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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Can you feel genuine happiness for someone else's win even when your team just lost?

That's the question at the heart of this week's episode of Whole Again.

And it's a harder question than it sounds. Because most of what we call joy in sports, or in life, is actually something much more fragile. It's conditional. It's ego wearing your favorite team's jersey. Real joy, the kind that holds up under pressure, requires something deeper. It requires mudita.

Mudita is one of the four immeasurables within Buddhist mindfulness practice, and it might be the most advanced of all. It's the capacity to feel genuine happiness for someone else's success, no strings attached, no condition that your side wins first.

Michael uses the World Cup and the Knicks championship run as the perfect on-ramp to explore this concept, including a confession about where he still falls short. (Hint: it involves pinstripes.)

He also walks through the important distinction between mudita, its far enemy schadenfreude, and the more subtle fragile joy, the kind that looks like the real thing until your team loses and your whole week falls apart.

You will discover:

• What mudita is and why it's considered one of the highest expressions of mindfulness practice
• The difference between true appreciative joy, its far enemy schadenfreude, and the sneakier trap of fragile joy
• Why conditional joy is really an investment in ego and what that costs you
• How to hold grief and joy at the same time, even when the loss is real
• The Whole Again World Cup Mudita Challenge and how to practice it in real time

Press play and bring your Kintsugi spirit to the beautiful game.

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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In this episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, I sat down with Wyomingian Kimberly Coats, who calls America a ragged, hopeful country, and she means that as a compliment. She's seen enough of the world to know that people still come here dreaming. But she's also honest about what's getting in the way right now: misinformation, confirmation bias, and our collective unwillingness to say "I was wrong."

She points to Liz Cheney, looking straight into the camera and owning a mistake, as the kind of moment America needs more of. And she shares the story of sitting in a Las Vegas hospital, surrounded by a Syrian cardiologist, a Filipino nurse, and an African American anesthesiologist, and feeling, in that room, exactly what makes this country great.

You can connect with Kimberly and her work with Africa Rising Cycling and her beautiful ranch, Boyer L Ranch.

Kimberly's question is specific to our next guest, Lloyd, and it's one for you as well: How did you experience what was happening in Minnesota earlier this year?

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 most powerful thing you could do today is actually do less?

We live in a world that worships more: more content, more meetings, more hustle, more noise. But somewhere in that relentless accumulation of more, we lose the thing that actually matters: meaning. This Monday microdose meditation is a quiet invitation to step off that treadmill and ask a different question entirely.

Michael guides you through a gentle, grounding practice built around one simple idea: less is more.

Press play, find a comfortable seat, and give yourself permission to do less today.

And when you're done, share this one with someone in your peloton who might need a little more space to breathe.

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.

Discover how to scroll less and live more by taking my Free Smartphone Wellness Audit by clicking phone.

Did you know that stickers are wonderful visual cues to help you create healthy habits? You can get one of my free Pause Breathe Reflect sticker by clicking sticker.

To discover more and sign up for My RIPPLE EFFECT newsletter by clicking Ripple Effect.

We can also connect on LinkedIn. or at [email protected]

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. 

If you feel you need more mental health support, please contact NAMI. 

With Whole Again: A Fresh Approach to Healing, Growth & Resilience after Physical Trauma through Kintsugi Mindfulness listeners explore resilience through personal stories of trauma, scars, and injury while learning to overcome PTSD, imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and perfectionism with self-compassion, self-love, and self-worth. Through insightful discussions on stress management, mindfulness practices, and digital wellness, the show offers practical tools like breathwork, micro-dose meditation, grounding techniques, visualization, and daily affirmations for anxiety relief and stress relief. Inspired by the art of kintsugi, the podcast embraces healing as a process of transformation, encouraging a shift in perspective from worry and being overwhelmed to gratitude and personal growth. By exploring the mind-body connection, micro-dosing strategies for emotional well-being, and holistic approaches to self-care, this podcast empowers listeners to cultivate emotional resilience and live with greater balance and intention.

Can you hold the good and the hard at the same time?

Recently, I sat down with Wil Davenport, a growth and leadership coach from Knoxville, TN, and we talked about this question. He believes our ability to hold both our greatest accomplishments and our deepest failures is exactly what makes this country worth fighting for.

In this episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, Wil shares why he thinks the most patriotic thing we can do right now isn't to pick a side; it's to stop avoiding the hard conversations altogether. He didn't vote for the current president.

Wil also carries a family legacy that runs deep — a Revolutionary War ancestor, a founding Methodist minister who stayed at the Davenport home, and a father who grew up in a town of a thousand people where a third of the graduating class went on to earn advanced degrees.

You can connect with Wil via his website or LinkedIn.

And Wil's question for you and our next guest, Kimbererly Coats, is: What is one event that has been pivotal in shaping your identity?

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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When was the last time you looked at something you've seen a thousand times and actually saw it?

That's the heart of this week's Last Bad Day tip, number 24 in our yearlong series celebrating 25 years since Michael's near-death cycling accident in the New Mexico desert.

This week, Michael introduces the Japanese concept of shoshin -- beginner's mind -- and explores what it means to approach the familiar as if encountering it for the very first time. From household puzzles to physical therapy after a life-altering crash, beginner's mind is one of the quiet, powerful tools that helped Michael rebuild his life piece by piece.

And just like the Kintsugi artist who looks at broken pottery and wonders what it can become -- rather than what it once was -- beginner's mind invites us to trade the grooves of habit for something more alive.

You will discover:

• Why your brain's love of patterns can quietly steal your sense of wonder and what to do about it
• The Zen teaching from Suzuki that reframes the difference between expertise and openness
• How beginner's mind became a lifeline for Michael during rehab, and why it still shapes the way he leads, listens, and lives
• Three simple, practical ways to bring shoshin into your day, including one that starts with your toothbrush

Press play and discover why the solution you've been looking for may have been right in front of you all along.

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's it going to take for all of us to feel like one country again?

I recently sat down with Rob O'Driscoll, a basketball coach at the University of Maine who grew up in Philadelphia and now calls Hermon, Maine home, and we talked about this question.

He shared that we don't need to agree on everything. We just need to be sympathetic to how the other person feels, even when we don't share the feeling ourselves.

In this episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, Rob talks about family roots that stretch from Russia and Ukraine to Ireland and Germany, and he shares a story about a packed bar near Madison Square Garden shortly after September 11th, when the seventh-inning stretch hit and the whole room sang God Bless America together in unison.

Rob still gets chills thinking about it. His hope is that we find our way back to that feeling of connection without needing a tragedy to get us there.

And we finish up with a question Rob has for you and our next guest, Wil Davenport from TN: If you could visit one place in America you've never been before, where would you go and why?

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 does a truly mindful life actually require?

Most of us picture mindfulness as a solo pursuit -- a cushion, a quiet room, an app, a closed-door moment of solitude.

We've gotten good at finding teachers and learning the techniques, but there's a 2,500-year-old piece of the puzzle we keep leaving out. In this episode, Michael takes us back to the Three Jewels of Buddhist practice -- Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha -- and makes the case that the third pillar, community, is the one our hustle-driven, solo-project culture has quietly abandoned.

Drawing on the science of group practice, his own Pause, Breathe, Reflect community, and the peloton mindset that anchors his coaching work, Michael explains why practicing alongside others doesn't just feel good; it changes our biology, deepens our consistency, and makes the whole journey sustainable.

You will discover:

• Why mindfulness has become a "solo project" in modern culture, and what that's costing us
• The Three Jewels of mindfulness practice: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha
• The research behind why group meditation creates a measurable shift in connection and brain synchrony
• How Sangha increases social safety, empathy, and your ability to actually stick with a practice
• Why community, not willpower, is the real key to consistency
• How the peloton mindset and Sangha work hand in hand to keep us showing up

Press play to discover why the missing ingredient in your mindfulness practice might not be a better app or more discipline, but the people sitting beside you.

Here's the calendar so you can join our sangha.

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 our inability to disagree well is actually what's tearing us apart?

That's the question Becky Schmooke sits with as America turns 250. And she's not just talking about politics. She's talking about the everyday moments when we reach for a false choice, even though the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

In this episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, Becky shares what she sees as the root of our communication breakdown. The subtle mental traps that make us argue in circles, attack people instead of ideas, and believe there are only two options when there are almost always more.

And then there's the moment she describes when you lock eyes with a complete stranger in public, and you both just know. No words. Just that shared, unscripted human laugh. She says AI will never be able to do that.

Becky's question for our next neighbor on the series and for you is:

What's a smell that takes you right back to a positive childhood memory?

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

You can connect with Becky via LinkedIn, Substack and her website.

And you can get a copy of her book, Choose The Handle That Holds, at fine independent bookstores and Amazon.

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 situation overwhelming you right now looks completely different from the way it looks from someone else's seat in the theater?

That's the invitation at the heart of this week's microdose meditation.

When we're in the thick of something -- conflict, stress, worry, anxiety -- it has a way of pulling us under. We lose perspective. We lose the ability to see a path forward. And the harder we stare at it, the more it controls us. This practice gently loosens that grip. By stepping back and watching your situation as if it were a movie, then shifting the seat you're watching from, you begin to access wisdom that the fog of the moment tends to hide.

In this episode, you will discover:

• A simple visualization technique for creating distance from whatever is causing you stress or conflict right now
• How to see your situation through the eyes of someone who believes in you and has your best interests at heart
• What a wiser, older version of yourself -- one with 10, 20, or 30 more years of experience -- might want you to know
• The perspective shift that comes from watching your story from a higher vantage point entirely
• How the Pause, Breathe, Reflect app gives you access to this practice and over 700 others, completely free

Press play, find a comfortable position, and give yourself the gift of a few minutes to see your situation from a new seat. You might be surprised what becomes visible when you stop watching from inside the storm.

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.

What happens when the life you pictured disappears in an instant?

That's the question Ron Gold has been living with for fifteen years. Ron is a cyclist, coach, and fellow New Jerseyan who, on a bright sunny day, was struck head-on by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel. He woke up paralyzed. And somehow, he found his way back.

In this episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, Ron shares what that journey taught him about agency, letting go of "why me," and focusing on what you can control instead of what you can't. That same philosophy shapes how he sees America right now, a country he still believes in, even as he watches too many people choose performance over purpose. His take on Congress is worth the listen alone.

Ron had a question for Joshua, but he didn't show. So I'll paraphrase: What's one way to make your favorite dish healthier?

I hope you will share our conversation with someone you love.

You can connect with Ron via LinkedIn.

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.