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What if the patterns you’ve been trying to “fix” the over giving, the overthinking, the holding on too tightly, were never flaws at all, but intelligent survival strategies shaped by the nervous system itself?

In this powerful episode of Manders Mindset, host Amanda Russo sits down with emotional healing specialist and Lift Oneself founder Natalie “NatNat” Bedard for a grounded and deeply revealing conversation about trauma, embodiment, nervous system safety, and the hidden motivations behind the choices we make. From surviving childhood trauma and life-threatening brain lesions to rediscovering her own emotional and somatic truth, Natalie shares how she returned home to herself and how listeners can begin doing the same.

Together, Amanda and Natalie explore why mindset work alone can’t carry you through every challenge, how the body stores what the mind tries to outrun, and why overgiving or “proving a point” often stems from fear rather than empowerment. The two also share an unplanned breakthrough moment as Natalie gently reflects a long-standing survival pattern Amanda didn’t realize she was still holding. It’s raw, honest, and deeply human.

This episode also marks a meaningful seasonal pause: Amanda announces that Manders Mindset will be taking the month of December off to rest, reset, and integrate after a transformative year, a reminder that pausing is powerful and allowed.

💡 In this episode, listeners will discover:

🧠 Why the nervous system operates to protect, not sabotage
💔 How early trauma and emotional neglect shape identity, resilience, and coping
🧬 Natalie’s near-death health crisis and how somatic work became her lifeline
🌀 Why you can’t “mindset” your way through everything and where the body takes the lead
💸 The connection between overgiving, self-worth, and fear of abundance
💃 Regulation tools like dancing, humming, breathing, and sensory shifts
🪞 A new way to understand shame, forgiveness, and emotional data
📖 Why rewriting your story around relationships, purpose, and identity...is both valid and necessary
🕊️ And why Amanda is modeling the importance of rest by pausing new episodes in December

⏰ Timeline Summary

[2:15] Natalie opens with a grounding mindful moment to drop listeners into presence
[4:58] Amanda recounts how the podcast began and how breathwork unlocked her voice
[7:37] Exploring fear, abundance, and the deeper wounds
[10:33] Why mindset alone isn’t enough, the nervous system’s role in real transformation
[19:15] Natalie shares who she is at her core: compassion, pain, and embodied presence
[20:50] Her childhood story: nature, trauma, emotional absence, and early motherhood
[27:12] How meditation and somatic work helped her release stored trauma
[31:17] Why dancing, humming, and movement can shift emotional states instantly
[39:20] Shame, forgiveness, emotional honesty, and understanding the body’s signals
[45:22] Marriage, societal pressure, and redefining partnership on your own terms
[58:05] A real-time breakthrough as Natalie highlights one of Amanda’s survival patterns
[1:02:00] Amanda feels the shift as she realizes what she was never meant to carry
[1:11:11] Final reminders about following the body’s wisdom

To Connect with Amanda:

Schedule a 1:1 Virtual Breathwork Session HERE

📸 Instagram: @thebreathinggoddess

Follow & Support the Podcast:
📱Instagram: @MandersMindset

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What if the key to fighting hate wasn’t politics or arguments online, but one courageous story that makes you feel what’s at stake?

In this powerful episode, Amanda is joined by guest, Dr. Robert J. Wolf, retired radiologist and author of Not a Real Enemy: The True Story of a Hungarian Jewish Man’s Fight for Freedom. Robert shares his father’s miraculous survival as a Jewish man in Nazi and Communist-controlled Hungary, his family’s multiple escapes, and how those 20 “impossible” miracles eventually led to a new life and medical career in America.

Amanda and Robert explore how his decades in medicine, a near-fatal health scare, and the discovery of his parents’ manuscript shifted his own mindset about purpose, time, and what really matters. Through stories of resilience, integrity, and redemption, Robert shows why antisemitism isn’t just “history", it’s a present danger that affects everyone, and why indifference is never neutral. This conversation is for anyone who wants to understand history on a human level, feel inspired to use their voice, and remember that one story can change how we see the world.

💡 In this episode, listeners will discover:

✡️ How Robert’s parents survived the Holocaust and Hungarian Revolution and rebuilt life in the U.S.
🩺 Why ninth grade and a role model father led him into a 35+ year career in medicine
⏳ How a sudden heart condition forced him to ask, “Do I want to die at a desk or truly live?”
📖 The unbelievable way he found his father’s autobiography and turned it into an award-winning book
🧠 Why indifference is more dangerous than disagreement and how prejudice shows up in subtle ways
🕯️ How teaching Holocaust history and sharing his father’s story became his way of fighting antisemitism
🧱 The core messages of the book: hope, integrity, resilience, and redemption in the face of hate

⏰ Timeline Summary:

[1:03] “I’m just a guy”: who Robert is at his core, his love for sports, food, history, and his mission to fight antisemitism
[2:25] Growing up in Detroit as the child of Holocaust survivors and one of only a few Jewish kids at school
[5:09] The ninth-grade moment that sparked his desire to go into medicine
[7:58] A life-threatening heart condition, being “on the wrong end of the needle,” and rethinking time as the only true commodity
[10:29] Discovering his parents’ manuscript and how he began turning his father’s autobiography into a biography between radiology cases
[12:57] Agents, rejections, and the eventual “bottom of the ninth” acceptance from a Holocaust specialty publisher in Amsterdam
[20:24] Using the book to educate about antisemitism
[22:47] Key themes: hope, determination, fear, resilience, redemption and why kids today are afraid to send their children to school
[24:02] The “20 miracles,” how readers respond to the book, and why some say it should be a movie
[28:47] Why nobody who knew him years ago would have predicted he’d write a Holocaust book and why it was “better late than never”

To Connect with Amanda:

Schedule a 1:1 Virtual Breathwork Session HERE

📸 Instagram: @thebreathinggoddess

Follow & Support the Podcast:
📱Instagram: @MandersMindset
👥 Join the Manders Mindset Facebook Community HERE!

To Connect with Robert:

📖 Not a Real Enemy: The True Story of a Hungarian Jewish Man’s Fight for Freedom
🌐 robertjwolfmd.com

Feedback on the show? Send us a message!

In this short solo episode, I’m sharing a moment from my recent conversation with Laura Bratton, Awoman who became blind as a teenager and learned to anchor herself through her breath.

Talking with her reminded me of something so simple but so profound:

Even when someone can’t use their eyes, they can still come back home to their breath.

It showed me AGAIN just how powerful our breath truly is.

Her full episode on my Breathwork Magic podcast (released Friday) is linked below.

I truly believe this episode will shift your mindset.

When The World Went Dark, The Breath Lit The Way, w/ Laura Bratton:

Listen HERE

Keep breathing.

Keep shifting.

Everything is figureoutable.

To Connect with Amanda:

Schedule a 1:1 Virtual Breathwork Session HERE

~ Sign Up for Virtual Mindful Mindset Mondays HERE

📸 Instagram: @thebreathinggoddess

Follow & Support the Podcast:
📱 Instagram: @MandersMindset
👥 Join the Manders Mindset Facebook Community HERE!