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, Transformation our scars into healing and resilience, and a new series from May to August called A Perfectly Imperfect Union.

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Are you truly listening—or just waiting for your turn to speak?

In a world filled with constant noise, notifications, and distractions, it’s easy to believe we’re always listening—but rarely are we fully present. If you’ve been feeling disconnected, overwhelmed, or stuck in autopilot, the ability to truly listen—to your body, your environment, and your inner voice—might be the missing piece to creating a more meaningful and aligned life.

• Learn how tuning into your body can help you catch stress signals before they escalate
• Discover how deeper listening strengthens your relationships and connection with others
• Understand how awareness through listening leads to better decisions and a more intentional life

Press play now to learn how mastering the art of listening can transform your awareness, relationships, and the life you’re creating.

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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 in support of you creating a meaningful life and the person you are becoming. And as I mentioned on Wednesday's episode, which was all around taking a digital detox to help our overall wellness. I'm still in a remote location, not my normal recording environment, so if the sound sounds a little funky.

That is the reason. But Jake, who does the audio here on whole, again, is a magician, so I know he's gonna put his magic touch on the final product, even though it might sound a little funky to me. And here we are on another Friday, and every Friday this year, I'm sharing growth mindset tips that I have learned along the way over the last 25 years.

Since my last bad day and this year, I celebrate 25 years since that accident, that accident sparked whole again in a lot of what I do today. It's also helped me connect with so many amazing people who are also like you, eager to put out a positive ripple effect into the world. And this week we're up to number 14.

It's all about listen, listen, listen. Which is hard to do. Of course, the world is quite noisy nowadays, so it seems like all we're doing is listening, but are we, are we truly listening to the things that truly matter? Yes. Social media is filled with a whole bunch of things to watch and listen to. Are those the things that really drive you forward into creating that meaningful life and the person you're becoming?

In each episode, he'll ask his guest the interviewee if they have any. Final words of wisdom to pass on to his audience on how to do the thing they claim. They know what to do. So again, I knew intellectually this question would come because I listened to Rich's podcast on the regular, but I didn't do any planning on what I was going to share.

So when the question came, what came out of me was something organic and natural. And it was simply this. Listen to the body and this is where we start as I share Tip 14. Listen, listen, listen. We start with the body. Something that I never did really. Did prior to my accident, but as I came through my recovery and I discovered meditation, I also discovered the body scan meditation, which is one of the cornerstone practices.

Even current day for me is really tuning in to listen to what the body is whispering to me before it turns up the volume. Now, sometimes when I do a body scan meditation, the body's already turned up the volume. I don't need any help. Now what's different today than back in the early days of my recovery is now we have all these different wearables.

Garmin, an aura ring, a whoop. I personally have a whoop, and they'll tell you things about your body. I. I think they can be excellent tools for our overall wellness. As long as we don't get obsessive about them. And I know some people who have, but I really see them as almost like hearing aids. They amplify the sound coming from our body.

So when I share listening to the body, going back to the roots of a body scan meditation, it's really trying to tune into our own ability to listen to the body. Various forms of technology start off with a value added proposition. We can start with a calculator. Back in the day, we had to do long handed division or multiplication addition or subtraction, but now with a calculator.

Our math skills in general have atrophied, or let's take that app on your phone. That's the map that helps you get from point A to point B. Well, back in the day, we had a greater sense of direction and an ability to actually read a paper map. But with GPS always on, we lose our sense of, you know, how to get.

Around and navigate our surroundings. And even with ai, which can be beneficial in some aspects of today's society, but if we're always going to AI for thought generation or writing ability. Will it not also dampen our ability to write well going forward? And even the typewriter I would submit has weakened our ability to write clearly with good penmanship.

I was really bad. I had chicken scratch before I really found the typewriter or the computer. Now my writing and my signature is even worse. So these technology tools, these wearables will help us listen to our body, but think of them in terms of a hearing aid. They might amplify certain signals, but what I'm really talking about is the ability to go within, not to fix what.

Might pop up during a particular meditation, but just to be aware of what's happening in your body. And once we get better at listening to the body, I think there's a cascade or a ripple effect. We can then tune into nature better. Since we are nature and we can start tuning into each other better. And then finally tuning into ourselves, especially that story that we tell ourselves about ourselves.

Listening really is about awareness. And that awareness can lead to acceptance. And from acceptance we can take thoughtful action. That thoughtful action, that's what creates a positive ripple effect. But the ripple effect, at least a positive one, doesn't really start without listening. Through listening, we give ourselves the opportunity to connect, to repair, to heal.

Metaphorically listening is an ingredient in the ori. That's that glue that helps bond together our broken pottery and turns it into Kintsugi, which I use here as a metaphor for whole again. So all you have to do is look out into the world, into society. You can look at your company that you happen to work at.

You can look at celebrities or politicians, and any leader today who's struggling. So often they are because they're not listening, because they believe they are the ones who are right. They're the smartest one in the room, and they don't need to listen to anyone. Now they do in turn create a ripple effect, but it's not a really positive one.

Ripple effects can be both positive and abundant, and they can also be diminishing. They actually can stop the energy from any environment or any situation. So here's tip number 14 again. Work on your ability to listen fully, listen to connect and understand. Listen intuitively as you gain skill in listening, you'll be able to make greater connection with all different aspects of one's life.

So there you have it. Tip number 14. Next Friday, I'll share another tip and another way I am celebrating my 25th anniversary from my last bad day is that I'm giving away free copies of my bestselling book, my Last Bad Day shift. You'll see the link in the show notes because after all, this is a podcast and every podcast seems to have show notes.

So click on the link. You can order your copy. People really love this simple approach to what I shared in the book. It's filled with resources for you to create that meaningful life. We reference here on whole again and step into the person you're becoming. And as always, thank you for being here, and thank you for listening.

If this tip resonated with you. You think someone you know might benefit from it as well. I hope you'll share it with them. And until Monday's episode where I share a microdose meditation to help you start the week off on the right foot. Let's 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, 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.