Whole Again: Mindfulness and Resilience Through Kintsugi Wisdom

Michael OBrien | Mindfulness & Resilience Coach

Discover how to create a meaningful life on your way to who you are becoming. Whole Again: Mindfulness and Resilience Through Kintsugi Wisdom provides the support you need to heal, develop a growth mindset, and embrace who you are becoming. Inspired by the Japanese art of “Golden Repair,” Kintsugi teaches us that even when life breaks us, we can rebuild—stronger, wiser, and more beautiful than before. Listen to discover weekly growth-mindset tips, build emotional resilience and manage stress through microdose meditations, and ways to live a meaningful life and the person you are becoming. And as America turns 250, tune in to hear your neighbors share their reflections on our Perfectly Imperfect Union and on ways we can come together to end the divisions that prevent us from realizing our collective potential. I’m Michael O’Brien—husband, Girl Dadx2, son, friend, animal lover, endurance cyclist, and survivor. After a near-death cycling accident—what I call My Last Bad Day—the metaphor of Kintsugi helped me see that I could be whole again. Today, as a Mindset & Resilience Leadership coach, Corporate Speaker, Meditation Teacher, and founder of The Pause Breathe Reflect Method, I'm here to support you as you create a meaningful life and become the person you are becoming. Join me every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for micro-episodes designed to help you embrace the Kintsugi spirit within you and truly feel Whole Again. And each Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, check out my new series, A Perfectly Imperfect Union, as America turns 250 this year.

  1. 1d ago

    A Perfectly Imperfect Union: Reflecting on America 250 with Jeffrey Gould

    The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. ------- What if the biggest regret people carry isn't something they did, but a road trip they never took? In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, I travel to The Mount Rushmore State to connect with Jeffrey Gould on this question. Jeffrey believes America is a story worth telling, one built on possibility rather than perfection. He also believes we've forgotten how to tell it, trading gratitude for outrage because outrage gets more clicks. He shares what 700 funerals have taught him about regret, and why the road trip is almost always the thing people wish they'd taken. We also get into South Dakota's particular brand of curiosity, the kind that starts with "where you from" and ends in finding someone you both know. Please connect with Jeffrey via his website or LinkedIn. And his question(S) for you and our next guest are: 1) Have you been to South Dakota, and 2) what's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten? Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love. You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace. Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.” We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

    A Perfectly Imperfect Union: Reflecting on America 250 with Jeffrey Gould

  2. 2d ago

    Growth Mindset Tip #35 - The Wisdom of Maya Angelou

    The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. ------- When someone shows you who they are, do you actually believe them? Tip #35 in my year-long series of lessons from his last bad day comes straight from Maya Angelou. September is my birthday month - go Virgos! All month the tips center on poetry, starting with the poet whose words already open his other series, A Perfectly Imperfect Union: "We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike." But I speak to a different Maya Angelou line here, one she gave Oprah in 1997: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." Not as a license to write people off, but as an invitation to trade wishful thinking for acceptance, hold first impressions loosely, and then decide who belongs in your peloton. Whose first impression did you choose to believe or not believe? Drop it in the comments, and share this one with someone building their own Toll House cookie recipe for a meaningful life. You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace. Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.” We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

  3. 3d ago

    A Perfectly Imperfect Union: Reflecting on America 250 with Tiffany Ryder

    The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. ------- What does true tolerance actually look like, and are we anywhere close to it? In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, I travel back to my old stomping grounds, Our Nation's Capitol, to connect with Tiffany Rider. She's an emergency medicine PA turned health policy writer with infectious energy. She believes tolerance is at an all-time low in America. She also believes freedom here, imperfect as it is, is still unmatched anywhere she's lived. Tiffany shares what the emergency room taught her about connection: no one asks who you voted for before saving your life. We also talk about her Cajun French family, how they punished her for speaking their own language as a kid, and why she thinks real tolerance means respecting other people's choices even when you disagree with them. Before you go, Tiffany has a great question for you and our next guest: If you really knew me, what would you know about me? Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love. You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace. Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.” We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

    A Perfectly Imperfect Union: Reflecting on America 250 with Tiffany Ryder

  4. 4d ago

    Ted Lasso Episode 4 - The Policy of Trust

    The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. ------- Can a team of guarded strangers ever really trust each other? In this installment of Whole Again's Ted Lasso series, I dig into what's really holding the Lady Greyhounds back. It's not talent. It's not effort. It's trust. As Dr. Fieldstone puts it: "A team is simply a collection of guarded strangers until they believe they are safe to fail in front of one another." And trust gets built in reps, in the "figurative gym," in tiny unscripted moments. Michael turns the episode into four practices you can start using today: Recognize your control mechanisms as survival tacticsOffer up micro-moments that create psychological safety for someone elsePractice collective responsibility over blameAnchor yourself in self-trust Watch (or rewatch) Episode 4 through the lens of trust. What's one small, unscripted moment when someone did something that made you trust them more? Drop it in the comments and share this episode with your favorite Ted Lasso fan. You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace. Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.” We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

  5. 5d ago

    A Perfectly Imperfect Union: Reflecting on America 250 with Kate Quay

    The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. ------- In the latest episode of A Perfectly Imperfect Union, I travel to The Silver State to connect with Kate Quay. Kate believes freedom is the simplest answer to what America means to her. She also believes that answer gets complicated fast, because freedom has never been equally distributed. She shares how leaving the Bay Area's political homogeneity for Reno's purple streets actually made her feel more connected, not less. And why detaching people from their politics might be what heals us. To connect with Kate, you can find her on LinkedIn and her website. And her question for you and our next guest is: How do you find joy in your life? You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace. Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.” We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

    A Perfectly Imperfect Union: Reflecting on America 250 with Kate Quay

  6. 6d ago

    A Microdose Meditation - You Are Loved.

    The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. ------- Who's sitting at your table? In this Monday microdose meditation from Whole Again, I walk you through a visualization I return to often. You picture that table. You fill it with the people who genuinely love you. Then you invite your higher self to sit down. Then your higher power, however you define it. And you ask each one the same question: do you love me? It sounds simple. It isn't always easy to sit with the answer. But once that room is full — full of people, full of your own wiser self, full of whatever you call the bigger thing — a different question opens up: what do they need to tell you right now? What do you most need to hear? This practice reminds us that we're rarely as alone as our hardest moments convince us we are. Support surrounds us, even the support we forget to ask for. This episode is a microdose meditation from my Pause, Breathe, Reflect app — free on the App Store and Google Play, with over 700 meditations if this one resonates. You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace. Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.” We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

  7. Aug 29

    A Perfectly Imperfect Union: Reflecting on America 250 with Francesca Raoelison-Basso

    The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. ------- What's one small step you can take today to honor your health? Francesca is originally from Madagascar and has called Rhode Island home for the past 12 years. She's the founder of an organization doing healing work on two continents, work born out of her own story as a survivor of verbal, emotional, and psychological violence. She sees the American Dream as the idea that your past doesn't have to define your future. If you've ever wondered whether healing a family relationship is even possible, or what it actually takes to break a cycle, this episode is for you. You can connect with her on LinkedIn and her website. And her question for you and our next guest is: What is one thing you can do for your health today? Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love. You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace. Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.” We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

    A Perfectly Imperfect Union: Reflecting on America 250 with Francesca Raoelison-Basso

  8. Aug 28

    Growth Mindset Tip #34 - Stop Beating Yourself Up for More Mindfulness and Resilience

    The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience. And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. ------- What would you do if someone else were beating you up? You'd fight back. You'd get out of the situation. You wouldn't just stand there and take it. So why do we let ourselves get away with it? In this Growth Mindset Tip, part of his 25th Anniversary of his Last Bad Day series, Michael O'Brien shares Tip 34: stop beating yourself up. We're quick to defend ourselves against cruelty from others. But when it comes to the voice inside our own heads, the one telling us we're too much or not enough, we let it run the show. That self-critical conversation isn't harmless background noise. It's actively holding us back from the ripple effect we're capable of creating. You can now download my Pause Breathe Reflect App with Microdose EQ for FREE on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Discover how to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that bring you joy. Also, find the support you need to navigate today’s uncertainty with more calm and grace. Receive a FREE copy of my book: “My Last Bad Day Shift.” We can also connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe to be sure you don’t miss any of the micro-meditations, wellness tips, and guidance that I publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:11 am.

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About

Discover how to create a meaningful life on your way to who you are becoming. Whole Again: Mindfulness and Resilience Through Kintsugi Wisdom provides the support you need to heal, develop a growth mindset, and embrace who you are becoming. Inspired by the Japanese art of “Golden Repair,” Kintsugi teaches us that even when life breaks us, we can rebuild—stronger, wiser, and more beautiful than before. Listen to discover weekly growth-mindset tips, build emotional resilience and manage stress through microdose meditations, and ways to live a meaningful life and the person you are becoming. And as America turns 250, tune in to hear your neighbors share their reflections on our Perfectly Imperfect Union and on ways we can come together to end the divisions that prevent us from realizing our collective potential. I’m Michael O’Brien—husband, Girl Dadx2, son, friend, animal lover, endurance cyclist, and survivor. After a near-death cycling accident—what I call My Last Bad Day—the metaphor of Kintsugi helped me see that I could be whole again. Today, as a Mindset & Resilience Leadership coach, Corporate Speaker, Meditation Teacher, and founder of The Pause Breathe Reflect Method, I'm here to support you as you create a meaningful life and become the person you are becoming. Join me every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for micro-episodes designed to help you embrace the Kintsugi spirit within you and truly feel Whole Again. And each Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, check out my new series, A Perfectly Imperfect Union, as America turns 250 this year.

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