Her novel Live for Me, Nkem explores depression, marriage, motherhood, family expectations and hidden emotional struggles, and is scheduled for publication by Koehler Books on September 9, 2026. Key Takeaways: Fiction can create emotional distance that makes difficult experiences easier to explore. Recognizing yourself in a character can give language to feelings you have struggled to name. Human beings are complicated, and powerful characters rarely fit neatly into "good" or "bad." Silence may come from pain, fear, unreadiness or not feeling safe enough to revisit an experience. Stories can encourage reflection without becoming instructions for how someone should manage their mental health. Emotionally demanding creative work sometimes requires rest rather than more pressure. Walking, nature, supportive relationships and intentional breaks helped Nneka reconnect with her writing. Stepping away is not always giving up. Sometimes distance is what allows clarity to return. Chapters: 03:03 Why stories can help us approach difficult emotions 04:49 The power of fiction in mental health conversations 06:28 Writing complex characters without reducing them to good or bad 08:10 What can sit underneath emotional silence 09:40 Writing what a character isn't ready to say 11:28 When readers recognize themselves in a character 13:21 Can fiction give us language for difficult feelings? 15:27 Fiction as reflection, not a replacement for care 17:20 How readers responded to Live for Me, Nkem 19:14 The emotional cost of writing heavy material 21:50 Why stepping away can help writers move forward 23:39 Where to find Nneka and her book Connect With Nneka: Nneka Oluoha's official website Nneka Oluoha on Goodreads Instagram as @nneka.oluoha. Her book is available for pre-order ahead of its September 9 release.   Want to be a guest on Healthy Mind, Healthy Life? DM on PM - Send me a message on PodMatch DM Me Here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/avik Disclaimer: This episode is produced for educational and informational purposes only. All views expressed by the guest are their personal opinions alone and do not represent the views of the host or Healthy Mind by Avik™. The Network does not verify, endorse, or assume responsibility for any guest statements. Nothing in this episode constitutes medical, legal, financial, or professional advice, please consult a qualified professional before making any decisions. Listeners are encouraged to engage critically and independently with all content do not consume blindly. Use this content as a starting point for your own reflection and research, not as a substitute for professional guidance. Third-party content is referenced under fair use for informational purposes only. Guest speakers are solely responsible for their own statements. If you have concerns about any content, please contact us here By listening, you acknowledge and accept this disclaimer in full. Read detailed disclaimer here. Healthy Mind By Avik™️is a global platform redefining mental health as a necessity, not a luxury. Born during the pandemic, it's become a sanctuary for healing, growth, and mindful living. Hosted by Avik Chakraborty, storyteller, survivor, and wellness advocate. With over 6500+ episodes and 200K+ global listeners, we unite voices, break stigma, and build a world where every story matters.

Modern ambition no longer feels like simple goal-setting. Today, success, identity, purpose, and self-worth often become deeply intertwined. In this episode, we explore how ambition evolved from survival and stability into self-expression, fulfillment, and self-actualization—and why that shift has created new emotional pressure beneath modern life. We also explore productivity culture, identity-driven success, existential pressure, and the hidden weight of trying to build a meaningful life in a world filled with endless possibility. Most importantly, this episode offers a more grounded way to relate to ambition without feeling constantly overwhelmed by it.

Send us Fan MailThe hardest truth in a relationship is usually the one nobody is willing to say out loud. In this episode, we unpack the taboo reality of growth orientation in intimate partnerships, why a partner who will not grow alongside you eventually becomes the ceiling on your own life, and why denial, delusion, and distancing are the three ways most people avoid seeing it.We get into the narrative that says you are never supposed to judge your partner, and why that belief is quietly costing people decades. Judgment is not the problem. Unfair, harsh, and maladaptive judgment is. From there we look at what a partnership is actually for, whether it exists to reinforce who you already are or to challenge the growth edges of who you are becoming, and then break down the three specific areas where a non growth oriented partner holds you back: emotionally, socially, and psychologically.Here's a related episode that builds on today's conversation: #483 | How to Hold Two Truths at the Same Time - https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/evolve-ventures/id1511831621?i=1000752414280Learn more about:

Have you ever walked away from a conversation thinking, Wait, what?!? How did that get turned around on me?

Rachel felt a distance she could never explain from day one. One explosive fight revealed the truth: her husband was struggling with an addiction to painkillers and had been hiding it from her since the day they married.  What followed were years of chaos, a husband who disappeared into his addiction, and four children she raised almost entirely alone. When she was two weeks postpartum, he left to go through withdrawal in a hotel. She cried herself to sleep every night. She felt like she was living with a zombie, surviving one day at a time with no direction and no hope left. Then she walked into a class and decided this narrative was hers to rewrite. Today Rachel wakes up next to her best friend. Her husband is sober and present both emotionally and physically. Every evening he draws her into their quiet ritual of tea and books. On their eighth anniversary, he said he felt like they were newlyweds, and the vulnerability and connection between them told her he meant every word. If emotional distance has been a quiet presence in your marriage, Rachel's story will give you something to hold onto. Hope. Download the FREE Adored Wife Roadmap now and start transforming your relationship today! Click here: https://lauradoyle.co/4xQTK0M

Episode #1179 What if the connection you're looking for in your marriage has very little to do with sex and everything to do with emotional safety? In this episode of The TPM Show, Doug Holt is joined by TPM Coach Scott Wolford to explore what it truly means to create deep connection with your partner. Drawing from Scott's personal transformation through The Powerful Man, the conversation challenges the common belief that intimacy begins in the bedroom. Instead, they reveal how emotional presence, vulnerability, and consistent leadership create the foundation for lasting intimacy. Scott shares how years of chasing physical connection left both him and his wife feeling disconnected, and how learning to lead with love, strength, and emotional openness completely transformed their marriage. Together, Doug and Scott discuss why women need emotional safety before physical intimacy, how small daily moments of connection build trust, and why becoming the man your wife can truly feel changes everything. Whether your relationship is struggling or you're looking to deepen an already healthy marriage, this episode offers practical insights into creating the kind of connection that lasts. Timestamp Chapters 00:00 What emotional connection really means 02:12 Scott's Alpha Reset transformation 10:22 Redefining intimacy in marriage 13:36 Why emotional safety changes everything 16:58 Leading with confidence and consistency 20:35 Turning conflict into connection 24:26 Creating a lasting family legacy 30:00 Why your wife reflects your energy 33:19 Breaking generational relationship patterns 37:24 Practical ways to deepen emotional intimacy If your marriage is struggling and you're looking for practical guidance to rebuild connection, download your free copy of A Man's Guide on How to Save Your Marriage Without Talking About It. The Powerful Man helps men become stronger husbands, fathers, and leaders through practical coaching, emotional resilience, and authentic masculine leadership.

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Ghosting hurts - no question. It feels like rejection, and your brain spirals: What did I do wrong? Why wasn't I enough? But here's the reframe that changes everything: ghosting isn't a sign you're losing. It's proof your standards are working.When you raise your standards, you naturally repel low-investment people. They see you won't settle, won't chase, won't bend - and they disappear. Good. That's the system working. Emotionally healthy men don't run from standards; they lean in. The wrong people exit fast. The right person will stay.If you want help protecting yourself through this process and building that ironclad mindset, head to loveapply.com and apply for a love strategy session. We'll show you exactly how to stop chasing and start choosing.NEXT STEP: Book a complimentary Love Strategy Session and let us help you attract love this year: https://go.lovestrategies.com/session

Do you ever find yourself talking, talking, talking…trying to explain your decision, your actions, your boundary? Hoping that if you talk enough, the other person will understand? Uh…me!!! And in this episode, I'll be talking about why so many of us women overexplain, how confidence is involved, how what happened in our childhood could be involved, how relationships with narcissists are involved, how it could be harming our relationships with our teens and young adults, and much more. Plus, I give you actual ways to stop. Ways that work! I had all those things going for me (the childhood trauma, narcissistic relationships, teens, confidence

Scott Rizzuto has apparently reached the stage of adulthood where there's a 75% chance that if you contact him between 4 and 5 p.m., he's peeling garlic. Not relaxing. Not enjoying a hobby. Peeling garlic. Meanwhile, Lern accidentally ordered enough garlic to make her house legally inaccessible to vampires, which sends the crew into garlic oil, home remedies and other advice nobody should blindly follow just because five people with microphones said it confidently.And somehow, that's one of the more normal conversations in this comedy podcast.King Scott's baby is getting CLOSE, which means it's time to dig up the official baby pool and see who predicted the date, time and weight correctly. Scott says he's about 60% ready, the go-bag exists somewhere, and the car seat installation is still hanging out on the to-do list. So basically, fatherhood is proceeding exactly according to plan.That turns into kid birthday party etiquette, whether “NO GIFTS” actually means no gifts, and the worst possible present you could give a five-year-old if your real goal is making sure the parents never invite you anywhere again. Drum set? Puppy? Gold bars? The Rizz Show remains committed to providing absolutely terrible parenting resources free of charge.Then school season arrives and brings back memories of first-day outfits, high school parking spaces, Scott spray-painting his initials onto school property like a criminal mastermind who also signed the evidence, college costs, and the crew trying to understand why Illinois keeps catching strays.But eventually we arrive at the question that could divide America:Can you drink a non-alcoholic beer at work?More specifically, what happens if your SURGEON walks into the room before your operation holding one?Technically, it's non-alcoholic. Emotionally? Your brain has already requested another doctor.The crew runs the experiment through surgeons, pilots, school bus drivers, air traffic controllers and other professions where “don't worry, it's an NA” probably isn't the comforting sentence you were hoping to hear. Then Rafe introduces an equally troubling alternative: your heart surgeon walking in with a Capri Sun and struggling to get the straw into the pouch.Choose your fighter.From there, today's comedy podcast tackles low-key addictions, Rafe's mint supply, bad-breath paranoia, online shopping, Amazon delivery drivers asking customers to stop ordering cases of bottled water, and whether water baking in a brutally hot delivery truck makes that expensive alkaline stuff slightly less impressive.Then we get into homeowner association insanity, because apparently owning your house doesn't necessarily mean you're allowed to sit wherever the hell you want on it. One homeowner gets accused of doing “porch-type activity” while sitting in his garage — yes, that's apparently a category now — while another woman deals with HOA fines over a dead bush by simply spray-painting the thing green.Problem solved. Botanists hate this one simple trick.It's another comedy podcast packed with daily humor, weird news, St. Louis stories, ridiculous arguments, parenting panic and the sort of pop culture commentary that starts with a reasonable question and ends with five adults debating whether they'd trust a surgeon holding a Capri Sun.So, another productive morning at The Rizzuto Show.Follow The Rizzuto Show → linktr.ee/rizzshow for more from your favorite daily comedy show.Connect with The Rizzuto Show Comedy Podcast online → 1057thepoint.com/RizzShow.Hear The Rizz Show daily on the radio at 105.7 The Point | Hubbard Radio in St. Louis, MO.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I sit down with the writer Pallavi Aiyar — at her own dining table in Beijing, where in recent months I've been the lucky beneficiary of her and her husband Julio's legendary hospitality. Pallavi first arrived in Beijing in 2002 to teach at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute and went on to spend the better part of a decade as The Hindu's China correspondent — for much of that time, the only Chinese-speaking Indian foreign correspondent in the country. That period produced Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China, still one of the very few sustained attempts to look at China through Indian eyes. After 16 years away — years spent in Brussels, Jakarta, Tokyo, and Madrid — she's back in Beijing, and turning her gaze inward with her latest book, Travels in the Other Place: Pursuing the Self in Eight Acts. She writes the wonderful Substack The Global Jigsaw, which I recommend without reservation.Our conversation is built around her recent essay for Noema Magazine, “The Real Problem Underlying India-China Tensions,” which argues that the deepest problem in the relationship isn't the border or the trade imbalance but the distorting lenses through which each side reads the other: China reads India through the lens of colonial subordination, while India reads China through the lens of betrayal. We talk about the ugly etymology of an ethnic slur, the partial historical memories each country mistakes for the whole picture, her serialized interviews with the Chinese India-watcher Mao Keji, the aporia-inducing impossibility of explaining either country to outsiders — and how her answer to the question she first posed in 2008, “Would I rather be born Indian or Chinese?”, has changed, painfully, in the years since.4:35 – Beijing, 2002: an ad in That's Beijing, gandhi@hotmail.com, and becoming The Hindu's correspondent10:03 – “Beijing and I grew up together”: the aughts as a shared coming-of-age12:16 – The asymmetry of obsession: why India watches China, but not the reverse16:39 – The unacknowledged third vertex: Western discursive power in the India-China relationship18:08 – Back after 16 years: the Liangma River, blue skies, and the panopticon21:35 – Walks in the park and the “buddy system”: what access looks like now25:43 – Where did all the foreigners go?29:59 – The scene at CCG: candor, offense, and the register of truth33:10 – “Asan”: the etymology of a slur, Sikh policemen, opium fortunes, and China's colonial lens40:10 – 1962 and India's betrayal lens42:15 – Aporia: the foolhardy task of explaining India or China47:22 – Shame and indignation: explaining a place you love versus a place you merely know52:29 – The big question, 2008: born Indian or Chinese?55:44 – The 2026 answer: “It hurts”1:00:08 – Kaiser pushes back: cherry-picked comparisons, and can this essay's very existence complicate its conclusions?1:04:43 – Twin nations of the exam1:06:57 – Cognitive empathy: what it would take for ordinary Indians and Chinese to actually see each otherPaying It ForwardYaqi Li, a young Chinese international relations scholar recently returned to China after a year in Singapore — Pallavi admires the rare self-reflectiveness of his memoir-inflected IR writing on his Substack, New China Literacy, and notes that he makes an interesting case for AI-assisted writing as a way for second- and third-language English speakers to find their voice.RecommendationsPallavi: Flashlight by Susan Choi — a novel spanning Japan, the U.S., and North Korea, built around the North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s. Also This Is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin — the first novel from her favorite Pakistani writer, a sprawling, Chekhovian portrait of feudalism and politics in modern Pakistan.Kaiser: Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner — beautiful at the sentence level, painted on a small canvas: two couples who meet as young academics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and their friendship across the decades. Emotionally rich despite the absence of grand drama.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

⭐️ Already married and struggling? Marriage Mending Workshop: https://muslimmarriageworkshop.com/ ♥️ Want to FAST TRACK Your Search with Help from Mindful Muslimah? (Get a FREE CALL):  https://mindful-muslimah.com/qualify-20-minute-call-ytad2026/ --------Ever felt so much anxiety about a guy that you convinced yourself it must be a sign, then later realized it wasn't a sign at all? In this episode, we're getting into three shifts that separate emotionally mature women from the ones who keep throwing away good matches without realizing why.We talk about:

Join this channel to get access to exclusive members only videos:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQTAVxA4dNBCoPdHhX9nnoQ/joinJoin Members Only On My Website. 7 day free trial. Save 25% when you choose an annual Membership plan. Cancel anytime:https://understandingrelationships.com/plansJoin Members Only on Spotify:https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/coachcoreywayne/subscribeHow to make women feel emotionally safe so they want & pursue you more.In this video coaching newsletter I discuss an email from a viewer who recently got divorced. He says for the first time in his life he's dating without chasing, over-texting or trying to lock women down too quickly. He's now dating 2 different women he met on hinge, but feels a little guilty because he's never dated multiple women at the same time. He shares how things are going well with both, but he's unsure which one to choose.If you have not read my book, “How To Be A 3% Man” yet, that would be a good starting place for you. It is available in Kindle, iBook, Paperback, Hardcover or Audio Book format. If you don't have a Kindle device, you can download a free eReader app from Amazon so you can read my book on any laptop, desktop, smartphone or tablet device. Kindle $9.99, iBook $9.99, Paperback $29.99 or Hardcover 49.99. Audio Book is Free $0.00 with an Audible membership trial or buy it for $19.95. Here is the link to Audible to get the audiobook version:https://www.audible.com/pd/B01EIA86VC/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-057626&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_057626_rh_usHere is the link to Amazon to purchase Kindle, Paperback or Hardcover version:http://amzn.to/1XKRtxdHere is the link to the iBookstore to purchase iBook version:https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to-be-3-man-winning-heart/id948035350?mt=11&uo=6&at=1l3vuUoHere is the link to the iTunes store to purchase the iTunes audio book version:https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/how-to-be-a-3-man-unabridged/id1106013146?at=1l3vuUo&mt=3You can get my second book, “Mastering Yourself, How To Align Your Life With Your True Calling & Reach Your Full Potential” which is also available in Kindle $9,99, iBook $9.99, Paperback $49.99, Hardcover $99.99 and Audio Book format $24.95. Audio Book is Free $0.00 with an Audible membership trial. Here is the link to Audible to get the audiobook version:https://www.audible.com/pd/B07B3LCDKK/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-109399&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_109399_rh_usHere is the link to Amazon to purchase Kindle, Paperback or Hardcover version:https://amzn.to/2TQV2XoHere is the link to the iBookstore to purchase iBook version:https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/mastering-yourself-how-to-align-your-life-your-true/id1353139487?mt=11&at=1l3vuUoHere is the link to the iTunes store to purchase the iTunes audio book version:https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/mastering-yourself-how-to-align-your-life-your-true/id1353594955?mt=3&at=1l3vuUoYou can get my third book, “Quotes, Ruminations & Contemplations” which is also available in Kindle $9,99, iBook $9.99, Paperback $49.99, Hardcover $99.99 and Audio Book format $24.95. Audio Book is Free $0.00 with an Audible membership trial. Here is the link to Audible to get the audiobook version:https://www.audible.com/pd/B0941XDDCJ/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-256995&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_256995_rh_usHere is the link to Amazon to purchase Kindle, Paperback or Hardcover version:https://amzn.to/33K8VwFHere is the link to the iBookstore to purchase iBook version:https://books.apple.com/us/book/quotes-ruminations-contemplations/id1563102111?itsct=books_box_link&itscg=30200&ct=books_quotes%2C_ruminations_%26_contemplatio&ls=1

Anthony replays Ken's earlier claim that he's "mentally and emotionally prepared" for a rough season and Watson getting booed, and calls out that Ken will never actually stay calm once games start going badly, using Chuck Noll's mental preparation as a contrast to true emotional detachment. They riff on Baker Mayfield's culture comments from earlier in the show, joking about commitment to winning versus shaving facial hair mid game, before taking calls. Tony from Lakewood says he just wants competent quarterback play regardless of who it is and predicts Shedeur starts by week two, while questioning why Talon Green hasn't been used at other offensive positions yet. Later callers push a "tank for a quarterback" theory, arguing the real goal this year is securing a top pick rather than wins, and Ryan from Wadsworth challenges the media narrative that Watson has looked sharper in camp, noting things like getting in and out of the huddle aren't measurable by fans and may just reflect his experience with the new install versus Sanders' unfamiliarity with a first year coaching staff.

The David Alliance TDAgiantSlayer@Gmail.com  Garth Heckman Joy Unshakeable    Acts 16 Paul and Silas   Read story and highlight: Military city,  MOB RULES:did not want to hear what they had to say… the crowd was blind with rage… they should not have been beaten until trial as Roman citizens.    *Joy starts with focus not feelings.   Happiness depends on what happens… so you have to do the work to make good things happen. *YOU BECOME A SLAVE TO PERFORMING, AND CIRCUMSTANCES.      Falsely accused (Emotionally abused), Beaten (Physically abused in public to humiliate)  Locked away from everyone in the deepest part of the dungeon… Most likely where the raw sewage flowed. (Socially abused) Chained (Mentally abused and in stocks) Archaeological evidence from sites like the gladiator barracks at Pompeii - torture racks.  **AND AT MIDNIGHT: Why Midnight Singing Is Even More Remarkable Than It First Appears   Put the whole picture together: Paul and Silas had been publicly stripped, beaten with rods by state lictors, thrown into the inner prison (the most secure, likely darkest and most miserable section), and their legs forced into a device specifically designed to maximize ongoing physical suffering. And at midnight — the point of deepest exhaustion and vulnerability — "they were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them" (v. 25).   THESE WERE NOT QUIET MURMURINGS - The Greek word for "singing hymns" here is hymneō — the same root behind our English "hymn" — meaning they weren't just murmuring quiet comfort to themselves; they were audibly, deliberately worshiping, loud enough that the entire prison population was listening.     **Look at all that is HAPPENING to them. Happiness is based on what Happens. It is called “happenstance”.     But Spiritually they still knew where they stood. They still experienced joy.    *Joy starts with focus not feelings.   Happiness depends on what happens… so you have to do the work to make good things happen. *YOU BECOME A SLAVE TO PERFORMING, AND CIRCUMSTANCES.    Vs. joy which focuses on the outcome not the current circumstances.     Joy is best served with friends. Go to an amusement park with no one??? Why?    Isolation kills joy     Your joy affects others   Are you the one who people love to see walk into a room?   The joy experienced by Paul and Silas freed the other prisoners.      Joy preceded their deliverance   They did not rejoice because they were free - they rejoiced and that is what freed them! 

“I'm home! Emotionally speaking.”   In this episode of Fictional Hangover, Amanda and Claire talk about puppet shows, unphased librarians, being the co-presidents of the Grotesque hill, how missing books are the true horror story, expecting the unexpected, and screaming FATHER! in their discussion of The Nefarious Nights of Willowweep Manor by Shaenon K. Garrity and Christopher Baldwin.

In this episode, Keana breaks down the difference between emotionally mature and emotionally immature partners and how to spot the signs early in dating. Building on last week's conversation about why we choose the wrong partners, this episode helps listeners understand what emotional maturity looks like, why emotional immaturity can feel attractive, and how to shift toward choosing emotionally safe partners.This week's featured song is “Out the Door” by Emory Rose, available now on Spotify. It's the perfect emotional companion to this episode's theme of walking away from partners who cannot meet you emotionally.

The David Alliance  TDAgiantSlayer@Gmail.com  Garth Heckman  *Joy starts with focus not feelings. Happiness depends on what happens… so you have to do the work to make good things happen. *YOU BECOME A SLAVE TO PERFORMING, AND CIRCUMSTANCES.      Falsely accused (Emotionally abused), Beaten (Physically abused in public to humiliate)  Locked away from everyone in the deepest part of the dungeon… Most likely where the raw sewage flowed. (Socially abused) Chained (Mentally abused and in stocks) Archaeological evidence from sites like the gladiator barracks at Pompeii - torture racks.  **AND AT MIDNIGHT: Why Midnight Singing Is Even More Remarkable Than It First Appears   Put the whole picture together: Paul and Silas had been publicly stripped, beaten with rods by state lictors, thrown into the inner prison (the most secure, likely darkest and most miserable section), and their legs forced into a device specifically designed to maximize ongoing physical suffering. And at midnight — the point of deepest exhaustion and vulnerability — "they were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them" (v. 25).   THESE WERE NOT QUIET MURMURINGS - The Greek word for "singing hymns" here is hymneō — the same root behind our English "hymn" — meaning they weren't just murmuring quiet comfort to themselves; they were audibly, deliberately worshiping, loud enough that the entire prison population was listening.     **Look at all that is HAPPENING to them. Happiness is based on what Happens. It is called “happenstance”.   But Spiritually they still knew where they stood. They still experienced joy.  *Joy starts with focus not feelings. Happiness depends on what happens… so you have to do the work to make good things happen. *YOU BECOME A SLAVE TO PERFORMING, AND CIRCUMSTANCES.  Vs. joy which focuses on the outcome not the current circumstances.   Joy is best served with friends. Go to an amusement park with no one??? Why?    Isolation kills joy

THE TRUTH ABOUT EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE — it's not what you think it is. Everybody says they want emotionally intelligent partners, bosses, friends, and parents. But what does that actually mean? It's not being calm all the time. It's not always being nice. It's not never getting angry. Emotionally intelligent people feel the exact same emotions everyone else does — jealousy, hurt, rejection, defensiveness. The difference is what they do AFTER the emotion shows up.In Episode 323 of Secret Life Podcast, Brianne Davis breaks down the fivebehaviors emotionally intelligent people consistently practice — and why eachone matters so much to your healing.In this episode:— Why they apologize before they're caught or confronted — and how real accountability sounds different from "I'm sorry you feel that way"— Why they create a pause instead of reacting — the tiny space between what you feel and what you do, where choice actually lives— Why they get curious instead of making assumptions — because 99% of the time, someone else's behavior isn't about you (and assumption feeds The Fantasy Loop™)— Why they set boundaries instead of seeking revenge — the difference between "I'll make you suffer" and "I'll protect myself"— Why they actually know what they're feeling — because you can't regulate an emotion you can't nameEmotional intelligence isn't about impressing others. It's about building arelationship with yourself where you can tolerate uncomfortable emotionswithout abandoning who you are. Healing doesn't mean you'll never be triggeredagain — it means your recovery time gets shorter.Resources at secretlifepodcast.comTake the Fantasy Loop Quiz: quiz.thefantasyloop.comShare your secret: secretlifepodcast@icloud.com

I interviewed Kate Voet & Victor Maes about A Long Goodbye on Saturday, August 30, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy. Here is the story synopsis for A Long Goodbye: "A Long Goodbye tells the story of Ida, a 72-year-old pianist living with dementia. In this animated, interactive VR experience, we walk in Ida's shoes. We experience a day in her life, as her reality is fading. The apartment, where she spent a lifetime with her beloved husband Daniel, first feels empty and undefined. When we interact with objects and play the tape recordings of her husband, her playful world gradually comes to life, as if drawn in paint before our eyes. Like pieces of a puzzle, memories and conversations help Ida to rediscover herself. But we also discover Daniel's struggles, as he hopes to stay connected and realises their remaining time together may be short. A Long Goodbye is a poetic experience about the impact of dementia, but above all it is about love and the long goodbye of two lovers who shared a life together." Here are the contextual domains that are explored: Self and Identity [1], and the loss [8] of memory [1]. All the ways that we capture and record our identity [1]. "Like pieces of a puzzle, memories and conversations help Ida to rediscover herself." Artifacts of shared experiences and memories shared within the spatial context of a home [4], Husband [7] caretaker [7] of the main character with Ida, "72-year-old pianist living with dementia." Music [5], wihch was a part of her career [10], and the various adventures they had together [9] Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity: 1st Center of Gravity of Emotional Presence: Narrative-driven, animation with lots of immersive & interactive components. The pacing is gated with interactive actions, and the movement of your body seamlessly blends into various things like change blindness edits. An incredible score with different themes for different characters, and the world starts to change and dissolve as the main protagonists memory also fades giving you a sense of time, and unfolding processes. Victor is also a cinematographer, and so there's lots of canny translations of cinematic grammar into an emerging spatial grammar. VERY EMOTIONALLY IMPACTFUL2nd Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: An incredibly transportative world with a very distinct water coloreque aesthetic. Lots of embodied movement through this piece. Also some mashing up of contexts between these worlds that is reminescent of Meow Wolf. There's quite a lot of void space to help direct attention, but also makes excellent use of available space. There's physical movements paired with virtual locomotion. And the physical installation with post-it notes also helped created a strong magic cirlce for the piece. You are also embodied as Ida - as you learn about yourself as she has to do each and every day. From their artist statement, Kate and Victor said, "When we put the VR headset on, the first questions that come to mind are: Who am I? And where am I? This confusion is exactly what our protagonist is dealing with and this became the starting point of the story."3rd Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: Interactions that gate the narrative in order to help modulate the pacing of the story. Free to physically move within space, but also paired with virtual locomotion. They aspired to allow people to be able to wander through the story and you get a bit lost along the way. So TRUE!4th Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Dialogue amongst the characters, and also tape recording. Nice blend of metaphoric memory and dream logic with an amazingly well-written script. But also a puzzle-like structure as you piece together the story. Archetypal Themes and Character Explored: Memory. Loss, Grief, Death. The slow dissolving of the structures of memory as reflected within the sparse void-like architecture of the piece itself reflecting this slipping away into liminality. The love that they share within their partnership. "a poetic experience about the impact of dementia, but above all it is about love and the long goodbye of two lovers who shared a life together." So talking about the details of the condition, but also the caretaker / partner who is living with this condition "A Long Goodbye is at once a personal and a universal story about human connection. It serves as a reminder that people are always so much more than their illness. Instead of focusing on what is lost, we need to stay close and hold on to shared affection." Artist Statement: "When we put the VR headset on, the first questions that come to mind are: Who am I? And where am I? This confusion is exactly what our protagonist is dealing with and this became the starting point of the story. We were drawn to this theme because of Victor's grandfather who lived with Alzheimer's disease, and whose health declined rapidly after Victor's grandmother passed. The experience of having witnessed this emotional transformation close by, made us explore how dementia is experienced and how it influences the relationship with your past, with yourself and with your loved ones. A Long Goodbye is at once a personal and a universal story about human connection. It serves as a reminder that people are always so much more than their illness. Instead of focusing on what is lost, we need to stay close and hold on to shared affection." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-kttoua1PA This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

The David Alliance TDAgiantSlayer@Gmail.com Garth Heckman Military city,  MOB RULES:did not want to hear what they had to say… the crowd was blind with rage… they should not have been beaten until trial as Roman citizens.    *Joy starts with focus not feelings.   Happiness depends on what happens… so you have to do the work to make good things happen. *YOU BECOME A SLAVE TO PERFORMING, AND CIRCUMSTANCES.      Falsely accused (Emotionally abused), Beaten (Physically abused in public to humiliate)  Locked away from everyone in the deepest part of the dungeon… Most likely where the raw sewage flowed. (Socially abused) Chained (Mentally abused and in stocks) Archaeological evidence from sites like the gladiator barracks at Pompeii - torture racks.  **AND AT MIDNIGHT: Why Midnight Singing Is Even More Remarkable Than It First Appears   Put the whole picture together: Paul and Silas had been publicly stripped, beaten with rods by state lictors, thrown into the inner prison (the most secure, likely darkest and most miserable section), and their legs forced into a device specifically designed to maximize ongoing physical suffering. And at midnight — the point of deepest exhaustion and vulnerability — "they were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them" (v. 25).

If you've been wondering, how can I be less emotionally reactive?, the answer starts with understanding what your child's behavior is really communicating. Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge, creator of Regulation First Parenting™, explains how calming the nervous system creates lasting change for the whole family.Parenting a dysregulated child can leave you feeling like you're constantly putting out fires. You're not alone. When nothing seems to work, it's easy to believe you need a new consequence, a better strategy, or another diagnosis.In this episode, I explain why behavior is communication and why the behaviors you see are often signals of an overloaded nervous system—not the actual problem. You'll learn how changing one simple question can transform your parenting and help your child build real regulation skills.Why Does My Child Keep Having Meltdowns Even When We Try Everything?Many parents spend years trying to stop the meltdown instead of understanding what caused it. Meltdowns, anxiety, defiance, and focus problems are often symptoms—not the root issue.When a child's nervous system becomes overwhelmed, behavior becomes the brain's way of asking for help.Key takeaways:Behavior is a signal, not the problem.Look beyond the symptom to what is overwhelming your child.Regulation creates the foundation for lasting behavior change.Example: A child who explodes during homework may not be refusing work—they may simply have reached their nervous system's limit after a long day.

Most men swear they won't become their fathers. Yet without realising it, they're running the exact same patterns—coldness, emotional numbness, withdrawal, rigidity—in their relationships. And it's destroying them. The worst part? Your girlfriend or wife is telling you exactly what's happening. She feels the distance. The emotional absence. The black-and-white thinking. But you either don't hear it, or you hear it as criticism and shut down further. This isn't about being exactly like your dad. It's about the emotional template he passed down—the belief that emotions are dangerous, that vulnerability is weakness, that showing up with softness means losing control. In this episode, I'm breaking down: Why you unconsciously inherited this pattern (and it goes back generations) How it shows up in your relationships—the exact ways it's sabotaging you Three concrete practices to start breaking the cycle this week This is what I wish someone had told me before I nearly lost everything. Watch this and ask yourself the question that changed everything for me: What if it's not them—what if it's me?   RELATE:   

Text: Proverbs 4:23; 14:10; 17:22; 18:14Date: Aug 9, 2026Speaker: David BartosikDate: August 2, 2026Big Idea: Things and people in this life will cause hurt; healing begins when we honestly bring our wounded hearts to God's wisdom instead of allowing our hurt to shape our lives.Name the Hurt.Reject Counterfeit Healing.Receive God's Healing.Reflect God's Healing.YouTube Link How do you Emotionally Heal from Hurt? David Bartosik

Have you ever found yourself standing in a place you never intended to be? Emotionally depleted, spiritually drained, and staring out at the world from the dark safety of a cave? You might wonder if you have been abandoned and left alone. In reality, you are in holy companyGod bless,Rev Leon1 Kings 19:9-18

Chris feels more like he's cohabitating than truly connected in his 25-year marriage, with little intimacy and growing indifference.  Got a dilemma? Call 1-800-DR-LAURA / 1-800-375-2872 or make an appointment at DrLaura.com Follow on social media: Facebook.com/DrLaura Instagram.com/DrLauraProgram YouTube.com/DrLaura Join the Dr. Laura Family!! >> Receive my weekly newsletter, perks, and more! Sign up now, it's FREE > DrLaura.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:There is a version of a house where everyone moves quietly. You time your questions. You read the door slam before you read the room. You have gotten so good at it that you barely notice you are doing it anymore, and somewhere in there, one person's mood started running the whole place.Cathy and I both lived there. I matched my son's emotional state toe to toe and had no skills to separate the two. Cathy handed so much authority over to her kids that her husband walked in the door every night and had to be the heavy, which put a wedge between them that added to their home's dysfunction.What we talk about in this episode is what pulled us out, and the term ‘emotional regulation'doesn't adequately cover it. I made a decision while I was outlining this episode not to use that phrase, because I think it gets thrown around in a way that misses what you're up against in the real world. Regulating is one thing. Planting your feet while a young person rages at you - and not picking up the rope - that takes something closer to durability. Stamina. Sturdiness.Here is why we chose this topic: it is one of the most powerful things in this entire experience you are completely in charge of. You can't control whether they show up for work, school or court. But this one is yours, and you can start on it today and feel something shift by the end of the week.I also tell a story involving ten dollars and a vacuum, as a real world example of why emotional durability is crucial for your sanity and your child's growth.If you're exhausted and need something to change this week, this is for you.YOU'LL LEARN:Why I stopped using the phrase emotional regulation, and what Cathy and I use in its placeThe moment Cathy realized she had handed her parental authority over, and what it cost at homeThe ten dollar story with the vacuum that I still cringe aboutWhere dysregulation shows up in your body first, and why that is the signal to work withWhy the low stakes moments are where this can start growing in youEPISODE RESOURCES:Self coaching questions, Hopestream podcast Episode 333Self coaching questions, Hopestream podcast Episode 328Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People ChangeBeyond Addiction WorkbookFree e-book, Worried Sick: hopestreamcommunity.org/worried Free two-week trial of The Stream: hopestreamcommunity.org/try This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream CommunityLearn about The Stream, our private online community for momsFind us on Instagram hereWatch the podcast on YouTube hereDownload a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and AlcoholHopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

We welcome Jenny Meinen, a German psychologist, mental health coach, and founder of the Her Next Era journal. With a deep focus on somatic experiencing, subconscious belief work, and attachment theory, Jenny helps self-aware individuals regulate their nervous systems, break subconscious self-sabotage, and raise their standards in life, career, and relationships.In this deep-dive conversation with Seb, Jenny breaks down why our brains prioritize familiarity over safety, leading many to stay stuck in struggle and toxic patterns. She shares actionable somatic techniques to move from panic into regulation (including the power of pausing, breathwork, and EFT tapping) and provides a clear framework for differentiating between the high-pitched panic of fear and the calm, grounded guidance of intuition. Finally, Jenny explains how a regulated nervous system unlocks emotional availability, deeper relationships, and the confidence to take risks in business and life.Topics DiscussedAddiction to Struggle: Why your body chooses familiar pain over peace.Nervous System Hijacking: How subconscious beliefs trigger physical stress.Fear vs. Intuition: Differentiating high-pitched panic from calm clarity.Somatic Tools: Quick reset techniques using pauses, breathwork, and tapping.Taking Thoughts to Court: A CBT method to challenge spiraling beliefs.Emotional Availability: Why you can't be available without regulation.Capacity for Discomfort: How sitting with discomfort unlocks career growth.Faith & Surrender: Letting go of outcomes and trusting the process.Connect with Jenny on InstagramConnect with Sebastian on InstagramSebastianNaum.com

Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga. Why are stories spoken aloud? Why do we lean into the music of the spoken word? And why do we need to hear a woman's voice speaking her truth from her heart, her identity? Written text is processed intellectually by the brain but the spoken word resonates deeply. When we hear a woman's voice take a breath, pause, and speak from the heart, we feel it emotionally. The pauses, the unhurried rhythm, and the warmth of delivery invite listeners to feel like they are right in the moment of the story sitting side-by-side. For just a moment let's sit together. I've been reflecting on how we transform our lived personal experiences, the memories, the moments into story magic that captivates the listener with its universal meaning. Hint: It's the archeological dig. The archeological dig uncovering the treasure trove of our lived experiences is where we challenge ourselves to discover and make sense of what our story is really all about. Not just the quick, cheap, easy, and superficial answers but what flows like a river under the frozen ice. You and I know we aren't just talking about words on a page here. We're talking about how we hold our own lives. Most of the time we're taught to just report the facts. "Here's what I did today. Here's who I took care of. Here's my role." It's polite... it keeps the peace...it's empty and boring. We women of “middle earth age” can no longer deny the quiet, restless ache that shows up in the middle season of our lives. It's the emotional weight of a deeper question: Who am I... when no one is asking me to be anyone for them? When you finally stop and attend to that ache... that's where your real story begins. That is the moment of self-discovery and, more importantly, identity. You realize you aren't just a collection of jobs and titles; you are your own unique engagement with this world. And what about the thing you've actually come here to say? The wisdom you've earned? It doesn't need to be shouted out loud. It just needs to be true. It's the moment of self-definition... where you stop asking for permission to occupy your own life. It's looking at yourself in the mirror and realizing... my perspective matters. My voice does not need to be softened to be acceptable. When you lean into that... you aren't just letting life happen to you anymore. You are claiming your narrative. You are saying what you mean... and maybe for the very first time. That's what depth of inquiry means. It's having the courage to sit in the quiet... until the surface noise fades... and the truth of who you really are finally rises up. CTA: Today, don't just live the plot of your life. Lean into the rich, unfolding, joyful, wisdom of it. Say what you mean, mean what you say and let yourself be known - to yourself. You're invited: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment—it helps us all—& join us next time! AND!  Stop by my Quarter Moon Story Arts website during reconstruction, email me [info@quartermoonstoryarts.net] to arrange a no-obligation Discovery Conversation, and stay current with me as Quarter Moon Story Arts on SUBSTACK. Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts Music: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music ALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

In this episode, you will discover:How burnout affects your spiritWhy sleep may not fix exhaustionThe cost of constant givingWhy sensitive people burn outHow burnout clouds intuitionTiredness versus soul exhaustionWhy resting can feel difficultWays to protect your energyReal life storiesPractices to restore balanceNext Week's Topic: How Your Body Warns You Before Your Mind UnderstandsThe Angel Room is a weekly podcast- A place for those who love angels and want to know more about them. Enjoy spiritual, healing, personal growth, enlightening and empowering topics. Named one of the top 10 Healing With Angels Podcasts in 2025 by PlayerFM.Named one of Top 10 Best Angel Podcasts by Feedspot. ListenNotes.com ranks it in the top 3% of most popular shows globally.Host, Ivory LaNoue is a respected angel communicator based in central Arizona. She is also the author of Let Your Angels Lead, Archangel Sachiel's Guide to Abundance and other spirituality books. Learn more on her website.You can learn more about Ivory and her services at IvoryAngelic.com.Email: ivoryangelic@outlook.comYouTube Channel: Ivory LaNouePatreon Community: The Angel Room Inner Circle

Performance debt builds while you are still succeeding. Learn how hidden costs erode your clarity, recovery, relationships, and future capacity. Performance Debt: Why Success Can Hide the Warning Signs The most dangerous stage of burnout is not when you can no longer perform. It is when you are still performing well enough to believe nothing is wrong. You are still working. Still training. Still handling problems. People continue to depend on you because you have given them every reason to believe you can carry the weight. But something has changed. Decisions require more effort. Your patience is thinner. Training feels mechanical rather than energizing. You are physically present with the people who matter, but part of you is somewhere else—recovering from the day or preparing for the next demand. Nothing has collapsed, so you tell yourself you are fine. That is how performance debt remains hidden. What Is Performance Debt? Performance debt is the accumulated cost of repeatedly sacrificing recovery, alignment, emotional regulation, and sustainable habits to maintain short-term performance. Put more simply, it is what builds when you keep borrowing from your future capacity to perform today. One difficult week does not necessarily create the problem. There will always be seasons that require longer hours, harder training, greater responsibility, and a willingness to push beyond what feels comfortable. Human performance depends partly on our capacity to rise when the moment demands it. The debt begins when the exception becomes the operating model. You stop recovering fully because there is always another deadline. You ignore physical warning signs because the workout still gets completed. You suppress frustration because other people need you to remain composed. You continue carrying responsibilities that should have been shared, changed, or released. Each decision appears reasonable by itself. Collectively, they begin consuming the capacity required to sustain the life you have built. Why Success Conceals the Cost Visible output is a lagging indicator. It tells you what you produced, but it does not reveal what producing it required. You can meet the deadline while losing strategic clarity. You can complete the workout while recovering more slowly. You can take care of everyone around you while becoming increasingly disconnected from yourself. This is especially dangerous for capable men because competence creates room for compensation. Your intelligence helps you solve problems even when your focus is deteriorating. Discipline allows you to override fatigue. Responsibility gives you an honorable reason to continue. Emotional control helps you conceal the pressure from everyone around you. The very qualities that helped you succeed can become the qualities that hide your performance debt. Other people may even reinforce the pattern. They praise your dependability, admire your work ethic, and continue bringing you problems because you always find a way to handle them. They benefit from your output without seeing its private cost. Eventually, “I am the man who handles it” becomes more than a statement of capability. It becomes a role you are afraid to question. The Interest Payments Begin Before Burnout Performance debt rarely announces itself through one dramatic event. It collects interest through small changes you can easily rationalize. Mentally, decisions take longer and your strategic range begins to narrow. You remain capable of solving immediate problems, but it becomes harder to step back, consider alternatives, or see beyond the next demand. Emotionally, irritability increases while your emotional range flattens. You may believe you are remaining controlled, but the people closest to you experience that control as distance, impatience, or withdrawal. Physically, sleep provides less restoration. Soreness lingers. Your nervous system stays activated even when the external demand has ended. You continue training, but the session becomes another obligation rather than a practice that builds strength and restores connection. Relationally, conversations start feeling like additional demands. The people you care about receive your presence in fragments and whatever energy remains after work, responsibility, and internal pressure have taken their share. None of these signals proves that you are failing. They reveal that maintaining your current level of performance is becoming more expensive. (function(d,s,id) { var js; var fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://forms.aweber.com/form/30/1374258830.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, "script", "aweber-wjs-1506684634")); Performance Debt Is Not the Same as Burnout Performance debt and burnout are related, but they are not interchangeable. Performance debt is the accumulating liability. Burnout is one possible consequence when that liability can no longer be hidden, carried, or serviced. The debt begins much earlier—often while a man is still succeeding and receiving praise for how well he is handling everything. This distinction matters because it creates an opportunity for earlier recognition. You do not need to diagnose every difficult month as burnout. You also do not need to wait until you are exhausted, disengaged, or unable to function before admitting that your way of operating has become unsustainable. Performance debt accumulates before performance visibly declines. Recognizing it early allows you to protect capacity instead of waiting until you must rebuild after a breakdown. What Physical Training Reveals About Sustainable Performance Physical training makes this principle difficult to deny. A demanding CrossFit session, a heavy strength cycle, or a steep mountain climb creates stress. When that stress is followed by adequate recovery, the body adapts. Muscle is rebuilt, movement becomes more efficient, and your capacity increases. But repeated overload without sufficient recovery produces a different result. Movement begins to compensate. Technique deteriorates. Soreness remains longer. The body finds ways to complete the work, but those compensations quietly increase the risk of injury. You may still finish the workout. That does not mean the training is producing the intended adaptation. The same thing happens mentally and emotionally. You compensate for reduced clarity by working longer. You compensate for exhaustion with caffeine, urgency, and adrenaline. You compensate for emotional disconnection by becoming more controlled and task-oriented. For a while, the compensation works. Eventually, it becomes another source of strain. The body does not interpret relentless pressure as character. It responds according to stress, capacity, recovery, and adaptation. Your mind, emotional system, and relationships are not exempt from that equation. Strength creates growth when paired with recovery. Without recovery, strength begins consuming itself. When Your Best Qualities Become Expensive Discipline is not the enemy. Responsibility is not the enemy. Resilience and emotional control are not the enemy. The problem is what happens when these strengths operate without discernment. Discipline without recovery becomes self-neglect. Responsibility without boundaries becomes overfunctioning. Emotional control without connection becomes withdrawal. Resilience without discernment becomes the ability to tolerate conditions that should have been confronted or changed. A strength is valuable because it serves a meaningful purpose. When it is used automatically—regardless of context, cost, or consequence—it stops being a conscious strength and becomes an identity-driven pattern. You may recognize this during training. There are days when pushing through discomfort builds confidence and capacity. There are other days when pushing through is simply an unwillingness to admit that your body needs a different response. The movement may look identical from the outside. The internal truth is completely different. The same discernment must be applied to the rest of your life. Carrying more is not always evidence that you are becoming stronger. Sometimes it is evidence that you have not permitted yourself to put anything down. Recovery Alone Will Not Eliminate the Debt A weekend away may reduce immediate strain. A lighter training week may help your body recover. A vacation may create enough distance for you to breathe again. Those things matter, but temporary recovery does not automatically change the pattern that created the debt. If your identity still depends on being needed, you will return and begin carrying everything again. If you believe rest must be earned, recovery will remain the first thing sacrificed when pressure rises. If your worth is tied to output, any reduction in activity will feel like weakness rather than intelligent performance management. You do not eliminate financial debt by making one payment while continuing the same spending pattern. Performance debt works the same way. Recovery must be accompanied by a change in how performance is produced. That may require clearer boundaries, different priorities, more honest communication, better physical recovery, or the willingness to question goals that no longer align with the man you are becoming. The objective is not temporary relief. It is a more sustainable operating model. Audit the Cost Beneath Your Results Begin with the question most high performers already ask: What results am I producing? Answer it honestly and factually. Look at your work, training, responsibilities, relationships, and commitments. Acknowledge what is functioning without minimizing your accomplishments. Then ask the question that is usually ignored: What is it costing me to produce these results? Look beyond time and effort. Consider the mental, emotional, physical, and relational costs. Where are the interest payments appearing first? What feels heavier, slower, flatter, or more reactive than it did six months ago? Finally, ask: Is my current way of operating sustainable? Do not base your answer on whether you can survive another week. You probably can. Ask whether the same model can support your health, performance, relationships, and sense of purpose for the next year. There is also a fourth question, and it may be the most revealing: What have I already noticed but continued to override? Performance debt loses much of its power when the cost becomes visible and specific. You can no longer call the pattern strength once you clearly see how it is consuming the very capacity that strength is supposed to protect. Sustainable Performance Requires Integrated Strength The answer is not to become less ambitious, less disciplined, or less capable. It is to stop using your capability in a way that steadily destroys your capacity. Sustainable human performance requires pressure and recovery, discipline and discernment, responsibility and boundaries, control and connection. These qualities are not opposites. They are complementary forces that keep strength from becoming fragmented. Imagine carrying the same important responsibilities without the constant internal friction. Imagine training hard while knowing when intensity builds capacity and when it merely feeds an outdated identity. Imagine being present with the people who matter without feeling that their needs are another demand you must manage. That is not reduced performance. It is performance built on a stronger foundation. Your ability to keep going is not proof that your current way of operating is sustainable. The deeper measure is whether your physical strength, mental clarity, emotional resilience, relationships, and sense of purpose remain available while you pursue what matters. Your future capacity is not an unlimited line of credit. The work is not simply to keep performing. It is to become the man who can sustain what matters without consuming himself to do it. Rebuild the Capacity Beneath Your Performance If you recognize the hidden cost beneath your results, the Resilient Man Framework will help you examine the structure supporting your performance. It is built around four interconnected areas—physical strength, mental clarity, emotional resilience, and meaningful purpose—so you can identify where performance debt is accumulating and begin creating strength that remains available when pressure rises. Frequently Asked Questions What is performance debt in simple terms? Performance debt is the hidden cost that accumulates when you repeatedly sacrifice recovery, clarity, emotional regulation, relationships, or alignment to maintain immediate results. It is similar to borrowing money: you receive something useful today but create an obligation that must eventually be repaid. The difference is that the repayment may appear as mental fatigue, slower physical recovery, irritability, reduced focus, or burnout. One intense period does not automatically create debt. The problem develops when borrowing from future capacity becomes your normal way of performing. How is performance debt different from burnout? Performance debt begins while you are still functioning and may still be performing successfully. Burnout is one possible later consequence when the accumulated cost becomes too large to hide or manage. A person carrying debt may continue meeting deadlines, training, leading, and fulfilling responsibilities, although doing so requires increasing effort. Someone experiencing burnout may show more visible exhaustion, detachment, cynicism, or reduced effectiveness. The distinction matters because recognizing the accumulating cost early creates an opportunity to adjust before a significant decline or breakdown occurs. What are the early warning signs of performance debt? Early signs include needing more effort to produce the same result, slower decisions, fragmented focus, lingering physical soreness, reduced patience, emotional withdrawal, and difficulty being present in relationships. You may also notice that training feels mechanical, sleep restores less energy, or time away provides only temporary relief. None of these signs alone confirms a serious problem. The meaningful pattern is a rising internal cost combined with continued external performance. When several areas begin deteriorating while output remains intact, your operating model deserves an honest examination. Can discipline contribute to performance debt? Discipline can contribute when it is used to override every physical, emotional, or relational signal instead of helping you respond intelligently. Healthy discipline supports consistent action, recovery, and meaningful priorities. Misaligned discipline treats rest as weakness, ignores declining capacity, and demands continued output regardless of the cost. The issue is not discipline itself but discipline without discernment. A demanding workout can develop resilience when the body is prepared for it. The same workout can deepen exhaustion when it is performed only to prove that you never back down. Can rest eliminate accumulated performance debt? Rest can reduce immediate strain, but it may not correct the pattern responsible for the debt. A vacation, deload week, or quiet weekend can restore some energy. However, if you return to unclear boundaries, excessive responsibility, emotional suppression, or an identity built entirely around achievement, the same debt will begin accumulating again. Sustainable recovery requires both restoration and recalibration. You must restore neglected capacity while changing how you produce results. Otherwise, rest becomes a temporary payment made against a liability that continues growing. How can I begin reducing performance debt? Start by identifying what your current results are costing you mentally, physically, emotionally, and relationally. Notice where the interest appears first and which warning signs you have been overriding because you can still function. Next, distinguish temporary demands from recurring patterns. Reducing the debt may involve better recovery, clearer boundaries, fewer unnecessary commitments, honest conversations, or changing goals that no longer fit. The purpose is not to withdraw from challenge. It is to create an integrated way of performing that builds capacity instead of continually borrowing from it.

I'm Still Finding My Way – Why You Don't Need Your Old Self Back Have you ever caught yourself saying, "I just want the old me back"? I know I have. I've heard it from hundreds of clients too. It sounds comforting because we believe our old self represents certainty, confidence and stability. But what if that's not really what we're looking for? In this deeper dive I explore an idea that completely changed the way I see personal development. Instead of chasing an old version of ourselves—or even trying to discover some perfect "real me"—perhaps we're simply finding our way. Because your way changes as you change. I'll share part of my own journey through depression, identity and the work I've been doing around my North Star. Together we'll explore why identity isn't somewhere you arrive, but something that keeps unfolding, and I'll guide you through a simple reflective process to help you reconnect with the qualities that have always been part of you. If you've ever felt lost, uncertain or caught between who you were and who you're becoming, I hope this episode helps you realise that maybe you haven't lost your way at all. In this episode you'll discover: Why wanting your "old self" back may be keeping you stuck. The difference between identity and the qualities that never leave you. A simple "Museum of Selves" exercise to reflect on every version of your life. Why your future isn't about becoming someone different, but continuing to unfold. Practical journal questions to help you take your next small step. Remember... You're not going backwards. You're still finding your way. And your way changes as you change. If this episode resonates, please share it with someone who needs to hear it: https://personaldevelopmentunplugged.com/486-im-still-finding-my-way/ and if you'd like me to explore a particular challenge, email me at feedback@personaldevelopmentunplugged.com. Oh! And there's a video of me recording this. It's rough and ready because that's all it needs to be https://youtu.be/hWcLgtawcp0 Until next time... Have more fun than you can stand. Shine Brightly

As always, I’m taking time off during the summer. We’re sharing the audio of previous live Q&As that I did on YouTube. If you only listen to the podcast, this will be all new to you! We’ll be back to our regular format mid-August. This episode includes my answers to questions about already making piles […] The post 521: Already Made Piles and Now It’s Worse, Emotionally Detaching from Objects, and Hitting a Wall at 50 Percent appeared first on Dana K. White: A Slob Comes Clean.

We've all experienced moments where we feel emotionally disconnected—distant from God, withdrawn from the people we love, or simply "off" without knowing why. But what if those moments aren't meant to be ignored or pushed aside? What if they're invitations to deeper healing?In today's episode we're continuing our Freedom Series by sharing ones of Elliott's recent sermons he gave. Elliott explores why emotional engagement is essential to spiritual maturity and healthy relationships. Drawing from Scripture, psychology, and years of counseling experience, he explains how God created us as emotional beings and why suppressing, repressing, or avoiding our emotions often leads to fear, conflict, isolation, and unhealthy patterns.He explores the difference between passive, aggressive, and healthy emotional responses, and why our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are so deeply connected, and gains practical tools for recognizing, processing, and surrendering your emotions to God. Elliott also introduces the "R.A.C." framework—Recognize, Accept, and Consider Change—a simple yet powerful way to move from emotional reactivity toward emotional maturity.Whether you've felt emotionally numb, overwhelmed, reactive, or simply disconnected, this episode offers a biblical vision for living with greater honesty, freedom, and intimacy—with God, with others, and with yourself.Dr. Karin & Pastor Elliott AndersonWebsite: http://loveandlifemedia.com/Empowered Dating Playbook: smarturl.it/EmpoweredDatingBookInstagram: @dr.karin | @pastorelliottanderson

In this episode of The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, my guest is therapist Morgan Pommells. We explore the lasting impact of having an emotionally immature parent (EIP), including how to begin healing and how we can break the cycle with our own kids. We also talk about boundaries with our EIP parent, why children's big emotions aren't personal attacks, and what every child truly needs to thrive.Know someone who might appreciate this episode? Share it with them!And if you love the podcast, FREE ways to help us out:1- Rate and review the podcast in your podcast player app2- “Like” this post by tapping the heart icon ♥️3- Share this with a friend. THANK YOU!You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or check out the fully edited transcript of our interview at the bottom of this post.We talk about:00:00 – Introduction to Morgan Pommells02:30 – What is an emotionally immature parent?07:15 – Emotional immaturity vs. narcissism: What's the difference?09:00 – Why emotionally immature parents are often critical10:30 – The biggest impact on children: Growing up without a strong sense of self12:00 – How childhood with an EIP affects adult relationships and self-worth, and our own parenting15:30 – Healing from emotionally immature parenting18:30 – Why your child's big emotions are actually a sign of safety19:00 – Navigating relationships with emotionally immature parents as an adult27:00 – Teaching children that feelings aren't dangerous27:45 – Emotionally immature grandparents: Do the patterns continue?29:15 – The power of delighting in your child32:45 – What if your parenting partner is emotionally immature?35:00 – The parenting mistake we all make: Taking children's emotions personally36:00 – Morgan's advice for every parent: Heal your own wounds before they parent your children38:00 – Where to find Morgan and closing thoughtsResources mentioned in this episode:* Morgan's Masterclass Protect Your Peace * Morgan's IG @morganpommellsConnect with Sarah Rosensweet:* Instagram* Facebook Group* YouTube* Website* Join us on Substack* Newsletter* Book a short consult or coaching session callxx Sarah and CoreyYour peaceful parenting team- click here for a free short consult or a coaching sessionVisit our website for free resources, podcast, coaching, membership and more!>> Please support us!!! Please consider becoming a supporter to help support our free content, including The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, our free parenting support Facebook group, and our weekly parenting emails, “Weekend Reflections” and “Weekend Support” - plus our Flourish With Your Complex Child Summit (coming back in the fall for the 3rd year!) All of this free support for you takes a lot of time and energy from me and my team. If it has been helpful or meaningful for you, your support would help us to continue to provide support for free, for you and for others.In addition to knowing you are supporting our mission to support parents and children, you get the podcast ad free and access to a monthly ‘ask me anything' session.Sarah: Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Peaceful Parenting Podcast.Today's guest is Morgan Pommells. Morgan is a therapist and coach who helps the adult children of emotionally immature parents stop seeing themselves through their parents' eyes and finally come home to who they really are.Morgan and I discuss what an emotionally immature parent is, how that is—and isn't—different from narcissism, and how people grow up to parent this way. Morgan also shares how having an emotionally immature parent affects us as children, how it continues to affect us once we've grown up, and how we can heal from having been raised by an emotionally immature parent.We also talk about the opposite of emotionally immature parenting and what our kids need in order to grow up whole and healthy.Morgan has so much wisdom, and so much of our work overlaps. I think you're going to learn a lot from this conversation, and I think you're really going to enjoy it.If you like this episode, please share it with a friend so more parents can learn about peaceful parenting. If you're a fan of the podcast, you can also help us out by leaving a five-star rating and review in your podcast app. While you're there, don't forget to follow the show so you don't miss an episode.Let's meet Morgan.Sarah: Hi, Morgan. Welcome to the podcast.Morgan: Hi! Thank you for having me.Sarah: I'm so glad to have you on. We've been trying to schedule this for a while, and I think this is such an important topic for parents. I'm so glad we finally got to sit down and have this conversation.Morgan: Me too. It's a super important topic for parents.Sarah: Tell us a little about who you are and what you do.Morgan: I'm a therapist and coach in Ontario, Canada, and I specialize exclusively in working with the adult children of emotionally immature parents. Whether that's through workshops or one-to-one work, everything I do revolves around helping people heal from having emotionally immature parents.Sarah: So tell us: what is an emotionally immature parent?Morgan: Great question.An emotionally immature parent is someone who really struggles to manage their own painful internal emotions. Those emotions tend to spill out onto everyone around them instead of being worked through internally. These are parents who might struggle with shame, rage, or fear of abandonment, and instead of taking responsibility for those feelings and working through them themselves, they become everyone else's problem.They take those emotions out on their children. They may recruit their children into never leaving them because they're terrified of being abandoned. The child becomes responsible for soothing and managing the parent's anxiety, which is really the opposite of what a healthy parent-child relationship is meant to be.Sarah: Yeah.What causes somebody... I guess you don't become emotionally immature—you just never emotionally mature. What causes that lack of emotional maturation? How does somebody become an emotionally immature parent?Morgan: There are a couple of different pathways.A lot of emotionally immature parents have their own relational trauma. If we experience something deeply overwhelming at a young age and don't have the capacity to metabolize it at the time, we can become emotionally stuck there. Our biological age keeps moving forward, but our emotional development doesn't necessarily come with us. Our emotional defenses stay frozen at that younger age.In other cases, someone may have had the capacity to become emotionally mature, but emotional immaturity was all that was ever modeled for them. They don't have another template. They don't know a different kind of parenting exists because they're simply working from the script they inherited.Sarah: So far we've been talking about this in psychological terms, but what does that actually look like in real life?Let's focus on an adult child. What would a familiar interaction look like between an emotionally immature parent and their grown child?Morgan: One of the biggest dynamics is fear of abandonment.When their child grows up, goes away to university, finds a partner, or simply starts building their own life, emotionally immature parents can become very controlling. They can become very mean. They can use shame to pull their child back toward them and keep them emotionally close because they're so afraid of being abandoned.When children are younger, it usually looks like a lot of control. That parent has a tremendous amount of fear and anxiety, but instead of working through it themselves, they try to control their child. As a result, the parent feels safer, but the child feels controlled and suffocated.Sarah: So they're almost externalizing their own feelings?They feel scared, so they make their child feel scared? Or is that too simplified?Morgan: No, in some cases that's exactly what's happening.If you have a parent who's very anxious or very fearful, it can actually feel safer if everyone around them is afraid too. You don't want to be the only person who's scared of the big, bad threat you believe is coming. So if you can get everyone else to be afraid, at least you have company in that fear.When children are younger, though, it often looks a little different. A parent might be deeply worried about how their child is doing at school or how they're perceived by other people, so they try to control what the child says, wears, or does because that helps soothe the parent's own fear.Sarah: So that's because they're worried about what people think of their child because it reflects back on them?Morgan: Yes, that's certainly part of it.There can be a real element of impression management with emotionally immature parents. Many of them are very concerned with how they appear to other people. Sometimes they experienced a genuine threat in their own childhood because some important family rule was broken. As a result, they become determined that their own child will never break that same rule because they believe that's what keeps both of them safe.Sarah: I also think it's about attachment.If people don't think well of you, then you don't get your needs met.Morgan: Exactly.If someone doesn't think well of you, if they see you as a threat, or if they see you as different, that can feel incredibly dangerous.Emotionally immature parents tend to like sameness. They want their children to think the same way they do and view the world the same way they do. They often use different techniques to influence their child's thinking because differences feel threatening.Ultimately, we're talking about people who are acting from a deep desire to feel emotionally and psychologically safe. The tragedy is that the methods they use to create that safety can be profoundly damaging to their children.Sarah: How is this different from narcissism—or is it?Morgan: That's a huge question.You can absolutely have an emotionally immature parent who is also quite narcissistic, but you can also have an emotionally immature parent who isn't narcissistic at all.A narcissistic personality structure is just one presentation. Another emotionally immature parent might be incredibly anxious. There are different expressions of emotional immaturity, so it isn't an either-or situation.It's also important to remember that emotional immaturity exists on a spectrum. You can have very mild emotional immaturity—and, honestly, all of us demonstrate emotional immaturity at certain moments in our lives. Then, at the more severe end of the spectrum, you might see something like narcissistic personality disorder, where someone relies heavily on emotionally immature defenses.So it isn't that emotional immaturity and narcissism are the same thing. Narcissism is one possible way emotional immaturity can present, but it's certainly not the only one.Sarah: Are there people who are emotionally immature all the time?Morgan: Yes. When we talk about EIPs—emotionally immature parents—we're talking about people for whom emotional immaturity is the rule rather than the exception.All of us are going to have emotionally immature moments. Usually, those happen when something feels very threatening because we're trying to keep ourselves safe. We want control in that moment. One very common emotionally immature defense is denial. Think about hearing that someone has passed away. One of the first things people often say is, “No.” That's denial. We're trying to metabolize something incredibly painful.But those are moments. They're moments we can eventually reflect on, learn from, and grow through. We can become more emotionally mature if we choose to do that. With emotionally immature parents, though, emotional immaturity isn't just a reaction to certain situations—it's their baseline, regardless of the context or the type of threat they're facing.Sarah: That makes sense.One thing you talk about is emotionally immature parents being critical. Tell me about the critical parent.Morgan: There are really two different versions of that.One type of emotionally immature parent is highly critical because they're deeply afraid that their child won't be okay if they don't follow the parent's rules. They believe, “You need to get into a really good university. You need a really good job. You need perfect manners because otherwise people will be mean to you. They won't give you opportunities.” Underneath all of that criticism is genuine terror and, in many cases, genuine love for their child. The problem is that the way they're trying to soothe that fear creates rupture and disconnection in the relationship.Then there's another group of emotionally immature parents who have internalized a tremendous amount of self-hatred through their own trauma. They don't know how to metabolize that pain because growing up hating yourself is incredibly painful. Instead, they project it onto their child.They might notice a quality in their child that reminds them of something they've decided is ugly or unacceptable in themselves. It can actually feel satisfying to try to eliminate that quality in their child through criticism or shame—to make sure their child never becomes that way. In those cases, the criticism is really an expression of their own self-hatred.Sarah: What are the effects on a child growing up with an emotionally immature parent?Morgan: By far, the biggest effect is a lack of sense of self.These are children who never really had the opportunity to discover who they are because they didn't have a parent who was deeply curious about them. They didn't have a parent who took a genuine interest in them, asked meaningful questions, or reflected their inner world back to them.As children, we develop our identity in relationship with another person. We need someone to act as a mirror. But for the adult children of emotionally immature parents, you don't receive a mirror—you receive a distortion.Instead of hearing, “Tell me about yourself,” or, “I want to understand you,” you hear messages like, “There's something wrong with you,” “I'm not interested in you,” or, “Your thoughts are weird, wrong, or shameful.” Over time, your sense of self becomes organized around those messages.Sometimes the experience isn't criticism so much as neglect. In those cases, it's not even that you grow up believing you're bad or shameful. You grow up feeling like you barely exist. Like you aren't even a full person.At the core of this wound is not really knowing who you are.Sarah: Obviously that's painful in and of itself, but how does that affect someone's adult life?How does it show up in the choices we make, the relationships we enter into, or the partners we choose? And maybe that's actually a separate question, but I'm also curious about how growing up with an emotionally immature parent affects the way we parent our own children.Morgan: They're really connected.The first thing is that when you reach adulthood without a solid sense of self, there's almost this hunger inside you—a hunger that never feels fully satisfied. You don't really know what you want. Sometimes you think you know what you want, and then you finally achieve it, only to discover it doesn't feel the way you expected because something more fundamental is missing.There's this constant sense of never quite arriving.Without a strong sense of self, it's also much easier to end up in unhealthy or even abusive relationships. If you don't know who you are, how do you know what you want? How do you know what's safe? How do you know what your needs are? How do you stay connected to yourself?Instead, many people become what we often call codependent. They become incredibly focused on making sure everyone else is okay. They're wonderful caretakers, but meanwhile, none of their own needs are being met. Their own joy, happiness, and sense of aliveness get left behind.There's a deep emptiness because there's nothing inside that feels solid enough to connect with.Sarah: What about parenting? How does this affect the way we parent our own children?Morgan: Growing up with an emotionally immature parent affects parenting in so many different ways.For one thing, if you don't have a strong sense of self, it's easy to make parenting your entire identity. It becomes, “I'm just a mom,” or, “I'm just a dad,” as though there's nothing else to you beyond that role.But another really important piece is that emotionally immature parents tend to have very rigid rules. They hold strong expectations, and they genuinely believe terrible things will happen if those rules are broken.If you grow up in that environment—especially without a strong sense of self—you internalize those rules. You come to believe that's simply how the world works.Then you become a parent, your children start doing what children naturally do, and they break those rules. They talk back. They get angry. They push limits. Those are completely developmentally appropriate behaviors, but they activate tremendous fear inside you.You don't necessarily realize that's what's happening. You may even feel your reactions are completely justified. But underneath those reactions is the terror you learned as a child. Because those behaviors weren't allowed in your own home, seeing your children do them feels profoundly threatening.Without realizing it, you begin responding to your child as though they're doing something terribly wrong.Sarah: I see that all the time with the parents I work with.If your child does something that would have been dangerous for you to do as a child—whether literally dangerous or emotionally dangerous—it becomes a huge trigger.Your five-year-old self is saying, “Kids aren't allowed to do that. Kids shouldn't do that. If you do that, you're not going to get the love you need.”Morgan: Exactly.Your nervous system remembers, “Bad things happen when this happens.”Another piece of this wound is that we often don't realize we've grown up. A part of us still feels eight years old.So when your own child is screaming, getting angry, or breaking the rules, part of your body reacts as though you're the child who's about to get in trouble. It says, “We're not allowed to do this. Last time this happened, I got hurt. You need to stop. You need to be quiet.”The difference is that now we're the adult. We're bigger. We're more powerful. So we may respond with that same power to shut our child down.For many parents, that reaction comes from a very real place of, “I get hurt when people scream. I get hurt when these rules are broken. This has to stop.”Sarah: Yeah. Shut it down.How does someone heal from having been raised by an emotionally immature parent? I realize that's your life's work, so it's not a simple question, but where does healing begin?Morgan: The biggest thing to understand is that this is a relational trauma, so it has to heal in the context of relationship.As a therapist, I'm obviously biased toward therapy, but healing can happen through a coaching relationship, a healthy romantic relationship, or any relationship that offers consistent corrective experiences.We need experiences where we express our emotions and someone stays. We need experiences where we express a need and someone genuinely wants to meet that need.We have to update the template.Insight alone isn't enough. Reading about it isn't enough. We actually have to experience someone caring about us.Sarah: So it's almost like reprogramming.Morgan: Exactly.It's a real reprogramming process.Our children can certainly be part of that healing journey, but they can't become the people who heal us. We have to be very careful not to recruit them into that role.Sarah: Can we heal ourselves by being a different parent to our children than we had? Do you know what I mean? Can it work in that direction? Could that be part of the healing process?Morgan: Absolutely. There is something deeply healing about getting down on your child's level and offering them the validation that you never received yourself.At the same time, we have to be very careful not to parent our children as though they needed the parent that we needed.Sarah: Because they're their own people.Morgan: Exactly. They're their own people. They need the parent they need.If we get caught in the idea that, “I just need to give my children what I never had,” we actually end up missing a lot about who our child is. We stop learning about them because we've already decided what they need. We think, “They're crying because of this,” or, “They're upset with me because of that,” or, “They're struggling in school because of this. I know exactly what's happening because this is what I didn't get, so I'll just keep doing the opposite.”Meanwhile, our children are giving us a million different communications about who they are, what they're feeling, and what's actually going on for them, and we're missing all of it because we're so committed to this one version of parenting.Sarah: I also find it can make parents pretty reactive.I work with a lot of parents who grew up with neglect. They're actually wonderful parents, but then their child behaves like a perfectly typical five-year-old and, internally, they're thinking, “Wait a minute. I'm giving you everything I never got. How can you still be crying, yelling, and telling me I'm the worst mother in the world?”Their own experience of believing, “If only I'd had this...” creates an unrealistic expectation of how their child should behave.Morgan: Totally.Where there's been a lot of neglect, there's often an internalized rule that says, “Don't be seen. Don't be heard. Be quiet. Take up as little space as possible.”So when your own child takes up a lot of space—expressing big emotions, having big reactions—that can feel incredibly frightening.What we don't realize in those moments is that your child's willingness to express their feelings, even to tell you they hate you, is actually a sign that they feel safe enough to do that.It's not your job to talk them out of their feelings. It's your job to help them metabolize those feelings—to help make those emotions digestible for them—rather than trying to change them or shame them out of having them. They don't need you to erase their feelings. They need you to help them move through them.Sarah: In peaceful parenting, we talk about welcoming feelings.What about maintaining a relationship with an emotionally immature parent? I actually kind of know the answer because I've taken your masterclass. What's it called again?Morgan: Protect Your Peace.Sarah: Protect Your Peace. Yes. It's wonderful. We'll link to it because I recommend it for everyone.But how do you think about having—or not having—a relationship with an emotionally immature parent?Morgan: It really depends on whether you genuinely want that relationship.Emotionally immature parents often raise their children using obligation and guilt, so you grow up without even realizing that you have choices. You're recruited into following their expectations, and then one day you become an adult and realize you actually don't enjoy this relationship with your parent—or maybe you don't even want one—but it doesn't feel like that's an option.So the first step is taking it up with yourself.Do I actually want this relationship? And if I do, why?Not from a place of pressure or with some hidden agenda. Even when people come to work with me one-on-one, unless someone is experiencing ongoing abuse, I don't have an opinion about whether they should stay in contact with their parent. The healing work is learning to reconnect with your own sense of self, your own needs, and your own desires. I'm not going to become another authority figure telling someone what they should do.Instead, I encourage people to ask themselves, “If I do want this relationship, what do I want it to look like?”Boundaries don't really exist in emotionally immature family systems. If you grew up with an emotionally immature parent, chances are you struggle with boundaries. So I ask people to imagine what it would look like if they actually got to customize this relationship.Would you call as often as you do now? Would you attend every family gathering? Would you have a separate phone number just for them? What would you put in place to protect yourself while still maintaining the relationship, if that's what you genuinely wanted?Sarah: Because there may be reasons to continue the relationship.Maybe you have a wonderful relationship with your other parent and you want to preserve that. I can imagine there are very thoughtful—not in a negative sense, but very intentional—reasons someone might choose to stay in a relationship they otherwise wouldn't.Morgan: One hundred percent.And sometimes people don't really have a choice. They may still be living with their parents. There may be financial realities to consider.There's also a very real psychological cost to going no-contact with a parent. It's not an easy decision, even though a lot of online conversations make it sound simple. For the adult children of emotionally immature parents, that decision is often something they've wrestled with internally for years before they even consider it.Most people don't want to jump straight to no contact.Instead, they'll often begin by saying, “Let me see what happens if I put some boundaries in place first. If I'm going to have this relationship, here's what I need it to look like.”Sarah: Can you give an example of what one of those boundaries or parameters might look like?Morgan: Sure.It might be something like, “I'll have one twenty-minute phone call every Sunday.” Or, “I don't answer the phone during my workday because I'm working.”Some people even block their parent's number and only unblock it when they're ready to call. Others use a second phone line app where all of their parent's texts and calls go, but they turn off the notifications so they only check it when they choose to.Boundaries can also involve where you go and what you participate in. Do you attend every wedding? Every Christmas dinner? Every family event?Or they might involve what happens when you're together. Maybe you've decided that if a certain topic comes up, you'll say, “I don't want to talk about that.” If your parent continues, you might say, “If we're going to keep talking about this, I'm going to leave.” And if they continue, you actually leave.That's what makes it a boundary—you follow through.Ultimately, it comes back to recognizing that this is someone you don't feel emotionally or psychologically safe around. Once you accept that, it becomes much easier to ask yourself what you need in order to protect your peace.People start realizing things like, “I don't want to discuss this topic,” or, “I don't want to stay on the phone for an hour because all they do is talk at me,” or, “I can't answer calls in the middle of my workday.” Once you start giving yourself permission to prioritize your own safety, those answers often become surprisingly clear.Sarah: And just to be clear, I know this is what you mean, but for anyone listening, a boundary is something you do. It's not something you make another person do.Morgan: Exactly.A boundary is really an if-then statement.“If you continue criticizing my body, then I'm going to leave.”Sarah: Right. The boundary isn't, “You're not allowed to criticize my body,” because you can't control another person. You can only decide what you're going to do if they continue.Morgan: Exactly. We have zero control over another person's behavior.Once we reconnect with ourselves, we stop asking, “How do I make my parent stop doing this?” and start asking, “Given that I can't control them, what control do I actually have?”I can hang up the phone. I can leave. I can tell them I didn't appreciate what they said. I can choose not to attend the next family event. I can change the subject.It's always about what I'm going to do rather than trying to control someone else.Sarah: Do you ever see emotionally immature parents genuinely change?Morgan: Is it common? No.Does it happen? Absolutely.I've seen it happen in my own practice, and I've had clients tell me about meaningful changes they've experienced with their parents.If someone is on the milder end of emotional immaturity and they truly realize they're at risk of losing their relationship with their children, some parents do choose to go to therapy. They do the work. They genuinely try to repair.But, in my experience, they're the minority.It takes an enormous amount of self-awareness. It requires being willing to recognize that you've caused harm.Sarah: Which is exactly what's so difficult in the first place, right? That lack of self-awareness is part of what created the problem.Morgan: Exactly.It's a lack of self-awareness, but it's also a lack of capacity to tolerate being the “bad guy.”Emotionally immature parents often play a game of trying to identify who the bad person is, and somehow it's always someone else.When their adult child says, “You really hurt me when you did this,” or, “I'm still struggling because of the way you treated me growing up,” some parents become incredibly skilled at finding explanations for why it wasn't actually their fault—why circumstances made them do it, or why the child was really the problem.Those are parents who, at least in that moment, aren't able to repair because they simply can't tolerate the idea that they've done something wrong.There can be an enormous amount of shame underneath that, especially if they're already carrying years of unresolved shame from their own childhood experiences.It takes a tremendous amount of emotional capacity to stay present with that and choose repair instead.Sarah: One thing I saw on your Instagram really caught my attention. You were talking about how people often say, “Well, I was doing the best I could,” and you took issue with that.I always teach that people are doing the best they can. That's genuinely a philosophy I hold. But I would add, “Sometimes your best still wasn't good enough.”Would you agree with that?Morgan: One hundred percent.The issue I take with the phrase, “They were doing the best they could,” or, “I was doing the best I could,” is that, all of a sudden, we've left the adult child's experience and shifted entirely into the parent's experience.The child has just brought you mountains of pain about things you've done, and suddenly the conversation becomes a justification. It becomes a rationalization. We're no longer learning anything about the child's experience because the conversation has been shut down by the statement, “I was doing the best I could.”In that moment, it isn't actually helpful. It's functioning to protect the parent, which is exactly what that family system has always been organized around.At its core, it's almost a semantic argument. What does “doing your best” actually mean? Is it Olympic-level effort every single day? That's not really the point.The point is that we've once again centered the parent's experience and stopped being curious about the child's.Sarah: Right. I think if a parent could say, “I did the best I could, and I realize it wasn't good enough,” that could actually be very healing for everyone involved.Morgan: Totally.As long as the next sentence is, “Tell me more... and I can take it.”That's really the crucial part.More than anything else, children need to know that their parent can survive their feelings. Whether a parent is emotionally immature or not, if a child grows up believing, “My parent can handle my emotions,” that child is much more likely to become emotionally healthy.Too often, though, emotionally immature parents experience their child's feelings as personal attacks. The child learns that their parent can't survive those feelings.And if Mom can't survive my anger, or Dad can't survive my frustration, then how am I supposed to survive these enormous feelings?Sarah: That makes so much sense.That's exactly what we teach in peaceful parenting, too—that by staying grounded when our children have big emotions, we're teaching them that feelings aren't emergencies. They learn emotional regulation by watching us not become overwhelmed by their feelings.Tell me about emotionally immature parents as grandparents. Do you see the same patterns showing up, or is the relationship with grandchildren different?Morgan: In my experience, emotionally immature parents often try much harder with their grandchildren.Sometimes I think that's still connected to image management. They want to be seen as the wonderful grandparent. But they're also older by that stage, and grandchildren represent something of a fresh start.Here's someone who doesn't yet have years of hurt or disappointment with them. Here's another opportunity to be liked, to be admired, to build a relationship. So I often see them showing up with more effort and a little more tolerance than they had with their own children. They also tend to feel less threatened because these aren't their children to raise.That said, many adult children become very protective of their own kids. They may decide, “Even if you're somewhat better than you used to be, you still aren't emotionally safe for my child.”Sarah: Right. They're still centering themselves.Morgan: Exactly.It's still coming from a place of wanting to be seen as a certain kind of grandparent. Sometimes grandchildren become another bargaining chip—another thing the adult child supposedly owes them. Access to the grandchildren becomes another arena where the family drama can play out.Sarah: Yeah. Holy heck.You and I both talk about delighting in your child.When I teach it, I explain that children learn to see themselves through our eyes, and delight is also such a powerful way to build connection. For anyone listening who hasn't heard either of us talk about it, I describe it as letting the love you already feel in your heart actually show on your face.Talk to me about the role delight plays in your work.Morgan: This is something that the adult children of emotionally immature parents yearn for more than almost anything else—to simply be delighted in.For me, delight looks like a parent who genuinely wonders about their child. A parent who lets themselves be amazed by who their child is, especially in the places where that child is different from them.Imagine an incredibly athletic parent raising a deeply artistic child. Instead of trying to change them, that parent watches with curiosity and wonder. They're moved by who their child naturally is.That communicates something incredibly powerful: You matter to me exactly as you are.There's no agenda. There's no performance required. Your authentic, messy, imperfect self moves me.Every child needs that experience because it's permission to keep exploring who they are. It's permission to feel worthy of love, connection, and care. It creates this deeply rooted sense of, “I belong here. I exist. Who I am is good enough for this world.”That's the template we want our children growing up with.For emotionally immature parents, that kind of delight can feel threatening because it requires surrendering control. But it's really the sweetest part of parenting. It's what children are longing for at their core.Sarah: It's the best.There's a quote—I think it's from Pam Leo—that says every child needs to know there's one person who thinks they're the sun, the moon, and the stars all wrapped up into one wonderful human being.Sometimes parents ask me, “Shouldn't my child have a more realistic understanding of how the world works?”And I always tell them, “The world will teach them that. You don't have to.”Morgan: Exactly.The world is going to be hard enough. Your child doesn't need you to prepare them by becoming another source of that hardness.They're going to encounter disappointment, rejection, and criticism out in the world. What they need is a safe place to come back to.Knowing there's always someone in their corner allows them to face that big, scary world much more confidently. Eventually, it isn't even a conscious thought of, “If everything falls apart, I can always go home.”Instead, it becomes a felt sense.“I'll be okay.”That feeling becomes woven into who they are because, throughout their life, someone consistently had their back.Sarah: I've interviewed several adults on the podcast who were bullied as children.One man told me, “My parents loved me so much. I always knew they liked me. They genuinely thought I was wonderful.”He said he was bullied terribly, especially in middle school, but it never really damaged his self-esteem because he always had that foundation at home. His parents carried him through those experiences, and they didn't leave lasting scars.Morgan: That gives me goosebumps.I work with so many childhood trauma survivors and adult children of emotionally immature parents who say something very different. They'll tell me, “I know my parent loved me, but I never felt like they liked me.”They felt looked at with disgust, contempt, disappointment, or criticism. They didn't feel enjoyed.Being liked by your parent is profoundly different from simply being loved by them.I completely agree with your guest. There really is something deeply protective—almost insulating—about growing up knowing your parent genuinely likes who you are.Sarah: What if you recognize that your partner is an emotionally immature parent?Morgan: The first step is to honestly assess the capacity for communication within the relationship.Like we've talked about, all of us have emotionally immature moments. That's why these conversations are worth having. You want to be on the same page about parenting. How are we going to respond when our child has big emotions? What are we going to do when discipline is needed? Can we agree on the kind of parents we want to be?The way your partner responds to those conversations gives you important information.If you're consistently met with defensiveness, denial, minimization, or ridicule, that may be a sign that couples therapy would be helpful, assuming you're continuing the relationship.At the same time, your responsibility is to protect your child. You want to make sure that, regardless of what's happening elsewhere, your child feels emotionally safe with you.It always begins with trying to have those conversations and seeing whether your partner demonstrates a willingness to grow in emotional maturity—or whether you're continually running into defenses and distortions that make genuine change very difficult.Sarah: Is it possible for one parent's influence to be enough to protect a child from the other parent's influence?Morgan: “Enough” is an interesting word because I'd want to know what metric we're using.Is one emotionally healthy parent better than none? Absolutely. Without question.If a child has even one safe base, that alone provides an incredible amount of protection. It creates a buffer. It creates insulation.That doesn't mean the other parent's emotional immaturity won't affect them. It certainly can.But we also know that one of the biggest factors in whether a painful experience becomes traumatic isn't just what happened—it's whether there's anyone afterward to help you process it. Trauma isn't only about going through something painful. It's also about having no one afterward to help you make sense of it, regulate it, or feel supported through it.So if a child has one parent who can help them process what happened, who can reconnect with them after those difficult moments, they're in a much better position.Sarah: Yeah, absolutely.Okay, what should I have asked you that I didn't? Is there anything important we missed?Morgan: One thing I'm often talking about is helping parents stop taking their child's emotions as personal attacks.Parents frequently make these automatic connections: My child is angry, therefore they're being disrespectful. Or, My child is shutting down, therefore I'm a bad mom or dad.The reality is that children have a million different reasons for feeling what they're feeling.It's incredibly helpful if, in those moments, you can temporarily remove yourself from the equation. Instead of immediately assuming it's about you, get curious. Stay with your child. Ask questions. Try to understand what's happening in their world before creating a story about what's happening in yours.We often assume we already know why our child feels the way they do, but we usually don't.Step into their world with curiosity instead.If it is about you, and you're a safe parent, they'll tell you.Then you can take that information up with yourself, talk about it together, and repair if necessary. But first, we have to give children the freedom to have their feelings.That's incredibly important.Sarah: That's beautiful.Our work is so aligned. I'm really grateful you came on the podcast today. I'm sure parents are going to learn a lot from this conversation and want to learn more.Where's the best place for people to find you and your work?Morgan: You can find me on Instagram at @morganpommells. My last name is spelled P-O-M-M-E-L-L-S.Come on over. We talk about emotionally immature parents all the time.Sarah: We'll put all the links in the show notes, including your masterclass.Is that available all the time now?Morgan: Yes. Protect Your Peace is available anytime.Sarah: Perfect.Okay, final question.What's one thing you wish every parent knew?Morgan: I wish every parent knew that they need to work their own s**t out, or else their s**t is going to raise their kids.More often than not, the reaction you're having, the story you're telling yourself, the urgency you feel to immediately fix or stop something—that's about your stuff.Before turning toward your child, pause and turn toward yourself first.Ask yourself, What just happened inside me? Why is this particular behavior so triggering? Why is this reaction bringing up something so intense?That's incredibly important data about you. In that moment, it's usually much more about you than it is about your child.Sarah: It's so hard because I think a lot of people believe they've already done a tremendous amount of personal work before they have kids.But in my own experience, and from years of coaching parents, there's a whole layer you simply can't access until you become a parent.My husband and I were talking about this the other day. We had our first child when we were thirty, and we've often joked that if we'd started younger, maybe we would've had more children.He said, “I don't know. I probably needed more time to work on my stuff.”And I said, “I don't actually think your stuff would've shown up. Whether we'd had kids at twenty-five, thirty-five, or forty, there's a whole layer that simply doesn't emerge until you become a parent.”Morgan: Exactly.The portal hasn't been unlocked yet.Parenthood opens an entirely different window into yourself. It activates parts of you that often stay completely dormant until you have children.There are aspects of yourself that may never become activated at all if you don't become a parent. Parenting has a unique way of bringing those hidden parts to the surface.Sarah: Think of all those blissfully happy people out there without children who don't even know what their issues are.Morgan: They're living a very blissful life.Sarah: Well, thank you so much, Morgan. It's been such a pleasure.We'll put links to all of your work in the show notes, and thank you so much for coming on the podcast. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahrosensweet.substack.com/subscribe

Dr. Vitz talks more about the 5 components of emotional insobriety, including the behaviors we engage when we are emotionally intoxicated.(Originally aired 10-16-2025)

Lately I've been navigating elder care, parenting a teenager, running a business, nurturing a marriage, and moving through perimenopause. And if I'm being honest, there are days when I feel exhausted. The question is why. In this episode, I explore a distinction that has become incredibly important in my own life: the difference between physical fatigue and emotional fatigue. Because while they can feel similar, they require very different forms of care. When we misidentify the source of our exhaustion, we often pour our energy into solutions that leave us feeling even more depleted. Understanding the difference may be the first step toward giving yourself what you actually need. Note: This is Part One of a two-part series. Part Two publishes July 21. Ready to go deeper? Grab my book, The Consistency Code: A Midlife Woman's Guide to Deep Health and Happiness, at https://theconsistencycode.com  #GraceAndGrit #EmotionalFatigue #MidlifeWomen #Perimenopause #Burnout #NervousSystem #WomensWellness #DeepHealth #ElderCare #SelfCare

Self-care podcast exploring Why You Emotionally Eat at Night (Even When You Were 'Good' All Day), The 'Last Chance' Mentality and Scarcity Around Food & Ways to Overcome Nighttime Emotional Eating. TOPICS:: ** Why You Emotionally Eat at Night (Even When You Were 'Good' All Day) (07:45). ** The 'Last Chance' Mentality and Scarcity Around Food (24:01). ** Ways to Overcome Nighttime Emotional Eating (30:51).   NOTES:: Show notes: amberapproved.ca/podcast/680 Leave me a review at amberapproved.ca/review Email me at info@amberapproved.ca   Take the NEW Free Hormone Imbalance Quiz here: https://amberapproved.ca/hormone-imbalance-quiz    Subscribe to newsletter: https://amber-romaniuk.mykajabi.com/newsletter-sign-up    SHOW LINKS: Click below to schedule a 30 minute Complimentary Body Freedom Consultation https://amberapproved.ca/body-freedom-consultation/  Take my free Emotional Eating Quiz here: http://amberapproved.ca/emotional-eating-quiz Listen to Episode 668 about what it's like to work with me here: https://amberapproved.ca/podcast/668  Follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/amberromaniuk Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@amberromaniuk/  MY PARTNERS: Designs For Health Blood Sugar Bundle! One of the hardest parts of overcoming my emotional eating was the INSANE SUGAR and carb cravings. It was the intense sugar and carb cravings. That's why I created my Blood Sugar Bundle with Designs for Health to support your body while you work on emotional eating and breaking binge patterns. It includes chromium for blood sugar balance, L-glutamine to help curb cravings fast, a high-quality probiotic for gut health, and a clean Pure Paleo protein powder to keep you full and stable. I only recommend Designs for Health to my clients because they are third-party tested, family-owned, and use the highest quality ingredients. Quality matters when it comes to truly supporting your body and getting results. Get 30% off The Blood Sugar Bundle in USA and Canada automatically applied at checkout below! Canada Blood Sugar Bundle here for 30% off!  USA Blood Sugar Bundle here for 30% off! You can also get 30% off any Designs for Health supplements anytime, it's my gift to you. Canada: www.designsforhealth.ca  (code AMBER30) USA: www.designsforhealth.com (code AMBER88)

— Most women in disconnected marriages have read the books, tried the conversations, and done their own healing work — and still can't reach him. In this episode, licensed clinical therapist and certified sex therapist Stephanie Larsen explains what's actually happening neurologically and relationally when a man emotionally shuts down — and why it almost always traces back to wiring built in childhood, not a failure of love. She breaks down the nervous system patterns that keep men emotionally unavailable, what women misread as rejection or indifference, and what creates the conditions for a man to come back online relationally. This conversation gives women a clinical map they've never had — and gives men a language for something they've never been able to name. Valeria interviews Stephanie Larsen — She is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, AASECT-Certified Sex Therapist, and founder of the Men's Intimacy Blueprint, a clinical framework helping high-functioning married men rebuild emotional and sexual intimacy from the inside out. To learn more about Stephanie Larsen and her work, please visit: https://www.restorebehavioral.com/ and https://www.restorewithsteph.com/ Substack:  mensintimacyblueprint.substack.com Instagram: @mensintimacyblueprint YouTube:   @mensintimacyblueprint LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-larsen-lcpc-cst-e-ryt-aa482368/

In this episode, we talk about building emotional intelligence and how to become more in-tune with your partner's emotional world. Check us out on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Coach Craig Kenneth⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get Craig's help personally: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.askcraig.net/take-action/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get Victoria's help: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.askcraig.net/victoria⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Craig's workbook series: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.askcraig.net/workbooks-1/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get Started on the Creative Healing Course: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://courses.askcraig.net/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Jared and Jordana begin today's Friday Feels by talking about the viral memoir Strangers and why breakup books hit differently than breakup TikToks! They reminisce about their fully remote recording days and how pandemic dating advice was really different and its own time vault. J&J get into your dating questions, answering a petty or prudent: reporting your cheating ex to his college professor, and also can you rebuild trust after years of secret dating apps and lies? Sometimes searching for answers can keep you stuck in the wrong relationship! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why is being a “ride or die” for a narcissistic or toxic partner is one of the worst decisions you can make, from the perspective of a clinically diagnosed narcissist who's watched survivors emotionally die in these relationships. We'll talk about how narcissists play the victim to hook your empathy, convince you that everyone has abandoned them, and turn your loyalty into a one‑way street where you sacrifice friends, family, and boundaries while they give you nothing back. I'll explain the difference between a real ride‑or‑die bond (symbiotic, both people benefit) and the parasitic version with a narcissist, where your emotional “gold mine” gets pillaged until you barely recognize yourself. If you've ever felt like you were riding till you die for someone who wouldn't cross the street for you, this video will help you name what's happening, stop confusing exploitation for loyalty, and start choosing your own life over their chaosBook a Coaching Session: [⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.me/mentalhealness⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠]

Every marriage goes through difficult seasons. But what happens when you're the only one willing to do the work? When every conversation ends in blame, defensiveness, or silence? When you're trying to repair the relationship, but your partner refuses to take responsibility? In this week's episode, Dr. Alison sits down with licensed clinical social worker and relationship expert Leslie Vernick to explore the difference between a marriage that's simply hard and one that's become emotionally destructive. Together, they unpack the patterns that quietly erode trust, why healthy relationships require repair, and how to begin reclaiming your own stability—even if your spouse never changes. You'll learn: The difference between a difficult marriage and an emotionally destructive one Why repair—not perfection—is the mark of a healthy relationship The warning signs of blame, gaslighting, and chronic deflection How to stop centering your life around changing another person Why becoming a God-centered person changes the way you navigate unhealthy relationships Practical first steps you can take when you're the only one pursuing growth Whether you're navigating a difficult marriage yourself or supporting someone who is, this conversation offers wisdom, compassion, and hope. Because healing doesn't always begin when someone else changes. Sometimes it begins when you discover what it looks like to stand on your own two feet while remaining deeply rooted in God. Take Leslie's free quiz “Are you in an emotionally destructive marriage?” Make sure to read Leslie's book “The Emotionally Destructive Relationship: Seeing it, Stopping It, Surviving It” More Resources: You can now preorder Dr. Alison's newest book, The Secure Soul, and immediately receive the first 3 chapters as well as early access to the companion guide! Connect further with @dralisoncook on Instagram Curious what Family Role may have shaped you? Take the Family Role Quiz to learn how you may be showing up in your relationships with others. Want to hear more like this? Start here: Episode 203: Staying Close When Connection Feels Hard—The Relationship Skills No One Taught You (with Relationship Expert Dr. James Cordova)

"Is it possible to become emotionally resilient, so that you can handle all of the things that you face as a fertility patient without feeling overwhelmed and triggered constantly?" I get this question all. the. time, and today I'm excited to have Abbe Feder of Incircle Fertility on to share tips, tricks, and mindset shifts with us! Tip 1: Be kind to yourself, and know that things like baby announcements, or nosy questions from family members are triggering to many fertility patients. That doesn't make it easier, but it might help to know you're not alone in the feelings. Some of these triggers can come from unexpected places. Tip 2: To work through triggers: talk about the trigger, acknowledge the trigger, become aware of what triggers you, and then "figure out what works best for you to get past the trigger" when they do come up. Tip 3: Allow yourself to feel your emotions. Don't push them aside. Find a trusted friend, family member, spouse, partner or coach to help you. They don't have to understand what you're going through, the key is that they are able to listen to you and let you talk. Abbe Feder is a fertility coach and the founder and CEO of InCircle Fertility. She and her husband host the podcast Maculate Conception, and she is the creator of the (In)Fertility Cards of Affirmation. We had the pleasure of meeting at a panel with Fertility Rally and I could not be more excited to have her on the show to talk about how to be emotionally resilient during fertility treatment. Today, we're talking about what it means to be a fertility coach, how to find support for your journey, and how to develop more resiliency when facing the ups and downs of being a fertility patient. You can find Abbe's site for InCircle Fertility here: https://www.incirclefertility.com/ Find the full show notes on Dr. Aimee's website. Do you have questions about IVF? Join Dr. Aimee for The IVF Class at The Egg Whisperer School. The next live class call is on Monday, August 17th at 4pm PST, where Dr. Aimee will explain IVF and there will be time to ask her your questions live on Zoom.   Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more fertility tips!Join Egg Whisperer School  Subscribe to the newsletter to get updates Dr. Aimee Eyvazzadeh is one of America's most well known fertility doctors. Her success rate at baby-making is what gives future parents hope when all hope is lost. She pioneered the TUSHY Method and BALLS Method to decrease your time to pregnancy. Learn more about the TUSHY Method and find a wealth of fertility resources at www.draimee.org.

Can you have faith and still struggle emotionally? Many people assume that if they have enough faith, they'll never feel discouraged, anxious, overwhelmed, or emotionally exhausted. But is that really what the Bible teaches? In this episode of How to Win, we explore what faith looks like during difficult emotional seasons. We discuss the difference between struggling and losing faith, how to trust God when emotions are heavy, and why honest faith can lead to deeper spiritual growth. If you've ever wondered whether your emotions and your faith can coexist, this conversation is for you. Have you ever experienced a season where your faith and emotions were in tension? Share your thoughts in the comments—we'd love to hear from you. If this episode encouraged you, be sure to like, subscribe, and share it with someone who may need this message today.

Dr. Lindsay Gibson's first book, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, gave millions of people language for what happened to them growing up. Her new book flips the lens for the people who are now raising kids of their own and are quietly terrified of passing it all down. Whitney sits down with her to talk about what actually builds emotional maturity in a child, and what to do in the moments your own immaturity shows up.In this episode, you'll learn:Why the fear of becoming your own parents is often a sign you won'tWhat emotional maturity actually looks like at different ages, from newborn to teenagerWhy ruling through fear works in the short term and costs you the relationship long termHow to repair with your child in a way that actually changes the pattern instead of pseudo-apologizingWhy you don't have to be the perfect source of everything for your kidConnect with Dr. Lindsay GibsonGet her new book, How to Raise an Emotionally Mature Child: https://amzn.to/4fbX135 [this is an affiliate link - as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at not additional cost to you.]Whitney Goodman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and the founder of Calling Home, a membership community that helps people navigate complex family dynamics and break harmful cycles.Have a question for Whitney? Send a voice memo or email to whitney@callinghome.coJoin the Family Cyclebreakers Club: https://callinghome.coFollow Whitney on Instagram | sitwithwhitFollow Whitney on YouTube | @whitneygoodmanlmftOrder Whitney's book, Toxic Positivity: https://sitwithwhit.com/toxic-positivitySign up for updates on Whitney's new book: https://cmnyyv4kpyt.typeform.com/to/PHMzjy0oThis podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health advice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.