Show notes
What if healing was never supposed to become another full-time job? In Part 2, Mandi Lynne joins G-Rex and Dirty Skittles to talk about leaving survival mode, reconnecting with yourself, refusing to let mental health diagnoses become limitations, and giving yourself permission to live now—not someday when everything finally feels fixed.
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Sh!t That Goes On In Our Heads is a 2024 People’s Choice Podcast Award Winner (Best Health), 2024 Women in Podcasting Award Winner (Best Mental Health Podcast), 2026 Podcast Tonight Award Winner (Best Mental Health Podcast), and 2026 NYC Podcast Award Audience Choice Winner (Best Hosts), with over 4.5 million downloads and listened to in over 160 countries.
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Trigger Notice + 988 Crisis Reminder
This episode includes conversations about trauma, depression, suicidal crisis, and suicide. Please listen in whatever way feels safest for you.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis in the United States, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline:
https://988lifeline.org/
For crisis resources outside the United States:
https://findahelpline.com/
Mental Health Quote
“I kept postponing living until I was done healing.” — Mandi Lynne
Episode Description
What if you stopped treating healing like the admission ticket you have to earn before you are allowed to enjoy your own life?
In Part 2, Mandi Lynne joins G-Rex and Dirty Skittles to explore the philosophy behind ONE | Life and the shift from simply understanding mental health to figuring out how the hell we actually live with everything we know.
After years of helping build MedCircle, Mandi began noticing something important. Mental health education was becoming easier to access, but people still needed help answering the next question: now what?
She talks about going beneath the crisis of the moment to understand the beliefs underneath it, including how her former husband’s infidelity activated old wounds around worth. The conversation expands into boundaries, relationships, self-abandonment, caregiving, personal agency, labels, diagnoses, and why caring about other people should not require disappearing from your own life.
Then things get wonderfully weird.
There are raccoon videos, ADHD superpowers, favorite swear words, Joan Jett, Led Zeppelin, joy folders, squirrels eating McDonald’s cheeseburgers, funeral menus, tequila, mofongo, espresso martinis, glow sticks, and enough inappropriate laughter to keep the USS Shit Show afloat.
Underneath all of it is a powerful reminder: joy belongs in recovery too.
You do not need to become fully healed before you deserve connection, purpose, laughter, and a life that feels like yours.
Keywords: Mandi Lynne, ONE Life, survival mode, trauma recovery, living while healing, mental health recovery, self-worth, boundaries, self-abandonment, CPTSD, anxiety, ADHD, emotional wellness, personal growth, healing journey
Meet Our Guest — Mandi Lynne
Mandi Lynne is the Founder and CEO of ONE | Life and a former executive at MedCircle, where she helped scale one of the world's most recognized mental health education platforms.
A former educator and nonprofit leader with a background in science, education, and leadership, Mandi also holds certifications in Health & Wellness Coaching, Hypnotherapy, NLP, Somatic practices, and Global Leadership & Social Innovation through the United Nations University for Peace.
Her perspective is shaped not only by her professional experience but by rebuilding her own life through trauma, chronic illness, job loss, bankruptcy, divorce, financial hardship, miscarriage, single parenting, OCD, anxiety, CPTSD, and a past eating disorder.
Today, she helps people move out of survival mode and into a life of clarity, confidence, and direction.
Not someday. Now.
Website: https://onelifelivenow.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onelifebymedcircle
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MedCircle
Key Takeaways
You do not need to finish healing before you are allowed to start living.
Constantly triaging external problems can keep us from examining the deeper beliefs those problems activate.
Caring for other people should not require abandoning yourself.
Mental health diagnoses can provide information and direction without becoming your identity or limitation.
Healing is allowed to include joy, laughter, music, nature, friendship, and ridiculous moments.
Asking for help does not diminish your strength.
Sometimes one person reminding you of your worth can change the direction of your life.
Actionable Items
Build five minutes of living into your day. Choose something that genuinely makes you feel alive—music, nature, coffee, laughter, animals, creativity—and make space for it before everything feels “fixed.”
Create a joy folder. Whenever something sparks a moment of happiness, take a picture. On the days you feel disconnected from yourself, use that folder as evidence of what still lights you up.
Identify your support people. Write down the names of the people you can contact when you are struggling so you do not have to figure out who to call in the middle of a hard moment.
References Mentioned
ONE | Life: https://onelifelivenow.com/
MedCircle: https://www.youtube.com/@MedCircle
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: https://988lifeline.org/
Important Chapters
00:00:46 — What is ONE | Life? Mandi explains her eight years with MedCircle and how mental health education evolved into a bigger question: once we understand what is happening, how do we actually live better?
00:02:31 — When all the distractions disappeared, Mandi reflects on COVID and how suddenly being left alone with ourselves changed the broader conversation around mental health.
00:03:20 — Stop spending every therapy session triaging the surface. Mandi explains how repeatedly focusing only on external crises can keep us from reaching the deeper beliefs those situations trigger.
00:04:00 — Infidelity, self-worth, and getting to the root. Mandi shares how her former husband’s affairs hurt so deeply because they reinforced something she already feared about her own worth.
00:05:05 — Stop postponing your life until you are healed. Mandi describes realizing that she had turned healing into a prerequisite for living and why that needed to change.
00:05:49 — Raccoon videos count as mental health care around here G-Rex explains the therapeutic value of starting the day with ridiculous raccoon videos, and somehow it makes perfect sense.
00:06:46 — Service without self-abandonment. Mandi talks about caring for others while recognizing that giving should not constantly come at your own expense.
00:07:16 — Relationships without betraying yourself. Mandi explores healthy connection, attachment wounds, authenticity, and finding people who cherish you for being who you actually are.
00:08:57 — G-Rex on masking depression: G-Rex reflects on how completely she hid her depression while caring for everyone around her and why she refuses to put that mask back on.
00:10:05 — Humor as a mental health pressure valve Mandi, G-Rex, and Dirty Skittles explain why sometimes the thing that keeps heavy experiences bearable is laughing at shit you probably should not laugh at.
00:11:47 — Living while you are still healing: G-Rex talks about traveling, setting boundaries, and continuing to experience life even while recovery was still unfolding.
00:14:42 — Introverts confess they kind of loved lockdown. Dirty Skittles and Mandi bond over the unexpected freedom of canceled obligations, while G-Rex, the extrovert, strongly disagrees.
00:16:32 — The evolution from MedCircle to ONE | Life Mandi describes creating a more experiential, inclusive approach focused on practical living rather than only diagnosis and education.
00:18:26 — Your diagnosis is not your personality. Mandi explains why labels should provide information and direction—not become evidence that you cannot do something.
00:20:32 — ADHD as a superpower: G-Rex talks about working with her ADHD instead of treating it solely as a limitation.
00:22:06 — What Mandi would tell her seven-year-old self: Mandi returns to the childhood trauma discussed in Part 1 and gives her younger self the message she needed most: it was not your fault.
00:23:49 — The hardest lesson: You do not have to do everything yourself. Mandi talks about responsibility, caregiving, parenting, enabling, and the value of letting others learn to stand on their own.
00:26:03 — If anxiety had a theme song, Joan Jett and Led Zeppelin enter the chat as Mandi shares the music that helps her interrupt anxiety and release control.
00:27:19 — Mandi’s favorite word is exactly what you think it is. The versatility and emotional range of the word “fuck” receive the appreciation it deserves.
00:30:38 — Mandi turns the questions on G-Rex and Dirty Skittles. The conversation shifts as Mandi asks the hosts about the life-changing realizations that altered their own mental health journeys.
00:31:01 — Dirty Skittles realizes she has been living in fight mode. Dirty Skittles shares how therapy helped her recognize chronic hypervigilance and begin discovering what peace actually felt like.
00:32:10 — The 988 call that changed G-Rex’s life. G-Rex describes the crisis call that reminded her of her worth, helped her ask for help, and became a pivotal moment in her survival.
00:33:10 — Kevin Hines and the power of human connection: Mandi reflects on conversations with Golden Gate Bridge survivor Kevin Hines and why acknowledging another human being can matter more than we realize.
00:35:02 — Healing outside therapy: Nature, joy folders, photography, and small moments of happiness become examples of tools that can help us reconnect with ourselves.
00:37:41 — When caregiving disconnects you from yourself: Mandi and Dirty Skittles talk about losing pieces of identity inside roles like parent, partner, and caregiver.
00:38:40 — The squirrel, the cheeseburger, and unexpected joy. Mandi shares one of those completely ridiculous moments that instantly remind you of how healing laughter can be.
00:39:14 — Music and activating the experience of being alive: Mandi discusses using playlists, sensory experiences, nature, and emotion to reconnect with what it feels like to be fully present.
00:40:25 — Planning the ultimate funeral party: Tequila, mofongo, meatloaf, espresso martinis, glow sticks, walkers, and Depends close the conversation in exactly the way you would expect from this crew.
00:42:04 — Where to find Mandi and ONE | Life Mandi shares how listeners can connect with ONE | Life and MedCircle and reminds everyone to find the approach that works for them.
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