Emotional & Mental Health
If you’ve ever felt like something is wrong with you and no matter how much you try to fix yourself, it never feels like enough, this episode is for you. I talk about why that feeling exists and how we get stuck in the cycle of self-criticism and over-improvement. I also share how you can start stepping out of it so you can feel calmer, lighter, and more at peace with yourself.
This is especially helpful if you’re navigating midlife, relationships, parenting, or just feeling like you’ve been trying so hard for so long.
Inside this episode, you’ll learn:
– Why believing you are broken keeps you stuck in shame, self doubt, and emotional exhaustion
– The truth about perfection and why there is no finish line where you finally get it right
– How to stop being harsh and critical with yourself when you mess up
– The difference between emotional childhood and emotional adulthood
– How self acceptance actually helps you grow faster, not slower
– Why the relationship you have with yourself affects your confidence, parenting, and every other relationship in your life
This is not about giving up on growth. It is about growing from love instead of criticism.
If you have ever felt like you are too much, not enough, or secretly flawed, this episode will feel like coming home.
You are not broken. And the moment you truly understand that is the moment everything can begin to change.
🎧 If you liked this episode, you’ll like this one:
The Power of Lovability: Transform Your Relationships and Self-Confidence on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-power-of-lovability-transform-your/id1434429161?i=1000661733596
The Power of Lovability: Transform Your Relationships and Self-Confidence on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/3AjLvAVYKkgoNmw8UMCirI?si=MRpUKR3DSRG2cdHzvgfsIA
📩 Don’t miss out: I send weekly wellness tips, episode updates, giveaways and links I love: https://SMBwell.com/newsletter
⭐️Get on Coach Susie’s one-on-one schedule here: https://smbwell.com/work-with-me/
🤓FIRST TIME LISTENER? Grab the PODCAST ROADMAP with the foundations of emotional intelligence and mental wellness here: https://SMBwell.com/roadmap
👩🏼🎓The Love Your Life School Membership-http://theLoveYourLifeSchool.com
🙌🏾 Buy Susie’s a coffee (and support small business and Susie’s mission: https://patreon.com/susiepettit 🙏🏾
🩷Let’s be friends on Instagram-https://instagram.com/smb.wellness
🌟Get the full show notes here👉🏾 https://SMBwell.com/402
📺Find and follow her on YouTube – LOVE YOUR LIFE VLOG – YouTube https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9PibXJfNpKk5Yr6rpNVq4P_utWFkvYS
Emotional & Mental Health
Last week, I shared a more personal reflection on why this podcast exists. Today, I want to bring it back to coaching and answer a powerful question: after 400 episodes, what actually helps the most?
In this episode, I teach the first of two foundational skills that reduce emotional suffering, reactivity, and relationship drama. This simple but profound shift will help you feel more calm, more empowered, and less at the mercy of other people’s behavior.
If you’ve ever felt hijacked by your emotions or stuck in patterns you don’t like, this is where the change begins.
Next week, I’ll share the second skill that completes the picture. Thanks for being the type of person who listens to shows like the Love Your Life Show. xx
🎧 If you liked this episode, you’ll like this one:
Truth Bomb: It’s Not About You! on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/121-truth-bomb-its-not-about-you/id1434429161?i=1000501078688
Truth Bomb: It’s Not About You! on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/2TxQu1k5OVR5dsHP3UKB3x?si=m4_9lAhhQw-R4VrRAbqnSA
📩Get email inspo! Each Wednesday, I send weekly wellness tips, episode updates, giveaways and links I love: https://SMBwell.com/newsletter
⭐️Work with Susie: https://smbwell.com/work-with-me/
🤓FIRST TIME LISTENER? Grab the PODCAST ROADMAP https://SMBwell.com/roadmap
👩🏼🎓The Love Your Life School Membership-http://theLoveYourLifeSchool.com
🙌🏾 Buy Susie a coffee (and support her mission): https://patreon.com/susiepettit 🙏🏾
🩷Let’s be friends on Instagram-https://instagram.com/smb.wellness
🌟Get the full show notes here👉🏾 https://SMBwell.com/
📺Find and follow her on YouTube-LOVE YOUR LIFE VLOG – YouTube https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9PibXJfNpKk5Yr6rpNVq4P_utWFkvYS
Emotional & Mental Health
This episode is different, and I wanted to speak to you more personally than usual.
I’m sharing the real reasons this podcast was born, the moments that almost broke me, and what has kept me showing up here for 400 episodes. This isn’t a how-to or a lecture, it’s a heart-to-heart conversation about being human, especially when life feels heavy. If this podcast has ever kept you company during a hard season, this episode is for you. I wanted you to know how much you matter to me and to this community.
If you get even one thing from any of these 400 episodes that helps you feel more seen, more connected, more loved, more human, my heart is full. I know others make a lot of money through advertising, and are better marketers to get more clients. I’ve been told I give too much information away for free.
But in my 54 years, I’ve learned this. If something feels good, do more of it. And this is really what feels good.
Links Mentioned on this Episode:
🎁 Gift Susie a penny for every episode! Once or monthly. She’ll be SO EXCITED!! https://patreon.com/susiepettit
🤓FIRST TIME LISTENER? Grab the PODCAST ROADMAP here: https://SMBwell.com/roadmap
Interested in any of the other roadmaps? Get them here:
-Top Episodes on Narcissists and Narcissist Recovery https://smbwell.com/narc
-Top Parenting Episodes https://smbwell.com/mom/
-Codependency and Anxiety in Relationship Episodes: https://SMBwell.com/feelbetter
-Top 5 Downloaded Episodes https://smbwell.com/top5
📩 EMAIL INSPO: I send weekly wellness tips, episode updates, giveaways, and links I love: https://SMBwell.com/newsletter
⭐️Get on Coach Susie’s one-on-one schedule here: https://smbwell.com/work-with-me/
👩🏼🎓The Love Your Life School Membership-http://theLoveYourLifeSchool.com
📸Let’s be friends on Instagram-https://instagram.com/smb.wellness
🌟Get the full show notes here👉🏾 https://SMBwell.com/
📺Find and follow her on YouTube-LOVE YOUR LIFE VLOG – YouTube https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9PibXJfNpKk5Yr6rpNVq4P_utWFkvYS
Emotional & Mental Health
In this episode of the Love Your Life Show, I teach one of the most important relationship skills we were never taught: emotional validation.
If you often feel the urge to fix, explain, or make things better when someone you love is struggling, this episode is for you. I have found that in learning the skills of emotional validation and emotional intelligence, the people I love (my kids, my husband, my friends, etc) feel so much more love from me. Versus, when I didn’t know these skills, our conversations and my efforts to support were wonky and they were left feeling disconnected, or worse, incompetent or shamed.
Learning how to validate is how we support others without taking on their emotions or trying to change their experience, and it will change your parenting, marriage, and every close relationship you have.
This episode builds directly on last week’s conversation about emotional regulation. When you can stay calm inside yourself while someone else is having big feelings, validation becomes possible. I explain what emotional validation actually is, what it is not, and why validation does not mean agreement, approval, or fixing the problem.
We talk about why emotions need soothing, not solving, how to stop minimizing or invalidating feelings without realizing it, and what to say when you want someone to feel seen, heard, and supported. I share practical phrases you can use with your kids, your partner, and the people you care about most, along with guidance on how to stay present without overfunctioning or taking responsibility for someone else’s emotions.
If you are a parent, partner, helper, or chronic fixer, this episode will help you build healthier emotional boundaries, deeper connection, and more emotionally safe relationships. Spoiler Alert: When they feel better in relationship with you, YOU feel better too! 💕
🎧 If you liked this episode, you’ll like this one:
Emotional Intelligence on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/ph/podcast/12-emotional-intelligence-101/id1434429161?i=1000422477973
Emotional Intelligence on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/3GWK2i77mU4zmwwAVd3tc4?si=VNiD8j76QOyX6nW-kNRVWg
📩 Don’t miss out: Get weekly wellness tips straight to your inbox: Get the weekly newsletter here: https://SMBwell.com/newsletter
⭐️See if Coach Susie has room on her one-on-one schedule for you: https://smb.as.me/
🤓FIRST TIME LISTENER? Grab the PODCAST ROADMAP with the foundations of emotional intelligence and mental wellness here: https://SMBwell.com/roadmap
👩🏼🎓The Love Your Life School Membership-http://theLoveYourLifeSchool.com
🙌🏾 Buy Susie’s a coffee (and support small business and Susie’s mission): https://patreon.com/susiepettit 🙏🏾
🩷Let’s be friends on Instagram-https://instagram.com/smb.wellness
🌟Get the full show notes here👉🏾 https://SMBwell.com/395
Emotional & Mental Health
Emotional regulation is one of the most important relationship skills we were never taught.
In this episode of the Love Your Life Show, Susie Pettit explains why emotional regulation is the skill that makes parenting and marriage easier and why learning to stay calm when the people you love are not can change every relationship in your life.
If you tend to take responsibility for other people’s emotions, rush to fix feelings, or feel unsettled when your kids, partner, or loved ones are upset, this episode is for you.
Susie shares how emotional regulation builds emotional safety, why fixing feelings often backfires, and how developing emotional resiliency helps you show up as a calmer parent, partner, and human.
You’ll learn:
⭐️ What emotional regulation actually is and why it matters in parenting, marriage, and relationships with our empty nest young adults
⭐️ How to stop outsourcing your calm to the people around you
⭐️ Why feelings need support, not solutions
⭐️ A simple framework to respond to big emotions without fixing or shutting them down
⭐️ How emotional regulation supports emotional intelligence in kids, teens, and even our underfunctioning partners or young adults
Whether you’re parenting young children, teenagers, adult kids, or navigating a long-term relationship, this episode will help you understand why your internal calm is the foundation for healthier, more connected relationships.
If you want parenting and marriage to feel less heavy and more grounded, emotional regulation is where it starts. Thanks for listening!
If you liked this show, you’ll like this one:
Loving Detachment on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/286-loving-detachment/id1434429161?i=1000642743348
Loving Detachment on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/6bL2I9rFFHSf18buCOEZMi?si=iyNfeWilT3eAkVYHgcwZkQ
Want even more? Get the most popular parenting episodes here: https://SMBwell.com/mom
Get the weekly wellness newsletter for warriors here: 📩 https://SMBwell.com/newsletter
Find the show notes here👉🏾 https://SMBwell.com/394
⭐️ Ready to learn this faster? Get a coach! Find out more here: https://smbwell.com/work-with-me/
🙌🏾 Support Susie’s Mission: https://patreon.com/susiepettit
🩷Find and follow her on YouTube – LOVE YOUR LIFE VLOG – YouTube https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9PibXJfNpKk5Yr6rpNVq4P_utWFkvYS
Or Instagram – https://instagram.com/smb.wellness
Emotional & Mental Health
Do you consider yourself GenX?
Do you know someone who was born between 1965-1980?
Don’t miss this episode inspired by a TikTok on “The Top GenX Blindspots”. Whoa!
For me, and many midlife women, these are things we learned to do to survive in a system where our emotional and mental needs weren’t met. We were pretty ingenious actually, one might even say, warrior like! Yet, as adults, these adaptive, protective strategies become maladaptive and hurt us and our relationships.
Join me as I explain how the way we were raised might be quietly sabotaging our emotional wellbeing and the health of our relationships.
If you have ever wondered why you say you are fine when you are not, why you push your own needs aside, or why you feel responsible for everyone around you, this episode will help so much.
And I don’t leave you hanging – after listening, you’ll have some simple strategies to help you care for yourself, connect more deeply, and begin shifting patterns that have been in place for decades.
This episode is the perfect starting point as we begin a new year and move toward February’s relationship healing work in the Love Your Life School.
Join me, fellow GenX woman, as I look at three hidden patterns that are probably playing out in your relationships and affecting your mental health.
If you liked this show, you’ll love these two:
Learned helplessness on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/ph/podcast/274-overfunctioning-and-learned-helplessness/id1434429161?i=1000634097009
Learned helplessness on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/4MF4IJSaVSMpfNhRAb7wyN?si=JuwR8qQnRiydi4fKDz1UDw
Enmeshment interview with Dr. Kate Balestrieri on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/ph/podcast/enmeshment-codependency-with-dr-kate-balestrieri/id1434429161?i=1000733979384
Enmeshment interview with Dr. Kate Balestrieri on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/6WMOkGaEpLNHcmvF0W5JTa?si=kMALGFXuTQWzb-oFH5qDGQ
Get the full show notes here👉🏾 https://SMBwell.com/391
⭐️See if Susie has room on her schedule for a one-on-one session. Let’s get to where we’re going faster! https://smb.as.me/
🤓Quick – Join us as we dive into relationships for February 2026! The Love Your Life School Membership http://theLoveYourLifeSchool.com
🙌🏾 Support Susie’s Mission https://patreon.com/susiepettit
🩷Find, follow and connect with her on Instagram https://instagram.com/smb.wellness
📩 Subscribe to the weekly newsletter so you never miss an episode.
💬 Share this with a friend who’s feeling disconnected or overwhelmed. (or who often says “I’m fine” but you know she’s anything but ❤️🩹)
