This week Nathan and Kim wanted to talk about what they know the most about: Martial Arts and Personal Training. They share how they gained their expertise in these fields and why they love them so much. They also talk about the benefits of in-person training as opposed to online guides and finish with an off-the-cuff Q&A session.

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions for topics we should cover or any other thoughts you would like to share, please email us at podcastinfo@strikeandflowma.com. We would love to hear from you!

We know that religion can be a sensitive subject, so we avoid talking about it here. Instead, we decided to put it into a different podcast! If you want to learn more about our personal beliefs, check out our⁠ Rock and Sand - Foundations Matter Podcast.⁠

What should you do when other people are bringing negativity into your life? In this episode Nathan and Kim talk about what negativity from external sources looks like and how we can protect ourselves from allowing that negativity to bring us down. Nathan shares his personal experience with bullying and how he overcame the harm it did in his life. Kim shares her experience dealing with the aftermath of criticism and how it negatively impacted her mental health. We hope that as you listen, our experiences can help you with the difficult things you are going through.

Source Links

- APA Primer on Bullying

https://www.apa.org/ed/schools/primer/bullying

- Pew research statistics on social media

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2026/04/15/teens-experiences-on-tiktok-instagram-and-snapchat/

https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2026/10/01/across-the-globe-people-increasingly-say-social-media-is-harming-democracy/

- CDC article on Intimate Partner Violence

https://www.cdc.gov/intimate-partner-violence/about/index.html

- APA Stressor Definition

https://dictionary.apa.org/stressor

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions for topics we should cover or any other thoughts you would like to share, please email us at podcastinfo@strikeandflowma.com. We would love to hear from you!

We know that religion can be a sensitive subject, so we avoid talking about it here. Instead, we decided to put it into a different podcast! If you want to learn more about our personal beliefs, check out our⁠ Rock and Sand - Foundations Matter Podcast.⁠

Sometimes we are the biggest problem. In this first episode on combatting negativity, Nathan and Kim talk about the things our brain does to keep us thinking negatively. They share resources about our often-flawed thought patterns and how we can build our resilience.

Source Links:

- Georgetown University Ask a Professor: How to Help Manage Anxiety and Negative Thoughts

https://www.georgetown.edu/news/ask-a-professor-negative-thoughts-mental-health/#:~:text=Our%20nervous%20systems%20are,negatively.

- Encyclopedia Britannica - Cognitive Distortions

https://www.britannica.com/science/cognitive-distortion

- APA Definition: Resilience

https://dictionary.apa.org/resilience

- APA Psychology Topic: Building Your Resilience

https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience/building-your-resilience

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions for topics we should cover or any other thoughts you would like to share, please email us at podcastinfo@strikeandflowma.com. We would love to hear from you!

We know that religion can be a sensitive subject, so we avoid talking about it here. Instead, we decided to put it into a different podcast! If you want to learn more about our personal beliefs, check out our⁠ Rock and Sand - Foundations Matter Podcast.⁠

Health is important! In this episode, we learn some basic guidelines to follow as we try to improve our physical fitness while protecting our mental health. As they discuss some research articles that highlight health concepts, Kim shares what she has learned from being a personal trainer and Nathan provides perspective from his personal experiences.

Source Links:

Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Physical and Mental Health Outcomes: An Umbrella Review

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12116485/

Harvard University study: Exercise and Fitness

https://www.health.harvard.edu/topics/exercise-and-fitness

National Library of Medicine-Defining a Healthy Diet: Evidence for the Role of Contemporary Dietary Patterns in Health and Disease

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7071223/

National Library of Medicine-Sinful Foods: Measuring Implicit Associations Between Food Categories and Moral Attributes in Anorexic, Orthorexic, and Healthy Subjects

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9234570/

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions for topics we should cover or any other thoughts you would like to share, please email us at podcastinfo@strikeandflowma.com. We would love to hear from you!

We know that religion can be a sensitive subject, so we avoid talking about it here. Instead, we decided to put it into a different podcast! If you want to learn more about our personal beliefs, check out our⁠ Rock and Sand - Foundations Matter Podcast

Is honesty really the best policy? In this episode, Kim and Nathan take a good, long look at honesty. Using research and personal experiences, they discuss the tendency we have as humans to lie to others and ourselves. Join us as we learn how honesty can enable us to strengthen our relationships and accelerate our personal growth.

Source Links

Honesty APA Definitionhttps://dictionary.apa.org/honesty

Honesty with Self:

- Study 1

Be Happy, Be Honest: The Role of Self-Control, Self-Beliefs, and Satisfaction with Life in Honest Behaviorhttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10943-019-00956-x

- Self Regulation APA Definitionhttps://dictionary.apa.org/self-regulation

- Study 2

Self‐regulation in close relationships

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pere.12449

Honesty with Others:

- Study 1

Effectiveness of Apologizing Effectively Intervention among Married Couples: Enhancing Communication Patterns, Tolerance for Disagreement and Marital Quality

https://journals.irapa.org/index.php/aessr/article/view/1052/537

- Study 2

“I’m Sorry!”: The Relationship of Proclivity to Apologize and Parenting Quality

https://journals.irapa.org/index.php/aessr/article/view/1052/537

- Study 3

Expressed and Perceived Honesty Benefits Relationships Even When Couples Are Not Accuratehttps://labsites.rochester.edu/lelab/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Le-et-al.-2025-Expressed-and-perceived-honesty-benefits-relationships-even-when-couples-are-not-accurate.pdf

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions for topics we should cover or any other thoughts you would like to share, please email us at podcastinfo@strikeandflowma.com. We would love to hear from you!

We know that religion can be a sensitive subject, so we avoid talking about it here. Instead, we decided to put it into a different podcast! If you want to learn more about our personal beliefs, check out our⁠ Rock and Sand - Foundations Matter Podcast.⁠

When we think of conflict, we don’t always consider that it could start inside our hearts. Join Nathan and Kim as they discuss the idea of having a heart at peace as it is explained in the book The Anatomy of Peace. They apply their self-defense and parenting perspectives to help us learn how having a heart at peace could benefit our relationships.

Source Links

The Anatomy of Peace by the Arbinger Institute

https://arbinger.com/anatomy-of-peace

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions for topics we should cover or any other thoughts you would like to share, please email us at podcastinfo@strikeandflowma.com. We would love to hear from you!

We know that religion can be a sensitive subject, so we avoid talking about it here. Instead, we decided to put it into a different podcast! If you want to learn more about our personal beliefs, check out our⁠ Rock and Sand - Foundations Matter podcast.⁠

When people think about self-defense, they usually think about fighting or martial arts. It turns out that self-defense is a little more complex than that. Join Nathan and Kim as they go toe-to-toe with AI, helping us to understand what things we should consider when we think about defending ourselves.

Note: This is just an overview, there is so much more we could unpack here, so let us know if you want us to cover more about self-defense in future episodes.

Source Links

Cost-benefit analysis definition

The Gift of Fear - Gavin De Becker

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions for topics we should cover or any other thoughts you would like to share, please email us at podcastinfo@strikeandflowma.com. We would love to hear from you!

We know that religion can be a sensitive subject, so we avoid talking about it here. Instead, we decided to put it into a different podcast! If you want to learn more about our personal beliefs, check out our⁠ Rock and Sand - Foundations Matter Podcast.⁠

Emotions are important and they can provide us with valuable information. In this episode, Nathan and Kim talk about what emotions are and how we should think about them. They also discuss how emotions lead to impulses and why we should be aware of those automatic responses. Along the way, they explore connections between emotional awareness, parenting and martial arts. At the end, they share a tool they use to help them develop impulse control.

Source Links

APA Dictionary Definitions:

https://dictionary.apa.org/emotion

https://dictionary.apa.org/impulse

Dr. John Gottman’s book Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child:

https://www.gottman.com/product/raising-an-emotionally-intelligent-child-book/

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions for topics we should cover or any other thoughts you would like to share, please email us at podcastinfo@strikeandflowma.com. We would love to hear from you!

We know that religion can be a sensitive subject, so we avoid talking about it here. Instead, we decided to put it into a different podcast! If you want to learn more about our personal beliefs, check out our⁠ Rock and Sand - Foundations Matter Podcast.⁠