What if the mindset shift that helps you heal is also the one that initially pisses you off?

In this powerful microdose episode, Michael opens up about a question that landed at the wrong time—but eventually changed everything. As part of the “R” in his GRACE model, reframing is more than just thinking positively. It’s about claiming your power by choosing how you relate to what’s happened.

Takeaways:

• Hear how one conversation reframed Michael’s recovery from near-death trauma.
• Learn why reframing isn’t about denying your pain—but about relating to it differently.
• Take away two powerful journaling/meditation prompts that can help you shift perspective (when the time is right).

Take a deep breath and explore a transformative question that could help you move from frustration to clarity, and from survival to healing.

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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.

 In this episode, you'll discover the mindset shift that pissed me off at first, but eventually it was a game changer in my recovery. Hey there, it's Michael. Welcome to Whole again. A show about helping survivors a physical injury and trauma, reclaim their strength and resilience through the wisdom of Kazuki.

On Fridays, I love sharing a microdose of wisdom with you to help you become whole again and step into the person you're becoming. They say timing is everything. And I believe this to be true, especially when it comes to questions or prompts that can shift our mindset. And in this episode. You'll discover one such question that came a little too early.

The timing just wasn't right, but eventually it was a game changer in my recovery, and I hope it can help you. And if the timing isn't right, just place it off to the side and come back to it when the timing's better for you. And speaking of timing, this episode is being released on the anniversary of my last bad day.

My big accident and I'll share more about why I call it my last bad day in a future episode. But for right now, I just wanna say I'm grateful to be here, underscore that one. And I'm grateful that you're here and you're a fellow survivor and I have something special for you. As we celebrate. I'm giving away free copies of my book Shift Better Tomorrow.

So if like a copy. Reach out to me and I'll send you an autograph copy of my book and I hope it will inspire and motivate you through your recovery. Alright, let's dive in on the topic of reframing, which represents the R in my Grace model. There was a time in the earlier days of my recovery when I was feeling not so great.

I was irritated. Vengeful. I wanted to get back the driver who harmed me, who basically almost killed me. I was frustrated. I was lonely. I didn't have much gratitude on board back then, but I certainly had plenty of unpleasant emotions. But right around that time, one of my mentors called to check in to see how I was doing, and I unloaded on her.

All the things that were wrong, all the reasons why I was pissed off. I was venting big time. And then she said, Hey Michael, what if this isn't happening to you, but for you? I remember pausing, not knowing how to respond because I thought she was giving me one of those Jedi mindset tricks. The timing wasn't right for her question, but I appreciated her intent.

It was coming from a good place in her heart. In those early days, I was clearly in the thinking that this was happening to me. I was like, look at me. All this is so unfair. So when she asked the question, is it happening for you? I was like. What talking about, no, it's not happening for me. It's happening to me.

Can't you see? Can't you hear my frustration? And then she asked it again, and I softened my energy a bit. I knew she was coming from a good place in her heart, but during the call, she had not convinced me that this was all happening for me. But I sat with that question over the next few days. The next several weeks, and then I realized there was a possibility that this was happening for me.

Instead of playing the victim, this might be a moment, my no mud, no lotus moment, and it helped me start to shift my perspective. It helped me point my eyes in a different direction because ultimately we go where our eyes go. Her question unlocked the rest of my recovery, so I wanna share it with you today.

When you think about what you're going through, what's the hardest part of your recovery? It might be feeling tired all the time, or your loss of independence. It could be wondering about your identity, just dealing with uncertainty of the moment. So I. Her question to you, and if the timing isn't right, save this one and come back to it later.

How might what you're going through be happening for you? Maybe this pause you've been given is protecting you from burnout, or maybe it's teaching you how to listen more intently to your body, or maybe it's. Trying to help you have a deeper relationship with you. There's an opportunity in recrafting how you see yourself through all this.

I have found that reframing as part of my grace model, to be the most challenging one for most of us. This is hard, but it was never meant to be easy. We often latch on to a particular view. It can help us feel safe and we wanna feel safe, but when we reframe things, we can see different ways of looking at the situation, and that's where your power lies.

Your power isn't trying to control everything in life, but it's about how you choose to show up and how you relate to the things that happen to you in life. Here's another prompt that you can use if you journal. Or simply use it as a subject of a meditation. If this moment of struggle were a teacher, what might it be trying to teach me?

Let the answers bubble up. Let them come forward without any judgment. We do too much of that anyway, and you don't have to get it right. There's no one right answer. Again, if this is too soon, save this one for later. Come back to it and as you go through recovery from illness or injury or even some type of trauma, I hope you know you don't have to go forward, alone.

We walk with you on your way to feeling whole again.

As always, thanks for being here in this episode. We covered the R in My Grace model. Reframing as a way to see things differently and to unlock doors that can help you recover. Again, thanks for being here, and thank you for being a fellow survivor

and if you wish to further enhance your digital health, I'll invite you to take my smartphone wellness check and you can access it through the link in the show notes, or you can visit my website, which is Michael O'Brien shift.com and it's absolutely free. And it will help you scroll less and live more.

And of course, I hope you'll join us here on whole again every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and discover how to 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.