We've probably all heard about psychological safety, but what exactly is it, and how do we cultivate it? This is the topic we're diving into today.

Think back, you've likely had a job or other relationship where you felt like you had to guard yourself. Or one where you felt like it wasn't acceptable to show up any less than 110%. Hopefully you've also had the experience of being in truly safe relationships. Ones where you can mess up, stumble, try things and potentially fail, and still be accepted.

That is real psychological safety.

Today we're speaking with Stephan Wiedner who is a psychological safety expert whose career has focused on developing sustainable high performance leaders, teams, and organizations. His passion for unleashing the collective potential of people has led him to cofound Noomii.com, the web’s largest network of independent life coaches, Skillsetter.com, the deliberate practice platform for interpersonal skills, and Zarango.com, the psychological safety training experts. Stephan has been a guest speaker for ACETech, MAGI, Marketing IMPACT Council, and many other audiences interested in psychology, business, and technology. His writing has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, and other popular publications. Stephan is married with two children and enjoys spending quality time in the outdoors, hiking, biking, camping, and reading.

This episode is transformational, and I hope you share it with someone who might benefit.

Additional Resources:

1. Free psychological safety assessment
2. Episode 261 - Giving Negative Feedback
3. Episode 264 - Receiving Negative Feedback

In the field of Psychology, we are increasingly learning more about how trauma, habits, and beliefs are handed down from generation to generation, many times, without us knowing. Think about it - you very likely have belief systems and ways of seeing and responding to the world that were transmitted to you through generations of your family.

This has incredible implications for the way we individually respond to the world, but also for the ways we understand systemic challenges and inequality in our society.

If you've ever worked hard to understand your own behavior... If you've ever fought against continuing dysfunction in your family... If you've ever felt the pain of trauma in your family and wondered how to move past it... This episode is for you.

Today we're speaking with Dr. Lynyetta Willis. As a psychologist and family empowerment coach, Dr. Lynyetta Willis, helps frustrated families stop Stable Misery® cycles or unhelpful patterns that keep them stuck, so they can create more joy in their parenting or partnerships. Her Triggered to Transformed® Parent Coaching Program has helped parents all over the world to confidently deal with their triggers so they can pass on the best parts of themselves and enjoy parenting more.

This episode is transformational, and I hope you share it with someone who might benefit.

Additional Resources:

1. Dr. Willis' website
2. April's TEDx Talk
3. Emotional Sifting

Trigger warning. How many times have you seen that phrase on social media? Do you truly know what it means? What does it mean to have a trigger? To be triggered? How do triggers impact us in our lives, in our performance, and in our relationships?

This week, we're exploring these very fundamental questions. The fact of the matter is, we ALL have triggers. It's simply an artifact of the way our minds work. What's most important is that we know what our individual triggers are and how we can be intentional about responding when we encounter them.

This week we're hearing from Jodie Eckleberry Hunt. Jodie has a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Indiana State University and is board-certified in Health Psychology. She has been the Director of Health Psychology and Executive Health and Wellness at Beaumont Health since 2016.

I truly believe you'll gain a much more nuanced understanding of what a trigger is, how to identify your own, and what to do to be more responsive, rather than reactive, in the face of them.

Additional Resources:

1. How to Liberate Your Mind
2. 7 Principles for Making Marriage Work (John Gottman)
3. EOS Life
4. Jodie's Website

Burnout is a topic that is becoming so prolific because so many of us are EXPERIENCING IT! Turns out, burnout is a state that is at the end of the road of a long continuum. There are ways we can intervene to reduce the chances of ourselves becoming burned out, but we have to recognize it first.

I'm thrilled to be diving into that very topic today.

Today we're speaking with Dr. Cassandra LeClair. She is a Communications & Relationships Expert, Motivator, Author, and Podcaster. With a Ph.D. in communications studies, specializing in women's and gender studies, Cassandra is an expert on communicating feelings, setting boundaries, and improving connections. She enables high-achieving women to gain an understanding of their identity and communication practices to improve their relationships with friends and family, in the workplace, and beyond.

On this episode with Dr. LeClaire, we dive into burnout - how to know when you're burned out, and what the precursors are. We also dive into the role that boundaries play in burnout. Wow are they important! We also talk about how to figure out what our needs are and communicate them to others. And, finally, we talk about the role that our own behavioral patterns play in our burnout cycle.

I so hope this episode helps you or someone you love. You're worth it.

Additional Resources:

1. Curate Your Life & Manage Your Energy
2. How to Cultivate a Relationship with Yourself
3. Thoughts, Emotions, and 'Mom Guilt'
4. From Dr. LeClaire: 30 Ways to Say 'No'

Our romantic relationships are simultaneously some of the most important, most misunderstood, most under-resourced relationships in our lives. So many of us have this misconception that our 'love lives' should just come naturally. That we shouldn't have to work so hard. That they can unfold in a healthy way, even if they're unexamined.

The 50% divorce rate in the US suggests otherwise.

Today, we're digging into the topic of romantic relationships with a true expert. Dr. Thomas Jordan is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. He is on the faculty of NYU’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis, author of "Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life" and founder of LoveLifeLearningCenter.com. Dr. Jordan specializes in the treatment of unhealthy love lives and has been studying them for over 30 years.

This episode hits on some truly practical, ACTIONABLE steps you can start taking TODAY to make meaningful improvements in your love life. I hope you find so much value in this powerful conversation.

Additional Resources:

1. LoveLifeLearningCenter.com
2. 6 Principles of Meaningful Relationships
3. How Your Attachment Style Impacts Your Relationships

There are few things more fundamentally important than our health and wellbeing. When we have it, we take it for granted. However, when we're told there's a problem or when we aren't feeling well, it's all we can think about.

Wellbeing has become even more of a focus since the pandemic because of the experiences we all had over the last 2 years. Mental health has suffered. We've neglected to take care of ourselves and chronic conditions are worsening. Yet, we see many people making professional decisions to help guard the lifestyle they had during the pandemic - particularly if it helped them make positive changes in their health and wellbeing.

It's a lot to think about, so we brought in an expert.

Laura Putnam, MA, author of the award-winning Workplace Wellness That Works, is CEO and founder of Motion Infusion, a leading well-being provider. Her work has been covered by MSNBC, The New York Times, FOX News, ABC News, US News & World Report, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, and NPR. She is a former urban public high school teacher, international community organizer, dancer, gymnast and now a movement-builder in the world of health and well-being. With a mission to get people and organizations “in motion,” Laura is a frequent keynote speaker and has worked with a range of organizations from Fortune 500s to government agencies to academic institutes and nonprofits.

I met Laura at a recent conference, and I knew I needed to get her on the show. I hope you find actionable value in this episode and begin to make healthy changes in your own life.

Additional Resources:

1. Workplace Wellness that Works
2. The Link Between Self Compassion and Self Care
3. Develop Better Habits in 2022

There's no denying it - the last handful of years have been very challenging. Aside from the personal adversity we've all felt in our individual lives, we've faced incredible collective adversity. The pandemic. Political divide. Crime and mass shootings. It has all been a lot to handle, and many of us have found ourselves searching for ways to move through it and cope.

Thankfully, the field of psychology has a very effective tool for times like these: self-compassion. By opening up to and being mindful of our own emotional experience, by realizing that we aren't alone in the way we're feeling, and by offering ourselves kindness rather than criticism, we can help support ourselves through truly challenging times.

The main audio of this episode is a replay of an impromptu self-compassion break I led the day after the mass shooting at the elementary school in Ulvalde, Texas. Quite a few people from around the world joined in community to learn how to apply this important tool during challenging times.

Not everyone who wanted to join was able to (it was a very last-minute session), so this week's podcast episode is a replay of the audio of that session.

In addition, there is a very valuable section at the end of this podcast about what it means to support other people through challenging times. So many times we say, "I just don't know what to say or do." And so we do nothing. The final segment of this week's podcast helps give you another perspective on those situations, and I give you some practical tips about how you can support others during painful or challenging times.

Additional Resources:

1. Fierce Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff

One of the basic principles of cognitive behavioral theory (CBT) is that our mind and our behavior (and our emotions and life experience) are strongly linked. Our body and our behavior send strong messages that tell us how to appraise a situation and how we might want to respond. Yet, we spend so much energy attempting to ignore it. We focus instead on being "rational," or "logical." We believe emotions are "irrational" and shouldn't be trusted.

Today, we're debunking that.

Today we're speaking with Dr. Amanda Blake. Dr. Blake is the author of the award-winning book Your Body Is Your Brain, and creator of the Body = Brain course on the neurobiology of experiential leadership learning. In addition to teaching about the art and science of embodiment, she works with progressive leaders worldwide to help them become their best self, enjoy life more, and make a bigger contribution. Once an internationally competitive athlete, Mandy is skilled at cultivating high performance in herself and others. She is a Master Somatic Leadership Coach, holds a degree in Human Biology from Stanford University, and is both a Fetzer Scholar and a Research Fellow at the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. 

The goal of today's episode is to help you learn how to tap into another form of insight, the insight in your body, to help you make some of your most difficult important decisions.

Additional Resources:

1. Stress to Serenity Centering Challenge
2. Episode with my personal coach, Shannon Schottler
3. Using Micro Behaviors to Combat Anxiety

In light of recent events in Texas and across the U.S., I am offering a free self-compassion break today at 2:30 pm CT. No registration necessary. Simply click the link below to join.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81847216706

Did you know that research tells us that we all should strive to get TWO HOURS of enjoyable leisure activity EVERY SINGLE DAY?! When I heard that statistic, I was shocked!

We focus so intently on performance, optimization, and striving. We focus on how much we can get done and how to increase that amount. And we forget that life is meant to be fun as well.

This week we're speaking with Dr. Mike Rucker. He is an organizational psychologist and charter member of the International Positive Psychology Association who has been academically published in the International Journal of Workplace Health Management and Nutrition Research. His ideas about fun and health have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Vox, Thrive Global, mindbodygreen, and more. He currently serves as a senior leader at Active Wellness.

Additional Resources:

1. Episode 0143: Dr. Steven Hayes
2. The Happiness Trap
3. Connect with Michael
4. Pre-order The Fun Habit