Emotional Badass: Where Moxie Meets Mindful - Meditations, Self Care, Motivation Mindset, Holistic Recovery, & Life Coaching

Nikki and Chris dive into their transformative experience at Emily Schromm's The Challenge Retreat Season 2, a wellness adventure in California’s stunning Teravana ranch, where they tackle grueling physical challenges and unexpected emotional breakthroughs. Despite personal grief and burnout, they push through steep hill races and puzzles, discovering resilience they didn’t know they had. Nikki’s horse therapy session sparks a vision for future retreats, with possible Donkey's, while Chris confronts childhood money fears through new investment strategies. Their raw reflections on boundaries, from rehoming pets to navigating relationships, inspire us to embrace discomfort for growth. Curious about Chris's fourth-place finish? Check Emily Schromm’s site for more. The Challenge Retreat Season 2:https://www.emilyschromm.com/retreat

Violence like Charlie Kirk’s assassination or the recent Evergreen school shooting hits hard, especially for sensitive souls, but you can shield your nervous system from trauma’s grip. Talk out the details with trusted people to release the tension—your brain’s snapshot isn’t meant to haunt you, it’s trying to keep you safe. Write it out, don’t chase drama’s addictive rush, and refuse to globalize horror into hopelessness. Send prayers or intentions for healing, even for those you disagree with, to reclaim peace. Honor life’s brevity by choosing resilience over fragility, and let nightmares process without fighting them. Be the tolerance and strength you crave in a chaotic world.

Most empaths and highly sensitive people get labeled as stubborn, but this trait might actually be a superpower. Stubbornness gets reframed from negative to positive, examining how HSPs develop this quality as protection in invalidating environments. Narcissistic parents view stubborn children as threats, creating shame around boundaries and independent thinking. Childhood stubbornness often masks deeper needs like safety that adults miss. Positive stubbornness becomes tenacity, authenticity, and leadership backbone for breaking cycles and maintaining values.

Chris shares the raw reality of losing his father suddenly at 72 and how grief reveals the power of positive masculinity. Traditional masculine norms taught men to suppress emotions and avoid vulnerability, but this episode demonstrates a different path by processing pain rather than bottling it up. The discussion covers how an older generation was conditioned to never seek therapy or discuss problems, leading emotions to emerge sideways. The intense three-day Italian Catholic funeral process is described and how forcing through the full mourning ritual actually helped move grief through the system faster. There's discussion of a mysterious final phone call from his father exactly 30 days before his death, when they had no cell service in the mountains where his dad asked them to find a spot for his ashes. The conversation explores how losing a parent forces psychological maturation and how embracing both sadness and positivity creates authentic emotional processing rather than toxic positivity.

The term "daddy issues" points to what happens when you don't get healthy fathering. A good father figure provides grounding and stability - like being the kite string that keeps you tethered while you soar. They teach protection through boundaries, not control, and help you learn the difference between genuine care and manipulation. Healthy fathers mirror back your strength and identity, offer direction without forcing their views, and model accountability by showing that strength and vulnerability go together. Their approval is foundational, not conditional - you don't have to earn love through people-pleasing. Eventually, they bless your independence instead of trying to keep you small. When you miss out on this kind of fathering, you can end up defensive, approval-seeking, or struggling with boundaries. The healing work means learning to reparent yourself and give yourself what you didn't get.

Self-betrayal starts in childhood when trauma teaches you to ignore what your gut is telling you and go straight into overthinking mode just to survive. Your intuition isn't something you think about - it's something you feel deep in your center, quiet and calm, while anxiety creates this crazy mental chaos that spins you out. As kids, trauma survivors had to shut down their inner knowing to avoid getting hurt worse, which creates these lifelong habits of people-pleasing and abandoning yourself. Healing is about giving yourself permission to trust your gut again and act on it, even when it makes other people uncomfortable. You need safe relationships to help your intuition grow back - toxic people just shut it down. Trauma also disconnects you from your body, which is actually a huge part of how you receive intuitive messages. Good boundaries keep the drama out so you can actually hear what your inner wisdom is trying to tell you.

In this heartfelt episode, we're navigating grief after the sudden loss of my father-in-law, Chris's dad; George. We revisit a throwback discussion on the five stages of grief - denial, anger, depression, bargaining, and acceptance - but with a deeper understanding of how these stages work. Grief doesn't follow a neat checklist and we often move back and forth between stages. The episode breaks down how denial acts as a protective buffer, why anger surfaces when we feel powerless, and how depression weighs us down. There is a bargaining phase where we try to make deals with the universe, and ultimately reach acceptance by letting go of the fight against what we cannot control. As well as some practical ways to process grief, like writing and speaking aloud, plus a meaningful candle ritual for releasing what we've lost and embracing hope for moving forward.

If you grew up with narcissistic or emotionally immature parents, you know the frustration of having all the head knowledge about healing but struggling to actually feel calm in your body. This episode explains why you learned to dissociate and live in your head as a survival mechanism during childhood trauma. We dive into how children of narcissistic parents take on too much responsibility and develop an inner adolescent part that resists guidance and change. Through practical breathing exercises, you experience what it means to get out of your head and into your body, connecting with your wise adult self rather than letting that defensive inner adolescent drive your life.

Happy 400th Episode!!! I sit down with Chris to talk about the fascinating connection between stage fright and sensitivity. So many of us carry this primal fear of being watched, and it can trigger deep nervous system responses that we don’t always understand. Chris shares his journey from doing magic tricks in kindergarten to performing on stage thousands of times, and how setting boundaries with fear helped him let go of performance anxiety. We get into the science—mirror neurons, sensitivity, and how our bodies can pick up and mirror other people's nervous systems. I share how being around Chris’s calm energy helped me build the confidence I needed to start podcasting.And in our “Good for the Soul” segment, we share the small, simple things that have been helping us feel grounded and nourished lately. Chris describes his latest passion for homemade sausage making, while I talk about discovering authentic sourdough bread that doesn't trigger my usual digestive issues. This segment reflects our belief that m

Continuing with part two of How to Repair after a fight, we discover that apologies are actually the easy part - the true work lies in learning co-regulation and validation without falling into shame or defensive patterns. Mental health work means accepting that sometimes repair happens on different timelines, and that's okay. I'm walking through the exact steps for offering connection after conflict, including why "right fighting" kills intimacy and how to create repair jars for when your brain goes into survival mode. For HSPs and anyone doing trauma recovery, these boundary-setting and validation skills are non-negotiable for healthy relationships.

Fights happen. But for HSPs and survivors of dysfunctional families, repairing after conflict can feel terrifying. In this episode, I teach what I wish someone had taught me decades ago—how to repair conflict with emotional strength, regulate your nervous system, and stop shame from taking over. Mental health isn’t about being perfect. It’s about learning the skills we were never taught. I’ll help you understand the difference between guilt and shame, and how to reconnect with your inner child and loved ones after rupture. This is real mental health work—practical, empowering, and full of heart.

Going no contact with family isn’t a straight line—and sometimes it shows up in your dreams. We talk about the complex grief of family estrangement, the truth about recurring dreams, and what your subconscious might be trying to process. Reframing our nightmares can help you build trust with your inner child. We’ll explore the deeper meaning of these dreams, the struggle of detaching, and how to bring your power back—even in your subconscious. If you’ve ever woken up haunted by your past, this is your sign that healing is happening

Relationships and family dysfunction are two complex yet vital pieces of the mental health puzzle that come together when my husband Chris joins me on the mic today, sharing our perspectives as an Italian Yankee married to a Southern belle. We unpack the realities of dating as Highly Sensitive People (HSPs), share our personal online dating journeys—complete with quirky stories—and highlight how cultural differences shape our subconscious relationship dynamics. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by dating apps, family dysfunction, or subtle misunderstandings, you'll find relatable insights and practical solutions here to boost your emotional resilience and personal growth.

If you’ve ever felt behind in life or overwhelmed by pressure to be further along, I hope this episode gives you space to pause and really honor how far you’ve come. I reflect on the unexpected gift of this podcast becoming a record of my own growth and share a deeply personal story about my grandfather’s survival during WWII. His decision to float alone in shark-infested waters, instead of clinging to others in panic, taught me everything about self-preservation. For us HSPs, especially those working through codependency and boundaries, that lesson runs deep. Sometimes the bravest thing we can do is let go—of people, habits, or expectations—and choose ourselves, even when it hurts. This is a reminder to stop, breathe, and give yourself credit for the emotional strength it’s taken just to be here.

Many people misunderstand their attachment style, overidentify with labels, or confuse trauma responses with personality traits. Today we break down secure and insecure attachment, discuss how anxious and avoidant dynamics form, and look at how emotional abuse and trauma erode self-trust. Many highly sensitive people (HSPs) often internalize critical voices and lose their sense of emotional safety. With radical honesty, self-awareness, boundaries, and emotional maturity, we can rebuild secure attachment—starting with our relationship to ourselves. Workshops & Programs: THE BOUNDARIES INTENSIVE:⁠⁠ https://EmotionalBadass.com/boundaries⁠⁠ Services, Products & Content: WORK WITH NIKKI 1:1 :⁠⁠ https://EmotionalBadass.com/coaching⁠⁠ PATREON: ⁠⁠https://Patreon.com/emotionalbadass⁠⁠ WEEKLY NEWSLETTER:⁠⁠ https://www.EmotionalBadass.com/newsletter⁠⁠ Follow us: YT:⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com.com/emotionalbadass/⁠⁠ IG:⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/emotional.badass/⁠⁠ FB:⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/emotional

Are you seeing yourself or someone you know in the Sean Combs AKA Diddy trial footage and wondering if you're in a similar toxic dynamic? In this raw episode, we look at the abuse Cassie allegedly endured as a lens to examine coercion, emotional abuse, and how power gets weaponized. Recovery from manipulative abuse often starts when high-profile cases like this one help us recognize the patterns in our own relationships. Abuse survivors know that feeling of being forced to play games without knowing the rules, watching abusers surround themselves with enablers who minimize the red flags. Self reliance and boundaries work become essential when you realize that what you thought was love was actually systematic control designed to keep you questioning your own reality and meant to trap you in relationships where respect and safety aren't negotiable. BOUNDARIES INTENSIVE WITH NIKKI:⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://EmotionalBadass.com/boundaries⁠⁠⁠⁠ 30 DAYS TO PEACE:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://EmotionalBadass.com/peace⁠⁠⁠⁠ NARCISSIST

What if the alleged stories coming out of the Diddy Sean Combs trial feel more familiar than shocking? What can the trial teach us about recognizing psychological abuse in our own relationships? When domination hides behind fame and money, abuse can seem like something that only happens to the rich and powerful. But the truth is, coercion, manipulation, trauma, and control are far more common than we admit. In this episode, I speak from both lived experience and clinical work—on what it’s like to be with someone who slowly erodes your personhood, and how we must reclaim our sanity and power to break free. BOUNDARIES INTENSIVE WITH NIKKI:⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://EmotionalBadass.com/boundaries⁠⁠⁠⁠ 30 DAYS TO PEACE:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://EmotionalBadass.com/peace⁠⁠⁠⁠ NARCISSIST ABUSE RECOVERY WORKSHOP:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.EmotionalBadass.com/workshops⁠⁠⁠⁠ EMOTIONAL STRENGTH TRAINING:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.EmotionalBadass.com/strength⁠⁠⁠⁠ THE MORNING ROUTINE :⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://EmotionalBadass.com/morning⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ser

Why do HSPs feel like they're fighting an uphill battle in a world that's lost its conscientiousness? After working with HSPs for nearly two decades, I've learned we're the people who value conscientiousness in society - that's our gift, not a weakness. Through therapy and self-awareness, sensitivity transforms from burden into extraordinary beauty. The sunrise that makes you cry with joy, the stranger's child who warms your heart - these experiences are available to every HSP who learns effective coping strategies. BOUNDARIES INTENSIVE WITH NIKKI:⁠⁠⁠ https://EmotionalBadass.com/boundaries⁠⁠⁠ 30 DAYS TO PEACE:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://EmotionalBadass.com/peace⁠⁠⁠ NARCISSIST ABUSE RECOVERY WORKSHOP:⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.EmotionalBadass.com/workshops⁠⁠⁠ EMOTIONAL STRENGTH TRAINING:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.EmotionalBadass.com/strength⁠⁠⁠ THE MORNING ROUTINE :⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://EmotionalBadass.com/morning⁠⁠⁠ Services, Products & Content: WORK WITH NIKKI 1:1 :⁠⁠⁠ https://EmotionalBadass.com/coaching⁠⁠⁠ PATREON:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠

Feeling swallowed by grief’s endless waves? I unpack anticipatory loss, disenfranchised pain, and the ripple-effect grief few name, guiding highly sensitive people toward emotional boundaries, mental health balance, and steady peace. We explore why numbness can protect, how self-permission heals, and which daily practices anchor life when everything changes. Let every layer of loss be felt, honored, and released. 30 DAYS TO PEACE:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://EmotionalBadass.com/peace⁠⁠ BOUNDARIES INTENSIVE WITH NIKKI:⁠⁠⁠ https://EmotionalBadass.com/boundaries⁠⁠⁠⁠ NARCISSIST ABUSE RECOVERY WORKSHOP:⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.EmotionalBadass.com/workshops⁠⁠⁠ EMOTIONAL STRENGTH TRAINING:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.EmotionalBadass.com/strength⁠⁠⁠ THE MORNING ROUTINE :⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://EmotionalBadass.com/morning⁠⁠⁠ Services, Products & Content: WORK WITH NIKKI 1:1 :⁠⁠⁠ https://EmotionalBadass.com/coaching⁠⁠⁠ PATREON:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Patreon.com/emotionalbadass⁠⁠⁠ WEEKLY NEWSLETTER:⁠⁠⁠ https://www.EmotionalBadass.com/newslet

In this episode, we explore how empathy can become costly when not balanced with healthy discernment. Childhood trauma often creates "red flag erasers" that prioritize relationships over personal wellbeing. Learn how to maintain your compassionate nature while developing the wisdom to protect yourself from one-sided connections. BOUNDARIES INTENSIVE WITH NIKKI:⁠⁠ https://EmotionalBadass.com/boundaries⁠⁠ 30 DAYS TO PEACE:⁠⁠ https://EmotionalBadass.com/peace⁠⁠ NARCISSIST ABUSE RECOVERY WORKSHOP:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.EmotionalBadass.com/workshops⁠⁠ EMOTIONAL STRENGTH TRAINING: ⁠⁠https://www.EmotionalBadass.com/strength⁠⁠ THE MORNING ROUTINE :⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://EmotionalBadass.com/morning⁠⁠ Services, Products & Content: WORK WITH NIKKI 1:1 :⁠⁠ https://EmotionalBadass.com/coaching⁠⁠ PATREON: ⁠⁠https://Patreon.com/emotionalbadass⁠⁠ WEEKLY NEWSLETTER:⁠⁠ https://www.EmotionalBadass.com/newsletter⁠⁠ PATTERNSCAPES WELLNESS DECK:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://getpatternscapes.com⁠⁠ GUIDED MEDITATIONS: ⁠⁠https://shop.e