The pressure to reinvent can feel loud in January, but nature tells a different story: winter is for conservation, repair, and preparing the ground for bloom. We explore how to trade the exhausting “on or off” cycle for nervous system flexibility—choosing the speed that actually supports you. Instead of shaming who you’ve been, we honor the resilience that carried you here and build sustainable change from gratitude, pacing, and somatic awareness. We dive into the polyvagal map—sympathetic a...
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The pressure to reinvent can feel loud in January, but nature tells a different story: winter is for conservation, repair, and preparing the ground for bloom. We explore how to trade the exhausting “on or off” cycle for nervous system flexibility—choosing the speed that actually supports you. Instead of shaming who you’ve been, we honor the resilience that carried you here and build sustainable change from gratitude, pacing, and somatic awareness. We dive into the polyvagal map—sympathetic a...
The pressure to reinvent can feel loud in January, but nature tells a different story: winter is for conservation, repair, and preparing the ground for bloom. We explore how to trade the exhausting “on or off” cycle for nervous system flexibility—choosing the speed that actually supports you. Instead of shaming who you’ve been, we honor the resilience that carried you here and build sustainable change from gratitude, pacing, and somatic awareness. We dive into the polyvagal map—sympathetic a...
When the holidays don’t match the picture in your head, the gap can feel like grief. This year brought fevers, cancellations, and a quiet house that amplified old patterns of shutdown. I share what helped me move through the heaviness with care: naming the dorsal state of the nervous system, choosing breathwork over busyness, protecting sleep, and inviting small, real moments of connection with my kids when plans fell apart. You’ll hear how I traded perfection for presence and found meaning ...
We explore how two opposing beliefs—“I have to do everything" and "I can't do anything"—grow from different nervous system states and how peace begins by shifting our state toward safety and connection. Using Polyvagal Theory, we offer practical steps to move from survival into grounded presence and how that approach can ripple out to create a more peaceful world. • mapping sympathetic overdrive and dorsal shutdown to everyday thoughts • why state drives story and limits choice • using the n...
The holidays can feel bright for some and unbearably heavy for others. I open up about a Christmas that nearly ended my marriage and trace how those memories slowly softened—not by accident, but because the brain can change and grow when it feels safer. This is a story that starts with depression and disconnection, then moves to the science of hope: moving beyond survival mode, neural pruning, and memory reconsolidation. It’s also a map for finding one supported step when the season overwhelm...
Holidays have a way of pulling old feelings to the surface. This time, two truths came up at once: the enduring ache of losing my dad five years ago, and a quieter grief I call “ADHD grief”—the gap between the cozy, orderly home I imagine and the real limits of my brain and nervous system. I share the moments that stopped me mid-task, what changed when I paused to feel instead of fix, and how gratitude began to stand beside grief without erasing it. You’ll hear how an unexpected gathering on...
We explore how ketamine-assisted psychotherapy can quiet an overactive alarm system, reopen access to rest, and create a window where new habits take hold through integration. We share the science in plain language and the personal practices that helped changes last. • stigma and misconceptions around ketamine and psychedelic-assisted therapies • how amygdala quieting and parasympathetic activation support safety • interoception and reconnecting with the body • neuroplasticity and loosening ...
Healing doesn’t always arrive as a lightning bolt. Sometimes it looks like a short, supported window where defenses soften and your nervous system finally has space to reorganize. That’s the potential of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy: not a shortcut, but a different door into change. We take you from ketamine’s legal role as an anesthetic to its misunderstood 90s reputation, then into the research era where clinicians began seeing fast-acting benefits for people labeled “treatment-resistan...
The hardest part of a taxing day likely isn’t a thing on the to-do list— our nervous system state that influences how we perceive what needs to be done and if we have on "depression googles," we can expect that even the lightest load may feel like seriously heavy lifting. When depletion hits and dorsal shutdown pulls you under, forcing productivity can deepen the spiral. I share how I recognized my capacity, swapped a plan that I didn't feel connected to in the moment for one that felt ...
What if real rest isn’t zoning out, but learning to feel safely still in your own body? Trish takes you inside her year-long journey with ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, sharing what KAP actually looks like—from medical screening and at-home setup to music-guided sessions, dosing with lozenges, and why a simple request for lip balm became a breakthrough in receiving care. We walk step by step through the first session nerves, blood pressure protocols, eye mask and playlist prep, and the gen...
Growth doesn’t wait for a finish line. This episode leans into the messy middle—where self-care becomes more consistent, mirrors from friends provide a much needed self-reflection, and you realize you’ve been practicing a new identity long before you felt “ready.” I talk about the milestones that surprised me, like releasing 40 podcast episodes, and the realization that our self-growth can be inhibited when we (unconsciously) keep ourselves stuck in old identities. I begin to wonder about wha...
✨ Free Resource: Download my guide, 100 Practices That Can Increase Your Access to Rest & Renewal — filled with simple, doable ways to rest your body, mind, and spirit. These are small, easy to incorporate practices for eight kinds of rest — from physical and emotional to creative and communal and more. 👉 Grab your free copy here! (regulatedrelationships.kit.com/rest) Feeling exhausted even after a full night’s sleep? We dig into why rest doesn’t land when your nervous system is stu...
✨ Free Resource: Download my guide, 100 Practices That Can Increase Your Access to Rest & Renewal — filled with simple, doable ways to rest your body, mind, and spirit. These are small, easy to incorporate practices for eight kinds of rest — from physical and emotional to creative and communal and more. 👉 Grab your free copy here! (regulatedrelationships.kit.com/rest) Feeling tired yet never truly restored is not a personal failure; it’s your nervous system doing its best to protect...
✨ Free Resource: Download my guide, 100 Practices That Can Increase Your Access to Rest & Renewal — filled with simple, doable ways to rest your body, mind, and spirit. These are small, easy to incorporate practices for eight kinds of rest — from physical and emotional to creative and communal and more. 👉 Grab your free copy here! (regulatedrelationships.kit.com/rest) Ever feel like your days are all gas, no brakes—then you crash at night and call it “rest,” only to wake up jus...
What if the most transformative part of a “conscious life” isn’t the serene moments—but the messy ones where you feel flooded, triggered, and ready to explode? I share a raw, real story about a birthday plan gone sideways, how a sold-out ticket spiraled into rage and self-blame, and the small, steady thread that kept me from making the night worse: a ventral narrator offering compassion and gentle reminders through a more grounded lens. We break down the nervous system in practical terms—ven...
Rest doesn’t have to mean sleeping in or finding a three-hour window for a nap when time is not something you have in excess. We reframe rest as a spectrum of accessible practices that fit into busy, real lives—rooted in the nervous system, informed by your inner wisdom, culture and community, and designed to restore capacity without adding pressure. Drawing on a polyvagal perspective, we explore how to move from shutdown or overdrive into “safely still,” and why even 90 seconds of breath, gr...
Rest represents one of our most fundamental needs, yet access to it remains profoundly unequal. Some can freely embrace rest without judgment, while others face criticism, shame, and real-world consequences for the same basic human necessity. This stark reality forms the foundation of what I call "the politics of rest." Who gets to rest without being labeled lazy? Who can take mental health days without facing scrutiny? These aren't neutral questions but deeply political ones shaped by syste...
What happens when we slow down in a society obsessed with constant motion? After spending eight transformative days in retreat settings, I've gained powerful insights about rest that challenge everything our culture teaches us about productivity and success. The truth is startling: our nervous systems are designed for cycles of activity and rest, yet modern life rarely allows for genuine restoration. We celebrate those who "burn the candle at both ends" while dismissing periods of stillness ...
What do mosh pits have to do with mental health? Everything, at least that's how it turned out for me. From the moment I stepped into my first mosh pit at Woodstock '94 with my dad at age 14, something profound happened—I felt alive again. As a chronically depressed teenager trapped in that collapsed, shutdown state, the vibration of bass against my chest, the permission to move freely without being watched, and the immediate acceptance of a community of strangers offered somethi...
Gratitude might be the relationship superpower you're overlooking. In this heartfelt exploration, we dive into how deliberately practicing appreciation transforms relationships from the inside out. Your brain naturally fixates on problems—it's biology, not a character flaw. This negativity bias served our ancestors well for survival but wreaks havoc in modern relationships. When something upsets us, our nervous system responds as though facing physical danger, triggering fight, flight, or fr...
Why do so many couples fight in cars? After a breathtaking but occasionally tense family road trip along the Pacific Coast Highway, I discovered something fascinating about car conflicts that completely changed my perspective. Driving requires a unique blend of nervous system states - we need both calm groundedness (ventral vagal) and energized alertness (sympathetic) to navigate safely. But this delicate balance can easily tip toward dysregulation when fatigue, hunger, time pressure, or dan...
The pressure to reinvent can feel loud in January, but nature tells a different story: winter is for conservation, repair, and preparing the ground for bloom. We explore how to trade the exhausting “on or off” cycle for nervous system flexibility—choosing the speed that actually supports you. Instead of shaming who you’ve been, we honor the resilience that carried you here and build sustainable change from gratitude, pacing, and somatic awareness. We dive into the polyvagal map—sympathetic a...
