In this episode I had the pleasure of speaking with fitness, nutrition, and weight management expert, Narado Zeco Powell. He is also the host of the top 100 ranked health and wellness podcast, "The Zeco Health Show."

Narado Zeco Powell was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica and as a child, he was underweight. When he moved to the United States at age 16, he was 5’11” and weighed 113 pounds. By age 18, he was inspired to learn more about fitness and nutrition and took a special interest in fitness. He spent 18 years educating himself by reading evidence based scientific articles, learning from mentors and trying different techniques. Zeco carries 7 fitness and nutrition certifications from the International Sports Sciences Association. Having a large knowledge base allows him to work with a wide variety of clients and design programs that are specific to his clients’ needs. He shares his knowledge with others via several social media platforms including Twitter and Instagram. He is passionate about educating others and hopes to continue to learn, grow and adapt so that he can bring the most up to date and actionable content to his clients, followers and subscribers. You can learn more about Zeco and access his content on instagram: @zecohealth, twitter: www.twitter.com/zecohealth and his website: www.zecohealth.com.

There is no need to fix a feeling when we know how feelings work, especially when we are not so caught up in negative emotions towards our career, our health, and our family. The experience of having feelings is all ok. They have nothing on you. Negative emotion just means you are temporarily farther away from your center which is calm, resilient, hopeful, and full of love. Nothing to see here and nothing to do. Just hang on and let it settle.

"If the only thing people knew was to not be afraid of their experience then that alone would change the world."

- Syd Banks

Join Jami and I in part 2 of our conversation as we explore the gifts of having an ADHD neurodiverse mind that works differently, not dysfunctionally as we have been conditioned to believe. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Jami Fregeau, RN, BSN who is a full time nurse and host of one of Apple's top mental health podcasts called the "The Neurodivergent Nurse."

I discuss with Jami what it is like having ADHD in the healthcare industry as well as her experience growing up with undiagnosed ADHD in a small close knit community in the South. Jami and I could have talked for hours about the gifts of having a neurodiverse ADHD mind. That's why we split this episode into two parts.

The Neurodivergent Nurse is a weekly podcast hosted by Jami Fregeau, a nurse who has ADHD. Her journey with ADHD is just beginning as she learns about this diagnosis and how to navigate through it. Enjoy this messy and raw journey as she shares what she has learned and the occasional embarrassing stories along the way.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Jami Fregrau, RN, BSN who is a full time nurse and host of one of Apple's top mental health podcasts called the "The Neurodivergent Nurse."

I discuss with Jami what it is like having ADHD in the healthcare industry as well as her experience growing up with undiagnosed ADHD in a small close knit community in the South. Jami and I could have talked for hours about the gifts of having a neurodiverse ADHD mind. That's why we split this episode into two parts. Stay tuned for part 2 of my thought inspiring conversation with Jami.

The Neurodivergent Nurse is a weekly podcast hosted by Jami Fregrau, a nurse who has ADHD. Her journey with ADHD is just beginning as she learns about this diagnosis and how to navigate through it. Enjoy this messy and raw journey as she shares what she has learned and the occasional embarrassing stories along the way.

A brilliant neurodiverse ADHD mind is always working overtime. It's a high performance yet innocently overworked machine. The ADHD mind problem solves with the quickness. The ADHD mind can complete multiple high stimulus tasks at the same time. Ask any emergency room doctor or nurse (who has ADHD) how much they love their jobs. As fast and high performing the brilliant neurodiverse ADHD is, it runs out of gas as quickly. This manifests as feeling overstimulated, anxious and temporarily stuck in a depressed state that I call the swamp of sadness. Especially first thing in the morning. We feel the weight of the world on our shoulders. We also sometimes forget what tasks we have to complete for the day (even when we know we have work or school) when we wake up first thing in the morning. It takes a little while to boot up the supercomputer between our ears.

The content of our thinking doesn't matter when we are caught up in the machinery of our chaotic, anxious, overstimulated ADHD thinking. When we see below the noise of our mind's temporary swamp of sadness do we truly see the illusion of thought.

In this episode I had the honor of sitting down with Lillian Hernandez, author, educator, and host of of the critically acclaimed podcast, "True Lessons." Lillian Hernandez's zest for life and her authenticity has captivated a strong following, and nothing fills her more to make a difference on a larger scale. She went from being abandoned by her father, molestation, and teen pregnancy to a successful educator, podcast host, self-published author and life coach. You can say she is living her best life and now wants others to live theirs! Lillian is the founder of Level Up Coaching. The host of the Podcast: True Lessons (formally known as Wine Down with Lil) and author of Experience Required, a memoir of her life (available in English and Spanish). She also published a short story collection, A Lil Drama for Ya. The collection holds stories her students enjoyed very much in the classroom and inspired her to publish.

"Have the audacity to believe in yourself"- Lillian Hernandez, La Autora

Don't be afraid to be the true essence of you. There is 100% nothing wrong with your brilliant, neurodiverse ADHD mind. Part of being human is being ok with our moodiness. You are going to feel cranky and extra overwhelmed sometimes. THE ADHD neurotype is a brilliant, yet hypersensitive system. There is nothing wrong with you (as long as you are not hurting others). Underneath the noise you are perfect. The more you try to quiet the noise the louder it gets. Modalities never work long term. The realization that you are not your moods is powerful indeed. It is ok to have them, and they are 100% harmless (and 100% mean nothing, and not to be taken on or seriously) and just part of your human experience. You are allowed to be in a crappy mood. If people don't like the totality of you (moods and all) then let them walk away. You will attract your tribe.

Are you afraid of loneliness or failure, confrontation or facing the unknown? Psychologist Dr. Nancy Stella draws on decades of experience in clinical practice in her new book, “Fear Traps: Escape the Triggers that Keep You Stuck” — which presents her concept of the Courageous Brain Process, a six-step, science-based treatment plan to help people overcome fear.

“Fear Traps” equips readers to heal trauma and take on new challenges with confidence and resilience. Dr. Stella shows us that fear is normal, but fear does not need to control you. If you’re feeling trapped in a cycle of coping mechanisms that just keep making things worse, there is a way out. With over 30 years of experience as a clinical psychologist, Nancy Stella, PsyD, PhD, helps us get unstuck by teaching us how our brain processes fear. Using current neuroscience research, her Courageous Brain Process (CBP) provides transformative, science-based practices to regain control over the emotions that once controlled us.

For people with a speedy neurodiverse ADHD mind it we live in the technicolor noise of sensory overload. And that's ok. There is nothing wrong and more importantly there is nothing to fix. ADHD'ers are not attention deficit, we are attention different. When we get quiet we see our intelligence. We see what's possible. Our fast moving ADHD mind gets us there. That's where the magic lies. The challenge is seeing our self awareness kick in when we become overstimulated, reactive, start forgetting things, or quickly lose our focus. The more we get curious about it the quicker we can catch it when our attention goes south. With a high performance ADHD mind comes the responsibility of active preventative maintenance like an F1 race car.

Recently I had the chance to sit down with Long Island's very own Brenna Guinan, mental health counselor extraordinaire and host of the refreshingly honest and brilliantly funny mental health podcast Real Fckn Talk. We discuss how the pandemic has, in many respects, created a mental health crisis not only for patients but for the dedicated mental health professionals out on the front lines. 

You can reach out to Breanna here:

Instagram: @real.fckn.talk

Email: realfckntalk@gmail.com 

Podcast: Real Fckn Talk (spotify, apple, etc)

Imagine a world without the inner narrator (our inner head chatter) telling us what is what. Imagine your inner narrator not being there. Imagine everything is neutral. You would have no judgement of your outside world. Yet the outside natural world is always completely neutral. It's your internal jibber jabber that adds meaning and creates that noisy world. You can have that quiet. You can view your world without judgement (even if the head chatter is at high volume). You have this thing called stillpower. Stillpower is pointing you back to that quiet everyday. Whether you have a neurotypical brain or a neurodiverse brain. You just don't pay attention to it.

Recently I had the unique opportunity to sit down with an extraordinary young man named Thomas Henley. Thomas is an Autism & Mental Health advocate, creating YouTube videos, podcasts and documentaries. With a degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University Of Manchester, a Commonwealth gold medal in Tae kwon do, and a talent for public speaking, Thomas seeks to raise awareness and support others on their own personal growth journey.

Thomas' motives come from his long history with Autism, Depression, Anxiety, Eating Disorders & Panic Disorders. Experienced in Special Needs teaching, human sciences, and how to help others understand his conditions, he seeks to bring a new face to Autism and Mental Health disorders.

"Life isn't showing you the truth of reality. It is not programming you. You are programming yourself to see life a certain way." - Rachel Francis

This week I spent time with the brilliant embodiment coach, Rachel Francis who hails from East Cork, Ireland. Rachel shares her journey exploring Italy and what's possible when we begin to see every moment as the gift just as it is, the good, bad, and the messy parts in between.

Rachel's Bio

Rachel is a certified Embodiment Coach. She specializes in helping people 1-on-1 in their mid 20s and 30s who feel disconnected to their full potential, unfulfilled and unconfident, embody a new self-concept and cultivate self-authority to obliterate sabotaging beliefs and negative patterns that are holding them back from the person they are meant to be and their happiest life. Rachel is also a Directory Member and Expert Coach with the international holistic retreat group Bien Etre and I am a host of the Spotify podcast 'Spiritual Roundtable Podcast'.

Taylor Roark of Galiant Trainings is not only a masterful intuitive coach aligning consciousness with purpose, he is also a wonderful human being. Taylor and I had a brilliant conversation back in August about what it means to connect with what our heart is calling us to. It happens to all of us if we pay attention to the quiet voice inside of us. That quiet voice is a blissful gift from the universe. It is that leap of faith that your brain innocently turns into a dangerous cliff edge. It's only when we see beyond the illusory nature of the Netflix movie of the mind do we discover it is a featherbed.

I have been patiently waiting to have my friend, the brilliant Chase Marks on my podcast for some time now. I finally got to interview the fabulous Chase Marks, the host of the Bystanders Podcast (which is my top five favorite). To say that Chase uplifts the lives of others (as a podcaster and a mental health advocate) is a true understatement. Chase also works in theater automation which is so apropos to our discussion today about the "theater of the mind" and how the drama of mind is not only made up, (if we really pay attention) it is not a creation of our own doing. It just is and it doesn't matter where it comes from. It's not us. So sit back, relax and enjoy. You will be glad you did.

Mental health is not something you work on. It's not something you obtain. It's not something you "manage." It is your true north. Your essential nature. And it's all there on offer. And in the immortal words of the Scottish mystic Sydney Banks: "We are just one thought away from mental wellbeing. Just one thought." Nothing better encapsulates this truth when we finally see who and what we truly are, underneath the noise of thought and thinking. It's called inner resilience and inner wisdom that guides us along the river of life like a perfect GPS system. We have flickers of our inner wisdom all day long. We just don't pay attention to it enough. Emily Davis, host of the brilliant mental health podcast, "The Wondering Mind," gets this truth. Then she forgets. Then she remembers again (like all of us do from time to time). Emily and I sat down to chat about her journey with ADHD and depression and how, after many years of suffering she started paying attention and trusting her own inner wisdom underneath the noise of her thinking.

Are my thoughts clear? Is my mind quiet? Am I open to my essential nature (found in all of us) which is resilience, compassion, and love? And it's not found in our very human experience of thought and thinking. It's in that quiet space. It is in that quiet space that most of our most beloved athletes win championships and break records.

Simon Mundie is a lover of sport. Especially tennis. He has interviewed some of the greatest tennis players of all time. Recently I had the honor of (from across the pond) sitting down with Simon Mundie, host of the brilliant podcast Life Lessons: From Sport and Beyond. Simon is also a critically acclaimed presenter for BBC TV and Radio 4's Today Program. Simon shares many touching examples of the fearless competitive wisdom in the athletes he interviews and how this precise discovery rests within all of us, right here, right now, no matter the circumstance.

In today's podcast I had the pleasure to speak with the brilliant transformational coach, Siobhan Friel, on how the mind really works (what they didn't teach us), and why we often forget that we are making it all up.

ADHD is a paradox of opposite abilities and behaviors that resonate at more intense levels than in those who do not have ADHD. Paradox is the coexistence of seemingly contradictory qualities or phases. One major paradox in a person with an ADHD neurotype is the inability to focus due to periphery noise. Periphery noise can interfere with the ability to carry on a conversation, get important work done, or follow direction in a person with ADHD. This can strain relationships (work and interpersonal) and lead to us feeling constantly exhausted and misunderstood by our frustrated peers. Peripheral noise is kryptonite to a person with ADHD. Sniffles and coughs are like bird calls in an aviary. Sniffles evolve into snuffles in my ADHD brain like blows in a steel foundry. To make matters worse the noise can sometimes be louder and more disruptive than your neighbor's car alarm going off in the middle of the night. It's not only disruptive it can be painful to a person with ADHD. Understanding how the speedy ADHD mind works is not only helpful to a person with ADHD but to our co-workers and the people (who care about us) to practice patience, compassion and make accommodations when the noise in our head is disruptive.

In this episode I had the unique opportunity to speak with a very special human. His name is Daniel Jackson, a gifted spirit guide and intuitive coach. Daniel shares how we can polish the lens of the heart, mind, and soul from the wisdom of our ancestors beyond the veil. It was truly an honor to listen to Daniel share his wisdom and experiences channeling spirit. You don't want to miss this episode!