Episode 38: Transformative Taste Testing

 

Part 1: A Tasty Epiphany & Saccharine Serenity

• A significant insight pulled together everything I've been working through lately, my 'Seasons', exploration of Acceptance & remembering that I'm American... a decidedly different taste from Kiwis 🥝💥
• Appreciating a period of clarity, finally able to work with the tough Feedback I got & sort through the chaos in my brain 🙏
• Ah Ha! Small wonder I'm not to everyone's 'taste' (even my own from time to time) 😅💩
• The flavour of my Heart intensity, passion, it's quirky love languages... & it's formidable persistence 💝💔💞

Part 2: Saliferous Spirit

• I'm a whimsical salty spirit! And this taste is bourn of embracing my intuition, Knowing, core Values & Spirituality 🤤
• Aligned to my WHOLE Self, who I want & aspire to be... the 'Higher Self'... who feels connected to my purpose & sees beyond current struggles 🥳
• Forever treading the fine line between packing a tasty punch, being too salty & accepting that I will be both at once depending on the people/situation 🪽🧂
• A 20th century watch-out regarding the next topic, our Tiny Human Egos, as well as a total diversion into particle physics & my interpretation of the Energy that connects everyone and everything in the Universe🤓🤯

Part 3: Spicy Superiority

• Strap in for the Spice of Survival Mode! My Status-, Fairness-, Certainty-driven Ego forgets about the aforementioned connectedness to the Universe 😅😎
• Spicy Ego, Spicy Life! Few people find this appetising or easy to stomach, and it inevitably inspires shame... I turn into a complete Asshole 💣💩
• Yikes, conceding my ego doesn't give a shit about my values or higher purpose, and this is how I lose my way... why I spiral; but knowing this enables me to turn it around! 🙏
• NOTE: I wrote about this in a poem years ago to help me distinguish between my 'i' / small self and 'I' / Higher Self
• A TASTY MEAL NEEDS ALL FLAVOURS IN THE RIGHT BALANCE... I need to consciously Slow Down, ask for feedback and do frequent taste tests to get the seasoning right for any given situation 💖 
• Switch from ghost pepper hot Limbic Brain (see SCARF Model below) to Prefrontal Cortex deliciousness (i.e. bring in all the spices!)
• NOTE: I didn't record a 4th part 😂👍

Episode 37: I'm Afraid of American(s)

 

• Let's have a light & fun one! And no, this is not about Spiteful America-bagging 🥳🤦
• Passionate, intense, neuro-diverse... Or simply American?! 🤔😅
• Understanding my home-coming struggles in a new light 😇🙏
• The part the 'Ego' has to play, cultural nuances of Ego-development, and some foreshadowing of next week's exploration! 🔗
• Remembering why I left & the person I was, and knowing the pain that caused was worth it... New Zealand healed me, bringing me closer to who I want to be 💖

Epidsode 36: Seasons of Summer

 

Part 1: The Feedback

• Strap in folks, this one is one hell of a rollercoaster as I navigate a 'case in point' of aforementioned 'objective & subjective evidence of my lack of Normalcy, and the most fatefully timed Feedback I've received to date ⏰🤯
• Shame? Acceptance? Anger?! It's all there ... Whee!! 😃💩

Part 2: Discerning My Tastes

• Perhaps my first sense of authentic Self Compassion 💖
• What's well-seasoned for me versus what's well-seasoned for others 😋🤮
• Uncovering the insecurity of being 'Too Much' via tapping it out of me on a random beach in Hawaii, and coming to grips with the shame-sabotage-spiral it led to in my present... BLEAK!✊😅

Part 3: Re-aligning to Gratitude & Self Belief

• An unexpected upside of Resentment 🤔
• My realisation that entering deliberate mindsets, like while Coaching, allows me to naturally adjust my energy by getting out of my head & away from my own BULLSHIT 🤠🐮
• SLOW DOWN... PAUSE... That's my only hope to consciously Choose how I can think, feel and act in more healthy and balanced ways; to stop the shame-sabotage-spiral 🤔💭

Episode 35: Bolstering Blind Spots

 

Part 1: From Organic Chemistry to Enlightenment

• How the consistent insistence that we use observation & deduction as budding scientists foreshadowed my future existential fervor 🤓
• My first blog, Analytical Ramblings of Scientific Mind, as an unintentional means of providing myself feedback through this observation-deduction process! ✍
• Feedback is FUNDAMENTAL, for ourselves & others 😉 
• Ahhhh, the nuance of judgments and our brain's vulnerability to common decision-making biases
• Building self-awareness by exploring blind spots through deliberate reflection, tools, requesting feedback and/or receiving feedback (whether we wanted it or not) 😅
• 'Knowing' feedback is a gift 💩🎁

Part 2: Spiritual Will & Neurological Niggles

• Reminiscing on Summer 1.0 & how horrific heartbreak instigated the adventure of self-discovery 💔💣
• Being The Watcher & how to the process started 👀🔍
• Course correction by consistently asking myself the questions: 🤔
• "Is this how a mentally and emotionally healthy human behaves?" 
• "Will I be proud of myself tomorrow?"
• The neuroscience of changing habitual behaviours, why it's so difficult and how to overcome the challenge 💪

Part 3: The Fine Art of Offering Feedback Sans Unfair Judgment

• The gift of feedback & how it facilitates course-correcting blinds spots for ameliorating awareness, healthy discipline and freedom from self-limiting patterns 🙏 
• Exploring the nuance between Deduction ☝& Judgment 👎
• The neuroscience behind being a judgy prick & the ability to prevent it from becoming a harmful and/or unjust emotion(s) or behaviour(s) 🎉

Part 4: Providing Feedback With More Velvet Than Sledgehammer

• Learning to give the gift of feedback with more Compassion 💞
• Blind spots don't deserve to be demonised, they deserve to be developed 🌱
• Giving and/or receiving feedback will never be comfortable, but it can always be worth it 💯 
• Effectively using diabolical feedback & resisting the urge to perceive providers as absolute assholes 😘 

Episode 34: Shame-Based Spice Assessment

 

Part 1: Shame Versus Guilt

• Tripped over a rabbit hole listening to a recent episode of the Ologies Podcast 🐇🕳
• Driving reflections on my grapples with & pursuit towards Self-Acceptance 💩
• I love a hot-f*ing-mess!... but apparently don't accept it quite as easily 😇
• The subtle nuance between guilt & shame 🤔

Part 2: Nature Versus Nurture

• Why I don't experience guilt... 1) Make a decision, 2) Detach from the outcome... 👍
• Why self exploration is fun! 😅
• The 'nature' of my shame (DNA-level)... I'm neuro-spicy! 💥

• The 'nurture' of my shame (Experiential Self Blame)... Good ol' fashioned trauma response! 💣

Part 3: Adjusting the Spice Levels

• The subjective and objective indications that I'm decidedly 'not normal' 😎
• What I'm learning to appreciate is my ability to adjust my spice levels and hone my powers for good, which helps me accept myself and shift away from the shame 💖

My Spice Levels : How I feel & How I Act 😅🧨

Episode 33: The Mirror Test

Part 1: An Interesting Observation

• The 'Oh Shit' moment of observing old dysfunctional behaviours in someone else, and discerning the best course of action 😯
• Being the 'bigger person' but also being honest & showing compassion for both of us, past and present 🙏
• Acknowledgement of the WORK I've done, and which I rarely give myself credit for... but not expecting that from others 👏

Part 2: Disappointing Diagnosis

• "You're perfectly healthy, just anxious"... i.e. The only thing wrong with me, is that I think there's something wrong with me, a fun throwback to the Episode that landed me the last allocated label 😅🤔
• This Doc unknowingly validated my recent Experimental results as well as the aforementioned Mirror Test observations; another opportunity to celebrate my self discovery adventure, recognising that my routines, while highly disciplined, are my expression of authentic self-care 🥳💪🐇

Episode 32: Compassionate Experimentation

Part 1: Experimental Kindness & Criticism

• As foreshadowed in Part 3 of Self-Love Vs. Self-Acceptance Summer's Summary, I leant into my natural inclinations as a scientist to play with emotional concepts 😅😶
• Probing positive beliefs about self criticism and negatives beliefs about self compassion with sharp pointy sticks 👈 
• [And I'll be damned if I didn't forget about analysing these beliefs before, after avowing my Greatest Accomplishment, and committing to Mindful Anarchy against them! 🤦]
• Authentic confusion about what's 'most kind' and getting primal to gain some clarity; bringing it back to the SCARF Model & comparing myself to my pet goat 🧣🐐
• The truly subtle difference is self-kindness versus self-care... versus self-indulgence & self-sabotage; What the hell is actual Self Care?! 💖💩

Part 2: The More You Know

• Justice; when life gives you lemons... be a dick to yourself and others? 🍋🖕
• Spite-ful or Grate-ful, a reminder of resentment's poisonous nature 🧪😡
• A disciplined epiphany, the mind-numbing impacts of confirmation bias & the power of INTENTION💡💥
• Being hard on myself about not being able to be hard on myself... the sign of a true existentialist 😅

Part 3: In Conclusion

• The dark side of acceptance? 🤔
• It's all about BALANCE and respecting each other's differences and unique pivot points
• To live my authentic Values, in a truly compassionate way, requires self-responsibility & accountability, but it's not a license for punishment... 
• My two critical check points, implemented courtesy of this compassionate experimentation 💖
• What is my Intention? [Am I expecting too much? Am I aligned to my preferred definition of Compassion?]
• Am I accepting my true & genuine Self? [Sans 'shoulds'/'coulds'/shame/judgments]

Summer's Summary: Self-Love Vs. Self-Acceptance

Link to Original: Self-Love Vs. Self-Acceptance (Published 26 November 2020)

Part 1: Main Points & Reflections

• I seem to easily forget shit I once learned. 😅
• Self acceptance as a choice?🤷‍♀️
• Supposed subconscious rejection of kindness & finding gratitude in life's rough waters. 🌊.

Part 2: Mindful Anarchy, Take Two

• I deserve kindness, not hot-mess-ness. Respectful & mindful disagreement with old, habitual and unhelpful beliefs, & a budding resistance to 'shoulding' myself. 🖕🙏
• Opting for a more WHOLE-istic approach & ditching the Blame Game. 👈💖

Part 3: What Does This Look Like Now? 

• Timely article to revisit current struggles and the concept of self-love, aka compassion. Leaning into self-help resources, and here's a great one! 🥳 
• A compassion definition that resonates, very understandable compassion barriers, and a fun & compassionate experimentation! 🤓
• Ironically, I discovered one way to appreciate and accept my brain on a deeper level was to break it and make it bleed. 💥🧠

Episode 31: How Am I Not Myself?

 

Link(s) to Related Vlogs: Pity Versus Compassion

Link(s) to Related Articles: The Blame Game, Good Enough, Who The Hell Just Said That?!

 Photos & Videos

Palmy & Mighty Manawatu 🌿💖

NOTE: Click 'FEED VIEW' to see pictures from specific posts (i.e. By day instead of entire album)

Episode 30: Homegrown Reflections

 

Part 1: Atypical Irony

Part 2: Vietname & Existential Tooth Fairies

Link to Previous Podcast Mentioned: The Tale of Twyla Tooth

Part 3: Spiritual Spookiness

 Photos & Videos

Vietnam Sister Adventure

NOTE: Click 'FEED VIEW' to see pictures from specific posts (i.e. By day instead of entire album)

Episode 29: Swan Song

Part 1: General Update

   Part 2: The Fall

              Part 3: The Literal Mind Numbing Diagnosis

Part 4: Bewildering, Humbling & Annoying Support

Link to Relevant Vlog: Family Values

Part 5: Learnings & Silver Linings

 Photos & Videos

Shanghai Shuffle 2025

NOTE: Click this view to see pictures from specific posts (i.e. By day instead of entire album)

Episode 28: Homesick & Humoured

Photos & Videos

Shanghai Shuffle 2025

NOTE: Click this view to see pictures from specific posts (i.e. By day instead of entire album)

Perfectionism Versus Capability

 

 

Bulletproof

 

Bouncing Back From Disappointment

For More on the Curly Components of Emotional Intelligence, Read The Snake Pit 🐍💖

Episode 27: Keen Observations

Part 1: Do Dogs Speak Chinese?

Part 2: You Might Be a Redneck If...

Link to Related Article: Shape Shifter

Photos & Videos

Shanghai Shuffle 2025

NOTE: Click this view to see pictures from specific posts (i.e. By day instead of entire album)

Episode 26: Self Check Out Silliness

 

    Part 1: Self Check Out Silliness

Part 2: Fessin' Up

Photos & Videos

Shanghai Shuffle 2025

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Episode 25: Mustachioed Drag Queens

 

Photos & Videos

Shanghai Shuffle 2025

NOTE: Click this view to see pictures from specific posts (i.e. By day instead of entire album)

Don't Hate, Communicate!

 

SEEDS Model Information

Common Decision Making Biases

mBraining Information

Neuroscience of Our 3 Intelligence Centres

Episode 24: Hilarious Hospitalisation

 

Part 1: Calls From The Deep

Part 2: Well That Escalated Quickly

Part 3: I know Enough To Be Dangerous

Photos & Videos

Shanghai Shuffle 2025

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Episode 23: Komical Kayaking

 

Photos & Videos

Shanghai Shuffle 2025

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Family Values

 

Part 1: The Confronting Question

Part 2: The Values Outcast

Link to Related Article: The Price For Freedom

Part 3: The Value Of Calling Bullshit!

SEEDS Model Information 

Episode 22: Joyous Japan

Part 1: Unexpected Skills & Cultural Nuances

Part 2: Small World Synchronicities & Auntie Pride

Part 3: Bleak Bombs, Pristine Toilets & Family Values

Part 4: Tour & Travel Recommendations

Part 5: Key Insights & Existential Gratitude

Photos & Videos by Day

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My Kind of Kindess

 

(Links to Secrets of a Samaritan & Ironical Asshole)

Intention Matters

 

  Part 1: Selfish Abandoner

(Link to Healing For Humanity)

Part 2: Living The Values or Living With Values 

Episode 21: Blissful Bali

 

Part 1: Cat Shit Coffee

Part 2: Retreat Ramblings

Part 3: Thai Massage Magic

Part 4: A Meal To Cry For

(Link to Shape-Shifter)

Photos & Videos

Bali Sister Trip!

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