Welcome to Part 3, bestie. We made it.

We spent Part 1 learning to name the lies — the cognitive distortions, the "should" statements, the thought patterns that kept us shrinking. In Part 2, we walked through the fear and started choosing freedom anyway. And now we're here. Adjusting to Center. The part where we stop surviving and start building a life that's actually ours.

This episode opens Part 3 with the question that makes everything else possible: What are you actually building your life around — and is it even yours?

Because here's the thing nobody really says out loud: most of us have been living off-center for a long time. Not because we're weak. But because we were handed a map — by our families, our cultures, our religions, social media, capitalism — before we ever had a chance to learn the territory. And somewhere along the way, we started mistaking that map for the truth.

In this episode, we're talking about what it really means to uproot yourself from the timelines, expectations, and "shoulds" that were never actually yours — and what it looks like to slowly, honestly return to your own center.

In this episode: → What it means to live "off-center" — and why it doesn't always look like chaos → Where societal norms come from: family, culture, religion, capitalism, and the algorithm → How living off-center shows up in your relationships, career, creative work, and daily life → The grief that comes with realizing how long you've been performing someone else's life → How to tell the difference between your actual values and the ones you inherited → What being out of alignment feels like in your body and nervous system → What it looks like to start returning to yourself — even in the smallest ways → 5 things to sit with as you begin uprooting and rebuilding from the inside out → A spiritual layer for those in deconstruction or doing faith-adjacent healing work

You don't have to have it all figured out. You just have to be willing to ask what is actually mine? That question is the beginning of everything.

🎧 New episodes every Monday. Follow and leave a review. It helps more people find the show.

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Website: www.adjustingpod.com

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Disclaimer: Adjusting Podcast is NOT a substitute for professional diagnosis or treatment.

You're not who you were. And you're not yet who you're becoming. So who are you right now? You're in the in-between — and in this series finale, we're giving that space the love letter it deserves.

We close out Season 3: From Fear to Freedom by exploring what it actually means to be a work in progress, and why our culture has convinced us that "unfinished" is the same thing as "broken." In this episode, we talk about why we rush to feel healed, done, and arrived and what that rushing costs us in our relationships, our creative work, our healing, and our daily lives. We sit with the grief that comes with identity in transition, connect it to the nervous system and childhood roots, and explore what it might feel like to stop apologizing for still becoming.

We cover:

• Why "in progress" feels shameful and where that belief comes from
• The nervous system's role in our need for certainty
• How this shows up in healing, faith deconstruction, creative work, and relationships
• What self-compassion actually sounds like in real time (not the vague, inspirational kind)
• What safety feels like in your body when you stop rushing your own becoming
• 5 things to carry with you as you give yourself permission to still be figuring it out

This episode ties together everything from this season, cognitive distortions, fear vs. intuition, living in the grey, curiosity, small steps, and the question we've been sitting with all season: what if it all works out?

Spoiler: it already might be.

This is the season finale, and it's meant to feel like a full-circle moment; warm, reflective, and a little like a love letter to every version of you that showed up this season, even the unfinished ones.

Episode Mantra: "I am not who I was, and I don't have to be who I'll become, not yet. I am allowed to be in progress, and that is enough."

Next week, we're going back to our regular programming — and we're starting with Adjusting Your Center. Subscribe so you don't miss it.

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Website: www.adjustingpod.com

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Guest/Topic submissions: adjustingpod@gmail.com

Disclaimer: Adjusting Podcast is NOT a substitute for professional diagnosis or treatment.

This is the one everything has been building toward, bestie.

All season we've been sitting with fear — where it lives in the body, where it started, how it shapes the way we love, create, and heal. Today we're asking the question that started it all: what if it all works out? Not as a cute affirmation. Not as toxic positivity. As a real, deliberate, daily practice of choosing possibility even when fear is still in the room.

In this episode we're talking about why your brain is wired to expect the worst — and how some of that isn't just personal, it's generational. We're pulling from Ta-Nehisi Coates's The Water Dancer and Dr. Mariel Buqué's Break the Cycle to talk about inherited narratives, ancestral hypervigilance, and what it actually means to heal not just for yourself — but for everyone who came before you and everyone who comes after.

We're also getting into what possibility thinking feels like in the body, how to hold fear and hope at the same time without dismissing either, and five things to sit with as you start living like it could all work out.

This episode is warm. It's expansive. And it's yours.

If this episode found you at the right time, follow the show and leave a review — it means more than you know and it helps this conversation find the people who need it most.

Let’s Connect!

Website: www.adjustingpod.com

Social Media: @adjustingpod on Instagram | Facebook | Youtube | TikTok

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adjusting-podcast/id1748188929

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Guest/Topic submissions: adjustingpod@gmail.com

Disclaimer: Adjusting Podcast is NOT a substitute for professional diagnosis or treatment.

Let's be honest, avoidance rarely looks like hiding under the covers. Most of the time it looks like staying busy, saying "I'm not ready yet," keeping your distance in relationships, not having the conversation, and never quite letting yourself explore what else might be possible for your life. And here's the thing nobody says out loud: avoidance isn't the opposite of settling. It is settling. Just with more sophisticated excuses.

In this episode, we're getting into all of it: what avoidance actually is, how it shows up in your relationships, creative work, community, and daily life, and why the cost of staying frozen is so much higher than we want to admit. We're also talking about what it means to live a purposeful life and why you genuinely cannot afford to let fear be in charge of how you use your time and your gifts.

In this episode:

• What avoidance actually is — and why it's not laziness or weakness
• How fear keeps you frozen and what that really looks like in everyday life
• Why avoidance of conversations, community, and new possibilities is avoidance of hope
• How avoidance quietly becomes settling — and what that's costing you
• Why you have one life and your gifts were never just for you
• The difference between courage and confidence (and why you don't need to feel ready)
• What your nervous system needs before you can take the next step
• Six things to consider as you start moving toward the scary thing — one small step at a time

You don't need a big breakthrough. You don't need to feel ready. You just need to be willing. This episode is going to feel like a diary entry — and that's completely on purpose.

🎧 New episodes every Monday! Follow so you never miss one.

Let’s Connect!

Website: www.adjustingpod.com

Social Media: @adjustingpod on Instagram | Facebook | Youtube | TikTok

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adjusting-podcast/id1748188929

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4Lyu594jw5luH1rujNcTZZ?si=386a7e7728f5461b

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Guest/Topic submissions: adjustingpod@gmail.com

Disclaimer: Adjusting Podcast is NOT a substitute for professional diagnosis or treatment.

What if the most powerful thing you could do when fear shows up… is just get curious?

In this episode, we're trading "what if it goes wrong" for "I wonder what this will teach me" — and exploring why that shift is so much harder than it sounds. Curiosity isn't toxic positivity. It's a deliberate, nervous-system-level practice that can change the way you move through fear, relationships, creative work, and healing.

We're getting into:

• Why fear closes us down and curiosity opens us up — and what that actually looks like in your daily life
• How shame — especially around sexuality and desire — shuts curiosity down at the root
• The body-based difference between anxiety and curiosity (polyvagal theory, but make it relatable)
• How to shift from what if to I wonder in real time
• The connection between curiosity and self-compassion — including insights from Dr. Thema Bryant's Homecoming
• What it means to get curious about yourself after religious trauma or spiritual deconstruction

This one is going to feel like your journal entry come to life, bestie. Settle in.

Adjusting is a podcast for creatives, everyday people, and those healing from trauma and relationships who are learning to live with less fear and more freedom.

Season 3, Part 2 Series: From Fear to Freedom — What If It All Works Out?

Let’s Connect!

Website: www.adjustingpod.com

Social Media: @adjustingpod on Instagram | Facebook | Youtube | TikTok

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adjusting-podcast/id1748188929

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4Lyu594jw5luH1rujNcTZZ?si=386a7e7728f5461b

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Guest/Topic submissions: adjustingpod@gmail.com

Disclaimer: Adjusting Podcast is NOT a substitute for professional diagnosis or treatment.

Most of us aren't just afraid of bad things happening, we're afraid of not knowing. In this episode we explore what it actually means to live in the grey, why certainty feels so necessary and what it costs us when we demand it, and how black and white thinking keeps us stuck in our relationships, our creative work, and our healing journey.

We talk about how to expand your tolerance for uncertainty, what the body does when ambiguity feels like a threat, the connection between trust and the unknown, and the spiritual roots of certainty-seeking including what faith actually says about living without all the answers. Plus five things to consider as you start making peace with the in-between.

If you've been waiting for everything to feel certain before you move forward, this episode is going to meet you right where you are.

Let’s Connect!

Website: www.adjustingpod.com

Social Media: @adjustingpod on Instagram | Facebook | Youtube | TikTok

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adjusting-podcast/id1748188929

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4Lyu594jw5luH1rujNcTZZ?si=386a7e7728f5461b

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Substack Channel: https://justingnelson.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips

Guest/Topic submissions: adjustingpod@gmail.com

Disclaimer: Adjusting Podcast is NOT a substitute for professional diagnosis or treatment.

How do you know when your anxiety is lying to you and when your gut is actually telling you the truth? In this episode we kick off the second phase of Season 3 with the series, From Fear to Freedom: What If It All Works Out?. We begin by exploring one of the most important distinctions in your healing journey: the difference between fear and intuition.

We talk about what it means to live from scarcity vs abundance, why so many of us learned fear-based thinking as children, how fear and intuition feel different in the body, and the spiritual roots of fear-based living including what scripture says about abundance and overflow. Plus five things to consider as you start making decisions from freedom instead of fear.

If you've been waiting for the part where the healing actually starts to feel like freedom, WHOOP there it is!

Let’s Connect!

Website: www.adjustingpod.com

Social Media: @adjustingpod on Instagram | Facebook | Youtube | TikTok

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adjusting-podcast/id1748188929

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4Lyu594jw5luH1rujNcTZZ?si=386a7e7728f5461b

Amazon Music/Audible: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7863b34c-b85c-4f67-8044-10dd08cfb660/adjusting-podcast

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AdjustingPodcast

Substack Channel: https://justingnelson.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips

Guest/Topic submissions: adjustingpod@gmail.com

Disclaimer: Adjusting Podcast is NOT a substitute for professional diagnosis or treatment.

We're closing out the season with the one that started it all — the quiet rulebook most of us have been living by without realizing it. Should/Must Statements are the cognitive distortion underneath almost every other pattern we've covered this season, and today we're getting into all of it: why getting back to a routine after a gap feels so hard, the guilt spiral that follows every canceled plan, how hustle culture weaponizes your own standards against you, and why boundaries feel impossible when your whole mindset is built around "I must." If you've been trying to rebuild — your health, your business, your sense of self — this one is for you. We're addressing where this pattern lives, adjusting with actual grace (not the platitude version), and applying real tools you can use starting today.

Topics covered: cognitive distortions, Should/Must Statements, rebuilding routines, entrepreneur burnout, guilt and shame cycles, boundaries, unspoken expectations, healing with grace.

Let’s Connect!

Website: www.adjustingpod.com

Social Media: @adjustingpod on Instagram | Facebook | Youtube | TikTok

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adjusting-podcast/id1748188929

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4Lyu594jw5luH1rujNcTZZ?si=386a7e7728f5461b

Amazon Music/Audible: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7863b34c-b85c-4f67-8044-10dd08cfb660/adjusting-podcast

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AdjustingPodcast

Substack Channel: https://justingnelson.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips

Guest/Topic submissions: adjustingpod@gmail.com

Disclaimer: Adjusting Podcast is NOT a substitute for professional diagnosis or treatment.