2026 doesn’t need a better version of you.
It needs a more honest one.
A more rested one.
A more self-connected one.

In this episode, I walk you through 7 things to gently leave behind—not because you failed, but because you’ve grown wise enough to let go.

We talk about:
✨ over-explaining
✨ guilt-based boundaries
✨ relationships that make you shrink
✨ confusing being needed with being valued
✨ waiting until burnout to rest
✨ carrying what was never yours
✨ and belonging that requires self-betrayal

This isn’t about becoming more.
It’s about coming home to yourself—so you can stay bravely connected to others.

🎧 Listen now.

The holidays can amplify everything—joy, grief, tension, and old family dynamics.
In this final episode of the year, I’m sharing practical tools to help you stay bravely connected to yourself and others this Christmas. We’ll talk about releasing expectations, reclaiming your peace, and remembering that your belonging isn’t up for negotiation—no matter who’s sitting across the table from you.
If the holidays feel complicated, this episode is for you.

Feeling overwhelmed? You’re not alone — and there’s a deeper reason behind it. In today’s episode, we uncover how shame quietly fuels overwhelm, how expectations hijack our peace, and why simplification and self-awareness are the keys to getting grounded again.

If you’re carrying too much, comparing too much, or reacting instead of responding, this episode will help you breathe, reset, and return to what really matters.

You are beloved. You are enough. Keep being brave.

Burnout doesn’t happen because you’re weak — it happens because you’ve been strong for too long without the right tools.
In this episode, Connie shares four resilience practices she has used in her own life and in 25 years of working with parents, educators, and communities.

These aren’t surface-level self-care tips. These are the deeper tools that help you manage energy, work within your limits, and stay bravely connected to your strength — even when life feels out of control.

What if the solutions to your community’s biggest struggles aren’t found in programs, experts, or strategies… but in the people already sitting in the room?

In this episode of Bravely Connected, we explore the simple, deeply human practices that build community anywhere—your family, workplace, neighborhood, or even a community recovering after crisis.

You’ll learn:
• Why traditional “community-building tools” often fail
• How to listen past words and hear what people are truly communicating
• The power of going seven layers deep to find the real issues
• How to imagine a preferred future when things feel stuck
• Why everyday people—not experts—are the key to real change

If you’re craving authentic connection and practical ways to bring people together, this episode will show you where to start.

Tune in and let’s build something human again.

Anger isn’t something to hide — it’s something to understand.

In this episode of Bravely Connected, Connie shares how anger, often labeled as “bad,” is actually a messenger pointing to deeper wounds and unmet needs.

Through honest storytelling, reflection, and practical insight, you’ll learn how to pause, get curious, and begin healing the parts of yourself anger is trying to protect.

💥 “The Gift of Anger” — a journey into the emotion we’ve all been taught to fear, and how it can become one of our greatest teachers.

After 25 years in mental health and resilience work, Connie Jakab has learned that true strength isn’t found in perfection — it’s found in the ashes.
This episode invites you to rethink resilience, rediscover community, and reclaim hope, even when life doesn’t look the same anymore.

You will learn 4 keys that create resilience for your community, your home, or school.

We’re more exhausted than ever—and it’s not just about sleep. In this episode, Connie unpacks the deeper reasons behind our collective fatigue: from overstimulation and social media overload to the pressure of “keeping up” with too many people and commitments. Discover how to reclaim your energy by understanding your capacity, honoring your constraints, and simplifying your schedule.

If you’ve ever said “I’m tired but I don’t know why,” this one’s for you.

🎧 Tune in to learn how to rest your mind, not just your body—and find freedom in doing less, better.

“Peace doesn’t come from pretending you’re not hurt — it comes from releasing what you can’t control.”
Join me for a conversation about the courage it takes to release offence, choose empathy, and walk away from drama without bitterness and HOW to do it.

Have you ever felt the weight of everyone else’s emotions on your shoulders?
As helpers, parents, teachers, and leaders, we often care so deeply that we start carrying what was never ours to hold.

In this week’s episode, I share practical ways to release emotional and mental burdens—without losing your compassion. You’ll learn how to:

• Differentiate between what’s yours and what belongs to others

• Name your emotions and thoughts without judgment

• Find peace through simple rituals of grounding and surrender

These are small, powerful practices that can help you stay connected to others without losing yourself.

🎧 Listen here
And as always, keep being brave. 💛

We’ve all done it. Whispered. Shared a “little secret.” Passed along someone else’s story. Gossip feels like connection in the moment—but underneath, it leaves us carrying burdens that aren’t ours and eroding the very trust we long for.

In this episode of Bravely Connected, I dig into:
💭 Why gossip feels good (at first)
🪢 How carrying other people’s burdens keeps us stuck
💡 Brave alternatives to gossip that build trust and belonging

If you’ve ever wondered why gossip sneaks into your conversations—or how to stop the cycle—this episode will give you the tools and courage to choose real connection instead.

🎧 Listen now and ask yourself: Am I seeking validation, or am I seeking connection?

We live in a paradox.

We say, “You never know what someone is going through.”
Yet, when someone cuts us off, insults us, or rejects us, our first instinct is to wall up and walk away.

But every interaction gives us a choice:
👉 Isolate, or
👉 Connect.

Recently, I was reminded of this in the most ordinary place—the McDonald’s drive-thru—when I chose to respond to anger with an unexpected act of kindness.

It wasn’t about being a saint. It was about remembering: behind every reaction is a story.

Connection is risky. It’s messy. It hurts sometimes.
But love is always worth the risk.

💡 In my latest podcast episode, I explore what it takes to move from isolation to brave belonging—in our families, our workplaces, and our communities.

✨ What if the real crisis in our homes, schools, and workplaces isn’t burnout, but feeling invisible?

In this powerful conversation with author and researcher Zach Mercurio, we explore why mattering—the experience of being seen, valued, and needed—changes everything.

You’ll learn:

✔ Why belonging and inclusion aren’t enough without mattering

✔ The simple skills of Mattering

✔ How teachers, parents, and leaders can reduce burnout and absenteeism

✔ Practical tools you can use today to show others they matterThis isn’t about “soft skills.”

It’s about survival, leadership, and creating communities where people come alive.

📖 Get Zach’s book + free resources here

Subscribe for more conversations on connection, leadership, and community.

This week felt heavy. I was reflecting on this: We don’t crumble because of disasters alone.
We crumble because of the relational cracks we never name.

In our families, schools, and communities, those cracks get exposed—by a crisis, by mental health struggles, by isolation. Ignoring them doesn’t make them go away; it makes them wider.

But there is another way. One that starts with courage, connection, and naming what’s broken so it can be healed.

👉 Here’s why being Bravely Connected matters more now than ever.

Ever wonder why certain people rub you the wrong way?
It’s usually not about the person—it’s about THIS. What's "This??" Listen in!

Every one of us carries experiences, words spoken over us, and past hurts that shape how we show up today. When our story collides with someone else’s story, disconnection happens.

The key?

Everyone has a story that could break your heart. When we learn to look beneath behaviour and connect with the human story underneath, that’s where brave connection happens.

In this Canada Day conversation I got to share with Andrew Shultz from News 770, we chat about how powerful things happen when we shift from thinking big to acting small—right in our own neighbourhoods.

From backyard concerts to community clothing drives and youth support, belonging, resilience, and face-to-face connection can transform a block… and eventually a nation.

Whether you're feeling disconnected or fired up to make a difference, this episode will inspire you to start where you are—with what you have.

Because real change starts at home.

You Are Brave. You Belong. | A Brave Journey to Inner Connection

Most people search for belonging in the wrong places—through approval, perfection, and people-pleasing. But true belonging doesn’t start out there. It starts within.

In this episode, I walk you through the brave work of building inner belonging—so you can stop bending to fit in and start living from your full, authentic self.

You’ll learn:

✨ How to coach yourself through emotions, thoughts, and behaviours

✨ Why managing your inner world changes everything

✨ What “You owe me nothing” really means

✨ How to set boundaries around your heart without guilt

✨ Why the people who create the most belonging are the ones who’ve struggled to find it themselves

If you’ve ever felt like you’re too much, not enough, or always just outside the circle—this is for you.

🔔 Subscribe for more tools on brave connection in your home, school, and community.

Are you tired of power struggles, meltdowns, and constant “no’s”? In this podcast, we go beneath the surface of anxiety, ADHD, and opposition in kids—and uncover what’s really going on.

This is the recording of the talk I did for Coventry Hills Parent Night.

Discover why managing behaviour isn’t working—and what to do instead.

Learn how trust, connection, and attunement can actually rewire your child’s brain and lead to lasting change.

Whether you're a parent or educator, this session offers practical insight, hope, and tools to create real transformation in your relationship with the kids you lead and love.

🌱 Why ADHD isn’t a fixed diagnosis

🌱 What anxiety is trying to tell us

🌱 How to deal with opposition without losing your cool

🌱 How attunement builds resilience and rewires the brain

🌱 What every child really needs beneath their behaviour

Want me to visit your school? Contact me on my website at connie@conniejakab.com

Are you stuck in fear, control, and punishment with your kids—and wondering why nothing is working?

In this episode of the Bravely Connected Podcast, I share a powerful parenting litmus test that can help you shift from managing behaviour to building true connection.

Discover the difference between control and discipline, fear and boundaries—and why emotional intelligence is the real key to preparing your child for the future.This isn’t about being permissive. It’s about being present. And brave. 💛🎧

Whether you're a parent, teacher, or community leader, this episode will challenge and equip you to:

✅ Attune in to your own emotional state

✅ Decode the real message behind behaviour

✅ Set strong boundaries without power struggles

✅ Teach through connection—not fearReady to transform your parenting?

Start here.

"He’s not trying to be bad—he literally can’t help it."

If you’ve ever felt judged as a parent or overwhelmed by your child’s impulsive behavior, you’re not alone.

In this episode of the Bravely Connected Podcast, I answer a heartfelt question from a parent raising a child with ADHD.

We talk about:

🧠 Why impulse control isn’t just about discipline

💬 How shame-based parenting makes things worse

💡 What it really means to attune to your child (and yourself)

🌱 How to support emotional regulation and rewire the brain—one brave moment at a time

Whether you’re a parent, teacher, or leader, this episode will challenge how you think about behavior and equip you with tools that actually help.

📩 Got a question for the podcast? Email me at connie@conniejakab.com

💛 Subscribe for more real talk and practical tools to help kids (and adults) thrive.