What does resilience actually look like when life is heavy and you're tired of being told to "just push through"?

In this episode, Melie sits down with Eric Davis, combat-decorated U.S. Navy SEAL and author of Raising Men, to talk about a grounded, practical definition of resilience that goes far beyond grit and hustle. Instead of white-knuckling hardship, Eric reframes resilience as maintaining and restoring your capacity to take action—especially in hard seasons like burnout, divorce, grief, or rebuilding.

Together, they explore purpose, passion, rest, habits, and why so many high-achieving people end up exhausted instead of fulfilled.

• Why resilience isn't the same as perseverance

• How to reduce unnecessary damage during stressful seasons

• A simple practice Eric uses when stress won't let go

• The difference between purpose (what you're here to do) and passion (how you do it)

• Why chasing titles and outcomes often leads to burnout

• The role of sleep, rest, and recovery in real resilience

• Why trying to do life alone makes everything harder

• How purpose can become an anchor when your identity feels shaken

• Eric Davis's website

• Free e-book, Habits of Heroes

• Eric's book, Raising Men (Amazon)

• Book recommendation: The Cure for the Common Life by Max Lucado (Amazon)

Resilience isn't about pushing harder. It's about protecting your energy, restoring your capacity, and building a life that can actually hold you—especially when things fall apart.

If this episode resonated, share it with someone who could use a steadier way forward.

Have you ever felt invisible? Even while showing up, engaging, and trying to connect?

In this episode of Diamonds in Dumpster Fires, Melie explores the quiet loneliness of feeling overlooked, forgotten, or ghosted. She talks about why moments like repeated introductions, unanswered texts, and fading connections can hurt so deeply, and why that pain isn't a personal flaw: it's human wiring.

This episode blends personal stories, faith, and neuroscience to unpack:

• Why feeling unseen hits harder than we expect

• What research says about social exclusion and belonging

• How ghosting and disappearing connections affect our nervous system

• Why "reminding people you exist" often costs us more than it gives

• Practical, gentle resilience tools to help you stay grounded and self-respecting

You'll walk away with reassurance, language for what you've been feeling, and simple ways to protect your dignity while still honoring your need for connection.

If you're curious about the science behind why invisibility hurts so much, these studies and summaries are a great place to start:

• The Need-Threat Model of Social Exclusion (Kipling Williams & colleagues)
  Explains how being ignored or excluded threatens core human needs like belonging, self-esteem, and meaning.
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5056179/

• Why Social Rejection Feels So Painful
  Research showing that social exclusion activates distress systems in the brain similar to physical pain.
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4870146/

• Why Remembering Names Is Harder Than We Think
  Research on face–name memory showing how attention and memory systems affect whether we remember people, especially in busy social settings.
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3230827/

• Social Exclusion, Ghosting, and Emotional Distress
  Research exploring how being ignored or cut off without clarity increases rumination and distress.
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5056179/

If this episode resonated with you, consider sharing it with a friend who might need the reminder that they matter — without having to chase visibility.

You can connect with Melie on Instagram at @meliewilliams and share your story there. 💛

Until next time, be well.

January doesn't always feel fresh, clear, or motivating — and if the new year feels heavier than expected, you are not alone.

In this short, grounding episode, Melie offers a compassionate alternative to resolutions, reinvention, and pressure. Instead of goals to achieve, she shares three gentle practices you can carry with you into the new year — especially on days when your energy, clarity, or motivation feels limited.

These practices are designed to support your nervous system, your faith, and your real life — not an idealized version of who you think you should be.

You don't need to do all three. You don't need to do them perfectly. If even one sticks, that is more than enough.

• Why January can feel emotionally heavy — and why that doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong

• How naming your current season can calm your nervous system and reduce self-pressure

• Why small, repeatable "anchors" matter more than big routines

• How gentle honesty creates space for healing without shame or self-criticism

• Why moving forward gently is still meaningful progress

1. Name the Season You're In
2. Choose One Daily Anchor
3. Practice Gentle Honesty

If you want a place to check in, reflect, and receive personalized grounding prompts, Melie briefly shares why she created the Renewed Mind app — a tool designed to support emotional regulation, faith, and nervous system care in real life.
Whether you use the app or not, these practices are available to you right now.

New Year's Eve is often framed as a celebration of fresh starts, big goals, and reinvention. But for many of us, this night feels quieter, heavier, or more complicated than that.

In this episode, Melie offers a gentle New Year's Eve reflection for anyone who didn't "win the year," set big goals, or feel ready for resolutions. Instead of focusing on becoming someone new, we honor something simpler and often overlooked: the courage it takes to stay.

If this past year was about survival rather than thriving, this episode is for you. We talk about endurance, unseen strength, and why simply being "still here" is not a failure, but a profound act of faith and resilience.

You'll be invited into a brief reflective moment to acknowledge what helped you remain when life felt heavy, uncertain, or painful. No pressure. No fixing. Just space to breathe and be honest about what carried you through.

✨ In this episode:

• Why survival years matter just as much as thriving ones

• The quiet courage of endurance and staying present

• A gentle New Year's Eve reflection you can do anywhere

• Releasing the pressure to reinvent yourself

• Why "still here" counts more than you think

If reflective moments like this resonate with you and you'd like personalized support for staying grounded, you can learn more about Renewed Mind at renewedmind.app.

You don't need clarity tonight. You don't need a resolution.
Still here is not a failure.
Still here is faith in motion.

Happy New Year, resilient ones. 💛

Christmas Eve sits in the in-between space. Not the miracle yet. Not the ending. Just the waiting.

In this special Christmas Eve episode, Melie speaks to those who feel stuck in the middle of healing, rebuilding, and figuring things out. If life feels unresolved right now, this message offers gentleness, perspective, and permission to rest without forcing clarity or cheer.

You'll hear reflections on:

• Why waiting seasons feel so uncomfortable

• How uncertainty impacts the nervous system

• Why unfinished does not mean unworthy

• What quiet, realistic hope can look like

• Why being "still becoming" is enough

This episode is for anyone spending the holidays in the middle of the story, trusting that light is coming, even if it hasn't arrived yet.

✨ Mentioned in this episode:
Renewed Mind — a gentle resilience app for seasons that feel uncertain. Learn more at renewedmind.app

What does resilience look like when your body is worn down, your energy is gone, and productivity feels impossible?

In this gentle, honest episode of Diamonds in Dumpster Fires, Melie talks about resilience on sick days. Not the "power through" kind, but the kind that honors your limits, listens to your nervous system, and allows rest without guilt.

Blending neuroscience, faith, and real-life compassion, this episode is for anyone who feels emotionally fragile when they're sick, struggles with guilt around rest, or needs permission to slow down. If you've ever felt like taking a nap meant you were failing at life, this one's for you.

Grab your tea, wrap up in a blanket, and let's redefine what strength really looks like.

• Why being sick often comes with guilt, anxiety, and emotional heaviness

• The neuroscience of sickness, inflammation, and emotional regulation

• How illness impacts your brain, mood, patience, and decision-making

• Why resilience is sometimes about stopping, not pushing harder

• The faith reminder that even Jesus rested and honored His limits

• How to redefine resilience on low-capacity days

• Gentle, practical tools to support your nervous system when you're sick

• Why rest is not falling behind, but part of healing and restoration

• A 3-minute honesty check-in to ground yourself when capacity is low

• Replacing productivity goals with compassion goals

• A simple breath prayer to calm your nervous system

• Choosing one tiny win and letting that be enough

• Why sick days are not the time for big life decisions

Your emotions are louder when you're sick because your brain and body are working hard to heal. That doesn't mean you're weak or failing. It means you're human.

Rest is not quitting.
Rest is not laziness.
Rest is part of resilience.

Renewed Mind – a gentle, faith-informed, neuroscience-guided app designed for real life.
Created for days when you're overwhelmed, emotionally tired, sick, grieving, or simply not operating at full capacity.

Renewed Mind helps you:

• Pause and check in with how you're really doing

• Gently support your nervous system

• Practice resilience without hustle or pressure

Learn more at renewedmind.app

If you're listening to this while sick, run down, or curled up under blankets, hear this:

You are loved.
You are allowed to rest.
You are still resilient.

Even on your weakest days, you are still a diamond.

Today's guest, Lisa Skeffington, is a multi–award-winning psychotherapist, executive coach, and self-esteem expert who has spent more than 25 years helping high-achieving women navigate anxiety, burnout, and hidden emotional wounds.

In this conversation, we talk about:

• What imposter syndrome actually is (and why it's so common for high achievers)

• How high-functioning anxiety hides behind competence, control, and "hustle"

• Why traditional therapy often misses what high-performing women really need

• How childhood pressure, conditional approval, and later "dumpster fire" moments (divorce, loss, layoffs) fuel burnout

• Early warning signs your nervous system is heading toward burnout

• The difference between doing a lot… and doing a lot of what doesn't nourish you

• Practical first steps to start healing, even when you can't just quit your life

Lisa also shares about her coastal escapes on the Dorset coast, her online mentoring, and a free self-esteem quiz to help you understand what might be running in the background of your own story.

• High-functioning anxiety often looks like "drive" and "motivation," which is why so many of us miss it.

• Imposter syndrome isn't about how qualified you are – it's about old narratives you absorbed about your worth.

• Burnout isn't simply doing too much; it's doing too much of what drains you and not enough of what nourishes you.

• Emotional wellbeing doesn't kill your ambition – it fuels better, calmer, more sustainable performance.

• Healing begins when you stop performing and start telling the truth about what you feel and what you need.

• You don't have to choose between being high-functioning and being healthy. The shift is moving from chaos to calm.

• Lisa's Self-Esteem Reality Check Quiz & Resources: welcome.empoweredmomentum.com

• Learn more about Lisa's Empowered Momentum work, coastal escapes, and mentoring via the link above.

This week marks a full year of Diamonds in Dumpster Fires—52 episodes of showing up, telling the truth, and letting God work through the messy middle. Instead of a highlight reel, Melie shares seven lessons this year of podcasting taught her about resilience, creativity, faith, and showing up when life feels anything but polished.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why resilience is built through tiny acts of consistency

• How vulnerability strengthens connection and calms the nervous system

• Why creativity regulates your body and grounds your spirit

• How structure—not motivation—keeps you steady

• Why people connect to your story, not your perfection

• How God uses obedience more than expertise

• Why reflection turns your lived experience into wisdom

Each lesson comes with a simple action step you can use this week to strengthen your own resilience—whether you're building something, healing from something, or stepping into something new with God.

Melie also shares what surprised her most this year, from the power of honest stories to the unexpected joy of interviewing guests. The episode closes with a blessing for your next brave step as we head into 2026.

If this episode encouraged you, share it with a friend or leave a review.
Follow Melie on Instagram: @meliewilliams

Here's to year two—and to all the diamonds still waiting to be discovered.