The Buddhists have a word, called Maitri. Most commonly translated as love or loving-kindness, Maitri also means loving-kindness to oneself and is the foundation of the four virtues, which are:

What a perfect word to describe the third pillar of living a full life and being the best version of yourself. Practicing Maitri is a way to be kinder to yourself as well as feel connection with all sentient beings and only by practicing loving-kindness to yourself can you experience the upper limits (if there is really a limit, I highly doubt) of joy, connection, compassion, equanimity and pure presence of being.

Following 25+ years as a successful sales executive in Mortgage Banking, Bronwyn decided to shift gears and fulfill her dream of being an executive leadership coach with a personal mission to empower women to achieve their personal and professional goals.

Not only does Bronwyn run a very successful coaching practice, but she is a wife and a mother of three, she’s a wilderness trail runner, world traveler, meditation teacher, outdoor enthusiast, yogi, and former Peace Corps volunteer.

You can learn more about Bronwyn on her website: https://www.bronwynmorrissey.com/

About two months into making this podcast, I became obsessed with listenership numbers, constantly checking how many listens there were for each new podcast, and then I began to think about new ways to grow listenership and make the podcast into something much larger.

Growing the podcast is not a bad endeavor, but because I now know myself deeply, I was able to quickly realize that I was becoming obsessed with the idea of growing for the sake of growing. 

If I never took the time to sit still on those long quiet nights, getting to know myself deeply, I would have likely carried on my life much the same way. I would maintain a subtle nagging sense of mediocrity and unfulfillment. I would have continued to work harder just to beat last year's numbers. I would likely have launched some uninspiring podcast about parenting and entrepreneurship (who needs another one of those), and I would have been looking only at how to grow and interview high profile people just so I could grow a following with absolutely no conscious thinking behind it. And maybe I would have been a huge success, but the feeling of mediocrity and dissatisfaction would still permeate my very being.

And this is precisely why knowing yourself and being honest with yourself is the first pillar to living the fullest life.

The first step to personal awakening is to open your eyes and finally look around you. Some people use the metaphor of climbing a mountain while others may think of climbing down the mountain.  I like to think about it as becoming aware for the first time of where we actually are, visualizing the world around us, and slowly picking up the trash, designing our home, and deciding who we want to let in.

The first step to any self-awakening is self-examination, which is just a fancy way of saying, getting to know oneself. So the first step in any journey is to go inward and get to know yourself. You can't climb up or down a mountain until you first figure out where you are and where you want to go.

There’s that old sage saying passed down from older married couples to young grooms, “Happy Wife, Happy Life.”  And it makes sense: If your spouse is miserable it seems to fit that you might be miserable as well. But I think this advice is not complete, and this podcast is an exploration of how I am trying to make all of my relationships better, by focusing on making ME better. 

Born and raised in a single-parent home in Charleston, West Virginia, Amber attended Point Park University where she received an MFA in musical theater. She moved to New York City to pursue her passion for acting, ultimately working on Broadway and touring with the musical Mamma Mia. In 2009, she left the world of theater and earned an MA in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica. She founded two flourishing businesses as a professional coach and facilitator—bodyheart and Fierce Loving.

Amber has a thriving coaching practice where she serves a wide range of individuals and also creates and facilitates her own coaching groups for the body, business, and life. Her individual clients range from moms, artists, small business owners to corporate and creative executives.

Amber’s work as a professional speaker has been featured at TEDx Malibu, MSN, the White House blog (Obama administration), University of Southern California, Pennsylvania State University, and more. Located in Los Angeles, Amber lives with her husband and three rescue pups and helps people change their lives for the better as a coach, speaker, and author.

I had so much fun talking with Amber and learning about her story. We of course talk about her experience on Broadway and her thriving coaching practice, but we cover so much more in this conversation. I felt a real connection and kinship with Amber, and while our stories are quite different, our continued missions are aligned.

I learned so much from this conversation with Amber, but perhaps the most important lesson for me was the way she thinks about default programming. I generally try to ask my guests what they do to avoid slipping back into what I call, “the default mode.” I’m curious about this question because I’m always struggling with this myself. Amber’s response was so simple and so not what I expected. She basically said that the default programming is there for a reason and sometimes it’s ok to just let it be. This simple frame of mind, allowing for a little bit of grace, gave me the permission to give up this internal battle I’ve had with myself, practice a little more loving kindness, and create more space for joy - and I have Amber to thank for that!

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, and I would love to hear how Amber's wisdom and story resonate with you.

You can learn more about Amber by visiting her website: https://www.amberkrzys.com/

For years I have been deeply addicted to self-help and self-improvement content. When I would listen to performance based podcasts or read inspiring words, it became like a drug, helping me to stay motivated, active, and engaged.

So, I would take the self-help drug, again and again, to keep me motivated, keep me productive, keep me pushing, keep me busy. I would read motivating books and blogs. I would watch inspiring documentaries and ted talks. I would listen to high performers on podcasts talk about productivity, work ethic, deal-making, and the like. Each medium, a different drug. Podcasts were my adoral, making me pumped to work hard, get organized, get out there and hustle! Books became my psychedelic, exploring presence, spirituality, and the meaning of life. Ted talks and documentaries my Prozac, keeping me happy, jubilant, and grateful.

These mediums are not inherently bad. I am acutely aware of how ironic it is that I’m literally writing this in a newsletter and speaking about it on my podcast in an attempt to inspire others. But that is precisely the point. When these amazing tools are used for the wrong purpose, they can become a hinderance to doing the deep work needed to create real lasting transformation.

So while I hope this podcast and these words inspire you, my real wish is that they help you take the next step, which is a deeper journey into self discovery. Only then, can you begin to take deliberate action, practice real presence, and loving-kindness, to become your best self.

So enjoy the podcast, and I would be honored if you share with me either via email or social media, how you’re beginning to take deliberate action to create the life that you want to live and be the best version of yourself.

Time, it has been said, is our most precious commodity. Unlike money, you cannot earn more. Unlike life, it cannot grow. Unlike precious metals, it cannot be mined. At best, you might be able to prolong it, but at the end of the day, you cannot get time back and you cannot earn more.

Time is a precious and rare gift, and it should not be wasted, but rather earned.

Sometimes it takes a painful physical reminder, like a Stye in the Eye. A physical pain that there is no distraction or avoidance of, that helps you look in the mirror, frightened by what you see, and helps you wake up to the fact that you are unconscious, and unconscious living creates pain, unhappiness, and discomfort, and only when you begin to live consciously and intentionally can you begin to make the right choices that can help you heal, move on, and live the life you are meant to live.

Celebrating National Recovery Month with a special interview.

Luke Chittick has been working in the recovery field since 2009. Luke started in this industry as a Counselor at Beit T’Shuvah, one of the largest non-profit residential Treatment facilities in the nation.

In December 2012, Luke joined Transcend Recovery Community as the Program Director for two of their Sober Livings.

In July of 2015, Luke, along with the Chief Operating Officer of Transcend, created and implemented a comprehensive recovery curriculum for a new sober living called, the Verve, with particular attention to the structure, necessary therapeutic programming, and accountability required for the early stages of recovery.

In November of 2016, sparked by the desire to return to more clinically-focused and direct client care, Luke joined Patrick Hart Consultants as a Recovery Consultant.

Finally, In April of 2019, Luke founded 10west Recovery. 10west Recovery provides a range of services that include recovery coaching, case management, and sober companioning.

Luke’s extensive experience with clients suffering from substance abuse, anxiety, and psychotic disorders provides him a wealth of strategies and interventions to employ with individuals and families in crisis. He is a certified Field Model Crisis Interventionist, holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has been sober since January 2009.