In this episode of Middle Fingers Up, I sit down with Nisha Mody, the relational and trauma-informed coach known online as Healing Hype Girl. Nisha shares her raw journey from a childhood marked by strict expectations and silenced playfulness to navigating codependency in a marriage to an addict, ultimately choosing divorce, childfree living, and reclaiming her voice. Together, we get into the common struggles of South Asian women—living on autopilot, breaking harmful cycles from family conditioning, and creating new norms rooted in self-worth, boundaries, and joy.

Nisha offers practical insights on unlearning people-pleasing, identifying core values, and fostering interdependence in relationships, while touching on broader themes like global impact post-October 7th, consumerism, and collective healing. Whether you're an overthinker seeking clarity or ready to disrupt patriarchal patterns, Nisha's story and tools will inspire you to meet yourself where you're at and embrace radical self-expression.

Tune in for reflections, actionable advice, and a teaser for part two on patriarchy, misogyny, and modern dating. Follow Nisha on Instagram and TikTok @healinghypegirl for more on her upcoming memoir, coaching programs, and Substack Memoirs of Amnesia. What cycles are you ready to break?

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If you like what you hear please click on "subscribe" or "follow" - It's free and you will get notified when the newest episodes are posted! Check us out on Instagram, X, and YouTube @mfupodcast. Give feedback, middle finger recommendations as well as random thoughts to info@mfupodcast.com. Thank you for listening!

In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, the Métis Nation (Region 3), and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.

Be A Tiger is an episode about what it really means to grow up as a South Asian girl who’s told to be strong… while also being told to stay quiet, stay small, and don’t make anyone uncomfortable.

In this conversation with award-winning author Kelly Kaur, we step into the world of Letters to Singapore through Simran — this young brown girl who is trying to hold herself together as an immigrant student from Singapore to Calgary in the 80's. As if the adjustment as a new comer isn't enough, Simran is also juggling carrying family expectations, culture, patriarchy, and a kind of freedom she wasn’t prepared for.

We talk about that early line her father gives her — “Be a tiger” — and how that message changes as we grow up. What it means to be a tiger as a girl, what it means as a woman, and what it means when you finally start choosing yourself.

And we go into the things we all know but rarely say out loud:
• What it meant in the ’80s to “stand out in front of white people” — and the survival skills coded into that
• What happens when you suddenly have freedom after being raised with none
• How our older women — who were once the bullied ones — can become the gatekeepers
• How patriarchy follows us from our parents’ homes straight into our marriages
• And what today’s immigrant students are actually facing — the racism, the headlines, the sound bites that blame them for everything while erasing the systems exploiting them

This episode is for every woman who grew up in-between… shapeshifting,
for the ones who learned to roar quietly…
and the ones who are setting the example to roar out loud. This episode is also for the brave man who wants to address his misogyny and set an example for the next generation. (We know you are out there )

Support the show

If you like what you hear please click on "subscribe" or "follow" - It's free and you will get notified when the newest episodes are posted! Check us out on Instagram, X, and YouTube @mfupodcast. Give feedback, middle finger recommendations as well as random thoughts to info@mfupodcast.com. Thank you for listening!

In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, the Métis Nation (Region 3), and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.

Before we get into this episode, I want to name something real: there’s a moment in life when grief meets growth. Our guest Shri lived that moment. And today, she’s helping us understand it.

Grief has a way of interrupting your life—
but life never stops interrupting your grief.

My guest today, Shri, knows this intimately.
Within 18 months, she lost her father and sister… all while she was pregnant with her daughter.
Imagine grief and life entering the room at the same time. That collision changed her. It made her choose something most of us avoid:

To stop functioning.
And start truly living.

Before you listen, I want to ask you one thing:

“When was the last time you told yourself the truth about how much you’ve been carrying?”

Sit with that. Because this episode is going to meet you right there.

We talk about the things people don’t say out loud:

*Is it okay that I’m still crying?
* Why do I feel guilty for slowing down?
*Why does grief feel like I’m failing at life? * How do I grieve when I’m a mother, a partner, a daughter — all at once?

Shri and I unpack the myths we inherited — “be strong,” “move on,” “don’t feel too much” — and how they keep us stuck and disconnected from ourselves.
We dive into South Asian conditioning, the guilt that comes with choice and privilege, and the embodied ways grief stays alive in us long after the world thinks we’re “fine.”

Some of Shri’s words you’ll hear:

“Grief is a life force.”
“You already have everything it takes to heal.”
“There is no timeline to grief.”

This episode is your reminder that you’re allowed to be human.
You’re allowed to feel.
You’re allowed to slow down.
And you’re allowed to heal without performing strength for anyone.

If you’ve been running from your grief… let this conversation be the moment you turn toward it — gently, honestly, and maybe for the first time, supported.

Instagram: transforming.through.grief

Support the show

If you like what you hear please click on "subscribe" or "follow" - It's free and you will get notified when the newest episodes are posted! Check us out on Instagram, X, and YouTube @mfupodcast. Give feedback, middle finger recommendations as well as random thoughts to info@mfupodcast.com. Thank you for listening!

In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, the Métis Nation (Region 3), and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.