Cultivate Calmness Podcast: Find Your Calm, Cultivate Your Mind

In this week's episode of the Cultivate Calmness Podcast, Kaela shares a surprising realization about some of her favorite childhood movies—from Beauty and the Beast and Free Willy to My Girl, Fly Away Home, Stepmom, and Sleepless in Seattle. Despite being very different stories, many of them share one important theme: the death or absence of a parent. Having lost her own mother as a child, Kaela reflects on whether these movies offered a sense of familiarity, connection, and even a safe place to experience grief without her consciously realizing it at the time. It's a lighter and more personal conversation about movies, childhood, grief, and the interesting ways we sometimes find comfort in stories that reflect pieces of our own lives.

In this week's episode of the Cultivate Calmness Podcast, Kaela explores a frustrating part of the healing journey: sometimes you can feel worse before you feel better. Whether you're processing grief or trauma, changing old habits, addressing physical health concerns, or learning to live outside of a constant state of stress, healing isn't always a straight path forward. Kaela discusses why unfamiliar feelings can sometimes be uncomfortable, how physical and mental health can influence one another, and why a difficult day doesn't necessarily erase the progress you've already made. Most importantly, she encourages listeners to give themselves grace, work with their providers, and remember that meaningful healing often takes time.

In this week's episode of the Cultivate Calmness Podcast, Kaela explores iodine—an essential trace mineral that plays an important role in thyroid hormone production and overall health. Drawing from her own experience discovering that her iodine levels were low, she discusses the relationship between iodine, thyroid function, energy, concentration, mood, and symptoms such as fatigue and brain fog that can sometimes overlap with mental health concerns. Kaela also explains why supplementation isn't a one-size-fits-all solution, why more isn't necessarily better, and why testing and working with an appropriate healthcare professional can be important before making significant changes. It's another reminder that when we're trying to understand our mental health, sometimes we need to look beyond the brain and consider what's happening throughout the body.

In this week's episode of the Cultivate Calmness Podcast, Kaela gets personal about betrayal, broken trust, and the grief that can follow the loss of a meaningful relationship—even when the other person is still alive. Drawing from her own experience with the painful rupture of a close friendship, she explores how one betrayal can cause us to question not only what happened, but our memories, our future, the other person, and even ourselves. Kaela discusses why an apology doesn't automatically restore a relationship, the difference between forgiveness and simply forgetting what happened, and why rebuilding trust requires more than pretending everything can go back to the way it was. Most importantly, she reminds listeners that grieving a broken relationship is real, healing takes time, and you don't have to work through betrayal alone.

In this week's episode of the Cultivate Calmness Podcast, Kaela shares a unique experience working with a local company that wanted to prepare its employees to support a grieving coworker returning to work after a devastating loss. She discusses how grief can affect concentration, emotions, relationships, workload, and everyday functioning—and why a significant loss can impact an entire workplace, not just the person who experienced it. Kaela explores what coworkers can say, what they may want to avoid saying, how secondary losses can complicate grief, and why following the grieving person's lead is so important. She also encourages employers to consider grief education and workplace support as meaningful ways to care for their teams during some of life's most difficult moments.

In this week's episode of the Cultivate Calmness Podcast, Kaela explores a type of grief we don't always recognize: grieving someone we've never actually met. Reflecting on the 29th anniversary of Princess Diana's death, Kaela shares why Diana has held a special place in her heart for decades and how similarities between Diana's death and the loss of her own mother created a deeply personal connection. She discusses why celebrities, musicians, athletes, public figures, and others we've never personally known can still become meaningful parts of our lives—and why their deaths can produce very real feelings of loss. Kaela also reflects on what it means for families to grieve in the public eye and reminds us that grief can take many different forms, even when our connection to the person existed entirely from afar.

In this week's episode of the Cultivate Calmness Podcast, Kaela explores why making meaningful changes in our lives can be much harder than it looks—especially when we're comparing our progress to what we see from other people or on social media. Through examples involving therapy, health, habits, sleep, coffee, and lifestyle changes, she explains why lasting progress often happens through small, sustainable steps rather than trying to change everything overnight. Kaela also discusses the importance of recognizing where you are right now, communicating honestly with the professionals supporting you, and choosing changes that can positively influence multiple areas of your life. Whether you're working through trauma, improving your mental health, changing old habits, or simply trying to feel better, this episode is a reminder that your journey doesn't have to look like anyone else's—and taking one step at a time is still moving forward.

In this deeply personal episode of the Cultivate Calmness Podcast, Kaela reflects on the 31st anniversary of her mother's death and what more than three decades of grief have taught her. From losing her mom as a child to recently grieving the deaths of both of her maternal grandparents, Kaela explores how loss changes with time, how new losses can awaken old grief, and why everyone—even members of the same family—grieves differently. She shares some of the meaningful ways she has continued to incorporate her mom into important moments in her life and discusses why healing doesn't mean forgetting the person we lost. Instead, grief can gradually become less heavy as we learn to carry our love forward, make room for joy again, and find meaningful ways to keep our person with us.

In this week's episode of the Cultivate Calmness Podcast, Kaela shares the story behind the Central Ohio Mental Health Professionals CEU Luncheons and why she started them nearly four years ago. Drawing from her own experience transitioning into private practice, she discusses the importance of community, lifelong learning, and professional connection for therapists and other helping professionals. Kaela also highlights upcoming presentations covering topics such as whole-person mental health, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, EMDR, DBT, and equine therapy, while encouraging clinicians to continue expanding their knowledge, strengthening referral networks, and supporting one another throughout their careers.

In this week's episode of the Cultivate Calmness Podcast, Kaela explores why mental health is about far more than what's happening in your brain. Through a holistic and functional mental health perspective, she explains how gut health, hormones, nutrient deficiencies, digestion, inflammation, sleep, oral health, and other body systems all influence emotional wellness. Kaela discusses why symptoms like anxiety, depression, fatigue, brain fog, and ADHD-like challenges may have underlying physical contributors that deserve attention alongside traditional counseling. Rather than treating symptoms alone, this episode encourages listeners to ask deeper questions, explore root causes, and embrace a whole-person approach to healing that integrates both mind and body.