This Is It! by Thriving Yinzers

One moment Dr. Cindy Zurchin is a high school senior with plans for graduation. The next, her car explodes and she’s burning on the side of the road. Cindy’s story is intense, but what stays with us is what she builds after: a life devoted to resilience, leadership, and helping other people make it through change with courage and a plan.

We talk about her new book, Made of More, and why she reshaped it into a practical toolkit instead of a pure memoir. Cindy shares step-by-step resilience strategies, reframing techniques, and the mindset shifts that help when your brain wants to spiral. We also go into workplace resilience in a very real way: toxic leadership, fear, retaliation, and what it costs to keep showing up. Cindy explains the difference between “toughness” and resilience, and why resilience means telling the truth, asking questions, pulling in support, and staying true to your values.

Then we zoom out to the everyday places resilience is trained. Cindy’s dance studio becomes a surprisingly powerful model for growth, persistence, and dropping ego. We also dig into parenting resilient kids, compassionate accountability, and why we don’t compare pain. Your hard thing counts, whether it’s trauma, burnout, or just a brutal Tuesday.

If you want resilience skills you can use immediately at work, at home, and in your own head, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with someone who could use a boost, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Connect with Dr. Cindy Zurchin at her website and find her book, Made of More here.  

Let us know how we are doing.

Support the show

You can help support the podcast while doing something good for YOU! Shop our TY Toolkit for practical tools, books, and organizing essentials to help you manage life with more ease and intention.

Rate, Review, and Share the podcast with your friends and family. Shop our TY Toolkit at thrivingyinzers.com for books & resources mentioned on the podcast to keep you inspired. When you shop Amazon through our Associate Link, we receive a small commission for your purchase which helps support the podcast even if you buy outside of our Amazon Storefront.   Sign up for email updates and special offers at thrivingyinzers.com/podcast.

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• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988
• https://988lifeline.org

Bounce back. Push through. Get back to where you were. We've all heard it. 

Sherry spent years trying to do exactly that, and it nearly cost her everything. This week she tells parts of her story for new listeners — the facial nerve pain she taught through, the drive home where she cried every day, the "no big deal" black finger she ignored until she'd finished her errands, and the strokes that finally made the decision she couldn't make for herself.

But this isn't an episode about the fall. It's about what she found on the other side of it, at the bottom of a laundry basket.

In this episode:

• The parable of the carrot, the egg, and the coffee bean — and why the bean never goes back to being a bean
• Why "at least it wasn't worse" closes a door, even when we mean it kindly
• What it costs to be tough about the wrong thing
• The part most comeback stories leave out: what Sherry had underneath her when she fell
• When resilience means stopping — and how to tell resting from quitting
• Why your best isn't the same every day
• A message for young people who are tired

Next time: Dr. Cindy Zurchin joins us — she's the proof of everything we talked about today, and she figured out how to teach it.

Follow so you don't miss the next one. And if somebody came to mind while you were listening — send it to them.

The TY Toolkit and our Amazon storefront are at thrivingyinzers.com. Shopping through our Amazon link helps keep the show going.

This podcast is informational and inspirational, not a substitute for professional advice. We are not licensed therapists or medical professionals, and what we share comes from personal experience only. If you or someone you love is struggling, please reach out to someone trained to help. If you're in crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7.

Let us know how we are doing.

Support the show

You can help support the podcast while doing something good for YOU! Shop our TY Toolkit for practical tools, books, and organizing essentials to help you manage life with more ease and intention.

Rate, Review, and Share the podcast with your friends and family. Shop our TY Toolkit at thrivingyinzers.com for books & resources mentioned on the podcast to keep you inspired. When you shop Amazon through our Associate Link, we receive a small commission for your purchase which helps support the podcast even if you buy outside of our Amazon Storefront.   Sign up for email updates and special offers at thrivingyinzers.com/podcast.

Follow “This is It! The Podcast by Thriving Yinzers” on Facebook or Instagram @typghpod

• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988
• https://988lifeline.org

Nobody's building a listening team. There's no coach, no tournament, no scholarship for it: just a whole lot of people trained to win and nobody trained to understand. In this episode we get into the difference between listening and listening to understand, why holding your convictions and hearing somebody out aren't opposites, and what it costs all of us when people stop expecting anybody to hear them.

We also talk about what's coming at you all day long, and why the stuff that makes you mad in two seconds probably wasn't built to inform you.

In this episode:

• Why we train kids to argue and never train them to listen
• Old wiring, thought ruts, and why judgment is usually about the person doing the judging
• Two numbers: 85 years of Harvard research on happiness, and what weak connection does to your body
• Alone vs. lonely: they're not the same thing
• Listening with discernment, and getting duped on purpose
• The three-people-a-day practice
• What to actually do on Tuesday morning

Mentioned in this episode:

• Harvard Study of Adult Development — adultdevelopmentstudy.org
  The 85-year happiness study Sherry mentions. Directed by Dr. Robert Waldinger, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. His TED Talk, "What makes a good life?", covers the findings. His book with Marc Schulz, The Good Life (2023), goes deeper.
• YouTurn Health / Rich Jones 
• Lori Karsch 
• Matt Plutko 
• Meetup — meetup.com

If you're struggling:

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. Free, 24/7, and it's not just for suicide — people reach out about loneliness, stress, grief, relationship troubles, or just needing somebody to talk to.

resolve Crisis Services (Allegheny County) — 1-888-796-8226 (1-888-7-YOU-CAN). Free to all Allegheny County residents regardless of ability to pay, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Peer Support Warmline — 1-866-661-WARM (9276), noon to 10 p.m., seven days a week. For people who aren't in crisis but could use somebody to talk to who's been there.

Highmark Caring Place — highmarkcaringplace.com. Peer support for grieving children, teens, and their families, at no charge, no insurance needed.

Support the show:
Hit follow so you don't miss the next one, and if somebody came to mind while you were listening, send it to them.

Shopping through our Amazon storefront or the TY Toolkit costs you nothing extra and helps us keep going. 

Find us: thrivingyinzers.com | Instagram @typghpod 

Let us know how we are doing.

Support the show

You can help support the podcast while doing something good for YOU! Shop our TY Toolkit for practical tools, books, and organizing essentials to help you manage life with more ease and intention.

Rate, Review, and Share the podcast with your friends and family. Shop our TY Toolkit at thrivingyinzers.com for books & resources mentioned on the podcast to keep you inspired. When you shop Amazon through our Associate Link, we receive a small commission for your purchase which helps support the podcast even if you buy outside of our Amazon Storefront.   Sign up for email updates and special offers at thrivingyinzers.com/podcast.

Follow “This is It! The Podcast by Thriving Yinzers” on Facebook or Instagram @typghpod

• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988
• https://988lifeline.org

A note before you listen...

This episode includes frank discussion of substance use, overdose, and family loss, and contains explicit language.

We often think the opposite of addiction is sobriety. Rich Jones makes the case that it's connection.

Rich grew up in Ligonier, about an hour east of Pittsburgh. A car accident in 1999 sent him home from an emergency room with 120 Darvocet, and within eighteen months he was in a rehab. He's been in recovery ever since; twenty-six years, and he built a career out of what he learned there.

Today he's co-founder and chief clinical officer of Youturn Health and founder of BuildWell Health, where the people answering the phone aren't strangers. They're people who've been there.

In this conversation, Rich talks about the enormous group of people who fall between doing nothing and going to treatment, and why the system consistently misses them. He explains why "wait for them to hit bottom" was never sound advice. He walks us through what peer support is, how families get trained as recovery coaches, and why he thinks boundary setting and stress management are the two things family recovery actually comes down to.

We also get into the parts that hit close to home for us; the phone calls that go nowhere, the treatment windows that close before you can reach them, and what watching someone you love in active addiction does to your own body.

This one is heavy. It's also, we think, one of the most hopeful conversations we've had.

About Rich Jones

Rich Jones is a licensed clinical substance use specialist with more than 40,000 coaching hours. He holds an undergraduate degree in business management from Saint Vincent College, a graduate degree in sociology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA. He began his career at UPMC Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, later spent twelve years in Greenville, South Carolina building peer support and recovery coaching programs, and was one of the earliest founders of a recovery community organization in the United States. He serves on the board of Sage's Army.

Connect with Rich

Email: [email protected] — the address Rich gave on air. He offered it to anyone who wants more information about peer support certification, particularly listeners outside Pennsylvania.

Youturn Health: youturnhealth.com Co-founded by Rich Jones (Chief Clinical Officer)and Hamilton Baiden, who serves as Chief Executive Officer. Peer-based behavioral health and substance use support delivered primarily through telehealth, with flexible scheduling built around the person rather than the program. Youturn serves individuals and family members, with dedicated family coaches and a weekly family group.

BuildWell Health: buildwellhealth.com Founded by Rich to reach construction and blue-collar workers, who historically have not accessed traditional behavioral health services. BuildWell operates mental health clinics on site at job sites.

Resources mentioned in this episode

Sage's Army: sagesarmy.com A 501(c)(3) recovery community organization based in Westmoreland County, with locations in Greensburg and Irwin. Founded in 2012 by Carmen Capozzi after the overdose death of his twenty-year-old son, Sage. Sage's Army provides education, advocacy, and direct services including outreach, and employs Certified Recovery Specialists and Certified Family Recovery Specialists.

Pennsylvania Certification Board: pacertboard.org Where to start if you're in Pennsylvania and want to become a Certified Recovery Specialist. Rich describes the pathway accurately: a course, supervised hours, certification, and recertification every two years. If you're outside Pennsylvania, Rich has offered to help point you in the right direction — his email is above.

Resolve Crisis Services (Allegheny County): 1-888-796-8226 Free, 24/7 crisis support for Allegheny County residents, including mobile teams that come to you.

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988 Available 24/7 nationwide.

SMART Recovery:  smartrecovery.org One of several alternatives to twelve-step programs mentioned as a pathway worth trying.

AA, NA, and Al-Anon We want to be clear about something we said on air: those rooms save lives. If a twelve-step program is working for you, stay in it. Our point in this episode is that it shouldn't be the only door anybody ever shows you.

Here's where a few things in this episode come from, and where we'd add a caveat.

Rat Park. The experiments Rich refers to were conducted by Canadian psychologist Bruce Alexander and colleagues at Simon Fraser University in the late 1970s. The study used a morphine solution, not cocaine, and found that rats in an enriched, social environment consumed less than isolated rats. Worth knowing: the original study has never been successfully replicated, and researchers have raised methodological questions about it. A substantial body of later research on environmental enrichment has found that animals in fuller environments self-administer drugs at lower rates.

Vietnam and heroin. The research Rich points to comes from Lee Robins' longitudinal studies of returning US servicemen, published in the mid-1970s. Robins found that heroin use was widespread in country, and that the large majority of men who had been dependent overseas did not relapse after returning home, and most without any treatment at all. It remains one of the most striking findings in the addiction literature about the role of environment.

Los Angeles County Jail. Rich's framing reflects a widely reported reality: the Los Angeles County jail system, along with Cook County and Rikers Island, functions as one of the largest de facto mental health facilities in the United States.

Synanon.  Founded in California in 1958, Synanon was among the most prominent narcotics treatment programs of the 1960s and 70s before deteriorating into a cult.

Naloxone (Narcan). Naloxone displaces opioids from receptors and reverses an overdose. It is not enabling; it's a basic emergency medical response. One thing worth adding that we didn't cover on air: xylazine is not an opioid, so naloxone will not reverse it. Give naloxone anyway, since fentanyl is almost always present too, but the person may not fully wake up. Call 911, stay with them, and keep them on their side.

The 6% figure. Rich cites a statistic that only about six percent of people with a substance use disorder ever receive help. That figure reflects federal survey data from a few years back. The survey definitions have since changed, and more recent federal estimates put the share of people classified as needing substance use treatment who receive it closer to one in five. The underlying point, that most people who need help never get it, holds either way.

Positive psychology. Mentioned in passing as a source of stress management tools. We covered this ground more fully with Dr. Leslie B. Newman earlier this season.

Johann Hari. Rich mentions Hari's talk on connection and addiction, which is where a lot of people first encounter Rat Park. 

Also mentioned

• Darvocet (propoxyphene) — a prescription opioid painkiller, withdrawn from the US market in 2010
• IOP — intensive outpatient program
• Recovery community organization (RCO) — an independent 501(c)(3) governed by people in recovery and their family members
• Peer support / recovery coaching — support delivered by people with lived experience rather than clinical credentials alone

Support the show

We recently opened our Amazon storefront. If you shop Amazon through our link, it helps us keep going at no extra cost to you: a.co/d/09cGQmlj

Looking for something specific we talked about, or want to fill out your own life toolkit and tackle box? The TY Toolkit is at thrivingyinzers.com.

If this episode found you at the right moment, pass it on. That's how we grow.

This podcast is meant to be informational and inspirational, but it is not a substitute for professional advice. We are not licensed therapists or medical professionals, and what we share here comes from personal experience only. If you or someone you love is struggling, please reach out to someone trained to help. If you're in crisis, call or text 988.

Let us know how we are doing.

Support the show

You can help support the podcast while doing something good for YOU! Shop our TY Toolkit for practical tools, books, and organizing essentials to help you manage life with more ease and intention.

Rate, Review, and Share the podcast with your friends and family. Shop our TY Toolkit at thrivingyinzers.com for books & resources mentioned on the podcast to keep you inspired. When you shop Amazon through our Associate Link, we receive a small commission for your purchase which helps support the podcast even if you buy outside of our Amazon Storefront.   Sign up for email updates and special offers at thrivingyinzers.com/podcast.

Follow “This is It! The Podcast by Thriving Yinzers” on Facebook or Instagram @typghpod

• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988
• https://988lifeline.org

Self-compassion gets confused with self-care, self-pity, and self-indulgence,  and it's none of those. In this co-host episode, Sherry and Jodi pick up where their conversation with Lori Karsch left off and get into what self-compassion actually is: learning to treat yourself the way you'd treat a good friend, especially when things go wrong. 

They talk about people-pleasing and why constantly going along with everyone else quietly teaches your brain that what you want isn't right. They get into setting boundaries without turning them into punishment, the difference between protecting your capacity and building a fortress around your heart, and why punishing yourself doesn't get you where you're trying to go.

This is the thread running underneath everything Season 2 has covered so far: self-awareness, agency, emotional regulation, and growth mindset. 

None of it works if you're at war with yourself the whole time you're doing it!

IN THIS EPISODE

• Why people-pleasing leaves you off your own list, and what putting yourself back on it actually looks like
• The difference between taking care of yourself so you can show up, and calling it self-care when you're really just checking out
• Boundaries that protect your capacity vs. boundaries that are really punishment
• Why you can't punish yourself into becoming a better person (a lesson from 20+ years in the classroom)
• The two measuring sticks: endless patience for everyone else, but a wrecking ball for yourself
• What decluttering someone's home taught Sherry about decluttering her own heart
• How to show up for someone in pain without taking the moment away from them
• Why self-compassion is what makes real compassion possible

LINES WE KEEP COMING BACK TO

"Everyone in your life, they get some of your years. But you get all of them. You get every single minute." (From Lori Karsch)

"People-pleasing leaves you off of your own list. Putting up a boundary doesn't mean you're caring less about anyone. It's you finally being on the list of people that you care about."

"It's not that it made it hurt any less. It's that it left something of me standing for the people who were still here."

"Nobody changes because somebody made them feel small. People change when they feel like somebody's with them, including when that somebody is you."

"Just don't leave. Just be with them in it."

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

S2E8 with Lori Karsch: If you haven't heard it, start there. This episode picks up right where that conversation left off.

• Book: Torn Wide Open: What Ripped Me Apart Also Made Me Whole → https://amzn.to/3T5hdwa
• Website (free prologue download): lorikarsch.com
• Instagram (she posts daily): @loribkarsch
• Lori can also be found on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook.

Earlier Season 2 episodes on self-awareness, agency, emotional regulation, and growth mindset: the four themes this one runs underneath.

FROM THRIVING YINZERS

• Browse our favorites in our TY Toolkit Amazon storefront → https://amzn.to/4hefBKz
• Next episode: Connection, with Richard Jones of Youturn Health and BuildWell Health. Because getting in your own corner is where it starts — not where it stops.

As an Amazon Influencer, we earn from qualifying purchases. Links above may earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you.

A NOTE

This episode touches on childhood abuse, caretaking, and being hard on yourself in ways that can get heavy. If something in here brings up more than you expected, that's worth talking to someone about; a counselor, a doctor, or someone you trust. 

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 by call or text.

CONNECT WITH US

If this episode found you at the right moment, pass it on! That's how we grow.

Let us know how we are doing.

Support the show

You can help support the podcast while doing something good for YOU! Shop our TY Toolkit for practical tools, books, and organizing essentials to help you manage life with more ease and intention.

Rate, Review, and Share the podcast with your friends and family. Shop our TY Toolkit at thrivingyinzers.com for books & resources mentioned on the podcast to keep you inspired. When you shop Amazon through our Associate Link, we receive a small commission for your purchase which helps support the podcast even if you buy outside of our Amazon Storefront.   Sign up for email updates and special offers at thrivingyinzers.com/podcast.

Follow “This is It! The Podcast by Thriving Yinzers” on Facebook or Instagram @typghpod

• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988
• https://988lifeline.org

When Survival Mode Becomes Your Personality  with Lori Karsch, Author of Torn Wide Open

Lori Karsch was 27 when a rare brain condition took her mom; her safe place, and the only one she had. What came after was decades of survival mode so constant it started to feel like her personality: the people-pleasing, the hypervigilance, the little voice she kept shoving aside. Then she sat down to write her story for her daughters, and saw all of it for the first time.

In this conversation, Lori talks with Sherry and Jodi about what grief actually does to a life; how it lingers, reshapes the calendar, and how joy can make space beside it without betraying anyone. She shares the ladybug her family still finds in the most unlikely places, what it meant to stop handing out passes to people who didn't deserve them, and the one moment she ever felt connected to her dad. And she leaves listeners with the line we haven't stopped thinking about: the things you did to survive are not your identity. You're in there somewhere, and your best job is to find out where.

Because if you have yourself, you don't feel alone; you're the one you go through life with the whole time!

Connect with Lori:

• Book: Torn Wide Open: What Ripped Me Apart Also Made Me Whole → https://amzn.to/3T5hdwa
• Website (free prologue download): lorikarsch.com
• Instagram (she posts daily): @loribkarsch
• Lori can also be found on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook.

From Thriving Yinzers:

• Browse our favorites in our TY Toolkit Amazon storefront → https://amzn.to/4hefBKz
• Next episode: Sherry and Jodi's reflections on this conversation; what self-compassion looks like in our world.

As an Amazon Influencer, we earn from qualifying purchases. Links above may earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you.

If this episode found you at the right moment, pass it on! That's how we grow.

Let us know how we are doing.

Support the show

You can help support the podcast while doing something good for YOU! Shop our TY Toolkit for practical tools, books, and organizing essentials to help you manage life with more ease and intention.

Rate, Review, and Share the podcast with your friends and family. Shop our TY Toolkit at thrivingyinzers.com for books & resources mentioned on the podcast to keep you inspired. When you shop Amazon through our Associate Link, we receive a small commission for your purchase which helps support the podcast even if you buy outside of our Amazon Storefront.   Sign up for email updates and special offers at thrivingyinzers.com/podcast.

Follow “This is It! The Podcast by Thriving Yinzers” on Facebook or Instagram @typghpod

• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988
• https://988lifeline.org

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

We’re revisiting growth mindset and  the real question underneath it: do you still believe you’re becoming, or have you quietly stopped expecting more for yourself?

Sherry and Jodi talk through the difference between “I can’t” and “I can’t yet,” Michael Jordan walking away from basketball at the peak of his career, and how Fred Rogers turned a lonely, bullied childhood into a 33-year mission. This one ties together everything we’ve built this season: self-awareness, agency, emotional regulation, and now growth.

Growth mindset isn’t about being happy and pushing through with a smile. Growing is hard! There’s a reason they call them growing pains. But if you still have that whisper, even quietly buried underneath everything else that’s enough to start.

IN THIS EPISODE

•  Why growth starts to feel like it’s for other people and how to push back

•  The power of “not yet” and Carol Dweck’s research on growth mindset

•  The difference between not quitting and actually growing

•  What we can learn from Michael Jordan

•  Fred Rogers showed us the Pittsburgh way of becoming more 

•  Why responsibility removes the comfort of blame and why that’s freeing

•  What growth mindset looks like in relationships

•  The whisper: “I did not survive this just to exist”

•  Why backward moments don’t mean you can’t move forward

THIS SEASON ON THIS IS IT!

◄ Previous episode: Dr. Leslie B. Newman: Positive Psychology & Emotional Regulation  https://www.buzzsprout.com/2452136/episodes/19376676

► Coming up next: Lori Karsch on Self-Compassion  and Grief 

RESOURCES & REFERENCES

Carol Dweck:  Growth Mindset Research

The researcher behind the concept of growth mindset. Her work on “not yet” is referenced in this episode, and her book is linked in our TY Toolkit.

Fred Rogers:  Pittsburgh Legacy

Fred Rogers planned to be a minister before pivoting to television, collaborating with child psychologists at Pitt, and building one of the most beloved shows in television history for 33 years! He made mistakes in front of children on purpose because he wanted them to see it.

•  Fred Rogers Center

John Maxwell — Quote Referenced

“Ideas have a short shelf life and you have to act on them before the expiration date.”

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If this episode found you at the right moment, the best thing you can do is pass it on. That’s how we grow.

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Shop Amazon Through Our Link:

If you already shop on Amazon, just access it through our storefront link. You don’t have to buy a single thing from our store — it costs you nothing extra and it really helps us keep going.

•  Thriving Yinzers Amazon Storefront

TY Toolkit:

Looking for something specific we talked about on the show? Check the TY Toolkit for tools we actually recommend.

•  TY Toolkit at ThrivingYinzers.com

NEED SUPPORT?

This podcast is meant to be informational and inspirational, but it is not a substitute for professional advice. We are not licensed therapists or medical professionals, and what we share here comes from personal experience only.

If you or someone you love is struggling, please reach out to someone trained to help.

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline  —  Call or text 988, available 24/7

Resolve Crisis Services Pittsburgh  —  1-888-796-8226

Let us know how we are doing.

Support the show

You can help support the podcast while doing something good for YOU! Shop our TY Toolkit for practical tools, books, and organizing essentials to help you manage life with more ease and intention.

Rate, Review, and Share the podcast with your friends and family. Shop our TY Toolkit at thrivingyinzers.com for books & resources mentioned on the podcast to keep you inspired. When you shop Amazon through our Associate Link, we receive a small commission for your purchase which helps support the podcast even if you buy outside of our Amazon Storefront.   Sign up for email updates and special offers at thrivingyinzers.com/podcast.

Follow “This is It! The Podcast by Thriving Yinzers” on Facebook or Instagram @typghpod

• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988
• https://988lifeline.org

Ever feel like you’ve been “doing the work” for years and somehow still end up back in the same place, asking yourself what’s wrong with you? We’re pulling the plug on that idea with Dr. Leslie B. Newman, psychologist, author, and positive psychology expert, because growth isn’t a straight line and you’re not a project to be completed. We talk about what it looks like when progress comes in loops, not checklists, and why self-trust is often the real goal hiding underneath self-improvement. We get practical about mental health tools that work for real life. Dr. Newman breaks down why therapy is a matching process, how different therapy types can fit different people, and why curiosity beats shame when you’re trying to find support. We also share a simple emotional regulation approach she calls the “magic closet,” plus a powerful shower visualization for releasing what you’re holding and refilling yourself with something lighter when you’re tired, stretched thin, or on the edge of reacting. Then we go straight at the internet’s favorite trap: toxic positivity. Dr. Newman explains how real positive psychology doesn’t deny grief, anger, or exhaustion, it makes room for it, because the only way out is through. We also talk about how to show up for someone in pain without trying to say the perfect thing, and why presence can be the most supportive language.If you’re in a hard season, this one will meet you where you are and still help you find one next right step. 

🔗  Dr. Leslie B. Newman

drlesliebnewman.com

Follow Dr. Leslie on Facebook

📘  A Daily Dose of Happiness by Dr. Leslie B. Newman

Available at drlesliebnewman.com — and the audio version is available too, perfect for your walks.

Get the book → https://amzn.to/4vh38dg (paid link)

📖  From Kansas to Oz — Dr. Newman's next book

Completed and currently seeking literary representation. Stay close — it's coming.

🧠  Curious about the types of therapy mentioned?

Therapy is a matching process — there's something out there that fits you. Start by exploring:

drlesliebnewman.com — Dr. Newman's resources

Psychology Today Therapist Finder — search by therapy type near you

🔬  Carl Jung & the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Dr. Newman's Jungian therapist shaped her early growth. Jung also developed the framework behind the Myers-Briggs personality assessment.

Learn more at myersbriggs.org →

✨  Barbara Brennan School of Healing

Dr. Newman is a graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing — the energy healing framework she references throughout this conversation.

barbarabrennan.com →

CONNECT THE EPISODES

⬅️  Previous episode — S2E5

Don't Be a Jagoff — And Don't Let One Run Your Life

Emotional regulation, the stop sign, and what to do with all that energy before it runs you.

Listen now →

➡️  Coming up next

Sherry and Jodi take everything Dr. Newman gave us and bring it home. What does a growth mindset actually look like in real everyday life? The real version.

.FOLLOW

If this episode found you at the right moment — hit follow wherever you're listening and turn on your notifications so our next episode lands right in your feed the moment it drops.

And if it helped you — pass it on. That's how we grow.

🌐  thrivingyinzers.com

thrivingyinzers.com

Let us know how we are doing.

Support the show

You can help support the podcast while doing something good for YOU! Shop our TY Toolkit for practical tools, books, and organizing essentials to help you manage life with more ease and intention.

Rate, Review, and Share the podcast with your friends and family. Shop our TY Toolkit at thrivingyinzers.com for books & resources mentioned on the podcast to keep you inspired. When you shop Amazon through our Associate Link, we receive a small commission for your purchase which helps support the podcast even if you buy outside of our Amazon Storefront.   Sign up for email updates and special offers at thrivingyinzers.com/podcast.

Follow “This is It! The Podcast by Thriving Yinzers” on Facebook or Instagram @typghpod

• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988
• https://988lifeline.org

Emotional Regulation: Working With Your Emotions, Not Against Them

Somebody blows up, shuts down, or flips the story so fast you end up apologizing and wondering what just happened. We start there, but we don’t stay there, because the real leverage point is what we do with our own emotions first. We talk about emotional regulation as a learnable skill, why emotions are signals not threats, and how a small pause can keep a hard moment from becoming collateral damage.

Anger gets a special spotlight. We break down how anger can show up as lashing out, simmering bitterness, or something surprisingly useful: purposeful information. When you ask, “What is this actually telling me?” you often find a boundary that got crossed, a value that matters, or a change you’ve been avoiding. From there we get practical about communication, including why “you always” shuts people down and how “I need…” can lower the temperature without making you smaller.

Then we switch gears to the people who make it harder: emotionally immature coworkers, family members, partners, or friends who offload discomfort onto everyone around them. We share ways to stop feeding the fire, table conversations when the moment is not the moment, and set boundaries you can actually hold. We also zoom out to leadership and workplace culture, where mental health is increasingly treated as part of safety, performance, and retention, not a nice-to-have perk.

If any of this hits close to home, check the resources in the show notes, share this with someone and subscribe so you don’t miss what's next. 

Tools to Strengthen Emotional Regulation

• Headspace — Guided meditation, breathing exercises, and stress management https://www.headspace.com
• Calm — Meditation, sleep, and daily mindfulness https://www.calm.com
• Insight Timer — Free meditations and mindfulness tools https://insighttimer.com
• How We Feel — Free emotion tracking and journaling app built with psychologists     https://howwefeel.org

Finding a Therapist

• Psychology Today Therapist Finder — Pittsburgh — Search by insurance, specialty, and location
• https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/pa/pittsburgh

Local Pittsburgh Support

• NAMI Keystone Pennsylvania — Free peer support groups, education programs, and mental health resources for individuals and families across the Pittsburgh region   https://www.namikeystonepa.org
• Allegheny County Behavioral Health Resources — County-level support and referral directory  https://www.alleghenycounty.us/human-services/programs-services/behavioral-health

A NOTE TO CARRY WITH YOU

Start where you are. Do what you can. Notice the difference it makes. Every small choice compounds. You don't have to fix everything today — you just have to take the next small step.We're right here with you, learning, reflecting, and growing. This is it.       thrivingyinzers.com  |  Fill your life tackle box.

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You can help support the podcast while doing something good for YOU! Shop our TY Toolkit for practical tools, books, and organizing essentials to help you manage life with more ease and intention.

Rate, Review, and Share the podcast with your friends and family. Shop our TY Toolkit at thrivingyinzers.com for books & resources mentioned on the podcast to keep you inspired. When you shop Amazon through our Associate Link, we receive a small commission for your purchase which helps support the podcast even if you buy outside of our Amazon Storefront.   Sign up for email updates and special offers at thrivingyinzers.com/podcast.

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• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988
• https://988lifeline.org

A kid catches a fish and suddenly stands a little taller. That moment is why we wanted Phil Papa on the show. Phil is the founder of Fishburgh Outdoors, a Pittsburgh youth fishing program built to help families get outside, get off screens, and feel that rare mix of calm and lit up that happens near the water. What starts as a bluegill at a city pond becomes something bigger: confidence, patience, and a new story about who you can be. 

We get into the practical side of urban fishing for beginners, including why “catching” matters more than “waiting,” how small hooks and simple bait set kids up for success, and how Phil’s bamboo catching sticks solve the two things that ruin most first trips: tangles and boredom. Phil also shares the unforgettable “crappie kid” story, where one shy child lands a rare fish and leaves different than he arrived, then comes back ready to teach the next kid. 

We also zoom out to Pittsburgh’s waterways and conservation. Phil pushes back on the myth that the rivers are hopeless, talks about proper fish handling and catch and release, and explains why anglers are often the ones funding clean water through the Dingell-Johnson Act and fishing license dollars. Then we tackle the messy part: litter, public trust, and how stewardship gets passed forward one garbage bag at a time. If you feel pulled to help, Fishburgh needs people behind the scenes as much as it needs anglers. 

If this conversation hits home, subscribe so you do not miss what’s next, share it with someone who needs a healthy hobby, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show. What is the thing you reach for when life gets heavy?

Connect with Phillip Papa & Fishburgh Outdoors

Fishburgh hosts free fishing events the last Saturday of every month. No experience needed.

→  Website & Event Sign-Up: fishburgh.com

→  Follow on Social Media: @FishburghOutdoors

Check Fishburgh's social media for the latest events, locations, and everything happening on the water in Pittsburgh.

The Conservation Connection

In this episode Phil mentioned that part of every fishing equipment sale goes directly to conservation — he knew it was real but couldn't place the name. We found it.

•  The Dingell-Johnson Act (1950) — also known as the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act — collects excise taxes on fishing equipment and funnels 100% of those funds into fisheries conservation and restoration. It has been running for 75 years.

•  On top of that, 100% of every fishing license sold in this country goes to conservation. By law. Not some of it — all of it. Every cast is a contribution.

→  Learn More — Dingell-Johnson Act: https://www.fws.gov/service/sport-fish-restoration

Let us know how we are doing.

Support the show

You can help support the podcast while doing something good for YOU! Shop our TY Toolkit for practical tools, books, and organizing essentials to help you manage life with more ease and intention.

Rate, Review, and Share the podcast with your friends and family. Shop our TY Toolkit at thrivingyinzers.com for books & resources mentioned on the podcast to keep you inspired. When you shop Amazon through our Associate Link, we receive a small commission for your purchase which helps support the podcast even if you buy outside of our Amazon Storefront.   Sign up for email updates and special offers at thrivingyinzers.com/podcast.

Follow “This is It! The Podcast by Thriving Yinzers” on Facebook or Instagram @typghpod

• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988
• https://988lifeline.org