What if the smallest act of kindness you offer today could create a ripple that changes someone’s life?

In a world where so much focus is placed on self-improvement and personal success, it’s easy to feel disconnected or stuck despite all the inner work. This episode explores how true meaning isn’t found in what we build for ourselves—but in how we show up for others and the ripple effect we create.

• Discover how shifting from “the rock” (achievement) to “the ripple” (impact) can bring deeper fulfillment
• Learn a simple, powerful mindset shift to improve your mood and sense of purpose instantly
• Understand how small, everyday acts of kindness can strengthen connection and create meaningful change

Press play now to learn how one small ripple of love and kindness can transform not just your day—but someone else’s life too.

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With Whole Again: A Fresh Approach to Mindfulness and Resilience through Kintsugi Wisdom, listeners explore mindfulness and 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 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 Whole again, the show that's here to support you in creating a meaningful life and a powerful ripple effect. And every Friday this year, as I celebrate the 25th anniversary of my last bad day, that's my near fatal cycling accident. I'm sharing things that have helped me have a growth mindset.

Throughout the years, my hope is that many of them will land for you and you'll make them part of your own success formula. Others maybe not so much, so you can leave those by the side. In this week we're up to number 12, ripple kindness, and if I can, I like to add love in there because loving kindness is one of the four Immeasurables.

And I do a loving kindness meditation each Friday. It's a wonderful practice. If you haven't yet joined us, I hope you will sometime this year. So number 12 is ripple love and kindness. My friend Shin Shaw writes a beautiful called the Last 5%. I'll put a link to in the show notes. A wonderful human and a deep thinker.

And earlier this week in his latest post, he made a reference to my notion of a ripple effect. Here's what he shared. My friend Michael O'Brien talks about the ripple we create in the world, not the rock, the ripple. We spend so much of our lives building the rock. Building identity, building the career, building the reputation, building the life.

But at some point, life becomes less about the rock and more about the ripple. Less about what we accumulate and more about what moves through other people, because we are here. Less about what we build and more about who we help. Less about becoming someone and more about being part of something. Hmm. S That is so good.

A chef's kiss to you. Bravo. Of course, the ripple effect is not unique to many people. Reference it when I was younger. We would go visit my grandmother on my mom's side at her farmhouse in New Hampshire. She had a pond out back, and I would always love to go to the pond. That's where I learned how to fish.

You know, I'd skip stones and I'd pick up stones or rocks. I had to have just the right one, of course, because you can't really skip a big boulder. I was more concerned about how many ripples I could create. I didn't know it at the time, but it was a bit of a physics lesson. Ever since those days, I've loved the visual of a stone or a rock being tossed and just kissing the surface of the water and the ripple effect it creates.

It has stayed with me since those very early days of my childhood, and the concept of a ripple effect really spoke to me, spoke volumes to me during my recovery because so many rippled love and kindness to me. Sometimes people did really big things to help me or help my family in other times. With small little gestures like how Yvonne, one of my first physical therapists brought me Krispy Kreme donuts when I was at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

They were some of the only food I could actually stomach, and it meant, well, it meant the world to me over the last two decades, and some might argue it's even longer than that, and I would not give them much of an argument. I would concede their point that we as a society all in an effort to live our best life has over index on the self.

I think it's great to work on oneself, to do the inner work, do the outer work as a coach, as a speaker, even as a meditation teacher. I think it's absolutely fantastic that. So many people wish to work on themselves. I would submit that more people could be working on themselves in order to create a more meaningful life.

However, one would define that as I shared with you at the beginning of the year, I went to a seven day silent retreat. That act is a form of working on oneself. Because only when we turn off all the noise, we can really tune in to the stories that we tell ourselves. But the practice of mindfulness and meditation, and I'll throw in yoga or just self-help and self-development in general.

Heck, let's just add world religions, all of it, because all of it speaks to. Working on ourselves to create more meaning in our life, but it doesn't stop with the self. The reason why we go inward is that it helps us show up and create this ripple effect. It helps us show up in a way where we can be in support and in service to other people.

It's that connection piece that's often missed in conversations around development. A constant conversation over the last several years is around how divided we are, and there are many reasons why we are as divided as we are. You can't just point to one source, but I do think a source. Is the fact that we've spent so much time just working on, as Shaheen writes, the Rock, without enough emphasis on the ripple we're creating.

And I have found over the years when I feel stuck or I might not be in the best mood, one way to shift it is to show up and create a ripple that is. Do something in support of others. Be there in service, much like I shared on Wednesday's episode. So as we look to round out this conversation, I'll invite you to take a generous breath in and a releasing breath out, create some space and reflect on.

What kind of ripple do I wish to put into the world? In essence, how do you wish to show up? And I always love to start with the smallest ripple you can make. Maybe it's something as simple as holding the door open for someone. 'cause that simple act sends a message that. The other person is seen, and if we can put more ripples of love and kindness in the world, more ripples that let people know that they're heard, they're seen and they're loved or appreciated, then I think we can find a way to build more connection to create asu.

To create more meaning in our lives.

As always, thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. In addition to sharing these tips each Friday, I'm also giving away copies of my book, my Last Bad Day Shift. As a way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of my accident, it's a relatively quick read, but in it, there are a ton of valuable resources and different points of reflection that can help you create your own formula, your own recipe, if you will, for a meaningful life, and to create that powerful ripple effect.

You'll find a link in the show notes to order your copy. Until Monday's episode where I'll have another microdose meditation for you. Let's celebrate our scars as golden symbols of our strength and resilience. Keep pedaling my friends. We'll connect on Monday,

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, Michael O'Brien schiff.com. And sign up for my newsletter called The Ripple Effect, and join us each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday here at Whole 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.