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 simplest way to improve your life is just putting your phone down?

In a world where notifications, scrolling, and constant connectivity dominate our attention, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, distracted, and disconnected. This episode explores how our relationship with our phones may be quietly shaping our lives—and why stepping away, even briefly, can create space for clarity, connection, and real presence.

• Discover how constant phone use impacts your focus, relationships, and overall well-being
• Learn why moments of boredom and stillness are actually powerful for creativity and clarity
• Gain a simple, practical shift that can help you reclaim time, energy, and meaningful connection

Press play now to reset your relationship with your phone—and create more space for what truly matters.

You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE in Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how 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.”

Join me on Substack https://substack.com/@milkshakeswithmichael for more ways to stay resilient and navigate today’s uncertainty with more grace.

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.

With Whole Again: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kintsugi Wisdom, listeners explore mindfulness and resilience through personal stories of trauma, scars, and injury while learning to overcome, imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and perfectionism with self-compassion, self-love, and self-worth. Through insightful discussions on building resilience, fitness, and stress management, as well as mindfulness practices and digital wellness, the show offers practical tools such as breathwork, micro-dose meditation, grounding techniques, visualization, and daily affirmations for anxiety relief and stress reduction. Inspired by the art of kintsugi, the podcast embodies healing as a transformative process, encouraging a shift in perspective from worry and overwhelm to gratitude and personal growth. By exploring the mind-body connection, micro-dosing strategies for emotional well-being, and

 Hey there, it's Michael. Welcome to Hole Again, the show that's here in support of the person you're becoming. And since it's Friday, I have something special for you. Each Friday this year, I'm sharing something I've learned along the way since my last bad day, also known as my near death cycling accident.

And this year, I'm celebrating the 25th anniversary of it. And in celebration, I'm giving away free copies of my book, My Last Bad Day Shift, you'll find the link in the show notes to get your copy. And every Friday, here on hold again, I'm sharing something I've discovered along the way. Some of the tips might hit the mark, and you can weave them into your formula for a meaningful life.

I like to think that we all have our own tool house cookie recipe for a meaningful life, so in no way do I think all 52 tips will be the thing for you, because we're all a little different. If it does hit the mark, awesome. If it doesn't, simply leave it behind. And this week, we're up to number 18. There's a quote I just love from author Anne Lamont, and it is, "Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.

How true is that? Think about it. When we look at all of our electronic do- dads and they get stuck or they're just not working right, I think one of the top tips from a help desk is, "Hey, why don't you turn it off for a few, wait a few seconds, and then see if it gets working again once you power it back up."

And I'm always amazed how well that works, and that leads us to this week's tip. Put the phone down, and I'll add, "Please, please put the phone down." Because I think almost every situation in life is not enhanced by having your phone around. Yes, there are some things that we wish to capture and send along to a friend or grandma or grandpa.

The phone's great there. You're probably listening to Hole Again on your phone, another awesome way to use the phone, and there are probably a few others, but for the most part, our phones are a great tool, but if we didn't have them or we just simply put them down, I don't think we're losing anything.

Here's something I think many of us can relate to. Have you ever felt your pocket buzz and you check your phone and then you realize that it wasn't buzzing? There was nothing there. There was no notification? We call that Phantom Vibration Syndrome, and it really speaks, it's a sign how tethered we are to our phones.

Those engineers that have created the algorithm, they know what they're doing. They know how to make our phones really sticky. That's why we always reach for them. It's habitual. We reach for them all the time and we don't even think about it. We just do it. When we're in line, when we're at a stoplight, when we're, say, in the bathroom, and the list can go on and on and on.

We are, as Lionel Richie saying, we're stuck on you. But when we intentionally put the phone down, really cool things happen. When we put the phone down at dinner or we put the phone down as we're having conversation or driving, all of those activities get enhanced and we form stronger connections. And when we're bored and we wanna pick up our phone and doomscroll, but rather we put the phone down, it gives our body a chance to reset.

I'm pretty sure you feel it, I know I feel it, but we have so much information coming at us all the time. And with AI generated content now, it seems like it's a tsunami of content. What our bodies are asking for is for us to put the phone down and give it some space, because in that space, even dare I say, when you're bored, that's when we do our best thinking.

And I'll be quite clear in saying that I don't think our future is about going back to analog phones or going off the grid or everyone getting a flip phone. I think those are nice stories about little fragments of our society, but in practicality, you use your phone most likely for work, you use it for directions and for paying for things.

Our phones are with us. I just believe we should look at our phones as a tool that we use as opposed to the tool using us, which is how it feels right now. And I believe we can learn how to do just that. I believe we can do hard things, and it's one of the reasons why I created my Paws Breathe Reflect app with Microdose EQ, which, by the way, is a completely free app, not the, it's free for a week and then you have to pay, it's totally free.

And one of the cool things about it, besides the fact that it can give almost an hour of your day back to you, is when I ask folks what they would spend that extra hour on, and most people either say they would spend it on their health, hanging out with friends or family, or being out in nature. Think about it.

If we could only put our phones down for a bit longer each day, we might be able to find that hour, that hour that can lead to activities that bring us more happiness and joy, and probably much better for our physical, mental, and emotional health. Just like Anne said, almost everything will work better once you unplug it, including you.

And my shift on that quote is that almost every moment of your life will be better if you put your phone down. So I encourage you to try it this weekend. Just find moments where you place the phone down preferably away from you so it's not so easy to grab if you have an idle moment, or you can play around with not grabbing your phone if you happen to be in line for something or at a stoplight.

You can play with this any way you want, but here's my prediction. If you can find a way to put the phone down, I think you're gonna find that you're gonna have more space and more time for things that bring you more joy and meaning, and that just might help you continue to step into the person you're becoming.

And as always, thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. I hope you're checking out our new series that just started to air this week called A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's all about talking to real folk across America on their reflections as America turns 250. And if you'd like to participate, drop me a line.

I would love to connect with you. There'll be a new conversation that I'll share actually tomorrow. And every Monday, tune in here to Hold Again for a microdose meditation, something I love sharing with you to help you start the week off on the right foot. And if you follow me over on Substack, you can also join us for the live meditations I do throughout the week.

And if this tip hit the mark for you and you know someone else that might benefit from putting the phone down, you can share this episode. It can be a nice hint hit. You should listen to this kind of moment, so I hope you'll share it with someone you know. And until then, let's remember to celebrate our scars as golden symbols of our strength and resilience.

And don't forget to have fun. Storm in the castle.

And if you wish to learn more about creating beautiful ripples and how to prevent a bad moment from turning into a bad day, please visit my website, michaelobrienshift.com and sign up for my newsletter called The Ripple Effect. And join us each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday here at hole again and discover how you can heal, grow, and become more resilient, and celebrate our scars as golden symbols of strength and resilience.

Until then, remember, you can always come back to your breath. You've got this, and we've got you.