BREATHE N BOUNCE

  As I get ready to move out of my apartment and back into my house, it brings me back to a place that is quite painful. It's the place where my downfall in life really began. The triggers. The memories. And now the loneliness is going to make this experience a tough one for me. You see, the house started off as a beacon of joy. It was basically a new beginning. I just got married. Our kids were both going to be starting in school, and they brought a lot of promise. But many dominoes started to fall over. For one, I completely lost my identity and didn't really know who I was, and I was following trends and packs of people I saw in our area and on social media. I also began to learn about the toxic nature of the community that we were residing in. Sociological differences aside, it was not welcoming. We had a very difficult time making friendships. We always found ourselves catering to many people but never receiving any of that love back for us. And it took a toll on...

 

The Emotional Backdrop: Music & Resilience If you’ve listened to the show, you know we don’t just talk: we use music to ground the narrative. There’s something about the right song that makes you feel like you aren’t the only person on the planet feeling this way. When I’m doing my 5-minute ritual, I usually have something playing in the background. It helps drown out the unnecessary calling out crap that people do online. Last week, when I was having one of those "depressing moments," I put on a playlist featuring artists like Bon Iver and Gregory Alan Isakov . It’s music that feels like a cold morning: a little bit lonely, but beautiful in its own way. We have to learn how to let the moments guide us, rather than fighting them all the time. In the episode Michael in the Raw , Michael talks about that raw honesty of just being human. It’s not always pretty. Sometimes, the "ritual" is just acknowledging that life is hard right now and not being too hard on ...