The Fully Mindful with Melissa Chureau

Have you ever wanted to meditate but thought you could not quiet your mind or just can’t find the time, or maybe you have tried and it just hasn’t “worked?” You’ve been frustrated because  you understand that science has proven the physical and emotional benefits of mindfulness, but you just can’t get over this hump or plateau.

Today’s guest, Dr. Michael Amster, has the solution–and it takes less than a minute a day. With this practice, the practice of accessing awe (as in wonder), Dr. Amster and his colleague, Jake Eagle, found an easy, and remarkably simple, scientifically-proven practice to overcome burnout and anxiety, ease chronic pain, find clarity and purpose–and a sense of calm and acceptance with what is, all the while savoring what is–in less than a minute a day. They call it The Power of Awe, which handily, and helpfully, was recently published and available as a remarkably accessible book, with science, observations, history, and practices.

When Dr. Amster is not blazing the trail for new mindfulness practices and conducting scientific studies that back their effectiveness, he’s a pain management specialist, leads meditation practices, and engages in the power of awe every day.

In this interview, we dig deep into the Power of Awe, its benefits, and how you just might tap into what is arguably the most powerful tool we can tap not only to ease this daily practice of being human, but to learn to experience life as it truly is, full of wonder.

Find out more about Dr. Michael Amster, his colleague Jake Eagle,  & The Power of Awe

We get used to the everyday, the ordinary. And we sometimes (maybe often!) forget to notice what we see, hear, touch, feel every day. The other week, in the 3rd episode of The Last of Us, where 2 souls met and began to share a life in the post-apocalyptic world, where even basic goods, much less water, was available, there was this incredible moment: Frank shows Bill to a hidden garden, where he's grown strawberries for him. And they each take bites of the strawberry, and are overcome with effusive joy at the flavor, the texture, the experience. Oh, to have that kind of awe for the everyday! 

Well, today, that's our practice. We will practice being present for both the ordinary experience of annoyance, and the everyday (or could be!) experience of joy and awe.

If you'd like more of this, toss me a line, or sign up for a free call to talk about working with me on how presence and purpose can collide and transform our lives.

Email: info@thefullymindful.com

Usually, we don't think of love or self-compassion when we think of the actions needed to have a healthy body. If you're anything like me, you think of pulling yourself up by the boot-straps, or hunkering down, or really "following the rules." Turns out, that's part of our culture too. And this toxic sort of thinking has seeped  into how our teens see themselves too. So-called "almond moms" (and dads) think they're helping their teens be healthy (aka attaining "thin privilege") when the real culprits are shame and often a health condition called insulin resistence.

In comes Dr. Karla Lester, board certified pediatrician and life coach and founder of IME Community, who is working tirelessly to teach kids--and their parents-- to love themselves as they are and also take empowering action to improve their health.

Dr. Karla and I talk about how she found her purpose in teaching self-love and healthy habits, and we delve into everything from "thin privilege" and toxic media messages to body positivity and the science around insulin resistance, and living a healthy lifestyle--physically and emotionally.  

You’ll want to listen to this episode, about how Dr. Karla  has her own lived experience with weight, and being a human, making mistakes , developing her own self compassion and working to help others do the same. It’s a message of humanity, a hard look at media and our own complicity in the childhood obesity epidemic. And an educational look at weight gain, insulin resistance, and shame—and mostly, it’s a message of hope.

Find out more about Dr. Karla Lester:

Anyone else "shoulding" all over themselves now that we are closing in on the end of January? Maybe even regret or self-flagellation, or is that just me? 

That's why we practice--to remember who we are, what is happening right now, and that we are humans just like everyone else.

So, join me on this short practice that allows us to be in the here and now, present for what is.

Did you know you can work with me? I coach people just like you, come into the present, appreciate your worth, uncover your purpose, and live the big, meaningful life you deserve.

At the age of 15, Marlita Hill heard the words---very clearly--"Go Watch." Go watch a dance performance. While she did not know where there words came from, she knew she had to go. And there started her journey into her passion--dance and choreography. Despite the many odds stacked against her--and having to train for a dance audition next to six and seven year olds at the age of 23--Marlita put one foot in front of the other, with her heart leading all the way. 

Join us in this inspiring--and often downright funny--conversation, with a woman who followed her heart and listened to that all-knowing voice to a career in dance, choreography, education, authorship, and now, entrepreneurship. She's witty. She's humble, and she just might get you to try that plié.

To connect with Marlita:

For me, there is nothing quite like a deep conversation with a fellow mindfulness practitioner and teacher. And that is exactly how I felt—and I think you will feel—in this conversation with Sarah Ariaudo, author, speaker, mindset coach, and creator of the Mindful Based

Healing program to address the mental and emotional

well being of cancer fighters and their family.

After ignoring her own health for the sake of her dedication to work, she was forced to confront her situation—and found yoga, and mindfulness as two core practices that brought her back to health, and brought her back to her whole self.

Her practices are accessible for the everyday person, and are created to support cancer fighters whose lives have been disrupted by all the anxiety, planning, financial and family stress this disease causes. She’s a leader in this area, forging new avenues for science-based practices that, if she has it her way—and she should—would be available to every single cancer patient, for free.

What really struck me in this conversation, though, was her utter humility, and how she walks her talk by using mindfulness in her every day life, and especially with her family.

If you’ve ever wondered about mindfulness and thought you could not access it, I get it. But you’ll walk away after this podcast with the hope—and the tools—to give it a try, one minuet at a time.

Find out More about and connect with Sarah Ariaudo

I know. I know. Just what you wanted right before the holidays! That's exactly why I chose to publish this podcast about eating well post-Halloween, and pre-Thanksgiving here in the US. 

It's because I needed to be reminded of eating well, for health and well-being--and where eating unconsciously, or to "eat my feelings" backfires. 

Welcome to this honest and practical conversation with Melissa Rohlfs, a Board certified health and life coach, who understands all too well what it feels like to stuff feelings, treat emotions with the sugar demon, and how out of control and serious this really can be.

And how it isn't our fault. How a multi-billion dollar industry has gamed us into eating more. And more importantly, how we can give ourselves the gift of eating for health and well-being--and the grace to be human.

We talk about some of the solutions Melissa has found over her years as a health and life coach, and she lets you in on them right here, on the Fully Mindful.

In fact, that’s kind of her style—generous and real. She offers a free guide to body freedom and peace, and if you’re interested, follow her on instagram and set up a call with her. You won’t regret it.

Find out more about Melissa Rohlfs:

Have you ever felt like your mind was spinning out of control and you just thought that if things could just slow down, maybe, just maybe, you’d get a handle on things?

Or ever felt so disconnected from your body that you honestly felt like a head walking around on a stick?

Well, I sure have. And it turns out I’m not alone. And more importantly, there’s a way out of this morass that we get ourselves into sometimes. And even better? We don’t have to do it alone.

Kristin Taylor is one of the good people out there who know just the right tool to give you at just the right time to help us when we need it. With 20 years of experience as a coach and counselor, Kristin uses mindfulness, psychology, and somatics—along with her insanely beautiful soft empathy and her keen observation and intuition—to help us dig our way up and out and into something really beautiful.

And in this pod, she lets us in on a couple of these tools that we can use right away.

So, whether you're a coach who wants to learn from an exceptional coach, or a fellow human on the long journey into the night themselves, you'll want to check out this conversation with Kristin.

What I love about Kristin, is not only is she ridiculously well trained and educated in this stuff—she’s lived it herself. Which always, always earns credibility in my book. If you’ve lived it, you know it, and I’m ready and willing to learn from you.

So settle into this intimate conversation on coaching, mindfulness, body-oriented insights and self-compassion.

To find out more about Kristin:

As a lawyer myself, I honestly can't think of anything funnier than being a lawyer. It can actually be pretty ridiculous. The stories. The contortions we put ourselves in. Yeah. But perhaps even funnier than being a lawyer is being a parent. How many stories do you have--or have your heard--about crazy kid stuff?

Enter Heather Weigler, a successful government lawyer (yes, government lawyers can be successful!) who is also a parent, and also a comedian. She found comedy in lieu of jumping out of planes in order to come back to self. Always serving others as a lawyer and a parent is hard work. Just getting out there on the comedy stage and being funny. Well, that's another thing.

Heather and I explore how comedy is a release, a freedom. And that vulnerability is a superpower. And finding one's purpose is a journey, not a destination. 

And if you like this conversation--and you surely will--you will want to check out Heather's comedy clips on TikTok!

Find out more about Heather:

tiktok: @moreofaveronica

It's kind of fascinating how much we don't really know, isn't it? Sometimes, though, when we look back, we can't believe what we didn't see or appreciate. Imagine the surprise at being whisked away in your early 20s by your parents in an effort to save you from yourself and try to get you on the path sobriety, only to find yourself at a retreat with the great Thich That Hanh. Just let that gel for a moment. It's kind of like being whisked away to learn a thing or 2 about basketball when you've hardly played, only to find yourself at a basketball camp with LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Damian Lillard and Shaq. Or a writing camp to find Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, and John Irving. You get the picture. 

Enter Dr. Chris Willard, now a Harvard psychologist, author of 20 books including Growing Up Mindful and Alphabreaths--and soon out, AlphaBreaths 2. Now sober for decades, and trained in mindfulness and psychology, Dr. Willard talks early recovery, trauma, mindfulness, working with kids and adults, and how, as the title of the episode says, everything is impossible and possible, all at once.

Truly a conversation you won't want to miss. Plus, I promise to share the mix-tape Chris mentions near the end....as soon as he sends it!

More about Dr. Chris Willard and how to find him:

Eileen Joy, host of Moms who Money, a mom who nearly lost everything, only to find her way into financial freedom, and a passion for making money approachable and even fun for mothers and their kids by shifting mindset and practices to live life fully and purposefully, and joyfully. She’s a coach, a speaker, and an incredible resource for moms (and dads too) for all things money.