Good Life Project

The voice telling you that you're not enough, that something is about to go wrong, that you should have done it differently, it sounds like you. That's exactly what makes it so hard to catch and so hard to stop.

Emiliya Zhivotovskaya has spent decades inside the science and practice of mental wellbeing, training thousands of coaches worldwide through her Certification in Applied Positive Psychology program.

Her own path into this work began with a personal reckoning. An eating disorder that started in adolescence, years of thoughts she couldn't separate from herself, and the moment someone first told her she didn't have to be a passive recipient of what her mind was doing to her.

In this conversation, we go deep into the phenomenon most of us call overthinking and find out it's not one thing. It's five distinct types of chatter, each with its own voice, its own purpose, and its own specific antidote.

What you'll explore:
The five types of mind chatter: worry, motivation, mindset, judgment, and regret. And how to tell which one is running you at any given moment
Why high-level worriers actually problem-solve less effectively, and what to do with anxiety that won't respond to "just let it go"
The "I can't... yet" reframe that shifts a fixed mindset in a single word, and why it works where positive affirmations don't
How to take your brain to court, the evidence-based tool for the thoughts that insist you're not enough
Why your chatter isn't trying to destroy you, and what it's actually asking for

If you've ever found yourself exhausted not by what's happening, but by what your mind keeps doing with it, this is the conversation for it.

You can find Emiliya at: Website | Instagram | Mind Over Chatter Course | Episode Transcript

Next week, we're sharing our conversation with Erin Weed, talking about her book Just One Word, and the surprisingly simple method she's used to help over a thousand people unlock their purpose and finally feel clear on who they are and where they're headed. If you've ever felt like you're searching for that through-line in your life, this conversation is for you.

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What if procrastination has been working exactly as intended?

Not as a character flaw, not as laziness, but as a solution you invented for a problem you were more afraid of than the thing you kept putting off. That reframe changes everything about how you approach it.

Jon Acuff has spent decades thinking about why people with real ability, real ideas, and real desire still find ways to delay the work that matters most. His newest book, Procrastination Proof, is the result of working with hundreds of thousands of people on this exact struggle. He brings both the humor of someone who has personally been inside the loop and the precision of someone who has studied the patterns long enough to see what's actually underneath them.

In this conversation we get into:
Why procrastination is a solution, just not the best one, and what that distinction means for how you actually change it
The four permissions most of us never gave ourselves: to dream, to plan, to do, and to review
How desire creates discipline, not the other way around, and why willpower is the wrong tool entirely
The broken soundtracks that sound like reasons but are really just fear in disguise
What "the opposite of procrastination" actually looks like, and why it has nothing to do with productivity

If there's something you've been wanting to do for months or years, and you keep finding new reasons why this isn't quite the right time, this conversation is worth your hour.

You can find Jon at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript

Next week, we're sharing our conversation with Emiliya Zhivotovskaya to talk about what's actually happening when you can't stop the spin cycle in your head, and more importantly, what to do about it.

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The anxiety you carry, the way you go silent in conflict, the relentless drive that never quite feels like enough, these didn't start with you.

They started much earlier, in relationships and environments your body learned to survive before you had words for any of it. And according to Dr. Nicole LePera, until you understand what your nervous system actually encoded in those years, you'll keep bumping into the same walls, the same patterns, the same exhaustion.

Dr. Nicole LePera is a clinical psychologist trained at Cornell University and the New School for Social Research, a New York Times bestselling author, and the founder of the global SelfHealers community. Her new book, Reparenting the Inner Child, brings together neuroscience, attachment research, and epigenetics to explain not just why we are the way we are, but how real change actually happens in the body, not just the mind.

In this conversation, you'll explore:
Why your childhood adaptations were brilliant at the time, and how they became the patterns holding you back now
What the inner child actually is (the science, not the cliche), and why insight alone isn't enough to change it
The neuroscience of emotional flooding: what's happening in your body when you can't just calm down, no matter how much you want to
Why midlife is often the moment these old patterns finally surface, and why that's not regression, it's readiness
The epigenetics of stress: how your ancestors' survival adaptations may be running your nervous system today
Where to actually begin if you want to do this work without needing to excavate everything that happened to you as a child

If you've spent years doing the work and still find yourself reacting in ways that don't feel like you, this conversation will help you understand why, and what to do next.

You can find Nicole at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript

Next week, we're sharing our conversation with Jon Acuff about why procrastination is not actually your problem and the surprising permission shift that happens when you finally finish what matters most. Follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode.

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Learn how to say what you think without blowing up your relationships. Most of us have been there. A conversation that starts completely normally and somehow ends with you lying awake at 2am wondering how it went so wrong, again. Whether it is a partner, a teenager, a colleague, or someone on the other side of a political divide, the cost of disagreement done badly is one of the quietest, most cumulative kinds of pain there is.

Julia Minson is a behavioral scientist and professor at the Harvard Kennedy School who has spent years studying the psychology of disagreement, researching how people handle opinions, judgments, and beliefs that differ from their own, and what it actually takes to navigate those moments without losing the relationship in the process. Her book How to Disagree Better distills that research into a practical, science-backed guide for anyone ready to do the real work of staying connected across difference.

In this conversation, you will discover:
The single most common mistake people make at the start of a disagreement that almost guarantees it will escalate into a full argument
The HEAR framework, a four-part behavioral science tool for expressing your view firmly without triggering defensiveness or shutting the other person down
Why leading with facts and data backfires when you are talking to someone who already disagrees with you, and what to use instead that dramatically increases trust
A critical practice for building disagreement skills on low-stakes conversations first, so you are not white-knuckling it when the big moments arrive
Why empathy is wonderful in theory but unreliable in the heat of the moment, and what to focus on instead that actually shifts the dynamic

If you are tired of watching important relationships quietly erode one hard conversation at a time, this episode is for you. Press play and let's figure out how to disagree better, together.

You can find Julia at: Website | LinkedIn | Episode Transcript

Next week, we're sharing our conversation with Dr. Nicole LePera, New York Times best-selling author of Reparenting the Inner Child, about why so many of us feel stuck in patterns we can't seem to escape, no matter how hard we try. And what's actually happening in your nervous system when that happens. It's a grounding, hopeful conversation.

Check out our offerings & partners:
Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel
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Before you ever say a word, you've already told the room everything it needs to know. Your posture, your eye contact, the angle of your body, the openness of your chest — all of it is speaking. And most of us have no idea what it's saying.

Linda Clemons is a world-renowned body language and nonverbal communication expert who has spent more than three decades training Fortune 500 CEOs, sales teams, celebrities, and media leaders to master the silent signals that build trust, command respect, and create connection. Her bestselling book Hush: How to Radiate Power and Confidence Without Saying a Word is a practical guide to the conversation your body is having without you.

We explore why 93% of communication is nonverbal and what that actually means in practice, the four power zones of the body and why keeping them open changes everything from a job interview to a conversation with your teenager, how our biases show up in our bodies before they ever come out of our mouths, the three patterns that derail us in high-stakes moments — frozen, flooding, and flat — and how to move through them, and why the question that changes everything is not what do I want to say but how do I want this person to feel when they leave? A deeply practical, energizing conversation for anyone who wants to show up more powerfully, more warmly, and more authentically in every interaction that matters.

You can find Linda at: Website | LinkedIn | Episode Transcript

If you LOVED this episode:
You’ll also love our conversation with Julia Minson about how to disagree better so you can have less drama and more impact in your life, your work, and your community.

Check out our offerings & partners:
Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel
Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.