Hey lady! Have you ever been accused of being stuck-up, shy, rude, or flat-out a b*tch and you were simply existing? Other people’s projections land on you and suddenly you have a reputation for being anti-social or awkward while anxiety is beating your butt and you’re doing your best not to show it. Or, maybe you’re the one pre-emptively judging someone for their demeanor, creating stories about why they are behaving they way they are without pausing and finding a neutral space from which to observe the interaction.

This week, Dr. Dom and Terri show some love to the socially selective, the socially anxious, and the downright awkward among us so that we can understand these relational dynamics and hopefully offer more compassion to ourselves and others. Why? Because we’re all doing life for the first time and we do not all have the answers but we can make the effort to help each other along the way.

Have you noticed that certain situations trigger fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses from you? Dr. Dom offers an actionable toolkit to help you navigate those scenarios so you can enter spaces skillfully. And, Terri offers perspective about how you can give yourself grace because it is quite possible that you are reading the room accurately and acting perfectly appropriately even if other people misunderstand your behavior.

Terri and Dr. Dom share their real-world experiences and how they’ve been able to adapt to situations while also identifying when they’ve personalized a situation without enough data or proper context. Lady, doing that can cause unforced errors in an otherwise fruitful potential relationship, so do yourself a favor, head over to the Cultivating H.E.R. Space shop, grab your journal and spend some time with the reflection questions offered in this episode.

Lady, life is all about relationships so let’s expand our capacity to be in sisterhood by increasing our confidence and our understanding of our differences. We’re shaping this world into a beautiful one full of genuine authenticity!

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Goal Mapping Starter Guide

Cultivating H.E.R. Space Sanctuary

Resources:

Dr. Dom’s Therapy Practice

Get That Pitch Workshop: Turn your story and expertise into speaking gigs, media features, and collaborations, without a publicist. Visit GetThatPitch.com and Use code HERSPACE for a special listener discount.

Branding with Terri

Melanin and Mental Health

Therapy for Black Girls

Psychology Today

Therapy for QPOC

Therapy Fund Foundation

Where to find us:

Twitter: @HERspacepodcast

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Facebook: @herspacepodcast

Website: cultivatingherspace.com

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He writes his name in all capitals with a period — because MAJOR. means that. And this week, he proves it.

On this episode of Happy With Tammi Mac, host Tammi Mac welcomes the incomparable MAJOR. for a conversation that moves like a gospel song — slowly, deeply, and straight into your chest.

MAJOR. has built a career on music that makes you feel seen. But behind the voice and the artistry is a story of profound love and devastating loss. His worst moment? October 2015 — when his stepfather, Edward Walter Moten, passed away. Edward was MAJOR.'s hero: a humble, God-fearing, quietly powerful man who came into his life through a church connection when Major. was in kindergarten, married his mother, helped raise a blended family of ten children, and never once made Major. feel like anything less than his own.

In this episode, MAJOR. recalls the second-grade moment that changed everything — when Edward knelt down and asked him for permission to marry his mother. He remembers saying yes. Not because he was a kid who didn't know better, but because even then, he knew Edward was the real thing.

MAJOR. also shares something rarely discussed with such tenderness: how his stepfather helped him navigate his complicated feelings about his biological father — a man he didn't meet until he was eight — and ultimately arrive at a place of agape love, compassion, and peace.

Tammi Mac brings her own vulnerability to this conversation, sharing why she created Happy With Tammi Mac after suffering from depression during the pandemic — struggling to perform happiness on air at KJLH radio while barely finding the strength to get out of bed. Her question, which drives every episode: "How the hell are people supposed to be happy when the worst things imaginable have happened to them?"

MAJOR.'s answer begins with breath. With gold. With the quiet certainty that if you're still inhaling, it isn't over.

Segments covered in this episode:

🌑 The Dark Journey — Losing the man who was the foundation of his world

🔀 The Turning Point — Grace, blended families, and choosing to love fully

☀️ Finding Happy — Why breath is proof that there's more to come

Happiness has been a hard word to come by — but it will exist again.

Happy With Tammi Mac is part of the Inflection Network. New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify so you never miss a turning point story.

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In this solo episode, Bailey Taylor gets candid about body image, self-esteem, and the pressure to keep up in a world shaped by social media, fashion trends, and Ozempic culture. She opens up about her own weight loss journey, falling out of routines, and what it feels like to start over when your confidence is low. Bailey also shares her honest take on the return of ultra-skinny beauty standards, why she believes health and strength should be the goal, and how comparison online can distort your sense of reality. From small daily rituals to movement, skincare, mindset shifts, and learning to slow down, this episode is a raw conversation about taking your power back and building confidence in a healthier, more lasting way.

Follow Bailey Taylor HERE

Follow the Show HERE

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Your mind is constantly vacillating — between past and future, good and bad, success and failure — and most of us are addicted to following it wherever it goes. In this episode of Waking Up with Ryan, we explore the difference between the mind that never stops moving and the awareness underneath it that never moves at all. Drawing on a line from A Course in Miracles, Ryan guides you through a simple but powerful shift: resting back into the presence that's always here, beneath every thought. Includes a guided meditation to help you practice coming home to yourself. Perfect for your morning routine — a few minutes to wake up, breathe, and remember who you really are.

Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello

Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan)

You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com.

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This week is about what happens when you finally stop trying to be okay with what happened to you.

Ben sits down with his former therapist, Jessica Serber, who helped him work through years of grief and anger after surviving cancer three times before the age of 24. For a long time, Ben thought healing meant moving on, staying positive, and building a life that had nothing to do with cancer. What he eventually learned was almost the opposite: he couldn’t move through the pain until he let himself actually feel it.

They talk about the anger Ben didn’t think he was allowed to have, the parts of his life he felt cancer had taken from him, and how finally telling the truth about those feelings changed his relationship with the experience. They also get into what healing actually looks like when the thing that happened to you never completely goes away, and how to show up for someone you love when there’s nothing you can say to make things better.

We’ve been best friends since college. We lived in the same house while Ben was going through chemotherapy and still barely talked about what was actually happening. Years later, sitting down with Jess brought us back to conversations we didn’t know how to have then.

If you’ve been carrying pain, anger, grief, or something you’ve convinced yourself you should be “over” by now, this episode is for you.

You can’t heal what you won’t let yourself feel.

New episodes every Thursday. Follow on the iHeart app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and on Instagram at @freetherapy.

And as a reminder, we are not therapists, and while this may feel like therapy, it’s not. If you’re struggling, please reach out to a mental health professional who can help.

0:00 Reuniting with his old therapist
10:00 Allowed to feel his anger
17:51 Seeing his cancer as trophies
28:09 What to say when someone's struggling
35:28 Getting uncomfortable to heal
42:24 Grief camp and giving back

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That knot in your stomach before something new? It's not a sign to stop — it's a sign you're expanding. In this episode, Ryan explores why fear, nervousness, and anxiety are inevitable companions to any meaningful growth, drawing on stories from legendary performers like Liza Minnelli and Meryl Streep who leaned into their nerves rather than away from them. You'll learn how to reframe that anxious feeling as a signal of impending expansion rather than a warning to retreat — and then settle into a guided practice to help you meet the unknown with more presence, courage, and self-trust. If you've been putting off something because it scares you, this episode is your permission slip to take the leap anyway.

Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello

Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan)

You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com.

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Tips for nervous system regulation are everywhere right now - from breathwork and cold plunges to conversations about burnout, anxiety, and trauma. But what does it actually mean to be regulated, and are we sometimes turning healing into another thing to obsess over? In this episode, we take a grounded, research-informed look at what your nervous system is really trying to do, why fight-or-flight is not the enemy, and how stress, trauma, lifestyle, and hypersensitivity can shape the way we feel in our bodies.

We explore:
• What the window of tolerance can teach us about overwhelm and shutdown
• Why your nervous system is trying to protect you
• The role of trauma, chronic stress, and lifestyle factors in dysregulation
• What a regulated nervous system can actually feel like
• How hypersensitivity can keep us stuck in symptom-monitoring
• Why sleep, safety, nourishment, connection, and routine matter more than expensive wellness tools

Watch on Netflix: HERE

Follow Jemma on Instagram: @jemmasbeg

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @thatpsychologypodcast

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For business: psychologyofyour20s@gmail.com

Our favourite sources:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.31887/DCNS.2006.8.4/jbremner
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005789413000191?via%3Dihub
https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/44/6/zsaa289/6053003
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTJAjx-AGAo

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Show Notes

What if the biggest breakthrough in autism isn't changing autistic people—but changing the way we see them?

In this inspiring episode of Why Not Me?, Tony Mantor sits down with internationally recognized autism advocate, educator, author, and founder of The Miracle Project, Elaine Hall.

After adopting her son from Russia and later learning he was autistic, Elaine's life took an unexpected turn that would ultimately transform autism advocacy around the world.

Together, they discuss the importance of meeting autistic individuals where they are, replacing judgment with understanding, and focusing on strengths instead of deficits. Elaine shares the story behind The Miracle Project, the Emmy Award-winning documentary Autism: The Musical, her work influencing Hollywood toward authentic neurodivergent representation, and why creating communities of belonging matters more than simply talking about inclusion.

The conversation also explores late autism identification, masking, neurodiversity, communication beyond words, and the lasting impact acceptance can have on individuals, families, educators, and communities.

Whether you're autistic, a parent, educator, clinician, advocate, or simply someone wanting to better understand autism, this episode offers hope, compassion, and a fresh perspective on what it truly means to belong.

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why behavior is communication
• The power of following an autistic person's lead
• Why "fixing" autism is the wrong goal
• How The Miracle Project is changing lives through the arts
• The importance of strengths-based support
• The reality of masking and late identification
• Creating belonging instead of simply promoting inclusion
• How authentic representation is changing perceptions worldwide
• Why acceptance begins with listening
• Elaine's powerful message of hope for families everywhere

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