Circling Back - Stories From The Soul

Telling someone we're proud of them may feel awkward because encouragement was never modelled for us.  And admitting we're wrong can feel like annihilation because somewhere deep inside, a younger part learned that being wrong meant losing love, respect, or belonging.   Get full access to Tariro Mundawarara at tariromundawarara.substack.com/subscribe

And if I could just do enough healing, enough journalling, enough meditation, enough inner work, eventually I'd arrive there. But I never did. Get full access to Tariro Mundawarara at tariromundawarara.substack.com/subscribe

Most of your life, you’ve been leaving yourself. Not physically. But emotionally. When things get hard, you leave. When things get uncomfortable, you override. When things get painful, you distract. The first abandonment and the one that has likely established that deep fear of being abandoned is when you as a child first abandoned yourself. Abandoned yourself to fit in at school Abandoned yoursel...

There’s one relationship in your life that determines the quality of every other relationship. Not your relationship with your partner. Not your relationship with your parents. Not your relationship with your friends. It’s the one you ignore the most. Because the relationship that determines everything else is the relationship you have with yourself. And if that relationship is broken, everything...

There’s a moment that happens when life gets uncomfortable. It doesn’t arrive loudly. It doesn’t announce itself. It’s the moment you leave yourself. You think you’re coping. You think you’re being strong. But what’s really happening is that a part of you—usually a very old, very tired part—is and has been working overtime to keep you safe. That part has been doing this, this role of protector for...

Some conversations don’t need to be loud to be powerful. They don’t arrive with grand statements or dramatic revelations. They land quietly — and then stay with you. This conversation with my friend Adam Gold was one of those. We’ve known each other for over thirty years, and yet sitting down together reminded me that there are always deeper layers to uncover. What stood out wasn’t a single story...

There are seasons in life where nothing feels dramatically wrong — and yet something feels off. Not broken. Just… dulled. Muted. That was me as we moved toward the tail end of 2025.I was doing the things I needed to do. I was “productive”, organised, time-boxing, ticking through my to do list… yet inside I wasn’t smiling as much. I wasn’t breathing as deeply. I was living through boxes, not throug...

Some conversations don’t just give you insight — they give you language for things you’ve felt your entire life. My conversation with my brother, Tatenda, was one of those. We sat down intending to talk about hospitality, entrepreneurship, and the restaurant he now co-owns in Beaune in central France And yes, we spoke about all of that — the years in Switzerland, the job disappointments because he...

Sometimes, it’s the smallest practices that open the biggest doors. This one began almost by accident. I was about to send a friend a message—to schedule a catch-up, as we all do—and something in me caused me to stop. I thought, what happened to just calling people? So I did. And that one call reminded me of something I’d forgotten: connection isn’t meant to be scheduled. It’s meant to be felt. Th...

Boredom. That slow, empty space that sits between the noise. The space that has spawned a multi-billion-dollar industry to enable us to avoid it. We call it distraction. We call it productivity. But really, it’s avoidance. I used to run from boredom too. That awkward stillness, that hum of nothingness that makes you fidget and reach for your phone. It feels like nothing’s happening—yet that’s exac...

This week was… interesting. Not chaotic, not catastrophic—just quietly revealing. It started off shaky. That kind of inner wobble where you can’t quite put a finger on the “why,” you just know something feels off. In the past, a week like that would have sent me spiralling—over-analysing, second-guessing, reaching for distraction. But this time felt different. I stayed with it. I trusted that even...

There’s a certain honesty that arrives when we admit to ourselves that we’ve been drifting. When the noise of productivity quietens and the pace slows, we’re left sitting with the question: What happened to my rhythm? That’s where this reflection began. Over the last few months, I’ve felt the push and pull of procrastination—days where ideas swirl but action feels heavy; moments where clarity flic...

There are moments when life asks you to stop. To pause long enough to recognize that you’ve been circling something for years—hovering near it, naming it in pieces, but never quite stepping fully into it. For me, this moment arrived recently, quietly but unmistakably. I’ve spent years moving between labels —coaching, mindfulness, meditating, guiding. Each piece has been true, but none of them, on...

Some conversations are more than interviews—they become mirrors. They invite us to pause, to look inward, and to ask ourselves: What truly matters? My conversation with Wonder Nyabereka is one of those. From the very beginning, when Stories from the Soul was just an idea, his was the name that rose to the surface. And now I know why. Wonder’s story is not only about a career, or even about leaders...

There’s a kind of peace that doesn’t arrive with fireworks. It doesn’t post on LinkedIn. It doesn’t come with applause. It whispers. It softens. It says: you’re allowed to stop performing now. That’s the peace Ale Garnica found—but not before the unraveling. In this episode, Ale and I explore the quiet turning point. The one that doesn’t always look dramatic from the outside, but shifts everything...

Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, wherever you may be, whatever you may be doing, hello! What happens when your identity has been written for you before you've had the chance to write it yourself, when the expectations of tradition, family and career define you, before you even ask yourself, Who am I really? Today's guest, my first guest, Dr. Nadia knows this journey well. A Consultant O...