Cardiac Crisis: Thriving through Heart Surgery and Recovery

Happified host Susi Vine explores how empathetic, caring people can stay aware of world events without becoming overwhelmed, burned out, or hopeless. She distinguishes caring - staying aware and taking action toward positive outcomes - from carrying, which includes treating every headline as a personal emergency, and ruminating to the point of overwhelm, even burnout. Susi explores the value of boundaries around attention and news consumption, suggesting small, sustainable actions and the importance of seeking positive moments even in the midst of heavy times. A brief mindfulness exercise invites you to set down what isn’t yours to carry. Inside this episode: 02:03 The Heaviness of Empathy in Difficult Times 05:12 Care Versus Carrying 13:10 When Carrying Is Real 15:44 People Pleasing And Guilt 19:18 Boundaries Around Attention 21:35 Three Guiding Questions 25:10 Small Actions Matter 28:37 Sustain Your Capacity 34:11 Joy And Resilience 38:48 Guided Mindfulness Reset 43:07 Recap And Closing 3 Questions to Check In: Why does this matter to me What is within my power to do today What will help me sustain my capacity to care

Susi Vine welcomes Stavros, founder of Leaf Sweat, to discuss inspiration, staying the course, and honoring the creative process. Stavros recounts his discovery of self-made herbal tea blends to replace energy drinks during intense documentary editing, and how one failed business partnership evolved into a wholesale business from just a suitcase full of samples. From trademark issues to a brand pivot, and trying to balance myriad other artistic expressions, the conversation explores making space for creativity, ego, mindfulness, Zen Buddhism, and Stavros’s goal to bring “make the leaf sweat” to global awareness. For frustrated creatives and entrepreneurial thinkers, this episode pulls back the curtain on fine tuning your unique process and bringing all of You to the product you’re called to create.

Continuing the conversation about people-pleasing and the mental and emotional labor it creates, Susi delves into what happens after you start saying no: feeling guilt, second guessing yourself, even not knowing what you truly want without the influence of others. She invites you to reframe discomfort as an opportunity for self awareness, and understanding that it isn’t your responsibility to make the world easy for everyone else. This week, it’s your turn to accept help, to reconnect with your own feelings and desires, and to make aligned choices from love without carrying the fear of disappointing others. Permission granted!

Host Susi Vine interviews Dr. Gary Sprouse, author of ‘Highway to Your Happy Place: A Roadmap to Less Stress’. Together they explore how stress blindness leaves you susceptible to burnout, the way you can shift your perception with the perspective prism, shares why coping behaviors and even serious addictions can be explained by stress reducer loops. Listen in to discover how you can create your own happy place and untangle the knot of stress and overwhelm so you can feel more confident, capable, and resilient.

Susi asks why protecting a loved one comes easily when many fail to defend their own energy by being overly-agreeable and stretching themselves thin. Exploring the link between people-pleasing, boundaries, self-care, and authentic self-expression, she notes the patterns that arise in childhood to remain through work and family roles, and emphasizes that every “yes” has a cost. With tips to understand the important messages your emotions are carrying and ways to respond with more integrity, she reframes boundaries as stress management tools that support your personal energy and wellbeing.