Post-Live Reflection

I gotta say I absolutely LOVE what we do here with Let’s Get Unstuck Live

Some stories ask us to listen. Others ask us to look inward.

Tonight’s conversation with Christopher Carazas did both.

We spent the evening talking about trauma, emotional survival, and what happens when the weight of our past quietly catches up to us. Not with chaos or dramatic moments, but in silence. The type of silence that can make us question whether anyone would even notice we’re struggling.

One of the things that struck me most was the reminder that healing isn’t always about finding the perfect words or the perfect solution. Sometimes it’s simply about having something or someone who stays with us long enough for us to find our footing again.

As we talked, I found myself thinking about how many people are carrying invisible battles. People who look like they’re functioning. They’re working, parenting, laughing, and showing up every day, while privately wondering how much longer they can keep carrying the weight they’re under.

That’s why conversations like this matter.

Not because they give us all the answers, but because they remind us that we’re not the only ones asking the questions.

If Chris’s story taught me anything, it’s that survival isn’t weakness, and healing isn’t linear. Both require incredible courage. Sometimes that courage looks like asking for help. Sometimes it looks like accepting it. And sometimes it simply looks like choosing to stay for one more day.

Thank you, Christopher Carazas , for trusting us with one of the most vulnerable chapters of your life.

Every story shared here reminds us that getting unstuck isn’t about pretending we’re okay, it’s about having the courage to tell the truth about where we’ve been so we can keep moving toward where we’re going.

Thank you Chris B. Writes, KarenC-Book Collector📚⚖️🗽🗳️🧿♒️, Robert Lancaster, and many others for tuning in.

Join me for my next live with one of my fav friends Erin Gregory Creative Weds, 6/30 5:30pm PST

Shout out to my producer John Rinaldo © for his exceptional intro and outro artwork and creation.

After the live ended tonight with Simon Salt, I found myself thinking less about perimenopause and more about the assumptions we make when we don't fully understand what someone else is experiencing.

At first glance, this story seems like it’s about perimenopause. And certainly, that is part of it. Simon shared openly about the years his wife spent searching for answers while navigating symptoms that doctors struggled to explain. He talked about the impact those changes had on their marriage, their communication, and their intimacy.

The more we talked, the more I realized this story is really about something much bigger.

It’s about the assumptions we make when we don’t understand what someone else is going through.

When things started changing in his relationship, Simon did what many of us do. He filled in the blanks. Without answers, he began questioning himself. He wondered if he was failing as a husband. He wondered if his marriage was slowly slipping away and if he was doing wrong.

The truth was that neither he nor his wife fully understood what they were facing.

One of the most powerful moments from our conversation came when Simon talked about the difference between knowing someone’s symptoms and understanding their experience.

Those are not the same thing.

You can know the facts, read the articles, and understand the terminology.

Yet still completely miss what it feels like to be the person living through it.

That lesson extends far beyond perimenopause.

It applies to anxiety, depression, grief, burnout, self-doubt and much more.

Any experience where someone is carrying something internally that we cannot fully see from the outside.

The title of Simon’s story comes from a moment that could have become a breaking point in his marriage. Instead, it became a turning point. A moment that forced both of them to see each other differently.

What struck me most was Simon’s willingness to admit that he had been asking the wrong questions.

Not because he didn’t care or that he wasn’t trying.

It’s because fear and confusion often narrow our perspective.

Many of us have been there.

We become so focused on our own uncertainty, frustration, or hurt that we stop asking what the other person might be experiencing.

Sometimes getting unstuck starts there.

Not with finding the perfect solution or fixing everything overnight.

But with becoming curious enough to see beyond our own perspective.

I’m grateful to Simon for sharing a story that so many couples will recognize themselves in.

If you missed tonight’s conversation, I hope you’ll take the time to listen.

Whether you’re navigating perimenopause, relationship challenges, communication struggles, or simply trying to better understand someone you love, there is a lesson here for all of us.

Sometimes the breakthrough isn’t learning what’s wrong.

Sometimes it’s finally learning how to sit, listen and believe.

Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live nest week on 6/24 at 5:30pm PST with Christopher Carazas.

What If Healing Isn’t a Fight?

Tonight’s conversation with The Therapist Who Came Undone left me thinking about how much energy people spend managing themselves.

The mental calculations and the second guessing.

The constant pressure to stay in control.

For our guest, that pressure lived inside an eating disorder for more than thirty years. Recovery felt like something that had to be earned through discipline, vigilance, and never letting her guard down.

What struck me most was how differently she views that experience today.

At some point, the focus shifted away from defeating the eating disorder and toward understanding it.

That doesn’t mean the damage wasn’t real or the suffering disappeared.

The consequences were significant, and she was incredibly honest about that throughout the conversation.

What changed was the lens she was looking through.

Instead of asking, “How do I beat this?” she began asking, “Why did this become necessary in the first place?”

That question opened the door to a much deeper conversation about shame, anxiety, emotional survival, self compassion, identity, and the need for control.

Listening to her story, I kept thinking about how many people are carrying their own version of that struggle.

An eating disorder may not be part of their story.

Anxiety might be.

Perfectionism might be.

For someone else, it could be the relentless voice that points out every mistake, every flaw, and every reason they are still not enough.

Different struggles.

The same exhaustion and desire to feel safe.

The same hope that life might feel lighter if they could just figure out what is wrong with them.

Tonight’s conversation challenged that idea.

Perhaps healing begins when we spend less time trying to fix ourselves and more time understanding ourselves.

Thank you to our guest for sharing such an honest and vulnerable story.

If you missed the live conversation, the full episode is now available.

One thought continues to stay with me:

You do not have to hate yourself into healing.

Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video!

Join me next week with Simon Salt

Last night’s conversation with Daniel Yee was one of the most honest and psychologically layered episodes we’ve had on Let’s Get Unstuck.

What started as a conversation about ADHD quickly unfolded into something much deeper. Daniel Yee Psychology read his story What ADHD Feels Like as an Adult

We talked about shame. About growing up believing your struggles mean something is fundamentally wrong with you as a person. About knowing exactly what you should be doing while still feeling unable to consistently make yourself do it.

Daniel spoke openly about executive dysfunction, emotional dysregulation, gambling addiction, limerence, loneliness, dopamine chasing, and the exhausting cycle of constantly searching for the next thing that might finally make life feel okay.

One of the biggest takeaways from the conversation was this:

A lot of what people call laziness is actually pain, overwhelm, avoidance, shame, and a nervous system struggling without the right map.

There were also powerful moments about modern dating, rejection sensitivity, impulsivity, identity, and the pressure so many people carry to become someone else before they finally feel worthy of love, stability, or peace.

But underneath all of it was something hopeful.

The realization that understanding yourself changes everything.

That maybe the answer is not becoming a completely different person.Maybe the answer is learning how to build a life around the brain, nervous system, and emotional reality you actually have.

If you have ever struggled with self sabotage, addiction, procrastination, emotional overwhelm, feeling behind in life, or constantly questioning why things seem harder for you than everyone else around you, I think this episode will resonate deeply.

The full episode is now live on Let’s Get Unstuck.

Thank you Dido Torchi, Chris Laible, Lynn J. Broderick , Marlana aka Outtamydamnmind, Hannah Brown and many others for tuning into my live video with Daniel Yee Psychology!

~ I AM TAKING A WEEK OFF~ I WILL BE BACK JUNE 3rd~

Tonight’s conversation with Eric Bensoussan went far beyond relationship advice. His story Why People Keep Choosing the Same Person took me through some deep reflections on parts of my life that definitely raised my eyebrows.

What made this discussion powerful was the honesty inside it. The exhaustion of recognizing our own patterns while still feeling pulled toward them.The shame we carry when awareness alone does not create change and the realization that survival responses often shape relationships more than people realize.

Eric spoke openly about attachment wounds, grief, emotional survival, nervous system conditioning, and the slow process of learning how to stop abandoning yourself inside relationships.

One of the biggest takeaways from tonight was this:Understanding your patterns intellectually does not automatically mean your body feels safe enough to choose differently yet.

That does not make someone broken. It makes them human.

This conversation opened up honest dialogue around emotional safety, vulnerability, anxiety in relationships, trauma responses, and what healing actually looks like beyond self help language and surface level advice.

The full conversation with Eric is now available on Let’s Get Unstuck and the blog.

Thank you to everyone who joined us live tonight and shared pieces of themselves in the comments. Lynn J. Broderick, KaZ Akers-Wild About The Wild., John Rinaldo , Ellen Scherr , Marlana aka Outtamydamnmind, Albert Kivak, and many others for tuning into my live video with Relationships Reimagined! Join me for my next live 5/20 5:30pm pst. with Daniel Yee Psychology and an in depth conversation about life with ADHD.

Tonight’s conversation with Imi went much deeper than I expected.

Not because of the diagnosis, but because of everything underneath it.

We talked about anxiety in a way that felt real. It doesn’t just live in your thoughts. It shows up in your body. You try to manage it, push through it, stay ahead of it… until that stops working.

Imi shared what it felt like to be stuck in that space.

Constant tension. Overthinking. The need to control what’s coming next just to feel okay. Living in the future because sitting in the present feels uncomfortable.

Then everything shifts.

At 25 years old, she was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s disease. But her story didn’t begin there.

It began in the self doubt.In the pressure to keep going and the internal voice that keeps questioning you.

We talked about what it really means to feel stuck in anxiety.

Not just experiencing it, but living inside it. Letting it shape how you move through your day, how you respond to yourself, how you make decisions.

There comes a point where pushing through doesn’t work anymore.

When that happens, you’re forced into something most people try to avoid.

You’re forced into the present moment.

That’s where our conversation shifted.

From control to awareness.

From trying to fix everything to starting to understand it.

She talked about asking a different question.

Not “how do I get rid of this,” but “what is this showing me?”

That question changes how you see everything.

It slows you down and pulls you out of autopilot.

It can make you sit with what’s actually there instead of trying to move past it.

We also talked about how uncomfortable that is at first.

When you’ve built your identity around pushing through, being productive, and staying in control, slowing down feels wrong.

There is something in that pause.

Something that gives you clarity, even if it’s not the kind you were expecting.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in anxiety, if self doubt has taken up more space than you’d like, or if you’ve been moving so fast you haven’t had time to check in with yourself, this conversation is one you’ll want to listen to.

Imi shares her story, You Can’t Walk, and everything that comes with it.

You can listen to the full episode now on Let’s Get Unstuck.

Thank you Roger Browne, Florence Acosta, Nabanita, Mack Devlin, Sarah-SMR, Jon Derek, Marlana aka Outtamydamnmind , Hannah Brown , Lynn J. Broderick and many others for tuning into my live video with imi!

A Fatherhood Story About the Kind of Love That Stays

My Dad is a Superhero was not just a story I read. It was a story I lived, and finally understood.

I shared what it looked like to grow up in a home where illness changed everything, and how, in the middle of that, my dad became more than a father. He became caregiver, provider, protector, and the person who kept our family moving when nothing about our situation felt stable.

As a kid, I saw tasks getting done. Rides. Meals. Schedules. Presence.

As an adult, I see what it actually was.

Sacrifice. Pressure. Fear.

Love in its most relentless form.

What made tonight even more powerful was having Chris B. Writes join us to read his poem, The Caregiver’s Lament. His words added another layer. It brought language to the emotional toll caregivers carry, often in silence, often without recognition.

There was something about hearing that poem alongside this story that made everything land deeper.

Caregiving is not one moment nor one decision.

It is a life that shifts, often without warning, and asks people to keep showing up anyway.

That is what tonight was about.

It was about the father who stayed.

The mother who kept fighting.

The family that adjusted, adapted, and grew up inside something none of us chose.

And the realization, years later, that what I witnessed was not just responsibility.

It was love at a level most people never fully see.

If you joined live tonight, thank you.

If you are reading this and couldn’t make it, the full episode is now available on Let’s Get Unstuck.

If you are a caregiver, or love someone who is, I hope this story made you feel seen.

And if you know someone who has carried more than the world ever acknowledged, tell them.

Some people spend a lifetime showing up.

They deserve to know it mattered.

Thank you Nabanita, Sarah-SMR, Ellen Scherr , Lynn J. Broderick , Life On The Other Side and many others for tuning into my live video with Chris B. Writes! Join me for my next live episode with imi Weds, 5/6 5:30pm pst.

Last night, Jason MacKenzie and Let’s Get Unstuck went live for one of those conversations that stays and stays and stays with you long after it ends.

Jason shared the heartbreaking loss of his 19 year old daughter, Chloe, and brought listeners into the reality of what grief can look like when tragedy hits a family without warning.

He spoke with honesty about shock, fear, trauma, and the impossible moments no parent should ever have to face.

We talked about what happens when your body and mind are trying to process something too big to understand.

We talked about the decisions people are forced to make while they are still in survival mode.

We also talked about the role family can play when someone is barely able to stand under the weight of what has happened.

Jason also spoke about men and grief. Too many men are taught to keep it together, stay silent, and carry pain alone.

He offered another path, one built on truth, vulnerability, support, and allowing yourself to be fully human in the middle of heartbreak.

One of the most meaningful parts of the conversation was hearing how love continues after loss. Even when someone is gone, the connection, the memories, and the impact they had do not disappear.

This episode is for anyone grieving a child, grieving someone they love, supporting a person in pain, or trying to understand how people survive life altering loss.

It is honest. It is emotional. It is important.

The full episode is now available.

Come listen to Jason’s story on Let’s Get Unstuck.Thank you Bear Sage, Marlana aka Outtamydamnmind, Lynn J. Broderick, Life On The Other Side, Nabanita, Sarah-SMR, Karen C-Collector of Books📚🧿♒️, and many others for tuning into my live video with Jason MacKenzie! Join me for my next live 4/29 5:30pm pst. SOLO! I will be officially ending The Fatherhood Series to read about my Dad aka my Superhero!

Tonight was incredible. 2 poems, 2 different versions of life and a ton of tears!

Seriously Chris B. Writes you need to write a poem book and title it The Gospel of Bray Bray!

The two poems, Shave and Another Anagram, and together they gave us a deeply honest look at fatherhood through two very different lenses.

👉 Read Shave brought us into the future he once imagined with his son. It held the milestones, the ordinary moments, and the version of life many parents assume will naturally unfold. You could feel the tenderness in that poem, along with the grief that comes when life moves in another direction.

👉 Read Another Anagram brought us into the reality he lives every day with Bray Bray, who was born with the rare genetic disorder GNAI1. This poem carried the weight of caregiving, constant awareness, and the kind of love that remains fully present when every moment matters.

What made tonight so meaningful was not only the contrast between the two poems, but the truth they revealed together.

Life does not always follow the path we pictured. Love does not disappear when that happens. In many cases, it becomes stronger, deeper, and more intentional.

Chris gave language to a version of fatherhood that deserves to be seen.

He reminded us that strength is not always loud. Sometimes it looks like staying engaged. Sometimes it looks like adapting. Sometimes it looks like continuing to show up in circumstances that ask everything from you.

To everyone who joined us live tonight, thank you for being part of a conversation that mattered.

If you missed it, the full episode is available now on Let’s Get Unstuck.

Thank you mary beth kaplan🪶, Lynn J. Broderick, Annette Sharp, Denise Servais, Sarah-SMR, Bear Sage , Hannah Brown , Erin Gregory, Marlana aka Outtamydamnmind , Milret2, Kelly - Mothers never give up, FaithBindsUs , Jess, The Creator, Bud Hager, Osorio Neo 🇲🇽, Eladio Matos and many others for tuning into my live video with Chris B. Writes!

Join me for my next live on 4/22 at 5:30pm PST with Jason MacKenzie where we complete The Fatherhood Series..

What we talked about in this conversation with Bear Sage and why it matters more than people think

Last night’s conversation with Bear Sage stayed with me.

Not because it was shocking or dramatic, but because it was honest.

The kind of honest that most people do not open up about.

We talked about what it means to be a parent when the beliefs you were raised with do not line up with the reality in front of you.

When your child comes to you and says this is who I am and you realize that loving them is not the question.

It is how you love them that matters.

Bear did not sit here and pretend he got it right from the beginning.

He talked about the discomfort.The resistance and the moments where he did not know what to say or how to respond.

That is what made this conversation land.

This was not about perfection, it was about staying.

Staying in the conversation, in the relationship and long enough to see clearly.

There is a moment in the conversation where everything shifts.

Where it stops being about understanding and becomes about choice.

Do you hold onto what you were taught?Or do you choose your child?

That is not a one time decision, it is something you make over and over again.

It’s in the way you speak, show up and the way you decide whether your child feels seen or questioned.

What Bear showed in this conversation is that protecting your children is not always what we think it is.

It is not control.It is not forcing them into something that makes you comfortable.

It is learning how to stand with them in who they are, even when you are still figuring it out yourself.

That takes humility.

It takes self awareness and a willingness to let go of the version of your child that only ever existed in your own expectations.

Maybe the most important part of this conversation is this.

His children are not in crisis.

They know who they are.

The real question is whether the people around them are willing to accept it.

That is where the work is.

That is where the shift happens.

If you missed the live, the full episode is now available.

And this is one I would sit with.

Not just listen to.

Sit with.

Somewhere in this conversation, there is a moment where you will recognize something in yourself.

And that is usually where it starts.

Thank you Fiona Bridges , Ilias Shepherd Marrow, Nabanita, Mack Devlin, Sherrie Phillips, KFitz , Life On The Other Side , Dorie Snow/雪多丽 and many others for tuning into my live video with Bear Sage! Join me next week with Chris B. Writes 4/15 5:30pm pst