Grief changes us. In many ways, we become a better version of ourselves. It doesn’t mean the loss we experienced was “good,” but it can be a really good teacher. How do we learn from our grief when it’s also one of the most painful experiences

Ep. 89 For When You Want to Support a Grieving Friend

Apr 20th, 2023 8m 26s

A friend has recently lost a loved one and you hate seeing the pain the grief is causing them. You want to love them and support them through this time, but you don’t want to overwhelm them. You want them to know you’re there, but you’re afraid

Ep. 88 For When You Disappear From Life

Apr 13th, 2023 7m 5s

You’ve experienced a great loss and it’s so overwhelming that you have to make life really small for a while, just to survive. What do you do when you disappear from life for long enough that you’re not sure if the people, places, and things yo

Ep 86 For When You're Tired of Grief

Apr 6th, 2023 5m 34s

Have you ever been so tired of grief? So ready for it to be ‘over’ or at the very least ready for a break? What do you do when you’re tired of grieving? CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE TRANSCRIPT FOR THIS EPISODE STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Au

Ep 86 For When You Don't Know How to Grieve

Mar 16th, 2023 7m 3s

You’ve experienced a great loss and have been deep in the thick of the grief fog. You’ve been just surviving until now but you’ve got to get back on top of the things you’ve neglected. But how do you grieve when you have work to get done and re

Ep 85 For When You're Ready to Rediscover Yourself

Mar 9th, 2023 8m 27s

One of the most awkward and painful parts of grieving, one of those sneaky little things no one warns you about, is that you lose yourself to the grief. It’s as if parts of you died, too. You forget your strengths, your passions, and the things

Ep 84 For When Grief Hits From Out of Nowhere

Mar 2nd, 2023 8m

When you’ve experienced a great loss, it takes some time to get back on your feet again. You’re not the same as before the loss, but you’re doing your best. And then, seemingly, from out of nowhere, a grief trigger runs you over, leaving you fe

Ep 83 For When You're Afraid of Leaving Them Behind

Feb 25th, 2023 8m 13s

When you’ve experienced a great loss, you know that life will never be the same. You don’t want to be paralyzed by grief - you want to heal and experience joy and love - but how do you do that while still honoring the great pain and the absence

Ep 83 For When You're Afraid of Leaving Them Behind

Feb 25th, 2023 8m 13s

Ep 82 For When You Start to Dream Again

Feb 16th, 2023 6m 40s

You’re crawling out of the pit where you’ve been living with your grief and you look around to see you’ve only been living an outline of a life. You know you can’t go back to your life before, but you have no vision for what comes next. And tha

Ep 81 For When You Bring Grief into the New Year

Feb 9th, 2023 6m 38s

When the calendar changed from 2022 to 2023, many people took a deep breath, let out a sigh, and wished things were different. While others were brainstorming resolutions or picking a word to focus their intentions on, those of us who have expe

Ep. 80 You Can't Be Awesome At Everything

Nov 24th, 2022 5m 41s

For most of my life, I would’ve proudly called myself a perfectionist. Doing things well and with precision is important to me. But over the years I’ve realized that the ‘perfectionist’ label is one of the most unhealthy stories I’ve told mysel

Ep. 79 It's Just Data

Nov 17th, 2022 8m 17s

Feeling in control can give us an illusion of being safe. Safe from loss. Safe from trauma. Safe from feeling any bad feelings. And when - despite our best efforts - we can’t predict or control everything that happens to us, we feel like we’ve

Ep 78. Vulnerability Hangover

Nov 17th, 2022 8m 39s

Sometimes when we share the innermost parts of ourselves we leave the encounter feeling like we’ve been stripped bare, sometimes even flayed on the altar of vulnerability. It can even feel like a hangover - like you can’t face the world and you

Ep. 77 On Loneliness and Belonging

Nov 10th, 2022 7m 20s

We all experience loneliness. And we all have a built in desire to feel like we belong. But when we realize that loneliness and belonging can co-exist - what do we do with that? CLICK HERE FOR THE TRANSCRIPT FOR THIS EPISODE STUFF MENTIONED IN

Ep. 76 My Weakness, Your Strength

Oct 27th, 2022 5m 34s

When it comes to friendship, there’s some kind of unspoken fear that we have to have it all together or our friends won’t want to be our friends anymore. Do you find yourself worrying that if your friends could see your *insert weakness, fault,

Ep. 75 Why You Need Friends

Oct 20th, 2022 8m 56s

If friends aren’t the people we play with at recess or live down the hall from in the college dorm, what are they? Why do we need them if not to have a friend for hide and seek or someone to share the highs and lows of growing up with? Why do w

Ep. 74 Finding Messy Friends

Oct 13th, 2022 8m 7s

You know that healthy friendships are an essential part of your mental health and well-being, but it feels like making friends as an adult should be easier. Why does it seem like everyone else has it figured out and you’re just sitting there ho

Ep. 73 You Believe What You Do

Oct 6th, 2022 7m 51s

Some of us grew up thinking that our faith was a permanent, immovable object and that any whiff of change or dissonance was a personal failure. But what happens when you realize that the ways you’ve always understood and practiced your beliefs

Ep 72. The Sacred Practice of 'No'

Sep 29th, 2022 10m 7s

It’s easy to feel like who we are is made up of all the things we can offer people - we are worth the sum of our productivity and helpfulness. But what happens when we have nothing to offer? Do my friends want me just for who I am or for the va

Ep 71. Being Honest With Yourself Even When It Hurts

Sep 22nd, 2022 8m 59s

Have you ever worried what would happen if you had to be honest about your imperfections? Do you feel like life is sometimes a Jenga tower, balanced on some of your strengths with each weakness only precariously holding up the blocks above them

Ep 70. Knowing What's Important To You

Sep 15th, 2022 8m 33s

We’ve got to do lists a mile long and they’re only getting longer. Just when we feel like we are getting a handle, something else comes up. And the longer our lists, the higher our stress. How could we possibly build and live lives of meaning w

Ep 69. Honoring Your Limitations

Sep 8th, 2022 9m 28s

Have you ever been so overwhelmed by your own inability to get stuff done, so frustrated by your ability to fail so easily that you’ve only been able to see yourself as a walking liability? Like you’re a burden to everyone you come across? Like

COVID-19: we're all doing our best

Aug 4th, 2022 31m 15s

You're coming out of a seasonal depressive episode, getting back to what, you know, as normal life and a global pandemic hits. You're trying to figure out how can we live in a community when we're all so isolated. This is Sucker Punched. Jessic

COVID-19: this feels like a Steven King novel

Jul 28th, 2022 26m 32s

You travel for work as a speaker and strategist working in faith politics and the American public life, then a global pandemic hits. Your travel is grounded and you're stuck wondering how can policy and politics give us hope now and in th