Undimmed with Cecily Mak

Cecily Mak
  • 4.9 (17)
  • Mental Health
  • Updated Weekly

Undimmed is about living a clear life, a life without dimmers, things we consume or do to ease discomfort, silence intuition, or simply soften the edges of the day-to-day experience of being human. Dimmers can include unhealthy or escapist relationships with all kinds of things, such as alcohol, work, perfectionism, spending, sex, food, even generosity. Undimmed is about tuning into our truest selves, making choices for positive change, and reclaiming power, agency, and freedom from unwanted habits. Host Cecily Mak, a former Silicon Valley executive, is joined in conversation with known and lesser-known people who are all here to share their journeys to a clearer life. 

  1. 6d ago ·  Video

    Healing Our Trauma Without Making It Our Identity with IFS Creator Dr. Richard Schwartz

    What if the habit you're trying to quit was only ever trying to protect you? In this episode, Cecily Mak sits down with Dr. Richard Schwartz — the creator of Internal Family Systems (IFS) — for a tender, practical conversation about trauma, addiction, and what real healing actually asks of us. Together they explore the Fourth Awareness: Healing. The Fourth Awareness invites us to seek to understand our trauma without making it our identity. Dr. Schwartz shares the story that sparked IFS more than 40 years ago, why "there are no bad parts," and how the behaviors we use to numb, dim, or self-soothe — alcohol, overwork, perfectionism, and more — are often young, protective parts stuck in the past. Rather than fighting them with willpower or shame, IFS offers a gentler path rooted in curiosity, compassion, and self-leadership. Cecily also opens up to a live piece of parts work on the mic, and the two discuss recovery, grief, psychedelic-assisted healing with ketamine, and how to relate to the parts of us we'd rather not see. Dr. Richard "Dick" Schwartz is also the Founder of the IFS Institute that offers training for professionals. He is currently a Teaching Associate in Psychiatry, at Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate. Richard has authored or co-authored more than ten books on Internal Family Systems and related topics, including No Bad Parts and Internal Family Systems Therapy. Where you can follow Dr. Schwartz's work: Instagram Website YouTube Dr. Schwartz's newsletter Where you can learn more about Internal Family Systems: IFS Institute Website Leading From Self: Applying Internal Family Systems to Leadership Please remember to rate, subscribe, review, and share the Undimmed podcast to help this content reach more humans in need of support or inspiration. You can also follow Cecily's @undimmedjourney on Instagram, subscribe to her Substack, or learn more via her website. Credits: Host: Cecily Mak Producer: Joanne Elgart Jennings Composer & Sound Alchemist: Laura Inserra Editor: Kai Heartlife Social Media & Marketing: Megan Belden

    Healing Our Trauma Without Making It Our Identity with IFS Creator Dr. Richard Schwartz

  2. Oct 2 ·  Video

    The Often Inconvenient Gift of Intuition with Libby Stockstill

    Libby Stockstill built the life she was supposed to want: law degree, leadership roles at companies like Vans, Billabong, and Vuori, the "perfect-looking" family. Then a suspected thyroid cancer diagnosis, and a surgeon's careless line about her voice, forced a question she'd been avoiding: are you using your voice the way you always felt called to? The answer was no. In this episode that dives into the Awareness of Intuition, Libby and Cecily talk about writing in secret under a pseudonym, the sign on the trail that finally made Libby’s decision clear, and why following your intuition is rarely tidy. It's messy, it's inconvenient, and as Libby puts it, there's nothing more empowering than deciding you're worth the cost. Libby is the Founder & CEO of Some Days, where she blends life and leadership coaching, writing, speaking, and retreats to help people move past what's in the way and live the life they long for. She is also writing her first novel; a midlife coming of age, exploring the idea of what success means and the central question – What if having it all means losing it all? Additionally, her poem, “Under” was just selected for publication in the upcoming 2026-27 San Diego Poetry Annual anthology Libby's  Instagram Soliloquy on Imperfectionism - on Instagram Fall Retreat Interest List Some Days, I Go Against the Grain (Or, Grape…)  Some Days, Clarity Compass  Some Days, I Find Athena Some Days, Autumn Abundance – Fall Retreat Interest List  Please remember to rate, subscribe, review, and share the Undimmed podcast to help this content reach more humans in need of support or inspiration. You can also follow Cecily's @undimmedjourney on Instagram, subscribe to her Substack, or learn more via her website. Credits: Host: Cecily Mak Producer: Joanne Elgart Jennings Composer & Sound Alchemist: Laura Inserra Editor: Kai Heartlife Social Media & Marketing: Megan Belden

    The Often Inconvenient Gift of Intuition with Libby Stockstill

  3. Sep 18 ·  Video

    The Power of Choice Lives in Each of Us with Ara Katz

    Seed Health co-founder Ara Katz had to learn that even discernment, taken to an extreme, can quietly become its own dimmer. In this episode, she and Cecily explore how real choice works: not a strategy or a cognitive matrix, but an inner compass that's always recalibrating. On discernment as a survival instinct, the grace of doing nothing, standing in the middle of the tornado instead of fleeing it, and why how you do anything is how you do everything. Ara's new book, Your Vagina is a Universe, will be released March 9, 2027 and you can follow her on Instagram. Please remember to rate, subscribe, review, and share the Undimmed podcast to help this content reach more humans in need of support or inspiration. You can also follow Cecily's @undimmedjourney on Instagram, subscribe to her Substack, or learn more via her website. Credits: Host: Cecily Mak Producer: Joanne Elgart Jennings Composer & Sound Alchemist: Laura Inserra Editor: Kai Heartlife Social Media & Marketing: Megan Belden

    The Power of Choice Lives in Each of Us with Ara Katz

  4. Sep 4 ·  Video

    Clarity, Fatherhood, and Putting Down the Buffer with Cory Muscara

    Episode Description Cory Muscara left an economics track and a Wall Street internship at 21 after a single meeting made him "feel his soul leave his body." He was ordained as a monk, spent six months in silence in Burma and only years later realized his prized meditation practice had become a sophisticated way to avoid himself. In this episode, Cory and Cecily Mak go deep on the First of the Eight Awarenesses — Clarity: my life is better clear. They explore the surprising truth that a "clear-looking" habit like meditation can be its own dimmer. They talk about spiritual bypassing, the difference between observing an emotion and being in "full contact" with it, the road to a fulfilling life partnership, and fatherhood as a devotional stripping-away. It's an honest look at how clarity really works: as the empowered choice to stop numbing and finally hear your own intuition again. Please remember to rate, subscribe, review, and share the Undimmed podcast to help this content reach more humans in need of support or inspiration. You can also follow Cecily's @undimmedjourney on Instagram, subscribe to her Substack, or learn more via her website. Credits: Host: Cecily Mak Producer: Joanne Elgart Jennings Composer & Sound Alchemist: Laura Inserra Editor: Kai Heartlife Social Media & Marketing: Megan Belden

    Clarity, Fatherhood, and Putting Down the Buffer with Cory Muscara

  5. Season 2, Episode 1 Trailer ·  Video

    This Season on Undimmed

    What are you afraid would happen if you were fully engaged with your life? Season 2 of the Undimmed Podcast explores this question through the framework of The Eight Awarenesses: Clarity. Choice. Intuition. Healing. Freedom. Respect. Time. Service. The First Awareness is Clarity: my life is better clear. We start there, September 4th.  🎧 Undimmed with Cecily Mak — wherever you listen. Please remember to rate, subscribe, review, and share the Undimmed podcast to help this content reach more humans in need of support or inspiration. You can also follow Cecily's @undimmedjourney on Instagram, subscribe to her Substack, or learn more via her website. Credits: Host: Cecily Mak Producer: Joanne Elgart Jennings Composer & Sound Alchemist: Laura Inserra Editor: Kai Heartlife Social Media & Marketing: Megan Belden

  6. Jan 20 ·  Bonus

    Audiobook Excerpt: I Choose What I Consume

    In this bonus episode of Undimmed, Cecily shares a short excerpt from the audiobook version of her new book, Undimmed: The Eight Awarenesses for Freedom from Unwanted Habits — shared here exclusively with podcast listeners. The passage focuses on the Second Awareness, I choose what I consume, and reflects on a period when Cecily was beginning to question long-held assumptions about alcohol, social life, and choice. It’s a quiet, honest moment from early on in the work, offered with openness and care. Cecily Mak’s new book, Undimmed: The Eight Awarenesses for Freedom from Unwanted Habits, is available wherever books, ebooks, and audiobooks are sold. For more details and to purchase, follow this link. Season Two of Undimmed will begin rolling out this spring. Please remember to rate, subscribe, review, and share the Undimmed podcast to help this content reach more humans in need of support or inspiration. You can also follow Cecily's @undimmedjourney on Instagram, subscribe to her Substack, or learn more via her website. Credits: Host: Cecily Mak Producer: Joanne Elgart Jennings Composer & Sound Alchemist: Laura Inserra Editor: Kai Heartlife Social Media & Marketing: Megan Belden

    Audiobook Excerpt: I Choose What I Consume

  7. 11/21/2025 ·  Bonus

    A Personal Update from Cecily + Season Two Preview

    Cecily returns to Undimmed after a pause that grew into a deeper and more meaningful season of work than she expected. With new conversations set to arrive in your podcast feed next spring, Cecily shares a personal update. She talks about what this period has held: family transitions, continued healing, and the long, thoughtful process of completing her book, Undimmed: The Eight Awarenesses for Freedom from Unwanted Habits, which will be released in January 2026.  She also shares a moment that moved her deeply. Her son wrote a school speech about alcohol and families and asked her to read it. His honesty reminded her why this work matters and why she continues to offer these conversation If this episode speaks to you, please rate, subscribe, review, and share Undimmed. You can follow Cecily on Instagram @clearlifejourney, join her Substack community, or visit her website at cecilymak.com for more. Please remember to rate, subscribe, review, and share the Undimmed podcast to help this content reach more humans in need of support or inspiration. You can also follow Cecily's @undimmedjourney on Instagram, subscribe to her Substack, or learn more via her website. Credits: Host: Cecily Mak Producer: Joanne Elgart Jennings Composer & Sound Alchemist: Laura Inserra Editor: Kai Heartlife Social Media & Marketing: Megan Belden

    A Personal Update from Cecily + Season Two Preview

  8. 06/19/2024

    Choosing A Mindful Relationship with Alcohol

    On today’s episode of 'Undimmed' Cecily talks with Sunnyside co-founder, Nick Allen, about both of their personal and professional journeys with alcohol. Nick grew up in a household with two parents who struggled with alcoholism before ultimately finding sobriety. While Nick has had his ups and downs with drinking, up until this point has not felt the need to cut alcohol out of his life completely. Disappointed with the exclusively sobriety-focused, all-or-nothing options available, he built Sunnyside as an alternative for those looking to change their relationship with alcohol but not necessarily quit entirely. Nick is on a mission to make managing alcohol consumption as common (and socially accepted) as managing diet and exercise as components of our proactive wellness routines.  Together, Cecily and Nick highlight the importance of making informed choices about alcohol and maintaining open, honest dialogues within families and communities about drinking habits. They both emphasize the value of understanding one's relationship with alcohol and making conscious decisions to improve life quality without necessarily adhering to black-and-white sobriety perspectives. Check out Sunnyside or follow them on Instagram @joinsunnyside Please remember to rate, subscribe, review, and share the Undimmed podcast to help this content reach more humans in need of support or inspiration. You can also follow Cecily's @undimmedjourney on Instagram, subscribe to her Substack, or learn more via her website. Credits: Host: Cecily Mak Producer: Joanne Elgart Jennings Composer & Sound Alchemist: Laura Inserra Editor: Kai Heartlife Social Media & Marketing: Megan Belden

    Choosing A Mindful Relationship with Alcohol
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About

Undimmed is about living a clear life, a life without dimmers, things we consume or do to ease discomfort, silence intuition, or simply soften the edges of the day-to-day experience of being human. Dimmers can include unhealthy or escapist relationships with all kinds of things, such as alcohol, work, perfectionism, spending, sex, food, even generosity. Undimmed is about tuning into our truest selves, making choices for positive change, and reclaiming power, agency, and freedom from unwanted habits. Host Cecily Mak, a former Silicon Valley executive, is joined in conversation with known and lesser-known people who are all here to share their journeys to a clearer life. 

Information

  • Creator
    Cecily Mak
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Undimmed with Cecily Mak
  • Show Website
    Undimmed with Cecily Mak

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