In this week’s episode, Kaylin brings you along for what it looks like to have high-functioning depression. It often doesn’t look like “traditional” depression, as it’s easier to hide the symptoms underneath a curated mask. Those who truly know you may know you’re depressed, but not everyone will pick up on it. Kaylin talks about how 3 p.m. has been a recent witching hour for panic attacks, what depression looks like for her, and what typically helps her during these challenging times. Although she isn’t through her current depressive episode, it’s still important to shed light on the behind-the-scenes thoughts and emotions underneath glowing achievements and highlight reels. Even when your resolve and purpose are shaken, here’s to better days ahead.

Send us a question, topic suggestion, or another message here: ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wholeheartedly⁠  and email ⁠[email protected]⁠. 

Follow us:

💌 @thewholeheartedlypodcast on Instagram

💌 ⁠www.tiktok.com/@thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.facebook.com/thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.wholeheartedlypodcast.com⁠

💌 ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten

⁠

Resources:

• Definition and Symptoms: High-Functioning Depression

• The “Shadow Self” or Jungian Shadow

• Panic Attack Symptoms 

• My Etsy Store

• To The Journey Substack Newsletter and Magazine

*Please Note: Kaylin is a media psychology professional and mental health advocate (and does professionally communicate for a living!).

Support this show on Patreon! We appreciate your support as we build this community of fellow emotional sponges and supporters! We’re all in this together. :) ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten⁠ 

Copyright Ⓒ MMXXV Hourglass Media

In this week’s episode, we discuss something everyone must deal with in their everyday lives: rejection. Kaylin details her rejection journey and narratives toward self-acceptance, from a childhood fixation on being everyone’s favorite to current ruminative conjurings and how to fill past and present voids. Rejection and the loss of an assumptive world could find their way into job searches, being passed up for a promotion, relationships with others, writing projects, and more. (And don’t even mention “K” texts and how they lead to downward spirals!) She talks about how rejection makes her feel and what she does to mitigate the effects when rejection is seemingly hard to bear. What you do with the rejection matters, especially when your ego wants to go in a different direction. The silver linings of rejection, just like most situations and roadblocks, can be used for deeper reflection and healing of your inner child and other parts of yourself.

Send us a question, topic suggestion, or another message here: ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wholeheartedly⁠  and email ⁠[email protected]⁠. 

Follow us:

💌 @thewholeheartedlypodcast on Instagram

💌 ⁠www.tiktok.com/@thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.facebook.com/thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.wholeheartedlypodcast.com⁠

💌 ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten

Resources:

• Article: 9 Struggles Only Highly Sensitive People Will Understand 

• Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria

• Kate Mulgew’s Born with Teeth

• Kate Mulgrew Video: Born with Teeth Book Tour (When I Saw Her in Philadelphia) 

• Article: Why It’s So Hard for HSPs to Let Go

*Please Note: Kaylin is an aspiring mental health/media psychology professional and advocate (and does professionally communicate for a living!).

Support this show on Patreon! We appreciate your support as we build this community of fellow emotional sponges and supporters! We’re all in this together. :) ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten⁠ 

Copyright Ⓒ MMXXV Hourglass Media

This episode relates to Kaylin’s Master’s thesis/Capstone work, which centers on “Playing the Self: How Narrative RPGs Foster Identification and Transformation for Highly Sensitive People.” By applying the updated HSP-R Scale, we discuss the eudaimonic benefits of narrative Role Playing Games (RPGs) for HSPs. Storytelling, the element of choice, parasocial relationships, identification, transportation, and other topics are fair game! Of course, we will mix in some theories and models, but the heart of this episode is Kaylin’s love of video games, especially “Skyrim” and “The Witcher 3.” The two games mean so much to her and so many others. This work aims to continue reducing stigmas for sensitivity and video games by showing HSPs how they can reconcile the parts of themselves. Video games have been integral to Kaylin’s life, from conversation starters to mental health interventions. Narrative RPGs (and other narrative forms) have such intrinsic value for HSPs – and everyone!    

*And just in case, there are game spoilers in this episode, so steer clear if you haven’t played both games and want to!

Send us a question, topic suggestion, or another message here: ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wholeheartedly⁠  and email ⁠[email protected]⁠. 

Follow us:

💌 @thewholeheartedlypodcast on Instagram

💌 ⁠www.tiktok.com/@thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.facebook.com/thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.wholeheartedlypodcast.com⁠

💌 ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten

Resources:

• My HSP Narrative RPG Website 

• My Research Gate Profile 

• My ORCID Profile 

• Download the first few pages of my paper on Figshare

• HSP-R Scale

*Please Note: Kaylin is an aspiring mental health/media psychology professional and advocate (and does professionally communicate for a living!).

Support this show on Patreon! We appreciate your support as we build this community of fellow emotional sponges and supporters! We’re all in this together. :) ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten⁠ 

Copyright Ⓒ MMXXV Hourglass Media

Happy 10 Years, Hourglass Media! 🎉 Having a company is not for the faint of heart. Kaylin reflects on what Hourglass Media has meant to her for the past decade, from failures to successes and everything in between. Her musings include the company’s beginnings in her childhood bedroom to the present-day blank slate. So many moments, relationships, projects, and writings have culminated in 10 years of highlight reels. On the opposite end, Kaylin also talks about the “shadow” side of owning a business, from depressive episodes, letdowns, client red flags, and more. Although Hourglass Media looks different than her vision in 2015, at the end of the day, it is a business Kaylin is proud to call her most authentic professional love.

Send us a question, topic suggestion, or another message here: ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wholeheartedly⁠  and email ⁠[email protected]⁠. 

Follow us:

💌 @thewholeheartedlypodcast on Instagram

💌 ⁠www.tiktok.com/@thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.facebook.com/thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.wholeheartedlypodcast.com⁠

💌 ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten

⁠

 Resources:

• Variant EP29. Covers

• Hourglass Media’s Website

• More About Hourglass Media - Archival

• Blog Post: Seven Lessons I’ve Learned From Seven Years of Hourglass Media

• Blog Post: It’s Time for a New Beginning

• Op-Ed: Fighting Mental Health Stigma Takes Everyone

• Healing Your Heart Prompted Journal

• From Granny’s Kitchen

• Hourglass Media on Instagram 

• My Substack - To The Journey 

*Please Note: Kaylin is an aspiring mental health/media psychology professional and advocate (and does professionally communicate for a living!).

Support this show on Patreon! We appreciate your support as we build this community of fellow emotional sponges and supporters! We’re all in this together. :) ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten⁠ 

Copyright Ⓒ MMXXV Hourglass Media

You’ve likely heard that everyone has a shadow self, and you may have even heard about the dark triad of personality and temperament. In this episode, Kaylin reveals the “dark triad” of high sensitivity: perfectionism, workaholism, and overwhelm. This work stems from a grad school paper and her own experiences. The three aspects tend to correlate to an obsession with time and energy – at least in her everyday landscape. We discuss the shadow side of being an HSP, from melancholia and being a control freak to impostor syndrome and obsessive, rigid tendencies. Some of us tend to keep a full plate, too.  

Send us a question, topic suggestion, or another message here: ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wholeheartedly⁠  and email ⁠[email protected]⁠. 

Follow us:

💌 @thewholeheartedlypodcast on Instagram

💌 ⁠www.tiktok.com/@thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.facebook.com/thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.wholeheartedlypodcast.com⁠

💌 ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten

⁠

 Resources:

• The Dark Triad 

• HSP-R Scale 

• Scholarly Journal: The Clinical Implications of Jung’s Concept of Sensitiveness - Dr. Elaine Aron

• EP27. Sensitivity Shift: What Bothers Me Now That Didn’t Before

• HSPs and Burnout in High-Stimulating Environments: Bakker, A. B., & Macher, V. (2020). How job demands and resources predict burnout and engagement in highly sensitive persons. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 25(2), 179–190. 

• My Substack - To The Journey 

*Please Note: Kaylin is an aspiring mental health/media psychology professional and advocate (and does professionally communicate for a living!).

Support this show on Patreon! We appreciate your support as we build this community of fellow emotional sponges and supporters! We’re all in this together. :) ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten⁠ 

Copyright Ⓒ MMXXV Hourglass Media

In this week’s episode, Kaylin talks about things that no longer resonate with her, from the true crime genre and many facets of social media and large crowds to many aspects of life in between. Your 20s and 30s are truly formative as we continue to uncover more of who we are so we can lead a more authentic life. We move and change across the lifespan, and it can be jarring to not like something as much anymore or to develop a deeper sensitivity to something — especially as an HSP! 

Send us a question, topic suggestion, or another message here:⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wholeheartedly⁠  and email ⁠[email protected]⁠. 

Follow us:

💌 @thewholeheartedlypodcast on Instagram

💌⁠www.tiktok.com/@thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌⁠www.facebook.com/thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌⁠www.wholeheartedlypodcast.com⁠

💌⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten

⁠

Resources:

• Be Our Guest in 2025 

• Scholarly Article: What Changes/What Remains the Same in Entertainment Experience Over the Life Span

• Gabby Petito Foundation

• Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development

• Skyrim 25/5 Pomodoro Video

• Wholeheartedly EP20. Neglecting Rest and the Dismay of an Imbalanced Life

• My Threads Account

  
  

*Please Note: Kaylin is an aspiring mental health/media psychology professional and advocate (and does professionally communicate for a living!).

Support this show on Patreon! We appreciate your support as we build this community of fellow emotional sponges and supporters! We’re all in this together. :) ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten⁠ 

Copyright Ⓒ MMXXV Hourglass Media

If you’re an HSP, have you ever felt like something is wrong with you? Or that you have to overly explain your temperament trait? In this week’s episode, Kaylin revisits what it means to be an HSP with the sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) gene. She tackles three common misconceptions that HSPs can face in everyday life and across the lifespan. Some can be frustrating. Some can be liberating. More than 20% of individuals across the world are HSPs, so raising awareness is the first step! 

Send us a question, topic suggestion, or another message here: ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wholeheartedly⁠  and email ⁠[email protected]⁠. 

Follow us:

💌 @thewholeheartedlypodcast on Instagram

💌 ⁠www.tiktok.com/@thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.facebook.com/thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.wholeheartedlypodcast.com⁠

💌 ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten

⁠

Resources:

• Be Our Guest in 2025 

• The Updated HSP-R Scale

• The Self and Self Discrepancy Theory

• My Threads Account

*Please Note: Kaylin is an aspiring mental health/media psychology professional and advocate (and does professionally communicate for a living!).

Support this show on Patreon! We appreciate your support as we build this community of fellow emotional sponges and supporters! We’re all in this together. :) ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten⁠ 

Copyright Ⓒ MMXXV Hourglass Media

The start of another new year often prompts reflection. Sometimes, new years bring changes we knew we needed but were afraid to pursue. In this episode, Kaylin talks about how her reflections over the past year led to a more profound awakening and understanding of how to remain true to her authentic, actual self. It also led to a 2025 Word of the Year, “Homecoming.” This episode delves into some of the reflective paths she took while at several crossroads, from learning that it’s OK when your career path shifts and choosing not to chronically people please to walking away from hustle culture and taking accountability for your feelings and actions. Most importantly, she discusses how these revelations can lead you toward the reconciliation of your selves, acceptance, and self-love. Sometimes, you just need to make a change. Stay tuned for episodes every other Friday – starting now. It’s great to be back! 

This week's artwork was used with permission from Kaylin's son. ❤️

Correction: Kaylin’s Word of the Year was Reawakening in 2024 and not Reconnection. That was 2023. :) 

Send us a question, topic suggestion, or another message here: ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wholeheartedly⁠  and email ⁠[email protected]⁠. 

Follow us:

💌 @thewholeheartedlypodcast on Instagram

💌 ⁠www.tiktok.com/@thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.facebook.com/thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.wholeheartedlypodcast.com⁠

💌 ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten

⁠

Resources:

Be Our Guest in 2025 

Fortune Article: Millennials’ Middle Management Burnout 

PRSA ECD Mental Health Toolkit

Graphic - I Carry All My Past Selves with Me

My Threads Account

*Please Note: Kaylin is an aspiring mental health/media psychology professional and advocate (and does professionally communicate for a living!).

Support this show on Patreon! We appreciate your support as we build this community of fellow emotional sponges and supporters! We’re all in this together. :) ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten⁠ 

Copyright Ⓒ MMXXV Hourglass Media

Welcome back to Wholeheartedly! Although it has been a while since our last episode, Kaylin turned on the mic for an episode she didn’t expect to record. At the end of July, she lost her 8 ½-year-old cat, Ilia Garnet. It’s never easy to lose a beloved pet, and as a Highly Sensitive Person/empath, it can be exceedingly difficult and heart-wrenching to experience every emotion during something like this. Kaylin talks about Ilia’s story, pet grief, grief theories, ways to cope, and more. Grief is not linear, and it affects us all.

This episode is dedicated to Ilia Garnet Staten, the best soulmate cat a girl could ever ask for. Thank you, Ilia, for spending your precious life with us and being such a good kitten. I’ll love you forever, Beanie Baby. ❤️

Send us a question, topic suggestion, or another message here: ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wholeheartedly⁠  and email ⁠[email protected]⁠. 

Follow us:

💌 @thewholeheartedlypodcast on Instagram

💌 ⁠www.tiktok.com/@thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.facebook.com/thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.wholeheartedlypodcast.com⁠

💌 ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten

Resources:

• Be Our Guest in 2024 

• Studies Mentioned in the Episode 

• Model/Theory: Kubler-Ross Model of Grief

• Article: Why Pet Loss is Especially Hard for Introverts and HSPs

• Journal #1 and Journal #2

• Poem: Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay”

• My Threads Account

*Please Note: Kaylin is an aspiring mental health/media psychology professional and advocate (and does professionally communicate for a living!).

Support this show on Patreon! We appreciate your support as we build this community of fellow emotional sponges and supporters! We’re all in this together. :) ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten⁠ 

Copyright Ⓒ MMXXIV Hourglass Media

Dealing with toxicity can be an uphill battle for Highly Sensitive People or anyone who identifies as an empath. In this week’s episode, Kaylin defines toxicity in both individuals and situations, which can allow “toxic empathy” to work overtime. She also gives an example of a toxic work environment from the very beginning of her career and tips that help her navigate toxicity. Although this subject can be viewed as negative in many regards, you can always learn more about yourself and how you respond to the chaos surrounding you. 

Send us a question, topic suggestion, or another message here: ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wholeheartedly⁠  and email ⁠[email protected]⁠. 

Follow us:

💌 @thewholeheartedlypodcast on Instagram

💌 ⁠www.tiktok.com/@thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.facebook.com/thewholeheartedlypodcast⁠ 

💌 ⁠www.wholeheartedlypodcast.com⁠

💌 ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten

⁠Resources:

• Be Our Guest in 2024 

• Toxic Empathy

• Dealing with Toxic People When You’re Highly Sensitive

• Book: The Highly Sensitive Person's Guide to Dealing with Toxic People: How to Reclaim Your Power from Narcissists and Other Manipulators

• Study: Narcissistic and psychopathic traits in romantic partners predict post-traumatic stress disorder symptomology: Evidence for unique impact in a large sample

*Please Note: Kaylin is an aspiring mental health/media psychology professional and advocate (and does professionally communicate for a living!).

Support this show on Patreon! We appreciate your support as we build this community of fellow emotional sponges and supporters! We’re all in this together. :) ⁠https://www.patreon.com/kaylinstaten⁠ 

Copyright Ⓒ MMXXIV Hourglass Media