BREATHE N BOUNCE

  What are we OK with?  What works for us?  What if we can't find it? Is there a way to just be fine with that? I ask these questions today and talk about how I feel about it all and where it has brought me now.  Also big announcements for Breathe and Bounce as well. MUSIC FROM THIS EPISODE THAT'S LIFE - Frank Sinatra WHAT YOUR SOUL SINGS - Massive Attack/Sinead o' Connor PAYING MY WAY - Dropkick Murphys I THOUGHT I KNEW IT ALL - Megadeth ONE DAY THEY'LL KNOW - Pretty Lights FINALLY - Swedish House Mafia/Alicia Keys

  Being rejected is probably one of the worst feelings in the world. When you are rejected by someone, it brings a lot of things up in your mind, and it's nothing good. There's a pain and suffering that comes with not being wanted or not being recognized, and then the questions start to appear. You find yourself asking if you're good enough for anybody. If anyone likes you. You start thinking, what can I do to change myself so people will like me and people will accept me? Sometimes you may go as far as to get plastic surgery done on yourself, or you might empty out your bank account to win favors with certain people. The worst is when it's your own family that makes you feel that way. If there's someone who has been like me growing up, the only way that I got people to notice me was I acted really obnoxious. And then it just became a part of who I am. We all want to be seen and we all want to be accepted. We all want love in our lives. It is a need, because goi...

Stop Performing Your Synonym-Heavy, Soul-Aligned Wellness Fantasy: Why Authenticity Is the Only Real Trend Let’s be completely honest for a second: this last month has been a real kick in the teeth. Between managing everyday burnout, listening to people drone on about "aligning with your highest vibrational frequencies," and trying not to throw my phone against the drywall every time I see another perfectly filtered turmeric latte, I’m exhausted. Welcome to our August series, which corporate or whatever clever branding machine decided to call "Align with Your Soul and Your Wallet" : though honestly, let’s just call it what it is: a cynical look at how we’ve managed to slap a luxury price tag on feeling like garbage and calling it enlightenment. Who comes up with these things? Is there a way out, or are we all just trapped in an endless loop of buying $128 bamboo leggings so we can achieve inner peace while our bank accounts scream in agony? It’s such a shitty pl...

 We have things happen to us and we can't explain them.  We tried to do everything right and stay on the path.  Yet, sometimes things don't work out and we lose our way.  We then go back to the drawing board and try to figure out how to keep things in our life that may not belong anymore or don't serve us.  What will happen if we do just that? How scary is it to just trust the universe and move forward in a completely opposite direction? MUSIC FROM THIS EPISODE

  We wander around trying to find answers all the time, but sometimes in life maybe we just ask the wrong questions. Maybe it's not even a matter of asking the wrong questions — maybe it's that we don't ask questions because we're just so full of answers. We are so infested with our own opinions of ourselves, the poor self-talk, the excuse-making, all the other places that we go to distract us from who we actually are. So who are we? The truth is we really don't know unless we really dig in to find out. It comes from facing up to all the crazy shit you did as a kid and the mistakes you made as an adult. It comes from a place of knowing that your ego distracted you from the truth that was actually happening. It comes from a place of understanding that we are just here, and everything else is fed to us by our brain. And when we are constantly being fed by our brain, being supplemented by lots of social media and advertisements trying to tell you that you're no...

The $400-a-Month Meditation: When Wellness Becomes a Luxury Tax So this last month has been really tough for me, and by tough, I mean I spent way too much time staring at my bank account wondering how the hell basic human maintenance became a luxury subscription service. Who comes up with these things? Seriously. You’re sitting there trying to navigate everyday anxiety, scrolling on your phone to decompress, and suddenly you’re bombarded by targeted ads for an exclusive "social wellness club" that will gladly solve all your mental health woes for the low, low price of four hundred dollars a month. Four hundred dollars. For water. And hot wood boxes. We are constantly told that if we just "align" our chakras, our energy, and our wallets with the universe, everything will fall into place. (I use the word "align" here with maximum sarcasm, because if one more glossy Instagram coach tells me to align my soul with a four-figure annual fee, I'm going to ...

No I am not talking about Miami.  I am talking about the place you go to find a way to get something that you are missing inside.  Filling the hole as my wife has said many times.  I have tried to fill the hole many ways.  Right now, it's gambling.  Although not serious, I have to look at my family history and my nature to understand why I must take action now to minimize damage, or suffer consequences later.  I am hoping people can learn from my story here and that's the talk of the day today. MUSIC FROM THIS EPISODE ADDICTED TO THE RUSH - Mr Big THE GAMBLER - Kenny Rogers A HORSE WITH NO NAME - America EXCESS - Health/Perturbator SIN - Nine Inch Nails I REFUSE - Five Finger Death Punch w/Maria Brink BREAKING THE HABIT - Linkin Park

  You feel it. You sense it. You know it. There is something really wrong going on. We could sit here and talk for hours about the shit going on in humanity — and it's fucked up right now. But at this particular moment, I'm talking mainly about myself. I find myself not really finding joy anymore. The joy I get is when I create things. When I talk about this. When I do my show. But outside of that, it's been kind of numb. Like there's nothing. I'm grateful for some situations that happened in my life, and those moments bring me joy. But outside of that, there's a lot of nothingness. I thought that having today was why I grew my hair back out longer. I didn't like who I was when I had short hair. I didn't feel free. I didn't feel like I was living my best life. I felt like I was just like everyone else, soldiering on in survival mode. And I feel like maybe everything is a façade. Sure, I grew my hair out. But did I grow my life? In some ways, I did. I...

 

Matrescence, Membership Fees, and the Monetization of Our Pain This last month has been really heavy around here. If you’ve been listening to the Breathe N Bounce podcast , you know we don’t really do sugar-coating. We sit right in the middle of the mess, the panic attacks, the parenting burnout, the sheer exhaustion of trying to figure out who the hell we are after life completely rewires our brains. And right on cue, as August rolls around, we’re launching our little series called "Align with Your Soul and Your Wallet." Oh, God. I hate the word align . Michael hates it even more. It’s right up there with manifest , synergy , and pivot , one of those slick, sanitized corporate buzzwords that wellness gurus love to slap on a $4,000 package to make you feel like your anxiety is just a misaligned chakra waiting to be corrected by their credit card processing system. Let’s be completely honest for a second. It’s a pretty shitty place to be when you’re drowning in postpartu...

 FIrst off, I take a moment to address the concerns regarding the facetime and chronicle from this weekend. Then we talk about living life the best way we can.  Being ourselves.  Living a raw, honest, authentic existence.  Not worrying what people think of us despite how we feel.  Everyone has shit to deal with and everyone has victories as well.  We are all on our own path, and we shouldn't have time to concern ourselves with how others do things.  I talk about that as well as alot of other shit.  Fun episode for sure. MUSIC FROM THIS EPISODE NO ONE - Skindred HAPPY - Mudvayne PURITY - Fear Factory MY WAY - Limp Bizkit WIDE AWAKE - Katy Perry

  I feel like everything is a struggle. I struggle to get out of bed in the morning. I struggle to just try to show up for people. I struggle to get everything done timely. Lots of fucking struggling. Someone once said that nothing worth having comes easy, or some bullshit like that. In all honesty lately, I don’t feel like anything has come easy — hell, I don’t think anything is coming at all. I’ve had more problems than I can think of lately. I feel like nothing is helping me and I don’t know where else to go. I don’t really trust people. And a lot of that has to do with the poor self-image I have of myself — that I don’t think that I deserve to be loved or liked or anything like that. I think it’s because I say stupid things all the time. I don’t think about what I’m talking about, and I just hurt people constantly. And then I get this feeling: I’m just useful to the world and that’s it. No one actually likes me. They like the services that I provide. They like the things that I...

I Love Yoga, But I'm Questioning Who Gets to Afford It This last month has been really heavy for me. Between juggling daily anxieties, trying to keep my head above water with work, and wondering why my nervous system feels permanently stuck in fight-or-flight mode, I decided I needed to get back on the mat. You know, do the whole self-care routine. Breathe deep, stretch out the tight knots in my shoulders, and maybe, just maybe, find some inner peace before I lose my absolute mind. So, I looked up a local studio. And then I choked on my coffee. Thirty-five dollars. For one hour. In a room full of people breathing heavily in expensive matching leggings. Welcome to August, folks. Our official theme here at Breathe N Bounce is "Align with Your Soul and Your Wallet." Now, I have to confess something right out of the gate: Michael absolutely detests the word "align." He hates it with a fiery, burning passion. Every time someone says we need to "align our ...

As I get older, I wrestle with my life.  Did I make the right decisions?  Was it a productive life? Did I do the right things?  I even think about if is it time for me to go.  How the hell do you walk that shit back?  All this lovely bullshit I talk about today as well as so much more.  Nice soundtrack today too. MUSIC FROM THIS EPISODE LOUD PLACES - Jamie XX, Romy GETTING OLDER - Billie Ellish THIS WAS MY LIFE - Megadeth PURSUIT OF HAPPNIESS (REMIX) - Steve Aoki, Kid Cudi ALL MY LIFE - Odesza SAME DRUGS - Chance the Rapper DONT YOU WORRY CHILD - Swedish House Mafia