Wellish

We’re leaving the advice for Mondays — Fridays are for our chaotic minds.

In this Wellish Short, I’m confessing something I’ve been unlearning in real time: my need to problem-solve everything. The feelings, the conversations, the discomfort, the silence — all of it.

This isn’t a how-to episode. There are no steps, no solutions, no fixes. Just an honest reflection on why some of us default to “fixing,” how it keeps us from being present, and what it looks like to let things be messy without rushing to repair them.

If you’re the friend who always has the answer, the one who carries the emotional weight, or the person who feels responsible for making everything feel okay — this one’s for you.

Welcome to Wellish Fridays. No advice. Just awareness.

Anxiety, depression, emotional heaviness… what if they’re not proof that you’re broken, but red flags trying to get your attention?

In this episode, I'm sitting down with licensed mental health counselor Nichole Eaton, host of the Rock Your Comeback podcast and author, to talk about using your “bad feelings” as information instead of an identity. Nichole shares how she pulled herself out of postpartum depression, why diagnoses can quietly become personality labels, and how to treat anxiety and sadness like your personal check-engine lights instead of life sentences.

We get into tuning back into your body, shortening the gap between spiral and reset, building self-trust through tiny promises (like literally just drinking your water), and designing a life that doesn’t constantly set off your nervous system.

If you’ve ever like there is just something wrong with you, this conversation will lovingly call you out and invite you into your comeback era.

We all romanticize our “new life” when we set a goal. We imagine the healed, disciplined, unbothered version of ourselves who never slips, never spirals, never skips, and somehow turns effort into identity overnight. But real growth doesn’t look like flawless execution. It looks like being human, messing up sometimes, returning to yourself, and still choosing to keep going.

In this episode of Wellish, we’re breaking down why perfection based goal setting keeps you stuck, how unrealistic expectations destroy self trust, and what actually helps you build the life you said you wanted. You’ll learn how to create realistic systems, show up imperfectly, repair instead of restart, and build deep self-trust so your growth actually lasts.

If you’ve ever quit because you “messed up,” felt frustrated by your inconsistency, or believed you needed to be perfect to be successful this episode will help you breathe, regroup, and keep moving toward the life you want.

Bad things happen. We make mistakes. We stay too long. We ignore our intuition. We get hurt.

But those moments don’t have to define you — unless you let them.

In this episode of Wellish, we’re talking about how to take the hardest things that happen in your life — the breakups, failures, regrets, and “I should’ve known better” moments — and use them to your advantage instead of falling into a victim mindset.

This isn’t about pretending it didn’t hurt or blaming yourself for what happened. It’s about taking accountability without shame, extracting the lesson, and letting it change who you are and how you move.

We’ll cover:

• The difference between victim energy and advantage energy
• How accountability actually accelerates growth (instead of keeping you stuck)
• Why your dream self is built from experience — not perfection
• How December is the perfect time to integrate lessons before the new year
• A simple framework for turning pain into identity-level change

Nothing that happened to you was wasted — unless you choose not to use it.

If you’ve ever felt chronically “off,” overly influenced by other people’s opinions, or like you’re living a version of your life that doesn’t actually fit you — this episode is for you.

So many of us think we’re being ourselves, when in reality we’re operating from survival patterns, old identities, and external conditioning we never consciously chose. People pleasing feels like personality. Perfectionism feels like character. Overfunctioning feels like ambition. But none of it is who you actually are.

In this episode, we break down what it really means to become the person you actually are — not by changing yourself, but by revealing yourself. We talk about why feeling anxious, misaligned, or dissatisfied is often the first sign you’re outgrowing an old identity, how to recognize false selves you’ve been living from, and how to reconnect with your core self beneath the noise.

You’ll learn how to stop outsourcing your worth, stop absorbing everyone else’s energy, and start building an internal compass that makes confidence, boundaries, and aligned decisions feel natural — not forced.

This isn’t about becoming a “better” version of yourself. It’s about finally coming home to the real one.

If you’re ready to stop living by default and start living in alignment, press play.

This one’s for my Wellish friends who feel drained, stuck in their own head, or looping a story about themselves that just…isn’t true anymore.

In this episode, I’m joined by Barbara Savin—Reiki master, energy healing specialist, clinical hypnotherapist, life coach, and host of The Spiritual Warrior Coach podcast. Barbara grew up feeling “crazy,” shut down her gifts, got sick, ignored her intuition… and then rebuilt her entire life and identity from the inside out.

We talk about how childhood wounds, other people’s words, and absorbed energy quietly script who you think you’re allowed to be—and what actually happens when you stop being the victim of your past and start being the author of your story. We get into:

• how to tell if the anxiety you’re feeling is even yours
• victim mentality vs. radical acceptance (without bypassing the pain)
• what really happens in hypnotherapy and subconscious work
• simple energetic hygiene practices to stop absorbing everyone else’s sh*t
• why affirmations aren’t “woo-woo” and how to use them so they actually land

As we close out the year, this conversation is an invitation to integrate: to look honestly at what happened, shed the old stories that are still running your life, and reconnect with the version of you that feels like your soul, not your trauma.

If your 2025 self feels tired, depleted, or stuck in an identity that doesn’t fit, this episode will help you step into 2026 as your magnetic, glowing, in-control (but still imperfect) self—with your energy protected, your story in your hands, and your humanity fully intact.

What do you do when the story you built your whole life on suddenly… doesn’t exist anymore?

In today’s episode, I’m talking with abstract artist and former Air Force critical care flight nurse Cheri Carandanis, whose entire identity was built around being “the capable one” — the nurse, the helper, the perfectionist, the strong one. After two brain injuries and a sudden, traumatic loss, that version of her was gone. No more ICU, no more hospice leadership, no more “Cheri the nurse” everyone called for answers.

What came next wasn’t a perfectly curated glow-up. It was panic, grief, depression, EMDR, spiritual wrestles, and a cardboard “canvas” covered in kids’ paint that somehow cracked her open to an entirely new self.

We get into:

• What an identity collapse actually feels like when you’re in it
• The difference between performing a role vs. actually being yourself
• How creativity, intuition, and “soul glow-ups” helped her move from left-brained perfectionism to right-brained permission
• Letting go of the girl you thought you had to be — and meeting the woman you’re actually becoming
• Authentic vulnerability vs. performative vulnerability (and how your body tells the difference)
• Learning to talk to your past and future selves, and letting your next chapter write you

If you’ve ever thought, “I don’t know who I am without this job/relationship/identity,” this one is going to hit home. This is your reminder that your storyline is not fixed, your identity is allowed to change, and you don’t have to be “that girl” anymore to be worthy of a beautiful life.

Real healing isn’t pretty. It isn’t a 5 a.m. routine, a perfectly lit yoga flow, or a tidy before-and-after. It’s messy, textured, human — and sometimes it starts with ripping up old love letters.

In this episode, I sit down with mixed media artist and Soul Portrait creator Devorah Brinckerhoff, whose 30+ years as an artist and very real journey through childhood trauma, family estrangement, and her children’s abuse led her to a completely different way of healing. Instead of talking about your story, Devorah guides people to literally work with it — using old letters, photos, journals, and legal documents to disassemble, rewrite, and re-name who they believe themselves to be.

We talk about:

• How creativity can reach places therapy and talking sometimes can’t
• Why your “not enough” wound and mean-girl memories still run the show
• The myth of aesthetic healing vs the reality of sitting in the raw, unpolished parts
• What happens when you stop trying to transcend your humanity and start witnessing it instead
• Devorah’s Soul Portrait process: ripping, gluing, painting, and energetically reclaiming your story
• How externalizing your pain (letters, photos, artifacts) helps you build self-trust, self-compassion, and a new identity

If you’ve ever felt haunted by old memories, stuck in a story about yourself you didn’t exactly consent to, or terrified to look at the “worst thing that’s ever happened to you” — this conversation is your invitation to see your mess as material, not a life sentence.

If you're exhausted by people trying to sell you silver linings, same. Today we’re talking about the kind of plot twists that blindside you, crack your identity open, and force you to choose who you’re going to become next.

This episode is your no-b.s. guide to turning the chaos you didn’t choose into the character development you actually need. Because yes, life hands out golden tickets disguised as breakups, failures, endings, and detours… but most people don’t take them. It’s uncomfortable. It requires accountability. It demands growth.

But you? You’re one of my badass Wellish b*tches. You’re here to evolve.

Inside, we break down:

Why your “failure” is actually an initiation

How plot twists are the universe editing your life in your favor

The difference between failure self-talk and messy-growth self-talk

How to choose the narrative that actually helps you move forward

A simple, straight-up guide for turning what you’re dealing with into fuel

If you’re in a messy middle, an unexpected detour, a heartbreak, or a full-blown identity rewrite… this episode will help you stop spiraling, start reframing, and actually take the golden ticket.

Because the plot twist isn’t ruining your story — it’s shaping you into who you've always wanted to be.

What if the version of you you’re meant to be is already here — she’s just waiting for privacy, honesty, and imperfection to let her breathe?

In this episode of Wellish, Sarah peels back the layers between the person you are in private and the one you perform for the world. We talk about the quiet truth of identity — the moments you can’t post, the thoughts you censor, and the parts of yourself that only come out when no one’s watching.

You’ll learn how to close the gap between your inner voice and your presented self, why real self-expression requires privacy and imperfection, and how to start living from the inside out — not the outside in.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re playing a role, this episode will help you reconnect to your real story, reclaim your authorship, and finally feel aligned with the person you’ve always known you could be.

Listen to this when you’re ready to stop performing and start becoming.