This week's episode is short and sweet, and hopefully one you'll come back to over and over. One of the pieces that's been especially transformative for Karen's wellness is meditation, and this week she shares a guided meditation.

One of the most common myths about meditation is that if you find yourself having to refocus on meditating over and over, then you're doing it wrong. In fact, refocusing on meditating over and over is what meditation is. Like most of the pieces we share, practice = progress, and meditation is no different. We don't strive for perfection here, there's no such thing.

Karen shares a relatively simple 5 minute guided meditation, and we hope that you'll listen to this part as often as you need to incorporate meditation into your wellness/self-care practices.

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Things do get better …

This week, we are honored to welcome Kristen Christy to the podcast. Kristen is co-creator of 988, the suicide and crisis lifeline. In the 4 years since 988 became available, they have responded to 23.3 MILLION calls/texts/chats. Literally saving lives each and every day.

Kristen describes herself as a hope dealer; she continuously spreads the message that hope is not cancelled. And what is hope? Hope can be the invitation to Help One Person Everyday or the message: Hold On, Pain Eases. Kristen leans on her role as a military spouse to reframe experiences, and reminds us that by asking for help, we give other people hope.

We also get into some of the nitty gritty of building and providing suicide awareness and prevention. We encourage people to develop a safety plan consisting of 3 warning signs that you may need help, 3 reasons to stay alive, and 3 people to call. Sometimes prevention is intervention. Kristen also talks with us about post-vention, what to do after a crisis. This recovery period includes caring for the person who's had a crisis in a way that facilitates belonging and connection.

It bears repeating, 988 is a literal lifeline. Share this episode with someone you care about!

Is there something you're struggling with? Or something you'd like to hear us discuss?
Reach out on IG @piecestowellness or shoot us an email at neverunderestimatetpp@gmail.com.
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This week, we're re-releasing our episode on suicidal ideation in honor of Suicide Awareness month. We're talking about the difference between active and passive suicidal ideation. First of all, it's normal to think about suicide. It's much more common than most people think (a study from the NIH found that over 10% of the U.S. population experiences passive suicidal ideation in their lifetime). In this conversation we discuss the difference between passive thoughts and actively making plans to take your life. If you or anyone you know is having active suicidal ideation - meaning the person has made a plan to end their life, get help immediately. You can get help by calling 911, or by calling or texting 988 - the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

If you have passive thoughts of suicide that are becoming more frequent or intense, it's time to talk about it. There are many resources available for people who need help. By having these conversations, we hope to bring light to a dark subject. By bringing light to these subjects, we hope to help others find the courage to have conversations of their own. It all starts with normalizing conversations about mental health.

Here are some helpful links:
AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) - Find a mental health professional

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) - Crisis Intervention

IASP (International Association for Suicide Prevention) - Suicidal Crisis Support

Is there something you're struggling with? Or something you'd like to hear us discuss?
Reach out on IG @piecestowellness or shoot us an email at neverunderestimatetpp@gmail.com.
Please check out our other episodes and tell a friend!
Remember - The road to a better you is paved with pieces to wellness…
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Another raw, vulnerable conversation this week from the Instigator and the Yogi. This healing stuff is NOT for the faint of heart! In fact, the healing process is not linear, meaning that as we grow and heal, we uncover deeper layers of (fill in the blank) experience, emotion, awareness, learning, etc. This uncovering tends to be uncomfortable, and most of us dislike, or even avoid the uncomfortable. Therefore, self-sabotage is bound to creep up and companion most of us along the way.

We explore 3 ways that we can self-sabotage our own growth. To be clear, we are speaking from our own lived experiences here, and this is by no means an exhaustive list; we've actually barely scratched the surface. One way we self-sabotage is by shrinking ourselves to "keep the peace". For many of us, making ourselves small or quiet, masked or hidden likely helped us survive. Continually approaching all situations as potentially life-threatening keeps our nervous systems in a constant state of sympathetic arousal, and has numerous negative long-term effects, physiologically, psychologically, relationally.

The second way we self-sabotage is by saying yes when we want to say no. This behavior is very closely linked to the first method. Together, these two behaviors illustrate fawning, a trauma response that many of us adopt in unsafe environments or relationships. Over time, fawning behaviors become habitual, and appear to be deeply interwoven into the fabric of our personalities.

You'll have to listen to the episode to get the deets on the third means of self-sabotage. Spoiler alert: stopping self-sabotage starts with noticing when you're doing it, and moving the needle of growth a little bit at a time. Slow and steady friends, slow and steady.

Is there something you're struggling with? Something you'd like to hear us discuss? Someone you'd like to hear us talk to? Reach out on IG @piecestowellness or shoot us an email at neverunderestimatetpp@gmail.com.
Please check out our other episodes and tell a friend!
Remember - The road to a better you is paved with pieces to wellness…
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This week the Instigator and the Yogi get real and raw. How do you know if your brain is telling you the truth? When you realize that your perspective may be distorted, what do you do?

Tim shares a trifecta of experience that is not for the faint of heart - feeling dismissed, misunderstood, and/or unheard. We talk through differentiating self-care from avoidance, loneliness from aloneness, fact from fiction. Ultimately, the answers emerge from the conversation itself. There's something to be said for sharing our thoughts and feelings, whether with a trusted friend or a page in a journal that helps new insights and connections emerge. Eventually, we recognize a common root, a connecting thread that links the feelings and experiences, and that's where the real healing begins.

We're reminded that one of the reasons we put these episodes out each week is to help ourselves process life. It's not all sunshine and rainbows and inspiration. This is where the rubber meets the road. Especially for folks living with mental health challenges, the act of processing our experiences and reactions helps to remove the distortions so that the direction of our inner compass can once again help us find our way. Enjoy!

Is there something you're struggling with? Something you'd like to hear us discuss? Someone you'd like to hear us talk to? Reach out on IG @piecestowellness or shoot us an email at neverunderestimatetpp@gmail.com.
Please check out our other episodes and tell a friend!
Remember - The road to a better you is paved with pieces to wellness…
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This week, your favorite dynamic duo welcome Allison Karoly to the show! Allison is an energy and somatic practitioner, and founder of Amperella. Through Amperella, Allison provides a variety of complementary therapies including and often blending somatic experiencing, reiki, and emotion code to facilitate nervous system regulation and calm.

Allison shares her story of why this work chose her, and how it helped her in her own life, eventually leading her to share these healing practices with others professionally. She emphasizes that her work is bringing people back to themselves and helping them shift. This shift can be from stuck to self-assured, from indecisive to intuitive, even from reactive to resilient. These healing practices meet people where they're at, and often help folks find a path forward that they wouldn't have otherwise found.

As always, the Instigator and the Yogi share their own experiences with using these kinds of tools to help light the way for others. If you want to learn more about Allison's offerings, visit her website: theamperella.com or check her out on IG & FB @theamperella.

Is there something you're struggling with? Something you'd like to hear us discuss? Someone you'd like to hear us talk to? Reach out on IG @piecestowellness or shoot us an email at neverunderestimatetpp@gmail.com.
Please check out our other episodes and tell a friend!
Remember - The road to a better you is paved with pieces to wellness…
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Every day, every where, people ask and answer questions as a means of learning information and getting to know each other. This week, the Instigator and the Yogi decided to use some fun, familiar questions to help our listeners know us more fully.

In this episode, you'll get to find out about our favorite sandwiches, our beliefs about the afterlife, even our favorite songs! Some details may seem minor, other topics give a peek into the deep wells within your hosts, Tim and Karen. We share details we haven't shared before, laugh at the silliness of life, and learn even more about each other.

Let this episode bring a little bit of lightness, some laughter, some sharing to ease you through your day. To quote the Indigo Girls song Closer to Fine, "Help me take my life less seriously, it's only life after all." Enjoy!

Is there something you're struggling with? Something you'd like to hear us discuss? Reach out on IG @piecestowellness or shoot us an email at neverunderestimatetpp@gmail.com.
Please check out our other episodes and tell a friend!
Remember - The road to a better you is paved with pieces to wellness…
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Every once in a while on Pieces to Wellness, the Instigator and the Yogi get a little spiritual about mental health and healing. This is one of those times. This week we're discussing the Eightfold Path.

Many spiritual and wisdom traditions offer lists of things to do, things not to do, values and principles to live by. The Eightfold Path has its origins in Buddhism. In Buddhism, the Eightfold Path is the 4th of the Four Noble Truths, and is meant to function as a practical guide to ethical living, mental discipline, and ultimately wisdom. No wonder we like it! The big picture, high level purpose of these guiding principles are to help decrease suffering and reach enlightenment.

We explore what practicing these things, walking this path looks like in today's modern world, what the pitfalls and obstacles can be and have been for us. We also dig into the similarities between these Buddhist teachings and practices, and the 8 limbs of yoga. Do you agree or disagree with our comparisons and connections? What part of the Eightfold Path comes easily to you? What's more challenging? We'd love to hear how this resonates for you!

Reach out on IG @piecestowellness or shoot us an email at neverunderestimatetpp@gmail.com.
Please check out our other episodes and tell a friend!
Remember - The road to a better you is paved with pieces to wellness…
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https://a.co/d/h7AQf91