Last week, we sent you the very first episode of Thriving Humans. Today I want to tell you about what's happened since then.

Episodes two and three are live!

Episode two is called Cycle Breaking, and it's the conversation so many of you have wanted me to have with you for a long time. (Rebecca, how do we break these cycles???) Meredith and I had this one ourselves long before we ever pressed record.

I know that cycle breaking is one of those phrases that gets thrown around a lot, and most of the time it sounds like work you do alone in a therapy office. It ends up feeling mysterious, unattainable. We wanted to talk about what it actually looks like in a real life, in those moments when the patterns you inherited become impossible to ignore. We wanted to talk about the decisions that look small from the outside but are actually a quiet refusal to repeat what came before. That's how most of the best changes really happen.

I tell the story of a book my midwife gave me before my first baby was born. It was a book I was certain I didn't need. I opened it the night before my next appointment so I could politely hand it back, and say it wasn't for me. And then I read the first chapter, and everything I thought I knew about where babies sleep was blown wide open. As a result, the crib we'd already bought ended up being mostly used by the cat. Twenty-seven years later, I still remember the morning my four-month-old scooted across my body, found a bare spot on my arm, blew a raspberry on it, and grinned up at me. That moment is when I knew it was the right choice for me and my baby, no matter what other people were saying.

We talk about how breaking cycles are about first seeing and then understanding what got handed to you, whether you have kids or not. And we name the thing that's true for most of us: the things that didn't happen that needed to, and the things that happened that shouldn't have. That's where cycle breaking actually starts.

Episode three picks up right where two leaves off: what cycle breaking looks like as our kids grow, and what's actually ours to carry. And it's an open invitation and an opportunity to look at what happened for you when you were a child.

Here's where to start: listen to episode 2​

If you had a moment when you realized you were breaking a cycle, hit reply. We're reading.

One more thing.

You'll be hearing more from us this weekend. The next Radical Rest Retreat is happening June 19–21, over summer solstice weekend. It's three days of guided rest, online, with two live community calls, ready-when-you-need them support videos, and group connection options throughout. Registration is opening in the next few days, and we're also putting together a separate option for those of you who want to explore rest whenever you're ready, at your own rhythm.

Watch your inbox. Details to come.

Be curious. Be kind. Start with yourself.

With love,

Rebecca