I’m sorry this episode is a little late.

I usually upload every Monday, but this week, I honestly didn’t have much energy, and I couldn’t quite organize what I wanted to talk about.

So… I’m really sorry for keeping you waiting.

This episode is simply a little life update from me.

It’s been about nine days since I came back to Hokkaido, and even though I originally planned to step away from nursing, I’ve decided to work as a temporary nurse again for the next two months.

I still don’t know what comes after that.

I don’t know where I’ll live, what kind of work I’ll do, or what I really want my everyday life to look like.

Right now, I’m probably at one of the lowest points I’ve ever been in my life.

But in a strange way, that also makes me feel like there’s nowhere left to go but up.

And I’ve decided I’m done building my life around the idea that suffering is something I just have to accept.

When something feels painful or miserable, that feeling is telling me something.

From now on, I want to listen to those signals more consciously and choose a life that feels fun, joyful, happy, and genuinely like mine.

There’s no perfect answer or beautiful conclusion in this episode.

I’m still right in the middle of it.

And maybe that’s okay.

I also want to say thank you to those of you who keep coming back and listening to this podcast.

Even though I can’t see your faces, just knowing that there are people out there who choose to spend some of their time listening to me gives me energy and makes me feel warm inside.

That’s why I genuinely want to keep showing up for you.

So from next week, I want to be back at my usual Monday upload time — not because I’m forcing myself to, but because thinking about you gives me a reason to want to do it.

Thank you for being here.

And wherever you are in your life right now, I genuinely hope you become happier and happier.

Connect with me:
@soulresonancepod

I’m back in Hokkaido.

For now, I’m stepping away from nursing and giving myself about a month to work part-time, slow down, and figure out what I actually want to do with my life.

I don’t have a perfect plan.

But I’ve decided one thing:

I don’t want to keep building my life around endurance, sacrifice, and doing things that make me miserable.

From September 1st, I’m starting a little experiment.

What happens if I stop choosing unnecessary suffering?

What happens if I stop doing things just because they’re stable, practical, or expected of me?

What happens if I start choosing what genuinely feels fun?

For now, I’m going to work, spend time with my family, eat a ridiculous amount of home-cooked food, have drinks with my mom, and pay attention to the moments when I can honestly say:

“I’m happy right now.”

Let’s see what happens.

Connect with me:
@soulresonancepod

For years, I thought being strong meant handling everything on my own.

I wanted to make money, build something meaningful, protect the people I love, and someday give my future wife an incredible life.

But somewhere along the way, I forgot one person.

Me.

Recently, I reached a point where I felt completely exhausted with my life. For a moment, I even thought it might be easier if I weren’t here anymore.

But the truth was, I didn’t want my life to end.

I just couldn’t keep living the way I had been living.

So for the first time, instead of carrying everything alone, I told my family I wasn’t okay. I decided to leave Tokyo for a while, change my environment, and stop forcing myself to stay in a life my heart had been rejecting for years.

In this episode, I talk about asking for help, walking away from a career that never felt like mine, my complicated relationship with money and love, and something my mom told me when I needed to hear it most:

You have to be happy first.

I still want to make a lot of money.
I still want to protect the people I love.
I still want to build a huge life.

But now, I’m learning to include myself in that love too.

Maybe choosing yourself isn’t giving up on your dreams.

Maybe it’s where they actually begin.

Connect with me:
Instagram: @shioriikedamore
Podcast: @soulresonancepod

What if self-love isn’t about becoming a better, kinder, or more perfect version of yourself?

Recently, I found myself feeling guilty over something seemingly small: sometimes taking care of my dogs feels exhausting. Sometimes I don’t want to go for a walk. Sometimes I get irritated.

And then the real struggle begins.

I compare myself to people I admire, question whether I’m actually a kind person, and turn one uncomfortable feeling into a judgment about who I am.

But maybe our feelings, values, and actions don’t always have to perfectly match.

Maybe being tired doesn’t mean you don’t care.
Maybe feeling annoyed doesn’t make you cruel.
And maybe wanting to become better doesn’t require hating who you are today.

In this episode, I talk about self-acceptance, the danger of turning our ideals into weapons against ourselves, and what it might really mean to love yourself:

Not becoming perfect, but learning not to abandon yourself when you’re not.

If you’ve ever wondered, “Why can’t I be more like the person I want to be?”—this episode is for you.

Maybe we can both learn to be a little more on our own side.

Thank you for spending this time with me.

Connect with me:
Instagram: @shioriikedamore
Let’s keep exploring what it means to live a life we truly love—together.

What if the life you see right now isn’t supposed to decide what you believe?

Most of us look at reality first.

If things are going well, we believe our life is going well.
If something painful happens, we start to doubt ourselves, our choices, and our future.

But lately, I’ve been wondering:

What if we have it backwards?

What if belief comes first?

In this episode, I talk about what I’m learning through my own experiment with belief, manifestation, and The Secret — from a difficult relationship at work, to the way my mother continued to believe through some of the hardest moments of her life.

I also share the story of my sister’s illness, and why watching my mother taught me something I’m only beginning to fully understand now:

Belief doesn’t mean ignoring reality.
And it doesn’t mean pretending difficult things aren’t happening.

It means refusing to let your current reality decide what you believe is possible.

Maybe miracles don’t always begin when reality changes.

Maybe they begin when someone refuses to stop believing before it does.

Thank you for spending this time with me.
I hope this episode gives you something to carry into your own life.

Connect with me @shioriikedamore

P.S. The anime I mentioned in this episode is Though I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court.
My favorite character is Kou Reirin.I love Shu Keigetsu too, though haha

For years, I thought “being myself” was something I needed to find.

But after trying new things, making mistakes, and stepping outside my comfort zone, I realized something.

You don’t discover who you are by waiting.

You discover yourself by living.

In this episode, I share what “being yourself” means to me today, why experience shapes our identity, and how even the smallest curiosity can lead you closer to the life that truly feels like your own.

Thank you for listening.

Connect with me:@soulresonancepod

Lately, I’ve felt stuck.

Not because I’ve lost my dreams.

But because I stopped moving toward them.

In this episode, I share why I decided to start over, what I’ve learned about myself over the past few months, and why I’m beginning a personal experiment inspired by The Secret.

I don’t know if it will change my life.

But I’m willing to find out.

And I’ll share every step of that journey with you.

Thank you for listening.

Connect with me:

@soulresonancepod

For years, I believed I had to become “successful enough” before I deserved to fully love someone.

That belief came from a place of love.

I wanted to protect the people I cared about.

I wanted to give them a life where they would never have to worry.

But somewhere along the way, that dream quietly became a chain I placed on myself.

In this episode, I share where that belief came from, how it shaped the way I viewed love, and why I finally feel free to love without waiting for the “perfect” version of myself.

Thank you for listening.

Connect with me:

@soulresonancepod

For a long time, I believed the way people treated me determined how I responded.

But recently, I realized something that changed the way I see relationships.

I can’t choose how other people behave.

But I can always choose who I want to be.

In this episode, I share how one experience at work completely shifted my perspective on difficult people, why understanding is more powerful than resentment, and how choosing your own way of being can bring a deeper sense of peace.

Maybe true strength isn’t changing other people.

Maybe it’s refusing to let them change who you are.

Thank you for listening.

Connect with me:

@soulresonancepod

Some dreams never leave us.

They return every year, every new month, every time we tell ourselves, “This time will be different.”

For a long time, I couldn’t understand why.

If I truly wanted these dreams, why did I keep stopping?

In this episode, I talk about the difference between dreams that truly belong to you and dreams you’ve inherited from others, why we so often return to old habits, and how understanding homeostasis completely changed the way I see personal growth.

This isn’t an episode about motivation.

It’s about understanding yourself.

Because maybe the problem isn’t that you’re lazy.

Maybe you’ve simply been fighting against the way the human mind works.

And maybe…

the dream that keeps coming back isn’t something to ignore.

Maybe it’s the voice you should be listening to.

Connect with me @soulresonancepod