Welcome to The Freedom From Empty Podcast!
Every other week, I explore the effects of stress, burnout and trauma on our health, well-being, relationships, and organizations, communities and - more importantly - share actionable strategies and tools we can use to become strong, effective, resilient leaders and humans. The Freedom From Empty Podcast is a safe space to talk about hard things, heal our pain, and practice thriving.
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While it is true that there may not be an “Easy Button” for life as a whole, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t easy buttons available throughout each day or each week or each year. And sometimes, I think we forget to press the easy button. This podcast explores learning...
Our body processes "good" stress and "bad" stress the same way. In other words, it cannot tell the difference. And some would say that stress is neither inherently good OR bad. Toxic stress isn't actually about the source of the stress, but about the chronic and ongoing nature of the stress....
When things are "too good to be true" do you start looking for the other shoe to drop? I know I do. In this episode, I share an experience with self-sabotage that started with things feeling too good to be true. Counter-intuitively, feeling good can sometimes be uncomfortable and scary. How can...
Wake-up calls are often thought to be life-threatening and dramatic. And sometimes, they are. But, they don't have to be. Every day, we have the opportunity to consider whether the way we are living our lives is worth the price we are paying for it. We can choose to chart a new path at...
Our brains fill in gaps in information with fear and bias based on old data. We often ascribe meaning to the present based on the past. We can become consumed and overwrought by our own thoughts. And if we get too caught up in the stories in our mind, we can actually create and perpetuate...
According to the National Institute of Health, an estimated 26% of Americans ages 18 and older -- about 1 in 4 adults -- suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. We tend to act as though mental health and physical health are two different things, but they...
When is the last time you played? When did you last do something just for the fun of it? Has it been a while? Are you squinting quizzically at the question as if it doesn't compute? As adults, we sometimes come to think of play as a waste of time. What if I told you that play is good for your...
Many of us approach the New Year as a time to reflect and consider the changes we want to make in our lives. We set resolutions. We start strong. And then, we often lose momentum, become discouraged, and sometimes give up altogether. When we decide to make positive change in our lives, how do we...
We hear a lot about listening to our teams, co-workers, and perhaps even our kids. But what about listening to ourselves?
When we listen well, to the messages our body is sending to us, we have the opportunity to support ourselves in a way that builds our health, strength, resilience, and...
Our human capacity for denial is a survival mechanism that sometimes serves us well; holding unimaginable pain or seemingly unbearable things somewhere away from our hearts and minds until we are able to process them safely. And yet, unprocessed emotions also make us sick--physically and...
We may have a sneaking suspicion that something in our lives isn’t working for us, and yet we are afraid to ask ourselves what that might be. We have to give ourselves space to breathe into the question--what in our lives may no longer be serving us? If we aren’t willing to ask that...
Many of us are operating from a space of feeling like we are never enough--not good enough, or worthy enough, or that we haven’t “earned” the right to be loved and valued by others. These beliefs are often ingrained in us from a very early age. The fear of never being enough...
