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Welcome to a short and actionable Friday episode of Whole Again, where we help survivors of physical trauma heal, grow, and thrive through the wisdom of mindfulness, resilience, and Kintsugi.

Today’s reflection starts with one simple but powerful question:

If you had an extra hour in your day, how would you use it?

In this episode, Michael O’Brien explores this question—a favorite in the Pause Breathe Reflect app—and offers a grounded, compassionate reframe that helps you actually reclaim time in your life, starting with just 15 minutes.

Whether your answer is:

• Focusing on your health
• Connecting more deeply with loved ones
• Getting outside and into nature
• Doing absolutely nothing (a.k.a. recovery!)
• …you’ll walk away with practical ways to start today, not next Monday.

This is for anyone navigating exhaustion, burnout, or the pressures of "doing more" while trying to recover or simply stay afloat.

What's You'll Discover:

• Why “extra time” is often hiding in plain sight (hint: check your phone 📱)
• A gentle mindset shift from wishful thinking to intentional action
• How 15-minute chunks of time can lead to massive healing over time
• Why doing nothing is often the most healing thing you can do

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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: 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 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 holistic approaches to self-care, this podcast empowers listeners to cultivate emotional resilience and live with greater balance and intention.

 Hey there, it's Michael. Welcome to Whole Again, A show about helping us embrace life with mindfulness and resilience through the wisdom of cons. Sugi, since it's Friday, today will be a short, actionable episode for you that can help you get closer to feeling whole again.

So whether or not you're walking, working out, driving, simply, hanging out, or perhaps folding laundry, which is not one of my strengths. This is a simple check-in, but one you can carry with you as you step forward. But before we get into it. I do wanna remind you if you haven't yet signed up for my free text messages to help you feel whole again and offer you tips on how to stay mindful and resilient, you can sign up for free by sending a simple text.

You can simply say hi and send the text to 8 6 6 6 1 2 4 6 0 4 and I'll set you up. Now, here's a question I've asked over 5,000 times this year. It's part of our onboarding to our pause, breathe, reflect app. But anytime I meet with someone, I always love to ask this question and we've all said it. I wish I had another hour in the day.

I'd get so much more done and sometimes it's, I wish I had another day in the week. So that's the question. If you had an extra hour every day, what would you do with it? Some of the responses I get back, the top one is I would spend it focusing in on my health. Love that answer. The next most popular response is, I would spend it with friends and family, but really being present with them.

Other people share, I'd get out into nature outside. I could spend it working out. Exercising. Some people say that they would do nothing, which is actually something. It's called recovery, and others would work on a side hustle. Those are just some of the responses I've received. So for you, how would you answer that question?

Now? The question can feel somewhat transactional. People hear the question, they respond. Then they move on thinking that an extra hour, a 25th hour in the day is not possible. Now for the folks that download my app, they're different because they are seeking a solution and they know some of this time is actually embedded in their phone time.

Today I wanna dive a bit deeper with you so you can find a way to take action. Because whatever you said in response to the question, if you could do it, it would enrich your life. For example, say you wanted to spend more time on your health again, awesome. What does that look like for you? Is it better sleep?

Is it different meals, different nourishment? Is it moving your body? Is it. Calling those doctors that you know you need to call to set up appointments. Is it flossing your teeth? Get specific, what might it be? See if you can actually picture it. Now, if you said spend time with friends or family, maybe there's a particular someone that you want to spend the time with, or if you said you wanted to get out into nature, cool beans.

Where in nature and what would you be doing outside? Again, try to get as specific as possible, and since we love to take small steps consistently over time, we're not gonna go after the full hour right now. We'll just start with 15 minutes and we won't do that whole thing that we often do. I'll do it on Monday.

I'll start at the beginning of the week. We can start today. We can start. Right now, whatever day you happen to be listening to this episode, so let's chunk it down into 15 minute segments. What can you do in a 15 minute chunk of time today that could be used to take care of your health or connect with a friend or get outside or even work on your side hustle?

If that was the answer to the question. Try to start here 15 minutes at a time and then build over time. And I will say, if you look at your screen time on your phone, you probably, if you're like most humans, most adults, you have this time, you have this extra hour in your phone. So if you can find a way to put the phone down for a bit.

15 minutes adds up over time. You might be able to find an hour or two, like a lot of people who have my app, so you can dedicate it to taking care of your health or hanging with a friend or a family member or simply doing nothing. Which again, it's something, it's called recovery, and my guess is you've earned it.

So there you have it, a short episode today all around trying to help you find a way to take action to that question. If you had an extra hour every day, how would you use it? Let's find ways to make this happen because when you do not if, but when you do, it'll help improve your life. It'll help you take a step to truly feeling whole again.

And as always, thanks for being here. Thank you for putting a beautiful ripple into the world,

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.