Rise Mindset

In this episode, I talk about how to deal with a deep sadness, which, in my experience, can lead to feeling stuck, paralyzed, anxious and overall a very sad, dark feeling that can also cause physical pain. I discuss a variety of actions you can take when you are feeling this deep sadness and emphasize the importance of awareness, intention and working through it rather than disregarding the emotion. 

DM me @susanfink.rise ...

In this episode, I unpack what impermanence means on a fundamental level and how it has helped me be a better mother to my special needs son, how it has helped me feel more free, joyful and handle challenging situations better, empowering me with this new mindset to live a better life and to be the best person I can be for myself and my son. 

I encourage you to focus on impermanence,  figure out how you can incorporate it ...

If you're anything like me, you're more compassionate, empathetic, forgiving and kind to other people, but not to yourself. You're your own worst critic and may have found yourself ruminating on, feeling guilty and shameful about the way you may have handled different situations, whether you said or did something you didn't mean. You didn't take a pause to determine what you can and can't control. You ...

If you're anything like me - a naturally negative thinker, a glass half empty thinker, this episode is for you. In this episode, I discuss ways in which I have learned to flip the script from negative to positive thinking. 

Who wants to live in the negative all of the time? I certainly don't. It takes a toll on your mental health, your emotional state, decreases motivation and productivity, has a negative impact ...

Hi there and thank you for joining this episode - a special episode as I have a guest who is helping other people through her business! My special guest today is Dina Farmer. She is a mother of two boys, one of whom is autistic. Her family is a military family (she is also a veteran) and as she was struggling with booking travel for her own family, she pivoted her business to help others - She is a founder and owner of Lily and Mag...

Has anyone ever told you you’re being too emotional? Have you told yourself that you’re being too emotional? If someone ever says  this to you, stand proud and say, I'm proud to be emotionful! This episode dives into what it actually means to be emotionful, what are emotions, how emotionful people tend to be more empathetic and compassionate. 

I also go into things to consider if someone says "You're too emo...

Can I ask you something? Where do you look when you are going for a walk, hike, run? 

I noticed something about myself and wonder if you do the same thing. When I walk, run or go for a hike, I find myself looking down  A LOT. I noticed this when I was going for a walk today and I was just looking down at the ground. I was very aware of where I was looking - the dirty ground, and when I actually picked my head up, lifted it...

Do you find yourself constantly worrying about the future? Ruminating on thoughts about what could happen and trying to prepare yourself for them? This is what I called wasted worrying. The main reason it's wasted is because you don't know what the future holds. We don't know what is going to happen in the future, so why do we worry so much about it. It's wasted because we waste a lot of energy, emotional energy...

Coping on a fundamental level is what we do in our response to stress, trauma, challenges, etc. There are two basic ways of thinking about coping: 1) active or engaging coping strategies and 2) avoidant or disengaged coping behaviors.

Active coping is basically the willingness to address your challenges head on, whether that's internally or externally. This type of coping includes reframing the way you think, acceptin...

Do you feel like you lost your identity and you are unfulfilled in a certain area of your life? 

Early on when my son was born as a single mother was working and taking care of my child I completely lost sense of who I am and what my goals were, my passion, my interests - I basically identified myself as a single mom, someone who worked and took care of my son. To be honest, there wasn’t a lot of time to take care of myself or do an...

This is a difficult topic for many. I’ve had the opportunity to speak to other parents and this is one of their struggles. 

When going through this journey, and especially in the initial diagnosis, you may run across family members who don’t understand, are unsupportive, not willing to learn about the diagnosis, may even say things like - it’s just a phase. 

You may have to reset your own expectations of your family members.

They may ...

Rise with the Light is not only about challenges we go through as parents with special needs children, but I also cover  making mindset shifts to help you in everyday life deal with different struggles you might be going through, to give you a different perspective and ways to practice. Throughout my journey in battling a variety of challenges from cancer, brain surgery, divorce while 8 months pregnant, autism diagnosis of my son, ...

Please welcome to the show, Vani from DotUrMinds. Vani is a special needs mom, raising her daughter with Epidermolysis Bullosa, or EB, is a rare genetic connective tissue disorder that affects 1 out of every 20,000 births (in the United States - approximately 200 children a year are born with EB). Her daughter is now 19 years old, thriving, now in college at UCLA and was able to give her graduation speech at her High School graduat...

What does feeling helpless actually mean? According to the American Psychological Association, learned helplessness occurs when someone repeatedly faces uncontrollable, stressful situations, then does not exercise control when it becomes available.

Helplessness can come from a single event, like trauma, or a series of events that are recurring. it can lead to depression and often puts your brain into fight or flight mode.

Helplessnes...

I had the pleasure of meeting with Chante Douglas, a single mother, an autism advocate, a military veteran having served in the air force and a published author, bring awareness and advocacy about the autism community. 

We cover so many topics, including when her son, Levi, was diagnosed, the mental health challenges she has faced, and how she has been working through them. Helping her son with his mental health after he ...

I had the privilege of connecting with Dr. Tasnuva, who is now a dear friend in the autism community. Not only is she an autism advocate for her son, she has created her own signature program to help other people, utilizing her background in pharmacy and all that she has learned with helping her son and his abilities. She is absolutely inspiring.

Dr. Tasnuva is a Pharmacist with a PhD in Natural Medicine. She has been an ...

In this episode, I talk specifically about anger. This is a challenging emotion to navigate, it can take over our entire body and can make us do and say things that we may not mean. 

When my son was diagnosed and throughout our journey of autism, I have seen anger rise up inside of me - I have let it take control of me rather than taking control of it. 

What I learned is the emotion of anger may not even be relate...

It was a blessing to have Jamiel Owens, the founder and founder/host of the Ausome Show and incredible advocate for the autism community. 

Jamiel's son was diagnosed with autism when he was 3 years old, and in this episode, we talk about his family, when his son was diagnosed, the challenges he faced as a father. We also get into discussion around having a spiritual foundation, ensuring you're communicating with ...

Grieving isn't just for things that you had and have lost, it's also for things that you may have never had. Basically, grieving the fantasy of what you never had, what you wished for or envisioned, which didn't come true. All of the feelings that come with grieving, including sadness, pain, loss, it’s the same as if you did lose something you had, so there isn’t a difference. 

I’ll be honest. When I found o...