“There’s a big difference between mental health and mental wellness.”
In this episode, Nick speaks with Michele Capots, a transformational coach focusing on mental wellness and resilience. Michele shares her personal journey of overcoming fear and self-doubt, driven by her experiences with mental illness and trauma. She discusses the importance of mental wellness, distinguishing it from mental health, and highlights practices such as meditation, somatic work, and embracing the present moment. Michele emphasizes the significance of persistence and facing fears to create the life one desires. She encourages listeners to keep trying, manage fear, and seek out what works for them in their journey toward personal growth and fulfillment.
About Michele Capots
Michele Capots is a transformational coach, international speaker, and storyteller on the power of mental wellness and resilience. Michele often shares from the perspective of her own self-stigma and low self-worth that followed her after a mental health diagnosis more than a decade ago until she learned how to use those very things to set her free. Michele’s passion is working with others who feel stuck and unable to move forward like she did, no matter what their obstacle may be, so that they can align their goals and desires with who they are from the inside out and find the same freedom to be their authentic selves.
www.michelecapots.com
www.linkedin.com/in/michele-capots-9149323
www.instagram.com/michele_capots
www.instagram.com/michelecapotsdotcom
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Nick McGowan (00:01.442)
Hello, and welcome to the Mindset and Self Mastery Show. I'm your host, Nick McGowan, and today on the show, I have Michelle Kapotz. Michelle, how are you doing today? I'm great, I appreciate you being on. I'm excited to get into our conversation. So hey, why don't we just get things started? Why don't you tell us what you do for a living? And what's one thing that most people don't know about you that's maybe a little odd or bizarre?
Michele Capots (00:12.638)
I'm good, Nick, how are you?
Michele Capots (00:27.434)
Okay, so I am a transformational coach with a focus on mental wellness and resilience. I'm also an international speaker and storyteller, and I've had essays published in local and national publications. Something bizarre I was thinking about, I don't...
bizarre, but what might be a little odd is I still sleep with a nightlight. I am someone that cannot fall asleep in a dark room, and part of it might be because all I watch are true crime and serial killer documentaries.
Nick McGowan (01:08.974)
Ha ha.
Nick McGowan (01:12.342)
that might do it.
Michele Capots (01:13.59)
So when everything's dark, I have to have a light on. I have to have a night light, a bathroom light. Something has to be on. I can't sleep in a dark room.
Nick McGowan (01:23.806)
All right, so we can just dive directly into that, but I think the true crime stuff might be your catalyst, at least let's say, of why you need to have the nightlight. I was on a big CSI and Criminal Minds kick for like a solid year, year and a half. Oh my God, Criminal Minds is incredible, but there'd be times where I'd be watching it at night, even just playing on my phone or my iPad, just kind of vegging out, and then I'd start getting ready for bed, and I'm like, what the fuck was that noise? What is that?
Michele Capots (01:37.637)
I love your voice.
Michele Capots (01:50.19)
I'm sorry.
Nick McGowan (01:51.998)
and it's like the neighbor or like, I don't know, some animal outside, I'm like, what the fuck, somebody's trying to kill me right now.
Michele Capots (01:58.546)
See, I like that feeling of being scared. It's like that when you're about to get on a roller coaster, like it's that I like that feeling. Well, not.
as I'm trying to sleep and I'm afraid someone's breaking in the house and going to kill me. But the original, when I'm watching the show, like that's why I love thrillers and scary movies. Like I love that feeling of being scared, which I guess is sort of bizarre or odd.
Nick McGowan (02:29.706)
Maybe. It's interesting that I think there's a lot to that. Like if you really take that idea and kind of step to the side of it, there are tons of video games that are just death and destruction. I grew up with video games starting to get to the point where they are now, where they started to have more Call of Duty type games or like you're just blowing shit up sort of deal. And there's so much death and destruction. And there's a lot of people that are really into true crime and
stuff like that, but it's wild to think like you don't actually want somebody to come kill you, but you want to watch it. So there's a psychological, I don't want to say issue or problem, but there I've already said it. There's something that's there that, and I'm kind of the same where I've thought about that before. Like what is it that I like?
Michele Capots (03:05.678)
I'm out.
Right.
Michele Capots (03:16.568)
Yeah.
Nick McGowan (03:22.658)
And then I'd like to have some of like my heightened response of like, what's going on, but I don't like it when I turn the damn TV off and everything's silent. And I'm like, what is going on? What is that noise? Is somebody already in the house? It's like, no, no one else is in the house. Like this is, this is the house. Um, but why do you think that people and yourself, like, we can just start with you. Why do you think that there's, there's that attraction to that?
Michele Capots (03:30.942)
Mm-hmm.
Michele Capots (03:37.109)
Exactly.
Michele Capots (03:49.21)
I don't know. I've always, um, I've always liked scary shows. Like, it's suggested that what you watch sort of dictates the kind of person you are or the things about you. So, I don't-
I don't want to call that into my life and I don't want to do that to somebody else. I will say, if I were ever to get kidnapped, I know exactly what to do. I will know exactly what to do if someone throws me in a trunk. I will know how to get out.
Nick McGowan (04:19.192)
Hahaha, sure.
Michele Capots (04:29.654)
But no, I'm not sure. I don't know where that all started from, but I've always loved scary things. And now it's just complete true crime and documentaries. And I don't know.
Nick McGowan (04:46.526)
Yeah, it's like getting into the mind of a serial killer. It's like, but you don't want to, I don't want to kill anybody. I'd even said to my partner recently, I was like, if I killed somebody, that, that means that like we had to. It was either life or death, but I don't know how I'm going to live with myself after that. And what an interesting thing. Yeah, but.
Michele Capots (04:49.399)
Yeah.
Exactly.
Michele Capots (05:01.286)
Yeah, but I find it fascinating.
Nick McGowan (05:05.522)
I had friends growing up, specifically in high school, that were big horror fans. Like, they just absolutely loved the gore and everything that went into it. I remember trying to hang out with them and watching some, I don't know, B or C shitty fucking gory movies and being like, what is this? They're like, this is incredible. I was like, well, some of the bad ones you can tell. It's like, that's corn syrup. I think that's all that is. That's ketchup. That's just a ton of ketchup. Other ones are just crazy.
actually messes with you. And I don't know, it's difficult for people that go through traumas, that have had somebody that's passed away or has been murdered or something like that. Have you ever had anybody that's been close to you that has been in any sort of situation like that?
Michele Capots (05:52.494)
Actually, it's really funny. My mother's brother, so this was long before me, long before I was even born, but yes, he had been murdered when he was in his early 20s. So yeah, that's...
Nick McGowan (06:19.554)
I mean, I'm an asshole. I always want to know details. I'm sorry.
Michele Capots (06:22.834)
Yeah, I don't even know if I remember all of the details, but he had been... came home from work and was...
I don't even know if I can go into all the details. He came home from work and he had just gotten paid and had stopped at a bar and then went home and someone followed him home and stabbed him and robbed him. Yeah. So, but that was, like I said, that was long before I was ever even born.
Nick McGowan (06:51.349)
out.
Nick McGowan (07:01.782)
So you were told that story, obviously. It's not like you made that up or just found it out or read it in a newspaper, something like that. But how did your mom handle that? Did that mess with her?
Michele Capots (07:14.994)
sure. Yeah, and I remember, I remember when my grandmother...
My grandmother died when she was, I don't remember how old, 93, 94. She had dementia at the end, but when we were fond of peppering her with questions about her life or about herself, or we used to just ask her all sorts of questions,
grandfather or great moments, bad moments. And I think one of the times we asked her what the hardest thing she ever had to do and she said forgiving the man that killed him. So yeah, and that gives you an idea of who my grandmother was.
Michele Capots (08:23.986)
But yeah, so knowing all that,...
