Do you ever feel guilty for relaxing? Like every hobby needs to be productive, every weekend needs to be optimized, and every moment of your life should be spent becoming a “better” version of yourself?If you’ve forgotten how to have fun without feeling like you’re wasting time, this episode is for you.In today’s episode, we’re challenging one of the biggest myths in self-improvement culture: that growth only happens through discipline, hustle, and constant effort. I’ll share why play isn’t the opposite of personal growth—it’s one of the fastest ways to build confidence, creativity, resilience, and a life you actually enjoy living.We’ll talk about why kids learn so quickly through play, why adults slowly lose that instinct, and how to reconnect with curiosity without feeling guilty. If you’ve been treating yourself like a project instead of a person, consider this your permission to stop earning your life and start living it.

If you’ve been feeling guilty every time you slow down, rest, choose fun, or do something that doesn’t make you more productive, this episode is for you.This month’s Wellish theme is play, adventure, and creativity and I’m challenging one of the biggest messages we’ve absorbed from self-improvement culture: that growth only counts when it’s difficult.In this Confessions of a Wellish Listener episode, we’re talking about what happens when you give yourself permission to ease off the gas pedal for a month and discover that joy can be productive too. Maybe the most expansive version of your life isn’t hiding behind another morning routine, another optimization hack, or another reason to postpone living until you’ve earned it.We’ll explore why hustle culture isn’t the only path to success, how play can expand your confidence, creativity, relationships, and sense of self, and why there isn’t one “right” way to become the person you want to be.If you’re tired of treating your life like a project instead of a life, welcome. You’re in the right place.

This week, I’m reading your anonymous confessions, and somehow they all point to the same question: When do we finally get to stop trying to earn our lives?We talk about perfectionism disguised as self-improvement, feeling like you need permission to share your inner world, why healing can become another full-time job, romanticizing people and patterns that hurt us, the difference between chemistry and emotional safety, and what it means when a broken phone suddenly feels like proof that life is against you.If you’ve ever felt exhausted by the pressure to keep becoming a “better” version of yourself, this conversation is for you. Maybe the goal isn’t to stop growing. Maybe it’s to stop believing you have to hate who you are in order to change.Because growth doesn’t have to begin with self-rejection.

You can be kind, loyal, self-aware, and deeply caring and still lose yourself.In this conversation with therapist, author, and trauma specialist Cynthia Schwartzberg, we explore the subtle ways self-abandonment disguises itself as love, compassion, self-improvement, and being a “good person.”We talk about why so many people repeat the same relationship patterns, struggle to trust themselves, over-explain their boundaries, and spend years trying to earn a sense of worth that was never supposed to be earned in the first place.If you’ve ever found yourself people-pleasing, over-functioning, fixing, proving, or putting everyone else’s needs before your own, this episode will help you understand why, and how to start coming back to yourself.CONNECT WITH CYNTHIA⤵️https://www.facebook.com/Cynthasishttps://www.instagram.com/cynthasisatlanta/https://www.youtube.com/@cynthasis6227https://cynthasis.com/BOOK LINK: https://amzn.to/4eFOe9f

What if the problem isn't that you're too sensitive? What if you've spent so much of you life anticipating other people's needs, managing their emotions, and abandoning yourself in the process that you've mistaken self sacrifice for love? When you're highly sensitive, it's easy to assume that caring means doing for others what you wish they would do for you. You notice everything. You accomodate. You give grace. You make exceptions. You bend. And when someone doesn't do the same for you it can feel like they don't care. But what if they're not uncaring? What if they're simply not abandoning themselves the way you've been abandoning yourself? In this episode, we're talking about the hidden cost of sensitivity, why self abandonment can disguise itself as kindness, and how to step measuring love by how much someone sacrifices for you. We'll explore what it looks like to focus less on what you're not getting and more on what you actually what to create in your relationships and in your life. Healing isn't becoming less sensitive it's learning that caring for yourself counts too.

Have you ever looked back at a relationship, friendship, or season of your life and thought, “That wasn’t really me”?Not because someone forced you to change, but because somewhere along the way you started making decisions around someone else instead of around yourself.In this episode, we’re talking about one of the most overlooked forms of self-abandonment: giving someone so much influence that their attention, approval, potential, or presence starts determining your choices. You lower standards, ignore your needs, make excuses, stay longer than you should, and slowly lose sight of what you actually want.We’ll explore why so many of us do this, how it quietly erodes self-trust, and what it means to become the chooser again, not by caring less about others, but by finally including yourself in the decision-making process.If you’ve ever found yourself over-explaining someone’s behavior, sacrificing your values to keep a connection, or wondering why you feel disconnected from yourself, this episode is for you.Because confidence isn’t getting everyone to choose you. It’s continuing to choose yourself.

On this episode I am talking to you guys about the reasons I have been out of my mental fog and feeling good this last week. Not in an ádrenla line performative way, but in a very genuine way. I did several things in the last week that contributed to getting more aligned with the version of myself I picture in my head like creating a more real life morning routine, making my kitchen less chaotic and planning for a full wardrobe clear out. I also kept my goals at the surface and spent this week focusing on focusing on them. If you want to listen to something to get you in the mood to make your life feel good not just look good without listening to another advice episode that inevitably points out things you don’t like about yourself and your life you’re going to want to come hang out with me on this episode. <3

If you’ve ever found yourself saying “it’s fine” when it isn’t, ignoring your own needs to keep the peace, or constantly prioritizing someone else’s comfort over your own, this episode is for you.In today’s conversation, we’re talking about self-abandonment in relationships: what it is, why so many of us do it, and how to stop losing ourselves in the pursuit of connection.We’ll explore the subtle ways self-abandonment shows up, the hidden beliefs that keep it alive, and the small but powerful shifts that help you build self-trust, communicate your needs, and stay connected to yourself while loving someone else.Because healthy relationships aren’t built by becoming less of yourself. They’re built by bringing more of yourself to the table.If you’ve ever struggled with people-pleasing, fear of disappointing others, or feeling disconnected from your own needs, this episode will help you understand why—and what to do instead.Remember: you can be loving without leaving yourself behind.❤️‍🔥Subscribe to finally feel good enough without the pressure of perfection xoxoMY CURRENT SELF IMPROVEMENT PRACTICES!1 page of the We’re Not Really Strangers Journal https://amzn.to/3QwNv2fHow to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Othets Deeplt and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks- https://a.co/d/3xFVUcn❤️‍🩹 COME GROW WITH US — mentally stronger, emotionally smarter, and unapologetically real ❤️‍🩹ALL MY LINKS: https://linktr.ee/listentowellish

On this weeks episode of Confessions of a Wellish Girly I thought we would just have a causal hang out sesh. I walk you guys through where my head has been at this past week from a total crash out to something happening that through me into victim mode and the realizations that my negative feelings gave me to try to create a better life for myself. I walk you guys through my manifestation practice I utilized this week to gain clarity about what I want, identity and eliminate my limiting beliefs. and what actions thoughts, and feelings would I need to actually receive those things that I want. I think the best part of a good yap sesh is that while we are in an empowering space of personal growth there’s no talk of what you could be doing different or better. While thats helpful we can do without the feelings of inadequacy sometimes. If you relate this episode is for you <3

In this episode of Wellish, Sarah sits down with Ashley Banek, founder and CEO of Samara Health, for a conversation about self-trust, boundaries, medical gaslighting, and what happens when you stop waiting for permission to believe your own experience.Ashley shares how years of misdiagnosis and being dismissed in her endometriosis journey forced her to rebuild trust with herself, advocate for her needs, and stop outsourcing her decisions to people who seemed more qualified on paper.Together, Sarah and Ashley talk about why so many women wait to be chosen, why suffering can sometimes feel easier than change, how fear of abandonment shows up in relationships, and what it actually means to have your own back.This conversation is for anyone learning how to trust their body, speak up sooner, stop abandoning themselves, and become the chooser in their own life.