Feeling your feelings can be really hard, but it's necessary for living a full life...and we can do hard things. This episode will help us learn to alchemize our emotions and, as today’s guest so perfectly says, “find the strength it takes to be soft.”

All of us have baggage, whether it’s from bad relationships, broken homes, friendship drama, or toxic work environments — and more often than not, these past traumas aren’t even our fault! But it’s still our job to manage how we allow these past problems to impact our relationships and experiences today.

We humans are social creatures, we thrive on community and connection. But in these times of social media comparison and cancel culture, it can feel like we’ve lost sight of something vital — compassion. With mean girls dominating the news cycle, we thought this would be the perfect time to get deep and teach ourselves a lesson on the importance of compassion, how to give it to others and most importantly, how to give it to ourselves.

At its core, compassion is about putting aside judgment and making an effort to understand the struggles within ourselves and others. It helps us create meaningful connections, build healthy relationships, and develop emotional intelligence, which coincidentally all make for a well-adjusted adult! We’re all a lot more similar than we are different so let’s get positive (but not in a toxic way we promise).

For the rest of the summer, we’re doing a Summer Rewind, re-releasing some of our must-listen episodes as we ramp up to the launch of season two. See you in September friends!

Change and adversity are the only constant in this life, and if this year has taught us anything, it’s that the more you focus on building a solid foundation within yourself, the more external chaos you can handle.

Unpopular opinion: It’s NOT always healthy to find the silver lining in everything. Some things just suck, and we don’t always need to look on the bright side, at the expense of *actually* processing hard feelings.

Our culture is obsessed with a “good vibes only,” and “everything happens for a reason” state of mind that makes us feel like we’re failing if we’re not happy 100% of the time. Trying to see the positive isn’t always positive, sometimes shit happens that doesn’t make us stronger, and we’re ready to break up with toxic positivity so we can fully experience our emotions AND our loved ones’ feelings. (Because nothing is worse than platitudes.)

How different would your life be if you weren’t afraid to ask for what you deserve?

In this week’s episode, we’re talking all things negotiation and how to confidently go after the things you want with negotiation expert Fotini Iconomopolous.

We had the privilege of talking with Karlyn Percil about the racial pandemic we’re still facing, and the state of diversity and equality in the workplace, and what we can do to make businesses more inclusive. Because equitable work is a key to breaking the cycle of oppression, and the right to earn a living in a safe, inclusive workplace is a basic human right.

In this episode, we learned how to use emotional intelligence and positive psychology to help create equal opportunities for BIPOC employees, to shift hiring practices and dated work cultures, and to eliminate harmful microaggressions that prevent employees from feeling safe enough to bring their whole selves to work.