The Wellness Compass Podcast

What follows is the weekly column that Wellness Compass sends out each week.  The column is a companion to this weekly podcast. You can subsribe to our column at our WellnessCompass.org website.     Are You Seeking Comfort or Solutions? This week, we have a simple yet very effective tip regarding communication in our relationships.  When a person is talking to you about something that is upsetting...

What follows is the column that accompanies this podcast each week. You can find both also at www.wellnesscompass.org .   Listening to Understand Rather Than to Respond Last week, we shared some advice on how to begin unraveling and hopefully resolving conflict in a relationship.  This week, we would like to add one more tip. And while this tip is simple to understand, it can be challenging to pra...

What follows is the weekly column that is a companion to this weekly podcast.  The topics are the same, but sometimes the contenct varies.     Choose Being Kind Over Being Right We are grateful for the many relationship questions our column readers and podcast listeners have sent us recently. A common theme to the challenges people are sharing is that the persons with whom they are in conflict ref...

What follows is the companion weekly column to this podcast, that explores this same topic.   That's a Great Question!   As teachers worldwide establish classroom norms this time of year, it is common to remind students , "There are no bad or wrong questions."  The intention of this is to normalize and encourage the asking of questions because, as  teachers often add, "If one student has a particu...

What follows is the weekly column we email every Friday that is a companion to this weekly podcast. This podcast episode expands on the content of the column.   Loving Speech   We continue to be deeply grateful for the responses from our column readers and podcast listeners. One common wondering, that we have noticed arising in many of the concerns that have been shared, is how to navigate conflic...

  What follows is the weekly column we email every Friday that is a companion to this weekly podcast. This podcast episode expands on the content of the column. As we announced last week in our first column for this "season" (September 2024-May 2025), our focus for this season will be relationships.  Based on the number of responses we got from our column readers and podcast listeners, we know we...

  What follows is the weekly column we email every Friday that is a companion to this weekly podcast. This podcast episode expands on the content of the column.   As the new school year begins, so does a new season for our Weekly Wellness Compass column and podcast. After a summer break, we're excited to embark on another year of exploration and growth with you. For those unfamiliar with our work,...

  What follows is the weekly column we email every Friday that is a companion to this weekly podcast. This podcast episode expands on the content of the column.   Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn We are traveling to Dharamsala, India, next week for a two-week conference on Eastern (Tibetan Buddhist) and Western perspectives on resilience, trauma, and mental health. We are honored to have bee...

  What follows is the weekly column we email every Friday that is a companion to this weekly podcast. This podcast episode expands on the content of the column. We recently stopped by a garage sale in our neighborhood. When talking with the owners, they told us that they have been having a spring garage sale every couple of years ever since they moved into their home some twenty years ago. They sa...

  What follows is the weekly column we email every Friday that is a companion to this weekly podcast. This podcast episode expands on the content of the column.   "The journey to mental health and wellness begins with normalizing the ups and downs, the highs and lows, as essential parts of the human experience." This week I (Holly) had the honor of participating in a Mental Health Resource Fair at...

   What follows is the weekly column we email every Friday that is a companion to this weekly podcast. This podcast episode expands on the content of the column. Knowing When to Push the Pause Button One of our grandsons recently taught us a helpful mindfulness technique he learned in school called "take five." You hold one hand up with your fingers stretched out. With the other hand, beginning wh...

What follows is the weekly column we email every Friday that is a companion to this weekly podcast. You can sign up to receive this column at www. WellnessCompass.org.   Imagine the following exchange between two people who are closely connected.  Person 1: "I have found you to be quite argumentative and defensive recently, and I am feeling hurt by how you habitually respond to me in this way."  ...

  What follows is the weekly column we email every Friday that is a companion to this weekly podcast. You can sign up to receive this column at www. WellnessCompass.org. Practicing Self-Compassion    We are excited to begin a multi-part series on "Practices for Enhancing Our Wellbeing," in which we will explore the practices that we have found to be foundational for wellness, both in our own lives...

What follows is the weekly column we email every Friday that is a companion to this weekly podcast. This podcast episode expands on the content of this column.       One of the joys of this year's college basketball season has been watching Caitlin Clark play for the Iowa Hawkeyes. In a recent game we were watching, the announcer, seemingly running out of superlatives to describe the incredible sk...

What follows is the weekly column we email every Friday that is a companion to this weekly podcast.   This coming week includes St. Patrick's Day and  the Spring Equinox. Wondering how we could connect these two, we remembered that one of our favorite poets, John O'Donohue, who just happens to be Irish, wrote a beautiful piece about the coming of spring.   His words remind us that sometimes change...

What follows is the weekly column we email every Friday that is a companion to this weekly podcast. We recently visited some friends we hadn't seen in quite a while. It was a delight to share memories and catch up on each other's lives. The next day, we agreed that we both wanted to make more time for experiences like that.   The semi-annual ritual of changing our clocks, which we will all engage...

What follows is the weekly column we email every Friday that is a companion to this weekly podcast. With the recent record warmth in Wisconsin we took advantage of the weather and went for a long hike last Saturday. One of the highlights of our walk was pausing on an old wooden bridge to watch the water flowing under our feet. Observing silently for an extended time, we noticed how often our view...

The two of us recently had the opportunity to be guest presenters at classes on wellness coaching at the University of Wisconsin, here in the state capitol of Madison, where we live. We are honored to be working with the university to develop a student peer wellness coaching program that is partially based on the resources we have created.    One of the things we enjoyed discussing with the studen...

Joni Mitchell has always been one of our favorite musicians, so we smiled when, while facilitating our six-week Parent Wellness Circle program, one mom in the group quoted Joni's most well-known song, "Both Sides Now." She was saying how when her kids were young, and she and her partner were overwhelmed with the day-to-day stresses of parenting, they would often dream of the freedom that would com...

Growing Our Relationships   Are you looking for a last-minute Valentine's Day gift for someone special to you? Read on for a recommendation for a gift that will not cost you a penny but will require something else from you instead.   The quote in the box above, "Change is inevitable. Growth is optional," from author John Maxwell, is one of our favorites. Maxwell writes leadership books, so it is n...

People across the United States have been experiencing extreme winter weather lately. There have been tornadoes, heavy rains, bitter cold, ice storms, strong winds, and record snow storms. We know this as we have been running Zoom Wellness Circles lately with people living through all of these different types of weather. We have people from VA, WI, NY, CA, NC, OR, FL, MD, and UT in one we are runn...

F.A.I.L.—A New Mindset   We have been taking Spanish lessons for the last several years. There has been progress occasionally, but more often than not, it has been an ongoing lesson in humility. And as it turns out, this might be the most important lesson of all.   One of the biggest obstacles we have had to overcome is our desire to quickly "get it right." Just as we begin to feel comfortable wit...

We love inspiring quotes. We value them so highly that we invite participants in our six-week Wellness Circle programs to select and share a quote with their group, one that will serve as a guide or a "compass" for the goals they set for themselves in their circle. Some participants turn their quotes into bookmarks or put them on Post-it notes and stick them in places where they will see them regu...

In this first episode of 2024, Holly and Scott share that many New Year's resolutions fail because they are grounded in self-criticism. They then tell us how to ground any desires we have to grow in change in self-compassion.  

One of the greatest gifts we can give to one another during the holidays, or any time of year, is the gift of our presence.  In this episode Holly and Scott share some stories of when they have received the gift of presence and remind us all to be aware and intentional about how we can offer that gift to others.