Life Happens with Barb & Michelle

Comparison is the one emotion everybody feels and nobody admits to — and Barb Schmidt and Michelle Maros of Life Happens with Barb & Michelle were scared to record this episode for a reason. In this raw, unfiltered conversation, they unpack the jealousy, resentment, and quiet self-destruction that comparison leaves behind — and make a case that might surprise you by the end.
From Michelle comparing her book sales to her friends' mid-tour, to Barb owning up to something she projected onto Michelle for years, this episode goes places most podcast conversations never do. If you've ever felt something ugly creep in while watching someone else win — and then felt ashamed of it — this one is for you.
What you'll take away:
Why 85% of your daily thoughts are negative — and how comparison supercharges the loop
How jealousy and envy are signals, not character flaws — and what they're actually pointing to
The self-talk method for catching comparison before it turns into resentment
Why "be better than yesterday" might be quietly doing more damage than good
How to let comparison fuel action instead of shame

Don't risk letting comparison keep stealing your joy without ever asking what it was trying to tell you. Learn how to read it instead.
Episode Breakdown ⬇️
0:00 Introduction
0:36 Where Does Comparison Come From?
0:52 The Science of Negative Thinking
7:07 Barb's Personal Story: Childhood & Comparison
9:19 Comparing Yourself to Yourself
11:23 Comparison, Jealousy & Envy
25:09 Michelle's Story: Visiting a Friend's Family
28:22 Self-Talk as the Key Tool
39:17 Can Comparison Actually Be Helpful?
40:50 Takeaways & Closing

💬 We’d love to hear from you! What insight or moment resonated most with you in this episode? Share in the comments—we truly read every one.
📅 Subscribe & Join Us Next Tuesday for another heartfelt episode of Life Happens with Barb and Michelle! 💕
🎙️ Host by:
https://www.instagram.com/peaceful_barb/
https://www.instagram.com/michellemaros/
Join our community⬇️
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@LifeHappensThePodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifehappensthepodcast/
Substack: https://lifehappensthepodcast.substack.com/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifehappensthepodcast

Listen to our podcast anywhere→ https://michellemaros.com/podcast/ 
🎙️ New episodes of Life Happens with Barb and Michelle are released every Tuesday

✨ Available Now✨ Order Dear Friend to receive daily doses of clarity, hope, and heartfelt encouragement.💌 https://amzn.to/3Us9eqg
📘 Go Deeper with Dear Friend
If this episode resonated with you, you may also love Michelle’s USA TODAY bestselling book, Dear Friend, a daily reflection companion designed to help you reconnect with your inner voice, honor your needs, and find clarity and strength one day at a time.
Because resilience doesn’t begin with changing your circumstances.
It begins with strengthening your relationship with yourself.
And that may be the most important relationship you’ll ever build.
👉 Order your copy: https://amzn.to/3Us9eqg
🎧 Listen to the audiobook and step into a year that truly loves you back: https://amzn.to/459zSdt

Our Sponsors:
* Check out Time4Learning: https://www.time4learning.com

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You've read the books. You've tried the meditation. You've done the journaling, the breathwork, the therapy. So why do you still feel stuck?
In this episode of Life Happens with Barb & Michelle, master well-being educator Devi Brown joins the conversation for one of the most honest discussions about healing we've ever had. Devi spent years teaching wellness to athletes, executives, and thousands of students through her Deeply Well podcast and her work at Chopra Global. Then her own life fell apart... and she discovered that everything she'd been teaching wasn't enough to save her.
What she built from that breaking point became her book Living in Wisdom... a completely different approach to healing that doesn't start with fixing yourself. It starts with being brave enough to actually meet yourself. This conversation goes beyond surface-level wellness and into the real, messy, uncomfortable process of becoming whole.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- Why "doing the work" can still leave you stuck... and what's actually missing
- The difference between surface-level wellness and true well-being
- What "Complex Lived Experience" means and why it changes how you think about your pain
- Why Devi's 8-step healing process starts with grief, not gratitude
- What it looks like to live in wisdom on an ordinary Tuesday... not just during a retreat
If you've ever felt like you're doing everything right and still not feeling better... this episode is going to change how you think about the entire journey. Devi's book Living in Wisdom is available now in paperback (as of TODAY).

📍0:00 Introduction & Wellness Industry Overview
1:11 Welcoming Devi Brown
2:11 Healer Burnout & Passing the Torch
10:17 Creators, Art & Living for the Work
17:31 Music, Consciousness & Cultural Roots
18:13 Bridging Generations & Staying Curious
26:10 Navigating Uncertainty & The Shift from Hope to Faith
33:36 Freedom After Divorce
39:20 Surface Wellness vs. Real Healing
40:47 The Wellness Industrial Complex
59:38 Truth Telling & The Personal Healing Path
1:05:38 Closing Reflections & Where to Find Devi

Connect: @DeviBrown @DeeplyWellPodcast
Read: "Living in Wisdom" DeviBrown.com Now Available!
Substack: https://substack.com/@devibrown

The Deeply Well Podcast is available on:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3n5hEIV…
Youtube: @devibrownwell-being  

Our Sponsors:
* Check out Time4Learning: https://www.time4learning.com

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Living with someone you love is supposed to be easy — until it isn't. In this episode of Life Happens with Barb & Michelle, hosts Barb Schmidt and Michelle Maros pull back the curtain on the two years they spent living together after a sudden condo flood turned a two-week crash pad into an unplanned life arrangement. What started as a temporary inconvenience became one of the most challenging — and unexpectedly transformative — seasons of their relationship.
From laundry wars to a 20-year high school reunion that felt like stepping back in time, Barb and Michelle get honest about the moments that nearly broke them and the practices that kept them together. This conversation is for anyone who has ever loved someone deeply and still needed serious space from them.
What you'll take away:
Why trying to control small things (like dryer settings) is almost never actually about the small thing
How to survive cohabitation with someone you love without losing the relationship
The real emotion hiding underneath anger — and how to get to it
Why your role as a parent fundamentally shifts when your adult child moves back in
A practical starting point for building self-awareness through journaling and reflection
Don't risk letting conflict quietly damage a relationship you can't afford to lose. Learn how to find the baseline of love — even when you want to pull your hair out.

Episode Breakdown ⬇️
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:34 - Moving In
00:07:38 - Early Adjustment
00:09:00 - Tension Builds
00:14:06 - The Laundry Wars
00:21:16 - Learning to Pause
00:25:08 - Finding the Lessons
00:39:40 - Love Coexists
00:41:35 - Parent Role Shifts
00:43:50 - Closing Wisdom
💬 We’d love to hear from you! What insight or moment resonated most with you in this episode? Share in the comments—we truly read every one.
📅 Subscribe & Join Us Next Tuesday for another heartfelt episode of Life Happens with Barb and Michelle! 💕
🎙️ Host by:
https://www.instagram.com/peaceful_barb/
https://www.instagram.com/michellemaros/
Join our community⬇️
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@LifeHappensThePodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifehappensthepodcast/
Substack: https://lifehappensthepodcast.substack.com/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifehappensthepodcast

Listen to our podcast anywhere→ https://michellemaros.com/podcast/ 
🎙️ New episodes of Life Happens with Barb and Michelle are released every Tuesday

✨ Available Now✨ Order Dear Friend to receive daily doses of clarity, hope, and heartfelt encouragement.💌 https://amzn.to/3Us9eqg
📘 Go Deeper with Dear Friend
If this episode resonated with you, you may also love Michelle’s USA TODAY bestselling book, Dear Friend, a daily reflection companion designed to help you reconnect with your inner voice, honor your needs, and find clarity and strength one day at a time.
Because resilience doesn’t begin with changing your circumstances.
It begins with strengthening your relationship with yourself.
And that may be the most important relationship you’ll ever build.

👉 Order your copy: https://amzn.to/3Us9eqg
🎧 Listen to the audiobook and step into a year that truly loves you back: https://amzn.to/459zSdt

Our Sponsors:
* Check out Time4Learning: https://www.time4learning.com

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

What if the thing you've been told will set you free is actually keeping you stuck? What if forgiveness isn't even the goal?
In this episode of Life Happens with Barb & Michelle, our hosts challenge everything we've been taught about forgiveness. Not the textbook version we learned as kids, but the real, messy, evolving kind that shows up after serious trauma, toxic relationships, and years of bypassed emotions. This is a raw conversation about what happens when you stop forcing yourself to forgive and start focusing on what you actually feel.
💬 Barb opens up about replacing forgiveness with acceptance after her divorce, her history of sexual abuse, and why at 69 years old she's done pressuring herself to forgive people who caused real harm.
💬 Michelle gets vulnerable about being a self-described "sucker" who forgave a major trauma too quickly because the person said the right words, and how she's learning to sit with her own feelings before letting anyone else influence her process.
✨ In This Episode, We Discuss:
Why Barb swapped the word "forgiveness" for "acceptance" and how that shift changed everything
The danger of forgiving too quickly and bypassing the emotions that actually need to be felt
Michelle's experience of forgiving a severe trauma as a kid because the person said all the right things, only to realize decades later she'd never actually processed it
How other people's apologies and influence can cloud what you truly feel and need
Why taking accountability doesn't mean someone gets a pass or gets let back in
The connection between premature forgiveness and the inability to set boundaries later in life
Nedra Glover Tawwab's quote on forgiveness and releasing the power harm has over you

"I don't wanna wait that long. And also, is that really even the goal?"
If you've ever felt the pressure to forgive before you were ready, or wondered if forgiveness is even what you need right now, this episode is going to feel like permission to breathe. Barb and Michelle aren't here to tell you what to do. They're here to sit with you in the mess and remind you that healing doesn't have a deadline. Come listen.
📘 Go Deeper with Dear Friend
If this episode on Forgiveness and Acceptance resonated with you, you may also love Michelle’s USA TODAY bestselling book, Dear Friend, a daily reflection companion designed to help you reconnect with your inner voice, honor your needs, and find clarity and strength one day at a time.
Because resilience doesn’t begin with changing your circumstances.
It begins with strengthening your relationship with yourself.
And that may be the most important relationship you’ll ever build.

👉 Order your copy: https://amzn.to/3Us9eqg
🎧 Listen to the audiobook and step into a year that truly loves you back: https://amzn.to/459zSdt
Episode Breakdown ⬇️
0:00 – Intro / Teaser clip
0:58 – Welcome & introducing the forgiveness topic
7:18 – Barb shares where she is today with forgiveness (2026)
8:04 – Barb opens up about childhood sexual abuse
10:15 – Is forgiveness even the goal anymore?
18:57 – Why we put the onus on the person who was harmed
23:24 – Should you remove the other person from the equation?
24:44 – The danger of being easily swayed by an apology
25:18 – How being a "sucker" affects your healing process
41:01 – Walking through what actually works: staying in your own essence
46:21 – Closing thoughts: accountability ≠ forgiveness
49:55 – Outro & Nedra Tawwab quote on releasing forgiveness

💬 We’d love to hear from you! What insight or moment resonated most with you in this episode? Share in the comments—we truly read every one.
📅 Subscribe & Join Us Next Tuesday for another heartfelt episode of Life Happens with Barb and Michelle! 💕
🎙️ Host by:
https://www.instagram.com/peaceful_barb/
https://www.instagram.com/michellemaros/
Join our community⬇️
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@LifeHappensThePodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifehappensthepodcast/
Substack: https://lifehappensthepodcast.substack.com/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifehappensthepodcast

Listen to our podcast anywhere→ https://michellemaros.com/podcast/ 
🎙️ New episodes of Life Happens with Barb and Michelle are released every Tuesday

✨ Available Now✨ Order Dear Friend to receive daily doses of clarity, hope, and heartfelt encouragement.💌 https://amzn.to/3Us9eqg

Our Sponsors:
* Check out Time4Learning: https://www.time4learning.com

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Have you ever found out someone you love wasn't telling you the whole truth, and even though it wasn't malicious, something inside you shifted? That quiet crack in trust can change a relationship more than any dramatic betrayal ever could.
In this episode of Life Happens with Barb & Michelle, this mother-daughter duo gets deeply personal about dishonesty. Not the headline-grabbing kind, but the everyday white lies, the withheld truths, the stories we tell ourselves about "protecting" the people we love. From family secrets revealed years later to the small manipulations that slowly erode trust, Barb and Michelle unpack what honesty really costs and what it makes possible.
💬 Barb shares how she navigated telling Michelle about her bulimia, a family affair, and the alcoholism in their lineage, and why she trusted life to present the right timing rather than forcing the conversation.
 💬 Michelle opens up about what it felt like to learn major truths about her family as a young adult, how those revelations triggered a "what else don't I know?" spiral, and why her mom's non-judgmental space made all the difference.
✨ In This Episode, We Discuss:
The difference between withholding truth to protect versus withholding to manipulate and control
How Michelle learned about her dad's affair through a Facebook message years after his death, and how Barb handled the fallout
Why Barb believes "life will present the timing" for hard conversations with your kids
The real damage of small, repeated white lies versus big one-time revelations
How calling someone a "liar" or "gaslighter" can short-circuit a conversation, and what to say instead
Creating a safe space where your child (or anyone) can tell the truth without being punished first
Why trust can be broken in a moment but takes patience and intention to rebuild

"I truly believe the truth will set you free. I become tethered to lies."
Whether you're a parent wondering what to share and when, or someone rebuilding trust after it cracked, this episode will make you feel less alone in the mess of it. Barb and Michelle don't pretend to have perfect answers. They just show you what it looks like to keep choosing honesty, even when it's uncomfortable. Pull up a seat and listen in.
0:00 - Cold Open
0:57 - Welcome to Life Happens with Barb & Michelle
1:15 - Introducing Today's Topic: Truth & Dishonesty
2:12 - Truth Used to Be a Core Value — What Changed?
11:21 - Parent-Child Honesty: When & How to Share Hard Truths
13:45 - The "True Hat" Rule: A Family Trust Agreement
19:41 - Finding Out About Dad's Affair Through Facebook
22:18 - Letting Life Present the Right Moment to Tell the Truth
28:38 - Are White Lies More Harmful Than Big Ones?
29:33 - Work Colleague Story: When White Lies Become Control
34:01 - Lying About Drinking as a Teen & Creating Safe Spaces
41:09 - "Raised by Cave People" — Extending Grace to Our Parents
47:07 - Don't Use "You Are" — Use "I Feel" Language
49:27 - Creating Safe Spaces & Repairing Broken Trust
51:16 - Closing & Thank You

📘 Go Deeper with Dear Friend
If this episode on Dishonesty and Trust resonated with you, you may also love Michelle’s USA TODAY bestselling book, Dear Friend, a daily reflection companion designed to help you reconnect with your inner voice, honor your needs, and find clarity and strength one day at a time.
Because resilience doesn’t begin with changing your circumstances. It begins with strengthening your relationship with yourself.
And that may be the most important relationship you’ll ever build.

👉 Order your copy: https://amzn.to/3Us9eqg
🎧 Listen to the audiobook and step into a year that truly loves you back: https://amzn.to/459zSdt
💬 We’d love to hear from you! What insight or moment resonated most with you in this episode? Share in the comments—we truly read every one.
📅 Subscribe & Join Us Next Tuesday for another heartfelt episode of Life Happens with Barb and Michelle! 💕
🎙️ Hosted by:
https://www.instagram.com/peaceful_barb/
https://www.instagram.com/michellemaros/

Join our community⬇️
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@LifeHappensThePodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifehappensthepodcast/
Substack: https://lifehappensthepodcast.substack.com/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifehappensthepodcast

Listen to our podcast anywhere→ https://michellemaros.com/podcast/ 
🎙️ New episodes of Life Happens with Barb and Michelle are released every Tuesday
✨ Available Now✨ Order Dear Friend to receive daily doses of clarity, hope, and heartfelt encouragement.💌 https://amzn.to/3Us9eqg

Our Sponsors:
* Check out Time4Learning: https://www.time4learning.com

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy