Tiffany Ragozzino is a public school Physical Education teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) who is boldly tackling the behemoth task of teaching fitness, health, and wellness within urban communities to our youth. Join Tiffany and listen to the incredible things she is doing in her classroom to ensure our students of color are provided access and opportunity to fitness initiatives while she employs a self-created curriculum that is dynamic, relevant, and applicable to her minority students that empowers them to live healthy lives! Find Tiffany on Instagram at @theprettylittlelifters or contact her via email at [email protected]. Episode edited by Emily Holz

Michele Lew is an Assistant Principal at Arcadia HS in Southern California and a first year doctoral student at the University of Southern California (USC). In this interview, you will get to know Michele through her journey as a teenage mother and how she refused to let it define her while she fought to live a life where both she and her daughter could thrive. Michele candidly discusses how she balanced friendships, attended college, and ultimately, became a Special Education teacher by choosing herself—yes, herself, over and over again. Join Michele as she recounts the often tough decisions she made to be the best mother she could be while using fitness as a release and choosing the road less traveled to grow into the power house educator, mother, and inspiration that she is today! Find Michele and listen to Michele’s podcast, In the Principal’s Office at https://anchor.fm/intheprincipalsofficepod and follow her on Instagram at @itsmslew.

Navigating the world of mental health and wellness is intimidating enough; let alone with the added stresses of a global pandemic. Lindsey Cooper, AMFT shares her story about being called to help others as a result of the healers and therapists who guided her on her own journeys. Learn from Lindsey how to access a variety of mental health services, and know that no matter how you are feeling, your feelings are real, justified and matter. Someone is waiting to hold hope and space for you right now. Lindsey Cooper, AMFT can be reached via her website at www.mentalwellnesswithlindsey.com, on Instgram at mentalwellnesswithlindsey, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mentalwellnesswithlindsey.

The world is at a literal standstill, yet there seems to be more pressure than ever to do something, create something, be something in order to maximize ‘all of this time’. Sometimes though, doing less IS more and it is exactly what you need.

Millions of people are working from home, businesses, places of recreation, restaurants, and even schools are closing; leaving throngs of kids home with their families. The Corona-pocalypse is officially upon us. While it is all very scary and somewhat like a Hollywood film, what WILL WE DO AT HOME for weeks? How will parents entertain their kids? Aimed at keeping your mind, body, and soul active while you wrangle the kiddos too—this episode is chock full o’tips to help you remain productive amidst this chaos. Ease your stress with things you can do right now to make the most of your time off from work and in your home. I promise, you will be glad you did!

Our lives are comprised of the choices we make. And for many of us, we avoid making the changes we need and hope for because we fear failure, don’t know how to change, and because well, being stuck is easy. In this episode we explore the behavioral reasons we can or cannot change, how to liberate yourself from the cycle of wishing you can make the hard decisions and change, how to address relapsing, and the steps you can take to become successful on your journey to change.

When you least expect it, inspiration can emerge from the most unlikely of places. On a recent idle Sunday evening, inspired by a documentary about running and weight loss on Netflix; I decided to lace up my running sneaks and hit the pavement. Armed with renewed motivation, I shifted my mindset and have been ‘running with it’ ever since. Join me as I delve into setting small, achievable goals and how practicing loving-kindness have helped me navigate this new and exciting journey where I am living an inspired life!

Change is hard, and it only gets harder with age. The longer we go without shaking things up, doing new things, and breathing new life into our existence–it makes it that much harder when you overhaul your life like I did leaving Los Angeles for a small town. In a rare and informal chat, I casually discuss some of my personal challenges in adapting to the drastic changes associated with starting a new life and how I am feeling while living my new small town life.

We sure do spend a lot of time apologizing for things we haven’t done, or needn’t to be sorry. Why is it that we do that? And why is it that women are more apt then men to excessively apologize? In this episode we take a look into why people feel the need to apologize for things they did not do, and take a peek at some ways to stop apologizing when it isn’t warranted.

It seems that no matter where one looks, one is bombarded with cliché after cliché about living life outside of one’s comfort zone. And while that’s all fine and well, why should one live outside his/her comfort zone? How does one even do that? How does one move past the scary fear part of trying to make lasting changes in one/s life? Follow me in this episode as we unpack the fears that hold us back and tackle how to work through them by honoring fear as a catalyst for change.