This one is the newest, weirdest, and truly the one that resonated the hardest. Otroversion isn't in the mainstream psychology textbooks yet. New York psychiatrist Dr. Rami Kaminski coined it in his 2025 book after decades of noticing patients who didn't fit introvert or extrovert; they felt like outsiders even inside groups they were technically part of.

I took the Otherness Scale quiz before recording this. 237 out of 280. Certified otrovert. I'm dubbing us the rebellious independent black unicorns of the personality world, and Ben and I spend this episode figuring out which parts of it are actually us versus which parts are maybe just something else.

Listen If You're Into

Outsider psychology, personality frameworks that haven't gone mainstream yet, questioning groupthink, or finally understanding why you've never fully belonged anywhere.

Resources Mentioned

Take the Otherness Scale Quiz: https://www.othernessinstitute.com/the-otherness-scale-test/

The Gift of Not Belonging by Dr. Rami Kaminski: https://www.othernessinstitute.com/the-gift-of-not-belonging/

The Otherness Institute: https://www.othernessinstitute.com/

August 2026 Astrology Deep Dive (separate episode): https://youtu.be/ur-9XS9Dy94?si=EW7JsNOHGQ5ndCQa

Mirrors, Not Cages, Part 1: https://youtu.be/mNvoqw91nCE?si=aKpOt2ey6M6-CeUo

Mirrors, Not Cages, Part 2: https://youtu.be/BnyDzCBRHF0?si=9IrdM3zqmzxtbeYJ

This wraps Mirrors, Not Cages. Go take the quizzes, read the chart, argue with your sibling about whether you're actually an otrovert or just introverted with main character energy, and remember none of these labels get to tell you who you're allowed to be.

Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®

🌐 Website: https://www.TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📺 YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@theunfinishedhuman

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theunfinishedhuman/

🕯️ Free Ritual Journey: https://www.theunfinishedhuman.com/the-descent/

🌀 Ritual Journey: https://theunfinishedhuman.gumroad.com/l/VoiceReclamation

 🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: https://www.insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

Music licensed through Soundstripe.

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I could hardly sleep for two nights straight researching for this episode, and it was so worth it.

Ben and I dig into ambiversion, the personality type that's basically the middle finger to Jung's whole introvert/extrovert binary. I think that’s how psychologist Edmund Conklin felt when he coined it in 1923, and four years later Kimball Young came for Carl Jung, too, for building a framework most people don't fit into.

It’s suggested that most of us are ambiverts, and most of us have no idea what that actually means beyond "I’m kind of this, but kind of that, but not this, nor that" when trying to select an answer on a personality quiz. So we break down what Ambiversion really looks like: being the loudest person in the room and then needing three days of total silence to recover, reading a room not to people-please but because switching costs real energy, and why "flexible" isn't the same as "indecisive." Ben also drops a metaphor from The Bear about being the sand between the rocks that's going to live in my head for a while.

What We Get Into

• The 1920s clapback: how ambiversion got named as a direct challenge to Jung's binary
• Real ambivert traits
• Ben's "sand between the rocks" take on what it feels like to be the bridge between people
• The actual cost of flexing between introvert and extrovert energy, and why it's not free
• Burning the "ambiverts are just indecisive" myth
• Why ambiversion isn't the "I don't know" answer on a quiz — it's a real orientation

Quotable Moments
"None of these personality frameworks are a cage. These are mirrors." — Lyndsay
"I'm the sand. I am what's connecting these rocks." — Ben

Listen If You're Into
Personality psychology, psychology history, finally having a name for feeling like both, or sibling banter with actual heart underneath it.

Stay Unfinished. Go take the quiz, argue with your sibling about whether you're actually an ambivert or just being difficult, and remember none of these labels get to tell you who you're allowed to be.

Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®

🌐 Website: https://www.TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📺 YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@theunfinishedhuman

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theunfinishedhuman/

🕯️ Free Ritual Journey: https://www.theunfinishedhuman.com/the-descent/

🌀 Ritual Journey: https://theunfinishedhuman.gumroad.com/l/VoiceReclamation

 🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: https://www.insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

Music licensed through Soundstripe.

Code: 7RNPQD1TO7FNEDR6

Welcome to Mirrors, Not Cages, a 3-part Sibling Files™ series where my brother Ben and I crack open the four psychological personality types and ask the question underneath all of them: is this framework helping you find yourself, or is it just another mask?

Part 1 starts with the sky. August 2026 is an identity reset month, astrologically — a nodal shift onto the Leo/Aquarius axis at the end of July, the Lionsgate portal, and a Leo New moon solar eclipse that's basically here to burn your performance down to the studs, and the Pisces Full Moon Lunar Eclipse that won't let you keep self-sacrificing. Then Ben and I go back to the source: Carl Jung, 1909, the lecture where introvert was born four years before extrovert even existed. We talk about who you actually are versus who you've trained yourself to perform, and why Ben tested as an introvert his entire leadership career while everyone around him swore he was the loudest extrovert in the room.

What We Get Into

●       August 2026's astrological identity reset: nodal shift, Lionsgate, and the Leo eclipse mask-burn

●       Carl Jung's 1909 lecture and why introvert existed 4 years before extrovert

●       Ben's decades of testing introvert while leading like an extrovert

●       The myths and stigmas we still carry about both sides

●       Labels as security blankets, and what happens when the one you built your identity on disappears

●       Why none of these frameworks are cages — they're mirrors

Quotable Moments

"The moment the mirror becomes your identity, it stops reflecting the truth." — Lyndsay

"How you see me at work takes so much energy I'm crushed by the end of the week." — Ben

Listen If You're Into

Carl Jung, astrology that actually ties to psychology, sibling banter with teeth, or figuring out which parts of your personality are actually yours.

Stay Unfinished. Go take the quiz, read the chart, argue with your sibling about it — just don't let any label tell you who you're allowed to be.

Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®

🌐 Website: https://www.TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📺 YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@theunfinishedhuman

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theunfinishedhuman/

🕯️ Free Ritual Journey: https://www.theunfinishedhuman.com/the-descent/

🌀 Ritual Journey: https://theunfinishedhuman.gumroad.com/l/VoiceReclamation

 🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: https://www.insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

This is not a manifest-your-vision-board month, this is a burn. In this solo episode I break down August 2026's astrology: the lunar nodes flipping onto the Leo/Aquarius axis on July 26th, what South Node in Leo asks us to release (performing for approval, needing to be the main character) versus what North Node in Aquarius asks us to grow into (community over ego, your quirks as your work), the release eclipse on the 12th forcing masks into the light, and the full moon lunar eclipse on the 27th/28th wrapping up whatever grief or overgiving still needs to go. I also share why The Unfinished Human exists and close with a live 5-card oracle reading using Rebecca Campbell's Inner Temple Oracle deck.

Resources Mentioned

Not sponsored — just people and tools I actually use:

●       🔮 Astrology readings: Daniel Colon, Color We Crazy https://www.instagram.com/colorwecrazy/

●       🌙 Astrology resource: Moon Omens https://www.moonomens.com/

●       🃏 This episode's deck: Rebecca Campbell's Inner Temple Oracle https://www.shop.rebeccacampbell.me/oracles/the-inner-temple-oracle-card-deck

●       🕯️ Free Shadow Work Ritual: https://www.theunfinishedhuman.com/the-descent/

●       🔮 Barbault’s Basket: https://www.youtube.com/@WayShowers88

Listen If You're Into

·        Astrology as a tool for growth instead of prediction

·        Guidance through eclipse season

·        Collective oracle reading

·        Figuring out who you are underneath the performance.

Stay Unfinished

Whatever's leaving, let it go. Whatever's whispering to your soul, let it be heard. And stay wrecked, wild, and full of wonder.

Follow The Unfinished Human® wherever you listen.

Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®

🌐 Website: https://www.TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theunfinishedhuman/

🕯️ Free Ritual Journey: https://www.theunfinishedhuman.com/the-descent/

🌀 Ritual Journey: https://theunfinishedhuman.gumroad.com/l/VoiceReclamation

 🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: https://www.insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

Music licensed through Soundstripe.

Code: KSNSREQEMOBLG4BQ

Lyndsay explores the intricate relationship betweenself-worth, love, and authenticity. The conversation delves into how our programming and contributions shape our sense of worthiness and the importance of maintaining boundaries in relationships. The discussion emphasizes that loveshould not require self-abandonment and highlights the journey of self-discovery as essential for meaningful connections.

Lyndsay then shares her written piece 'When Care BecomesCurrency,' originally published on TheUnfinishedHuman.com.

Takeaways

·      This year has been a huge learning year for me.

·      I'm feeling burnt out and rethinking my approach to creating and creativity.

·      I want to explore quarterly themes based on creative experiments.

·      I confused usefulness and contribution with worth in my relationships.

·      Love isn't real if it demands your self-abandonment.

·      Caretaking isn't connection; it's a slow bleed.

·      I want depth and reciprocal intimacy in my connections.

·      It's important to set boundaries and recognize self-worth.

✨ Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human™
🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman🕯️ Free Ritual Bundle: ⁠The Descent Begins Here

🌀 Ritual Bundles + Books: The Archive by The Unfinished Human

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: Insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

00:18 The Next Evolution of TUH

05:10 When Care Becomes Currency: Confessions of Labor and Love

11:14 Thank you!

Part 4 of The Sibling Files wraps up this recording session with a deep dive into getting back into movement after years of surgeries, burnout, and bodies that have different opinions about what they can handle now versus their younger bodies.

Lyndsay's been going hard on Pilates with weights and learning the hard way that 'only 10-pound dumbbells' adds up when you're doing it back to back to back. The pain episodes are the body's way of hitting the brakes — she just hasn't figured out how to rest before the body forces the issue.

They also get into the ego vs. the body, building back up without blowing yourself up, and a teaser for next time about a new personality type that might be more accurate for many introverts (like Ben and Lyndsay).

Plus Lyndsay shares a couple of YouTube resources she actually uses and loves — not sponsored, just genuinely good.

What We Get Into

•  The dopamine trap: why getting back into movement makes you do too much, too fast

• Pilates, inflammation, and the pain that tells you it's already past the tipping point

• Listening to the body vs. the ego — and how to actually tell the difference

• Building community through movement: bike groups, kettlebell clubs, saying yes to strangers

Quotable Moments:

• "Be intentional about stopping yourself before the pain stops you."

•  "I still feel that internal drive to move — even when I'm exhausted. They're both physical sensations and they're both real."

•  "I told the coach I wasn't coming — out loud — so I couldn't talk myself into going anyway."

•  "It's okay to have a lazy day, dude. Just hang out with your dog."

Resources Mentioned

Not sponsored — just things Lyndsay uses and loves:

🏋️ Pilates + Kettlebells: JoinBace.com

🧘 Move with Nicole (YouTube): youtube.com/@MoveWithNicole

💪 Senior Shape Fitness with Lauren (YouTube): youtube.com/@SeniorShapeFitness

Listen if You're Into

Movement, chronic pain, aging without losing your mind about it, kettlebells, Pilates, bikes, community, and two siblings figuring out what their bodies actually need now — not five years ago.

Stay Unfinished

Listen to the body. Ignore the ego. And for the love of god, take a rest day.

Follow The Unfinished Human® wherever you listen, and stay wrecked, wild, and full of wonder.

Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️ Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀 Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

In Part 3 of our Sibling Files catch‑up series, Ben and I continue unraveling what it means to rebuild our lives inside bodies that have shifted, slowed, and demanded new forms of care. We talk about returning to cycling after years away, the egobruises that come with aging, and the surprising joy of rediscovering play without performance.

Ben shares his desire to race again—not to place, but to participate—and the reality check of being told that “a 20-mile ride is going to feel like a long ride.” We explore the emotional terrain of starting over, learning not to chase younger riders, and finding community that isn’t elitist or exclusionary.

I talk about finding a new bike shop, reconnecting with the cycling world, and navigating my AuDHD tendency to go all‑in until I burn out. We explore micro‑steps, sustainable movement, and why listening to our bodies is the only way forward.

We also dive deep into nourishment—sweet potatoes, kimchi, sardines, gluten‑free comfort foods, dopamine cravings, inflammation, and the emotional complexity of feedinga body with a history of eating disorders. This conversation is raw, real, and rooted in the everyday work of staying alive, awake, and unfinished.

This episode is about aging, identity, nourishment, ego, community, and the quiet revolution of learning to move differently—not harder.

What We Explore

 • Returning to cycling after years away—ego, identity, and unexpected joy

• Aging bodies, shifting limits, and learning not to chase younger riders

• AuDHD pacing, micro‑steps, and sustainable movement

• Kettlebells, rebuilding strength, and the shock of starting over

• Sweet potatoes, kimchi, sardines, and the weirdly perfect meals that keep us going

• Why movement is no longer about performance—it’s about staying alive

Talking Points / Quotable Moments

• “A 20-mile ride is going to feel like a long ride.”

• “It’s not baby steps—it’s micro baby steps.”

• “I used to think of my body as something to control. Now I’m learning to listen.”

• “Good ingredients, done simply, win every time.”

• “I’m a toast specialist, Ben.”

Listen If You’re Into

Honest conversations about aging, identity, cycling, nourishment, chronic pain, AuDHD pacing, community, and the emotional complexity of rebuilding a life inside abody that keeps changing.

Stay Unfinished

Healing isn’t linear. Movement isn’t punishment. And returning to yourself—again and again—isn’t regression. It’s the work.

Follow The Unfinished Human® wherever you listen, and stay wrecked, wild, and full of wonder.

Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®

 🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

Lyndsay and Brother Ben talk humanity, integrity, and what stays when the world loses its mind. They wrestle with moral courage, fear, and the quiet hope that maybe—just maybe—we’d still choose compassion when everything else burns.

And because it’s them, the conversation eventually pivots—Virgo-season style—from collapse to creation. They dream out loud about the seeds they still want to plant: music, art, movement, freedom, new homes in other corners of the world. Joy as rebellion. Hope as ritual.

Takeaways

• Humor helps when the world is on fire.

• You don’t really know who you are until everything breaks.

• Integrity and humanity are worth protecting—even when it costs you.

• Connection outlives possessions.

• Spirituality doesn’t need ceremony; sometimes it’s just what you hold in your head.

• Moral courage begins where comfort ends.

• Hope and horror can coexist without canceling each other out.

• Planting wild dreams in dark times is defiance, not denial.

• Joy is a survival skill.

• Being unfinished means loving and creating anyway.

Chapters

00:00 Crooked Shirts & Side-Eyes

02:42 If the World Imploded

11:25 Seeds for the Next Decade

26:30 Thanks for Listening

✨ Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human™

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀 Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

Lyndsay and Brother Ben talk about the Virgo New Moon and Solar Eclipse, the astrology of worth and devotion, and what happens when we finally admit we’ve been confusing productivity with value. Between laughter, glitches, and a few “what the fuck” moments, they explore ritual, leadership, and how to feel valuable without over-functioning or performing for approval.

This one is messy, real, and a reminder that sometimes the mic isn’t the only thing that needs recalibrating.

Takeaways

• Even tech failures can open better portals.

• Astrology gives language to what the body already knows.

• Ritual isn’t performance—it’s devotion.

• Over-functioning is burnout in prettier clothes.

• Self-worth doesn’t live in productivity metrics.

• Leadership without humanity turns hollow.

• Recognition feels good, but value can’t depend on applause.

• Devotional routines are medicine for an overworked soul.

• Midlife isn’t decline—it’s the midpoint of awakening.

• Being unfinished means still learning how to hold your own worth.

Chapters
00:00 Before the Conversation

00:23 Introduction & Today’s Theme

02:10 Eclipse & New Moon in Virgo (+ Tech Challenges)

11:39 Worth and Value

24:34 Thanks for Listening

✨ Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human™

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com
📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here
🌀 Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

This is where it begins—the unraveling that demanded to be spoken aloud.

This isn’t a strategy.
It’s what happens when the mask slips and you stop performing clarity.

Episode One is the origin story—of me, of the podcast, of the part of you that knows there’s something more.

If this opened something in you? Let it.

Welcome to the fucking experiment.

Not as a linear path—but as petals.

This spoken reflection came through after watching a dahlia bloom in slow motion—and realizing… that’s what un-becoming looks like.

Layer after layer. Death and beauty in the same breath.

If you’re in the middle of a falling petal or a rising one—this one’s for you.

🌸 Read it at: TheUnfinishedHuman.com
🔗 Follow @theunfinishedhuman for more ritual-rooted, soul-bloomed truth

We just never knew how it would begin—until it did.

In Part 1 of The Sibling Files, my brother Ben and I finally sit down to record the conversation we’ve both circled for decades.

We’re not experts.

We’re just finally saying this shit out loud.

No script. Just a few questions and two siblings sharing space, memory, and a mic.

We grew up in the same war-torn house—but survived it differently.
This episode is the beginning of a long-overdue unraveling.
The family myth snaps. Our stories spill out.
We say the things we’ve never said—not to fix anything, but to witness it.

This is what it sounds like to remember out loud, together.

KEY THEMES:

• Sibling dynamics and diverging survival strategies
• Growing up inside chaos and silence
• The emotional cost of being “too much”
• Change, resistance, and the fear of becoming someone new
• Feeling unwanted or unseen in childhood
• Finally telling the truth—without apology

THIS ISN’T SELF-HELP. IT’S SOUL WITNESS.For the ones still rewriting what “family” means.
For the ones who changed—and weren’t celebrated for it.
For the ones trying to love their past without living in it.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Exploring Podcasting as a Medium

02:59 Reflections on Family Dynamics

06:31 The Impact of Childhood Environment

09:52 Navigating Change in Relationships

16:58 Understanding Personal Growth and Change

24:10 Lessons Learned and Personal Growth

🎧 COMPANION PLAYLIST: Let the Land Hold You

Listen on Spotify

A playlist for remembering whereyou come from—and choosing what you keep.

For sibling stories, family reckoning, and the ache of becoming someone new.

Let the ground carry what your body can’t.

🖤 FOLLOW THE UNFINISHED HUMAN:
🌐The Hub
📸Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

THE CONVERSATION CONTINUES…

Part 2 coming soon.

In this episode, I sit down with Becca Pearce, a former corporate executive whose life cracked open in rapid succession: a very public job loss, followed by a brain tumor diagnosis requiring urgent surgery and a long season of relearning how to walk, live, and be in a body with real limitations.

Underneath it all was the question so many of us avoid until we can’t: Who am I without the title, the performance, the productivity, and the proving?

This is a conversation about identity collapse, illness, boundaries, and unlearning the belief that you have to achieve to be loved.

About Becca

Becca Pearce, author of You Don’t Have to Achieve to be Loved, spent much of her career as a corporate leader at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and Kaiser Permanente before becoming CEO of Maryland’s Health Benefit Exchange.

After a very public separation from the Exchange, Becca was diagnosed with a brain tumor. That experience forced her to redefine success, identity, and what it means to live fully.

Today, Becca is an inspirational speaker, growth strategist, and personal executive coach who helps professionals lead with authenticity and purpose.

morebeccapearce.com

www.linkedin.com/in/beccapearce

What We Explore

• Achievement as a survival strategy—and when it stops working
• Identity collapse after job loss
• Illness, limitation, and forced surrender
• Power, prestige, money, and worthiness
• Boundaries and choosing a different life
• Choosing presence over performance

Quotable Moments

• “The body wins.”
• “I thought I had made it—and it became my identity so quickly.”
• “I spent years wishing for the before.”
• “Power and prestige weren’t things I actually wanted—but I thought they were.”

Listen If You’re Into

High-achieving identity, perfectionism, burnout, people-pleasing, job loss, illness, boundaries, money and worthiness, and rebuilding a life not fueled by performance.

Stay Unfinished

Healing isn’t linear. Identity isn’t static. Learning to live without proving isn’t failure. It’s the work.

Follow The Unfinished Human® wherever you listen, and stay wrecked, wild, and full of wonder.

Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀 Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

✨ Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human™
🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com
📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman
🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

Takeaways

• Adulthood is often not what we expect; it's messy and complex.
• Turning 50 brings reflections on life and personal growth.
• The myths of adulthood include the belief that adults have it all figured out.
• It's important to embrace failure as a part of learning.
• Resilience is a key factor in navigating life'schallenges.
• The younger generation faces different strugglesthan previous generations.
• Finding joy in childhood activities can enhanceadult life.
• Aging can bring feelings of invisibility andsocietal pressure.
• It's essential to be true to oneself inrelationships and dating.
• Perspective shapes our experiences and how werelate to others.

Chapters

00:00 Before the Conversation

01:16 Introduction

03:23 Background Story...Pun Intended

06:59 The Myth of Adulthood

10:01 Childhood Joys vs. Adult Responsibilities

16:04 Advice to Your Younger Self

16:59 Failure isn't Failure

18:02 Resilience Across Generations

21:30 The Impact of Aging on Relationships

27:54 Navigating Visibility and Invisibility

33:28 The Ending is Just the Beginning

✨ Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human™

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

Takeaways

• Life becomes more complex as we age.

• Cluelessness can be a sign of growth and awareness.

• Understanding others' experiences is crucial for empathy.

• Eclipses symbolize moments of reflection and change.

• Personal growth often comes from uncomfortable realizations.

• Expectations can lead to anxiety and missed opportunities.

• It's important to listen to our instincts and feelings.

• No decision is wrong; it's all part of the journey.

• Embracing the messiness of life is essential.

• Even at 50, we are still unfinished and evolving.

Chapters

00:00 Before the Conversation

00:51 Introduction

03:01 The Complexity of Cluelessness

04:18 We Only Have This Limited Lived Experience

06:16 Understanding Life Through Diverse Lenses

10:03 Reflections on Privilege and Limited Lived Experience

16:54 Eclipse Moments and Emotional Revelations

23:29 Full Moon Illuminations

32:38 Confronting Ghosts of the Past

33:53 Generational Patterns of Betrayal

37:41 The Ending is Just the Beginning

In Part 2 of our Sibling Files catch‑up series, Ben and I pick up right where we left off, diving deeper into what it means to rebuild a life inside bodies that have changed faster than our identities have. We talk about GLP‑1s, perimenopause, mobility loss, and the slow, humbling climb back toward strength. We also explore the surprising emotional terrain of returning to cycling after years away—and why freedom and play matter more to us now than metrics or milestones.

I share the long road from hysterectomy to chronic pain, tobeing told I have “the spine of an 84‑year‑old,” to the medical team that helped me claw my way back through Pilates, PT, and functional movement.

Ben talks about pool therapy, the shock of how quickly the body deteriorates when you’re forced into stillness, and the mindset shift required to train differently at 50.

And somehow, without planning it, we both found ourselvescircling back to the same thing that once defined us: bikes. The community we left. The identity we shelved. The freedom we’ve been craving.

This episode is about aging, resilience, stubbornness, andthe quiet revolution of learning to move differently—not harder.

What We Explore

• GLP‑1s, metabolism shifts, and why “doing all the rightthings” sometimes isn’t enough

• The aftermath of hysterectomy, chronic pain, andrebuilding from the ground up

• Pilates vs. yoga for aging bodies and why functionalmovement is everything

• Pool therapy, water treadmills, and the shock of delayedsoreness

• How identity gets tangled up in strength, capability, and independence

• Returning to cycling after years away: freedom, play, andzero expectations

• Why movement is no longer optional—it’s survival

Talking Points / Quotable Moments

• “They told me I have the spine of an 84‑year‑old woman.”

• “Pilates has strengthened everything—muscles I didn’t even know I had.”

• “Pool therapy felt easy… until the next two days when Icouldn’t move.”

• “Cycling has always given me a sense of freedom and play.”

• “We both stepped away from cycling—and now we’re bothcoming back.”

Listen If You’re Into

Raw conversations about aging, chronic pain, identityshifts, mobility, functional movement, and the emotional complexity of rebuilding a life inside a body that no longer behaves the way it used to.

Stay Unfinished

Healing isn’t linear. Strength isn’t static. And returningto yourself—again and again—isn’t regression. It’s the work.

Follow The Unfinished Human® wherever you listen, and staywrecked, wild, and full of wonder.

Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com
📸Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here
🌀Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

In this unscripted anniversary episode, I reflect on one year of The Unfinished Human® and the unexpected path this project has taken — from personal writings to sibling conversations to guest interviews to this moment of raw, unfiltered truth telling.

I talk about the creative well running dry, the medicine of getting back on my bike, and the grounding power of being outside, in community, and in motion. I share why visibility as a queer white woman in a conservative town matters, and how small acts of presence can become lifelines for people who don’t feel safe.

I briefly speak to the heartbreak of watching the trans community be targeted, the ongoing erosion of rights, the violence of voter suppression, and the global crises unfolding in Gaza, Iran, Sudan, Cuba, and beyond. As a sensitive person, as an artist, it feels impossible to create without acknowledging the suffering happening in real time.

This episode is an invitation to remember our shared humanity, to show up where we can, and to honor the truth that art and activism are not separate — they are intertwined.

I close with my newest piece, Humanity, a reminder that we were never meant to stand alone.

What We Explore

• One year of The Unfinished Human® and the evolution of the project

• Creativity, burnout, and the need to refill the well

• Cycling, nature, and the grounding power of embodied community

• Queer visibility in conservative spaces

• The targeting of the trans community and the erosion of rights

• Voter suppression, redistricting, and systemic harm

• Global crises and the overwhelm of witnessing

• Art, activism, sensitivity, and the role of creatives in times of crisis

• “Think globally, work locally” as a path back to purpose

• The poem Humanity and the reminder that we belong to each other

Talking Points / Quotable Moments

• “Participating in humanity, less screens.”

• “Think globally, work locally.”

• “It feels bullshit to show up when people are literally dying.”

• “Being human never meant standing alone.”

• “Visibility matters — especially where it feels unsafe.”

• “Artists are struggling to know how to show up right now.”

• “We remember our humanity when we stop believing the story they sold us.”

Listen If You’re Into

Raw reflections on humanity, activism, queer visibility, creativity, burnout, community care, global grief, and the emotional complexity of being alive in this moment.

Stay Unfinished

Show up where you can. Rest where you must. And stay tethered to your humanity — and each other.

Follow The Unfinished Human® wherever you listen, and stay wrecked, wild, and full of wonder.

Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®

🌐Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀 Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

When the forgotten parts finally speak, they don’t whisper — they rise like a tidal surge you can’t outrun.

This episode of The Unfinished Human™ is part of my Harvesting the Raw series, where I share the reflections that surface when I stop performing and let the shadow tell the truth.

Recorded after a week of deep shadow work on the shores of Port Ludlow, this piece dives into the anger I was never allowed to feel, the memories I buried to survive, and the identities I shed in order to come home to myself. It’s a story about reclamation, embodiment, and what happens inside the body when old wounds crack open and ask to be witnessed.

This isn’t grammable shadow work.

It’s honest. It’s real. It’s unfinished.

The kind of truth that isn’t meant to be pretty — only meant to free you.

We explore the way trauma healing often begins with somatic truth — the tightening in the chest, the heat in the spine, the “I can’t swallow this anymore.” We look at what happens when your nervous system finally stops protecting the people who once benefitted from your silence, and instead begins protecting you.

If you’re in a season of un-becoming, identity dissolving, or emotional truth-telling… if your body is louder than your mind… if you’re ready for ritual work or deeper somatic healing… you’ll feel yourself in this episode.

Listen in for a reflection that isn’t about reliving the past — it’s about reclaiming the parts of you that were exiled to survive it.

✨Listen in.
🎧 Playlist: Forest Dwelling

✨ Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human™

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

🕯️Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🌙 Shadows & Seeds Newsletter: Subscribe to the Experiment

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

In this episode of The Unfinished Human, host Lyndsay explores the themes of trauma, self-abandonment, and the complexities of relationships through a creative allegory about Kodi, Cat, and the Precarious knife. The story illustrates how unacknowledged pain can burden individuals and affect their connections with others. Lyndsay emphasizes the importance of witnessing one's own struggles and the journey of healing, encouraging listeners to embrace their unfinished selves.

🎧 Companion Playlist: The Precarious Knife - Story Soundtrack

A moody mix to hold the ache and the aftermath.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2PzvuKyhCkgHTqWCCtaa0g?si=-qOTW8EkSju33Bp-uNwYIg

Takeaways from this episode:

• Unacknowledged pain doesn’t disappear—it gets passed down.

• You’re not dramatic for hurting from “accidents.” You’re honest.
• It’s not your job to carry what cut you.
• Relationships can complicate personal healing.
• It's important to acknowledge our own needs.

• Love without repair isn’t safety. It’s sacrifice.

• Embracing our unfinished selves is part of the journey.

Want to read the original story? Check it out here.

Link: https://theunfinishedhuman.com/the-story-of-kodi-cat-and-the-precarious-knife/

All things The Unfinished Human: https://campsite.bio/theunfinishedhuman

Keywords: unfinished human, trauma, healing, relationships, self-abandonment, emotional pain, storytelling, allegory, personal growth, vulnerability

Where the anger softens into ache.

Where the need to be understood makes space for reflection.

In Part 3 of The Sibling Files, Ben and I explore how misunderstanding shaped our family dynamics—and how boundary-setting became a form of survival.

We speak to the weight of being misread, mislabeled, and emotionally flattened by people who never really saw the full picture.

We talk about emotional intelligence, self-protection, and the difference between generosity and emotional self-abandonment. We share what we’ve learned—not as advice, but as lived experience.

We’re not experts.

We’re just finally saying this shit out loud.

No script. Just scars and slow clarity.

________________________________________

THEMES WE NAME + NUANCE:

• The ache of being misunderstood—especially by family

• Boundaries as love, not rejection

• Transactional relationships and the toll they take

• How siblings can carry the same pain in opposite ways

• Emotional intelligence vs emotional invisibility

• Letting go of being “the strong one”

• Recognizing when caretaking has become self-erasure

________________________________________

THIS ISN’T SELF-HELP. IT’S SOUL WITNESS.

For the ones untangling love from obligation.

For the ones whose softness was mistaken for weakness.

For the ones learning that boundaries don’t make you cold—they make you free.

________________________________________

CHAPTERS

00:00 Exploring Podcasting as a Medium

01:15 Misunderstandings and Perceptions in Family

01:25 Emotional Misinterpretations and Family Dynamics

06:33 Boundaries and Self-Protection

12:54 Transactional Relationships and Personal Growth

16:43 Changing Perspectives on Family and Generosity

19:39 Reflections on Experiences and Growth

24:50 Understanding Personal Reflection and Growth

________________________________________

🎧 COMPANION PLAYLIST: Let the Land Hold You

Listen on Spotify

A playlist for remembering where you come from—and choosing what you keep.

For sibling stories, family reckoning, and the ache of becoming someone new.

Let the ground carry what your body can’t.

________________________________________

🖤 FOLLOW THE UNFINISHED HUMAN:

🌐 The Hub
📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

________________________________________

THE CONVERSATION CONTINUES…

Part 4 coming soon.

Welcome to The Sibling Files.

It's June. The weather is chaotic. The algorithm is watching. And Lyndsay and Brother Ben are winging it — beautifully.

This episode (part 1 of 4) kicks off Season Two of The Unfinished Human® Podcast and true to form, it startswith thunderstorms in Minnesota, a terrified dog named Jax, and a weather report no one asked for. But don't let the casual opener fool you — this conversation goes places.

Lyndsay shares what nearly a month off social media has actually felt like: the late-night scroll habit she didn't know she had, the relief of putting the phone down, and the unsettling way algorithms are designed to keep us enraged and dependent. They unpack the creep factor of devices listening in on conversations, ads that follow you across shared IP addresses, and the very real question of whether "turning things off" actually does anything.

Then the conversation turns to AI — not just as a tech trend, but as a systemic force reshaping how we think, work, and depend on machines. From the human cost of training AI (and what it's doing to the underpaid workers exposed to the internet's darkest content), to the environmental toll of data centers, to the capitalism-first mentality driving it all forward with no brakes — Lyndsay and Ben aren't here to give youhot takes. They're here to think out loud.

This is Season Two. The shit is still unfinished. And they're still saying all of it out loud.

What We Explore

• Nearly a month off social media: the real experience, minus the performance

• The surveillance economy: devices listening, shared IP tracking, and ads that follow you

• AI as the new algorithm — and the question of human dependency

• The hidden human cost of AI training: workers exposed to traumatic content

Talking Points / Quotable Moments

• "The algorithm sets us up to be in constant rage-fear mode."

• "Technology is making us more reliant, more dependent, and stupider."

• "Nobody knows how to do it manually anymore — and that's the problem."

• "There's a way to do AI human-first, environmental-first. It's just not what we're doing."

Listen If You're Into

Candid sibling conversations, digital detox real talk, AI ethics, surveillance capitalism, tech dependency, human autonomy, chronic illness, creativity, and the messy beauty of figuring things out without a script.

Stay Unfinished

Put the phone down. Touch some grass. And remember — giving yourself permission to be unfinished is part of the resistance, bitches.

Follow The Unfinished Human® wherever you listen, and stay wrecked, wild, and full of wonder.

Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️ Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀 Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

Before we get into the astrology, a quick acknowledgment: it's Juneteenth, the day commemorating when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas finally learned the Civil War had ended and they were “free” — in quotes, because we know how many broken promises came after. I'm calling it out because more and more pieces of our history keep getting erased, including federal recognition of days like this one. Okay. Onto the work.

This episode is the deep one. Chiron — the wounded healer — just started a three-month ingress into Taurus, and I'm walking you through what that actually means (not the theoretical, prediction-based astrology stuff, the practical, what-do-I-actually-do-with-this kind). I get into my own corporate-burnout-to-spiritual-awakening origin story, the AuDHD diagnosis that explained everything, and the 8-ton wound around worth and money that I'm still actively unpacking in real time.

Then I do something I've never done on this podcast before: a live three-card Oracle reading, first for you individually, then one for the collective. Stagnant waters, clear vision, and a rainbow all show up, and the message is bigger than just me.

This is vulnerable, it's a little woo, and it's very, very me.

Links I promised:

🃏 Rebecca Campbell Pick-a-Card: Rebeccacampbell.me/pick-a-card

🃏 Colette Baron-Reid Pick-a-Card: colettebaronreid.com/resources/pick-a-card

🔮 The Healing Waters Oracle: rebeccacampbell.me/healingwaters

Listen If You're Into

Astrology that's actually practical, wounded-healer archetypes, burnout-to-awakening stories, AuDHD and neurodivergence, live Oracle readings, and reclaiming your worth outside of productivity.

Stay Unfinished

Get curious about where you're trying to earn your worth. Then go do something about it — in micro steps.

Follow The Unfinished Human® wherever you listen, and stay wrecked, wild, and full of wonder.

Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️ Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀 Ritual Journey: VoiceReclamation Ritual Journey

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

This isn’t a how-to on healing. This is the fucking howl behind it.

In full transparency, I almost deleted this recording. I recorded another version after this that wasn’t as emotionally charged. It was like my old programming demanded that I post something more “acceptable.”

But, instead, I’m honoring my voice, emotions, and authenticity.

This automatic writing message talks about the cost of self-abandonment. The performance of being “fine.” The voice you’ve buried just to survive.

This isn’t self-help. It’s soul witness.

This is what happens when you stop fixing—and start listening.

📎 Keywords:self-discovery, voice, trauma, healing, expression, authenticity, emotional release, personal growth, shadow work, vulnerability

🔥 Takeaways:• This isn’t self-help. It’s soul witness.• Reclaiming your voice doesn’t start with sound—it starts with honesty.• The prison was built by others, but you’ve kept the keys.• Don’t rush to fix what’s been buried. Rage if you need to.• Let it burn and show you what still needs to be voiced.• Listening to the body cracks open what words never could.• You’re not alone in this war within.• You’re not broken. You’re breaking through.• Stay wrecked, wild, and full of wonder.

🕯️ Chapters:00:00 — Introduction to The Unfinished Human01:08 — The Struggle with Voice and Expression03:39 — Channeled Message from the Inner Self06:42 — Embracing the Rawness of Emotion

🎧 Companion Playlist: Ball of Glass: Shadow Work in Smoke and ShardsListen on Spotify

A soundtrack for the scream stuck in your throat. For the voice buried under survival, politeness, and perfection. These songs aren’t here to inspire you—they’re here to split you open, hold you in the wreckage, and remind you: you’re not broken. You’re breaking through.

📖 Read the Blog Post: Ball of Glass: Shadow Work in Smoke and Shards

🖤 Follow The Unfinished Human:🌐 The Hub📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

shadow work, identity, self-discovery, personal growth, healing, authenticity, transformation, emotional journey, self-acceptance, inner truth

Description

Seeded in the Dark is not a redemption arc. It’s notclarity wrapped in a bow.

It’s the unraveling. The muddy, tear-streaked, disoriented space where you realize most of what you’ve lived wasn’t you at all.

This episode was born from a 5-day shadow work descent under the Leo new moon.

What surfaced wasn’t light—it was a seed planted in confusion, in grief, in truth.

I talk about what it means to wake up to the 90% of lifethat was never really mine, the parts I contorted to fit family, lovers, bosses, and a culture that needs us more broken than whole.

And the 10% that is mine—raw, unfinished, unapologetic.

This isn’t self-help. It’s soul witness.

Let’s see what grows in the dark.

✨ Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human™

🌐Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🎧Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

Chapters

00:00 The Journey of Unbecoming

00:58 Facing the Shadows of Identity

05:06 The Weight of Expectations

07:28 Embracing the Unfinished Self

Lyndsay and Brother Ben talk about the dumbest habits they’ve ever tried to force themselves into — from “just do it” culture to the delusion that being a morning person makes you morally superior.

Between the sarcasm and real talk, they explore body rhythms, ADHD revelations, and the liberation that comes with finally working with yourself instead of against your nature. This one’s a love letter to the late risers, the slow starters, and the ones still figuring out what joy feels like when it isn’t tied to productivity.

Takeaways

• “Early bird gets the worm” — great, let him have it.

• Being a morning person doesn’t make you enlightened.

• Your rhythms aren’t flaws — they’re instructions.

• ADHD and burnout are often the body’s way of saying “enough.”

• Capitalism fears what it can’t schedule.

• Joy without an outcome is sacred rebellion.

• Creating for yourself — not for validation — restores magic.

• Community reminds you you’re not weird; you’re wired differently.

• Listening to your body is self-trust in action.

• Being unfinished means choosing presence over performance.

Chapters

00:00 Before the Conversation

00:39 Introduction & Today’s Theme

02:13 Forcing Stupid Routines

16:44 No More Mini-Me’s

19:16 Creating Joy in Midlife

37:15 Thanks for Listening

✨ Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human™

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀 Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

To be independent.

To be unbothered.

But underneath that armor there’s always a wound. A story. A survival pattern that looked like strength but was really just self-protection dressed up as resilience.

In Part 4 of The Sibling Files, Ben and I talk about the masks we learned to wear—and the cost of keeping them on for too long.

We explore the isolation that comes from being seen as “the strong one,” the misunderstandings that shaped our relationships, and the tenderness that emerges when we finally let someone see the soft underneath.

This is the kind of conversation we never knew how to have growing up.

But now, we’re not just having it—we’re staying in it.

We’re not experts.

We’re just finally saying this shit out loud.

This may be the end of the first recording.

But the conversation isn’t over.

Not between us.

Not for any of us.

________________________________________

IN THIS EPISODE, WE UNPACK:

• How survival traits were misread as personality and strengths

• Why “being independent” can become emotional exile

• Detachment as a trauma response

• The mask of strength—and the grief of outgrowing it

• What it means to be witnessed in your full emotional complexity

• And the surprising peace that comes from solitude, not isolation

________________________________________

THIS ISN’T SELF-HELP. IT’S SOUL WITNESS.

For the ones who learned to stay strong so no one would worry.

For the ones who confused silence with safety.

For the ones finally learning that support doesn't weaken you—it frees you.

________________________________________

CHAPTERS

00:00 Forward Thinking

00:19 Intro

01:28 Misunderstandings, Strengths, and Reflection

08:17 The Masks We Wear to Survive

20:32 Surprising "Younger You" with Lessons Learned

27:30 Exploring Human Complexity

________________________________________

🎧 COMPANION PLAYLIST: Let the Land Hold You

Listen on Spotify

A playlist for remembering where you come from—and choosing what you keep.

For sibling stories, family reckoning, and the ache of becoming someone new.

Let the ground carry what your body can’t.

________________________________________

🖤 FOLLOW THE UNFINISHED HUMAN:🌐 The Hub
📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

________________________________________

THE CONVERSATION CONTINUES…

Next up: the B-Roll. The conversation before the conversation.

And eventually… whatever comes next in this unraveling.

They just shift, echo, and ache across lifetimes.

In this spoken reflection, I read a piece called Tethered Souls—a marrow-deep truth about the kind of love that lives in your bones, before, during, and after goodbye.

Not a how-to. Just a soul memory spoken aloud.

Listen when you miss someone you still carry.

🎧 Website + blog version: TheUnfinishedHuman.com
🔗 Follow @theunfinishedhuman on IG for more raw, ritual-wrapped truth

Andrea shares how belonging often breaks down not because people fail, but because conditions fail — and how we can start rebuilding those conditions both inside organizations and inside ourselves. From how we negotiate our needs (or forget them altogether), to how generational patterns shape our ability to connect, this is a powerful look at what it takes to stay in the room when leaving would be easier.

We explore what it means to do belonging work for yourself first, to rebuild from burnout, and to recognize when not fitting in isn’t failure.

This one’s tender, timely, and quietly radical.

👤 About Andrea D. Carter

Andrea D. Carter (she/her) is an organizational scientist, adjunct professor at Adler University, and creator of the Belonging First Methodology — a neuroscience-driven framework to measure and strengthen belonging across workplaces and communities. She’s one of MSN’s 2025 Top 10 Disruptors and an award-winning researcher helping leaders and HR professionals transform toxic culture into psychologically safe, high-performing environments.

Find her work and resources at andreadcarter.substack.com or explore her human-centered leadership insights on fisher.osu.edu.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreadcarter/

Research: https://www.adler.edu/en-ca/faculty-engagement/faculty-directory/carter-andrea-d/Belonging 

HealthCheck: https://belongingfirst.com/belongingbreakdown

🚀 Listen If You’re Into

Raw conversations about identity, the science of relationships, healing generational conditioning, and the courage to be unfinished together.

🌀 Stay Unfinished

You don’t have to keep showing up to something that keeps asking you to disappear — but you do have to keep showing up for your own belonging.

Follow The Unfinished Human® wherever you listen, and remember to stay wrecked, wild, and full of wonder.

✨ Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®
🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

But we were handed different roles. Different expectations. Different silence. But similar in so many ways.

In Part 2 of The Sibling Files, Ben and I dig deeper into the storm we survived—how we navigated it, how it shaped us, and what we’re still unlearning.

We talk about the roles we played in our family, the pressure to perform, and what happens to relationships when communication breaks down—or was never modeled in the first place.

We don’t agree on everything. But we show up. Honestly. Messily. Still unfinished.

We’re not experts.

We’re just finally saying this shit out loud.

________________________________________

THEMES WE TOUCH (AND SOMETIMES STUMBLE THROUGH):

• Family roles and unspoken survival strategies

• Miscommunication and emotional exile

• Learning to use our voices—again

• The sacred ache of self-awareness

• What real change actually demands (time, rupture, and truth)

• Why relationships without communication dissolve

• And what it means to feel like the emotional translator for everyone else

________________________________________

THIS ISN’T SELF-HELP. IT’S SOUL WITNESS.

For the ones who were expected to keep the peace while quietly falling apart.

For the ones who got tired of waiting to be understood.

For the ones trying to find each other again—without performance.

________________________________________

CHAPTERS

00:00 Exploring Podcasting as a Medium

01:30 Understanding Personal Growth and Change

02:50 Communication and Relationship Dynamics

15:11 Exploring Family Roles and Responsibilities

16:40 Proving Our Worth: Achievements and Expectations

18:05 The Protector and Mediator: Family Dynamics

20:21 Safe Harbor: The Importance of Support

22:37 Misunderstandings and Perceptions in Family

27:38 Lessons Learned and Personal Growth

________________________________________

🎧 COMPANION PLAYLIST: Let the Land Hold YouListen on Spotify

A playlist for remembering where you come from—and choosing what you keep.

For sibling stories, family reckoning, and the ache of becoming someone new.

Let the ground carry what your body can’t.

________________________________________

🖤 FOLLOW THE UNFINISHED HUMAN:

🌐 The Hub
📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

________________________________________

THE CONVERSATION CONTINUES…

Part 3 coming soon.

They talk leadership, burnout, and the myth of balance — that constant negotiation between service and self, between wanting to make things “special” and realizing that often just means sacrificing yourself first. Through astrology, story, and sibling sarcasm, they unearth how deeply worth gets tangled up in responsibility… and how grace becomes the only sustainable form of leadership left.

Takeaways

• Leadership without self-listening becomes sacrifice.

• Burnout starts where boundaries vanish.

• Long projects and endless pressure warp our sense of “enough.”

• Grace is not weakness; it’s a nervous system strategy.

• The “oxygen mask” metaphor is cliché because it’s true.

• Balance isn’t a finish line — it’s a moving target.

• Over-functioning hides in service that looks noble but drains the soul.

• “Special” doesn’t have to mean self-destructive.

• The urge to fix everything often comes from not wanting others to feel what we once felt.

• Being unfinished means learning to help without disappearing.

Chapters

00:00 Before the Conversation

00:50 Introduction & Today’s Theme

02:38 What Is Enough?

20:23 Balancing Service with Self

33:19 Thanks for Listening

33:19 Thanks for listening!

✨ Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human™

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀 Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: Insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

In Episode 32 of The Unfinished Human®, I continue the conversation with executive coach, speaker, and author Becca Pearce (You Don’t Have to Achieve to Be Loved), moving deeper into the terrain that follows burnout, illness, and ego death: stillness, grief, money, anger, motherhood, and the slow process of redefining value.

We talk about the lies we were sold about success, productivity, money, and power—and how deeply they shape our nervous systems, our bodies, and the way we raise the next generation. Becca shares how watching her daughter choose a different relationship with achievement became a mirror for her own healing, and why time—not titles, money, or prestige—is the only thing that actually matters when everything falls apart.

About Becca

Becca Pearce, author of You Don’t Have to Achieve to be Loved, spent much of her career as a corporate leader at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and Kaiser Permanente before becoming CEO of Maryland’s Health Benefit Exchange.

After a very public separation from the Exchange, Becca was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The experience forced her to redefine success, identity, and what it means to live fully.

Today, she is an inspirational speaker, growth strategist, and personal executive coach helping professionals lead with authenticity and purpose. 

morebeccapearce.com

www.linkedin.com/in/beccapearce

www.extendcoach.com

What We Explore

• Why achievement becomes a nervous system survival strategy

• The lie that money, power, and titles equal safety

• Grief, anger, and the unresolved “what if” stories we carry

• Parenting without passing down achievement addiction

• Why time — not success — becomes the true measure of a life

Listen If You’re Into

Conversations about high‑achiever burnout, stillness and nervous system healing, grief and anger after illness, redefining success, motherhood and identity, money and worthiness, coaching without hustle culture, and building a life that values time over performance.

Stay Unfinished

Healing isn’t linear.
Stillness isn’t passive.
And believing you’re already enough may be the hardest work of all.

Follow The Unfinished Human® wherever you listen andstay wrecked, wild, and full of wonder.

Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®

🌐Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀 Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

It was just us—Ben and me—doing what we always do. Catching up. Circling life.

Work. Anxiety. Healing. All the stuff that sits just beneath the surface—but never stays there with us.

I hit record before we “started,” but this is the start.

This is how our conversations usually go. No script. No performance. Just two siblings talking about the cost of ambition, the way trauma shows up in leadership, and how hard it is to hold boundaries in a world that romanticizes burnout.

We talk about work, but it’s not just about work.

It’s about what work takes from us.

And what we’re trying to reclaim.

This one ends with the podcast intro.

Because honestly, everything that came before was already part of the show.

________________________________________

THEMES WE TREAD THROUGH:

• The dread of Mondays after a soul-filled weekend

• Anxiety disguised as opportunity

• Workplace trauma and people-pleasing in leadership

• Generational differences in feedback and recognition

• Emotional intelligence as rebellion

• The blurry edges between work and worth

• How we forget to celebrate ourselves—until someone reminds us

________________________________________

THIS ISN’T SELF-HELP. IT’S SOUL WITNESS.

For the ones who don’t know where work ends and identity begins.

For the ones trying to heal inside systems that reward performance over presence.

For the ones who never start small talk—because the real stuff is always right there, waiting.

________________________________________

CHAPTERS

00:00 Navigating Work-Life Balance and Anxiety

03:00 Untangling Past Work Experiences

05:49 The Importance of Intentional Conversations

08:21 Generational Differences in Workplace Dynamics

11:13 Feedback and Recognition in the Workplace

14:17 The Role of Challenges in Personal Growth

17:02 The Impact of Leadership on Personal Development

19:50 Celebrating Milestones and Team Achievements

22:44 The Power of Positive Reinforcement

25:43 The Balance of Hardship and Joy

28:37 The Importance of Open Communication in Relationships

34:25 Introduction

________________________________________

🎧 COMPANION PLAYLIST: Let the Land Hold You

Listen on Spotify

A playlist for remembering where you come from—and choosing what you keep.

For sibling stories, family reckoning, and the ache of becoming someone new.

Let the ground carry what your body can’t.

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🖤 FOLLOW THE UNFINISHED HUMAN:

🌐 The Hub
📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

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THE CONVERSATION CONTINUES…

This was before we knew what we were making.

Turns out, it was already everything we needed to say.

Part Two of of this installment of The Sibling Files picks up right where we left off — and this episode is a wild mix of trademark battles, a boomer giving unsolicited fatherly advice over email, astrology that was uncomfortably accurate, and a random $250 showing up from the Washington Department of Revenue. Oh, and two anxious dogs trying to survive storm season.

Lyndsay breaks down the full story of what happened when an Ivy League school reached out wanting to have a conversation about using The Unfinished Human® name for an AI-based school helping refugees access higher education. Sounds good in theory — until the guy no-showed the Zoom, asked for a phone number she never gave him, and then responded to her 'no' with unsolicited fatherly wisdom.

She also goes back to the very beginning — the first time someone tried to come for the name, the cease and desist, the spiritual bypassing, and the fact that this apparently happens every May like clockwork.

Then — astrology. Lyndsay pulls up the Full Moon in Sagittarius reading from around that same week as the emails, and it is uncomfortably on the nose.

What We Get Into

• The Ivy League school that wanted to have a conversation about The Unfinished Human® name — and what happened when Lyndsay said no

• Red flags in negotiation: when someone's behavior in the best of times tells you everything you need to know

• The first person who tried to take the name, the cease and desist, the spiritual bypassing, and the emails that kept coming

• A UK podcast using the same name and how YouTube trademark infringement works

• The Full Moon in Sagittarius, Chiron in Taurus, Jupiter expanding everything, oh my

Quotable Moments

• "I've been negotiating contracts long enough to know that if somebody acts this way now, in the best of times, they're gonna be shit later on."

• "Check your state's unclaimed property. You might have a couple bucks coming back to you."

• "We are unfinished humans living an imperfect life — and giving ourselves permission to be unfinished is part of the resistance, bitches."

Listener Action Item

Seriously — go look up your state's unclaimed property. Google '[your state] Department of Revenue unclaimed property' and search your name. You might be surprised.

Listen If You're Into

Trademark stories, protecting your work, trusting your gut, astrology getting weirdly specific, surprise money, anxious dogs, and two siblings saying the shit out loud with no script.

Stay Unfinished

Trust your gut. Protect your shit. And go check if somebody owes you money.

Follow The Unfinished Human® wherever you listen, and stay wrecked, wild, and full of wonder.

Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️ Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀 Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

Part 3 of this The Sibling Files session takes a hard turn into early retirement math, expat life, and the very Gen X question of: what if we just... didn't do this anymore? Ben's been running numbers, talking to friends who've already retired at sixty, and researching what it would cost to live well somewhere else. Philippines, Malaysia, Portugal, Spain — he's looking.

Lyndsay brings the bigger picture — the generational shift where people are done dying at their desks, and the growing wave of Gen X, elder millennials, trans folks seeking safety, and digital nomads quietly asking: where can I actually live?

Ben also tells the story of a friend who asked for an airport ride with two hours' notice — destination: Iceland, one-way ticket, no plan. A week later: Thailand. Three days after that: Bali. As far as anyone knows, he's still there.

What We Get Into

• Early retirement math — and why retiring at sixty can actually mean more money long-term
• The Gen X shift: quality of life over years logged at a desk
• Golden visas and what happens when wealthy people buy citizenship but don't show up
• The trans community and expat life: safety, affordability, and digital nomad visas
• Why Ben's astro cartography said Spain and Portugal — and Lyndsay clocked it
• The Norway family dinner and the cyclical history of people leaving one country for another
• Allergies, a three-week bike hiatus, and a mystery new baby at Ben's place

Quotable Moments

• You can make more money, but you can't make more time."
• "I don't want to die at the desk."
• "I hope I have a massive heart attack so I don't have to worry about it." — Ben's old retirement plan (he was joking. Sorta.)
• "It's not just your everyday expat living there and investing in the community — it's people buying citizenship and not even showing up."
• "I wonder how many people are now like: it's an American nightmare, run away."
• "You can be there for six months, pop out for seven days, come back — and you're still okay. And safe."
• "We are unfinished humans living an imperfect life — giving ourselves permission to be unfinished is part of the resistance, bitches."

Listen If You're Into

Early retirement, expat life, digital nomad reality, Gen Xfinancial reckoning, the American dream (and its cracks), astrology, travel, and two siblings having the conversations a lot of us are having in our heads but not yet out loud.

Stay Unfinished

Run the numbers. Check your astro cartography. And maybe search flights to Bali — just to see.

Follow The Unfinished Human® wherever you listen, and staywrecked, wild, and full of wonder.

Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️ Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀 Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

It's not polished. It's not inspiring. It's not here to help you hustle, be more productive, be more spiritual, be a better [insert role here], or pretend that you're fine.

You're not. Neither am I.

This is the trailer for The Unfinished Human - a creative experiment in being and un-becoming. Hosted by Lyndsay: writer, seeker, neurodivergent human, recovering overachiever, lifelong overthinker, and someone who's done pretending she has it all together.

If you've ever woken up at 3am wondering what the hell is happening to you, you're not alone.

Welcome to the experiment.

In this first installment of The Sibling Files catch-up series, I sit down with my brother Ben to talk about what Q1 2026 has really looked like for both of us—surgeries, recovery, and the humbling process of relearning how to move in bodies that no longer play by the old rules.

Ben shares the full story of his ankle surgery: the bone spurs, the scar tissue, the ligaments that had to be cut and re-tied, and the 90+ days of forced stillness that followed. We talk about what it's like to go from "the beast" to someone who can't make it from the bed to the kitchen without planning. About the panic of realizing you can't do this alone—and the stubborn resistance to asking for help anyway.

I share my own parallel journey: a hysterectomy that kicked off years of medical challenges, the slow rebuild through Pilates and PT, and the recent return to cycling after three years away.

We both stepped away from a community and identity that had defined us. And now, without coordinating, we're both finding our way back.

This episode is about aging bodies, lost strength, and the grief that comes with it. But it's also about what opens up when you finally stop fighting your body and start listening to it instead.

What We Explore

• Ben's ankle surgery: bone spurs, scar tissue, and ligaments re-tied

• The difference between recovering at 19 vs. recovering at 50

• Living alone through major surgery—and the struggle to ask for (or accept) help

• How forced stillness affects not just the body but the mind

• The role of companions in healing (enter: Jax the dog)

• Cycling as identity: what it meant, why we left, and why we're coming back

Talking Points / Quotable Moments

• "I get halfway to the front door and I turn around and look at her and say, 'I have no idea how I'm going to do this.'"

• "People are used to you being the rock... and when you have a pattern of not asking for help, to see that panic is like, oh shit."

• "I either need to start riding again or finally just get rid of my bikes—they're just taking up space."

• "We both stepped away from cycling a few years ago. And now, unbeknownst to each other, we're both stepping back in."

Listen If You're Into

Honest conversations about aging, identity tied to physical ability, the emotional weight of recovery, sibling dynamics, and what it means to rebuild from a body that's changed the rules on you.

Stay Unfinished

Recovery isn't linear. Neither is identity. Sometimes relearning means accepting that what worked before won't work now—and that's not failure. That's just being human.

Follow The Unfinished Human® wherever you listen, and remember to stay wrecked, wild, and full of wonder.

Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®

🌐Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

I sit down with Andrea D. Carter, organizational scientist, global speaker, and founder of Belonging First, to unpack the real science and human cost behind belonging. We move past the buzzwords and dig into what it truly means to create spaces — at work, at home, in our communities — where people can exhale, connect, and contribute for real.

Andrea breaks down her five neuroscience-backed indicators of belonging and shows how each one shapes not only how we perform, but whether we thrive. We talk about the difference between fitting in and truly belonging, how cortisol hijacks our brains, and why burnout isn’t personal failure, it’s environmental design.

👤 About Andrea D. Carter

Andrea D. Carter (she/her) is an organizational scientist, adjunct professor at Adler University, and creator of the Belonging First Methodology — a neuroscience-driven framework to measure and strengthen belonging across workplaces and communities. She’s one of MSN’s 2025 Top 10 Disruptors and an award-winning researcher helping leaders and HR professionals transform toxic culture into psychologically safe, high-performing environments.

Find her work and resources at andreadcarter.substack.com or explore her human-centered leadership insights on fisher.osu.edu.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreadcarter/

Research: https://www.adler.edu/en-ca/faculty-engagement/faculty-directory/carter-andrea-d/Belonging 

Health Check: https://belongingfirst.com/belongingbreakdown

🚀 Listen If You’re Into

Raw conversations about being human, navigating identity, messy leadership, nervous system science, and building real community in a fractured world.

🌀 Stay Unfinished

If this stirred something in you, get curious.
Don’t ask where you belong — ask what you’re willing to risk to build it.

Follow The Unfinished Human™ wherever you listen — and as always, stay wrecked, wild, and full of wonder.

✨ Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human®
🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com
📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️ Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here
🌀Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

Some pieces don’t teach.

They remember.

This short spoken reflection came through while walking the edge of land and sea—a soul whisper about the moment that holds everything.

If you’ve been spiraling in past or future...

Let this bring you back.

Back to the barefoot.

Back to the breath.

Back to yourself.

🌊 Read it at: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

🔗 Follow @theunfinishedhuman for more ritual truth + voice reclamation

This episode isn’t a step-by-step guide. It’s a threshold. Afire. A ceremony of letting go.

Lyndsay reads her piece Let It Burn—a raw explorationof the ache, the grief, and the sacred release that comes when love built on silence can no longer hold the truth.

If you’ve ever carried the relationship alone, contortedyourself for peace, or waited to be chosen—this one is for you.

✨ Listen in to stand in the burn, and remember: from the ash, you rise.

✨ Connect with Lyndsay / TheUnfinished Human™

🌐Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com
📸Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman
🎧Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

In this episode of The Unfinished Human, host Lyndsay shares her unpolished journal entry titled 'The Self-Contortion Was Too Much.'

She explores themes of self-acceptance, vulnerability, and the complexities of relationships, particularly in the context of being a highly sensitive and neurodivergent individual. Through her raw and honest reflections, Lyndsay emphasizes the importance of listening to one's inner voice and taking responsibility for one's own emotional needs.

✨ Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human™

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com
📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman
🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Unfinished Humanity

00:32 Harvesting the Raw: The Self-Contortion

02:45 The Erosion of Self and Relationships

04:12 Taking Responsibility for Self-Acceptance

✨ Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human™

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

Takeaways

• Using voice is a practice of expressing truths.

• Emotions can come out messy and jagged.

• Repairing relationships requires accountability and change.

• Cultural backgrounds influence emotional expression.

• It's okay to feel sad and connect with those emotions.

• Art and music can help unlock feelings.

• Vulnerability is essential in relationships.

• Acknowledging abandonment issues is important for healing.

• Life is a journey of beginnings, not endings.

• We are all unfinished in our personal growth.

Chapters

00:00 Before the Conversation

01:03 Introduction

02:50 Navigating New Ways of Being

05:54 The Complexity of Emotional Expression

09:35 Tools for Relationship Repair

12:18 The Role of Art and Music in Healing

14:23 Exploring Shadows of Self

15:02 Cultural Influences on Emotional Expression

28:24 The Ending is Just the Beginning

She reflects on her journey of self-abandonment, self-discovery and the importance of feeling safe in one's own skin.

What does it mean to feel safe?

Not the performative version the system sells us. Not the compliance we mistake for protection. But real safety—where you don’t abandon yourself.

In this episode, Lyndsay reads What Does It Mean to Feel Safe? It came directly from her journal entry on safety, self-abandonment, and waking the fuck up.

If your body leans in while listening, I invite you to explore the Safehouse Ritual included at the end.

Journal prompts and playlist available on the written piece found here.

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✨ Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human™

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

📸 Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman

🕯️ Free Ritual Bundle: The Descent Begins Here

🌀 Ritual Bundles: Voice Reclamation Ritual Bundle

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

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Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Unfinished Human

00:31 Exploring the Concept of Safety

04:28 The Journey of Self-Discovery

06:49 Reclaiming Your Voice and Safety

Some truths don’t rise in words — they erupt through the body.

This episode is part of my Harvesting the Raw series, a night of shadow work, plant medicine, and somatic unwinding that didn’t just crack me open…it flooded me with joy and love I didn’t know my body still remembered.

Yes, there was release. Yes, old trauma stirred.

But what surprised me most was the tenderness — the silliness — the way my whole being flooded with light. Grief and joy tangled together. Laughter breaking through tears. The kind of embodiment that feels like cominghome and falling apart in the same breath.

This isn’t a tidy story of “healing.”

It’s a reminder that the body doesn’t only store pain — it also stores delight, wonder, and the kind of love that refusesto die, even when you forget to feel it.

If you’ve ever had a moment where your body rememberedsomething sacred before your mind did — a softness, a truth, a release — you’ll feel yourself in this one.

✨ Listen in.

🎧Ritual Playlist: Shadow Dwelling — Tidal Link

✨ Connect with Lyndsay / The Unfinished Human™

🌐 Website: TheUnfinishedHuman.com

🕯️Free Ritual Journey: The Descent Begins Here

🌀 Ritual Journey: Voice Reclamation Ritual Journey

🌙 Shadows & Seeds Newsletter: Subscribe to the Experiment

🎧 Insight Timer Meditations: insighttimer.com/lyndsaytoensing

📸Instagram: @theunfinishedhuman