Whole Again: Mindfulness and Resilience Through Kintsugi Wisdom

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience.

And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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How many breaths do you think you take in a day?

The answer is around 20,000, and most of us never think about a single one of them.

In this week's microdose meditation, Michael O'Brien walks you through what he calls the perfect breath, a simple five-count inhale and five-count exhale practice he shares with companies around the world through his Pause, Breathe, Reflect method.

It takes just a few minutes, but it's a powerful way to ground yourself and set the tone for your week.

You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.

Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”

We can also connect on LinkedIn.

Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience.

And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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What if the problem isn't who we disagree with; it's the labels we place on them?

This is a question that Laura Cross and I discussed. She's a veteran, solopreneur, wellness advocate, host of Mindful Mondays TV, and, yes, a former dirt-track stock car racer.

America's greatest strength, she says, is its people, resilient, compassionate, willing to help others rise. But we keep getting in our own way with all our labels.

Her fix isn't complicated: treat people like the decent human beings they are. Agree to disagree. And if something really bothers you, walk away. What she didn't say, but clearly lives, is that you can hold strong opinions and still leave room for other people to hold theirs.

You can connect with Laura via LinkedIn and Mindful Mondays on YouTube.

Laura has a question for you and our next guest in our series, Brian:

If there's something in your life you don't like and it's within your control to change, are you actually doing something about it, or are you just complaining?

Share your honest answer in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.

You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.

Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”

We can also connect on LinkedIn.

Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience.

And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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Do people still send voice mails?

Well, whether they do or don't, it's the spark behind this week's Last Bad Day Tip. It's #26.

Before he was a Mindset and Resilience coach, Michael led a team of nearly 1,000 people. Before every major US holiday, he'd leave them a voicemail with three parts: gratitude for their hard work, encouragement to connect with the people they love, and an invitation to pause and reflect on where they stood in their own lives and careers.

That third part changed things. A handful of people came back from those holiday weekends and resigned, not because anything went wrong, but because the pause helped them see they'd outgrown where they were. Michael is still friends with every one of them.

In this episode, Michael walks through the full Pause, Breathe, Reflect exercise he used with his team, and how you can use it this Fourth of July weekend.

He touches on gratitude, on checking in with your peloton, and on the story you keep telling yourself about yourself, and whether that story still serves you.

It's a reminder that sometimes the most important career or life move isn't the next big leap. It's the reflection before it.

You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.

Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”

We can also connect on LinkedIn.

Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience.

And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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What does freedom mean when you've seen what life looks like without it?

I recently sat down with Maggie Mick, a Kentucky-based government affairs leader with MultiState, co-host of The Political Life podcast, and a woman whose family history traces back to the first Welsh settlers of Philadelphia.

She's traveled the world as a soft diplomat, breaking bread with people in far-flung places, and what she came home with every time was gratitude.

But she's also watching something quietly erode: local community. The stickiness, as she calls it, that comes from knowing your neighbor, showing up for a stranger, gathering in shared spaces. Without it, she says, we lose our ability to hold anyone accountable for anything.

And then there's Harry. Her great-grandfather, who survived an orphan train, indentured servitude, and an abusive placement only to escape, join the military, raise nine children, build a journalism career, and become so beloved in southeast Nebraska that there's now a statue of him at the Orphan Train Museum.

Harry is the American dream, and Maggie carries him with her.

You can connect with Maggie via MultiState, The Political Life Podcast, or LinkedIn.

And finally, Maggie's question for you and our next guest in our series, Laura Cross, is:

If you could live in any state other than the one you currently call home, which would it be and why?

Share your answer in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.

You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.

Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”

We can also connect on LinkedIn.

Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience.

And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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Have you ever really listened to the lyrics of "Born in the USA"?

In this episode of Whole Again, Michael unpacks the lyrical dissonance of Springsteen's most misunderstood anthem, and uses it as a doorway into something much bigger: the Iroquois concept of Long Body, the spiritual and literal connectedness we share with our ancestors, our community, and the earth itself. He contrasts it with Short Body, the Western idea that we end completely at our own skin, that our pain is ours alone to carry.

Michael connects this directly to his own recovery from his Last Bad Day. His healing wasn't a solo act. It was fueled by a peloton of people, near and far, who refused to let him carry it alone. That's Long Body in action.

As America turns 250 this week, Michael makes the case that acknowledging our cracks isn't unpatriotic. It's a deeper form of patriotism. You can turn up the volume and feel the pride, and still let the song ask you something harder.

His invitation before you go: queue up "Born in the USA," actually listen to the lyrics this time, and notice what it stirs in you.

You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.

Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”

We can also connect on LinkedIn.

Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience.

And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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What does America look like when you're willing to question the whole system?

This is a question that Sarah Gobel has reflected on. A marketing professional, mom, and founder of the Honest Diagnosis Project

America, she says, was sold to us as the land of opportunity. But right now? It feels more like a country deep in its growing pains, stuck in a two-party system that serves the people at the top while leaving everyone else to sort through the wreckage.

In 2024, after her infant son was misdiagnosed at a children's hospital, the state removed both of her children for six months. What she found when she went public- thousands of families going through the exact same thing- turned a mother's worst nightmare into a nonprofit and a mission. You can read more about her family's ordeal here.

You can also connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

Sarah has a question for you and the next guest in our series, Maggie:

What do you think is actually working in the American justice system?

Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.

You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.

Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”

We can also connect on LinkedIn.

Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience.

And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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What if asking for help was not a sign of weakness, but one of the most courageous things you could do?

Most of us have been taught, somewhere along the way, that needing help means falling short. So we carry more than we should, stay quieter than we need to, and quietly struggle through things we were never meant to handle alone.

In this Monday microdose meditation, Michael O'Brien draws on one of the most memorable scenes in cinema, Jerry Maguire's desperate, heartfelt plea to "help me help you" to explore what gets in the way of asking for support and what opens up when we finally do.

Asking for help, Michael reminds us, is not quitting. It is a declaration that we are still in the game. And it is one of the most genuine invitations to connection that we can offer another person.

The people around you want to show up for you. They just need to know when and how.

You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.

Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”

We can also connect on LinkedIn.

Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience.

And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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What if the greatest threat to America isn't division — it's disconnection?

That's the tension Kyle Malachowski sits with as a data analytics professional, endurance athlete, and girl dad living just south of Atlanta, Georgia.

In this episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, Kyle brings a rare combination of analytical precision and hard-won perspective, including time in Afghanistan that showed him firsthand what a world without opportunity actually looks like.

Kyle sees America as a yin-yang. The opportunity is real. So is the pressure. And while his work in data analytics puts him squarely in the crosshairs of AI disruption, he's not afraid. He sees AI the same way he sees a fire: it fuels whatever you're already burning.

What worries him more is the slow drift away from community. From showing up in person. From looking your neighbors in the eye at the grocery store instead of building up personas behind a screen.

And Kyle's question for you and our next guest, Sarah, is:

If America had a spirit animal and it couldn't be the eagle, what would it be?

If you would like to connect with Kyle, you can do so on LinkedIn - You can also find him on Strava.

Share your answer in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.

You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.

Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”

We can also connect on LinkedIn.

Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience.

And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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Are you confusing patience with passivity?

Many of us do. And in a culture that rewards urgency and speed, patience has gotten a bad reputation, as if staying patient means sitting still and letting life happen to you.

In this Friday growth mindset tip, Michael unpacks one of the most misunderstood words in leadership and in life. Drawing on his rehab after My Last Bad Day and a recent coaching conversation with a senior executive navigating a corporate change initiative, Michael reframes patience not as the absence of action, but as disciplined engagement without attachment to immediate results.

You will discover:

• Why the word "patience" likely doesn't mean what you think it means, and how that misreading costs you
• The critical difference between a passive person and a patient person
• Michael's three-part framework for patience: acceptance, persistence, and trust
• Why a good gardener is the perfect metaphor for how patient leaders actually operate
• How confusing urgency with importance creates a culture of chaos and what to do instead
• A simple one-to-two percent shift you can make this week to start playing the long game

Press play and let Tip 25 meet you right where you are.

And if this episode speaks to you, share it with someone on your peloton who could use a reminder that some things can't be rushed and that's exactly as it should be.

You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.

Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”

We can also connect on LinkedIn.

Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience.

And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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What would it take to just sit down with someone you disagree with and share a meal?

That's the quiet but powerful question at the heart of this conversation with Lloyd Owen Banwart, a Midwestern farm kid turned humanitarian worker, now living in his beloved Minnesota and building a life that holds two very different Americas at once.

Lloyd has spent 20 years in international development, traveled to over 40 countries, and still says his favorite place on the planet is the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota — thousands of lakes, no motors, and one of the quietest places on earth.

He believes America's greatest promise is simple: every day, we get to try to be a little better than we were the day before. But he also knows that the promise is fragile.

As a husband to a wife with immigrant parents, a father of boys of color, and someone who received a message that ICE was outside his children's school, Lloyd has lived the gap between what America says it is and what some families experience every single day. He holds that tension with honesty, with grace, and without letting go of hope.

His birthday wish for America? Just the willingness to extend a little grace to each other and then show up in the same room long enough to remember who we're actually talking to.

Lloyd's question for you and our next guest, Kyle, is: When was the last time a real conversation changed your mind or your perspective on something?

You can connect with Lloyd over on LinkedIn, and as his picture says: Do Something Great!

Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.

You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace.

Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.”

We can also connect on LinkedIn.

Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.