Betterthinking-Betterliving

Reach Out And Share There’s a sign above my door that says "just breathe, you’ll never live this moment again", and it means something different on a hard day than on a good one. After a few heavier episodes, this one is about hope. I bring together Emily Dickinson, a very dramatic Scarlett O’Hara, and the poster I hung at a Kentucky state job when I was nearly 40 and starting over. Toge...

Reach Out And Share Some things you can’t think your way out of, and a show with “better” in the title twice is exactly where that needs to be said out loud. This one is for anyone moving through the kind of loss nobody really prepares you for, in all its loud and quiet forms, and the grief that refuses to follow a schedule. I make the case that heaviness and peace can live in the same breath, and...

Reach Out And Share Your house is spotless, your inbox is empty, and the one thing that actually matters is still sitting there untouched. Sound familiar? My microphone sat on the desk for weeks before I recorded a single word. Long before that, it was college term papers. I was a creative writer at heart, stuck writing clinical, by-the-book papers that came back with B's no matter how hard I...

Reach Out And Share We've been sold the idea that purpose is a singular thing, a calling with your name on it that you are supposed to find. But, what if that's the story keeping you frozen? In this episode, I unpack the myth of the "one big purpose" and the thing that gets most in the way of seeing your own clearly; comparison.  Not just feeling behind, but the less-talked abo...

Reach Out And Share Some knowing doesn't feel peaceful. It feels like something already happening somewhere ahead of you, and you're not there yet. This episode started with an Instagram post I couldn't stop looking at; a woman in a chair, exhausted, and a caption about a soul screaming. That image cracks open a conversation about the specific ache of wanting something you won'...

Reach Out And Share Dolly Parton died yesterday and I couldn't move on to the episode I had originally planned. This one is about a statement I have carried for years, from a story I can barely remember the details of, and what it means to actually practice it now. How it ties to Dolly and her philosophies.  It's not just a mood, but a decision made every day on purpose, especially when...

Reach Out And Share Emotional Resilience Courage was never about feeling ready. This episode is for anyone who has been waiting for the fear to go away before they make their move and the reframe that might finally get you unstuck.  I share my story of leaving Kentucky with no job waiting, a truck full of belongings, and a house that had not sold yet, and what that experience taught me about which...

Reach Out And Share That question, What Is My Purpose, sounds inspiring until you have to really answer it and then it isn't. For a lot of people navigating life transitions, this question becomes a source of shame, a measuring stick for failure.  I discuss this question and help reframe purpose, not as a singular destination you either find or miss, but as a thread running through every seas...

Reach Out And Share You've done the work, the therapy, the books, the routines and something still feels slightly out of reach. This first episode is an invitation to anyone who is self-aware enough to know they're capable of more, and honest enough to admit they're not quite there yet. Host Tonya Shankle introduces the show through two personal stories about what happens when you s...

Reach Out And Share I have always believed the best conversations happen when people slow down enough to actually listen. Around a porch, over breakfast, in the moments when no one's in a hurry to leave. In this introduction to Better Thinking Better Living., I share how a lifetime of conversations, with my dad, in books, around a family table where didn't want to leave, have led me to s...

Reach Out And Share There are moments…… and maybe you've felt them…. where you look at your life and think: this is fine, but fine isn't enough anymore. I've had those moments too. More than once, honestly. Hi, I'm Tonya Shankle. I'm a therapist, a coach, and I like to refer to myself as a therapist with a journal and a passport. I've navigated my own transitions, don...

There are moments…… and maybe you've felt them…. where you look at your life and think: this is fine, but fine isn't enough anymore. I've had those moments too. More than once, honestly. Hi, I'm Tonya Shankle. I'm a therapist, a coach, and I like to refer to myself as a therapist with a journal and a passport. I've navigated my own transitions, done my own hard work,...