In Your Right Mind with Monique Rhodes

You are caring for your kids, your parents, your work, and your own grief — and somewhere in that pile, you forgot you were a person too.   This episode is for the women in their forties, fifties, and sixties who are holding more than anyone is acknowledging. The ones who know their mother's medication schedule the way they know their own phone number. The ones who track who needs which form, whic...

If Mother's Day was harder than you expected, and now it's Monday and you're not okay — this episode is for you. Not the catastrophic kind of hard. The quieter kind. The kind that happens when your mother is still here, you maybe even saw her or rang her yesterday, and yet you spent the whole day performing a version of your relationship that felt three inches away from the truth. The kind of hard...

If you are the person everyone calls when they're falling apart — who do you call?   This episode is for the strong ones.   You know who you are. You're the eldest daughter, the friend everyone leans on, the person who keeps the family together, the one who organised the funeral. And you've been wearing that role so long you might not even realise it's a costume.   In this conversation, I want to...

If you've been calling yourself lazy lately, this episode is going to gently change something for you. We've been taught to read exhaustion as a character flaw. Can't get off the couch? Lazy. Can't reply to the message? Lazy. Skipping the workout? Lazy. But what most of us call laziness is actually emotional depletion. They are not the same thing, and treating one like the other is making people s...

If you wake up and immediately start running through a 12-step morning routine — cold plunge, journal, gratitude list, supplements, workout — and somehow still feel anxious before you've even made coffee, this episode is for you. I'm a meditation teacher and I'll tell you something honestly: there are still mornings I wake up anxious before my feet hit the floor. After decades of practice. So if t...

MIT researcher Sherry Turkle found that just placing a silenced phone face down on a table between two people reduces the depth of their conversation and their empathy for each other. In this episode, Monique explores what our phones are actually doing to our happiness baseline, why we reach for them so compulsively, and shares real stories of people who made small changes to their phone habits an...

"Think positive" is the most common advice in self-help. It's also one of the most damaging. In this episode, Monique breaks down the science of why forcing positivity actually makes things worse, what toxic positivity really does to us, and what to do instead. Drawing on her own journey and decades of happiness research, this is the conversation you wish someone had had with you years ago. Ready...

The Surgeon General declared loneliness a public health epidemic. But the advice we keep hearing — "get out more, join a club, be more social" — isn't working. In this episode, Monique explores the crucial difference between isolation and solitude, why introverts experience loneliness differently, and why you don't need more friends. You need deeper ones. Ready to break the cycle for good? If this...

I was mid-song, spotlight on me, when Chuck Berry waved me off the stage — and in two seconds flat, my brain went straight to: it's me, I'm not good enough. In this episode, I share what that moment taught me about why we take things personally and why it has absolutely nothing to do with weakness. I walk you through three practical tools to help you stop letting other people's storms become your...

I spent years trying to override my emotions — pushing past the anxiety, dismissing the anger, powering through the sadness — until I finally stopped and listened to what they were actually trying to tell me. In this episode, I share that turning point and what I discovered about the real purpose of our emotions. Your anxiety isn't a malfunction, your anger isn't a problem, and your sadness isn't...

I spent years looking completely fine on the outside while my nervous system was quietly running on overdrive. No panic attacks, no avoidance — just an endless to-do list, guilt every time I tried to rest, and a body that had been screaming at me for years. In this episode, I walk you through six specific signs of high-functioning anxiety — including the quiet, invisible ones that are so easy to m...

  If you've ever tried to be present and found your mind halfway across the week fifteen seconds later, this episode is for you. Monique explores the real reason presence is so hard — from the brain's default mode network to the way trauma creates hyper-vigilance that looks like awareness but isn't — and shares three gentle doorways back to the here and now. No forcing, no performing. Just coming...

This week on In Your Right Mind, Monique digs into one of the most common sources of unnecessary suffering: worrying about things outside our control. Drawing on her time riding a motorcycle through India, a teaching from the Dalai Lama, and years of working with people on happiness and mental wellbeing, she walks through a practical two-list framework and a three-step process to interrupt the wor...

  This week we're talking about something a lot of people feel but very few say out loud — that hollow, empty feeling that shows up even when your life looks completely fine from the outside. Monique walks through the three real reasons inner emptiness appears, including values misalignment and emotional disconnection, and offers three practical ways to start shifting it. If you've ever felt like...

Does your brain constantly play worst-case movies about things that haven't happened? In this week's teaching video, I break down why your mind does this — it's actually a survival mechanism that's badly misfiring — and share the one technique that helps me stop the spiral. If your brain won't quit playing "what if," this one's for you.  Ready to break the cycle for good? If this episode resonated...

Why do we keep comparing ourselves to other people — even when we know it makes us feel terrible? In this episode, I'm getting into the real reason comparison hurts, and it has nothing to do with what the other person has. We talk about the neuroscience of social comparison, what's actually happening when you scroll through someone's Instagram and feel suddenly hollow, and a simple tool called the...

If you're always tired — even after a full night's sleep — this episode is for you. We're getting into the real reason so many people experience that bone-deep exhaustion that rest just doesn't fix: a nervous system that never got the signal it was safe to stop. I'll also walk you through a simple energy audit you can do today, and tell you about the free Happiness Quiz that can show you exactly w...

If you've ever snapped at someone over something tiny and then stood there thinking "why did I just do that?" — this episode is for you.   I walk through five signs your nervous system is stuck in overdrive: overreacting to small things, the "wired but tired" paradox, brain fog, unconscious body tension, and the one almost nobody talks about — losing the ability to feel genuinely good.   I share m...

There's a number inside you that determines how happy you are — and most people go their entire lives without knowing it exists.   In today's episode, I explain what your happiness baseline is, why it keeps pulling you back to the same level no matter what happens in your life, and why that's actually the best news you've heard in a while.   I walk through the famous 1978 study on lottery winners...

"I tried to meditate, but I can't do it — my mind won't shut up."   It's the number one thing people say to me. And after twenty years of teaching meditation at more than seventy universities around the world, I can tell you: it's based on a complete misunderstanding of what meditation actually is.   In today's episode, I break down why your busy mind is not a sign of failure — it's the raw materi...

Perfectionism is the most socially acceptable form of anxiety — and most of us have been wearing it like a badge of honour without realising the cost. In today's episode, I'm breaking down the psychology behind perfectionism, the direct link to anxiety and procrastination that most people miss, and the shift from perfectionism to excellence that actually makes you feel better. If you've ever felt...

It's 11pm, you're exhausted, and your brain is wide awake running through everything. Sound familiar? In today's episode we're diving into brand new science that explains exactly why some brains can't switch off at night — and it's not a willpower problem. I'm sharing what's actually happening neurologically, and three things that are genuinely backed by research to help you finally rest. Ready to...

If you've ever said yes when you meant no, apologised for things that weren't your fault, or shaped yourself around other people's moods without even realising it — this episode is for you. Today we're talking about people pleasing: what it actually is, where it comes from, and what it's quietly costing you every single day. This one might change the way you see yourself. Ready to break the cycle...

Something is missing. You can feel it. You just can't name it. It's not burnout. It's not ingratitude. It's not a productivity problem. It's a meaning problem. And it's affecting more people right now than at any other point in modern history — including the ones who look like they have it all figured out. In this episode, we get into what meaning actually is, why the way most of us are living is...

There is a conversation happening inside your head right now. You didn't start it. You don't control it. And it is making every major decision in your life. Most people spend years chasing better circumstances — better jobs, better relationships, better results — without ever looking at the one thing underneath all of it. The story. The loop that's been running since childhood, quietly telling you...