Podcasts about finding meaning

Send us Fan MailFinding Meaning Through Viktor Frankl, Chabad Chassidus & TherapyIn this episode of From The Inside Out Podcast with Rivkah Krinsky and Eda Schottenstein, we interview Rabbi Daniel Schonbuch, a therapist and author of "Viktor Frankl and the Psychology of the Soul," about integrating CBT, marriage/family therapy, Viktor Frankl's logotherapy, and Chabad Chassidus. Schonbuch explains Frankl's core idea that humans are driven by meaning, not pleasure or power, and outlines three ways to find meaning: purposeful work, love/experience, and changing one's attitude when suffering can't be avoided. He describes creating TorahPsychology.org, holding Hakhel conferences inspired by the Rebbe's encouragement and a message sent to Frankl, and using a 30-day logotherapy workbook to reduce depression and anxiety. The conversation also covers shared meaning in marriage, rising divorce and estrangement, parenting tools (I=QR, connection/communication/reduced control), reflective listening, trauma and meaning, and incorporating Mitteler Rebbe  teachings and “Tracht gut vet zein gut.”EPISODE SPONSORSYakira BellaYakira Bella is a modest, beautiful clothing brand with dresses that look and feel like designer pieces — elegant, well-made, and made to move with you all night — without the designer price tag. Their pieces get noticed and get compliments every time, and they're proud to be a brand featured on our podcast. Check out the link in our show notes. 

The New York Times best-selling author's new memoir, Crying in the Bathroom, dives deep into mental illness, desire, “life and death” decisions and the power of creating the life you are worthy of. Follow Erika on Instagram @erikalsanchez. If you loved this episode, listen to Julissa Natzely Arce Raya Wants You to Reclaim Your Identity and Why Novelist Xochitl Gonzalez Isn't Done Being Ambitious. Show your love and become a Latina to Latina Patreon supporter! This episode is sponsored by MAUI MOISTURE®. All of MAUI MOISTURE® vegan haircare products are made with 100% Aloe Vera as the first ingredient to hydrate hair across the curl spectrum. They have everything you need for wash day and general upkeep; Shampoos and Conditioners, Treatments, Oils, and Stylers that leave hair flake-free with no residue! For a limited time, Latina to Latina listeners get 15% off select MAUI MOISTURE® products on Amazon. Buy your new favorite hair products and take advantage of the special offer only open to our listeners. Just visit the link created for our show: tiny.cc/mauimoisture Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Listen to the message from August 30th, 2026 by Pastor Brendan Megyesi on finding and meaning and purpose through the God who gives us life!Website https://www.lansdale.church/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lansdale.churchYouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuUsGDGeFmzHJIxZsEiBTWwInstagram https://www.instagram.com/lansdale.church/Immanuel Sermons https://anchor.fm/lansdalechurchImmanuel Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://anchor.fm/immanuelpodcasts⁠

The Metaphysical Hour with Julia Cannon and Tracie Mahan Trust the Shift: Eclipse Energy, Empathic Connection, Signs From Beyond, and Synchronicity Summary Technical Challenges Turn Into Community Connection The episode opens amid power and streaming problems at the broadcast operation, forcing the hosts to use an older workflow and direct listeners to a single Facebook location for comments and questions. Julia Cannon, her co-host, and Tiffany repeatedly help the audience navigate the disruption while joking about frozen video, missing connections, and the improvised nature of the broadcast. Rather than allowing the technical trouble to derail the program, they turn it into part of the conversation. Listeners report in from locations including Pennsylvania and Tasmania. The hosts emphasize that audience participation matters because each person contributes to what they describe as a larger energetic grid. The lighthearted handling of the breakdown establishes a recurring theme of adapting, trusting, and continuing despite imperfect circumstances. Eclipse Energy, Fatigue, and a Feeling of Lightness A substantial early discussion centers on the recent eclipse and the speakers' personal impressions of fatigue, heaviness, slowed productivity, and a later sense of relief or lightness. One speaker describes intentionally trying not to follow eclipse commentary so she could judge her own experience without expecting a particular result. She then compares her feelings with those of Kaya and Jenny, noting similarities in descriptions of being unable to catch up and then suddenly feeling lighter. Tiffany adds that she had been unusually tired and had taken a deep nap. The hosts treat these observations as personal experiences rather than scientific conclusions, while connecting them to their broader metaphysical interest in lunar cycles, astrology, and energy. Humor remains central, with the group repeatedly joking that the moon can take the blame for both exhaustion and technical glitches. Retreat Plans, Santa Fe, and a Change Regarding Nepal The conversation shifts to an upcoming Santa Fe retreat, where the speakers anticipate hot springs, sound healing, a moon or skywatch ceremony, group activities, and time with like-minded people. They also discuss the practical difficulty of live-streaming increasingly large events and explain that the retreat program will be recorded for later broadcast rather than streamed live. The group teases a future United States retreat location while withholding the details. They then announce that a planned March retreat in Nepal has been removed from the schedule. Julia says she received a strong inner message that their type of work was not what Nepal most needed at that moment and that physical rebuilding and practical assistance were more important. The hosts express sadness, affection for the country and its people, and hope that they may return at a later time after a period of healing. Empaths, Emotional Amplification, and Communication An audience question from Alex asks how two empathic partners can cope when an upsetting situation affects both of them and their emotions amplify each other. The hosts frame the experience as part of heightened sensitivity and what they call telepathic awareness, extending beyond hearing thoughts to sensing feelings and reactions. Their central recommendation is repeated clearly: communicate. They encourage both partners to discuss what each is sensing rather than suppressing reactions, while remembering that each person interprets impressions through individual filters. When Alex clarifies that the problem is not conflict between the partners but the mutual amplification of outside stress, the hosts suggest asking what can be learned from the experience and whether it is prompting restructuring, new awareness, or a different direction. They also suggest that by learning to navigate the dynamic together, the couple may naturally model healthier communication for other people. Synchronicity, Grief, and Signs From Loved Ones The episode includes several stories about synchronicity and perceived signs from the other side. One co-host describes asking ChatGPT to play the role of a psychic and predict when her newly listed house might receive an offer; she is struck when the response favors September 11th, the anniversary of the date she says she originally bought the home. She then tells a family story in which a phone call or old message appears around an aunt's birthday, leading her mother to interpret it as a reminder from Grandma Mary. A listener named Mindy asks about grief after her mother's death and whether the eclipse might be contributing to a heavy feeling. The hosts encourage her to experience grief rather than run from it, while also inviting her to ask for unexpected signs from her mother. A gnat suddenly flying around one host becomes a humorous focal point when Mindy says she has been seeing gnats repeatedly, reinforcing the episode's theme that meaningful moments can arrive through ordinary events. Trust, QHHT, and Finding Meaning in the Unexpected The closing portion repeatedly returns to trust as a stabilizing principle during periods of change, loss, moving, and what the hosts describe as ascension. They encourage listeners to trust timing, allow old things to fall away, retain joy, and avoid treating every spiritual experience with excessive seriousness. A final synchronicity story involves arsenic found in the well at a house one co-host is moving into, followed the next day by a QHHT session in which a client describes a past-life death involving arsenic. The speaker emphasizes that the present-day water issue has a practical solution involving filtration while still finding the timing of the QHHT story remarkable. The hosts close with scheduling information for the Santa Fe retreat recording and direct listeners interested in QHHT training or sessions to qhhtofficial.com and its practitioner directory. The episode ends in the same playful tone with which it began, thanking the audience for finding the improvised broadcast and reminding listeners to remain open to trust, connection, and joy.

Running an ABA business can be incredibly rewarding, but it can also be demanding. Between operational challenges, leadership responsibilities, staffing, and the constant needs of the people you serve, it can be easy to lose sight of what made you want to do this work in the first place. In our final episode of National Wellness Month, April and Stephen explore what it means to rediscover and protect the joy of running an ABA business. They talk openly about the ways stress and routine can take over, and how intentional practices can help business owners reconnect with their purpose. April and Stephen share personal experiences, mindset shifts, and practical strategies for finding more meaning in the everyday moments of business ownership. From paying attention to your energy and tracking what brings you joy to practicing mindfulness and gratitude, this conversation offers a reminder that building a successful ABA business doesn't have to mean losing the enjoyment that comes with it. 

Ultra-endurance runner Jonathan Kuplack founder of Sebaste joins Trending with Timmerie: Episode Guide The Martyrs of Sebaste & Forming Young Men (1:54) Finding Meaning in Suffering (16:54) Realizing how common sex addiction is today (29:23) Help after a miscarriage (32:50) Lindsay Clancy case/SM post go weigh in! (35:18) RIP Dolly Parton (37:14) Tomorrow on Trending (50:56) Resources mentioned: Sebaste https://www.sebaste.org/ Thinking & Acting https://relevantradio.com/2026/08/thinking-acting/ Run So As To Win | Mammoth 200 Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYdMmtZsLNY MyCatholicDoctor.com NaPro doctor at Bella Primary Care https://bellaprimarycare.org/

Welcome to The SonRise Project! I'm Kelli Joy Richardson, and I would like to thank you for joining us in this safe space where all your questions on mental health, parenting, and emotional well-being are welcome.Joining me is Dr. LaVerne Collins, here to share her insights and offer encouragement as we navigate Finding Meaning in Our Hardest Seasons. Follow her on Instagram:  @new_seasons_ctcWhat You'll Learn:In this episode, Dr. LaVerne Collins speaks with wisdom and vulnerability about the seasons of life that bring us to our knees — the loss, the disappointment, the unexpected detours that leave us questioning everything we thought we knew. She will explore how to find purpose buried inside your pain, why our hardest seasons are often our greatest teachers, and how to hold onto hope when the path forward is anything but clear. A deeply moving and faith-filled conversation for anyone who is in the middle of a difficult chapter and desperately needs to be reminded that their suffering is not without meaning and their story is far from over.Join our Live Sunday Sessions: Don't miss our Sunday Motivational Support Call every Sunday at 9 AM EST.  It's a safe space for parents and caregivers to share, support each other, and gain motivation for the week ahead.Click Here to Register: https://www.thesonriseproject.org/weekly-calls-replays About The SonRise ProjectThe SonRise Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to supporting parents and caregivers in dealing with mental health or addiction issues. We provide a safe space to share and support each other with weekly conversations with experts, therapists, and people with shared lived experiences.Connect with UsWebsite: www.thesonriseproject.orgInstagram: The SonRise Project: @thesonriseprojectFacebook: The SonRise ProjectGuest - Dr. LaVerne Collins#MentalHealth #Parenting #SonRiseProject  #MentalWellness #Parents #Families #SelfCareSunday #DrLaVerneCollins #IamKelliJoy

In this episode of Atlanta Business Radio, hosted by Lee Kantor and brought to you by My Global Presence, Laura Simms of Your Career Homecoming shares how she helps high-achieving professionals create careers that align with meaning, money, and joy. Drawing from her own career transition from acting to coaching, Laura explains how professionals can […]

What do you do when you find yourself in the pit?In this reflection on Psalm 30, John Ortberg explores one of the Bible's most powerful metaphors for suffering: the pit, the depths, the darkness, Sheol.Sometimes the pit is grief.Sometimes it's depression, failure, anxiety, physical pain, a broken relationship, a dream that has died, or something completely beyond our control.And sometimes the night lasts much longer than we ever imagined.John shares personally about a season when the pain didn't go away the next day...or the next. One thought became especially important:It will not always be this way.That doesn't mean circumstances will immediately improve. It doesn't even mean things can't get worse. It means that even in the darkness, God can still be found.Psalm 30 says, “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”We don't know how long the night will last.But the night doesn't get the last word.In this episode:Psalm 30 and the biblical image of "the pit"What to do when suffering overwhelms youWhy "joy comes in the morning" isn't a formula or timelineFinding God in darknessPsalm 139 and finding God in SheolHow to keep going when circumstances don't improveWhy we can't lift ourselves out of every pitMourning and dancing existing togetherHope when the night feels endlessScriptures:Psalm 30 • Psalm 139:8 • Genesis 37 • Jeremiah 38 • Daniel 6 • Revelation 21:4#Psalm30 #JohnOrtberg #Psalms #Suffering #Hope #Prayer #SpiritualFormation #ChristianFaith #BibleStudy #Grief

In this AI debate, we explore: Whether humans will exist in 2040. What will happen once we reach AGI. Whether AI gets smart enough to act malevolently or benevolently towards humans. If AI will grow powerful enough to be out of human control. and much more... Guests Zack Kass is an AI futurist, advisor, speaker, and author. Liv Boeree is a physicist, science communicator, podcaster and former professional poker champion. Aric Floyd is an AI writer, and video producer. Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: ⁠https://chriswillx.com/deals⁠ Timestamps: (00:00) Will Humans Still Be Around in 2040? (08:20) What Jobs Will Be Protected From AI? (14:22) Finding Meaning in a Post-Work World (23:13) Technology Is Pulling Us From Our Purpose (27:12) Where Do We Draw the Line With Outsourcing Thinking? (39:58) Is AI Unlocking Human Potential? (42:28) Refusal or Obedience: What's More Dangerous? (46:01) The AI Attack That Should Worry Everyone (54:44) Should We Slow Down Advanced AI? (56:41) Does Recursive Research Actually Work? (01:10:52) How Safe Is AI? (01:14:01) Can We Reach a Peace Deal for a Superintelligent World? (01:22:38) Why AI 2040 Got So Much Right (01:26:21) Is AGI Inevitable? (01:30:39) Could Techno-Pastoralism Be the Future? (01:37:16) Is AI Replacing Human Connection? (01:45:36) How Do We Navigate the Purpose-Friction Problem? (02:00:50) Why Data Centre Policy Matters More Than Ever (02:05:56) The Concentration of Power Concern (02:11:39) Is the Frontier Strategy the Winning Condition? (02:18:17) Will AI Weaken Democracy? (02:29:11) How We Can Limit the Concentration of Power (02:31:45) Is ChatGPT Pessimistic About the Future? (02:37:54) What Should We Be Focused On? Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: ⁠https://chriswillx.com/books⁠ Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: ⁠https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom⁠ Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: ⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Goggins⁠ #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: ⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Peterson⁠ #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: ⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Huberman⁠ - Get In Touch: Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx⁠ Twitter: ⁠https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx⁠ YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast⁠ Email: ⁠https://chriswillx.com/contact⁠ - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're all looking for meaning in life in our own way. Poet and actor Lucas Jones reckons it doesn't really matter whether we call it God, The Universe, spirituality, or science, we all want to believe in the wonder in our world.In this chat, Fearne and Lucas bond over not being able to do small talk, instead wanting to deeply connect over their big feelings. They also both share their different experiences of having OCD.Lucas feels therapy is a brilliant thing – he's really benefitted from CBT – but wonders if the rise in therapy comes from a loss of real community. How can we truly listen to and connect with each other again?You can buy Lucas' book of poetry, I Still Believe In Miracles, now.If you liked this episode of Happy Place, you might also like:Will PoulterTuppence MiddletonPoppy Jamie Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Subscribe to our newsletter at Shtarktank.orgRav Hershel Schachter addresses one of the most persistent tensions in the frum professional world: does the ben Torah at work matter as much as the one in the beis medrash? Recorded live in partnership with the OU Israel Business Professionals Network, this episode includes the full shiur plus a Q&A.What's covered:Why Klal Yisrael needs doctors, lawyers, engineers, and businessmen just as much as it needs roshei yeshiva, and why the "learning is more important" mindset is a distortion, not a Torah valueThe little-known letter from Rav Elya Meir Bloch on why the religious world can't afford to run from Zionism, Tanach, or IvritA Q&A covering how much work is enough, whether a rabbi should be wealthy, balancing communal obligations against raising your own children, and a practical seder for using limited learning time (starting with Kitzur Shulchan Aruch)Why Rav Schachter has spent 30 years teaching high schoolers at NCSY Kollel, and what he sees in that generation

In this episode of The Mentors Radio Show, Host Tom Loarie talks with distinguished psychoanalyst Dr. James Hollis to discuss why a person might achieve what he or she wants in this life and still feel miserable? Hollis is the author of 19 books including Living Between Worlds, What Matters Most, and his top-selling Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life. He is well known for translating the profound teachings of Carl Jung into practical wisdom for our everyday lives. He has a gift for challenging us each to think more deeply and purposefully about our own lives, our own purpose and how we fit into this journey of life. He really understands people at a profound level, how we can become unconsciously “stuck” in ways we feel but don't know what to do about it. You don't want to miss this invaluable learning and mentoring opportunity…it literally can be a catalyst to change you and your life for the good, in ways you didn't recognize on the surface. It can literally change your life, your trajectory, your happiness! Listen to episode below, or on ANY PODCAST PLATFORM here. BE SURE TO LEAVE US A GREAT REVIEW on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share with friends and colleagues! SHOW NOTES: The Personal Myth in Turbulent Times – James Hollis, PhD. EXCELLENT! The longer you listen, the more absolutely excellent it is. Very enlightening. – The Mentors Radio JAMES HOLLIS, PH.D. BIO: https://jameshollis.net/hollisBioIndex.htm https://www.intheeveningoflife.org/thought-leaders/james-hollis/ WEBSITE: https://jameshollis.net/ BOOKS (partial list): Living Between Worlds: Finding Personal Resilience in Changing Times, by James Hollis, PhD Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to finally, really grow up, by James Hollis, PhD A Life of Meaning: Relocating Your Center of Spiritual Gravity, by James Hollis, PhD What Matters Most, Living a More Considered Life, by James Hollis, PhD VIDEO CLIPS: Encountering the Shadow, short video presentation by James Hollis PhD (4 minutes)

Why does life still feel confusing and unsatisfying even when we try to live wisely? In this introduction to Ecclesiastes, Dave Jenkins begins a journey through one of the Bible's most honest and searching books. Ecclesiastes confronts the temporary nature of life, the limits of success and pleasure, and humanity's search for lasting meaning. The Preacher describes life "under the sun" as vanity, a vapor that cannot be grasped or held. Wealth, achievement, pleasure, work, and human wisdom cannot ultimately satisfy the heart. Ecclesiastes forces us to face the reality of life in a fallen world and directs us toward the only One who can give lasting meaning. For more episodes of Reading the Bible Daily with Dave, visit: https://servantsofgrace.org/reading-the-bible-daily-with-dave/

Your grief is not the thing keeping you stuck. Running from it is. David Kessler spent years working alongside Elisabeth Kubler-Ross before everything he taught got tested against his own life, when his son died unexpectedly and the grief expert became the one who needed help. He talks about sitting in a grief group with his own books on the table and still not being able to say the words out loud. About discovering there is a stage past acceptance, one built on meaning instead of just getting through it. You will hear why anger is often just pain wearing a disguise, why your triggers are actually a map back to what needs healing, and why the people who seem to have it all together are usually the ones running the hardest. This conversation will change how you think about every hard thing you have survived and every hard thing still ahead. David's books: Finding Meaning: the Sixth Stage of Grief Workbook: Tools for Releasing Pain and Remembering with Love Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief You Can Heal Your Heart: Finding Peace After a Breakup, Divorce, or Death Visions, Trips, and Crowded Rooms: Who and What You See Before You Die Grief.com David's Instagram David's Facebook Online Grief Group and Grief Education In this episode you will: Learn the sixth stage of grief that goes beyond acceptance and into real meaning Discover why your triggers are actually a map to your deepest healing Overcome the fear of speaking your pain out loud to the people who love you Recognize the difference between grief and clinical depression Build the courage to feel your feelings instead of outrunning them For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1965 More SOG episodes we think you'll love! Get More From Lewis! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We continue our Sunday series, offering some inspiration, perspective and guidance from spiritual and religious leaders around the world. Today, we have a fascinating and thought-provoking conversation with the Reverend Dr. David Breeden, the Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis and a longtime humanist minister, author and professor. Dr. Breeden explains what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist and a humanist, and how people can find morality, purpose, hope and community without believing in God or an afterlife. He also opens up about his journey from being raised Pentecostal to becoming a humanist, why he believes humans can solve the problems humans have created, and what he thinks happens to us after we die.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We continue our Sunday series, offering some inspiration, perspective and guidance from spiritual and religious leaders around the world. Today, we have a fascinating and thought-provoking conversation with the Reverend Dr. David Breeden, the Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis and a longtime humanist minister, author and professor. Dr. Breeden explains what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist and a humanist, and how people can find morality, purpose, hope and community without believing in God or an afterlife. He also opens up about his journey from being raised Pentecostal to becoming a humanist, why he believes humans can solve the problems humans have created, and what he thinks happens to us after we die.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We continue our Sunday series, offering some inspiration, perspective and guidance from spiritual and religious leaders around the world. Today, we have a fascinating and thought-provoking conversation with the Reverend Dr. David Breeden, the Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis and a longtime humanist minister, author and professor. Dr. Breeden explains what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist and a humanist, and how people can find morality, purpose, hope and community without believing in God or an afterlife. He also opens up about his journey from being raised Pentecostal to becoming a humanist, why he believes humans can solve the problems humans have created, and what he thinks happens to us after we die.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We continue our Sunday series, offering some inspiration, perspective and guidance from spiritual and religious leaders around the world. Today, we have a fascinating and thought-provoking conversation with the Reverend Dr. David Breeden, the Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis and a longtime humanist minister, author and professor. Dr. Breeden explains what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist and a humanist, and how people can find morality, purpose, hope and community without believing in God or an afterlife. He also opens up about his journey from being raised Pentecostal to becoming a humanist, why he believes humans can solve the problems humans have created, and what he thinks happens to us after we die.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if the good life isn't hiding in some grand achievement, perfect mood, or future version of yourself—but in the ordinary moments you're already rushing past? Today, we're pairing Ian Bogost's The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life with Cuong Lu's Happiness Is Overrated: Simple Lessons on Finding Meaning in Each Moment, two books that gently challenge our obsession with happiness. Bogost invites us back into the sensory pleasures of the physical world; Lu, drawing on years as a Buddhist monk under Thich Nhat Hanh, points toward meaning, suffering, and connection. Together, they ask: what if this moment is already enough?

In this episode, host Debra Caldow talks about the "empty nest" life script — children growing independent and parents focusing on themselves. She addresses how that contrasts with the future for many families who are lifelong caregivers. She discusses the feeling of guilt many people face for wishing for a different script and why honesty can lead to understanding. Debra highlights what lifelong caregivers gain and argues that, while there may be no second act of the empty nest, a life of choosing to stay is equally rewarding. If you would like to support this podcast then visit buymeacoffee.com/expandingworlds

Can grief cause physical symptoms? Learn how loss may affect cortisol, inflammation, hormone balance, heart health, sleep, energy, and the nervous system. Grief is not only an emotional experience. It can affect the brain and body, yet many people feel pressured to stay strong, move on, or process their loss alone. In this episode, grief expert David Kessler explains what grief does to us physically and emotionally, why grief must be witnessed, and how meaningful healing can begin.We explore the five stages of grief, why they are not linear, and the misconceptions surrounding denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. David also shares how losing his 21-year-old son led him to identify meaning as the sixth stage of grief and explains why meaning is not found in the tragedy itself, but in what we choose to do afterward.David and Dr. Taz discuss the physical symptoms of grief, broken heart syndrome, post-traumatic growth, isolation, grief in men, and what to say when someone you love is grieving. They also explain why grief can result from divorce, betrayal, job loss, illness, lost identity, or the loss of the future you expected, not only the death of a loved one.This conversation is for educational purposes and should not replace individualized medical or mental health care. Chest pain and other concerning physical symptoms should always be evaluated by a qualified healthcare professional.Subscribe for weekly conversations about physical, emotional, and spiritual health, and comment below: What do you wish more people understood about grief?About David Kessler:David Kessler is one of the world's leading experts on grief and loss. He co-authored two books with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, including On Grief and Grieving, and later introduced meaning as the sixth stage of grief in his bestselling book Finding Meaning.His first book, The Needs of the Dying, received praise from Mother Teresa. David has also served as an LAPD specialist reserve for traumatic events and with the Red Cross disaster services team. He is the founder of Grief.com, which provides resources, support groups, and training for people experiencing grief and the professionals who support them.Connect with David Kessler:https://grief.com/https://www.instagram.com/iamdavidkessler/https://www.facebook.com/IamDavidKessler/https://www.tiktok.com/@iamdavidkesslerAbout Dr. Taz:Dr. Tasneem Bhatia (Dr. Taz) is a triple board-certified integrative medicine physician, bestselling author, and founder of hol+, a multi-location integrative medicine practice.Learn more: https://doctortaz.com/aboutStay Connected:Connect further with hol+ at https://holplus.co/ and don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to stay updated on future episodes of hol+.Book a Hol+ Consultation:https://holplus.co/locations/virtual/Follow Dr. Taz on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/drtazmd/https://www.instagram.com/liveholplus/Subscribe to the audio podcast:https://holplus.transistor.fm/subscribeSubscribe to the video podcast:https://www.youtube.com/@DrTazMD/podcastsProduced by https://ClipGrowth.com (Producer: Pat Gostek)

Next of Kin After Stroke: When Your 19-Year-Old Has to Decide For You Kylie Ralston was 56, living alone in Sofia, Bulgaria, and getting back into shape after a divorce. Three mornings a week she ran. On the morning everything changed, she was doing a local park run with her friend Rebecca when she slowed to a walk, then tried to run again and couldn’t. “It was like the message wasn’t getting through from my brain to my legs,” she says. No headache. No fatigue. Nothing that felt like an emergency. She finished the run, registered her time, and went home. It wasn’t until she collapsed getting out of the car that anyone understood what was happening. By the time Kylie reached hospital, she had suffered a left frontoparietal haemorrhagic stroke, a spontaneous brain bleed roughly 7.5cm across, with none of the usual risk factors. No high blood pressure. No cholesterol history. No aneurysm, no AVM. She was placed in an induced coma for four days. When she woke, she couldn’t move her right side, and she couldn’t speak. What “Next of Kin” Really Means When a Stroke Hits Abroad Kylie was a permanent resident of Bulgaria, not a citizen, divorced from her daughter’s father, and living on her own. When the hospital needed someone to authorise emergency surgery, there was exactly one person available to make that call: her daughter, then 19 years old, splitting her time between her separated parents’ homes. It’s a detail easy to skim past, but it sits at the centre of this episode: next of kin isn’t a role most of us think about until a hospital needs an answer immediately. Kylie hadn’t nominated her daughter out of any formal planning process; it simply fell to her, because she was the only adult relative in the country who met the age threshold. A 19-Year-Old Signing Consent-to-Operate Forms Kylie’s friends contacted her daughter directly. She rushed to the hospital, and unconscious, unable to advocate for herself, her mother’s care now depended on decisions made by a teenager under enormous duress. Kylie’s first memory afterward is her daughter arriving in the ICU in a hairnet and scrubs, holding her hand, telling her she loved her. It’s the kind of moment that rarely makes it into conversations about stroke recovery, because the focus so often lands on rehabilitation milestones: walking, speaking, returning to work. But before any of that, someone has to be legally empowered to say yes to surgery, and for Kylie, that someone hadn’t expected the responsibility for another few decades. The Gap Between Acute Surgery and Real Rehabilitation Bulgaria’s acute care, Kylie and her friend Nicole Nott both stress, was world-class surgery within roughly two hours of the stroke, the kind of outcome her friends still describe as a miracle given the size of the bleed. What came next was a different story. In the public hospital, physiotherapy visits totalled two sessions. There was no speech therapy. After 14 days, still unable to move her right side or speak, Kylie was expected to go home. Her partner, Guido, refused to accept it, and the couple began privately funding rehabilitation themselves. This is a distinction worth sitting with if you or someone you love is navigating stroke recovery in a country or even a region with limited public rehab funding: acute survival and functional recovery are not the same fight, and they are not always resourced the same way. When a Friend Becomes the Rehab Team Nicole Nott, an occupational therapist and Kylie’s friend since they were 16, found out about the stroke through a message she initially suspected was a scam. Within days she’d cleared her schedule and flown from Australia to Bulgaria. What she found in the private rehab hospital was a caring but under-trained care team, kind staff with, as Nicole puts it, “no rehab expertise.” Nicole spent close to two weeks restructuring Kylie’s room and routine around basic stroke rehabilitation principles: approaching from Kylie’s affected right side to address her spatial inattention, built-up cutlery to force use of her weaker hand, a balloon tapped back and forth for shoulder strength, word games layered on top for speech practice, pegs and curtains repurposed into arm exercises. She also pushed back hard against hospital staff who tried to stop her from helping Kylie transfer to a shower chair or toilet, at one point being told outright she wasn’t permitted because she was a woman. Her single goal before flying home: get Kylie toileting independently again, for dignity as much as mobility. Kylie called her from Dubai airport, mid-transit, to tell her it had happened. Living With Aphasia Fourteen months on, Kylie’s right-side weakness has largely resolved. What remains, she says, is the hardest part: expressive aphasia. “I can’t express myself like I used to.” It’s a small, telling detail of the condition that even the phrase “I can’t” is itself shaped by the aphasia; the words available to describe the loss are affected by the loss. The Unexpected Gains Both women point to what came out of the crisis alongside the hardship: Kylie’s relationship with her daughter deepened. Her circle of friends in Bulgaria proved itself in ways she hadn’t anticipated. And in the rehab hospital, her partner Guido proposed something; he told her he’d already decided before the stroke but simply hadn’t gotten around to asking. If this episode raises questions about who is legally positioned to make decisions for you and whether that person actually knows it, it may be worth a conversation with your own family before a crisis forces the issue. For a deeper account of navigating identity, recovery, and unexpected transformation after stroke, Bill’s book The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened is available at recoveryafterstroke.com/book. If this show has helped you, you can support it at patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke. This blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please consult your doctor before making any changes to your health or recovery plan. Kylie Ralston: Stroke, Bulgaria, and the Friend Who Flew Across the World When Kylie had a stroke abroad, her 19-year-old daughter became her next of kin, and a friend flew in to help her recover. Bill’s Book: The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened Support the Recovery After Stroke On Patreon Highlights: 00:00 Introduction – Next of Kin After Stroke03:47 The Day of the Stroke08:55 Rehabilitation Challenges in Bulgaria16:32 Coping with Language Barriers22:08 Reflections on Healthcare Systems32:50 Setting Goals and Achievements38:29 Family Dynamics and Support Systems45:36 Finding Meaning in Recovery54:44 The Impact of Caregiving58:22 Reflections on Recovery and Gratitude Transcript: Introduction – Next of Kin After Stroke Bill Gasiamis (00:00)And one of my first horrible thoughts was, is this a dreadful hoax? Is someone, you know, is this some horrible scam? And it made me feel quite sick actually And then I rang her son who lives in Australia and he’s like, Yeah, I’m so sorry. I haven’t told you. Yes, it’s true, mum’s had a stroke. Bill Gasiamis (00:16)Welcome back to Recovery After Stroke. I’m Bill Gasiamis, and today I’m joined by two guests, Kylie Ralston and her friend Nicole Nott. Kylie was 56 living in Bulgaria when she suffered a left frontoparietal hemorrhagic stroke, a spontaneous brain bleed with none of the usual risk factors. Nicole is an occupational therapist and one of Kylie’s closest friends since they were teenagers. And when she found out what happened, she got on a plane to Bulgaria to help. In this episode, we get into what it means to have a stroke far from home in a country where you don’t speak the language, and public rehabilitation funding barely exists. We talk about who becomes your next of kin when you least expect it, what it’s like to advocate for a friend inside a hospital system that won’t always listen. And what recovery actually looks like 14 months on, before we get into it, if you want a deeper look at identity, recovery, and unexpected transformation after stroke, my book, The Unexpected Way That Stroke Became, the best thing that happened, is available at recoveryafterstroke.com/book. And if this show has helped you And you can support it to keep me on the path of getting to a thousand episodes, you can do so At patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke Bill Gasiamis (01:37)Kylie Ralston and Nicole Nott, welcome to the podcast. lovely to be here, Bill. Thanks for having us, Bill. Kylie, tell me a little bit about what life was like before the stroke. I was very active and I had a full life and I was working full time. and I was living in Sofia in Bulgaria, in my on my own, in my own apartment. I was renting, actually. and I was getting back to fitness. So I was g getting I was running regularly. So two two or three times a week I was hitting the gym and hitting the tr the treadmill. And that had been happening for like a few month like six months or something like that. but before that I was very fit and active. What kind of work were you involved in? I was a HR work. I was a ha HR leader and so I had my own consultancy I had a team of people that I’ve managed. I had thirty five people, so and that they were people in Germany, Poland, Czechia, Portugal, France, so everywhere in in Europe, basically. Yeah. Wow, how how does an Aussie end up in Bulgaria with staff or clients in that many countries? short answer is I came here with my family, so with my ex husband. and shortly after I arrived we separated and and ultimately got divorced. and I stayed on because my daughter is here. So she was only eleven at the time and I could just couldn’t leave her. The Day of the Stroke So you were living at home with your daughter? she was sharing her time between between us both. Yeah. got it. Okay. So both parents are there. So your daughter was going backwards and forwards. On the night of the stroke or on the day of the stroke, can you take us through that? What were you experiencing? Was there anything unusual that happened that made you think something was wrong? How did it go down? I was with my friend Rebecca. And she was running ahead of me as she she was faster than me, so sh and she often often ran ahead of me. and I’d slowed down to a walk and when I started to run again or try to run again, it it was like the message wasn’t getting through from my brain to my legs. And I thought, that’s strange, that’s that’s really odd. ‘Cause I didn’t feel like tired or anything and I didn’t have a headache and well stuff like that. and I just walked through the rest of the park run. And then when Rebecca saw me coming to the finish line, she waved me over and she said, come on, let’s go register your chip. and so I did that. and she said afterwards that there was a little bit of fumbling with with my phone and there’s a there was a little bit of fumbling when I put my jacket on, but other than that, I just seemed exhausted from a run. do you recall after the experience of feeling exhausted from the run where you ended up? Did you need help? Yeah, I do. So so she didn’t notice that I wasn’t talking because I n I’m normally an endless talker, so I she didn’t notice that I wasn’t talking. And she said that that that is one thing that should have alerted her to what was happening. but it it didn’t. And so I’d caught the bus to the park run and her husband was there and so he drove me home. And I j I remember the journey home and when when we when I went to get out, I just couldn’t. And so and Mark came around to my side of the car and help tried to help me out and I just collapsed against him. And so then that so then they said, quick, something’s wrong something’s I don’t remember what they  They they said, you know, they basically took me straight to the hospital. Yeah. And also rang Guido, my now fiance, but my partner at the time. Uh-huh. So you you went from the run, attempted to go home, and then from that attempt to get you out of the car, actually into your home, it was pretty clear that that wasn’t gonna happen and you ended up in hospital. so Did you guys drive to hospital? Do you recall that? Yes. Yes. We do how far is it from your home? it’s pretty close. I don’t know about kilometres or time, but it’s but it’s like ten or fifteen minutes. Yeah, so it’s not too far. But they didn’t know what was going on, of course. They just knew something wasn’t right and then they figured one of the best things to do is just get it to a hospital. You get to the hospital Do you know what happens after that? Do you get admitted? do you get tested for anything? I suppose what I’m asking is when is the first time you realise that that you’ve had a stroke? When do they report that back? When I came out of the coma. So I was put I was put into an an induced coma straight away. so I I obviously don’t remember anything of of that. and but Rebecca’s told me afterwards. so she’s filled in the f filled in the filled in the blanks for me. and by that stage her husband thought it was a stroke. So she’s he said he said to the staff at the hospital, we think she’s having a stroke. And so yeah. So how long were you in the coma, do you know? Has somebody told you how long it was? Yeah, four four days. Four days, okay. And do you know what kind of stroke you had? Yep. I had a left Frontoparietal hemorrhagic stroke. Wow, that’s a good effort. So you had a brain bleed. Yep. Do they know what caused it? No. It was spontaneous and I didn’t have any of the risk factors. So I didn’t have high blood pressure, a history of high blood pressure, but admittedly I’d hadn’t tested my blood pressure immediately before the stroke. but you know That’s un that’s unlikely to be the cause. And I didn’t have a hi a history of high cholesterol. and so they just and I didn’t have an aneurysm and I didn’t have like what’s the other thing? The An AV AVM. AVM, yeah, I didn’t have any of that. And how old were you? Fifty six. Okay. So you had a spontaneous Bleed in the brain. That happens. People do have that happen from time to time. And sometimes they don’t have any symptoms leading up to it or anything like that. and this is the bizarre nature of like there’s an unlimited number of ways, unfortunately, for people to have a stroke. Now, you woke up in hospital four days later. What kind of deficits did you have? I couldn’t move my right side and I couldn’t speak. Okay. Now I’ve got an idea of well, I haven’t got an idea, but my mind immediately kind of says like if you’re in hospital in Bulgaria, that’s not a hospital in Melbourne. That’s not the Royal Melbourne hospital where no shit is unreal, like it’s perfect and it’s got the highest technology and it doesn’t matter how many things we can bitch and moan about the system being here like compared to Bulgaria, my expectation is that we’re world class. Perhaps that’s not the case in Bulgaria. Would you agree with that statement? I would have agreed before and my my my expat friends here would have agreed before, but now we’re all saying maybe Bulgaria is better than we thought. That’s brilliant. Awesome. Okay, so Rehabilitation Challenges in Bulgaria As far as like medical interventions and all that type of stuff, you felt like that was handled like any other world class hospital would have handled it. Yeah. In that in that s it in that stage it was. but there’s no like that was a public hospital and there’s no there’s no public funded rehab after. or or very li very little. So so that’s where that’s where Australia is ahead. So when you knew you had deficits, was there any rehabilitation whatsoever? Did you get any of that while you were still in hospital? Minimal. So the the physio came to see me twice. and so that’s so that’s all and I got no speech therapy and stuff like that. and but when I was discharged from the public hospital here and went and so they they expected me to go home from the public hospital. And so Guido said she just can’t like like what what the fuck? After how many days? After how many days, how long? Fourteen. Wow, your right side was still offline and you still had problem. Yeah. Okay. So we we just paid for paid for private rehab. got it, right. Yeah. And how long were you in private rehab for? another like two months or something like that. Right. Okay, that’s pretty cool. So i even though you couldn’t access it publicly, you were still able to Access a private now. Are you a citizen in Bulgaria? Not a citizen, a permanent resident. Okay. So do you have are you as a result of the fact that you’re a permanent resident and not a citizen, do you have different things that you are able to access because of your status? No. no. I’m it’s I have the same rights as a citizen. The only one the only right I don’t have is I’m I’m not able to vote here and I’m not I’m not able to work in other EU countries. Got it. Okay. So that’s pretty traumatizing, the whole experience, and then to have to deal with overcoming your left side and your speech deficits after the two month mark, roughly where were you at where you where you are now? Because you kinda sound pretty good. Okay. No, yeah. no and and the other thing the other thing that I must say about Bulgaria is I don’t speak Bulgarian. very very little. So that was a problem. Yeah. I can imagine, yeah. so maybe you can come in here, Nicole, and and talk about where I was at when you came to see me, because that was very very very early on in my in in the private rehab hospital. Yeah, Nicole, tell me a little bit about what it’s like to receive a phone call to find out that your friend has had a stroke. I was absolutely hellish. the way I found out is I got a message through social media from someone saying, Hey, I’m a friend of Kylie’s and she’s in hospital in Bulgaria. And one of my first horrible thoughts was, is this a dreadful hoax? Is someone, you know, is this some horrible scam? And it really, you know, it made me feel quite sick actually thinking this is that’s not someone I know. It does look like a name I’ve seen in Kylie’s kind of social media world. And then I rang her son who lives in Australia and he’s like, Yeah, I’m so sorry. I haven’t told you. Yes, it’s true, mum’s had a stroke. and I was kind of beside myself because by training I’m an occupational therapist, but Kylie and I have known each other each other since we were about 16. and it was really hard to get the information that I wanted as a friend, but also as a health professional. I was wanting to understand what kind of stroke is it? Where is it? What’s the rehab? What can we do? How’s it going? And at that stage the information that I had was that you know, it was really seriously affected the speech part of the brain and obviously the hemiplegia, the weakness down the right side and knowing that Kylie was right handed. so, you know, it’s the friendship part that your heart’s breaking and it’s also the therapist part that’s wanting the information to be able to, you know, reconcile it for myself, professionally what that was going to look like as a consequence for Kylie. Yeah, and you’re so far away, so you really can’t do anything and kind of have to like take information second hand, third hand, and be kind of in a position which is really uncomfortable for, I imagine, a friend, but also a therapist, right? So as an occupational therapist, that’s not the information you work on. You work on actual facts, scans, reports, like a whole bunch of things. So are you also playing it out in your mind? Are you kind of Doom thinking it, like are you how does it affect you personally? I think for me I was all I was really very conscious of not stressing other people. So like friends, family, because sometimes when you are a health professional, you know, you have knowledge and information and you know, you sometimes you you’re keeping that to yourself to some extent because you do know what can happen to people and you do know what consequences can be. So I was really trying not to ask too many questions of people as well. but I was seriously desperate for information. And so I remember I’d gone to a party and I didn’t really want to go because I was actually, you know, upset and stressed for Kylie. And I did end up going to a party and during the party I was really kind of outside having a bit of a downer really by a campfire. but I got a phone call or a message to say that I think you’d said some words, Kylie, and were kind of waking up. so you’re still in the acute hospital then and that you’d been able to move your leg a little bit, I think. Yeah. And you know, joy in that moment. And yeah, I felt very, very far away. And then What happens over the next few days? Like do you guys continue to communicate somehow? Do you keep getting information? Are you being updated? Yeah. Yeah. I wasn’t able to get my into my phone or my any of my devices. So I wasn’t able to able to because I couldn’t remember my password, right? And so and and I tried like d different ones and I you know I just got locked out. So and when I was able to get in then that made it it made it easier t because I was able just text short messages. So so Nicole and I kept in touch that way. and before English-speaking Before you came, Nicole, I think I was talking, but not not not as well as I am now. Yeah. So was it, Nicole, in your mind, you were always going to fly over to Bulgaria and beath your friend? Or did you guys have to work that out? Like what happened now? It’s so cool that you get to have a somebody in your corner that is also a Fred, but also a medical professional in the exact field that you’re struggling with now. Right. Like how do you just drop everything and go overseas and be with your friend? Yeah, well, very grateful that I had an up to date passport. So that was that was a good thing. Kylie, it was interesting because the texting, like if I go back and look at that history, it’s like you can see the progress in the texts. So you can see that Kylie was using kind of more single words and having struggles with spelling and putting sentences together. And then over time, you know, they became more fluent. but the thing that happened was that Kylie and I were talking and she was able to you know, she got some speech back and we were talking. And she was just saying about the rehab care that the the the kind of caring staff just seemed to have no rehab expertise. So the physios were amazing. I think they were great. There was no active speech therapy for Kylie. I think we ultimately found an English speaking speech therapist but who still had Bulgarian as a first language. And there’s very few occupational therapists in Bulgaria, seems to be some expats. And Kylie was talking to me a jab about just you know, really basic things like not being taken to the toilet. and that’s probably what broke my heart. It’s like I cannot leave her in bed, not being able to go to the toilet. I just can’t do it. And so I just said to my partner, I think I just need to go to Bulgaria. And luckily I’m self-employed. So I just kind of cleared my schedule, got on a plane and yeah, I was just I suppose I’m incredibly grateful to have the skill. incredibly grateful to have the financial ability to do it. and yeah, and the skills to do it. And you know, you don’t always get an opportunity in life to do the right thing, or sometimes you don’t make that decision and later you think, Why didn’t I do X, Y, and Z? I try not to live my life like that. I try to actually do those things. So, yeah, I got on a plane and basically arrived at the airport, got on a train straight out to see Kylie at the Rehope Hospital. You’re a real superhero. I’m very grateful to Nicole. Yeah. I rec you know, my story is kind of well, it has a similar kind of thread to it. I one of my best friends is a radiographer and he was a radiographer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital where I was a patient for nearly two and a half years because I was in and out with a number of brain hemorrhages. I had three in total in the same spot, but over two and a half years, then I had brain surgery. And I can’t tell you how many scans I had, but being a radiographer, he was the one who was in the room taking the photos through the MRI. Yeah. And then he would come out. And he would tell us what he saw in the RI, which was against the rules. that’s why I won’t name him. But but that meant that we didn’t have to wait a month to get our results and the the meeting for the results was just more of we’ll go through the process and and have the meeting. Yeah. And and and it was like and I regretted my life when at school I used to throw his books on the roof of the canteen just to mess with him going to s to class late to get in trouble. and I’ve apologised profusely for that and thanked him every day for the fact that, you know, he was able to lend his well, you know, he was able to be in the room. He was able to have that conversation with us and he was able to ease our minds. over that two and a half year period and then you won’t believe it. Like his daughter had an AVM at seventeen. And she went through that and and has recovered from that somewhat now in the last few years. and I got to be I mean I hate that I had to be this guy, but I got to be the guy that supported him through that really acute phase and There is just nothing to describe what it’s like to be able to a repay the favor. and then but B, when I was in that situation to have somebody kind of well, you know, like put their arm around me and really walk me through every stage. Me and my wife and my family walk us through every stage of that part of it, other than intervening as a brain surgeon. But he was the one that put us in char in in touch with my brain surgeon. like Everything that happened was just the most amazing experience to be able to be guided like that. And I know it’s a privilege and many people don’t get that opportunity. so I see Chris, I haven’t told him this in person. I see him as like a bit of a superhero, but he doesn’t know that. I’ve told him I love him in the way men tell each other that they love each other by s abusing him and swearing at him and telling him that the team that he follows is terrible and all that kind of stuff. Reflections on Healthcare Systems so you arrived in Bulgaria. take me from the airport to the hospital. Like what happens? How is that? Actually the flight was really good. Customs was pretty easy. There was some annoying folk in front of me who I wanted to punch in the face and tell them to hurry up, but I was just, you know, needed to to get there. Kylie’s daughter met me at the airport. And then we got the train together out to the hospital. So, you know, obviously I’m seeing my first sight of Bulgaria. I’d never been there before. so not really taking a tourist route at this point. so went out to see Kylie. And, you know, when you just eyeball someone and I, you know, just thank God I’m here, I’m in front of her. Her she’d had a shaved head. she had some pretty spectacular surgical scars, a couple of very big scabs still on her head. she looked skinny, she looked pale, she had started doing a little bit of movement and the hospital room was really kind basic and crazy. Her friends had funded a pressure mattress for her that didn’t exist. And some of these things I had been liaising with Kylie’s friends in Bulgaria about what could we do, how you know, what do we want to prevent? So we want to prevent anyone pulling on from. Her weak shoulders and like don’t let anyone pull her by the arm. this is how I want, you know, to help her with posture in bed or in sitting. and you know, like speaking in single kind of actions at a time and just take your time, say something, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Just allow Kylie’s brain to, you know, take that information on board. Don’t speak for her. and when I got there, it was really clear that. She had an inattention to the right hand side as an effect from the stroke. So then I was a bit of a ball breaker, rearranging the whole room. No, no, no, no, no. Where, you know, everyone come from the right, everyone sit on the right. no cutler, you’re not allowed to have your phone in your left hand, you’re having your phone in your right hand. I’d taken some things with me from Australia to Bulgaria that I thought she might need. like some built-up cutlery, because I wanted her to use her right hand to feed herself. I took a couple of kind of activities that I thought we could do to look at some retraining for the right arm. what I’ll still bring with me, try to remember now. Benjamin. So yeah, just try kind of going into early stroke rehab principles. Yeah. Did you go there well you went there as a friend. But when you were there, were you able to be a professional and also have a conversation with the local team? Kylie and I laughing. Do you want to tell that story, Kylie? Which one are you thinking about? Where I got told off. No, I don’t remember that. well, Kylie was in act like, you know, there was still quite a lot of weakness, but she was also so determined for her own rehab. And in the system there their carers really don’t have a rehab focus. They have a I’ll provide you a meal focus and I’ll occasionally do some cleaning and I’ll occasionally change the bed linen and but really not a rehab focus. So I’ve personally found it quite easy to help Kylie to like stand move. And so the very first weekend I was there, it was a long weekend and what I didn’t realise later was that they were actually quite understaffed. Which worked in our favour because I was helping Kylie to get onto a shower chair, taking her to have a shower, us taking her to the toilet, because prior to that time they were just, you know, using pads for toileting because Kylie couldn’t stand up or move on her own. And because I’m trained, I found it very easy. She’s a lightweight person and she and I just work together and I could do that. I think it was the Tuesday, person who I refer to as Nurse Ratchet. remembering now kind of intercepted me bringing Kylie back from the bathroom to her room and just like, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. What are you doing? Stop that, stop that, stop that. and you know, she and I are having a bit of a a discussion. And basically she’s refused and I’m allowed to move Kylie. So Kylie is sitting out in the corridor. I think I’d luckily kind of covered you up for privacy. and she’s like, No, you’re not allowed to move her. I’m gonna go and get the physio. I think at least forty minutes went by and then she comes back, well, okay, and I said, Look, I am a trained person, it’s easy, it’s safe. no, I’ll think about it. And then after I think another fifteen minutes she pushed your chair into the bedroom. And then I think it was probably another fifteen minutes where she just decided to move Kylie herself at that point. even though that was out of policy and the physios had to do it. And then it was all this discussion with me that you can’t do it. And in the end it was you can’t do it because you’re a woman. Not strong enough, you know. so yeah. Then Kylie and I kind of would go on clandestine missions because again, from a rehab point of view, being able to stand transfer, it’s putting all the weight through the leg, it’s giving feedback to the brain. I really wanted to make sure Kylie’s bladder and bowel were gonna work properly. And you know, sitting in bed and that’s just not ideal. So then Kylie’s like, Nicole, I want to go to the toilet. I was like, I’m banned, I’m banned, Mother Nurse Ratchet, I’m not allowed to take you. And I was like, shit. So I would go on a little mission, go look down the corridor, make sure she was nowhere to be seen. And then I quickly stole the shower chair and then I found a bucket. And so Kylie and I were doing secret Wii missions in the bedroom. until w on one of our missions I just hadn’t quite got the bucket in the right place. And so then I it was also then later on a cleaning mission. So it was it was a pretty crazy environment. yeah, just for that lack of t whole team approach to rehab. Whereas, you know, in Australia the nurses would all be rehab trained. They would be transferring someone physios would come in, speech would be coming, OTs would be coming. So I was kind of desperately trying to convince Kylie or to get her rehab to a standard where she’d be able to come back to Australia to get some more rehab. You know what’s good about this conversation other than the hilarious nature of it also is that I as an as a person who hadn’t had a stroke before my hadn’t known anyone who had a stroke before my experience, if I had come across somebody who had had a stroke, I wouldn’t have known what to look out for and what to say to support them in a situation where perhaps something was being neglected. Because I don’t know what I don’t know. I’m not a professional, right? Just like those nurses and therapists that weren’t specifically trained. Yeah. In certain things. I mean, you may as well be not only talking a different language, but you may as well be making it up as you go because as far as they know, now this is what we do for stroke patients. This is how we handle that. is it a lack of understanding of what r stroke rehabilitation requires, or is it a lack of resources, or is it a little bit of both? Do you feel in Bulgaria when you were there? I think I think it’s a lack of of all all of that but it’s the lack of maybe money. So it’s a lack of training. So th there’s there’s not enough there’s not the the nurses or the orderlies or whatever they’re called here, are are aren’t paid very much. So they so And t just like, even though I was in a private rehab hospital, so you would have expected that more. It’s you would have expected more, but I just think that they just don’t have the money to to train those people. Yeah. it wasn’t really a role, was it, Kylie? Like they really were more like housekeepers in a sense. It was more like cleaning a meals. I have to say the physios were excellent. and a lot of the physios had good English as well, which was for your rehab was so important. because again a lot of the carers they would come into the room and you know, again, just from a speech therapy point of view, in Australia, say if someone came into the room who was the person who did the menus or filled up the water bottles or the cleaners, Kyler could have spoken to all of those people and had   incidental communication the whole day in English. But because of all of those p incidental people coming in didn’t speak English, you know, reasonably in Bulgaria. it just for me, I was worried about the lack of just exposure to English language as well. So not even speech therapy, just incidental language through the day. Which is very helpful and people don’t realise how helpful it is to be able to speak to a nurse about how you’re feeling or what’s happening. Yeah. And all the usual stuff. And Kylie’s chatty and friendly and she would have just been having conversations galore, but it just it it it couldn’t be. Yeah. Yeah, it’s another another barrier. so you know when you go overseas, it’s your friend and you’re a professional. How do you handle that? Because you know, like are you emotional? Are you trying to put a lid on it? Are you allowing yourself to Gonna be emotional. How does that work? We had some killer laughs, didn’t we? I mean, I’m a joker anyway. And so, like the first time Kylie got to do a poo on the toilet, I just did a poo dance for her. So I I felt half my job was you know, cheering her up and keeping it light and having fun and chatting about stuff we would just always chat about. as well as doing as much rehab because it was very exhausting because, you know, p after a stroke, it’s very fatiguing. you know, so to Kylie was really tired and needed lots of rest. So and because I had just you know, obviously dropped tools to go over quickly, I was just working sometimes. So I just have my computer and if Kylie was asleep I’d just stay with her and and her partner Guido as well, who was there with her as well. So just, you know, emotional support wise. But Yeah, I do some work. And I stayed in Kylie’s apartment. So I w was I just stayed at her place and I I train out to see her each day at the hospital. W how many hours would you spend in hospital with her? What do you think, Kylie? you would often arrive at like ten in the morning and you wouldn’t go till like five in the evening or six in the evening. Yeah. So technically visiting hours kind of finished at six. So I just try and stay most of the day. A full shift. Yeah. Yeah. Unpaid. Unpaid labour. Slave driver. Yeah. yeah. But nah. That’s what friends are for. I very what I very much wanted to stay the whole day because I did really, really wanna like especially the toileting thing. I just really wanted that. Setting Goals and Achievements I had this bit of a goal for myself for Kylie that she would be able to take herself to the toilet before I left the country. So just from a dignity point of view, from a mobility point of view, transfers, you know, bladder control. So yeah, that was one of my big goals. And she rang me when I was in transit at Dubai Airport on my way back to Australia and said, Nicole, I just took myself to the toilet. Wow, that’s cool. Yeah. Yeah. And and I was having physio two physio sessions a d a wi a day. So I was having other than Nicole. So I was having like about one session about of about an hour in the morning and one session of about an hour in the in the afternoon. Got it. You Kylie seem like pretty mm chill, pretty calm. how are you handling it though, emotionally? How’s the aftermath Treating you because there’s a little bit of you know, there’s all that acute stuff. It’s awesome when your friend is there, but then your friend goes home, right? So how how does that transition kind of happen? Yeah, I might start crying. because I’ve just recently spent seven months in Australia. So I I went to Australia in October last year and I came back in just in May. and I had more rehab there. So I had I had student led rehab at at first and then I got in got accepted into Birch, which is the brain injury rehab community and home in Ad in Adelaide. so that’s that is is a whole team of people. So I had I had physio and I and a occupational therapist and a a e exercise physiologist and a speech therapist and stuff like that so I th that’s really good. now the most frustrating part for me is the aphasia so I I can’t I can’t express myself like I used to. Yeah. You know what I love about interviewing people who have aphasia is when they say I can’t in a sentence to describe something to me it triggers the part of the condition which doesn’t allow the words to come out. It’s so interesting. That happens so so often. And it’s just a for me, I noticed this I’m saying it just from a perspective is maybe I can’t is not the right word. I don’t know. You might remember this, you might not, but maybe I can’t is not the right word. Maybe the right word is Something that helps you get to the word that you need to get to. And okay, now that’s just me, the uneducated stroke survivor on a phasia guy. Like I don’t know about that. But it’s so interesting, it happens every time. but then Nicole goes home, you go home, your partner is kind of now taking over the caregiving role, and you still have some deficits. phage is one of them. what about your right side? How offline was it? I I also moved in with Guido after the after the stroke. So so that was that was a has was ha was and has continues to be a challenge because we’re still getting used to living together because we weren’t living together before. and I was very in very independent before. And I was living in Sofia and he and he and I now live in a in a village. So I live in in a village just outside of Sofia. And I’m not driving yet. but I was medically cleared to drive in Australia before I left. So I’m going through the process here. so anyway, all of all of those things together make it very challenging. don’t get me wrong, I I l I love him, but but you know, and and I d and and I made that decision because my apartment is was was on the fourth floor and th there was no lift. Wow. Yeah. So back to your question. When I was when I was when I came here, when I was discharged, I continued with as an outpatient and and the physio continued to come at home twice a week. So I was having more physio maybe like five times a week. and like it were ha had started to come my right side had was all already back online, but I would I was just working on building strength and and I would get still very tired. Yeah. And did your daughter end up coming to live with you as well? No. but she she at the beginning she she was my next of kin. So at the ripe old age of nineteen, she signed the consent to operate forms. yeah, so that was that was very difficult for her. I didn’t know that at the time, obviously. but yeah. And did that happen, did she become your next of kin because your former partner, her dad, and you had separated and then his that role wasn’t gonna be his anymore. It’s just passed down to the person who was the closest to you. Like how did that happen? Family Dynamics and Support Systems We’re divorced. I I’m divorced from her dad. Yeah. So he’s definitely not my next kin. Right. So that ha changed after the divorce and she was the only person you could nominate because she was over is there an age limit to the next of kin? Eighteen. Yeah. Okay. So she had hit that criteria, you nominated her and then at nineteen she got to make a decision. Which she never and you never would have expected ever for that to be a thing. I didn’t nominate her, it would just happen. So I was I I was unconscious at the time that she signed those forms. So yeah. So my friends actually contacted her. and she she rushed to the hospital. so it was all under duress. It was like this is what happened to your mum, you’re her Next of kin, whether you like it or not, you have to decide. Yeah. Far out. Okay, that’s pretty full on for a 19 year old. Yeah. Yeah, seems like she did a good job. How did she handle this whole mum’s not well situation, this stroke thing? Like how did she deal with it? she was very good. my first memory actually is of her coming into the ICU with with the with the whole, you know, the whole like the the hairnet and the mask and the and the and the what’s it called the scrubs. Scrubs, yeah. and she held my hand and said t that she loved me. so that was pretty special. And incidentally I have an a another memory of Guido coming into the ICU as well and singing singing to me. So he he said that he said that I always wanted him to sing and he refused before. And so did did I want him to sing to me now? And I squeezed his hand or on the on the left he’s was holding my left hand and I squeezed his hand and so he knelt down beside my bed and started singing. Wow. Can he actually hold the tune or is he hard to hear? Yes, see he’s he’s very musical. Okay. Thank God. If my wife had asked me to sing a w if I had asked my wife to sing, it wouldn’t have been a good experience at all for either of us. Yeah, he was he was a busker in i in his younger years. Yeah. and now he decided to come good. Fair enough. Well that that’s important. You know, things like that are important. It lightens the the mood and it makes Yeah. You kind of feel like your family’s around and that you know you know, maybe kind of things might be all right. Like it gives that glimmer of hope. Is that how you received it? Yeah, I did. yeah, but I’m also very, very determined. So I’m a I’m a very normally very strong woman and so everyone said to me that if if well not to me, but w we had a we had a group WhatsApp chat so and I was added to it later and everyone said in that that if anyone can get through this, Kylie can. Yeah. So you know when you’re told you’ve had a stroke, you wake up with all the deficits and everything. Are you like how do you take it? I woke up, couldn’t use my left side. I I did not for one minute. It did not cross my mind like for one minute that this is not a good thing. Like I mean, clearly I wasn’t able to move, etcetera. But it never kinda went a lifesaver, I’m fucked. Like I never had that happen. Me as well. yeah. I I’d I’ve never thought that. I don’t know whether I even thought that It was n like you said, that was not a good thing. I just put one foot in front of the other and or not literally, but the Yeah. Metaphorically. Yeah. Metaphorically. so one foot in front of the other and just got on with it. Yeah. Nicole, like you come across in your work, you come across a lot of different versions of patience, right? Like you get people who might just be by design more negative to a bad experience and then people that are half class full to a bad experience. Just from a professional perspective, what’s the difference like when you’re trying to rehabilitate somebody that has kind of that different mindset? From perhaps what Kylie and I described. Yeah, I mean I’m probably in the last half full camp as well. So as an OT, I suppose we always meet people where they’re at. because everyone is a combination of their past experiences, aren’t they? So and cultural things, like there’s a very significant cultural differences in how people respond to pain or disability and expectations of kind of family and I suppose cultural expectations in Australia are even about you know, what what what should be publicly available. So, you know, from an expectations point of view, I think a lot of it is based on, you know, previous experience. So as a therapist, we’re obviously there to support, you know, emotional well being, physical well being, and try and find the things for people that connect with them. So meaningful, like OTs are our absolute core is meaningful occupation. So how do we find something that’s meaningful to that person that we think is going to get them from kind of, you know, here to there and it’s gonna be very different different motivators, you know. Kylie is probably, you know, very self motivated as described. Sometimes it’s about people really have a d strong desire to get back to work, or people have a really strong family structure that they want to be able to get back to do something with their family. So finding the way or the thing hopefully that’s going to motivate them. But we certainly work with people who you know, have a high level of distress from what’s happened to them and and on an ongoing basis. One of the things I’ve got a little quote on my desk that you can’t see here, but it says, I’m still me, just a different version of me. And it’s what someone one of my clients told me recently who has MS. and often we find need to find the new version of someone. and the new meaning for someone if that, you know, needs to happen. So that’s our great challenge, I suppose. That’s a big job, especially very early on when identity is so tied up into who they were literally days ago. You know, like a week ago. The mobile person, the working person, the money making person, the father, the mother, the whatever. Finding Meaning in Recovery And then, you know, you’re dealing with a physical crisis, the existential crisis, the identity crisis, like you’re dealing with it all in the one moment, and you’re trying to get them to sort of see, well, you know, you’re still you and how we’re gonna move forward with the still you person, like we’re still gonna move forward with that person. And then later does come an adjustment of what that you looks like. did for me like it’s a massive adjustment into what me looks like. But my identity wasn’t so much tied up in a one label specifically, although, you know, I s I was the person who felt like they needed to be the main breadwinner, you know, that you know ran a business that did all these things. I I had a big strong identity. But I think one of the things this is going to sound weird or might even sound logical depending on like w who you are and why you’re listening to this podcast. But for me, the fact that my brain went offline was a really good thing because it and that allowed my emotional side to come to the fore. Like it really enabled me to see things with a different intelligence, you know, and access part of me that my emotional intelligence perhaps that I hadn’t that I perhaps suppressed previously, you know, and just battled through things. And that kind of allowed my identity to come with me, it allowed me to leave some stuff behind and allowed me to bring into my identity this emotional side of me, you know, which who cried, who got excited about new and different opportunities, you know, that my head didn’t convince me out of. You know, so there was a lot of silver linings that I didn’t I wasn’t able to iterate back then. I wouldn’t have been able to tell you that it was a silver lining. But now and a few years later, after it all happened, I was definitely able to talk about those silver linings. Kylie Do you you’re fourteen months or so out, right? So maybe you’re not there yet, I don’t know. But are there some silver and I know a hundred percent Nicole was one of those silver linings, I get it. but do you see some silver linings in this whole saga? Yep. I do. my relationship with my daughter got stronger. Yep. So that was all s that was definitely a silver lining. and you know, I I’m was very grateful before, but it cemented how g how grateful I am for my circle of friends. Yeah. Kylie’s friends were amazing. Yeah. Your friends were amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Big family still in Australia is is there a big family in Australia, Kylie? Not not a big one, but my mum and dad are still still alive. So they’re they’re in Melbourne. and my sister is in on the Gold Coast and my brother is in Melbourne as well. Yeah. And my and my son is in Adelaide. Okay. So you still have some family here, but then you were able to create a community in the years before the stroke in Bulgaria. Yeah. you you were doing it a little bit tough after the stroke. Yeah. Correct. Yep. So that’s spot on. Did you Nicole tag team with some of those people as well? Yeah, so Kylie’s friends were beautiful and they were looking after me too. So When I was in Bulgaria, they were looking after me, you know, giving me dinner and what have you, and kind of giving me emotional support as well. And I think they were grateful that I was there from a skills point of view, like they were doing a beautiful job of supporting Kylie emotionally. But and I did kind of train them up a little bit in in some rehab as well, you know, how to help with approaching from the right and how to communicate and also just even doing some activities. Kylie and I had the balloon and we were tapping it back and forward to each other for strengthening up the right arm. And then we’d play some kind of word games as we were doing that for some speech therapy. So I was educating her friends around that kind of stuff. But the other thing, Kylie, that you and I have spoken about is, you know, after the stroke is knowing what’s important and how to let some sh shit go that would have been, you know, annoying or you know. focus on something and now it’s just you you just know it’s just not important. Yeah. Being able to just let crap go. Correct correct. and the other silver lining is that I got engaged. Yes. Did he propose soon after? Yes, in the in the rehab hospital. what a romantic Yeah. But he but he said that he’d already decided before the stroke that he wanted to marry be ma be married to me. So he just hadn’t got around to asking me yet. Yeah, fair enough. That stroke has a way of interrupting people’s plans and the things that they think they’re gonna do. so Nicole you normally treat your patients. They get to a stage. Usually they’re a lot better than they were when they first met you. And part of what you do is you send them off into the big wide world like a kid. I’ve grown you know, I’ve raised them, you know, like they know how to comb their hair now. And you kinda send them off and it’s kind of bittersweet, I imagine, but also a very important part that the people who you’re helping get better actually go off into the world on their own. And stop needing to be supported by you. I know there’s some people who need more support and that continues for longer and some people who don’t get enough and it and it’s never enough. But what’s it like knowing the job is not done, but you still have to leave and go home? that was heartache. I mean, Kylie and I both balled our lies out. it was a long flight home. Yeah. Yeah, it was a long flight home. with lots of reflections. I suppose the good thing at that point was Kylie was easily able to speak on the phone or message each other. So and also, you know, I think at that stage maybe I got to see the brain scan and I was just like, my god, how have you even survived this? ‘Cause I think was it about a seven centimeter bleed, Kylie? Yep. seven and a half. Yeah. To be precise. It truly felt like a a miracle. And again, full kudos to the surgeons in Bulgaria, truly, for that acute care. Because I think Kylie, I feel like you were in surgery in about within about two hours or something after the stroke, which is phenomenal. And, you know, your friends really saved your life. taking you straight to the hospital and prevented like, you know, more serious outcomes from the stroke. So yeah, so for me, I was proud of myself as well. and I, you know, I like to live my life by thinking I can look myself in the mirror. And I felt like I can really I’ve got a tear, really look myself in the mirror. Yeah. Doing the right thing. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You came to the need of somebody who was in need and needed specifically not only your love and support as a friend, but also your skills. Like you had the complete package for them at that time. How long did you end up staying in total? Was I ra away about just under two weeks probably with the flights and everything like that? So yeah. so yeah, leaving was leaving was horrible. But the goal of being able to go to the toilet was met. and also just the skills for, you know, skilled up a few other people and Kylie, you know, had her good networks. I also went out to Kylie’s property out in the village to have a look at any home modifications. So that was another kind of OT type role that that was done. and she’s got an amazing property out there, but it is kind of needs a bit of love and so that was also just reassuring her partner too, like reassuring Guido that no, look, Kylie’s got this. There were a few times where it was like, Nicole, I don’t want her to do this. Like I’m like Guido, she’s safe. She can do it. She’s got sitting balance. She’s okay to sit over the side of the bed. She can wiggle sideways. But he was anxious. And so again, part of my job was to reassure him to make sure that he let her do things. and didn’t step in too quickly. And so as an O T, we’re all used to like sitting on our hands and taking time and letting people struggle a bit. And it was hard for him to let Kylie struggle. So to just encourage him to let her struggle a bit so that she could do it herself and just wait. Just take the time, especially with communication. so yeah, I I kind of obviously knew there was a lot more rehab to be done, but I also had seen Kylie’s determination and that, you know, she kind of knew what to do. and and so that was I I was grateful again for that. Kylie, what was it like when your friend had to leave? I was heartbroken. The Impact of Caregiving I felt like she was a lifeline and I felt like that that had been cut because obviously she speaks English and obviously like Obviously we have a really good relationship. and I felt like I was in a like how do I describe it? In a in a sea of not n of people not understanding. So yeah, not my friends, but the hospital staff, basically. So not the not the physios. Like Nicole said, the physios were exceptional. but, you know, just the hospital staff. Yeah, just generally speaking. So did you feel like she had put you on the right path? Were you more confident with kind of where she left you as opposed to where you guys started and was that enough to kind of give you the foundation for what you needed to take responsibility for when she left? Definitely. yeah, definitely. Yeah. Man, w what a kind of interesting whole situation. You know, if this was fifty years ago, there’s no way anyone’s going anywhere to help anyone with anything. you know, like your hospital s experience in country like Bulgaria after what they’ve been through would have been completely different. You know, your s the chance of surviving telling your story is probably s you know, very much decreased. I know this is gonna sound weird, but like it’s never been a better time to have a stroke in in most of the world. Like let’s face it. the the possibilities are just endless. I’m a miracle from all the medical professionals that put all their time and effort in. I am eternally grateful to my occupational therapists and physios and surgeons and people who invent X ray machines and people who make C T scanners and The plastic bottles where drips go in, like every single thing is just an an absolute miracle of God or medicine or science or I don’t care what, like whatever you want to call it. And it just to me, it you know, here’s a really terrible situation and here and and but look at all the amazing things that came out of it. Somebody from the other side of the planet to be able to come over and intervene in that way, train people up. Like, man, it’s the Perfect like feel good story, you know. Everything’s going okay, things turn shit, and then something good comes out of it and yeah hopefully there’s more good to come, you know. Like, man, it’s just an amazing experience. I just feel really privileged to be able to hear it and share it further. No, not not not me, personally. but now that you say that I will s I will think about it now. the most thing that that Nicole and I reflect on is, you know, like like we’ve already said, how good was that my friends got me to the hospital quickly? How good was the the surgeons the surgeons because it could have all gone wrong. or gone gone a different way. so that’s the stuff we reflect on more. and just just like my amazing recovery. Reflections on Recovery and Gratitude Because I recovered so quickly and so well, like I’ve thrown everyone away here. So so my new my neurologist, my my physios, ever everyone here is like well, back then was like really surprised. So we it’s when I first walked into the n neurologist, she said, like, wow, No one expected you to recover that quickly from such a severe stroke. Yeah. That’s such a good outcome. I like to I like to think that those things wouldn’t have been possible without your most amazing superhero friend Nicole. Nicole, your final thing I’d like to kind of run by you is that your whole career you’re working towards making things better. Yep. Like for people who are going through all really difficult times. have you had you ever dealt with a family member who needed your intervention or family friend or someone like that that needed an intervention with your specific skills before this? man. yes. So when I was quite a young therapist, probably in my early twenties, my dad told me that his One of his like great aunts or cousins elderly relative had had a stroke and she was in hospital and I didn’t really know her. Like she wasn’t someone in the family that I I had knew had known. And I said to Dad, I’ll go and visit her in hospital. And and so I went to the hospital and I found out she was in this room and I walk into the room and there were four people. And I see this gorgeous little old lady who is all crumpled in her chair and squashed and nearly falling out. And I I just walked in and I was horrified. And I just walked straight over to her. And I just said, look, can I help get you more comfortable, get you into a better position? And then I realized it was it was my own relative. and I said to her, I’m Nicole, I’m John’s daughter. you know, dad’s asked me to come and see you. And and she just said the most cutest thing ever. She said, when you walked into the room. You just look so lovely and I hoped you were here to see me, but I I wouldn’t have known what I could have done to deserve that or something something dead cute. anyway, she’d had a very dense stroke and they were basically saying that she wasn’t a candidate for rehab and that she should go straight to a nursing home. And her daughter was a nurse. And she said, Nope, Mum’s not going to a nursing home and she ended up taking her home and I used to go every night after work and do rehab with her. she ended up being able to walk quite with a pretty awkward gait and a and a stick. but she got back to, yeah, walking and living at home and I just again always think that if she didn’t have her daughter, the nurse and myself, she probably would have ended up not not walking. Yeah, being in a nursing home. It’s not that quality of life. So there’s people who definitely go through that. And what I love about you sharing that part of the story is there’s people listening and they’re paying attention and maybe they haven’t been given the amount of therapy that they feel they deserve or need. And maybe that’s going to trigger people to go, you know what, stuff this, I’m gonna find a way to get more therapy, I’m gonna ask. I’m gonna hassle some people, I’m gonna be a pain in the butt to some people, I’m gonna do more. for myself to get me further. I love that you shared that part of the story. That’s kind of the unique experience that a that a a seasoned occupational therapist can kind of impart on us who are early on in the recovery about like how you need to advocate for somebody or yourself for more physical therapy. And and even if you Can’t access that people listening and watching YouTube channels. Go to YouTube. There are a ton of awesome therapists on YouTube showing people how to do exercises at home. Yeah. And I mean, I just took some really basic things. We s I, you know, stole some things out of Kylie’s flat to take in. And Guido’s son gave me some toys and we use those like stacking things to, you know, do rehab with Kylie’s hand. I took some pegs from her house and we made an activity of pegging up the curtains to do shoulder and arm rehab. So you can often do a lot without, yo

Fluent Fiction - Norwegian: Treasures of Bergen: Finding Meaning in Souvenirs Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/no/episode/2026-07-31-22-34-01-no Story Transcript:No: Sola skinte klart over Bergen Akvarium.En: The sun shone brightly over Bergen Akvarium.No: Sommeren hadde bragt med seg varme dager og turister som gledet seg til å se alt av marint liv.En: The summer had brought with it warm days and tourists eager to see all the marine life.No: Inne i akvariet, blant de boblende tankene og lysglimtene fra fisk som svømte tilfeldig forbi, var det tre venner som akkurat hadde avsluttet runden sin.En: Inside the aquarium, among the bubbling tanks and the glimmers from fish swimming by, were three friends who had just finished their tour.No: Sindre, Ingrid og Kjell sto i den lille suvenirbutikken med vinduer som ga utsikt mot sjøen.En: Sindre, Ingrid, and Kjell stood in the little souvenir shop with windows overlooking the sea.No: Sindre var full av entusiasme etter å ha sett alle de fargerike fiskene.En: Sindre was full of enthusiasm after seeing all the colorful fish.No: "Jeg vil ha noe som minner meg om denne turen," sa han og så seg ivrig omkring.En: "I want something to remind me of this trip," he said, looking around eagerly.No: Men hans budsjett var stramt, så han måtte være forsiktig.En: But his budget was tight, so he had to be careful.No: Ingrid, alltid den praktiske, nikket enig.En: Ingrid, always the practical one, nodded in agreement.No: "Vi bør finne noe som er meningsfylt, ikke sant?En: "We should find something meaningful, right?"No: "Kjell, derimot, var allerede distrahert av et skinnende nøkkelringdisplay.En: Kjell, however, was already distracted by a shiny keychain display.No: "Denne ser gøy ut!En: "This looks fun!"No: " utbrøt han mens han holdt opp en nøkkelring formet som en sprutende hval.En: he exclaimed while holding up a keychain shaped like a spouting whale.No: Det blinket i lyset, men var også altfor dyrt.En: It sparkled in the light but was also far too expensive.No: De beveget seg langs de overfylte hyllemetreder fylt med små plastleker, store plussdyr av seler og merkelige småting.En: They moved along the crowded shelves filled with small plastic toys, large plush seals, and peculiar little things.No: Sindre måtte holde fokus.En: Sindre had to stay focused.No: Han ville ha noe unikt, men også noe som passet lommeboka hans.En: He wanted something unique, but also something that fit his budget.No: Midt i denne skattekammeret, ved siden av noen glinsende glassankre, la Sindre plutselig merke til en vakker modell av en norsk fisk.En: In the midst of this treasure trove, next to some shiny glass anchors, Sindre suddenly noticed a beautiful model of a Norwegian fish.No: Den var nydelig håndlaget, med detaljer som fanget essensen av deres akvarieopplevelse.En: It was beautifully handcrafted, with details that captured the essence of their aquarium experience.No: Prislappen var rimelig nok, akkurat innenfor Sindre sitt budsjett.En: The price tag was reasonable enough, just within Sindre's budget.No: Han tok en dyp pust og smilte.En: He took a deep breath and smiled.No: "Dette er perfekt!En: "This is perfect!"No: " erklærte Sindre, og Ingrid ga ham et godkjennende nikk, mens Kjell så opp fra noen fargerike skjell han hadde funnet.En: declared Sindre, and Ingrid gave him an approving nod, while Kjell looked up from some colorful shells he had found.No: "Bra valg," sa Ingrid, og så var de enige.En: "Good choice," said Ingrid, and they all agreed.No: Da Sindre kjøpte den lille fiskemodellen, kjente han en bølge av tilfredshet.En: When Sindre bought the little fish model, he felt a wave of satisfaction.No: Han hadde funnet noe som virkelig betydde noe, og han hadde holdt seg innenfor budsjettet.En: He had found something truly meaningful, and he had stayed within his budget.No: "Jeg antar at tålmodighet lønner seg," kommenterte han til vennene sine.En: "I guess patience pays off," he commented to his friends.No: Med suveniren i posen, gikk de tre vennene ut av akvariet, klare for flere sommeropplevelser i Bergen.En: With the souvenir in the bag, the three friends left the aquarium, ready for more summer adventures in Bergen.No: Sindre hadde lært noe viktig—at de beste minnene er dem som ikke krever en formue, men hjertet.En: Sindre had learned something important—that the best memories are those that don't cost a fortune but fill the heart.No: De er dem man kan ha med seg lenge etter at ferien er over.En: They are the ones you can carry with you long after the vacation is over.No: Ingrid og Kjell nikket enige, og de gikk i retning av bryggen, med Sindre sin nye skatteposen dinglende rolig ved siden hans.En: Ingrid and Kjell nodded in agreement, and they headed towards the pier, with Sindre's new treasure bag swinging gently by his side. Vocabulary Words:bubbling: boblendeglimmers: lysglimtenesouvenir: suvenirenthusiasm: entusiasmeeagerly: ivrigbudget: budsjetttight: stramtmeaningful: meningsfyltdistracted: distrahertdisplay: displaykeychain: nøkkelringspouting: sprutendeplush: plussdyrpeculiar: merkeligefocused: fokustreasure: skattanchors: ankrehandcrafted: håndlagetessence: essensenreasonable: rimeligdeclared: erklærteapproving: godkjennendesatisfaction: tilfredshetpatience: tålmodighetfortune: formuecarry: ha med segvacation: feriepier: bryggenswinging: dinglendetreasure bag: skatteposen

Every person eventually asks: "Why is this happening?" Together, we'll explore how suffering affects the mind and soul, what the Scriptures and Church Fathers teach about hardship, and how we can find God's presence, purpose, and hope even in our darkest seasons.

When autonomy is low, meaning has to be high. That is what I learned during the two years I spent as a full-time caregiver for my older son, isolated in our home, and putting myself physically between him and his eighteen-month-old brother when things got bad. In this episode I share how I found a sustaining "why" during that period, and how other families I have worked with have found theirs. I also introduce a practical tool I call the "hang your hat on the day" goal: a way of redirecting from goals that depend on another person's behavior to goals that are entirely within your own control, so that you can give yourself genuine credit for what you are doing every single day.Key Takeaways When Autonomy Is Low, Meaning Has to Be High | 00:00:00 Parenting a PDA child or teen introduces an almost constant rock-and-a-hard-place dynamic: every choice has a cost, and there is no option that gives you genuine autonomy without a trade-off. When you want to go to the gym, there is a cost when you come back. When your partner takes over for a few hours, there is a cost to their energy level. That sustained low autonomy is depleting in a way most people around us will never understand, and what I have found, from my own experience and across the families I work with, is that meaning is the variable that makes it sustainable. We need a "why" that gets us through the day. How I Found My "Why" in the Basement | 00:01:46 I was in the basement of our home in Michigan, putting myself between my older and younger sons when things got violent, feeling my own violent rage moving through me that I want to name as normal rather than shameful. My older son needed constant undivided attention and dopamine or he would go after his brother, and I was isolated, sensory overwhelmed, and out of resources. I had been reading Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning and had a seed planted about the idea that a clear why makes almost anything endurable. In that moment in the basement I realized: my entire doctorate had been on nonviolence and grassroots peace building and there I was, finally practicing it. Not theoretically. In my own basement. That was enough meaning to sustain me through that period. What Other Families Have Found as Their Why | 00:06:27 The meaning does not have to be mine. Across the thousands of families I have worked with, the sustaining whys have included: healing intergenerational trauma, becoming the parent they wished they had, practicing becoming a less judgmental person, learning non-reactivity as a skill, learning about disability and neurodiversity in a way that changes how they move through the world, and healing themselves through the relationship with their child. None of these are about outcomes for the child. They are about what the parent is becoming through the practice of showing up, which is the only part any of us actually controls. Why Goals That Depend on Your Child Will Undermine You | 00:08:29 One of the most consistent patterns I see across the families I work with, and in myself, is attaching goals to things another person has to do: my child will go back to school in the fall, my child will be independent by this age, my partner will come on board if I explain it clearly enough. When these goals drive our sense of progress, we are setting ourselves up for a particular kind of suffering, because we have no control over another person's nervous system or choices. The shift I ask parents to make is not to stop wanting those things. It is to stop basing today's measure of success on whether they happened. The Hang Your Hat on the Day Goal | 00:10:06 This is the practical tool that helped me through the most acute period of caregiving and that I return to now in harder seasons. The hang your hat goal is the one thing within your own control that you can point to at the end of a day and say: I did that. Some days it is "I showed up more regulated than I would have a year ago." Some days it is "I stayed in the PDA lens for most of the day even though I fell back into the old pattern at bedtime." Some days it is "I brushed my teeth, I ate enough to stay alive, and I did not scream at my kids." All of these count. None of them depend on what your child did. And giving yourself genuine credit for what you did, even when no one else can see it, is one of the most sustainable things you can do for your own nervous system over the long term. Relevant Resources Finding Meaning — Free class where I go deeper into the meaning-making framework described in this episode, including how to identify a sustaining why that is true for your specific life and journey.Burnout — Free class with context for the burnout period I describe, including the two years of intensive caregiving that led me to Viktor Frankl and the hang your hat goal.Paradigm Shift Program — My signature program where meaning-making, the hang your hat goal, and the full accommodation framework are practiced together across twelve weeks with live coaching and a community of families in the same season.Mentioned in this episode:July Try Before You Buy Special Offer!For a whole month you can trial all the pre-recorded parts of our proven effective coaching program - including over 500 private podcast episodes - for just $49. This special offer ends July 31. Use the link below to learn more.Try Before You Buy

Part 2 of my conversation with John Graham picks up where the chaos left off. After years of chasing danger, John finally has to face the fallout. He's led on a spiritual journey and a moment at sea that forces him to choose what kind of man he is going to be. This episode gets into the turning point: how he confronted his past, how he rebuilt himself, and how he committed to a life of service instead of adrenaline. In This Episode Vietnam, PTSD, and the emotional work he could no longer avoid How encounter groups pushed him to confront himself The unexpected spiritual path that cracked him open The typhoon off Alaska that nearly killed him The decision that changed his direction How the Giraffe Heroes Project gave him a mission and a place to serve If you missed Part 1, go back and listen — it sets the stage for everything John reveals here. Stay Connected If these conversations help you think deeper and live with more clarity, make sure you're plugged in: Subscribe to the Bold Journeys Newsletter for weekly insights and episode updates Subscribe on YouTube for full episodes and clips Follow on Instagram for behind‑the‑scenes content and daily encouragement Your support helps this show reach more people who need these conversations. Chapters 00:00 Part Two Setup 02:34 Vietnam Homecoming PTSD 03:27 Encounter Group Breakthrough 10:34 Out of Body Experiences 15:58 The Sign and Healing 21:43 Cruise Ship Fire 28:41 Panic in the Lifeboat 30:03 Dawn Rescue Attempts 34:04 A Choice with God 36:32 Founding Giraffe Heroes 41:35 Badass Granddad Goes Viral 47:14 Finding Meaning and Grace

An Exit Strategy Conversation with Dr. Charlotte Grinberg What if thinking about death could help us live more fully? In this thought-provoking episode of Exit Strategy, Stephanie Garry welcomes Dr. Charlotte Grinberg, physician, writer, and advocate for bringing conversations about mortality into everyday life. Inspired by her widely shared essay in The Free Press, Dr. […] The post Death as Teacher: Finding Meaning in the Life We Have appeared first on Plaza Jewish Community Chapel.

High-pressure sales moments test a leader's ability to stay composed, present, and clear when the outcome matters. In this minisode, Dr. Michael Gervais explains how elite performers manage activation before critical moments, from major buyer meetings to executive presentations. He breaks down the difference between useful nerves and disruptive anxiety, then outlines the mental skills that help leaders regulate pressure: awareness, breathing, and self-talk. For revenue leaders, this conversation offers a practical lens on preparing the mind before the stakes arrive. Dr. Michael Gervais is a performance psychologist, the founder of Finding Mastery, host of the Finding Mastery podcast, co-creator of the Performance Science Institute at the University of Southern California, and author of The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying About What People Think of You. He has worked with Olympians, world champions, MMA fighters, Fortune 100 CEOs, and elite teams to help them train their minds for high-pressure performance. Connect with Dr. Gervais: Website Podcast IG Facebook LinkedIn Resources mentioned: Dr. Michael Gervais' Morning Mindset Routine The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying About What Other People Think of You by Michael Gervais, PhD Rethinking Success: Eight Essential Practices for Finding Meaning in Work and Life by J. Douglas Holladay Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella Listen to the full episode: Training the Mind for High-Stakes Sales: How FOPO Hurts Executive Presence with Dr. Michael Gervais Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Welcome to the latest episode of Lunch with Shelley with today's special guest Catherine Townsend.  Catherine is the President and CEO of the Trust for the National Mall, which is the leading nonpartisan philanthropic partner of the National Park Service.  Since 2016, Catherine has led the organization's vision, strategy, fundraising, and external affairs, and is doing an incredible job leading the Trust's historic multi-million-dollar effort called Our Monumental Moment: The Campaign for the National Mall, which mobilizes philanthropic support for the National Mall in honor of America 250.  Born and raised in Southern California, Catherine is a longtime resident of Capitol Hill here in DC, where she has built her career, raised her family, and remains deeply engaged in her community. She is the proud mother of four grown and successfully launched children, and in her spare time enjoys cycling, photography, cooking, and exploring the arts, culture, and culinary experiences that bring people together. So join us for our deliciously fun culinary experience at the always joyful Café Milano as we talk a lot about what's happening on the National Mall National Trust and the National Mall, Catherine's incredible experiences at Share our Strength, the book she co-authored called “Home Food – 44 Great American Chefs Cook on Their Night Off,” her passion for the food industry soup-to-nuts, lots of sports, and much much more!Check us out at www.lunchwithshelley.com or wherever you get your favorite podcast and, in the meantime, and as always, Peace, Love and Lunch!

Dr. Jesse Fister on Finding Meaning When Faith Changes On this episode of the Make Mental Health Matter Show, host Kelli Melissa Reinhardt is back in the studio with special guest Dr. Jesse Fister.  A little bit about his story from him: I was raised as the son and grandson of evangelical ministers. Practicing philosophy helped me overcome a religious crisis in my early twenties. After that, I obtained a Masters in Transpersonal Psychology to help understand some unusual experiences I had. Then, I earned a doctorate in clinical psychology to tend to the soul of others and the world. My training was mostly psychoanalytic, so my therapy practice is relational and helps clients get to the root of unconscious conflicts. Short Bio: Dr. Jesse Fister is a licensed clinical psychologist who provides depth-oriented psychotherapy for adults working through anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, life transitions, and questions of meaning and identity. He holds a PhD in depth psychology and sees clients through his private practice, Riverbed Psychology, in Denver and by telehealth across many states. He is also the author of Soul to Soil, where he writes about psychology, meaning, and the inner life. Find out more about Jesse here:  Main author page: https://jessefister.com/ Substack, Soul to Soil: https://jessefisterphd.substack.com Instagram: @drjessefister Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089080728979 Kelli's links: www.mmhm.org/show Facebook.com/kellimelissareinhardt Instagram.com/kellimelissareinhardt linkedin.com/in/kellimelissareinhardt tiktok.com/@warriorformentalhealth https://www.youtube.com/@MakeMentalHealthMatter  Want to find out when the next incredible episode of Make Mental Health Matter show is dropping? Sign up for the Make Mental Health Matter newsletter for special tips, and insider only offers. Click HERE to sign up today! Need more resources? www.makementalhealthmatter.org  https://linktr.ee/makementalhealthmatter

Kathy Eldon's son, Dan Eldon, was a young photojournalist working for Reuters in Somalia when he was killed at just 22 years old while documenting a famine and its aftermath. Rather than let that loss define her, Kathy and her daughter Amy founded Creative Visions Foundation in 1998 to support artists, journalists, and storytellers using media to inspire positive change. The foundation has since incubated hundreds of projects — including the Oscar-winning documentary Navalny — and its work has reached more than 100 million people across five continents.  In this candid and moving conversation, Kathy opens up about:  How Dan's early humanitarian instincts led him from fundraising for a child's heart surgery in Kenya to documenting the Somali famine as a photojournalist  The chaotic, tragic circumstances of Dan's death, and the making of the Emmy-nominated documentary Dying to Tell the Story  The real and growing dangers facing journalists covering conflicts today  Creative Visions Foundation's Impact Media and Impact Education initiatives, including a multi-million dollar partnership with the Bezos Family Foundation  The Angel Catcher journal series she created with Amy, which has helped grieving readers (and hospices) process loss for over 20 years  Her new project, Boundless, born out of COVID isolation and the trauma of the LA wildfires  Her belief in signs and guidance from beyond — including an encounter with a psychic medium months after Dan's death  Her advice for anyone facing profound grief: channel that energy into something that helps others  This is a story about finding blue sky above even the darkest clouds — and using creativity, purpose, and community to transform unimaginable loss into a legacy of hope.  Chapters: 00:00:00 Introduction and Early Life 00:03:33 Dan's Legacy and Tragedy 00:08:05 Channeling Grief into Action 00:12:09 The Dangers of Journalism  00:16:05 Empowering Change with Creative Visions 00:20:02 Adapting to Changing Landscapes 00:25:41 Healing Through Connection 00:31:56 Finding Meaning in Hardship 

In this episode of The Impostor Syndrome Files, we talk about the ordinary moments that shape who we become and why so much of leadership, growth and human connection happens in the spaces we often overlook. My guest this week is Kurt Bush, leadership coach and co-founder of Brimstone Coaching Group.Kurt shares his nonlinear journey from manufacturing to ministry to leadership coaching and reflects on why growth often comes from embracing uncertainty rather than trying to control it. We explore the pressure leaders feel to always appear confident and capable, especially during times of rapid change and instability, and why so many people quietly carry overwhelm, anxiety and self-doubt while trying to support everyone around them.In our conversation, we discuss the importance of self-awareness and how moments of regret, discomfort or emotional reaction can become opportunities for growth when approached with curiosity instead of shame. Kurt also shares practical ways leaders can reflect more intentionally on how they show up in everyday interactions and why empowered action matters more than perfection.We also talk about burnout, hustle culture and the growing need for rest, reflection and joy in a world that constantly rewards productivity. Kurt shares his perspective on creating “counter systems” that help leaders stay grounded and emotionally healthy while supporting others through difficult challenges.Finally, we explore the idea that most of life happens in ordinary moments and why those moments often offer the greatest opportunities for transformation, connection and meaningful impact.About My GuestKurt Bush is a certified Internal Family Systems Practitioner, trauma-informed coach, and co-founder of Brimstone Coaching Group. With a background spanning corporate leadership, pastoral ministry, and coaching, Kurt helps leaders break free from self-doubt, embrace authenticity, and lead with confidence. Having overcome his own struggles with imposter syndrome, Kurt is passionate about guiding others through transformational growth and into authentic leadership. Through Brimstone's unique E + R = T approach (Encounter + Reflection = Transformation), Kurt equips individuals and teams to move from exhaustion and frustration to clarity and wholeness. He is also the co-author of “Live Fully. Lead Authentically. The Surprising Link Between Self-Awareness and Your Impact” in which he and his coaching partner explore leadership, personal growth, and breaking through barriers.~Connect with Kurt:Website: https://www.brimstonecoachinggroup.com/~Connect with Kim and The Impostor Syndrome Files:Join the free Impostor Syndrome Challenge:https://www.kimmeninger.com/challengeLearn more about the Leading Humans discussion group:https://www.kimmeninger.com/leadinghumansgroupJoin the Slack channel to learn from, connect with and support other professionals: https://forms.gle/Ts4Vg4Nx4HDnTVUC6Join the Facebook group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/leadinghumansSchedule time to speak with Kim Meninger directly about your questions/challenges: https://bookme.name/ExecCareer/strategy-sessionConnect on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimmeninger/Website:https://www.kimmeninger.com

In this engaging episode, George Halford sits down with Tennessee Tech professor and Putnam County Poet Laureate Aaron Hoover to discuss the power of poetry, storytelling, and the arts in shaping both individuals and communities. Hoover reflects on the life experiences that inspired her writing, from growing up near Three Mile Island to living in New York City during the September 11 attacks, and explains how those moments continue to influence her work. She also shares her vision for expanding poetry throughout the Upper Cumberland, supporting young writers, and helping strengthen Cookeville's growing arts community through Tennessee Tech, the Sawmill Poetry Series, and her role as Poet Laureate. Listen To The Local Matters Podcast Today! The UC Now · News Talk 94.1

VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/ZY_iDr1zgvE DAMIEN ECHOLS is a bestselling author, martial artist, and spiritual teacher whose life and work embody the path of transformation. After spending nearly two decades on death row for a crime he didn't commit, Damien emerged from solitary confinement with a deep knowledge of ritual, internal alchemy, and the power of spiritual discipline. His memoir Life After Death is a New York Times bestseller, and his subsequent works—High Magick, Angels & Archangels, Ritual have helped countless readers reconnect with their own inner power and purpose. A black belt in Tang Soo Do, Damien trains in the martial arts not as a sport but as a sacred path—a way of healing, focus, and rebirth. Damien has appeared on countless news programs and has been featured in magazine and newspaper articles such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and Vanity Fair. In 2020 he starred in Netflix's Midnight Gospel.Damien Echols:Website: https://damienechols.com/BOOKS: https://damienechols.com/books/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/damienechols/X: https://x.com/damienecholsFB: https://www.facebook.com/damienwechols/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnRyoC6Oww6FrYVc-BxKyDgTHE RIPPLE EFFECT PODCAST:WEBSITE: http://TheRippleEffectPodcast.comSUPPORT:PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/TheRippleEffectPodcastPayPal: https://www.PayPal.com/paypalme/RvTheory6VENMO: https://venmo.com/code?user_id=3625073915201071418&created=1663262894MERCH: Store: http://www.TheRippleEffectPodcastMerch.comSPONSORS:Descript – AI Video & Podcast Editor: https://descript.cello.so/l3sNyHZznJcOPUS A.I. Clip Creator: https://www.opus.pro/?via=RickyVarandasScott Horton Academy: https://scotthortonacademy.com/rippleeffectUniversity of Reason-Autonomy: https://www.universityofreason.com/a/2147825829/ouiRXFoLWATCH:OFFICIAL YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRippleEffectPodcastOFFICIALYOUTUBE CLIPS CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/@RickyVarandasRUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/therippleeffectpodcast?e9s=src_v1_cmdLISTEN:SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4lpFhHI6CqdZKW0QDyOicJCONNECT:X: https://x.com/RvTheory6THE UNION OF THE UNWANTED: https://linktr.ee/TheUnionOfTheUnwanted

Added Sleep https://addednutrition.com/products/added-sleep $10 off WIRED10 code at checkoutStephen Martin shares insights from his experience attending Mark Manson's talk, exploring themes of life's challenges, hope, and creating personal meaning. This episode dives into how recognizing that everyone faces struggles can empower us to focus on what truly matters.TakeawaysEveryone faces challenges; no one has a perfect life.Hope is the opposite of hopelessness and fuels motivation.Life's meaning is self-created, not externally given.Recognizing shared struggles can foster empathy and resilience.Setting personal hopes and goals adds purpose to life.Self-help, Mark Manson, hope, meaning, dyslexia, ADHD, personal growth, motivation, life challenges, adults with dyslexia, support for adults.Join the clubrightbrainresetters.comGet 20% off your first orderaddednutrition.comIf you want to find out more visit:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠truthaboutdyslexia.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our Facebook Group⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/groups/adultdyslexia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

In this episode of Beyond Retirement, I talk about how purpose can emerge in surprising places when life changes direction. Inspired by my conversation with Marilyn Raichle, this reflection explores how presence, listening, and small moments of connection can transform the way we experience retirement.Many people enter retirement with a clear picture of what life will look like — travel, hobbies, freedom, and time to relax. But life doesn't always follow the plan. Health changes, family responsibilities shift, and unexpected roles appear. This episode explores how meaning often grows not from perfectly planned lives, but from how we respond when those plans change. Sometimes the most meaningful chapters begin when we slow down enough to notice the people and experiences around us.Key Topics Covered:Why retirement rarely unfolds exactly as plannedThe difference between being a caregiver and a care partnerHow listening and presence deepen relationshipsFinding purpose in unexpected roles and experiencesQuestions to Reflect Upon:Where might meaning be showing up in your life right now?How comfortable are you with letting life unfold without a plan?What small moments of connection could you notice more often?READY TO RAMP UP YOUR RETIREMENT JOURNEY?Start here: https://beyondretirement.ca/start-here/Book a FREE call with Jacquie: https://calendly.com/jacquiedoucette/discoveryCheck out the Beyond Retirement Library: https://placeforbooks.com*****************Don't forget to check out Reinvention Rebels and grab your free gift: https://reinventionrebels.com/100Reinvention Rebels, hosted by Wendy Battles, is for women in midlife and beyond who are ready to consciously design the next chapter of their lives. Through stories of women 50 to 90-plus who are starting businesses, finding love, taking on big challenges, and rediscovering their confidence, Wendy reminds listeners that reinvention doesn't have an expiry date.Mentioned in this episode:Reinvention RebelsReinvention Rebels, hosted by Wendy Battles, is for women in midlife and beyond who are ready to consciously design the next chapter of their lives. Through stories of women 50 to 90-plus who are starting businesses, finding love, taking on big challenges, and rediscovering their confidence, Wendy reminds listeners that reinvention doesn't have an expiry date.

Whether retirement is around the corner or decades away, people generally have a good idea of what they're retiring FROM: a successful career, cherished colleagues, and professional identity. But have you considered what you're retiring TO?  Traditional retirement planning, or what we like to call "default retirement mode," tells us that our Golden Years are a time to just relax, travel a little bit, and maybe pick up golf or crochet. What if your spouse is still working, so you can't travel like you would like to? What if your identity is rooted in your work, either because you truly love it, or because you never got around to building the life you really wanted for yourself? The people who thrive in retirement aren't necessarily the ones with the most money or the most time on the golf course; they're the ones with the clearest sense of purpose, strong relationships, and a vision of what they want their next chapter to look like. This is why simply spending your retirement "not working" is not enough. In this episode, Andrew Wong, CFP®, joins the conversation to discuss how retirement planning should be about more than just money and the outcome of which will vary widely based on a retiree's lifestyle, goals, and expectations. What are you retiring to? Don't forget to subscribe to be the first to hear new episodes.

Tanner Chidester is an entrepreneur, business coach, and online marketing expert who has generated well over $100 million in sales by helping coaches and service providers grow their businesses. Starting as a fitness coach after a lifetime in athletics, Tanner built multiple successful companies by applying the same principles of discipline, consistency, and personal growth that first transformed his life as a teenager. In this episode, Travis shares some of his biggest takeaways from their conversation, covering confidence, business, success, trust, and the search for meaning beyond financial achievement. On this episode we talk about: How early wins create the belief that effort leads to results Why confidence is built through evidence, not affirmations The surprising identity crisis that can come after achieving major goals Why trust has become the most valuable asset in modern business The dangers of forming opinions based on social media clips and sound bites Top 3 Takeaways Confidence is earned through action. Every challenge you overcome creates evidence that you can figure out the next one. Achieving a major financial goal won't automatically create fulfillment. Success often amplifies deeper questions about purpose, meaning, and identity. In today's marketplace, trust is the ultimate competitive advantage. Long-term success belongs to people who consistently deliver real value and build credibility over time. Notable Quotes "The first time you prove to yourself that effort produces results, it is life-changing." "Confidence is not something you talk yourself into. It's something you build with evidence." "Trust is now the scarcest resource in business." Connect with Tanner Chidester: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Tanner.Chidester/ Website: https://tannerchidester.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tanner.chidester A Word from Our Sponsors: Interested in reaching an audience of entrepreneurs, business owners, investors, and high performers? Sponsoring the Travis Makes Money podcast is a powerful way to connect with listeners who are actively seeking strategies to grow their income, businesses, and wealth. Contact the team to learn more about partnership opportunities. - Are you ready to start your own creatorjourney and make it big? Visitwww.fanvue.com today and launch yourcareer! - To learn more about Mode Mobile and its investor community, go to ⁠https://invest.modemobile.com/travismakesmoney⁠ -Travis Makes Money is made possible by High Level – the All-In-One Sales & Marketing Platform built for agencies, by an agency.Capture leads, nurture them, and close more deals—all from one powerful platform.Get an extended free trial at gohighlevel.com/travis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 In this deeply moving episode of Widow 180: The Podcast, occupational therapist, author, and widow Rondalyn Whitney shares the raw story of losing her husband Bill in a sudden car accident during the COVID-19 pandemic. She opens up about how she rebuilt her life from "Day Zero" forward. Drawing on her background in narrative medicine and occupational therapy, Rondalyn offers widows practical, evidence-based tools for navigating grief: from journaling techniques backed by research, to reframing mourning as an "occupation" requiring structure, habits, and routines, to finding the courage to rebuild identity after loss. She opens up about:~parenting a grieving teenager~the power of small rituals~how she learned to "be her own Bill" and be her own cheerleader~how she found the courage to step out and do things on her own, like dining outWhether you're newly widowed or years into your grief journey, this conversation offers both permission to feel and concrete steps toward healing. Connect with Rondalyn Whitney at RondalynWhitney.comShe's also on LinkedIn, Facebook, or find her published books and articles on her Amazon author page. Join the Widow 180 community for the 60 Days of Summer Healing Quest on YouTube (a video series for widows and widowers) and get your FREE progress tracker here: https://widow180.kit.com/healingquestFind the newest Widow 180 workbook, the Who Am I Now? Workbook at https://widow180.kit.com/whoaminow Be sure to join our Facebook group, Widow 180 The Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/312036956454927Also follow us on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/widow_180/Check us out on YouTube at Widow 180: The Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-DK_dl31qMilJ5cE6t9MVQFor more blog posts and resources go to www.widow180.comQuestions? Email me at jen@widow180.com

What gives life meaning? It's a question that has fascinated humanity for centuries. From ancient philosophers and mystics to modern psychologists, some of history's greatest thinkers have explored what it means to live a purposeful and fulfilling life. In this episode, we examine their timeless wisdom on meaning, resilience, connection, and personal growth—and discover practical ways to apply these insights to our own lives.

Jotham Hung is a ceramic artist and educator based in Southern California reflecting on his early experiences with art. Late last year I sat down to speak with Jotham about his evolution and journey to becoming a full-time educator artist and he shared the dark moment that led to his creative process which has resulted in pieces that reflect the themes of deconstruction & reconstruction, damage & repair.   If you think you're not creative, don't write yourself off. Jotham believes everyone is an artist and has the potential to be creative.     This episode is sponsored by the Taiwanese United Fund (TUF). TUF is an arts and culture foundation that celebrates the cultural heritages of Taiwanese Americans. Established in 1986, the foundation's mission is to facilitate cultural exchange between the Taiwanese American community and other American cultural communities, hoping to enrich and expand our cultural experiences.   Related Links:  

Last year, the President celebrated his birthday with a military parade. This year, he hosted a UFC cage match on the South Lawn of the White House. It's easy to compare it to the gladiator games honoring the Roman emperor, but Phil asks whether it's a sign that America would rather emulate pre-Christian Roman values than biblical ones. Americans can no longer agree on how to teach American history, so we're not teaching it much at all. Is it possible to recover a shared national story? Nijay Gupta is back to discuss his latest book, "Paul for the World," and why the Apostle would not recognize a modern Christianity that's focused on heaven rather than earth. Also this week—the science behind dad jokes. Holy Post Plus: Ad-Free Version of this Episode: https://holypost.substack.com/p/725-the-cage-match-for-americas-story Bonus Interview: https://holypost.substack.com/p/should-the-church-preserve-ethnic 0:00 - Show Starts 3:12 - Theme Song 3:35 -  Sponsor - PolicyGenius - Secure your family's tomorrow so you have peace of mind today. Go to https://www.policygenius.com/HOLYPOST to find the right life insurance for you 4:38 - Sponsor - Rocket Money - Find and cancel your old subscriptions with Rocket Money at https://www.rocketmoney.com/HOLYPOST 5:38 - Science Supports Dad Jokes 14:49 - UFC Fight at the White House 30:45 - Sponsor - Feeding America - Feeding America, led by neighbors! Give now to end hunger at https://www.feedingamerica.org 31:15 - Sponsor - BetterHelp - This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/HOLYPOST and get 10% off your first month! 32:17 - "American Dream" Finding Cuts 35:02 - What Story is America Telling? 52:16 - Interview 57:46 - Is Social Justice Christian? 1:06:20 - Epicureans and Stoics 1:14:33 - Bonhauffer and the Incarnate Church 1:28:15 - End Credits   Links Mentioned in News Segment: Sciences Supports Dad Jokes: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2026/06/15/science-suggests-cringe-worthy-dad-jokes-may-serve-an-actual-purpose/   No Common American Narrative: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/07/american-history-common-narrative/687301/   Other Resources: Paul for the World: A Grounded Vision for Finding Meaning in This Life—Not Just the Next (What Paul's Letters Say about Work, Friendship, Money, Wellness, Justice, and More) by Nijay Gupta: https://amzn.to/3RZR8ON   Holy Post website: https://www.holypost.com/   Holy Post Plus: www.holypost.com/plus   Holy Post Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/holypost   Holy Post Merch Store: https://www.holypost.com/shop   The Holy Post is supported by our listeners. We may earn affiliate commissions through links listed here. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.  

What if your fertility journey isn't your whole story?In this episode, I'm joined by Speaker, Storytelling Coach, and author Alex Street for a conversation that completely reframes how we think about struggle, healing, identity, and transformation.Alex believes that your story is your superpower—and together we explore what it means to move beyond defining ourselves by one painful chapter and instead begin seeing our lives through the lens of growth, meaning, and possibility.This conversation felt especially powerful because while Alex doesn't come from the fertility world, his work helping people uncover and own their story connects deeply to what so many women navigating IVF and infertility experience.We talk about how our hardest moments do not become our identity.Instead, they become part of something bigger.If you've ever felt consumed by waiting, grief, uncertainty, or the pressure of fertility treatments, this episode offers a different perspective: your story is not the struggle itself—it's the transformation happening through it.Inside this episode, we explore:✨ Why your story is more than your fertility journey✨ How to move from confusion toward clarity✨ Why transformation matters more than timelines✨ The difference between honoring pain vs. becoming consumed by it✨ How storytelling can support healing and identity shifts✨ Journaling prompts to reconnect with yourself✨ Finding peace and possibility even in difficult seasons✨ Why your story is first for YOU before anyone elseOne of my favorite reminders from Alex:“Your story isn't the moment. Your story is the transformation.”If you're walking through IVF, infertility, grief, waiting, or simply becoming someone new through life's unexpected turns—I hope this conversation reminds you that this chapter is not your whole book.CONNECT WITH ALEX STREETWebsite: AlexStreet.caInstagram: @alexstreetcaBook: StoryArcCONNECT with Lisa & get IVF COACHING SUPPORTDownload IVF Mindset Shift Guide  https://ivfmanifestingamiracle.myflodesk.comBOOK a complimentary DISCOVERY CALL BOOK: ‘HOLD ON, BABY! A Soulful Guide to Navigating the Ups & Downs of Infertility & IVF.'INSTAGRAMWATCH on YOUTUBELISTEN to the PODCAST on Apple and Spotify:**Please Rate the show & Subscribe! THANK YOU so much for your Reviews of the podcast!Music Credit (Closing Song) by Sam Costigan. Follow her on Spotify and IG 

Welcome to the final chapter of our Alice in Wonderland journey on Books at Bedtime, brought to you by Calming Anxiety. If an overactive mind or a long, stressful day is keeping you awake tonight, let the soothing cadence of classic storytelling act as a gentle distraction, easing you into a deep, uninterrupted sleep. Tonight, we conclude Lewis Carroll's classic tale with Chapter 12: Alice's Evidence.We return to the chaotic courtroom of Wonderland, where Alice is called to give her testimony. Having suddenly grown to her full size, Alice inadvertently topples the jury box, scattering the animal jurors like goldfish from a bowl. Listen as the King desperately attempts to enforce Rule 42, the White Rabbit reads a final, nonsensical piece of poetic evidence, and the furious Queen demands a sentence before a verdict can even be reached. As the illusion shatters and Alice stands up to the flying pack of cards, she awakens to a gentle breeze, realizing it was all a wonderful, curious dream. Read with a slow, calming voice to encourage deep relaxation, this final chapter is the perfect bedtime routine to slow your breathing and soothe your nervous system before rest. Turn down the lights, get comfortable under the covers, and let go of the day.Episode Chapters00:00 – Introduction: Settling Down for the Final Chapter00:15 – Tipping the Jury Box: Alice's Sudden Growth01:16 – Upsetting the Goldfish & Righting Bill the Lizard02:07 – Important or Unimportant? The King's Deliberation03:10 – Rule 42: All Persons More Than a Mile High Must Leave04:02 – The White Rabbit's Final Scroll: Nonsense Verses Revealed07:06 – Finding Meaning in the Cardboard Knave's Poetic Defense08:44 – Sentence First, Verdict Afterwards! The Queen's Fury09:42 – Nothing But a Pack of Cards: Shattering the Wonderland Dream10:20 – Awakening on the Bank & A Sister's Gentle Kiss11:00 – Running to Tea: Closing Thoughts & Sleep OutroStorybook Highlights for SleepSoften your focus and let your imagination drift away with these comforting final images:The Scrambled Jurors: Alice meticulously picks up the tiny birds and animals, frantically worried that if they aren't put back in their box immediately, they might die like fish out of water.The King's Pun: A moment of dead silence falls over the court as the King tries to make a joke about his words not "fitting" the jury, demanding that everyone laugh.Waking to the Leaves: The flying pack of cards softly morphs back into harmless dead leaves drifting down from the trees as Alice opens her eyes in her sister's lap.If this bedtime story series has helped you quiet your thoughts, manage evening anxiety, and find a deeper path to sleep, please subscribe to the show and share this finale with someone who needs a comforting, calming voice tonight. Your shares help our community of health and stillness reach those who need it most.For structured, day-to-day help with chronic stress, panic, or mindset regulation, try the Anxiety Breaker course at calminganxiety.fm, featuring five comprehensive, guided hypnotherapy sessions.Let your eyelids grow heavy, feel the support of your bed, release the world entirely, and be kind to your beautiful soul. Sleep well, my friend.

(VipassanaGruppen)

The episode launches the Pride in Bruce series for Pride Month, celebrating LGBTQ+ stories and the ways Bruce Springsteen's music can be a lifeline. Host Jesse Jackson interviews Jason Bisogni, a Westchester, New York marketing professional and lifelong music fan, about his path into classic rock, his early concert experiences, and the moment he became a dedicated Springsteen fan after seeing the 1999 E Street Band reunion tour. Jason shares that he came out later in life (to two people at 39, more fully at 41 in 2021) and explains how Bruce's lyrics took on new meaning afterward, citing songs like “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “Trapped,” “Living Proof,” and “Two Hearts.” He credits Bob Dylan's “It's All Over Now, Baby Blue” line “He not busy being born is busy dying” as pivotal, discusses chasing songs live, recounts meeting Bruce several times, and answers the “Thunder Road” question by saying Mary does not get in the car. 00:00 Pride in Bruce Intro 01:48 Meet Jesse and Jason 02:21 Jason's Music Roots 03:18 Family Soundtrack Growing Up 06:43 Wrestling Detour and WWE 11:45 Concerts That Sparked It 14:59 Finding Bruce Springsteen 17:29 First E Street Show Magic 19:34 Counting Shows and Fandom 20:48 Static Setlist Debate 24:25 Health, Travel, and Missing Shows 26:27 Bruce and Coming Out Journey 27:01 Coming Out With The Boss 29:32 Lyrics Hit Different Now 32:07 Gay Icon Podcast Picks 34:23 Forever Favorites Playlist 38:18 Born Or Busy Dying 41:04 Songs Still Chasing Live 43:24 Meeting Bruce Stories 48:25 Thunder Road Mary Debate 50:39 Gratitude Pride Month Wrap Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Jesse Jackson interviews Jason Bisogni, a Westchester, New York marketing professional and lifelong music fan, about his path into classic rock, his early concert experiences, and the moment he became a dedicated Springsteen fan after seeing the 1999 E Street Band reunion tour. Jason shares that he came out later in life (to two people at 39, more fully at 41 in 2021) and explains how Bruce's lyrics took on new meaning afterward, citing songs like “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “Trapped,” “Living Proof,” and “Two Hearts.” He credits Bob Dylan's “It's All Over Now, Baby Blue” line “He not busy being born is busy dying” as pivotal, discusses chasing songs live, recounts meeting Bruce several times, and answers the “Mary” question. 00:00 Pride in Bruce Intro 01:48 Meet Jesse and Jason 02:21 Jason's Music Roots 03:18 Family Soundtrack Growing Up 06:43 Wrestling Detour and WWE 11:45 Concerts That Sparked It 14:59 Finding Bruce Springsteen 17:29 First E Street Show Magic 19:34 Counting Shows and Fandom 20:48 Static Setlist Debate 24:25 Health, Travel, and Missing Shows 26:27 Bruce and Coming Out Journey 27:01 Coming Out With The Boss 29:32 Lyrics Hit Different Now 32:07 Gay Icon Podcast Picks 34:23 Forever Favorites Playlist 38:18 Born Or Busy Dying 41:04 Songs Still Chasing Live 43:24 Meeting Bruce Stories 48:25 Thunder Road Mary Debate 50:39 Gratitude Pride Month Wrap Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the Marines to BJJ to saving lives post military career and finding meaning. Jeric Fry is an incredible human who shares his story from his time as a Marine to getting out and hitting the bottom and finding his way again in life.  support the mission here- https://www.vetbushido.org/about-us/ Get the best microdosing products on the planet from www.BrainSupreme.co/kkp and remember to use code "KKP" for 15% off everything in the store! Up your brains hardware and software now! Join my new community The Kingdom Within on Skool right here for a free 1 week trial!  https://www.skool.com/the-kingdom-within-5541/about

While we often think of life as linear, my guest's own life, along with a decade of research, has taught him that it's anything but. In his latest book, What to Make of a Life, Jim Collins unpacks the cyclical pattern life actually unfolds in, and how to navigate it. He explains how we all go through periods of “fog” — times of disorientation and uncertainty — at least three times: in youth, after a life-changing “cliff” event, and as we move through midlife into older age. We find our way out of these fogs by what Jim calls coming into “frame” — aligning what you're built to do with what you actually do in a way that feels enlivening and meaningful. And Jim unpacks the three elements that help you find, and re-find, this frame over the course of your life.Along the way, Jim shares case studies of these principles at work, and we explore the role of luck, the inevitability of drudgery (even in work you love), and how to keep your inner fire lit over the long haul.Resources Related to the PodcastGood to Great by Jim CollinsAll Rise: The Remarkable Journey of Alan Page by Bill McGraneSelf-Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society by John W. GardnerSunday Firesides: You Never Know How Many Chapters Are Still to ComeSunday Firesides: Do the Right Thing, for Right NowAoM Article: The 5 Best AoM Podcast Episodes on Finding Meaning and PurposeAoM series on finding your life's vocationConnect With Jim CollinsJim's websiteSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.