In this powerful episode of The Daring Well Podcast, Rita sits down with AJ Schneider, founder of Beyond the Green Coaching, to explore the emotional roots of our money habits, the shame many people carry around finances, and the healing required to build a healthier relationship with money.

This conversation goes far beyond budgeting and dollars — it’s about emotional wellness, nervous system patterns, self-trust, and rewriting long-held money stories.

AJ breaks down why people continue living paycheck to paycheck, how money mirrors our unprocessed emotions, and why survival mode feels familiar even when it’s exhausting. She also offers practical mindset tools and emotional antidotes to shame, fear, and guilt around finances.

Whether you're healing from money trauma, trying to break generational patterns, or learning how to manage your emotions around spending, this episode will help you build financial confidence with compassion and clarity.

1. Money Is Emotional — Not Mathematical

AJ explains why most people don’t have money issues because of math — they have emotional patterns rooted in stress, loneliness, burnout, or coping. This reframes financial struggles through a therapeutic lens and invites listeners into self-compassion.

2. The Paycheck-to-Paycheck Comfort Zone

AJ shares why survival mode feels familiar and why people unconsciously stay in financial chaos. This segment expands awareness around nervous system conditioning and scarcity mindsets.

3. Meeting Your 80-Year-Old Self

A powerful visualization where AJ encourages listeners to imagine their future self sitting at the decision-making table. This moment helps listeners shift into long-term thinking, purpose, and intentional financial behavior.

4. Shame, Fear & Guilt — The Three Barriers to Financial Wellness

AJ breaks down emotional blocks and their antidotes:

• Shame → Acknowledgment
• Fear → Trust & Surrender
• Guilt → Acceptance & Forgiveness
  This segment blends mental health with money management beautifully.

5. A Simple Daily Step: Track Your Emotions When You Spend

AJ offers a practical starter exercise to understand your spending habits by noticing the emotion behind each purchase. High-impact, simple, and transformational.

Explore coaching, programs, and resources at:
https://www.beyondthegreencoaching.com

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Follow us on social media:
@DaringWell

Are you looking for ways to feel more calm and happy? Do you want more stress management tools and techniques? Sign up to get on the email list to get more details for our upcoming wellness retreat (in-person and online).
https://www.daringwell.com/retreat

For free wellness resources. Click the link to tap into new ways to reset with mindfulness, holistic wellness tips, and coping skills.
https://www.daringwell.com/freebies

Guest: Kat Anselmo – Health Coach, Yoga Teacher, Wellness Guide

In this week's episode of The Daring Well Podcast, Rita Mercer sits down with wellness coach and yoga teacher Kat Anselmo to explore how small daily practices—like movement, mindfulness, intention setting, and self-reflection—can completely transform your mental and emotional wellbeing.

Kat shares her deeply personal healing journey, the moment she realized that life can shift in an instant, and how she rebuilt herself through consistent movement, meditation, and radical self-honesty. You’ll learn mindset tools, wellness habits, and practical strategies you can start today to build confidence, reduce stress, and reconnect with your true self.

Kat’s Story: Healing, Heartbreak & the Turning Point

Kat shares how her wellness journey began when her boyfriend became ill and yoga unexpectedly became a lifeline. Years later, during her own season of heartbreak, she turned back to those tools and rebuilt her life.

The Power of 10 Minutes: Why Tiny Habits Create Big Change

Kat explains why movement is the foundation of wellness and how her simple “10 minutes a day” rule helped her shift from feeling lost to feeling empowered.

Self-Love & Identity: The Root of Real Success

A powerful conversation on how loving yourself influences relationships, decision-making, purpose, and emotional clarity. Kat explains why most people know others better than they know themselves.

The Book of Life: Creating a Personal Guide to Inner Success

Kat describes how she built her “Book of Life,” which includes goals, values, affirmations, rituals, and her vision board — a living document she updates each year to stay aligned and focused.

Mindset Strategies: Meditation, Affirmations, Nature & Everyday Wellness

Practical, accessible tools for reducing stress, building confidence, and creating a sustainable wellness lifestyle. Kat shares tips for meditation, journaling, nature healing, self-care, and more.

This episode is a heartfelt guide for anyone feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure where to start on their wellness journey. Kat brings a grounded, compassionate perspective on how movement, mindfulness, and intention can slowly reshape your life from the inside out.

You’ll walk away with tools you can start practicing immediately — 10-minute movements, affirmations, 3-minute meditations, wellness rituals, and journaling prompts — along with the encouragement that healing doesn’t require perfection, only small, consistent steps.

Website: www.katsyoga.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/kat.anselmo/

Send us a text

Follow us on social media:
@DaringWell

Are you looking for ways to feel more calm and happy? Do you want more stress management tools and techniques? Sign up to get on the email list to get more details for our upcoming wellness retreat (in-person and online).
https://www.daringwell.com/retreat

For free wellness resources. Click the link to tap into new ways to reset with mindfulness, holistic wellness tips, and coping skills.
https://www.daringwell.com/freebies

In this powerful episode of The Daring Well Podcast, I had the honor of sitting down with Nikki Allen, award-winning author, filmmaker, R&B artist, and spiritual disruptor. Nikki is candid and opens up about her healing journey from heartbreak and abuse to radical self-awareness, self love, and personal empowerment. Through storytelling and soul work, Nikki shows us that healing isn’t always about going back to who we were — sometimes, it’s about meeting the version of ourselves we've never met before.

From emotional trauma to identity loss, self-worth, and boundary-setting, Nikki takes us behind the scenes of her book Loved You, Hated You and the inner work she calls “soul surgery.” We talk about why women stay, how trauma impacts identity, and how to rebuild life on your own terms.

This episode is full of truth-telling, inspiration, and actionable insight for anyone who has ever felt stuck, silenced, or disconnected from themselves.

• Abuse isn’t always loud — sometimes it hides in kindness and charm.
• Healing requires going deeper than coping skills — we must uncover the root.
• Your frequency attracts your relationships — when you elevate, your circle shifts.
• Boundaries are not selfish — they are sacred acts of self-protection.
• Self-discovery isn’t going back — it’s choosing who you’ll become next.

1. Why Women Stay – Understanding the Patterns
2. Breaking the Charm–Harm–Harm Cycle
3. Soul Surgery – Healing the Root vs. Band-Aid Fixes
4. Boundaries & People Pleasing
5. Identity After Healing – Meeting Your True Self

Website : https://officialnikkiallen.com

Order the Book, https://www.amazon.com/Loved-You-Hated-Nikki-Allen/dp/B0FF2BHB21

(Books, music, filmmaking projects, philanthropy, and more)

Send us a text

Follow us on social media:
@DaringWell

Are you looking for ways to feel more calm and happy? Do you want more stress management tools and techniques? Sign up to get on the email list to get more details for our upcoming wellness retreat (in-person and online).
https://www.daringwell.com/retreat

For free wellness resources. Click the link to tap into new ways to reset with mindfulness, holistic wellness tips, and coping skills.
https://www.daringwell.com/freebies