JR Rennie spent nearly forty years running a custom software company. In 2015 the revenue dried up almost overnight. He kept the doors open so his employees and clients were covered, and he stopped paying himself. Ten years later that income is still gone. What he found instead was a calling: BrushFires Ministry, which he and his wife Buffy run to help believers discover the work they were built to do.

In this conversation we talk about what happens when the plan stops working. JR shares why he chose his team over his own paycheck, the day he said out loud, "I know you're behind this. What do you want?", and how months of prayer, scripture, and writing turned frustration into peace. He is honest about the hard parts too: marrying young, raising a son who has lived with epilepsy for forty years, and why faithful people still face tests.

JR unpacks the new wine and new wineskins metaphor, explains why he never prays for patience, and gives his short answer to how to be happy: love God and love other people. Michael shares the car crash that reminded him he was never alone.

Find JR at brushfires-digital.com. Free registration includes four books and a Romans 12 spiritual gifts assessment. The Design WorkShop helps you put your purpose into words.

This is a value-for-value podcast. Support the show at eagertobehealthy.com/support.

Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes based on health content.

Takeaways

- Happiness follows circumstances; joy grows from loving God and loving others

- A hard season can point you toward your real calling

- Faithful people still face tests, and God stays present through every one

- Shema: listen with the intent to act

- Serving others is the surest way out of your own misery

- Your purpose has no expiration date

- Daily bread covers your needs; gratitude covers the rest

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

01:30 Have you always been healthy?

03:08 The year the revenue stopped

03:48 Employees first, paycheck last

06:55 Where faith came in

08:09 Faithful people still get tested

11:59 How his prayer life changed

13:14 Michael's car crash

18:09 Why JR never prays for patience

19:19 Love God, love others

22:01 The fruit of the Spirit

24:08 No expiration date on your purpose

27:19 "Your best days are ahead of you"

28:33 New wine, new wineskins

31:48 A ministry without a congregation

33:02 Happy comes from happenstance

34:47 Shema: listen with intent to obey

37:55 Waiting in survival mode

39:25 Daily bread, not filet mignon

40:33 Where to find JR

42:23 Closing

Find JR Rennie: brushfires-digital.com

Free: four books and a Romans 12 spiritual gifts assessment with registration

Host: Michael Scott Eger · eagertobehealthy.com

Elizabeth Kipp is a chronic pain management specialist, addiction recovery coach, Ancestral Clearing® practitioner, and bestselling author of The Way Through Chronic Pain: Tools to Reclaim Your Healing Power. After more than forty years of severe chronic pain, anxiety, and panic attacks, and more than thirty years of prescribed opioid and benzodiazepine dependence following back injuries and surgeries, she got herself out first. Then she built the map so other people could follow.

In this conversation we talk about chronic pain as a nervous-system problem, not just a tissue problem. Pain is a signal the brain interprets. Stay in it long enough and the pathways rewire: more stress response, more hypersensitivity, more fight-or-flight. Long-term opioids and benzos can mask that signal without resolving it, and they often tax gut motility, breath, sleep, and the very neuroplastic recovery you need.

Elizabeth walks through de-identifying from pain: moving from "I am my diagnosis" to "this is sensory information moving through my body." She covers safety as a physiological requirement (you cannot digest well in fight-or-flight), trauma-informed breathwork and somatics for rapid down-regulation, Ancestral Clearing® for inherited survival stress that keeps the nervous system stuck, and practical recovery tools she used herself: sleep rhythm, anti-inflammatory nutrition, yoga, Tai Chi, and rebuilding trust in her own body.

Find Elizabeth at elizabeth-kipp.com. Book: The Way Through Chronic Pain. Free resource: 5 Ways to Relieve Stress, Anxiety, & Fear (https://bit.ly/5WaysToRelieveStress).

This is a value-for-value podcast. Support the show at eagertobehealthy.com/support.

Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes based on health content.

Takeaways

- Doing fine with chronic pain is not the same as being well

- Pain is a brain-interpreted signal; chronic pain rewires the nervous system

- Long-term opioids and benzos often mask symptoms without resolving root signaling

- De-identify from pain: sensory information, not identity

- Safety first: digestion, breath, and recovery fail in fight-or-flight

- Ancestral Clearing® and trauma-informed breathwork can release stuck survival patterns

- Small daily practices (sleep, food, breath, movement)

rebuild capacity

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

01:26 Have you always been healthy?

07:21 Nervous system, safety, and walking on eggshells

11:11 Decades on opioids and benzodiazepines

12:58 The brain cannot tell one pain from another

14:09 Sleep, breathwork, yoga, and anti-inflammatory food

18:17 Benzo withdrawal and rebuilding appetite

28:00 Inputs you can still control

35:13 Taste buds change when sugar leaves

39:57 Detox in a toxic world

44:50 The Way Through Chronic Pain

48:58 Where to find Elizabeth

50:30 Closing

Find Elizabeth Kipp: elizabeth-kipp.com

Book: The Way Through Chronic Pain: Tools to Reclaim Your Healing Power

Free: bit.ly/5WaysToRelieveStress

Host: Michael Scott Eger · eagertobehealthy.com

Dr. Radhika Achari is a board-certified behavior analyst with more than fifteen years of clinical work. She has spent her career helping other people build better lives. Her education in wellness did not happen only in a clinic. It happened through years of IVF, and then through raising a neurodivergent son.

In this conversation we talk about the difference between doing fine and being well. Radhika grew up physically healthy and active. The self-care part came later. A lot of us treat self-care like a fire extinguisher. We grab it after everything is already burning. She wants fireproofing instead: the boundaries you set before you are resentful, the rest you take before you are depleted.

Motherhood was not the plan she practiced for. Unexplained infertility. IVF. Hope and grief on a loop. A son through IVF. A daughter eighteen months later. Then a diagnosis that was not a surprise, and still not the plan. Functioning and being happy are not the same thing. You cannot pour from an empty vessel.

What she built from that is Analyze and Act, and an eight-week program called Bridge to College Independence. Parent track and teen track. Remote. She helps families hand over the real stuff on purpose: appointments, school, identity, when and how to disclose. The work is as much about parent burnout as teen skills. Autonomy, practiced early, becomes who you are.

We also get into Spoon Theory, the word "yet," task analysis, and why a palm tree outlasts an oak in a storm. I told her the truth about my own social awkwardness, the anxiety loop, and what changed after I learned to forgive myself.

No book. Website: analyzeandact.com. Free college readiness checklist. One-on-ones, and the eight-week course. Always consult your own provider before you change something real.

This is a value-for-value podcast. Support the show at eagertobehealthy.com/support.

Takeaways

- Doing fine is not the same as being well

- Self-care as fireproofing, not a fire extinguisher

- Functioning and happiness can live in two different rooms

- Hand independence to a teen on purpose, before college

- "Yet" turns a wall into a ladder

- Track what fills you and what drains you. No shame. Just data.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

02:14 Have you always been healthy?

05:18 Have you always been happy?

06:36 IVF, motherhood, and a plan that would not hold

11:36 How her son's diagnosis actually shows up

19:26 Analyze and Act / Bridge to College Independence

26:00 Autonomy, self-forgiveness, and the doomsday spiral

28:45 Spoon Theory and the social battery

32:33 ACT, "yet," and breaking a mountain into steps

39:34 Biggest life skill: oak trees and palm trees

42:04 Where to find her

43:05 Closing

Find Dr. Radhika Achari: analyzeandact.com

Host: Michael Scott Eger · eagertobehealthy.com

Lorraine Sanborn, a healthy aging educator, shares her journey of health transformation and resilience at the age of 72. She discusses the importance of positive social networks, self-care, and the role of companionship in maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle. Lorraine also reflects on her experiences as a caregiver and the valuable life lessons she has learned, promoting aspirational health for individuals over fifty.

Takeaways

• Resilience and positive mindset contribute to healthy aging.
• Companionship and pet care play a significant role in promoting an active and fulfilling lifestyle.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction to Healthy Aging
• 03:10 Early Years and Health Journey
• 06:00 Life Changes and Resilience
• 09:04 Positive Social Network and Mental Health
• 12:00 Physical Health and Self-Care
• 14:58 Lessons and Relationships
• 18:00 Companionship and Pet Care
• 21:10 Caregiving and Aging Issues
• 23:58 Life Lessons and Aspirational Health
• 27:02 Promotion and Conclusion

Vanessa Cook was hospitalized for severe asthma at eighteen months old. By her late twenties she was living with asthma, eleven years of fibromyalgia, and a heart condition nobody had found yet — and she'd been told to expect a pacemaker by forty-five. She's thirty-seven now. No pacemaker, no heart medication, no asthma medication, and a résumé that includes ultramarathons.

In this conversation with Michael Scott Eger, Vanessa traces the turning point: the night her husband told her, through tears, that he was afraid he'd end up raising their children alone. What followed wasn't one fix. It was a five-mile obstacle course she had no business entering, two and a half hours of vomiting and crying, and a finish line that taught her she could do hard things — as long as she stopped trying to do them all at once.

We get into why the trendy protocols failed her, how she learned that even a "healthy" food can be the wrong food for a specific body, and why she now reads symptoms as messages rather than problems to silence. Vanessa also makes the case for whole-person care — the emotional and spiritual work a fifteen-minute appointment will never reach — and for walking into that appointment educated enough to ask, "can we try this first?"

Vanessa Cook is the founder of Starlight & Sage Wellness. Learn more at starlightandsagewellness.com.

Eager to Be Healthy is listener-supported and ad-free. Support the mission at eagertobehealthy.com/support.

• A symptom is a signal. Medicating it away can cost you the information underneath it.
• No protocol is universal. Vanessa's turnaround started when she stopped chasing trends and started paying attention to her own body.
• Your doctor gets fifteen minutes with you a year. You get 24/7. Showing up educated changes the conversation.
• Capability is built in small decisions, not dramatic ones. The finish line mattered less than the eight years after it.

Nahrin Chowdhury — founder, Unstressified Instagram: @unstressified — https://www.instagram.com/unstressified LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nahrin-chowdhury-73559b120 TikTok: @unstressified Website: https://www.unstressified.com

Takeaways

• Reframing trauma and stress can lead to personal growth and resilience.
• Embracing discomfort and stepping out of comfort zones can lead to new levels of happiness and fulfillment. Self-confidence is built by collecting evidence of overcoming unknown situations.
• Physical and mental strategies are essential for managing stress effectively.

Chapters

• 00:00 Unstressified: A Stubborn Premise
• 03:00 The Pursuit of Happiness
• 04:29 The Good and Bad of Stress
• 08:03 Reframing Trauma and Stress
• 11:30 Embracing Discomfort for Growth
• 15:40 Stepping Out of Comfort Zones
• 18:13 Adventurous Spirit and Openness to Change
• 25:23 Coping with the Unknown
• 30:12 Calming the Storm
• 37:51 Overcoming Fear and Embracing New Experiences
• 38:27 Pursuit of Happiness and Health

Matt Robinson, a writer and boxing teacher, shares his journey in health, wellness, and teaching in the prison system. He discusses his genetic health challenges, mental health techniques, and the impact of his work on his well-being. Matt also talks about his writing projects, ADHD, and his passion for boxing.

Takeaways

• Genetic health challenges
• Mental health techniques
• Impact of work on well-being
• Writing projects and ADHD
• Passion for boxing

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction to Matt Robinson
• 00:56 Health and Wellness Journey
• 03:09 Teaching in the Prison System
• 06:02 Mental Health Techniques
• 09:44 Writing Projects and ADHD
• 25:06 Passion for Boxing

Eager to Be Healthy — Allie Chandler — From Lyme to Wellness

At twenty-five, Allie Chandler left for a backpacking trip through Europe as a healthy young teacher, and she came home with thirty to forty rotating symptoms that arrived all at once and refused to be named. It would take four more years to learn that a cluster of bug bites at the base of the Swiss Alps had sent her home with Lyme disease and several co-infections.

In this conversation, Allie walks Michael through what those years asked of her — the specialists who ruled things out one by one, the heart rate that leapt from 55 to 160 the moment she stood up, and the energy healer who finally asked the question no physician had thought to ask. She shares what actually moved her toward wellness, too: a physical protocol built on drainage support, six months of daily limbic system retraining, and a slow rebuild of strength that started with putting on a pair of tennis shoes and sitting back down. None of the three worked alone. Together, over time, they gave her body somewhere safe enough to heal.

Allie is now the founder of Upsell Health, where she helps practitioners and wellness brands speak to people who are sick in a way that leaves them feeling seen. She calls it empathy-led marketing, and it comes straight from the years she spent wishing that someone would look at her and say, in her words: "You're not crazy. There's something going on."

Takeaways

• Healing rarely moves in a straight line — and the good weeks still count
• Nervous system regulation as the ground that lets a protocol take hold
• Limbic system retraining, neuroplasticity, and the brain's capacity to rewire
• Rebuilding strength in the smallest increments a body can accept
• The real out-of-pocket cost of functional medicine, and the value of talking openly with providers about it
• Empathy-led marketing: education and honesty in place of urgency

Chapters

• 00:00 The Onset of Illness
• 13:37 The Healing Journey
• 40:12 Transition to Marketing

Find Allie upsellhealth.com · Free archetype quiz: upsellhealth.com/archetype · @upsellmarketing

Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes based on health content.

Allie Chandler shares her journey from sudden illness to recovery, highlighting the challenges, diagnosis, and healing process. She also discusses her transition to marketing and the importance of empathy-led marketing and limbic system retraining in wellness brands.

Takeaways

• Empathy-led marketing
• Limbic system retraining

Chapters

• 00:00 The Onset of Illness
• 13:37 The Healing Journey
• 40:12 Transition to Marketing

The conversation covers a wide range of topics, including health, happiness, neurodiversity, mental health, physical fitness, life coaching, success, and global reach. The guest shares insights on consciousness, defining happiness, and success. The conversation also touches on the guest's work with Schools for Nepal and his music endeavors.

Takeaways

• Consciousness and self-awareness are fundamental to mental well-being.
• Physical health and fitness play a crucial role in overall well-being.
• Defining success and happiness is a personal journey that requires self-awareness and alignment with individual values.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction
• 05:22 Neurodiversity and ADHD
• 14:04 Physical Health and Fitness
• 22:25 Life Coaching and Success Definition
• 36:18 Defining Happiness and Success