This episode is for anyone who's tired of their own brain running the show and wants practical tools to stop getting stuck in the highs and lows of everyday life.

More info, resources & ways to connect & support - https://www.tacosfallapart.com/podcast-live-show/podcast-guests/saw-myint

Saw Myint didn't set out to become a mental health advocate. She needed help as a kid and nobody was there to listen. That experience shaped everything that came after.

Growing up in a big household with extended family, Saw was treated like a servant by one of her mother's sisters. She was just a child who didn't know how to speak up. Nobody noticed. Nobody helped. That absence created a drive in her that's lasted decades: she wanted to be the person for others that she never had for herself.

Now 52, the Burmese Australian mom of two has built a life around helping people. She started at 20 doing translation work for immigrants who needed help navigating schools and government departments. As she made money, she sent it back to Myanmar where there's no welfare system. When she turned 30, she got serious about Buddhism and started incorporating those teachings into how she showed up for people.

But Saw ran into a problem when she tried to share her approach on social media. People saw her as a woman who couldn't speak perfect English. They weren't listening to what she was saying. So she pivoted to podcasts, looking for credibility in a different format.

What Saw teaches is far from your typical meditation practice. She struggled with traditional meditation herself because it had to make sense to her first. Why should she sit and focus on breathing? She wanted to understand the why before the how. So she learned from monks' lectures and found one teacher about three years ago whose approach clicked.

The core idea is simple: we only have two main feelings. Satisfied or unsatisfied. Happy or unhappy. And neither one lasts. Good food, good sex, good drugs - they all fade. Same with the bad stuff. Life keeps moving. We're aging every second but only notice it every ten years.

According to Saw, science backs this up. Everything is mind and body, moving millions of times per second. By the time you feel something, whatever triggered it is already gone. You're having feelings about things that aren't even there anymore or about reflections and memories. So why get too attached?

This isn't about becoming a monk or a saint. Saw wants to help everyday people living normal lives. You don't need to sit down and meditate for hours. Just recognize that happiness doesn't last, unhappiness doesn't last, and neither is worth getting addicted to. Feel it, show it, then move on to what's next.

She acknowledges that this approach isn't for everyone. You need to be open-minded and realistic. You need to face facts. But for people who are ready to listen, the practice happens while you're living your life. It's about developing the right mindset so that whatever you face, good or bad, you'll be okay.

During our conversation, Saw led a brief meditation exercise. Instead of focusing only on breath, she asked us to notice everything that came to mind without judgment. Worries, memories, plans - just let them in and observe. Most of what fills our heads is either memory or imagination anyway. Only about 25% of our worries actually happen.

Her advice for anyone struggling: don't be shy or scared. Open up. Talk to someone. Half the problem gets solved just by letting it out.

This episode is for anyone who knows (or WANTS to know!) what it's like when your brain just works differently than everyone else's.

More info, resources & ways to connect - https://www.tacosfallapart.com/podcast-live-show/podcast-guests/trashladd

Emmett (TrashLadd) is 17 and from Canada. He graduated high school this year and knows what it's like to navigate school with ADHD and Asperger's. He got his ADHD diagnosis in third grade and his Asperger's diagnosis in seventh grade. That second diagnosis helped explain a lot about how he acted at school and at home.

Before his ADHD diagnosis Emmett couldn't focus in class. He was always moving around and couldn't sit still. His parents took him to see a specialist who tested him and started him on a path to getting the accommodations he needed. After being diagnosed he got extra time on tests, access to an iPad for notes and scribes when he needed them. Most importantly he started to understand the real struggles people face when living with mental disabilities.

The ADHD symptoms Emmett deals with daily include major anxiety and constantly jumping between tasks. He describes being very much in the now, losing track of time completely. He'll get home from school, start playing Xbox with friends and suddenly realize hours have passed. To combat this he sets tons of timers on his phone and tries to stick to schedules even though it's hard.

The Asperger's shows up differently. When something goes wrong or doesn't happen the normal way, Emmett starts to panic. If he can't find his book or phone or charger he feels that wrongness immediately. His solution is keeping things visible. As his mom put it, out of sight means out of mind. His room might look messy to others but everything is in places where he knows he can find it.

Emmett originally planned to go into coding after high school but realized he hated it. During a co-op placement at an elementary school he discovered he loved helping kids in the classroom. Now he wants to become a developmental service worker. He knows what it's like to struggle with learning and memory. He wants to use those experiences to advocate for kids going through the same thing and help them get what they need to succeed.

His advice for other young adults struggling with mental health is straightforward. Find something that motivates you. For him it's talking with friends every morning and asking how they slept. Get into a routine and stick with it until something new happens. Join random Discord servers and make new friends. Find people you can count on.

Emmett is big on calling out people who self-diagnose or compare mental illnesses like they're all the same. Just because someone has anxiety once doesn't mean they understand what it's like for someone who has it way worse. He wants people to inform themselves, learn what's actually going on and figure out how they can help. And if someone doesn't want help then leave them alone.

The biggest takeaway from talking with Emmett is that living with ADHD and Asperger's means constantly adapting. It means finding systems that work even if they look weird to other people. It means having friends who have your back. And it means being willing to reach out for help when you need it.

If you've ever found yourself with 82 browser tabs (mental or literal!) open while simultaneously achieving nothing, this conversation is for you.

Ways to connect, more info & resources - https://www.tacosfallapart.com/podcast-live-show/podcast-guests/albert-bramante

Dr. Albert Bramante joined me to talk about why performers and educators are especially vulnerable to self-sabotage and what we can actually do about it. As a performance psychologist and talent agent who's spent over 20 years working with actors and teachers, Albert has seen the patterns that keep talented people stuck.

The conversation got real pretty quickly when Albert pointed out something most of us don't want to admit: that nervous feeling before you perform or teach is physiologically identical to excitement. Your body can't tell the difference between stage fright and anticipation. The only thing that changes is the story you tell yourself about those butterflies.

Albert explained that chronic procrastination and perfectionism are just two sides of the same coin. When you want something to be perfect and you know it never will be, you just never start. Or you start so late that failure becomes inevitable. It's a beautiful self-fulfilling prophecy that keeps you safe from ever really trying.

Teachers and performers face unique pressure because there's rarely immediate feedback. You might impact someone's life and never know it. A student might not realize what you taught them until years later. An audience member might be deeply moved but never say a word. That absence of validation feeds impostor syndrome like nothing else.

We also dug into the myth of multitasking. Spoiler: it doesn't exist. What we call multitasking is actually just rapid task-switching, and it's killing our productivity. Albert recommended the three to five tab rule (yes, I felt personally attacked), and pointed out that when you have too many choices or too many things open, you get paralyzed and accomplish nothing.

One of the most powerful moments came when we talked about trauma and grief. Albert made it clear that if you can't talk about a traumatic event the way you'd describe what you had for breakfast last week, you still have work to do. And that's okay! Healing isn't linear! You can get all the way to acceptance and wake up the next day right back in anger.

His advice for anyone caught in the self-sabotage cycle is to remember that you are enough. Most people walk around thinking they're not worthy of success or happiness, and that belief becomes the script they follow.

The practical takeaway that hit hardest: if opening your email makes you feel like you're drowning, if you're always tired but never resting, if every year feels the same as the last one, you're probably holding yourself back. And the first step to changing it is just noticing that it's happening.

Because self-sabotage isn't usually conscious. Nobody wakes up and decides to ruin their own day. But once you see the pattern, you can start to change it.

This conversation was a reminder that getting in your own way isn't a character flaw. But it IS a protection mechanism that's outlived its usefulness. Your brain thinks it's keeping you safe by convincing you to wait for the perfect moment or do more research or tell yourself you're too tired. Safe and stuck look pretty similar from the outside. If you're a teacher wondering if you're making any difference, or a creative person tired of your own excuses, or just someone who's spent too many years in the same place wondering why nothing ever changes, this episode might be the wake-up call you didn't know you needed.

This episode is for anyone who's ever felt like they're not allowed to grieve because someone else has it worse, or who's struggling to let go of the person they used to be.

More info, resources & ways to connect - https://www.tacosfallapart.com/podcast-live-show/podcast-guests/victoriawaye

VictoriaWaye started streaming Minecraft on a dare from a friend and built a following around the simple message: it's okay to be a dork. But her journey took her somewhere deeper when she realized she had something more meaningful to share.

Victoria lost both her parents when she was nine years old. The grief hit her immediately and hard. She cried through their funeral and even sang at the service. Her younger sister had a completely different reaction. She sat stone-faced and seemed unaffected. Years later that suppressed grief erupted into self-harm and suicide attempts. The sisters handled the same loss in totally opposite ways and it drove them apart for years.

What made things harder was that Victoria's aunts told her to "close the book" just three months after her parents died. At nine years old she was expected to get over it and move on. She wasn't allowed to grieve so she channeled everything into roller skating nine hours a week. The processing she needed got buried under activity and expectations.

Victoria's sister eventually studied psychology and became a nurse. She apologized for blaming Victoria and transformed her pain into a drive to help others. Now, their relationship is not perfect, but they've rebuilt something real.

Victoria's work now focuses on a truth most people don't talk about: grief comes in many forms. Yes... we grieve death... but we also grieve lost jobs, ended relationships, missed opportunities and versions of ourselves we used to be. She talks openly about mourning the person she was at 19 when everything felt easier and her sense of style was "on fleek." Learning to let go of past versions of yourself is its own kind of loss.

One thing Victoria emphasizes is the danger of comparative suffering. People tell themselves they're not allowed to feel bad because someone else has it worse. But grief doesn't work that way. You can't only be happy when you're the happiest person alive so why would you only allow yourself to grieve when you have the worst loss? Your feelings are valid regardless of what anyone else is experiencing.

She also pushes back hard on the idea that content creators are therapists. Setting boundaries matters whether you're streaming to thousands or just talking to friends. Before dumping your problems on someone ask if they have the capacity to hear it. Real friendship means respecting that sometimes the answer is no.

Victoria's advice for anyone struggling with loss right now is to find people who lift you up. Stop comparing your grief to others. Celebrate small wins even if that win is just getting out of bed. And remember that everything is temporary including pain.

Her story proves that you can stand in the darkness and still find your way to the light. Where you are right now doesn't have to be where you stay.

Listen to this episode if you're feeling stuck, tired of living up to everyone else's expectations, or wondering if there's more to life than just checking boxes and paying bills.

More info, resources & ways to connect - https://www.tacosfallapart.com/podcast-live-show/podcast-guests/nina-bevar

In this conversation, we dug into what it really means to make decisions from your soul instead of your head with empowerment coach Nina Bevar, who left Switzerland at 34 to chase her dreams in New York City and eventually Hawaii.

Nina's journey wasn't some overnight success story. She spent years visiting New York, falling in love with the city but making excuses about why she couldn't move. It took hitting rock bottom (losing her job and spending two years unemployed and depressed in Geneva) before she finally asked herself the hard question: Why am I staying somewhere I hate?

The shift came at a wedding in Mallorca when a friend simply asked her that same question out loud. Sometimes we need to hear our own truth reflected back to us. Nina saved money for a year at a job she couldn't stand and made the leap. She says she grew more in seven years abroad than in 34 years at home.

So what exactly is a soul-driven decision? Nina explains it as something you feel physically in your heart and body, not just in your head. It's that mix of scared and excited that tells you you're onto something real. It's not about wanting a new car or chasing material stuff. It's deeper than that, often connected to dreams you had as a kid before life got complicated.

The tricky part is when you recognize that modern life is noisy as hell. Between work and bills and kids and everyone else's expectations, it's hard to hear what your soul actually wants. Nina recommends taking even just an hour a week to check in with yourself. Ask the simple questions: Am I happy? Do I love myself? What do I actually need right now?

A huge theme in our conversation was limiting beliefs. Nina works with clients who say things like "I'm not good with money" or "I'm not confident" and helps them trace where those beliefs came from. Usually it's someone else's fear or expectation that got lodged in their brain. One client realized her money anxiety came directly from her dad's scarcity mindset, even though she was actually doing great financially.

We also got real about privilege and practicality. Yes, Nina moved countries twice, but she doesn't have kids. She acknowledges that complicates things. But she also pushes back on the idea that complicated means impossible. Often we create more obstacles in our heads than actually exist. Did you research what it would really take? Did you ask someone who's done it? Or are you just assuming it's too hard?

Her advice for anyone feeling stuck: start small. You don't have to quit your job and move to Hawaii tomorrow. Take one tiny step toward what lights you up. Visit a place you're curious about. Have a conversation about your dreams out loud. Read a book about it. Put some wood on the fire of your soul so it doesn't go out while you're waiting for the "right time."

Because here's the thing Nina wants you to remember: people don't regret the things they did. They regret what they didn't do. Life is short and unpredictable. What are you waiting for?

Oh, and her best life hack is... Naps!! Two-hour naps, specifically. The Italians are onto something.

Whether you're a parent navigating IEPs, a teacher searching for better ways to reach struggling students or anyone who wants to understand what it really takes to support kids with special needs, this conversation will give you practical tools and a hefty dose of reality without the sugar coating.

More info, resources & ways to connect - https://www.tacosfallapart.com/podcast-live-show/podcast-guests/josh-henry

Josh Henry didn't set out to work with special needs kids. At 14, he was just helping out at a church event when a five-year-old girl with cerebral palsy latched onto him and wouldn't let go. That moment changed everything.

Now Josh coaches adaptive sports through an organization called Magic while working full-time at Amazon. He spent five years in the school system as a special ed aide and he gets it in a way most people don't. He was a special ed kid himself.

Growing up with dyslexia and severe ADHD meant Josh knew what it felt like to watch classmates finish tests while he was still on question three. He knew the panic of thinking he looked dumb. He also knew what it felt like when a teacher finally said "You're not behind them. You just learn differently."

That's the mentality he brings to every kid he works with now whether they're in wheelchairs learning hockey or struggling through reading assignments two grade levels behind.

The challenges haven't changed much since Josh was in school but the resources have gotten better. Weighted lap bands. Yoga balls instead of chairs. Fidget tools. Speech-to-text software that turns a failing writer into an A student. The key is knowing your kids well enough to know what they need and when to push versus when to pull out a board game and just let them breathe.

Remote learning has made everything harder. Josh predicts we're going to see a surge in kids qualifying for IEPs simply because they fell so far behind during the pandemic chaos. When every teacher had a different system and parents were trying to work full-time jobs while monitoring Zoom calls, it was a perfect storm for kids who were already struggling.

His advice for parents is NOT to try to be Superman or Superwoman. Find resources. Ask for help. Google is your friend. Organizations like Educational Parents Unlimited exist in every state to help parents understand IEPs and advocate for their kids.

The best part of working with special needs kids according to Josh is the attitude. A kid with Down syndrome giving you an unexpected hug and saying "I love you Mr. Henry" makes every frustrating tantrum worth it. Hearing a friend's autistic son making happy sounds in the background of a Fortnite session reminds him that life's really not that bad.

The worst part, though... Also the attitude. Some days kids come in ready to work. Other days they're throwing themselves on the ground because their dad didn't come home last night and no amount of patience is going to make them learn their multiplication tables.

What Josh hopes every kid takes away from working with him isn't math or reading skills. It's knowing how to use the tools available to them. Because not everyone's going to college and that's okay. But everyone needs to know how to ask for help and where to find it when they need it.

If you're a parent, teacher, school administrator or anyone who gives a damn about helping young people navigate the chaos of growing up, this episode is for you.

More info, resources & ways to connect - https://www.tacosfallapart.com/podcast-live-show/podcast-guests/iuri-melo

Licensed clinical social worker Iuri Melo joined me for a Mental Health Monday conversation that challenged a lot of assumptions about student mental health. With 20 years of experience and five kids of his own, Iuri knows what he's talking about when it comes to supporting young people.

When students reach out to School Pulse (the text-based support service Iuri co-founded), two themes dominate the conversation: pressure to perform and relationship struggles. Not vague anxiety or mysterious depression but concrete worries about grades, parents, friends and fitting in.

Iuri's take is that we're focusing too much on teaching people to identify mental health problems and not enough on building protective factors. Schools don't need teachers to become amateur diagnosticians. They need teachers to be friendly, approachable and genuinely connected with their students.

School Pulse takes a proactive approach rather than waiting for crisis. They text students directly with encouragement, growth mindset tools and practical advice. About 75-80% of their interactions with students are positive. When crisis does happen, their goal is simple: connect kids back to their parents and their school community.

The service isn't trying to replace therapy or become the ultimate solution, but it is filling a gap by being accessible (just a text message away), immediate and less intimidating than walking into a counselor's office.

Iuri's advice for educators is to be friends with your students. Not in an inappropriate way but in a genuine, fist-bump-at-the-door kind of way. When teachers invest in relationships, students do better academically and emotionally. When students are friends with their teachers, they're more likely to ask for help when they need it.

He also pushed back against the SEL (social-emotional learning) controversy. School Pulse makes all their content completely transparent to parents and proactively includes them in email campaigns. Their focus isn't on clinical diagnoses but on practical skills that help kids succeed academically and socially.

If Iuri could wave a magic wand, he'd start what he calls a "humility movement." In a world where everyone seems absolutely certain about everything, he wishes people (especially those influencing young minds) would approach conversations with a beginner's mindset. Just because we think or feel something doesn't make it capital-T True.

Throughout our conversation, Iuri kept coming back to simple practices that actually work. His personal life hack is to start the day with movement. His advice for managing emotions is to not overthink your thinking. His favorite way to boost mood is to practice gratitude but add "because" to go one layer deeper.

For parents, his message was clear: don't send your kids into the world with fear. Send them with confidence. Model approachability. Make yourself a safe place to land.

The conversation reminded me that supporting student mental health doesn't have to be complicated. Sometimes it's as simple as showing up, being kind and helping kids connect with the people who care about them most.

This episode is for anyone who's ever felt like their brain is working against them, who's tired of pretending everything is fine when it's not, or who needs to hear that surviving the day is enough.

Most people don't understand what it's like when your brain is wired differently. They don't get the exhaustion of fighting yourself every single day just to do basic things. Sebbzzy knows that fight intimately.

Diagnosed with ADHD and Tourette syndrome at six years old, Sebbzzy spent his childhood being medicated and told something was wrong with him. His stepfather constantly corrected his tics, giving him negative attention that destroyed his self-confidence. The result was that he learned to camouflage his tics by mimicking normal behaviors like coughing when others coughed. He described Tourette's as an itch in your whole body that you have to release through movement or sound. The compulsive thinking that came with it meant doing things in specific patterns or numbers.

Then depression hit five years before our interview. Not the kind of sadness people think of when they hear the word depression. The kind that steals your ability to feel anything genuine. Sebbzzy talked about laughing as a reflex rather than a real emotion. About smiling at the "right" times to appear normal. About the complete disconnect from positive emotions while negative thought patterns run on repeat.

The fatigue is what he hates most. Not physical tiredness but the mental wall between him and everything he wants to do. He compared it to having a barrier between himself and his goals even though nothing is physically stopping him. He loves being active, playing guitar, working out and improving himself. But depression doesn't care what you love. Some days you just can't do it.

Add anxiety to that mix and you get physical symptoms that mimic serious illness. Sebbzzy described waking up after barely sleeping, feeling aches all over his body and having trouble breathing. He thought he had COVID. It was anxiety. The conditions feed each other in a brutal cycle. Anxiety triggers his Tourette's tics. Depression makes his ADHD worse. The ADHD makes it harder to maintain routines that help with depression.

He refused professional help for years because he wanted to fix his own problems. He's an overthinker who can usually figure out what he needs to do. The problem was, he couldn't stay consistent. When things crashed again after years of barely functioning, his mother encouraged him to get help. He finally agreed, partly because Norway's healthcare system provides free treatment for serious depression and anxiety. Having a diagnosis on paper also gives you certain rights and protections.

His advice for getting unstuck is brutally practical - take small steps. Get a haircut. Take a shower. Do something that makes you feel like you're taking care of yourself. It won't cure anything but it creates momentum. He uses a rubber band on his wrist to snap himself out of negative thinking. He forces himself to do physical activity even when depression makes everything feel impossible.

The biggest misconception he wants to destroy is that you can just think yourself healthy. ..That depression is a choice or a mindset problem. You can use positive thinking and good habits to manage symptoms but you can't think away chemical changes in your brain. You can't willpower your way out of neurological conditions.

https://www.tacosfallapart.com/podcast-live-show/podcast-guests/sebbzzy

Sebbzzy was 19 when we talked. He'd been fighting these conditions for most of his life. He wasn't cured. He wasn't "better." He was surviving and that's enough.