I Choose Happy With Marilyn

ADHD is often misunderstood as a lack of focus. But what if the real challenge is regulating attention?

In this episode, Marilyn welcomes back childhood development expert Diane Provo to unpack the truth about ADHD. Together they explore what life feels like inside the ADHD brain, why procrastination and distraction are often misinterpreted, and how creativity, sensitivity, and passion are actually some of the greatest strengths of these minds.

From anxiety and dopamine to parenting strategies and classroom challenges, Diane shares practical insights that can help children with attention regulation issues build confidence and thrive.

A powerful and compassionate conversation for parents, educators, and anyone seeking to better understand the ADHD brain.
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Connect with Marilyn and be a part of the conversation in the I Choose Happy private Facebook group. This is your safe space to share and be inspired — join today by clicking here.
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Find out more about Marilyn at marilyngetasbyrne.com
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I Choose Happy is made possible by The Comfy, a Shark Tank sensation whose wearable blankets make life happier. Find out for yourself with 20% off your first order using the code ICHOOSEHAPPY at TheComfy.com

In honor of Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month this March, we’re re-releasing a conversation that means so much to the I Choose Happy community.

Born three months premature while his parents were visiting family on vacation, Adam Bremen entered the world fighting — and he’s been choosing life ever since. Living with cerebral palsy, he grew up in a home rooted in love, creativity, and a belief that limitations don’t define us. His parents taught him early to focus on what he can do — a mindset that continues to shape his life.

In this moving episode, Adam shares the experiences that shaped him: the strength of his family, the independence he built through curiosity and grit, the career that fueled his purpose, and the love story that changed his life. He also reflects on navigating profound loss and how he continues to live forward with gratitude, humor, and hope.

Adam’s story is a powerful reminder that resilience, connection, and a can-do spirit can carry us through anything life brings.
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Connect with Marilyn and be a part of the conversation in the I Choose Happy private Facebook group. This is your safe space to share and be inspired — join today by clicking here.
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Find out more about Marilyn at marilyngetasbyrne.com
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I Choose Happy is made possible by The Comfy, a Shark Tank sensation whose wearable blankets make life happier. Find out for yourself with 20% off your first order using the code ICHOOSEHAPPY at TheComfy.com

Four days after giving birth to her youngest daughter, Lori Hand Jankowski was living in the fullness of new motherhood. Surrounded by her husband, her four children, and the life they had built together.

Then, without warning, her heart tore open.

What followed was a fight for survival that few people could imagine. Multiple open-heart surgeries. Months in a medically induced coma. And the moment she woke up to learn she would never walk again.

Paralyzed from the waist down, Lori was suddenly faced with rebuilding her life... not only as a woman, but as a mother, a partner, and a person trying to make sense of everything she had lost - and everything she still had.

In this deeply honest conversation, Lori shares how she navigated motherhood from a wheelchair, the quiet grief and unexpected beauty that lived side by side in her healing, and how the trauma that nearly took her life would eventually reshape her future in ways she never saw coming.

This is a story about survival, letting go, and choosing to stay.

It's about learning that even when your heart tears open, life can still hold joy on the other side.
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Connect with Marilyn and be a part of the conversation in the I Choose Happy private Facebook group. This is your safe space to share and be inspired. Please join today by clicking here.
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Find out more about Marilyn at marilyngetasbyrne.com.
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I Choose Happy is made possible by The Comfy, a Shark Tank sensation whose wearable blankets make life happier. Find out for yourself with 20% off your first order with the code ichoosehappy at TheComfy.com.

Olympian Nick Cunningham spent his life chasing speed.

From a young sprinter growing up in Monterey, California, to representing Team USA on the world’s biggest stage… his identity was built on discipline, belief, and the pursuit of a dream that carried him across the globe - shooting down the ice at nearly 90 miles an hour.

But what happens when the dream ends?

In this deeply honest conversation, Nick opens up about the unexpected grief that followed his Olympic career; the quiet depression that set in when the structure and identity he had known disappeared, and the difficult question so many high performers face: Who am I now?

What followed was not another race - but a return to himself.

Today, as a coach and mentor, Nick has found great purpose helping others believe in their own potential, proving that sometimes losing the dream you thought defined you is what leads you to the life you were meant to live.

This is a story about identity, resilience, and discovering that the finish line isn’t the end of the story.

It’s where a new one begins.

Connect with Nick on instagram: @bobsledr
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Connect with Marilyn and be a part of the conversation in the I Choose Happy private Facebook group. This is your safe space to share and be inspired. Please join today by clicking here.
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Find out more about Marilyn at marilyngetasbyrne.com.
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I Choose Happy is made possible by The Comfy, a Shark Tank sensation whose wearable blankets make life happier. Find out for yourself with 20% off your first order with the code ichoosehappy at TheComfy.com.

Actress Suzanne Marie Berman has spent more than fifty years in front of the camera. From her earliest days as a child performer, to a lifelong career in film, television, and national commercials.

But behind the spotlight was a personal journey marked by addiction, devastating loss, and the long road back to herself.

After the sudden death of her husband, Suzanne made the life-altering decision to get sober. What followed was not a single moment of healing, but a lifelong practice: learning to accept what she could not control, rebuilding relationships, and discovering how to keep moving forward even when life brought unexpected hardship, including a traumatic accident that would test her strength once again.

Through it all, Suzanne developed a powerful philosophy: to look for the teacher in every moment.

In this deeply honest and inspiring conversation, she shares what it means to move from surviving… to thriving, and how devotion, gratitude, and daily practice can help us reclaim our lives.
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Connect with Marilyn and be a part of the conversation in the I Choose Happy private Facebook group. This is your safe space to share and be inspired. Please join today by clicking here.
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Find out more about Marilyn at marilyngetasbyrne.com.
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I Choose Happy is made possible by The Comfy, a Shark Tank sensation whose wearable blankets make life happier. Find out for yourself with 20% off your first order with the code ichoosehappy at TheComfy.com.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of childhood sexual abuse. Please listen with care.

Silence can travel quietly through families, shaping how we love, how we cope, and how we survive. In this deeply moving conversation, Marilyn speaks with actor, author, and founder of The Survivor Movement, Perry Power, about what it takes to break that silence and stop cycles of harm from repeating.

Perry shares how his own experience as a survivor led him to write Breaking the Silence, build a global community for others to find their voice, and create the upcoming film It Ends With Me.

At the heart of his work is a simple, urgent truth: healing begins when one person decides, “it ends with me.”

As Perry reflects on purpose, courage, and the cost of silence, his words carry Marilyn back into her own family story - to a chapter she has rarely spoken about before. Together, they explore how secrets shape lives, how truth can liberate, and how speaking out can be both painful and profoundly life-giving.

This episode is an invitation to listen gently, to consider where silence lives in your own story, and to remember that telling the truth, even when it’s hard, can be an act of love.

Connect with Perry:
instagram: @iamperrypower
iamperrypower.com
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Connect with Marilyn and be a part of the conversation in the I Choose Happy private Facebook group. This is your safe space to share and be inspired. Please join today by clicking here.
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Find out more about Marilyn at marilyngetasbyrne.com.
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I Choose Happy is made possible by The Comfy, a Shark Tank sensation whose wearable blankets make life happier. Find out for yourself with 20% off your first order with the code ichoosehappy at TheComfy.com.

Eating disorders are often misunderstood as struggles with food or willpower — but for many, the story begins much deeper.

In this episode of I Choose Happy, Marilyn sits down with Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist Amy Isabella Chalker for a thoughtful, compassionate exploration of what lives beneath eating disorders.

Drawing on nearly two decades of experience, Amy shares how food and body can become a language when emotions have not yet found words; and why curiosity, safety, and relationship are often the true starting points for healing.

Together, they discuss the emotional roots of eating disorders, the impact of transitions and identity, the complexity of defining “healthy,” and the importance of moving away from rigid rules toward understanding the whole person.

This conversation offers insight and reassurance for anyone navigating their own relationship with food or body — as well as for parents, caregivers, and loved ones seeking to support someone with care and compassion.

To learn more about Amy and her work, visit www.aicnutrition.com.
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Connect with Marilyn and be a part of the conversation in the I Choose Happy private Facebook group. This is your safe space to share and be inspired. Please join today by clicking here.
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Find out more about Marilyn at marilyngetasbyrne.com.
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I Choose Happy is made possible by The Comfy, a Shark Tank sensation whose wearable blankets make life happier. Find out for yourself with 20% off your first order with the code ichoosehappy at TheComfy.com.

On October 1st, 1995, Pep Torres’ heart stopped after a devastating car accident on an early morning drive through Watsonville, California.

What followed was not darkness, but a near-death experience that would alter the course of his life forever.

In this moving conversation, Pep takes Marilyn inside the moments before the crash, the surreal calm that followed, and the strange space between life and what comes next - a place he would later come to call the Boulevard of the Dead.

At the time, Pep was a school teacher and basketball coach, focused on his students, his growing family, and the responsibilities of everyday life. But in a single moment, everything changed.

As Pep recounts his journey, from survival and raw acceptance to the long road of rehabilitation, he reflects on the experiences that stayed with him long after his physical wounds began to heal, shaping the way he understands life, loss, and the time we’re given.

Pep’s book, On the Outskirts of Heaven: A Near-Death Experience Tale of Soul Retrieval, is available now on Amazon.
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Connect with Marilyn and be a part of the conversation in the I Choose Happy private Facebook group. This is your safe space to share and be inspired. Please join today by clicking here.
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Find out more about Marilyn at marilyngetasbyrne.com.
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I Choose Happy is made possible by The Comfy, a Shark Tank sensation whose wearable blankets make life happier. Find out for yourself with 20% off your first order with the code ichoosehappy at TheComfy.com.

Journalist, mother, and advocate Erika Mahoney shares her story of life after her father was killed in a mass shooting in her hometown of Boulder, Colorado.

Erika reflects on the shock and disorientation that followed his death, the love and human connection that helped carry her through those early days, and the complexity of grieving while preparing to welcome new life as a first-time mother.

She also speaks to what came next: how loss began to take the shape of purpose, and how she committed to staying open, choosing love, and stepping into advocacy in the aftermath of violence.

This is a conversation about resilience, and the strength it takes to keep your heart open.

Connect with Erika:
Instagram: @eri_mahoney
Substack: erikamahoney.substack.com
TikTok: @erika.mahoney

Listen to Senseless with Erika Mahoney.

As part of her advocacy, Erika supports March Fourth, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to reducing gun violence.
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Connect with Marilyn and be a part of the conversation in the I Choose Happy private Facebook group. This is your safe space to share and be inspired. Please join today by clicking here.
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Find out more about Marilyn at marilyngetasbyrne.com.
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I Choose Happy is made possible by The Comfy, a Shark Tank sensation whose wearable blankets make life happier. Find out for yourself with 20% off your first order with the code ichoosehappy at TheComfy.com.

In this episode of I Choose Happy, Marilyn sits down with Jamie Estelle Roth, best-selling author of Should’ve Seen That Coming: Navigating the In-Between Moments of Acceptance, Surrender, & Resilience, to talk about what happens when life changes without warning - and how we learn to meet what comes next.

After suddenly losing her eyesight in 2021, Jamie was forced to slow down in ways she never had before. What began as fear and uncertainty became a journey into presence, healing, and a deeper way of seeing herself and the world around her.

With honesty, humor, and heart, Jamie shares how losing her sight led her to confront old patterns, release the need to stay busy and brave, and step into a new relationship with her body, her emotions, and most importantly, her spirit. From the quiet in-between moments to the power of surrender without despair, this conversation is a reminder that even when we lose something we thought defined us, so much meaning can still be found.

This is a story about resilience, clarity, and choosing to live fully... even when the path looks nothing like what we expected.

Connect with Jamie on instagram @jamieestelleroth, or on her website at jamieestelleroth.com
Purchase Should've Seen That Coming: Navigating the In-Between Moments of Acceptance, Surrender, & Resilience.
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Connect with Marilyn and be a part of the conversation in the I Choose Happy private Facebook group. This is your safe space to share and be inspired. Please join today by clicking here.
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Find out more about Marilyn at marilyngetasbyrne.com.
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I Choose Happy is made possible by The Comfy, a Shark Tank sensation whose wearable blankets make life happier. Find out for yourself with 20% off your first order with the code ichoosehappy at TheComfy.com.