That constant feeling of never being good enough, never worthy enough, becomes a quiet violence against ourselves. It's a never-ending cycle of discontent that can lead to painful habits and addictions as we try to escape it.

When we claim ownership of our problems, it fuels them. True freedom comes from realizing that not everything needs to be ours. Notice the ownership piece when things feel off or cause pain.

We often believe that an ego 'self' keeps us on track, but where is this self when we mess up? It's rarely present in the moment of error, only appearing afterward to critique our actions. This disconnect reveals inconsistencies in our self-narrative.

Join me for a conversation about mistaken identity with Change Coach Amanda Jones. We discuss mental freedom through a release of ownership. Let go of who you think you are to discover a deeper energy. 

Amanda Jones is a change coach, author and podcast host with 10 years of experience helping people discover freedom from habits, depression, anxiety and suffering. Working with clients both privately and within Dr Amy Johnson's Little School of Big Change community, Amanda has guided many into waking up out of conditioned beliefs and old structures of being that are no longer relevant. After recovering from a 25 year eating disorder and the resulting depression, her insight into the deeper dimensions of being is shared with love and gentle guidance. Her book Uncovery can be found worldwide on Amazon.  Her podcast with fellow coach Alex Linares titled The Wonder Land can be found on all podcast audio platforms. Reach Amanda at uncoveryspace.com.

Feeling pressure? It's life's way of asking you to expand. Stop pretending and lean into the vastness of who you are. There's nothing wrong with you, ever. True growth comes from accepting the present.

Want to create? You have the ability to create more abundance, business, relationships, and more. What blocks you? If you are like me, you get in your own way.

I blocked myself from the energy of creation with deep insecurity and fears. Presence helped me unblock my creative spirit.

Hear what Coach Barb Patterson has to say about it:

“Let the mind do what the mind’s going to do.”

“Not more presence to the story, but just more willingness to live in the full range of the human experience, then what happens is we naturally create more . . .

I started creating more traction than I ever had through determination and push.”

Learn to create from presence with a conversation I have with guest Barb Patterson. 

Barbara Patterson is a globally recognized coach, consultant, and founder of Innerverse Academy. She brings more than three decades of experience to her work at the intersection of human potential, transformation, business, and applied impact. Known for blending deep inner work with practical, real-world outcomes, she supports entrepreneurs, leaders, and teams in accessing insight, creativity, and new possibilities. Barb also mentors and trains practitioners, consultants, and guides to deepen their mastery and create powerful, sustained change within individuals, teams, and organizations.

“If I didn’t try to overcome it or control it, what would life offer me?”

“Can I get more present to the felt experience of what’s moving through me?”

You can find her at barbarapatterson.com and email her directly at [email protected]

“Coddiwomple:” to live in wonder, embrace the unknown and trust Life while waking up to the complete freedom available to us all.

Kristy Halvorsen gives this definition to describe a way of living. Explore this unique term for more authenticity, truth, and connection.

Learn to live a “hands off the wheel life.” 

“I get to live in this feeling of complete freedom, and it’s strange because I don’t feel like I’m calling the shots.”

“We’re all living in the unknown.”

“I really do get that I have no clue what’s going to happen.”

Watch the Releasing Mental Tension Podcast to go along for a ride. Kristy and I discuss letting go, opening to love, and exploring life with curiosity. 

If “normal” is a way of being, Kristy is not this. She is the Author of Perfect Unfolding, an inspiring adventure memoir about her journey of letting go to discover love, meaning, and acceptance. Back in 2017, she sold her stuff and hit the road. She migrates with the seasons while living off-grid in her Airstream trailer. Work and fun have intermingled. A common thread is helping people realize their true nature and live their dreams without sacrificing happiness along the way.

Find her at kristyh.com and learn more about her book at perfectunfolding.com. The book is available January 31st.

Could silence be your best friend?

I used to keep my mind and body busy to avoid moments of silence. I was uncomfortable being with myself. Constant busyness, distraction, and restlessness left me exhausted at the end of the day.

We can be afraid of slowing down. We run from ourselves. In order to avoid feelings, we disassociate and check out. But what if we’ve got it all wrong? Is peace found in the opposite direction, through exploring silence?

If you are restless, discover the way of silence with my guest Dr. Amy Johnson. You can become more present, connected, and creative.

Amy Johnson, PhD is a psychologist, coach, author, and speaker who shares a groundbreaking new approach that helps people find lasting freedom from unwanted habits, anxiety, and self-doubt via insight rather than willpower.

She is the author of Being Human, The Little Book of Big Change: The No-Willpower Approach to Breaking Any Habit, and Just a Thought: A No-Willpower Approach to End Self-Doubt and Make Peace with Your Mind. In 2017 she opened The Little School of Big Change, an online school that has helped thousands of people find freedom from anxiety and habits and live a more peaceful life.

Her most recent course, Resting in Restlessness, explores silence in a way that Adyashanti calls “True Meditation.” Discover what feeling your way through life could do for you. Find inner freedom.

I highly recommend her monthly community. Find more details here: https://dramyjohnson.com/about-dr-amy/

Do you like to journal?

What if writing could be your guide toward spiritual evolution?

Your journal practice could help you clarify your thinking, drop limiting beliefs, and connect more deeply to yourself.  You just have to do it in this way . . . 

My guest, Maria Iliffe-Wood, and I discuss writing from clarity.  This conversation is for writers who want to improve their writing.  It is for those who want to write more with fewer inner blocks.  

Listen if you want to write from your soul. 

Learn to write with a higher intention.  Discover how you can approach the page in an open and curious way.

Writing can be your best friend.

Maria Iliffe-Wood is a British author whose daily writing practice has been foremost in her life for many years. Writing, for her, is more than craft—it is a way of making sense of the world, a source of resilience through dark times, and a means of connecting with others on the deepest of human levels.

She is the author of four books and a contributor to three anthologies.

Maria is the founder of IW Press, a partnership publishing company established in 2020, and teaches Jack Grapes Method Writing alongside Jules Swales. 

She has supported and published multiple books, guiding writers from dream to finished manuscript. One writer described the process as “finding their wings.”

Maria believes that stories, whether poetry, memoir, or fiction, have the power to heal, inspire, and connect us. Through the work she does with IW Press, she champions the voices of those who feel called to write, ensuring their stories find their way into the world.

She leads multiple writing workshops coming up in the new year.  Find our more at https://www.julesswales.com/class/entry-level-class/

She will also be doing the Writing from Mind class again in 2026. I will be there. Please join us!  

Maria’s website: iliffe-wood.co.uk

Her books: Coaching Presence, The Daily Yarns, A Caged Mind, This One Life

What is joy made of? 

If you understand the anatomy of joy, you can be in touch with it more of the time.  

Joy is not something you create.  Joy is within you, an innate resource that you can tune into. 

Joy is not about escaping suffering and challenges.  It is a quieting of the mind and “being with it.” Presence brings us into alignment to our joyful center. 

“Joy lives in the heart.”

If you want more joy in your life, listen to a conversation I had with Qigong Master Teacher, Vicki Dello Joio. Her name means victory of joy. For more than 45 years, her brand of brilliance has empowered wellness-motivated and spiritually-inclined seekers and speakers to infuse body-mind-spirit practices into their very cells so they can tap into their birthright of joy — use it as a fuel not just a goal — for a lifetime.

“We have all kinds of feelings and emotions, and they all belong. Joy is the seed and essence of all of it.”

Join us for a Qigong movement practice to cultivate more joy at the 22:00 minute mark. 

FInd Vicki at yourpowerpresence.com or https://www.vickidellojoio.com/

My name is Rich Life and this is the Releasing Mental Tension Podcast.  

Become a part of a transformative conversation that helps you to relax into presence.  The conversations I have in this space are based around the 3 Principles understanding of Sydney Banks, and enlightened Scottish mystic.  

The 3 Principles of Mind, Consciousness, and Thought help us understand the nature of our experience. Those who explore this understanding find that their lives transform.  Listen for a richer experience of life. 

Please help me reach more people with the message that the core of who you are is peace, love, and connection.  Comment, like, and subscribe. 

Visit my blog at richliferealization.com

Every time I put food into my body, it felt like eating glass. 

2 years ago, I was in a cycle of pain and fear.  Thankfully, I found an understanding that helped me stop perpetuating pain. 

I recently had a powerful conversation with Painless author and Academy Award winner Chana Studley.  Like me, she broke free from chronic pain by changing how she was using her mind.  

Do you struggle with pain?  Listen to this episode if you have:

Back Pain

IBS

Neck and shoulder pain

Stress related pain

Chronic pain

Food allergies

Emotions around pain

Fear about your body

The understanding we share is not a pain treatment, but it can completely change your relationship to pain. 

Learn that you are never broken. 

Learn how to use your mind when you’re dealing with physical pain.  

Learn that “. . . your survival brain speaks the language of safety and danger.”

Never mind the pain. 

Join me as we discuss how pain is perpetuated in the mind and body.

If you struggle with pain, you do not want to miss this! 

Chana Studley has been coaching and counseling people for over 35 years.

Surviving 3 violent muggings and recovering from severe PTSD in the 1980s Chana went on to have a very successful Academy Award Winning career in Hollywood.

After graduating from The One Thought Institute in 2018 she has been leading the way in pioneering work with The Three Principles and the Mindbody Connection. Most recently she published her 4th book, Beyond Diagnosis, A Paradigm Shift from Pathology to Innate Health.

Chana is a World Health Organization Psychological First Responder and has diplomas in Psychology and Pharmacology. She is a certified Life Coach and successful entrepreneur and author.

Chana has previously published 3 Amazon #1 bestselling novels; The Myth of Low Self Esteem, dealing with trauma, Painless, a novel about chronic pain and Very Well, the story of 3 women’s journey with hormones and menopause.

Find her at https://www.chanastudley.com/

Pressure may make diamonds, but it doesn’t make us better performers. 

What if the secret to high performance was letting go of pressure?

My guest on this episode, Coach Wyn Morgan, has found this to be true.  

Learn how mental pressure lowers access to innate abilities.  Explore how you can create with more inspiration, presence, and ease. 

If you put pressure on yourself to achieve more, this approach to work and life can help you. 

Wyn Morgan is a Certified Master Transformative Coach, Corporate Training Consultant and 3 Principles practitioner.

He has been mentored by George and Linda Pransky, Barb Patterson, Elsie Spittle and Michael Neill. “I am constantly amazed how much more there is to see and how much more wondrous and simple life can actually be”

“Helping my own clients in the corporate world achieve better results through the brilliance of their people along with those clients who come to me for their own personal needs is such a joy. I love watching them wake up to who they really are” Wyn says.

Find him at https://www.wynning.co.uk/

On Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wynning/?originalSubdomain=uk

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wyn.morgan

On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@wynmorgan3079

Does difficulty sleeping cause you to dread your nights and days?

If you struggle to get to sleep or stay asleep, you need to listen to this episode of the Releasing Mental Tension Podcast!

My co-hosts and I struggled to sleep despite using the best sleep hacks. We tried meditation, red lights, no screens, and other disciplined sleep hygiene techniques. Even after years of research and hard work, we still found sleep elusive.

What if we all go about trying to sleep better in the wrong way? A hyperfocus on sleep actually makes sleep harder. We count our hours asleep, and then feel exhausted all day if it is “too low.” Our relationship with sleep may be more influenced by how we think. We can rest when we aren’t winding ourselves up.

Do you get stressed out just thinking about how you will sleep tonight? Learn how to relax and get better sleep by using your thoughts in a new way.

For this episode, I teamed up with the Better Than Therapy Podcast. Britta Kristen and Kevin Lawrence join me to discuss our failed sleep hacks and what really worked.

Hear from the husband and wife team of transformational coaches as they vulnerably and sometimes irreverently explore the art of transformation and the nature of the human experience.

Two podcasts at one time! This episode will be published on both the Better than Therapy and the Releasing Mental Tension Podcast.

Find their podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/better-than-therapy/id1780339923

Do you feel like you are going into the holiday from hell?

You can come to the holidays with a fresh perspective. What if the holidays this year could be more wonderful than you can imagine?

Learn to release mental tension around the holidays this year.

Be home for the holidays. We aren’t talking about being physically home. This holiday season, find your spiritual and mental home.

If your experience of the holidays is filled with:

Anxiety,

Depression,

Resentment,

or Disconnection

. . . then listen to this episode!

Bring curiosity, magic, and childlike wonder back into your life! Find peace in the season.

I discussed this topic with Coach James Abbott. This was a moving session for me and we hope it is for you too.

James is a well-being coach and author of “It’s Not What You Think”, a book designed to help you rediscover your wellbeing and experience more of it in your life.

The book talks about his own battle with anxiety and acts as a guide to help others see their way out of their own anxiety, panic and overthinking.

He trained with the wisdom and well-being Consultancy to become a well-being Coach. He is an Intuitive Coach and a mental health facilitator for Our Mental Health Rocks, a brand co-created with Julie Brown to make mental health simple for both children and adults to understand and bring into their own lives through their Project You private membership.

His personality brings connection, energy and humour into a room and naturally uplift those in it. James has a natural ability to connect with the people he’s working with. He is a deep listener and effortlessly adapts to his clients style and responds to their needs.

Email James at [email protected]

Find him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/james.abbott.12327

Find him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesabbott80/