Breaking Patterns

Skye Nicholson
  • 5.0 (9)
  • Mental Health
  • Updated Daily

What if some of the things we’ve accepted as “normal” are actually keeping us stuck? Breaking Patterns is about noticing the patterns that shape our lives—and getting curious about what might be possible instead. Join wellness educator and writer Skye Nicholson for candid conversations exploring wellbeing, creativity, nervous system health, grief, spirituality, identity, work, and the wonderfully messy experience of being human. Get curious. Notice the pattern. Imagine what else is possible.

  1. Sep 24

    You Can’t Think Your Way Out of Stress: Breathwork, Safety & the Nervous System with Colette Wilson

    What if calming your mind starts with your body? In this episode of Breaking Patterns, Skye reconnects with an old friend, Colette Wilson—founder of StillPoint Studios, 9D Breathwork facilitator, and nervous system educator—to explore why we may be approaching stress, anxiety, and overwhelm from the wrong direction. Skye and Colette first met more than 25 years ago as young teachers in Kansas City. After losing touch, they each traveled their own winding paths through healing and eventually reconnected...only to discover that their work had evolved in remarkably similar directions. Together, they explore the difference between simply knowing you should “calm down” and actually giving your body an experience of calm; why breath can be such a powerful doorway into nervous system regulation; and how 9D Breathwork combines deep breathing with sound and immersive technology. They also get curious about the intersection of science and the “woo,” bringing nervous system regulation into workplaces and schools, the ripple effect of our own regulation on the people around us, and Colette’s beautiful idea of becoming a “beneficial presence”, someone whose grounded presence helps create greater safety for others. Wellbeing isn’t always about thinking differently. Sometimes we have to teach the body what safe feels like. In this conversation:• Why we can’t simply think our way into calm• Breathing techniques vs. immersive breathwork experiences• Training the nervous system to return to safety• Colette’s own unexpected path from teaching to breathwork• Science, spirituality, and the space where “woo” meets curiosity• Nervous system regulation in workplaces, schools, and families• What it means to become a “beneficial presence” for others Colette Wilson is the founder of StillPoint Studios and the StillPoint Institute of Breath and Nervous System Science and creator of the Signature StillPoint Reset™. With a background in physiology and education, she works with individuals and organizations through breathwork, nervous system education, and self-connection practices. Learn more about Colette and StillPoint Studios: stillpointstudiosKC.com Follow Colette on IG: @colette_wilson TikTok: @colette_wilson88 Try a 5-minute 9D Breathwork

  2. Sep 10

    We Have Forgotten How to Grieve: Ritual, Resilience & the Grief We Carry | with Alyssa Rose

    What if grief isn't something we need to get over—but something we need to learn how to tend? In this episode of Breaking Patterns, Skye talks with Alyssa Rose, a Portland-based grief tender and ritualist whose work bridges earth-based ritual practices with modern, trauma-informed somatic approaches. Skye and Alyssa met at the National Wellness Summit, where conversations around creativity and spirituality opened the door to a larger question: What parts of being human have we left out of our modern definition of wellness? Together, they explore the ways Western culture often asks us to privatize grief, move through it quickly, or save it for a therapist's office—and what becomes possible when grief is instead witnessed, embodied, ritualized, and held in community. One of the most personal moments in the conversation comes when Skye recognizes a connection she hadn't fully made before: that some of her own problematic alcohol use may have been an attempt to numb grief she didn't yet know how to name or tend. Looking back at divorce, lost identities, and the life she once imagined for herself raises a different question about addiction: What if some of the things we reach for to numb ourselves are helping us avoid grief that has never been given somewhere to go? CHAPTERS 0:00 — Meet Alyssa Rose: Grief Tender & Ritualist 1:00 — Grief Is Connected to Love 2:23 — Have We Forgotten How to Grieve? 4:54 — Why Grief Needs Community & Witnessing 11:02 — What Does a Grief Tender Actually Do? 12:01 — Grief Beyond Death: Addiction, Anxiety & Life Transitions 13:05 — Grief Lives in the Body: Somatic Healing 15:40 — Ritual, Community & Creating a Container for Grief 17:14 — My Aha: Untended Grief, Identity & Alcohol 19:45 — When Grief Comes Out Sideways 27:30 — Grief, Burnout & the Workplace 32:44 — What Grief Teaches Us About Resilience This conversation continues a theme we've been exploring on Breaking Patterns: spiritual wellness doesn't have to mean religion. Sometimes it looks like ritual. Sometimes it looks like making art, gathering around a fire, being witnessed by a community, or creating enough space to feel what our busy lives have asked us to suppress. And perhaps that is part of Creative Health, too: maintaining access to the full range of our humanity—our grief, longing, curiosity, imagination, connection, and capacity to begin again. About Alyssa Rose Alyssa Rose is a grief tender and ritualist in Portland, Oregon. Her work bridges ancient, earth-based ritual practices with modern, trauma-informed somatic modalities to hold sacred space for those navigating loss, mortality, and deep life changes. Learn more about Alyssa and her grief circles, retreats, individual work, and practitioner training: Website: https://www.alyssarosehealingarts.com/ November Retreat:  https://www.alyssarosehealingarts.com/grief-ritual-retreat-2026 Women and femmes retreat:  https://events.humanitix.com/womens-grief-ritual Instagram: @alyssarosehealing

    We Have Forgotten How to Grieve: Ritual, Resilience & the Grief We Carry | with Alyssa Rose

  3. Aug 27

    Sacred Travel, Spiritual Wellness & the Places That Wake Us Up | with Bobby Ansari

    What if wellness includes more than caring for your body and managing your stress? What if it also includes meaning, belonging, awe, ritual—and even the places we choose to travel? This week, Skye sits down with Bobby Ansari, Certified Wellness Professional, spiritual travel specialist, and founder of Rose of Jericho Wellness. Skye and Bobby met serendipitously while they were both presenting at the National Wellness Summit in Nashville, and quickly discovered just how much overlap exists between Bobby’s work in spiritual wellness and sacred travel and Skye’s work with poetry, creative health, and retreat experiences. Together, they explore why spirituality and religion are not the same thing, what spiritual wellness can look like for people from many different belief systems, and why meaning, hope, connection, and belonging deserve a place in the broader wellness conversation. Bobby shares stories from her own remarkable path—from studying spiritual care in trauma settings to learning from teachers and sacred traditions across Turkey, Ireland, Indigenous communities, and beyond. She also introduces the idea behind her Travel Prescription™: thoughtfully using place, ritual, ancestral connection, and meaningful travel as catalysts for healing and transformation. The conversation also goes into some important territory around safety and integrity in the wellness and retreat world: cultural appropriation, poorly trained practitioners, “plastic shamans,” and why holding sacred or transformational space comes with real responsibility. And somewhere along the way, Skye and Bobby discover a shared fascination with creativity as spiritual practice—including the idea that perhaps artists aren’t simply “channels” for inspiration, but prisms, allowing something larger to move through the lens of their own lived experience. They talk about: Spiritual wellness beyond religionTravel as a catalyst for transformationSacred landscapes, ritual, and the energy of placeBeing a witness instead of trying to “fix” someoneWhy safety and cultural integrity matter in retreat spacesAwe, wonder, and spiritual experiences in everyday lifePoetry and creativity as forms of reverenceWhat it means to create spaces where people can rediscover parts of themselves that have gone quiet This one goes beautifully deep—and may leave you looking at your next journey, your creative life, and even the places that make you feel most alive a little differently. Learn more about Bobby and Rose of Jericho Wellness at roseofjerichowellness.com. Learn more about Skye's upcoming retreats at https://www.wellbeingworkshops.co/womens-retreats-indiana

    Sacred Travel, Spiritual Wellness & the Places That Wake Us Up | with Bobby Ansari

  4. Jul 16

    Making Peace With Your Fertility Journey: When Two Women Create the Thing They Needed Most

    While Beth is away for the summer, Skye welcomes two special guests whose friendship and shared healing journey inspired the creation of a powerful new retreat experience. Abby McHale, an Oregon-based practitioner specializing in womb and pelvic somatics, and Ruby Shah, M.D., a Houston-based board-certified physician, poet, and author of Night Song For My Sisters: Endometriosis, Infertility, Loss, and Healing, join Skye to share the story behind Rooted In: Making Peace with Your Fertility Journey—a trauma-informed retreat designed for women navigating infertility, endometriosis, pregnancy loss, hysterectomy, and other fertility-related experiences. Together, they explore the hidden grief that often accompanies fertility challenges, the healing power of being witnessed in community, and the importance of reclaiming identity beyond diagnoses and outcomes. Abby and Ruby also discuss how somatic healing, flower essences, creativity, and meaningful connection helped transform their own experiences and ultimately inspired them to create the retreat they wish had existed when they needed it most. Whether you have personally walked a fertility journey or simply know what it feels like to carry grief, loss, or uncertainty in your body, this conversation offers a compassionate look at healing, resilience, and the patterns we can break when we stop carrying our stories alone. In this episode: 00:00 – Meet Abby and Ruby03:18 – The overlap between pelvic health and emotional healing05:04 – Why somatic practices are central to the retreat experience06:18 – Healing beyond the goal of pregnancy12:38 – Who this retreat is designed to serve15:43 – Moving from isolation and grief toward pleasure and presence20:31 – How Abby and Ruby's collaboration began24:37 – Ruby's healing journey after infertility and hysterectomy27:53 – Abby's flower essences and the role they play in healing31:21 – Why retreat experiences can be so transformative35:37 – Building community, waitlists, and what's next36:58 – Closing reflections To learn more about the retreat or join the waitlist, visit https://www.leoraintegrative.com/retreatinquiry To bring your own retreat vision to life through Skye's Retreat Guide Mentorships, visit https://www.wellbeingworkshops.co/retreat-guide-mentorship

  5. May 21

    Why Are We Giving 100% to Work? | The 40–60% Rule That Changed Everything

    In this episode of Breaking Patterns, Skye and Beth unpack a quote that completely stopped them in their tracks: “We should only be giving 40–60% of ourselves at work.” At first, it sounds almost wrong — especially for women raised on hustle culture, perfectionism, productivity, people-pleasing, and the belief that our worth is tied to our output. But what if reserving part of yourself isn’t laziness… it’s survival? This conversation spirals (in the best way) through: work culture and burnoutvalidation vs appreciationinvisible labor and emotional exhaustionparenting anxious kids in a productivity-driven worldgratitude as an antidote to shame and anxietyAlan Watts, Kroger meltdowns, motorcycles, and “one wild and precious life”learning to stop taking everything so seriouslyIf you’ve ever felt completely drained by work, constantly “on,” or unsure who you are outside of productivity, this episode is for you. Maybe the goal isn’t to give everything away.Maybe the goal is to reserve some of yourself for your actual life. ✨ Come join us at the Reawaken Retreat this July: https://www.wellbeingworkshops.co/womens-retreats-indiana🎧 Subscribe, share, and send this episode to someone who needs permission to breathe a little.

  6. May 7

    Creativity Isn’t Just Art | Unshoulding, Validation & Letting Go

    In this episode of Breaking Patterns, Skye and Beth explore creativity as a healing practice — one that can interrupt anxiety, stress spirals, overthinking, and even “victimhood.” Beth shares the inspiration behind her mixed-media art piece Unshoulding, created for a local arts council exhibition centered around identity, belonging, democracy, and expectation. The conversation unfolds into a deeper reflection on the “shoulds” we inherit from culture, family, perfectionism, and productivity-driven validation. Together they discuss: Why creativity doesn’t have to look like traditional artHow creative practices regulate the nervous systemThe concept of “downloads” and inspired ideasProduct-focused validation and fear of rejectionLetting go of the need to monetize every giftSkye’s experience helping students reconnect with poetryCreating simply because it makes you feel aliveIn this episode, we reference:"The Creative Act: A Way of Being" by Rick Rubin"Big Magic" by Elizabeth Gilbert✨ Learn more about retreats, workshops & events: Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Warm Drinks and Banter00:41 Why Creativity Helps02:26 Everyday Creativity Counts03:06 Big Magic and Ideas04:46 Beth’s Art Deadline06:27 Unshoulding Explained08:39 Creating Over Victimhood09:50 Poetry Not Product11:38 Rejection and Motives16:04 Live Show and Retreat17:00 Validation and Farewell

  7. Apr 23

    What Happens When You Choose Grace? (Self-Talk, Boundaries & Letting Go)

    In this episode of Breaking Patterns, Skye and Beth pull the word “Grace”—and follow where it leads. What unfolds is a layered, honest conversation about self-compassion, judgment, and the quiet ways we create stress through our own thinking. They explore how assumptions shape our reactions, how the inner critic thrives on “shoulds,” and why extending grace to others often begins with learning how to offer it to ourselves. Skye shares a moment of trying to control everything before leaving for a retreat—and the resentment that followed—opening up a conversation about boundaries, caretaking, and the emotional weight we carry when we don’t allow others (or ourselves) to just be. Together, they reflect on simple but powerful shifts:– Questioning stressful thoughts– Letting go of the need to manage everything– Recognizing that emotions aren’t always facts– Remembering that “no” is a complete sentence This episode is an invitation to soften—to meet yourself (and others) with a little more curiosity, a little less judgment, and a lot more grace. 🌿Reawaken Retreat: July 24–27 00:40 Pulling the “Grace” Card01:19 What Does Grace Actually Mean?02:01 Assumptions + Judgment02:55 The Inner Critic + “Shoulds”04:26 Byron Katie’s Four Questions06:18 Control, Micromanaging & Resentment10:19 Boundaries Around Breakfast13:22 “Spot It, You Got It”18:37 “No” Is a Complete Sentence19:27 What’s Next + Retreat Details

  8. Apr 10

    What's the Rush? Patience, Presence, and Letting Life Unfold

    In this episode of Breaking Patterns, we pull a card from Beth's grandmother’s box and land on a word that feels both simple and surprisingly confronting: patience. What unfolds is a real, unfiltered conversation about rushing, urgency, and the nervous system patterns that keep us in a constant state of “go.” We talk about the tension between getting out the door on time and creating a calm, grounded start to the day (especially with kids), and how impatience can quietly shape our relationships, our work, and even how we see ourselves. If you’ve been feeling rushed, behind, or like you’re forcing things to happen… this episode is a gentle invitation to soften, breathe, and trust a different pace. ✨ Our upcoming Reawaken Retreat (July 24–27)—a space to step out of urgency and reconnect with yourself. Early bird pricing is available through May 15. 🌿 Learn more about retreats + offerings: https://www.wellbeingworkshops.co/womens-retreats-indiana — 00:00 Welcome to Breaking Patterns 00:41 The Improv Topic Box01:41 Patience, rushing, and the nervous system03:19 Morning chaos, kids, and being “on time”05:06 Poem on presence and fleeting beauty06:52 Savoring small, everyday moments08:16 Life is finite—why this matters09:08 Patience in personal growth11:06 Midlife and the “second act”14:18 Trusting yourself and your timing16:00 Choosing simplicity over more “stuff”18:48 From scarcity → to flow20:08 Relationships, triggers, and reactivity21:18 Listener question + wrap

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5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

What if some of the things we’ve accepted as “normal” are actually keeping us stuck? Breaking Patterns is about noticing the patterns that shape our lives—and getting curious about what might be possible instead. Join wellness educator and writer Skye Nicholson for candid conversations exploring wellbeing, creativity, nervous system health, grief, spirituality, identity, work, and the wonderfully messy experience of being human. Get curious. Notice the pattern. Imagine what else is possible.

Information

  • Creator
    Skye Nicholson
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    37
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Skye Nicholson
  • Show Website
    Breaking Patterns