You’re Not Broken: Reclaiming Power, Healing Trauma & Finding Freedom Within

What happens when you bring together a nervous system expert and a Harvard-trained psychotherapist who survived flesh-eating disease? A profound conversation about the true nature of healing, resilience, and self-discovery.

This episode opens with a guided mindfulness practice that immediately demonstrates how we can create space between awareness and thoughts—a foundational skill for genuine transformation. As Harvard-educated psychotherapist Madelaine Weiss shares her remarkable journey, we discover how her insatiable curiosity and personal challenges shaped her unique approach to helping others "make their dreams come true."

Through vulnerable storytelling and scientific insights, Madelaine reveals why perception is so limited yet we cling to our narratives as absolute truth. "Out of 11 million bits of information our senses receive every second, our conscious mind processes only 5 bits," she explains, illuminating why genuine curiosity and openness are essential for growth. Her near-death experience with flesh-eating disease offers a powerful reframe: "Every single one of us has already lived through everything we've ever been through"—a simple but profound reminder of our inherent resilience.

The conversation reaches its emotional peak when discussing faith, revealing it's not about avoiding pain but maintaining an open heart regardless of circumstances. This episode brilliantly demonstrates that true healing is an inside job, not dependent on external circumstances changing but on our relationship with ourselves transforming. You'll walk away with practical insights on navigating uncertainty, processing difficult emotions, and accessing your innate capacity for joy even amid challenges.

Ready to discover the warrior within? Connect with Madeline at madelaineweiss.com explore her books, free resources, and personalized guidance for your own healing journey.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Lift One Self Podcast
• 2:42 Mindful Moment Exercise
• 6:25 The Curiosity Journey and Academic Path
• 18:48 Understanding How We See Differently
• 28:17 Healing Is an Inside Job
• 35:37 Building Confidence Through Adversity
• 45:10 Reflection and Closing Resources

Transcript

NatNat: 0:00

Welcome to the Lift One Self podcast, where we break mental health stigmas through conversations. I'm your host, nat Nat, and we dive into topics about trauma and how it impacts the nervous system. Yet we don't just leave you there. We share insights and tools of self-care, meditation and growth that help you be curious about your own biology. Your presence matters. Please like and subscribe to our podcast. Help our community grow. Let's get into this. Oh, and please remember to be kind to yourself.

Madeline Weiss: 0:36

Welcome to the Lift One Self podcast. I'm your host, Nat Nat, and today we are with Madeline Wise, who is going to share with us her book, the reason why she wrote the book and a little bit about herself and what she has to offer to people. So, Madeline, could you introduce yourself to say it here and now, which is I help people make their dreams come true.

Madeline Weiss: 1:13

You know, and that's not really my formal bio, but I just want you all to know that things can be better than we sometimes think they are. I don't know, Nat, which book you're referring to. I know that I talked to you about my kids book. Yeah, but we also have my one for adults, which kind of syncs a lot with what I just said, because the process of this is how people get from too great in their lives, and that's what I mean by making their dreams come true, Sometimes dreams they didn't even know they had. So let's see, I am a Harvard-trained licensed psychotherapist, board-certified ecotherapist, board certified.

Madeline Weiss: 2:29

This is a mouthful board certified executive, career and life coach with an MBA who helps people to find more freedom and fulfillment and satisfaction and success and just kind of flourishing in their lives. I'm going to look forward to this conversation. I'm already intrigued and have some questions already in mind. Before we dive in. Will you join me in a mindful moment so that we can ground ourselves.

Madeline Weiss: 2:44

I would love to. What a gift.

NatNat: 2:45

And for the listeners. As you always hear, safety first. Please do not close your eyes if you need your visual, yet the other prompts you're able to follow through with us. So, madeline, I'll ask you to get comfortable in your position and, if it's safe to do so, I'll ask you to gently close your eyes and you're going to begin breathing in and out through your nose and you're going to bring your awareness to watching your breath go in and out through your nose. You're not going to try and control your breath, you're just going to be aware of its rhythm, allowing it to guide you into your body.

NatNat: 3:24

Now there may be some sensations or feelings coming up. That's okay, let them come up. You're safe to feel. You're safe to let go. Surrender the need to control, release the need to resist and just be, be with your breath, drop deeper into your body. Now there may be some thoughts or to-do lists that have popped up in your mind, and that's okay. Gently, bring your awareness back to your breath, creating space between the awareness and the thoughts and dropping even deeper into your body, allowing yourself to just be. Again, more thoughts may have popped up. Gently, bring your awareness back to your breath again. More thoughts may have popped up. Gently bring your awareness back to your breath, beginning again, creating even more space between the awareness and the thoughts and dropping even deeper into your body, completely releasing and letting go being in the space of just being observing.

NatNat: 5:03

Now coming into your senses at your own time and at your own pace. You're going to gently open your eyes while still staying with your breath. How is your heart?

NatNat: 5:15

doing.

Madeline Weiss: 5:15

My heart is grateful to you for that. I was thinking there's a morning meditation that I do every morning and I love the prompting on this meditation. However, at the end he says something that is so funny. He says something like um, like, take three breaths or something about the breath until you come back into the room and I'm thinking what are you supposed to do about breathing after you're back into that? I don't know, I just think that's kind of funny, but the whole thing is so wonderful.

Madeline Weiss: 5:59

Up to that point he meant well, yeah yeah,

NatNat: 6:04

I just uh, help people to just come back and remember that they're in this state of the space between stimulus and response and that they can still bring that in their awareness. Their eyes don't just have to be closed in that.

NatNat: 6:20

Um yeah, you sound like victor frankel yeah, I.

NatNat: 6:24

I take from the great wise ones of lived experience of trying to explain what we're bringing people into, because it's not an intellectual thing, um, so it can be very challenging sometimes to articulate. So that's why I bring people into a mindful moment, because then they're like what the the heck is this dimension? I didn't know anything about this. Like, what is this?

Madeline Weiss: 6:46

It's like yeah, and the reason I told you that anecdote is because I noticed that, conversely, you told us to stay with the breath. So that seemed to me, given that it's easy to make the mistake of saying that in a different way.

Madeline Weiss: 7:04

So anyway,

NatNat: 7:05

yeah, because you know that's our tools. It's the freest tool that you have. Yet when we're, you know, activated in the nervous systems, dysregulated and there's a bunch of wounds and emotions that are coming up that you don't want to feel, to access your breath, to help, you know, feel and let go um and integrate and process, it's like, oh, I, I don't know what that thing is and no, and it's like, but the, the breath, is your sail that helps you ride those sadamis um, and that's why it's a practice. You know there's no perfection in this and that's why we always need reminders, too, too, of why we need radical compassion.

Madeline Weiss: 7:47

So my question I was just going to say that I'm turning my ringer off because I forgot to do that. I was just going to say that, given that the mind wanders 70 percent of the time, what you just did is a godsend.

NatNat: 7:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

NatNat: 8:02

And I introduced it in my podcast like over a year ago, and I was a little timid to do it because, you know, dead airspace on, you know a podcast, you might lose people. Yet in a world where we keep telling people to meditate, it's like well, why are we not actually modeling it and inviting it in our interactions so that people can see what power there is? You know, a lot of people have the wrong definition around meditation. They think it's going to shut off their mind and make everything go zen and it's like actually no, it's going to bring you into reality and do a check in to see what needs to be felt in process that you're ignoring. Actually, be there for yourself and you can get into that center. You know people hook into my nervous system, so that's why they can get into that sense of space.

NatNat: 8:52

Yet it's also recognizing it's not me that's doing it, your nervous system. You can do that on your own Also. It's just that you've been shown a way that, oh, this is possible for me and it's yeah. Yet it just takes practice to understand your nervous system and disarm those defense mechanisms that we well, I call ego, that are protecting you from vulnerability and from the self. So you mentioned that you were from Harvard and you mentioned some big titles of board, certified and all this stuff.

NatNat: 9:27

So yeah, and I'd like to ask you what got you into that?

Madeline Weiss: 9:33

I could tell you another story. It was actually on the day of 9-11. It was actually back that far. I was taking a I don't know what degrees I already had, but I was taking a graduate level intro course at Harvard because I was thinking of parlaying that into on the road to a PhD, which I had already gotten accepted to for Harvard and turned down. And that's a whole other story. But I raised my hand You're going to love this, nanette.

Madeline Weiss: 10:13

I raised my hand and I said to the teacher you know, I notice that you use brain and mind interchangeably and I'm wondering if you could unpack that for us. And the teacher got a little huffy with me and said well, I'll tell you what. Why don't we just take your brain out, put it on a slab, slice it up and see what's left of your mind? I know, look at your face. So at the end I went up to him after class and I said I'm so sorry. I could tell that you did not appreciate my question and I'm really sorry for having raised that. And he said and this is the answer to your question. And he said that's okay, you have epistemic hunger. So I had to run home and look up epistemic hunger because I didn't know what that was yeah, could you tell me, because I'm like, what is this academic word now?

Madeline Weiss: 11:18

yeah, it's, it's hungry to learn.

Madeline Weiss: 11:21

So when you ask me, what are all these degrees about? You know, different people have different ways of like coping with life struggles and I think mine has always been that Like if I just like learn enough, somehow I'll be able to handle whatever it is. So I always like would run to and I'm so I'm driving chat GPT crazy and chat GPT is like so polite, but I'm constantly this question, that question, and in my yearbook there's a picture of me with my hand up in high school saying it and it says oh, madeline's eternal questions. So this is not new and that happened way before I kept and I studied which is not even on my resume at Veda, vedanta for 25 years. Oh, wow.

Madeline Weiss: 12:29

Yeah.

Madeline Weiss: 12:30

So, just like he said, hungry, just really hungry, and I'm assuming it's for problem-solving purposes, but maybe not. Maybe it's just nature, maybe it's just my nature solving purposes, but maybe not. Maybe it's just nature, maybe it's just my nature, but anyway, that's what comes up for the question.

Madeline Weiss: 12:51

Yeah,

NatNat: 12:51

I think you know sometimes from my own experience what's lacking sometimes in you know the mental health with, like you know, psychotherapy or psychiatry, is the curiosity part. Yet it seems like your curiosity has been untethered.

Madeline Weiss: 13:08

It's off the chart

NatNat: 13:08

and you've been wanting it to find out all kinds of crevices and places and stuff. Yeah, yeah, I don't know it's quirky. No, not at all. You're honoring yourself, you're honoring yourself and you're you're feeding into what is needed. I want to ask you know, you gave us the privilege of being the first time saying that you help people with their dreams, that you put it in very simple terms.

Madeline Weiss: 13:39

It's on my Instagram profile and I noticed it the other day and I thought, huh, I actually put that there. So that made it fresher in my mind. But it's not routinely. If somebody asks me about my background or what I do, I don't routinely say that, yeah, what does that look like? Yeah, what does that look like For them? Yeah.

Madeline Weiss: 14:06

So I one day said to myself and I told you how varied my background is and my range of curiosity we'll call it is. So one day I said, god, you know, these people that I'm working with are all doing really great. And then I said what are you doing? Like, you know, I could be pulling any old kind of tool out of my toolkit is packed with all kinds of stuff like from soup to nuts, because of all that curiosity like brain science and evolutionary psychology and Advaita Vedanta and psychodynamic psychotherapy and all this kind of stuff. So it's all in there and if you work with me, I'm sitting there with all of that and, based on the interaction, who knows what I'll pull out when. But I just thought, thought like, what's happening here? What's actually happening? So I laid out all my cases and I like sort of sat back and did like a zen thing and it came to me that there was. There's a process that people go through and even though they're all different age, ethnicity, occupation, you name it there's this process, they all go through.

NatNat: 15:31

I

NatNat: 15:31

love that you're finally allowing yourself to be seen.

Madeline Weiss: 15:38

What prompted that?

NatNat: 15:42

Because you brought out the simplicity of being empowered, of honoring the gift that you have rather than doubting yourself, because academia, academia always berates that you're not good enough, and too much confidence can be not well received.

Madeline Weiss: 16:00

I should, I should? You're right. You're right about the too much confidence. And when I test, like on the Myers-Briggs or tests like that, they say I have this kind of vision. That could come off as arrogance. I didn't know until about 20 that I was even like, let's say, smart. I didn't, which is why I responded to you when you said that, like, how does she know? So you have a knowing, because I, after my father died when I was 15, I was lucky that I graduated high school.

NatNat: 16:49

Yeah.

Madeline Weiss: 16:51

So yeah, so it wasn't always. I didn't always have this confidence and I didn't always have this level of performance. I was pretty shaky as a kid, as I recall.

NatNat: 17:08

How did you find the safety within yourself?

Madeline Weiss: 17:13

I started getting feedback. I put my neck out there, you know. I went to. I kind of clawed my way into college.

Madeline Weiss: 17:24

They rejected me the first time and I went. I made an appointment with the. I went on this cruise and met these people and I told them that I had just gotten rejected from a state school and they said well, you can't let that stand, you have to go tell them. So I made an appointment with the dean and I walked in and I sat down and I started bawling and he said all right, all right, all right, because I was a transfer student. I was taking a smattering of courses somewhere else without really matriculating, and they said they weren't taking any more transfer students and my high school transcript was not that impressive. But they took me and I said to myself okay, I have to get a 4.0 here. So I did, and I was in an honors program and they said something. When they wrote my reference afterwards, they said something like we doubt that she even knows how brilliant she is. And that was the first time I heard that word.

Madeline Weiss: 18:39

Talking to me? Is that me Is?

NatNat: 18:42

that me, I know.

NatNat: 18:44

Yeah. So I have this question if your pain could speak, what would it say?

Madeline Weiss: 18:54

Oh, you know what I can answer that my pain would say why can't you see what I see, or why won't you see what I see? That's what my pain would say.

NatNat: 19:08

And what is it seeing?

Madeline Weiss: 19:18

I see differently than a lot of people and in fact I'm like 2%. What is it? 2% of the general population and 1% for women? In the type of vision that I have and the type of vision that I, have.

Madeline Weiss: 19:43

I'm not going to tell you specifically because it's things going on in the world and we didn't want to go there. I don't think, yeah, but yeah, and so that's a it's. It's a hard place. Okay, you know that's a, it's a hard place. Okay, you know I can see what other people see and how, even how it makes sense to them. But if they saw what I saw, they might feel and in fact in this book I made a real. I'm gonna show you a picture of it. I made a really big deal about that for the kids. I wanted them to know that everyone's point of view.

Madeline Weiss: 20:25

Do you know the elephant story?

NatNat: 20:28

Tell me.

Madeline Weiss: 20:29

So the elephant story, as I start telling you, you might know it is blind men and they bring an elephant into the village and they tell the men to describe what an elephant is. But they're blind, so they can only do it by feel. So one of them feels the trunk and says, oh, an elephant is like this, like a tree trunk. This is really the one thing. And then another one says no, it's not. It's. The one holding the ear says it's flat, it's totally flat.

Madeline Weiss: 21:02

And then someone else says, oh, it's this like skinny long thing. And they fight like crazy with each other because they're so sure they're right and they are as far as they can quote unquote. See, they're all right, no one's wrong for what they can see, but we can't see it all. I always like to tell people these numbers. You ready for some numbers? So there are six times 70 million zeros. Fathom that. I can't fathom that. I don't even know.

Madeline Weiss: 21:46

70 million zeros, bits of information in the universe. Out of those 11 million bits of information get sent from our senses you were talking about the senses to the senses, to our brain, every second. And out of that, the conscious mind is aware of five bits of information. So every time I say that, I then say so. Anybody who thinks they know anything is sorely mistaken, because none of us is playing with the full deck. No, and so, like by nature, by nurture, by your upbringing, by your genetic makeup, whatever it is, we don't all see the same thing, and there's so much to see and we can't possibly see it all. So the mind, the mind doesn't want to feel crazy. So the mind makes up a narrative and it thinks it's true and so what I believe, my narrative is the true one and yours is ridiculous, and that's how we are, and that's how we really are in these times, right, and it doesn't appear more threatened we feel, and there, you know, are so many different kinds of environmental external threats right now.

Madeline Weiss: 23:35

That's my two cents on why I think it's getting worse and worse, because,

NatNat: 23:39

yeah, it's a lot of dysregulated nervous systems, and when a nervous system is dysregulated it's looking for safety, so it's going to want to create certainty and if that narrative or that story feels certain, it feels safe. So I'm going to bite on that and I'm going to keep it as truth and anything that comes around that parameter. That is a threat to take away from my feeling of safety and certainty. Even though there is no such thing as control, yet the mind needs to have this illusion of it thinking In a society that you know you get chastised of asking questions like you did at the academic. Can you tell me what's the difference between a brain and mind? So because one's physical and one's kind of intellectual, you get chastised for asking these questions. Just do as you're told and just figure it out. Where it's like, we need critical thinking, we need to be able to challenge things, we need to know why we're doing certain things. Yet you know a lot

NatNat: 25:16

Coming back into a home, I just wrote a podcast. Like I love how the universe is because I just wrote my monologue podcast script that I just did, that I'm going to publish next week, talking exactly about this. And you know, a lot of people think healing is on the outside and it's like, no, you got to look at the mirror's edge and you have to look at your own reflection. And sometimes you see and you's like, no, you got to look at the mirror's edge and you have to look at your own reflection. And sometimes you see and you're like is that? I don't like that? And it's like, yeah, it is. Look at your BS.

NatNat: 25:48

I was working with somebody Well, I'm I'm still working with her For a while and I was trying to convince her of everything you just so beautifully said, by the way, and I was trying to convince her that change is an inside job and she never quite would go there with me. She's kind of resistant, I want to say maybe to authority, like I'm an authority or something, but about two weeks ago and she's working in a government agency, so she's really, you know, feeling very threatened right now, but she's piecing how to cope together so well, like better than ever before she said to me I'm feeling happy. And then she said, of course, I mean, you were right all along that it has to come from inside her, no matter what the heck is going on out there. And now it's really going on out there for her. And it really was such a stark signal to her that, even though that's going on out there, she managed to pull it off in here, which meant that it is correct that it's an inside job.

Madeline Weiss: 27:20

Yeah, power of choice. We don't think you know. If you don't start really feeling your emotions, you don't realize how much it hijacks your behavior, because all it is is that like. For me, how I explain it to my clients is trauma is that space, and that space is where emotions come in and it feels like a threat. So you don't feel safe to be in the space, you don't feel safe to feel the emotions, all the array emotions. There's certain emotions that are allowed and tolerable because I've been told from the outside, those are acceptable.

Madeline Weiss: 27:54

Yet those dense big emotions reactive emotions those are acceptable, yet those dense big emotions, reactive emotions oh no, as a child I've been told don't cry, don't get angry, don't do this. I may have been traumatized in a significant experience and I never got to speak about it with anybody. I never got to feel the safety in expressing what was going on and being seen, not just minimized, and feeling like an inconvenience or feeling like the perpetrator is getting all the attention or whatnot there is. So, coming back into that space, a lot of people are looking for a miracle cure that, oh, I'm just going to take this and it's going to make it all perfect, or there's this arrival because the mind likes to arrive somewhere that I don't got to keep predicting what's going on. Make it all perfect. Or there's this arrival because the mind likes to arrive somewhere that I don't got to keep predicting what's going on out there and whatnot. Yet the real work is to change the narrative that you think you predict everything, that the unknown and uncertainty is safe and that you can still feel joy when you're feeling the fear. It's not about negating the fear. Your nervous system, a healthy nervous system, needs to feel fear. Yet when it's activated, acknowledge it and also allow it room for processing and then remember how do I want to be in this moment, how do I want to feel. This doesn't always happen. I know some listening are going to be like yeah, yeah, yada, yada, nat, nat. Nobody can really do this. And I'm like I get it.

Madeline Weiss: 29:24

My friend just died in November. I was in hospice, yeah, and you know I held her until her last breath, put her in the body bag, watch the cremation. You know I. Another friend died. My car was totaled. I didn't even total it. Somebody drove it and got into an accident. I get it. Was there a lot of emoting and crying and frustration and anger, yeah. Yet I let myself feel those things to always remember, come back to a state. Come back to a state, not just brew and think that that's my identity.

Madeline Weiss: 29:56

You sound like you're headed for a breakthrough. Do you know the book about? You're a badass or something.

NatNat: 30:04

Yeah, who is it?

Madeline Weiss: 30:06

Jen Sincero yeah.

Madeline Weiss: 30:08

Yeah.

Madeline Weiss: 30:10

There's one thing she said that stuck with me, which is that when you're about to break through something, all hell breaks loose. Yeah, and what you described, my God.

Madeline Weiss: 30:25

I'm yeah.

Madeline Weiss: 30:26

In spades.

NatNat: 30:27

Yeah, I was like today in the car dealership. I was like I don't even want to be in this situation, yet I'm here and I wanted to cry and be like Natalie's not here and this person, and it was like, okay, I feel that narrative. I understand a bit of that, not a bit that victim mode of that little girl that was traumatized and wasn't seen as a young child. Yet it's like okay. Yet we cannot reject reality. So your emotions are valid. The helplessness feels really yucky.

NatNat: 30:58

Yes, you didn't cause this, and that makes it even more difficult to be in a space that you didn't create because you didn't get in the accident yet. You will lose out on being able to hear the solutions and pivot to what is what is there for you. So you know, when I'm saying all this, it sounds like oh, like it's so much. I've been using these tools for like over a decade, so when I can activate it on real time in certain places, this didn't come overnight. It came with a lot of warrior work of being honest with myself and feeling and understanding the depths of my own nervous system so that I could hold space for other people, so that they can unleash their curiosity and, rather than not validate themselves. Like you know who, whatever you're experiencing is valid and however you're seeing, it is valid. Just remember, though it's not the absolute truth and that's the most difficult thing to you know.

NatNat: 32:06

Allow yourself to process and understand that

Madeline Weiss: 32:09

it is a truth Maybe not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It's a truth. You know, you're talking a lot about confidence, really, and how we get that. And I want to tell you that I had believe it or not, because it's hard to believe I think I had flesh-eating disease yeah right, who gets that? And I was in the hospital for seven weeks. I had 10 trips to the OR and I was in occupational therapy for six months. I was out of work for three months, then I went back part-time. I mean, it was a big you-know-what deal, oh yeah.

Madeline Weiss: 33:00

And so when people talk about confidence, it's not that you know everything. It's a feeling that I have from that, more than anything else, I think, a feeling that, whatever it is, I'll figure it out, like I never had anything like that going on in my life before. Nobody, I know, did either. And people would say to me I don't know how you're doing this. You need to come visit me in the hospital, week after week after week. I don't know how you're doing this. And then they would say it made you so strong. And then I would say, not exactly Because it didn't make me anything, but it forced me to have to dig inside for what is inside of us all, and I had to use it. But I wanted everybody to know this. It's in there, not just me everyone.

NatNat: 34:17

Everyone.

Madeline Weiss: 34:18

And you don't know. And you don't know that until you need to use it. But what builds confidence is when we see ourselves putting one foot in front of the other and doing what needs to be done. And what people forget is that every single one of us has already lived through everything we've ever been through.

NatNat: 34:44

Say that again because some listeners will be lost in that.

Madeline Weiss: 34:49

That's why I paused, because I want that to sink in. I want that to sink in. Every single one of you, every single one of us, has already lived through every single thing we've ever been through, and remembering that it's confidence building. So I feel like now I can do that. What can I do? So, even though I don't wish that on anyone, in a way for me it was that gift that I walk around feeling like bring it on, whatever it is, I'll figure it out. It's not whatever it is, I know how to deal with it. It's not that it's whatever it is, I'll figure it out, I'll take care of it somehow.

Madeline Weiss: 35:47

Who knows?

NatNat: 35:48

Yeah, surrendering, that's the epitone of surrender.

Madeline Weiss: 35:53

I love how you always put everything I say into real nice, plain talk like that.

Madeline Weiss: 35:59

Yeah,

NatNat: 35:59

that's what I've tried. I've worked on refining the language so that it's simple, so that people can really understand. And that I do the deep listening so that when I reflect back and that I do the deep listening, so that when I reflect back it's like I am listening to you. So it captures and it reinforces the connection that we're all connected in.

Madeline Weiss: 36:20

You're very good at that, I feel it.

NatNat: 36:26

Thank you. It's warrior work that I do and building that confidence. And to come back to the strength that people keep telling you, I think what it is that people may be seeing is that you have the courage to be in your vulnerability and not shut down. Yeah, because that was a very vulnerable state to be in.

Madeline Weiss: 36:53

Oh my God, you can't even imagine.

NatNat: 36:56

Well, I had lesions in my brain. I almost died. I was in the hospital for 40 days. So I get a little bit my body completely shut down yeah.

NatNat: 37:05

Yeah, so I'm not flesh eating. I get some of the pain because some of the lesions were in my meninges. They were in my brainstem and in my cerebellum and in my minges. That's scary. Yeah, it was. I understand the helplessness. I understand the physical pain. I understand the learning again how to live and try to figure out how to communicate with your body and not chastise a body that's putting you through all this stuff and it's deep work that goes on internally.

Madeline Weiss: 37:40

I was very tender toward my body. I remember Nice, because they skin grafted from my thigh to my arm after they gouged out all the dead and I remember looking at it and thinking this looks like sushi. But I also thought it was like, and I still remember. I also thought it was like a little baby it was and I was tending it like that Well, I had to, because, yeah, and I was tending it like that Well, I had to, because, yeah, but I wasn't. I could see how somebody could feel, without even realizing it, angry with their body for crapping out on them like that. But I don't remember feeling that. I remember, yeah.

NatNat: 38:35

Because you know, know, anger is protection. So to be vulnerable and be sensitive with it, anger would be that protective emotion that no, no, no, like I, I don't know how to feel this vulnerability and that intimacy and and trusting, trusting in the unknown, trusting in, like people talk about they have faith. They have no idea what really faith is. Faith isn't getting your way. Faith is being able to still have your heart open, no matter where the experience is going, which is very difficult and very challenging. And your heart will close because it needs to protect, because it's overwhelmed and it's a lot of processing. Yet the work is to open it back up, and that's what faith is when you know you're going to experience pain like people think I'm going to pray away and I won't experience pain, and it's like no, that's not what faith is

Madeline Weiss: 39:21

.

NatNat: 39:22

Faith is despite. I will still keep walking, and that is warrior work, especially when you've

NatNat: 39:29

well, for seven weeks. That's like debilitating physical pain that you went through and it's like okay, I can still feel it. You know, yeah, viscerally, your body still kept that memory. It doesn't want to repeat that.

Madeline Weiss: 39:44

I can still feel what it felt like when they brought me out of the recovery room and forgot about me and the pain med wore off. I can still feel it, yeah.

NatNat: 39:57

I still remember when they did a biopsy on my thigh and it was raw so they didn't do any freezing because they said they wanted a clean sample. So they scalpeled three inches of my thigh muscle and I still feel it.

Madeline Weiss: 40:12

I think we just lost all your listeners.

NatNat: 40:18

So in the name of science.

NatNat: 40:19

Science does some wacky things, I tell you. Yet in those experiences, there's a lot of resilience, if you're willing to lean into it. There's a lot of gifts in that that you just shared. I am mindful of time, and so my next question that I want to ask you is I want to bring you into a reflective question. I want to ask you to bring this awareness right now and go back to your 18-year-old self, and if you have three words to tell your 18-year-old self to carry you to the journey of right now, what would those three words be?

Madeline Weiss: 41:04

Can I have five? Yeah, of course I'm just going to non-filter it. Yeah, what popped into my head was you're going to not filter it. What popped into my head was you're going to do great. That was the blur, because at that time I was a mess, it's understandable.

Madeline Weiss: 41:28

You're going through deep grief.

NatNat: 41:30

I was and feeling like an orphan.

Madeline Weiss: 41:32

Yeah, how'd you know's what your

NatNat: 41:37

parents did yeah, parents do, and it's a very uh, the other side of love. We're not really taught about that and until you experience it it's like, oh, this is an abyss that doesn't have any grounding, there's no body to feel yet to navigate in. That it's a sense of like, ooh, what is this place? So it you know to be in the dark and trying to find your way without people mentoring you and giving you guidance. Significant warrior work. Significant warrior work. My next question is what would your past self thank you for?

Madeline Weiss: 42:24

I know what it is. I'm trying to figure out how to articulate it. It's related to what I just said for actually manifesting the potential. That's it. I could have not, of course, but I did, yeah, and I'm grateful.

NatNat: 42:49

I am too. I am too. What would your future self say about fear?

Madeline Weiss: 43:01

I'm giving you everything unfiltered here. My future self would say it was great how I had that licked yeah.

NatNat: 43:13

And now, if curiosity had a voice, what would it say? That licked yeah, all right.

Madeline Weiss: 43:22

And now, if curiosity had a voice, what would it say? Keep on enjoying me.

Madeline Weiss: 43:26

I appreciate you too.

NatNat: 43:27

Okay, so now I know the listeners are like okay, where can I find this wonderful lady? So can you let the listeners know where they can find you and what you have to offer and the titles of your book, because I know visually you showed us, yet you didn't tell us what the titles were.

Madeline Weiss: 43:42

Okay, so the kids book is what's your Story? Building your Best Adventures in School and Life. I just did at the Malcolm X School here in DC. I just did a book club with 10 kids. It was delightful. I love them. They're wonderful and they I made them fill out evaluation forms that they didn't know were comingreat. It's that five steps strategy. I told you. They all go through a process five step strategy for work and life, based on science and stories. So I can make this really easy.

Madeline Weiss: 44:33

On my website you'll see icons for both of those books that take you right to how you can get them. There are also a bunch of other buttons there. So there's a power breathing exercise. It's not even two minutes. So there's a tab that says power breathe and that's a 30 second mindset reset. And next to that, I think, there's a blog tab and there are hundreds of blogs on science and everyday matters like sleep and food and money and all kinds of things. And those are all the chapters in the book the adult book, by the way, too.

Madeline Weiss: 45:19

I have it segmented like that. My favorite is Managing your Mouth, and it's not about food, it's about when to speak and when not to speak. So that's kind of fun. That's kind of fun. There's also a tab for online courses and a tab for a free introductory session. If any of the listeners want to connect with me and talk about themselves in any of these contexts, I would love to hear from you. So it's Madeline Weiss dot com and the spelling is tricky. Are they going to have the spelling from you? So it's madelineweisscom and the spelling is tricky. Are they going to have the spelling from?

Madeline Weiss: 45:57

you, nana.

NatNat: 45:58

Yeah, there'll be a link in the show notes that they can click on, Okay, yeah, well, I want to thank you for you know the alchemy you've done in your life. You've taken some real impurities and you've turned them into gold. Yet you didn't keep that gold for yourself. You're sharing it with others. So thank you for that. You know, listening to the gentle nods within yourself and going in that unknown path and sharing all that you have with others. It's a real delight to be in your, you know, energy field and your experience. So thank you so much

Madeline Weiss: 46:38

Well ditto.

Madeline Weiss: 46:39

You are a gem, so thank you.

NatNat: 46:43

Thank you. Please remember to be kind to yourself.

Madeline Weiss: 46:47

I am.

NatNat: 46:51

Hey, you made it all the way here I, you and your time. If you found value in this conversation, please share it out. If there was somebody that popped into your mind, take action and share it out with them. It possibly may not be them that will benefit. It's that they know somebody that will benefit from listening to this conversation, so please take action and share out the podcast. You can find us on social media on Facebook, instagram and TikTok under Lift One Self, and if you want to inquire about the work that I do and the services that I provide to people, come over on my website, come into a discovery call Liftoneselfcom. Until next time, please remember to be kind and gentle with yourself. You matter.