Your Favorite You

You don’t need to spend hours sitting in silence to experience the benefits of mindfulness. In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Nirali Dubal, who shares how meditation helped her cultivate a deeper sense of peace in her life and how she now helps others do the same.

You’ll hear how small moments of intentional attention can become part of your everyday life, from taking a breath before you enter a room to pausing to notice how you feel in the middle of a busy day. Nirali also guides you through a meditation you can return to anytime you need a moment to slow down and reconnect with your favorite version of yourself.

Dr. Nirali Dubal is a board-certified pediatrician, ICF-credentialed life coach, and MMTCP-certified meditation teacher. After 25 years in primary care, she stepped beyond clinical practice to pursue her passion for helping people slow down, reconnect with themselves, and live with greater intention. Through mindfulness, meditation, and coaching, Dr. Nirali helps people find greater clarity, inner peace, and purpose, so they can create lives that feel more aligned with who they truly are.

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What if you could find the places where your personal energy is quietly leaking away? Just like a drafty window can go unnoticed because you’ve lived with it for years, emotional and energetic drains can become so familiar that they fade into the background.

In this episode, we explore how doing an energy audit can help you identify the leaks in your own life. We’ll walk through five common energy leaks that may be costing you more than you realize, from reluctant yeses and unmade decisions to relationships that leave you depleted.

You don’t have to wait until you’re completely depleted to ask what’s costing you your energy. When you start addressing even one small leak at a time, you may be surprised by how much lighter you feel and the energy you have for the life you actually want to live.

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It can be exhausting to try to make a decision about your own life when everyone around you has an opinion about what you should do instead. How do you trust yourself in the middle of all that noise?

The opinions aren’t going to stop. Your family will keep having them, strangers will keep sharing them, and the internet will keep contradicting itself about the “right” answer. You can’t always turn off the noise, but you can build a relationship with your own knowing that’s sturdy enough to hold steady in the middle of it.

When you finally start giving your own voice the same weight as everyone else’s, you can stop changing your decisions to fit someone else’s idea of your life and start choosing your path based on the version of you that you want to become.

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Resentment. It’s a feeling that can be hard to admit to, especially when you’ve been taught to be ashamed of it, talk yourself out of it, or convince yourself that you shouldn’t feel it in the first place.

But resentment is not a character flaw. It is not proof that you’re petty, ungrateful, or a bad friend, partner, or mom. Resentment is a messenger. It can show up uninvited to tell you something you haven’t yet let yourself hear. The problem is, it tends to get shot down before you read the message.

In this episode, we’re taking a closer look at what resentment might actually be trying to tell you. We talk about resentment toward the people in your life and toward yourself, why so many of us were taught to swallow it instead of speak it, and what can happen when you stop treating resentment as something to be ashamed of and start getting curious about the message it’s carrying.

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What can remodeling your home teach you about remodeling your life? More than you might think. As I’ve been remodeling my home, I’ve noticed all the ways the process mirrors the transformation of becoming your favorite version of yourself. 

When you remodel your home—or your life—you get to choose the scope. You can make a small change or take it all the way back to the studs. You can uncover things you didn’t know were there, get help from someone who knows what to look for, and make choices simply because you like them.

A remodel can be messy, uncertain, and full of surprises, and the same is true when you’re changing your relationship with yourself. At the end of the day, you’re the one who has to live there. And just like your home, you get to decide what you want your life to look and feel like.

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Have you ever thought of yourself as “the strong one” in your life? The one who is always available, always fine, and who always holds it together so nobody else has to. 

It’s a job that no one applies for, but that most of you are working anyway with no pay, benefits, sick days, or end date on the contract. In this episode, we’re talking about what it looks like to retire from that role when it stops being something you do and becomes who you are.

When you stop being the strong one, it doesn't mean you collapse or can’t be counted on. The shift is about moving from surviving to something much bigger: agency, intention, thriving. Retiring from being the strong one doesn't mean you can never be strong again. It means strength becomes a tool you choose, not a role you have to live in.

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I'm really fucking good at my job. And before you decide I’m an egomaniac, I want you to notice how uncomfortable that sentence may have just made you. I felt it too, that urge to soften it, qualify it, or follow it up with a joke so that nobody would think that I am getting too big for my britches.

But here’s the thing: the work we do is not an accident. I spent more than two decades in medicine and now nearly a decade in coaching, building my skills one session at a time. My guess is that you’ve put just as much time and effort into getting to where you are today, so why is it so common to deflect any acknowledgment of the impact we have?

In this episode, I’m not softening anything. I'm tooting my own goddamn horn on purpose, no matter how uncomfortable it is. I hope that by the end, you are going to want to toot your own goddamn horn, too.

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Think about a younger version of you who had no idea what was coming next. What would you tell her? Not to fix her or warn her, but to let her know that she makes it and it’s better than she could imagine.

I recently learned that someone I know will be attending my alma mater this fall and moving into the exact same dorm room I lived in as a freshman. It got me thinking about 18-year-old Melissa, who had no idea the life I'm living now was even possible. That inspired me to write a letter to my 1991 self, which I'm sharing in this episode, along with an invitation to write one to your younger self, too.

If you do write a letter to your younger self, I'd love for you to send it to me at [email protected]. With your permission, I'll anonymously share some of these letters on a future podcast episode so we can hear perspectives beyond my own.

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What happens when you shift your focus from trying to make everyone else happy to finally listening to yourself? In this episode, I’m joined by one of my amazing clients, Katie, who graciously shares how coaching helped her learn to rock the boat and transform her relationships.

When Katie started coaching with me in late 2024, her goals were to get to know herself better and figure out what she really wanted. You’ll hear how Katie achieved those objectives and more, and you’ll also get a glimpse into how receiving coaching is only the beginning of an ongoing journey. There isn't a finish line where you're finally "fixed," and choosing growth every day is far more rewarding than waiting to finally arrive.

If you're afraid of rocking the boat or disappointing the people around you, this conversation will encourage you to take that first step.

Dr. Katie Montgomery is a busy mom to three boys, a wife, and entrepreneur. She has owned her general dental practice in the Columbus, Ohio area for over 15 years and loves the challenge of being both a clinician and business owner. She has worked with Melissa for nearly two years with the goal of being her favorite you in all areas of her life.

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I’m so excited to introduce you to today’s guest, whom I’ve known and admired for the past 25 years. I met Dr. Bonnie Pugh during residency, and we've been friends ever since. Bonnie is a pediatrician at Central Ohio Primary Care, where she also serves as president of the board of directors.

I wanted to bring Bonnie on to talk about leadership and how she transitioned from just caring for patients to leading physicians and shaping the culture at COPC. Over the past two decades, Bonnie has helped build an environment that transforms the lives of both the physicians who work there and the patients they serve. She leads with both strength and emotional intelligence, which, if you know anything about high-achieving women, isn't always an easy balance to strike.

Beyond her accomplishments, Bonnie is continually learning to integrate every part of herself into a life she loves. She's a doctor, leader, mentor, yoga teacher, wife, mom, daughter, sister, and one of my favorite humans. I can’t wait for you to hear this conversation.

Click HERE to get the full show notes.