The Motivate Collective Podcast by Melanie Suzanne Wilson

Episode title: From Rock Bottom to World Records: Sobriety, Faith and Rebuilding a Life with Christopher Charles Burns

Short description: Christopher Charles Burns shares his journey from addiction and a broken marriage to sobriety, theological research, and two world records as the first independent Tongan researcher published in peer-reviewed journals. Content note: discusses addiction, infidelity and violence.

Long description:

Content note: This episode includes discussion of alcohol addiction and recovery, marital infidelity, and an account of gun violence, with brief references to domestic violence. Please listen with care — support resources are listed below.

What does it take to genuinely change your life? In this episode, Melanie sits down with Christopher Charles Burns — a Brisbane-based theological researcher with Kiwi and Tongan heritage — whose story moves from fine dining kitchens and gang violence in Auckland, through the dramatic collapse of his marriage, to complete sobriety and academic history-making.

Nearly three years sober, Chris has completed a Master of Arts in Theology, submitted his PhD proposal, had four articles accepted into peer-reviewed journals within nine months, and received two world records as the first independent Tongan researcher with peer-reviewed publication. His research explores the concept of truth in ancient Hebrew and Greek texts — and what it means for our post-truth, AI-saturated era.

Chris speaks candidly about rebuilding from a single room with a single-seater couch, why the people around you determine how far you grow, dating after divorce, faith without perfectionism, and why change only happens when you truly want it. His message: if you believe that you can change, that you will change.

Support resources — Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14 | Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 | National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline 1800 250 015 | 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 | Blue Knot Foundation 1300 657 380. International: RAINN (rainn.org) | Crisis Text Line (text HOME to 741741) | findahelpline.com

Join The Motivate Collective community: www.motivatecollective.com

Tags: sobriety, addiction recovery, personal development, resilience, life transformation, theology, faith, divorce recovery, mindset, conscious living, Tongan researcher, motivation, wellness, starting over, self improvement

Category: Health & Fitness > Mental Health (or Education > Self-Improvement if that's your standard show category — use whichever matches your existing episodes)

Author: The Motivate Collective / Melanie Suzanne Wilson

Explicit rating: Clean (no explicit language, but mature themes — the content notes cover this)

Episode title: From Rock Bottom to World Records: Sobriety, Faith and Rebuilding a Life with Christopher Charles Burns

Short description: Christopher Charles Burns shares his journey from addiction and a broken marriage to sobriety, theological research, and two world records as the first independent Tongan researcher published in peer-reviewed journals. Content note: discusses addiction, infidelity and violence.

Long description:

Content note: This episode includes discussion of alcohol addiction and recovery, marital infidelity, and an account of gun violence, with brief references to domestic violence. Please listen with care — support resources are listed below.

What does it take to genuinely change your life? In this episode, Melanie sits down with Christopher Charles Burns — a Brisbane-based theological researcher with Kiwi and Tongan heritage — whose story moves from fine dining kitchens and gang violence in Auckland, through the dramatic collapse of his marriage, to complete sobriety and academic history-making.

Nearly three years sober, Chris has completed a Master of Arts in Theology, submitted his PhD proposal, had four articles accepted into peer-reviewed journals within nine months, and received two world records as the first independent Tongan researcher with peer-reviewed publication. His research explores the concept of truth in ancient Hebrew and Greek texts — and what it means for our post-truth, AI-saturated era.

Chris speaks candidly about rebuilding from a single room with a single-seater couch, why the people around you determine how far you grow, dating after divorce, faith without perfectionism, and why change only happens when you truly want it. His message: if you believe that you can change, that you will change.

Support resources — Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14 | Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 | National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline 1800 250 015 | 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 | Blue Knot Foundation 1300 657 380. International: RAINN (rainn.org) | Crisis Text Line (text HOME to 741741) | findahelpline.com

Join The Motivate Collective community: www.motivatecollective.com

Tags: sobriety, addiction recovery, personal development, resilience, life transformation, theology, faith, divorce recovery, mindset, conscious living, Tongan researcher, motivation, wellness, starting over, self improvement

Category: Health & Fitness > Mental Health (or Education > Self-Improvement if that's your standard show category — use whichever matches your existing episodes)

Author: The Motivate Collective / Melanie Suzanne Wilson

Explicit rating: Clean (no explicit language, but mature themes — the content notes cover this)

What do you do when the words desert you?

In this deeply moving episode of The Motivate Collective Podcast, Melanie Suzanne Wilson sits down with Branka Cubrilo — novelist, journalist, broadcaster, interpreter, painter, and former yoga teacher — to explore what it truly means to live a creative life.

When Branka's brother passed away, she returned to Sydney heartbroken and unable to write. Not because of writer's block — but because of what she calls "paralysing sadness." What emerged instead was something unexpected: painting. Over one hundred works in five months. A lifeline she didn't plan for, but that her inner voice led her to.

This is a conversation about creativity, grief, storytelling, yoga, social media, visualisation, and the wisdom that lives within all of us — if we are willing to get quiet enough to hear it.

In this episode we cover:

• Living a multidisciplinary creative life — novels, journalism, yoga, painting and more
• Why storytelling is how we connect with ourselves and the world
• How Branka's creativity works in pictures — even when she writes
• The character who visited her in dreams at 4am until 550 pages were written
• Social media as a curated fragment — not real life
• What radio broadcasting taught her about voice, clarity, and presence
• Grief, emotional paralysis, and the difference from writer's block
• How painting became a lifeline through the darkest period of her life
• Yoga as a lifelong discipline for creativity, focus, and wellbeing
• The single lesson that runs through everything: listen within

Quotes from this episode:

"If you are not in contact with yourself, then with what are you in contact with?"

"I don't even consider my work as work. I consider it as great time that I dedicate to myself."

"It was not as much writer's block as paralysing sadness."

"I think all the answers are within. You know, people ask psychiatrists, psychologists, priests, friends. I think you can work that out. Everyone can work that out."

"I listened to my inner voice that led me towards finding the right remedy for myself, which was painting."

"That's how we connect with the world. We tell our stories for very different, very various reasons."

Timestamps:

00:02 — Welcome & introducing Branka Cubrilo 00:32 — A life across novels, journalism, interpreting, yoga, and painting 02:11 — Grief and her brother's passing — why the words disappeared 04:34 — Storytelling as human connection in the age of AI and social media 06:49 — Looking within — what yoga taught Branka about the inner life 08:30 — Social media as a curated fragment of who we are 11:28 — Radio broadcasting — voice, clarity, and holding an audience 13:50 — Podcasting vs. traditional media 15:00 — How creativity works in pictures — even in writing 18:44 — Showing her most recent painting live 20:00 — Visualisation and the inner eye — something everyone can learn 21:30 — The woman who came in dreams and demanded 550 pages 26:22 — When obsession is not a problem but a calling 28:49 — Growing up in Croatia — Dostoyevsky at twelve, yoga at nineteen 31:00 — Coming to Sydney and opening one of the city's first yoga studios 33:00 — Yoga as discipline and stress relief in a creative life 35:57 — Accepting grief and returning to work 37:00 — What painting unlocked 40:20 — The canvases left untouched through COVID 43:00 — Writer's block vs. emotional paralysis 44:53 — Listening to inner wisdom when everything goes quiet 47:07 — Having conversations with yourself 48:40 — The lesson: listen within

Connect with Branka Cubrilo:

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/branka_cubrilo_author/ ▶️ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@brankacubrilo4072?si=ThlELKFTPIEo6jXy

Connect with The Motivate Collective:

🌐 Website: https://www.motivatecollective.com 📸 Instagram: [your handle] 💼 LinkedIn: [your handle] ▶️ YouTube: [your handle] 🎙️ Subscribe, rate, and review The Motivate Collective Podcast — it means the world and helps more people find these conversations.

Join The Motivate Collective Community:

If this conversation resonated with you, come and continue it with us. The Motivate Collective is a community of purpose-driven professionals building lives of meaning, wellness, and conscious growth — through conversations, events, and resources designed to help you live and lead with intention.

👉 www.motivatecollective.com

Five-time award-winning poet Julia Poet joins Melanie to share her story of young caregiving, grief, substance abuse recovery, and how she turned it all into her debut poetry collection Progression.

What do you do when life hands you one of the hardest stories imaginable — and you realise your greatest purpose is to tell it?

In this episode of The Motivate Collective Podcast, Melanie Suzanne Wilson is joined by Julia Poet — five-time award-winning poet, author of Progression, and award-winning public speaker — for a deeply honest conversation about grief, resilience, young caregiving, and finding your voice.

Julia shares what it was like to become her mother's caregiver at fifteen, to watch a decade of slow decline, and to lose her at twenty-seven — just two years ago. She opens up about the substance abuse that followed, the grief she is still moving through, and the unlikely source of her recovery: a vision of exactly this moment — sitting here, smiling, sharing her story with the world.

She also discusses the real face of high-functioning anxiety, the pressure women face to perform happiness, what it means to speak loudly in a world that keeps asking you to quiet down, and why she believes progression is the only option.

Topics covered include:

• Grief and loss — and the fact that it has no fixed order
• Young caregiving and its impact on identity, ambition, and mental health
• Substance abuse recovery
• Toxic positivity and the silencing of women's voices
• Finding purpose through adversity
• Spiritual signs and the comfort of belief
• Being adopted and carrying multiple forms of loss
• The relationship between writing and speaking your truth

Julia's debut poetry collection Progression — on addiction, grief, loss, love, and overcoming — is available now.

Tags: grief, loss, caregiving, resilience, mental health, poetry, personal development, women empowerment, substance abuse recovery, finding your voice, toxic positivity, spiritual beliefs, The Motivate Collective

Category: Health & Wellness / Personal Development

Author: Melanie Suzanne Wilson

Explicit: No

Victoria, founder of Twisty Kits, joins Melanie Suzanne Wilson to share the story behind her wax-coated yarn sticks — a screen-free creative toy for kids that started on a single flight and grew into a full product brand. She opens up about moving to Australia, navigating job markets as a new mum with limited local experience, two years of pivoting her ecommerce brand, and the moment the numbers made the decision for her. A grounding conversation about conscious parenting, entrepreneurial resilience, and the beauty of letting boredom be a starting point.

What does sustainable leadership actually look like — and what does it cost when we get it wrong?

Hanna Bauer is the founder of Heartnomics and a globally recognised leadership transformation specialist working at the intersection of people, purpose, and performance. From the age of four, Hanna lived with a severe heart condition that shaped her worldview and eventually her entire career — navigating two heart attacks, multiple failed surgeries, and a pivotal moment of clarity that became the foundation of everything she now teaches.

In this episode, Hanna and Melanie explore burnout, values-led leadership, and the BEAT Method — a practical framework for moving through overwhelm that Hanna developed during her years as a young patient: Believe (what's here now), Engage (with what you have), Act (smallest action possible), Transform (check your progress against your belief).

They also dig into the HEART Framework (Hope, Empowerment, Accountability, Results, Trust), the real cost of hustle addiction, and the liberating practice of learning to receive — not just achieve — in the season you're in.

Connect with Hanna: 🌐 heartnomics.com 🔗 LinkedIn: Hanna Bauer 💡 Free heart alignment assessment: available at heartnomics.com

Join The Motivate Collective community: 🌿 www.motivatecollective.com

Tags: burnout, leadership, values, purpose, personal development, heart disease, resilience, BEAT method, HEART framework, sustainable growth, conscious leadership, Heartnomics, Hanna Bauer, The Motivate Collective, Melanie Suzanne Wilson, performance, alignment, hustle culture, receiving, transformation

Category: Personal Development / Business / Health & Wellness

Author: Melanie Suzanne Wilson

Explicit: Clean

Hanna Bauer, founder of Heartnomics, shares her extraordinary story — from childhood heart disease to global leadership coach — and the BEAT Method she built for sustainable, values-driven growth.

What if your body has been trying to tell you something for years — and the physical symptom is not the problem, but the message?

In this episode, Melanie sits down with Niamh Devine — Irish mind-body mentor, TEDx speaker, TRE practitioner, and former RTÉ broadcaster — for one of the most powerful and practical conversations this show has ever produced.

Niamh left a successful broadcasting career at RTÉ in 2016 to travel the world. After surviving trauma in Southeast Asia in 2018, she lost complete function in her left foot for four months. When conventional medicine offered no answers, a Buddhist meditation retreat and deep personal research led her to psychosomatic healing — and waking up one morning to find her foot working again.

What we cover:

• How the body stores emotional and mental charge as physical symptoms
• The four steps to healing: awareness, responsibility, release, and focus
• TRE (Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises) and how it gently releases stored trauma
• Why you are not here solely to heal — and the danger of focusing only on the wounded self
• The anchor point practice: a simple daily tool for mind-body awareness
• Dr John E. Sarno's research and the mind-body connection
• When to involve a therapist alongside somatic work
• Niamh's group programme: The Language of the Body

🎙️ Niamh's TEDx Talk "Listen to Your Body" is available on YouTube 🌐 Work with Niamh: search Niamh Devine mind-body mentor

🌿 Join The Motivate Collective community: www.motivatecollective.com

Subtitle / Teaser: Mind-body mentor and former RTÉ star Niamh Devine on psychosomatic healing, TRE, and the four steps to releasing what the body has been carrying.

Author: Melanie Suzanne Wilson

Episode Type: Full

Season Number: (Enter your current season number)

Episode Number: (Enter your episode number)

Explicit: No

Keywords / Tags: mind-body connection, psychosomatic healing, trauma release, TRE, somatic healing, Niamh Devine, nervous system, chronic pain, PTSD, emotional health, inner work, wellness podcast, conscious living, TEDx, The Motivate Collective, four steps to healing, personal transformation, holistic health

Categories: Primary: Health & Fitness → Mental Health Secondary: Society & Culture → Personal Journals

Image / Artwork: Upload episode guest graphic or use default show artwork.

Publication Date & Time: (Schedule per your release calendar)

Enable on All Destinations: Yes — confirm Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all linked destinations are checked.

What if the most powerful wellness tool you have is already inside you — and it costs absolutely nothing?

In this episode, Melanie sits down with Kimia Shirkhani — executive operations partner at Cisco Meraki, certified yoga and fitness instructor, and MBA graduate with a background in industrial engineering. Kimia's story is one of resilience, reinvention, and a deeply personal journey that led her from horseback riding in Iran to finding her sanctuary on the yoga mat in the United States — and ultimately choosing to share that sanctuary with others.

What we cover:

• How an industrial engineering background shapes a systems-thinker's approach to wellness
• The surprising link between horseback riding and mindfulness meditation
• The eight layers of yoga — and why asana is just one small part of the picture
• Simple, practical rituals to bring calm into a busy corporate workday
• How breathwork regulates the nervous system in real time — even mid-meeting
• Building psychological safety in corporate teams through sensory experiences
• Kimia's personal story: culture shock, weight gain, COVID isolation, and how yoga became her rope
• Why you don't need equipment, experience, or an hour to spare to begin a yoga practice
• The train metaphor: finding the space between your thoughts

Connect with Kimia: 🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kimia-shirkhani-69a48214b/ 🧘 Teaching at CorePower Yoga, San Francisco Bay Area

🌿 Join The Motivate Collective community: www.motivatecollective.com

Subtitle / Teaser: Kimia Shirkhani — yoga instructor and executive operations partner at Cisco Meraki — on breathwork, mindfulness, and why your inner sanctuary is already within reach.

Author: Melanie Suzanne Wilson

Episode Type: Full

Season Number: 5

Episode Number: 8

Explicit: No

Keywords / Tags: yoga, breathwork, meditation, mindfulness, corporate wellness, nervous system, personal development, inner work, Kimia Shirkhani, wellness podcast, conscious living, sensory yoga, yogic philosophy, stress relief, The Motivate Collective

Categories: Primary: Health & Fitness → Mental Health Secondary: Society & Culture → Personal Journals

(Alternative primary: Education → Self-Improvement)

Here are the Libsyn fields for the Julian episode:

Title: Learn to Be Comfortable in the Uncomfortable: Personal Development, Paintball & Purpose with Julian Maliszewski

Description (Show Notes / Long Description): What does paintball have to do with personal development? More than you'd think.

In this episode, Melanie sits down with Julian Maliszewski — personal development coach, former teacher, lacrosse athlete, paintball industry veteran, and founder of T2F Coaching. Julian's life has been anything but conventional: he's lived across the world, played lacrosse internationally, spent decades in the paintball industry, studied philosophy and religious studies, and now channels all of it into helping people get over their mental hurdles.

Julian is also a proud supporter of Paintball for Purpose, a not-for-profit organisation connecting veterans with mental health resources, community, and support.

What we cover:

• How sport shaped Julian's approach to resilience and coaching
• What paintball actually feels like (finally answered)
• The work of Paintball for Purpose and veteran community support
• Julian's matchstick approach: accountability, sounding board, and teaching people to help themselves
• Why we learn more from failure than from winning
• Taoist philosophy and going with the waves of life
• Finger people vs thumb people — the accountability conversation nobody wants to have
• The Finch app and using technology mindfully
• Why getting outside and unplugging still matters
• Community investment through not-for-profit foundations

Connect with Julian: 📲 @T2Fcoaching on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Threads 🎯 Paintball for Purpose: @paintballforpurpose

🌿 Join The Motivate Collective community: www.motivatecollective.com

Subtitle / Teaser: Personal development coach Julian Maliszewski on resilience, accountability, veteran support, and why learning to sit with discomfort changes everything.

Author: Melanie Suzanne Wilson

Episode Type: Full

Season Number: (Enter your current season number)

Episode Number: (Enter your episode number)

Explicit: No — there is one mild instance of casual language mid-episode but nothing that would warrant an explicit tag. Your call based on your show's standard.

Keywords / Tags: personal development, coaching, resilience, paintball, veterans, mental health, accountability, Taoism, philosophy, community, not-for-profit, T2F coaching, Paintball for Purpose, mindset, inner work, growth, sport, wellbeing, technology, mindfulness, Julian Maliszewski, The Motivate Collective

Categories: Primary: Society & Culture → Personal Journals Secondary: Health & Fitness → Mental Health

(Education → Self-Improvement)

What if changing your brain started with lying on the floor and getting curious about how your foot feels?

In this episode, Melanie Suzanne Wilson speaks with Beverly—former Facebook executive and Feldenkrais practitioner—about nervous system regulation, undiagnosed ADHD, perimenopause, and how a single movement class at a resort sparked a 12-year journey of transformation.

In this episode:

• What Beverly witnessed at Facebook during the mobile revolution
• How perimenopause and ADHD showed up as anger and dysregulation
• The Feldenkrais Method and why it works when other modalities don't
• Why curiosity—not correction—is the gateway to rewiring your brain
• What it looks like to build something slowly, sustainably, and with self-regulation in mind

Find Beverly's app at posture.com or search 'Posture' in the App Store or Google Play. 7-day free trial available.

Join The Motivate Collective community for more conversations, events, and resources built around growth, wellness, and conscious living: www.motivatecollective.com