“Meditation is just noticing that your Mind TV is on.”

Sound simple? Maybe so … but it’s hard-earned, experiential wisdom by our guest,

executive coach & online content creator Toku McCree—who has studied meditation &

mindfulness practices from the inside out for decades, including as a practitioner at a

Buddhist monastery. You may be surprised to learn the striking similarities between

two-plus years of intentional living/monastic life with the bustling day-to-day existence of

airport travel. (We were!)

In our conversation with Toku, we also learn:

* The introspective observation he brings to modern-day dating (& the flip-side that the

“there are no good, single men” lament of the Sex in the City days meets when the

quintessential “good, single man” doesn’t need to be emotionally ‘fixed’)

* What it’s like to observe loneliness as a natural part of the human condition of

suffering … without actually wallowing in the suffering part of it

* Toku’s interesting other projects—from Substack collaborations to executive training

programs to online dating experiments—& how they intersect as one lens to life (that

any of us can adopt)

Listen & learn alongside host Kealah Parkinson about what Toku calls “the salamander

moment,” as well as ways any of us can bring the 360-degree experience of

contemplation though monastic living into everyday moments of mindfulness for the

average person.

|| Learn more about our guest on Substack or dating experiment website. (You’ll see

he’s happily in a relationship now!)

|| Meet our show SPONSORS: Coach Kiki & My Moody Daybook.

|| Want to speak with more confidence about whatever you love? Check out the

Confident Communicators Club by Coach Kiki at Skool.

There are 4 BIG LIES that are corrupting the world …

… according to our once-again-returning guest, mechanical-engineer-turned-Masters-in-

counseling-turned-coach Johanna Smith. She’s used her life experiences to help others. And

now she’s helping us to not just see the truth beyond the lies that she identifies in this episode,

but she’s also made some really cool merch to help us embody (literally) this new wisdom.

Hear Johanna share:

- How each of these 4 Big Lies is based in a maladaptive mindset that spans generations of U.S.

history

- Why connecting with emotion & empathy is often easier than we think—& why it doesn’t

even always require us to have lived another person’s same experience to empathize with each

other as humans

- The differences between confidence & arrogance (& Coach Kiki’s thoughts on the matter)

- A real truth bomb: “Human atrocities can be traced back to the notion of superiority.”

Jump to 08:00 to hear the real truth Johanna says are behind these Big Lies

(superiority/inferiority, entitlement, zero sum thinking & not bearing individual responsibility).

Then jump to 40:00 to hear her quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (& more!).

|| Read the article that inspired this all at Johanna Smith’s Substack. Learn more about

Harmonious Balance—& get the new merch!—at HarmoniousBalanceJS.com.

|| Meet our show SPONSORS: Coach Kiki & My Moody Daybook.

|| Want to speak with more confidence? Check out the Confident Communicators Club by

Coach Kiki at Skool.

Ever heard of “Oppositional Defiant Disorder?” This now-aged buzzword was the hallmark of

kid resistance in the classroom & the cause of many caregiving land mines — for parents &

teachers around the U.S., & particularly for today’s returning guest Amy Lakeberg. … But when

she started tucking into the hallmarks, she found a lot that resonated for her, internally.

Over the years, O.D.D. was re-named P.D.A. Amy shares with us the two different phrases this

acronym has abbreviated, as well as how these updated name changes mark movement from

the outside observer perspective of this diagnosis to the interior experience of living with it

every day.

In our conversation, we also:

* explore the intersection of PDA & the autism spectrum

* discuss how burnout relates to this diagnosis/behavior

* identify the myths surrounding empathy & PDA — such as its absence

* explain why curiosity & mindfulness led our guest Amy down the rabbit hole to learn & teach

all that she has on the subject … & why she feels she knows the subject from the inside out

Favorite quotes from the conversation:

“[PDA is] basically having a very sensitive nervous system.”

“[Ask yourself:] What does ‘safety’ mean to me?” (… especially if nervous system safety is

different from physical safety.)

“We need to stop punishing kids [for non-compliance].”

|| Learn more about Amy & even more about PDA at her Facebook community page, PDA Self-

Help — or visit & join the newly-launched neurodivergent social community, Brainvary Hub.

|| Hear our first conversation with Amy in Episode 603.

|| Meet our show SPONSORS: Coach Kiki & My Moody Daybook.

|| Want to speak with more confidence about whatever you love? Check out the Confident

Communicators Club by Coach Kiki at Skool.

Nearly 20 years ago, Edwina Cowell sat on the family room floor & answered The Big Questions (“What is heaven?”; “What is hell?”; “Why do people die?”; “What is love?”) with her 7-year old son & some of his friends with their mothers. It was a moment that was created consciously over time with forethought … & became a lasting legacy for grownups & children all over the globe. 

Spiritual Playdate curriculum was born from these real-life play dates. Officially launched in 2015 at the Parliament of World Religions, it now reaches & teaches people in many countries these mission-based life skills for kids & their grownups, ages 5–12. Topics span big topics—heaven & hell, living & dying, God—& smaller but just as important ones like gratitude, forgiveness, resilience … & are currently being translated into other languages.

In our conversation, Edwina shares:

* The deeper origins of this story & how to use the online/printable curriculum

* Why the Soul Talks frame all of the curriculum—& uses learning as discovery (via the Socratic Method)

* How to deepen (& truly change) the traditional talks on bullying

* Who is using this curriculum already (social workers, Sunday School teachers, homeschoolers, families & friends—as well as local volunteer educators to post-war refugees in parts of Africa)

Jump to 42:00 to hear Edwina’s take on the roots of social ills (& how Spiritual Playdate opens the conversation to disentangle those roots, so they don’t take hold). And find her profound statement: 

“We can never get to world peace until we get to personal peace.”

|| Learn more about MotherFounder Edwina Cowell & this social-spiritual-emotional learning tool at SpiritualPlaydate.com. 

|| SUPPORT OUR SHOW while supporting yourself: Visit our affiliate sites Big Life Journal & Generation Mindful to find products like journals, Calm Down Corner kits, lesson plans & posters & even parenting communities to help you #feelandheal with #moodtools … or visit our affiliate SensaCalm for weighted blankets & plushies—& lots of other sensory tools—for kids & grownups alike.

|| Meet our show SPONSORS: Coach Kiki & My Moody Daybook. 

|| Want to speak with more confidence? Check out the Confident Communicators Club by Coach Kiki at Skool.

“The most valuable hours I’ve ever worked in my life.”

That’s what Kristi Amendola, co-founder along with Eric Stanley of the MPower employment app (which can be found for free at the app store for both job-search candidates & employers) says this project has been for her. 

We first talked to Kristi back in 2024 (listen to that episode, too!) … when the world’s uncertainty coming out of the global pandemic was only more motivating to her and Eric Stanley. Together, through research, market/customer base data & technical application, they built a truly skills-based employment app to deliver hiring where workforce equity is at the core.

In this updated conversation, we learn:

* The 3 Pillars the app brings to users on either end of hiring (content, careers & community)

* The transparent tracking system that’s also built into the service

* How the 20% increase in the talent pool (drawing from lived & work experience) “opens the aperture” in Kristi’s words

* Why the future of hiring is this app’s offering: anonymous, skilled hiring profiles

* How both Eric & Kristi put their own app to work for themselves, too!

|| Learn more about our guest & the app by visiting the company website M2N.us.

|| SUPPORT OUR SHOW while supporting yourself: Visit our affiliate sites Big Life Journal & Generation Mindful to find products like journals, Calm Down Corner kits, lesson plans & posters & even parenting communities to help you #feelandheal with #moodtools … or visit our affiliate SensaCalm for weighted blankets & plushies—& lots of other sensory tools—for kids & grownups alike.

|| Meet our show SPONSORS: Coach Kiki & My Moody Daybook. 

|| Want to speak with more confidence? Check out the Confident Communicators Club by Coach Kiki at Skool.

“Wealth does not come from money, but from ambitions & desires.”

If true, that makes Ricardo Matos a very rich man! He spreads the deeper riches of personal growth & human health all around the world with his educational project, Tea the World, which has a mission to not only sell organic, full tea leaves in their products, but to also educate & inspire tea lovers on tea culture, facts & health globally. 

Hear our conversation where Ricardo shares:

  • The words he finds have the most controversy—inside & outside of the tea world

  • How tea helped him reduce the mid-life medications he takes & why he says he feels more energetic than he did at 17

  • Why he finds white tea to be “the champagne of the tea industry”

  • And what it he thinks it means to get your mind blown

Jump to 24:00 to hear his quote about why tea is “not a miracle cure” (& how packaging & fillers are a part of that explanation). He also shares the secrets to using less & getting more from it!

|| Connect with Ricardo at TeaTheWorld.com or visit his LinkedIN profile to learn even more about his business passions.

|| SUPPORT OUR SHOW while supporting yourself: Visit our affiliate sites Big Life Journal & Generation Mindful to find products like journals, Calm Down Corner kits, lesson plans & posters & even parenting communities to help you #feelandheal with #moodtools … or visit our affiliate SensaCalm for weighted blankets & plushies—& lots of other sensory tools—for kids & grownups alike.

|| Meet our show SPONSORS: Coach Kiki & My Moody Daybook. 

How much of your life path is written in the stars … & how much is yours to write?

In this episode, we learn more about & from our returning guest Lisa Wagner, biomedical-engineer-turned-astrologist & author of the book Karmic Astrology. She shares:

- Even more about how a career with the military surprisingly set her up to marry the discipline, curiosity & drive she needed to learn how to draft astrology charts

- Some of the math & science needed for hand charting (versus online calculations, which most astrologists use today)

- The other systems she explored on her personal path

- Why she says we can all become more fluent in astrology … & embrace divine timing

Lisa’s life shows how we can all be, as she says, pragmatic in our spiritual practices … & just what that can teach us. … We also swear like sailors in this episode! 

|| Connect with Lisa Wagner at: ⁠@KarmicAstrology⁠ (on IG) or get your copy of her ⁠book⁠.

|| SUPPORT OUR SHOW while supporting yourself: Visit our affiliate sites Big Life Journal & Generation Mindful to find products like journals, Calm Down Corner kits, lesson plans & posters & even parenting communities to help you #feelandheal with #moodtools. 

|| Level up your own EQ: Join the Confident Communicators Club on Skool to learn how you can use emotional intelligence to rule the room—wherever you are!

|| Meet our show SPONSORS: Coach Kiki & My Moody Daybook. Support our WVLP, the grassroots local community radio 

You’ve heard of IQ & maybe even EQ, or the emotional intelligence quotient. But have you heard of BQ?

That’s your body’s intelligence system. And it’s more than likely wiser than you think.

Today’s guest, Christianne Zurowski, is a certified embodiment coach. She tells us just what that is, as well as:

- What she calls The 4 Phases to BQ—tuning in with intention, building “body vocabulary,” tracking & taking action

- How to find your “somatic superpowers,” or 21 ways to say no respectfully 

- Why her past life as a schoolteacher trained her to teach grownups to both talk to & listen to their bodies

- Plus: the 3 brains of the body—your brain, heart & gut—& just what each can teach you

If you’re burned out from pushing through or just tired from the mental gymnastics of continuously shifting your mindset, you might be ready to learn how to listen to what your body has to tell you. 

|| More ways to connect with Christianne: visit NextChapterCoach.com or follow her on Instagram. Connect with her directly at either of these sources & let her know that you heard her here for your own FREE COPY of the 21 Ways to Say No PDF. Join any of Christianne’s programs or see how she can work with your group today!

|| SUPPORT OUR SHOW while supporting yourself: Visit our affiliate sites Big Life Journal & Generation Mindful to find products like journals, Calm Down Corner kits, lesson plans & posters & even parenting communities to help you #feelandheal with #moodtools … or visit our affiliate SensaCalm for weighted blankets & plushies—& lots of other sensory tools—for kids & grownups alike.

|| Meet our show SPONSORS: Coach Kiki & My Moody Daybook. Support our WVLP, the grassroots local community radio station that hosts our show.

Even after they’ve passed to the beyond, Spiritual Life Coach & Intuitive Medium Kim Lawler tell us, “We really can talk to our people still.”

She doesn’t just mean visiting their tombstones to fill them in on your day (though, of course, that counts, too). After 30 years as a nurse in traditional healthcare settings, Kim determined to stop ignoring the other-worldly wisdom that was all around her & start tuning into her own soul’s wisdom—& the guidance she felt from outside, or what she terms the universe.

Listen to our conversation & hear these pearls of wisdom, among others:

- Add yourself to The Golden Rule!

- There are lots of ways to feel loss: death, retirement, kids leaving home, divorce & more.

- You can talk to your own soul to find soothing. (Jump to 23:00 to learn more.0

- “There is still a whole life you have. … Finish it out strong. Now is the time.”

|| More ways to connect with Kim: Her website, HeartToSoulConnection.com; her book, As We Sage: A Woman’s Guide to Reclaiming Spirit, Wisdom, Joy & Magic Beyond Mid-Life in Turbulent Times; her Garden of Knowledge oracle deck; or book her for a reading!

|| SUPPORT OUR SHOW while supporting yourself: Visit our affiliate sites Big Life Journal & Generation Mindful to find products like journals, Calm Down Corner kits, lesson plans & posters & even parenting communities to help you #feelandheal with #moodtools … or visit our affiliate SensaCalm for weighted blankets & plushies—& lots of other sensory tools—for kids & grownups alike.

|| Meet our show SPONSORS: Coach Kiki & My Moody Daybook. 

The heart as the seat of our soul: That’s the perspective cardiac Advanced Practice Nurse Teresa Palmer now has, after over two decades working in holistic cardiology. 

On a medical mission trip to Romania, her perspective changed. 

Teresa tells all about this experience, plus:

* How what you believe is what you become

* Heart disease is the leading cause of deaths in the U.S.—but 90% can be prevented with education & action, or self-care

* Why she sees our hearts as our bodies’ GPS—in charge of meditation, breathing, how stress affects the body & developing intuition (what she calls, “inner knowing”)

* The “big toolbox” she uses of traditional western + eastern & metaphysical medicine as a complement to standard “traditional care”

* Our heart has a brain … with neuro-receptors

* Our “inner landscape” is the real, authentic us

* Connecting to your heartbeat is key, because “everything starts from within”—& your heartbeat is unique to you

Hear also about host Kealah Parkinson’s own experience with “broken heart syndrome.”

Perhaps Teresa’s best-earned wisdom can be summed up in this statement she makes in our talk: 

Self-healing is no mystery. It’s simply a body in balance.

|| Interact with Teresa & learn more about her at her website, WellbeingGal.com. Buy her book, Heal Your Heart from Within. You can also find data supporting Teresa’s claims & knowledge via the HeartMath Institute. 

|| SUPPORT OUR SHOW while supporting yourself: Visit our affiliate sites Big Life Journal & Generation Mindful to find products like journals, Calm Down Corner kits, lesson plans & posters & even parenting communities to help you #feelandheal with #moodtools … or visit our affiliate SensaCalm for weighted blankets & plushies—& lots of other sensory tools—for kids & grownups alike.

|| Meet our show SPONSORS: Coach Kiki & My Moody Daybook.