Embrace Your Weird

Recently, I’ve been thinking that I was having a some sort of super healthy mid-life crisis. I’ve been changing almost everything in my life: my schedule, my skincare routine, my workouts, my filing system, my journaling system. I’ve been tweaking everything.

What I’ve finally realized is that for the past 412 days I have been focused on surviving. But survival has become insufficient.

I want to thrive.

In this podcast, I talk abou...

Three years ago, my husband and I adopted a rescue dog. And she was a nightmare.

This a story of love and sadness. Of heartbreak and joy. Of learning and of failures. But more than anything, this is a story about how things can change. Things can seem so dark and hopeless - but they actually can get better. This is a story about how everyone is capable of healing. Because I went from thinking this traumatize...

30 years ago last week, I broke my back on a film set. I had lingering pain and nerve damage for decades. 

This episode is all about questioning why it is so common to hate our bodies, why many of us are constantly living from a place of trying to change and improve them. What happens if we decide to opt-out from that narrative and live from a place of gratitude? Can we shift the energy we spend on the scale and actually do somethi...

What happens when you are not an alcoholic, but you decide to stop drinking for one year for the simple fact that alcohol makes your anxiety rage and makes you feel like garbage? 

I had lots of questions. What about my birthday? What about when I need to unwind? What about when the world is facing a global pandemic? No drinking even then? 

No dr...

I am a lifelong troubled sleeper. 

When I worked as an actor, I would often have to grab a quick nap to get through long days, comfortably sleeping upright in a folding chair without messing up my hair and makeup. 

But in my own bed? At an appropriate sleeping time? That is a recipe for sleepwalking, night terrors, and writing creepy and insiste...

This is the first time I’ve ever cried during a podcast. I was going to re-record it because of that, but I didn’t. Because I want to be real with you.

This episode is about how I’ve not wanted to write lately. For me, that’s like saying I no longer have any use for food. But there is a very real reason why that is, and I talk about it in this episode, and I also share the re-frame that helped me to work through some of the difficu...

I recently did a talk about mental health and mindfulness at a big financial firm. (And I signed an NDA so I can't tell you the name of it.) Corporations are not known for being really safe and open spaces for discussing things like this. But I want to change that. 

In this episode, I talk about what happened when I went to a place that's not comfortable with this topic, and I talked about the awkward things.

And then I made them m...

Susan McCulley writes, moves, creates, and shines. She is an artist and all-around sparkly person. 

In this episode, we discuss the obsession with busyness and how we can find more joy in our lives, even within the chaos of modern life. We talk about how to ditch the endless search for worthiness and external approval. How do we learn to live from our true priorities? Can we free ourselves from the constant striving and to-do list ...

In this episode, I interview Bre Gregg of the band Red Bird. She is a singer/songwriter, mother, and anxious person. 

Bre performs her own music on stage, and I share my life in talks and workshops, yet we both identify as people with anxiety, who get really nervous about being on stage. We talk about why introverts and highly sensitive people put ourselves in this scary public position.  We discuss the connection between being an ...

I spent a long time never talking about my old life as an actor, because it made me feel weird. My life has been pretty different than most other people’s lives and sometimes that feels like of awkward. It can change how people see me, and how people treat me. But since Embrace Your Weird is my thing now, I’m answering all your questions about my old acting life - from how schooling works for ...

People tell me all the time that they could never meditate because their brains are too busy. Yeah. Welcome to having a human brain. I really hate to tell you this, but your brain is not special. Let’s dispel some other meditation myths.

By the way, we do a guided meditation in this episode from minute 30 to minute 36. So, in case you are in a car or another place where it’s not going to work for you to meditate - just skip ahead a...

This is the topic that so many people have been asking me for. In this episode, I talk about my experience with anxiety and a panic disorder, and I also cover some of the most helpful tools that I have for managing anxiety and depression. 

Here are some of the links:

Insight Timer - download this free app and search for my name for guided meditations

My workshops on anxiety management

Doctor’s letter for starting the conversation ...

Creativity is one of my favorite topics. The Inner Critic can be loud for all of us, regardless of whether or not you consider yourself to be an artist. In this episode, I talk about some of my favorite ways to actually get work done and out into the world. Here are links to a few of the things mentioned in the podcast: 

On Writing - Stephen King

11/22/63 - Stephen King

The Man in the Arena 

Bird By Bird - Anne Lamott

Shitty Fir...