In this episode of the Tea Time Podcast, Sharissa Bradley continues the Journey Back to Health series with Chapter Seven: Superhero Complex.

This short but powerful chapter explores the tendency to "wear the superhero cape" — trying to do everything, be everything, and meet everyone's needs while personal health quietly suffers. Sharissa reflects on how overextending herself often leads to neglecting sleep, hydration, nourishment, exercise, and rest.

Using the familiar oxygen mask analogy, she emphasizes the importance of meeting your own basic needs first. While certain life seasons (like caring for a newborn) may temporarily require self-sacrifice, consistently ignoring your own well-being creates long-term consequences.

This episode introduces the concept of a "Joy List" — a simple, physical list of small and big activities that bring personal joy. From freezer meal prep and reading to gardening, watching Netflix, or enjoying a favorite meal, Sharissa encourages listeners to identify what fills their cup.

The action step is simple: remove the cape and do one small thing this week that brings you joy.

This episode reflects lived experience, not medical advice.

⏱ Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome & Chapter 7 introduction 01:00 – What is the Superhero Complex? 02:00 – When health suffers 02:30 – Oxygen mask analogy 03:30 – People pleasing vs. true necessity 04:00 – Identifying neglected basic needs 04:30 – Introducing the Joy List 05:00 – Examples of joyful activities 06:00 – Small moments of joy 07:00 – Making joy visible & habitual 07:45 – Personal joy commitment 08:00 – Action steps & encouragement

🔗 Links & Resources

Download the free Journey Back to Health Workbook: https://sharissabradley.com/extras

Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/

Instagram: @sharissabradley.author

In this episode of the Tea Time Podcast, Sharissa Bradley continues the Journey Back to Health series with Chapter Six: Emotional Connections.

This chapter explores the powerful emotional ties we build around food — especially comfort foods connected to memory, safety, and love. Sharissa shares a personal story about cookies and tea with her grandmother, and how that ritual created a deep emotional pathway tied to warmth, belonging, and connection.

After being diagnosed with celiac disease and eliminating gluten, she lost the ability to access that comfort in spontaneous ways. This episode unpacks the emotional deficit that can occur when healing protocols, elimination diets, or food restrictions remove not just ingredients — but emotional anchors.

Sharissa encourages listeners to examine their own comfort foods and find ways to make nourishing swaps that preserve emotional connection without creating deprivation. From gluten-free baking to creative substitutions like sweet potato chips or vegetable-packed nachos, this episode focuses on reclaiming comfort safely.

This episode reflects lived experience, not medical advice.

⏱ Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome & Chapter 6 introduction 01:00 – Cookies, tea & grandmother memories 02:00 – Celiac diagnosis & losing comfort 03:00 – Emotional deprivation during healing 04:00 – Recipe swaps & nourishment 05:00 – High nutrient dense substitutions 06:00 – Nostalgia & grandmother's birthday 07:00 – Recreating comfort through scent & taste 08:00 – Encouragement & closing

🔗 Links & Resources

Download the free Journey Back to Health Workbook: https://sharissabradley.com/extras

Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/

Watch this on youtube: https://youtu.be/VjoSDx8t03g

In this episode of the Tea Time Podcast, Sharissa Bradley continues the Journey Back to Health series with Chapter Five: Find Your Why.

Sharissa shares why this chapter may be the most foundational part of the entire healing journey. While habit formation, elimination diets, detox, and lifestyle shifts all matter, none of them sustain without a deeply rooted reason for change.

Drawing from her personal experience growing up with a chronically ill mother and later becoming a sick mom herself, Sharissa explains how her "why" became anchored in not wanting her children to experience the same absence she felt. She reflects on navigating autoimmune disease, adrenal fatigue, brain fog, inflammation, and years of extreme dietary changes — including two years without coffee, caffeine, sugar, dairy, or chocolate.

This episode moves into practical action steps from the book, including writing out what your healthiest self would be able to do, rebuilding physical goals, reclaiming activities that were lost to illness, and building a support team that can help you stay anchored when things feel hard.

Sharissa also vulnerably shares that her own healing journey feels like it has backslid recently, with increased nausea and fear-based thoughts resurfacing — reminding listeners that healing is rarely linear.

***This episode is lived experience, not medical advice.

⏱ Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome & Chapter 5 introduction 01:00 – Why this chapter is foundational 02:00 – Growing up with a chronically ill mother 03:00 – Becoming a sick mom & finding her why 04:00 – Elimination diets & extreme change 05:00 – Why willpower isn't enough 06:00 – Writing your healthiest-self list 07:00 – What illness stole 08:00 – Inflammation, joint pain & flare-ups 09:00 – Two-year healing timeline 10:00 – Reclaiming reading & daily activities 11:00 – Building your support team 12:00 – Paid support & outside help 13:00 – Reaching out & asking for support 14:00 – Current nausea setbacks 15:00 – Fear spirals & mental chatter 16:00 – Multiple habits & rewiring stories 17:00 – Grace, gentleness & encouragement

🔗 Links & Resources

Download the free Journey Back to Health Workbook: https://sharissabradley.com/extras

Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/

In this episode of the Tea Time Podcast, Sharissa Bradley continues the Journey Back to Health series with Chapter Four: A Brain Resistant to Change. This episode builds on previous conversations about habits and brain energy, expanding into why habit change requires more than willpower or motivation.

Sharissa explains how habit change involves breaking down what we are actually trying to change and why attempting multiple new habits at once often leads to frustration. Drawing from The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, she discusses how long it takes to form a habit and why deeply ingrained patterns require extended timelines and intentional prioritization.

Using her own experience with rebuilding eating habits, exercise routines, and stress responses, Sharissa shares vulnerably about setbacks, nausea, emotional responses, and the humility required to heal in real time. She emphasizes the importance of grace, realistic timelines, reminders, and rewards when working against long-established brain pathways.

This episode closes with actionable guidance from Chapter Four, encouraging listeners to choose one habit at a time, set reminders, create incentives, and give themselves compassion while doing hard work.

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Welcome & Chapter 4 introduction
• 01:00 – Habits require more than willpower
• 02:00 – The Power of Habit & research
• 03:00 – Adrenaline-based systems & haste
• 04:00 – Action steps: identifying habits
• 05:00 – Breakfast habit struggles
• 06:00 – Setbacks, nausea & grace
• 07:00 – Unlearning stress patterns
• 08:00 – Realistic habit timelines
• 09:00 – One habit at a time
• 10:00 – Setting reminders
• 11:00 – Rewards & positive reinforcement
• 12:30 – Encouragement & vulnerability
• 13:45 – Closing

Links & Resources

• Download the Journey Back to Health Workbook (free): https://sharissabradley.com/extras
• Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/

In this episode of the Tea Time Podcast, Sharissa Bradley continues the Journey Back to Health series by working through Chapter Three, Wired This Way. This chapter explores how the brain is designed to follow familiar pathways and why changing habits requires so much mental energy, patience, and grace.

Sharissa explains how repeated behaviors become automatic, using everyday examples like driving home without remembering the trip. She reflects on how long-standing patterns around food — formed in early childhood — are not easily changed because the brain naturally seeks the fastest, least energy-intensive route.

The episode includes a powerful illustration using rat maze research to show how new habits light up the brain and require significant effort, while repeated behaviors become more efficient over time. Sharissa connects this science to her own current healing work, including rebuilding consistent eating habits and navigating the mental exhaustion that comes with change.

She encourages listeners to recognize that exhaustion, headaches, and the need for more rest can be normal when building new habits. The episode closes with Chapter Three action steps, inviting listeners to track daily routines, identify where space exists for change, and practice grace while laying the foundation for healthier patterns.

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Welcome & Chapter 3 introduction
• 01:00 – Habitual brain pathways explained
• 02:00 – Grace with long-standing patterns
• 02:40 – Brain hemispheres & internal conflict
• 03:00 – Rat maze research & habit formation
• 04:30 – Mental energy required for new habits
• 05:40 – Personal healing goals & exhaustion
• 07:00 – Going against old pathways
• 08:00 – Current healing update
• 09:00 – Chapter 3 action steps
• 11:00 – Tracking routines & finding space
• 13:00 – Boundaries, priorities & grace
• 14:30 – Closing & next chapter preview

Links & Resources

• Download the Journey Back to Health Workbook (free): https://sharissabradley.com/extras
• Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/
• Follow along on instagram: @sharissabradley_author

In this episode of the Tea Time Podcast, Sharissa Bradley continues the Journey Back to Health series by working through Chapter Two: Beliefs. This chapter focuses on the thoughts, attitudes, and belief systems that shape our ability to heal — and how early experiences can quietly influence our relationship with food, care, and worthiness.

Sharissa shares vulnerably about her ongoing struggle with nausea, eating consistently, and the emotional weight tied to food. She recounts a recent experience trying to eat peanut butter toast and how that moment revealed deeper beliefs about shame, pressure, and self-worth.

Revisiting the time when she was healing from autoimmune disease, Sharissa reflects on how mindset work — particularly with coach Tonya Rineer — helped her recognize the damaging beliefs she carried about her body. She explains how language like "my body is trying to kill me" reinforced fear and despair, and how shifting those beliefs became essential to healing.

The episode also explores childhood poverty, food insecurity, and the impact of unmet basic needs through the lens of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Sharissa connects these early experiences to present-day challenges around nourishment, care, and self-compassion.

This episode invites listeners to gently examine their own beliefs, worthiness, and the stories they may still be carrying — and to begin releasing what no longer serves them.

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Welcome & continuing the series
• 01:00 – Struggles with food and self-judgment
• 02:30 – Peanut butter toast & vulnerability
• 03:30 – Grace and meeting yourself where you are
• 04:00 – Healing autoimmune disease & mindset work
• 05:00 – "My body is trying to kill me"
• 06:00 – Reframing worthiness and beliefs
• 07:00 – Childhood poverty & unmet needs
• 09:00 – Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
• 10:30 – Relearning worthiness as an adult
• 12:00 – Examining beliefs and releasing old stories
• 13:30 – Encouragement & closing

Links & Resources

• Download the Journey Back to Health Workbook (free): https://sharissabradley.com/extras
• Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/

In this episode of the Tea Time Podcast, Sharissa Bradley officially begins the Journey Back to Health series by working through Chapter One of her book. This episode marks the start of a weekly practice where Sharissa uses her own book as a tool to support her current healing journey — particularly around disordered eating, rebuilding hunger cues, and caring for her body as she enters perimenopause.

Sharissa reflects on rereading her book for the first time in years and noticing how far she has come since healing from autoimmune disease. She shares how revisiting her earlier symptoms gives her perspective, gratitude, and hope — not just for herself, but for anyone currently struggling with health challenges.

Chapter One focuses on changing perspective. Sharissa discusses how beliefs formed early in life, family health narratives, and learned responses to illness shape how we treat our bodies. She reads a quote by Viktor Frankl and explains how the space between stimulus and response offers an opportunity to choose differently and begin healing.

The episode closes with the Chapter One action steps and an invitation to work through the book together using the free workbook and community space.

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Welcome & beginning the series
• 01:00 – Why this journey matters now
• 02:30 – Rereading the book with fresh perspective
• 04:00 – Reflecting on healing from autoimmune disease
• 05:30 – Hope for those currently struggling
• 07:00 – Personal history and the beginning of the book
• 08:00 – Chapter One: Changing perspective
• 08:30 – Viktor Frankl quote and choice
• 10:00 – Listening to the body and rebuilding intuition
• 11:30 – Action steps for Chapter One
• 14:00 – Invitation to community & closing

Links & Resources

• Download the Journey Back to Health Workbook (free): https://sharissabradley.com/extras
• Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/
• Watch on youtube: https://youtu.be/eLb1EOrdMQc

Welcome back to the Tea Time Podcast. After a long hiatus, Sharissa Bradley returns to share where she's been, why the podcast is coming back now, and what's next. This episode introduces a new series centered around revisiting Journey Back to Health — not as a finished story, but as a living process.

Sharissa opens up about experiencing months of severe nausea, weight loss, muscle decline, and brain fog, and how these symptoms led her to confront long-standing patterns of disordered eating rooted in childhood poverty and food insecurity. Through journaling and reflection, she realized her body had been trained to survive on adrenaline instead of hunger cues.

This series will follow Sharissa as she works through each chapter of her book in real time — not as medical advice, but as shared experience. Each week, she'll revisit one chapter and apply it to her current healing journey, inviting listeners to do the same alongside her.

You can participate completely for free by listening to the book-reading episodes from earlier seasons and downloading the workbook.

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Welcome back & returning to the podcast
• 01:00 – Why the podcast paused & authenticity
• 02:00 – Health symptoms and ongoing nausea
• 04:00 – Weight loss, muscle decline, and brain fog
• 06:00 – Childhood poverty and food insecurity
• 08:00 – Disordered eating and loss of hunger cues
• 09:30 – Understanding adrenaline vs. calorie-driven energy
• 10:30 – Revisiting Journey Back to Health as a program
• 12:00 – How the weekly chapter series will work
• 13:00 – Joining the community and working the workbook
• 15:00 – Gratitude and what's ahead

Links & Resources

• Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/
• Download the Journey Back to Health Workbook (free): https://sharissabradley.com/extras
• Connect on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sharissabradley.author/
• Watch this on youtube: https://youtu.be/ZOSgJAp5c0w
• Listen to the book for free: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvNF2YYAhvtPUrPCeIyNIqyMTv6dF96r9

Abraham Maslow created the structure of the heirarchy of needs. The topic of this episode is the base of Maslow's pyramid: meeting physiological needs. I give my take on what it means to meet those needs and how I believe this is the way to turn things around!

Welcome to another episode of the Messy Middle series. This episode features my husband Jon and what he believes constitutes the messy middle. I think you will suprised by his definition. The messy middle is an analogy derived from the part of the caterpillar journey where everything turns into mush. I believe it is important to honor the middle phase. Especially now when before and after's are so popular but no one really gets the opportunity to showcase the part where everything is in the mess...or what I like to call the "messy middle". Thank you for being here. Thank you for taking the time to listen.

If you want to know more about me please check out my website. I am most active on my instagram channel.

https://www.instagram.com/sharissabradley.author/

https://sharissabradley.com/