What if community isn’t something you’re good at, but something your nervous system is designed for? In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman shares an unexpected lived experiment in human connection. Thirty-plus people, most of us strangers, came together in the Dominican Republic for a milestone birthday. What unfolded wasn’t just a vacation, it was a temporary village. In the span of a few days, we moved through joy, crisis, loss, care, and celebration without drama, hierarchy, or...
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What if community isn’t something you’re good at, but something your nervous system is designed for? In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman shares an unexpected lived experiment in human connection. Thirty-plus people, most of us strangers, came together in the Dominican Republic for a milestone birthday. What unfolded wasn’t just a vacation, it was a temporary village. In the span of a few days, we moved through joy, crisis, loss, care, and celebration without drama, hierarchy, or...
What if community isn’t something you’re good at, but something your nervous system is designed for? In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman shares an unexpected lived experiment in human connection. Thirty-plus people, most of us strangers, came together in the Dominican Republic for a milestone birthday. What unfolded wasn’t just a vacation, it was a temporary village. In the span of a few days, we moved through joy, crisis, loss, care, and celebration without drama, hierarchy, or...
We live in an era of emotional pop-ups: constant alerts, quick reactions, and inboxes full of unread feelings. In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman and Kurt unpack why we take everything personally, how defensiveness hijacks empathy, and why emotional literacy is the health skill of the decade. You’ll learn: • Why the average emotion lasts 90 seconds (unless you hit “replay”). • How to tell the difference between data and drama. • What happens to your relationships when you stop ...
We’ve all been told to “just be moderate.” Eat in moderation. Work in moderation. Feel in moderation. Basically live life at a polite simmer. But here’s the thing: moderation is overrated. Aristotle’s “Golden Mean” sounded great in philosophy class, but in real life, balance doesn’t come from dialing everything down, it comes from letting the right things turn up together. In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Kurt and Iman explore homeostasis, the body’s built-in system for dynamic ba...
If America were a therapy client, the intake form would be wild. Chronic contradiction. Inflated ego. Deep abandonment wounds. Trouble listening. Possibly projecting onto everyone. In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman and Kurt put the nation on the couch, unpacking the cultural dissonance between what we say we value and what we actually do. From freedom and faith to protests and burnout, we explore why the U.S. is simultaneously exhausted, divided, and still deeply hopeful. Beca...
We made “looking our age” the enemy, then sold the cure. In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman and Kurt are talking about what it really means to age in a youth-obsessed culture. Because aging isn’t a flaw in the system, it’s the proof that the system is working. We unpack: • Why “you look great for your age” is the compliment no one asked for • How fear of aging fuels anxiety, shame, and billion-dollar industries • What cultures that honor aging can teach us about joy, health, an...
In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman and Kurt move from integration to arrival, the moment when your nervous system stops scanning for danger and starts trusting safety again. Kurt shares his reflections on grief, healing, and the quest beneath modern life: the need to feel safe, intact, and “enough.” We explore what it means to stop living in survival mode, how nourishment, physical, emotional, relational, restores our sense of arrival, and why rest is not the opposite of produc...
What if the parts of yourself you’ve been avoiding are actually the key to your peace? This week on Rebranding Mental Health, Iman and Kurt are crawling into the metaphorical basement of the psyche (don’t worry, bring snacks). We’re talking about shadow work, what it is, what it’s not, and how to stop treating self-awareness like an exorcism. Carl Jung called the shadow the “unconscious part of ourselves that the ego refuses to see.” But here’s the twist: your shadow isn’t just the dark stuff...
Why do girls, who know the sting of exclusion, still turn that pain on each other? In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman and Kurt unpack the psychology and culture behind “mean girl” behavior. From silent treatments to side-eyes, we explore why relational aggression feels so personal, how it impacts self-worth, and what it takes to create real belonging. We’ll connect neuroscience, social research, and lived experience to expose the hidden curriculum teaching girls competition ov...
Welcome to a new season of Rebranding Mental Health! In this episode, Iman and Kurt unpack the cultural and psychological layers of maturity — how “boys don’t cry” and “good girls don’t get angry” still echo through adulthood, shaping how we connect, suppress, or express. We look at the research, the reality, and the reframe: Why self-compassion predicts resilience.How gender scripts delay or distort emotional development. What it means to rewrite your emotional story with cu...
Ever feel stuck between knowing what to do and actually doing it? In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman and Kurt break down a simple but powerful framework for understanding the types of actions that move your life forward and why we often get distracted by the ones that don’t. Kurt shares how he stumbled onto this concept while working on his own health, only to realize it applies to almost every area of life, from relationships and work to mental wellness. You’ll learn: *T...
When the chaos outside quiets down, what happens when the disorientation is coming from within? In this deeply personal follow-up to Part 1, Iman and Kurt explore the emotional fog that clouds our inner world, the kind that makes clarity feel like emotional CPR. Together, they unpack why humans crave narrative, how naming our pain gives us power, and why building a “working story” of who we are can be one of the most stabilizing things we ever do. You’ll hear about: • Why uncertainty can feel...
In this episode, Iman and Kurt explore why the outside world feels so confusing right now. Between polarization, misinformation, and the dizzying pendulum swings of public trends, it’s easy to feel like we’ve tumbled into Wonderland where logic bends and reality shifts by the hour. This episode validates that disorientation is not just personal, it’s cultural. We then begin building a stabilizing toolkit with strategies like seeking nuance, practicing reality checks, and grounding throu...
In Western culture, especially America, we’ve been sold myths like “you complete me” or “I couldn’t live without you.” But those aren’t declarations of love their indications of codependency. What if relationships could be neither clingy nor disconnected, but interdependent? And what does that truly mean? In this episode, Iman and Kurt explore: The Decline of Community: From bowling leagues to “bowling alone,” social trust and connection have eroded, leaving many isolated.Dependency, In...
In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman and Kurt name a quiet emergency: the way rising costs, rent, groceries, insurance, debt, are taxing our nervous systems before we even start the day. If your body has been bracing, neck tension, headaches, lack of focus...that’s not personal failure. That’s your biology responding to economics. In this episode, we: Explore how scarcity rewires attention and decision-making and why your focus isn’t broken, it’s budgeted.Look at housing as healt...
You’re eating the kale, meditating, moving your body, checking all the boxes… and yet, you still feel off. Welcome to the Wellness Fog. In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman and Kurt explore why doing “all the right things” doesn’t always add up to real well-being. Fragmented healing when mind, body, and relationships aren’t integrated leaves us spinning. That’s where Total Health comes in: reconnecting biology, emotions, lifestyle, and relationships into one whole. You’ll learn: ...
We’ve all heard it: discipline is everything. Get up at 5AM, stick to the routine, grind harder, push through. But what if discipline isn’t the holy grail we’ve been sold? What if there’s a healthier, more sustainable alternative? In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman and Kurt challenge hustle culture’s obsession with discipline and introduce responsiveness, a practice of tuning in, adapting, and collaborating with yourself instead of overriding your needs. You’ll learn: • Wh...
At first glance, kindness and niceness look the same but they’re not. In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, we unpack why niceness often comes at the cost of silence, resentment, and self-abandonment, while kindness is rooted in truth, empathy, and boundaries. You’ll learn: • Why niceness is a performance fueled by fear of rejection or conflict • How people-pleasing impacts your nervous system, stress, and relationships • The hidden emotional labor behind always being “the nice one” • ...
Spirituality should never cost you your voice. And sacredness should never require self-erasure. In this tender and deeply honest episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman and Kurt explore how our religious upbringing can shape our nervous system, our sense of self, and the way we define worth, love, and suffering. Whether you were raised in a rigid tradition, a high-demand spiritual environment, or are simply beginning to question inherited beliefs, you are not alone. This conversation isn’t...
Joy isn’t a luxury. It’s a strategy. In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman and Kurt explore Joyful Defiance. Kurt coined this approach as the radical act of choosing play, pleasure, and presence even when the world feels chaotic. This is not about denial or bypassing pain. It’s about staying soft, grounded, and awake in a hard world and reclaiming your emotional sovereignty. You’ll learn: Why joy builds resilience in your brain and body (hello, Polyvagal Theory and endorphins!)How...
Uncertainty isn't just uncomfortable, it’s biologically destabilizing. In this premiere episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman and Kurt explore why the unknown feels so threatening, how your brain and nervous system respond, and what you can do to stay grounded when life is anything but predictable. You’ll learn: Why your brain prefers a “bad known” over an unknownHow cultural myths around control increase anxietyPractical tools to regulate your nervous system, reduce overwhelm, and expa...
What if community isn’t something you’re good at, but something your nervous system is designed for? In this episode of Rebranding Mental Health, Iman shares an unexpected lived experiment in human connection. Thirty-plus people, most of us strangers, came together in the Dominican Republic for a milestone birthday. What unfolded wasn’t just a vacation, it was a temporary village. In the span of a few days, we moved through joy, crisis, loss, care, and celebration without drama, hierarchy, or...
