From Avoidance to Awareness With Dr. Chip Dodd

What if the emotions you fear most are actually the gateway to your greatest freedom? In this final episode of our series, Chip and Leanne explore how to stop fearing emotions and start listening to them instead. They break down the connection between numbing and disconnection, why vulnerability is the key to healing, and how embracing your emotions can lead to real joy and fulfillment. With practical tools and mindset shifts, this episode will empower you to move from numbing to healing—so you can reclaim your peace, presence, and power. Visit Chip's website at: ChipDodd.com You can order your copy of Chip's book, The Voice of the Heart: A Call To Full Living HERE. Listen to the Living With Heart Podcast HERE. HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @leanneellington  To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If willpower alone isn’t enough to stop numbing, what is? In this episode, Chip and Leanne explore why true healing starts with understanding the function of our coping behaviors—not just trying to “fix” them. They share the first steps to recognizing an unhealthy coping pattern, decoding what it’s really telling you, and shifting from avoidance to awareness. This episode is all about embracing discomfort as the key to freedom and learning how to break the cycle for good. Visit Chip's website at: ChipDodd.com You can order your copy of Chip's book, The Voice of the Heart: A Call To Full Living HERE. Listen to the Living With Heart Podcast HERE. HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @leanneellington  To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why do we turn to food, alcohol, shopping, or even busyness when life feels overwhelming? In this episode, Chip and Leanne dive into the real reason we numb—what we’re actually trying to escape or avoid—and how society conditions us to suppress rather than process emotions. They break down the neuroscience behind coping mechanisms, revealing why they provide short-term relief but lead to long-term suffering. If you’ve ever wondered why breaking free from old habits feels impossible, this episode will give you the clarity you need to start shifting your patterns. Visit Chip's website at: ChipDodd.com You can order your copy of Chip's book, The Voice of the Heart: A Call To Full Living HERE. Listen to the Living With Heart Podcast HERE. HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @leanneellington  To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Addiction isn’t just about substances—it’s about the ways we cope with pain, stress, and unmet needs. In this episode, Chip Dodd and Leanne unpack how behaviors like emotional eating, over-exercising, workaholism, and social media addiction follow the same addictive patterns as substances. They explore the difference between coping mechanisms that help us heal versus those that keep us stuck, and how the brain wires itself for addiction. If you’ve ever felt caught in a cycle of numbing or self-sabotage, this episode will help you understand why—and what you can do about it. Visit Chip's website at: ChipDodd.com You can order your copy of Chip's book, The Voice of the Heart: A Call To Full Living HERE. Listen to the Living With Heart Podcast HERE. HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @leanneellington  To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mylaina is 22 years old. And she just did what most women wish they'd done decades earlier. She was a psychology student getting certified in nutrition and wellness. She knew intellectually how to take care of her body, how to eat, how to work out. But mentally, she was destroying herself. Every morsel of food was tracked. Most foods were off limits. She was the one not licking the spoon after weighing the peanut butter. She preached balance but lived in fear and control. And the more she tried to control, the more she lost control. It was a constant war—between her and her plate, between her and her body. The cycle was relentless: intense perfectionism would swing into binges, then came the shame, then the "start again Monday" promise. And every restart just pushed her deeper into the spiral. From the outside, it didn't look extreme at all. But inside, she was white-knuckling her way through life, secretly hating her body, treating it like an enemy that wasn't cooperating. Her worth was completely tied to her physical appearance, and she was exhausted. In June 2025, Mylaina hit her lowest point. She was hopeless, quietly desperate, and alone in her apartment when she finally cried out to God: "You need to meet me here. I don't even recognize this life I've built." That's when she found Stressless Eating. And at 22 years old, Mylaina made a decision that most women don't make until their 30s, 40s, 50s, or beyond. She decided she wasn't going to carry this struggle into her future. She wasn't going to spend decades fighting the same battle. She was going to heal it now. In this powerful case study, Mylaina shares how her life was completely reconstructed from the ground up. How food became just food—fuel, fun, enjoyment. How movement became a celebration of what her body can do, not how small she can be. How she finally surrendered the last area of her life she'd been unwilling to give to God: her body, her food, her self-image. She stepped into the posture of daughtership—learning to live from a place of being loved instead of trying to earn it. And for the first time, she realized: daughters don't have to strive for belonging. We already have it. Today, Mylaina is fully free. Her nervous system is at peace. She's showing up as the daughter and friend she always wanted to be. And she's living proof that you don't have to wait until you've wasted decades to finally choose healing. If you've ever thought, "I wish I'd figured this out sooner," or "I don't want to still be struggling with this in 10, 20, 30 years," Mylaina's story is for you. Because healing isn't about how long you've been stuck. It's about the decision to stop recycling the same pain and finally do the work that sets you free. And you don't have to wait. You can do it now. HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @LeanneEllington // @theteenagerbrain To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if you didn't have to manage your anxiety, your trauma, your patterns for the rest of your life? What if you could actually repair the root problem—and move on? In this final episode of our series, Dr. Lee Warren and I talk about the solution. The shift from "holding pressure on the wound forever" to actually stitching it up and letting it heal. The shift from symptom management to root repair. The shift from spending years in therapy just managing to actually becoming the surgeon of your own mind. Dr. Warren explains the consent-to-automate sequence—the missing piece that most mental health approaches don't teach. It's the moment your brain asks for permission to automate a thought, feeling, or reaction. And once you learn to spot that moment, you can withhold consent and install a better automation instead. The brain rewires in seconds to minutes—not years. But here's the key: it's not just about changing your thoughts. It's about rewiring your self-image—the subconscious beliefs that are running the show. Because if your self-image undermines what Scripture says about you, you'll keep defaulting to the old patterns no matter how hard you try. We tie it all back to Ephesians 4, where Paul talks about being "renewed in the spirit of your mind." He wasn't saying "manage your old self forever." He was saying "put on the new self"—an actual identity-level transformation. And that's exactly what Self-Brain Surgery makes possible. This episode is the hopeful one. The practical one. The one that shows you how to stop managing and start repairing. If you're ready to move on with your life, this is the conversation you've been waiting for. GUEST: Dr. Lee Warren // wleewarrenmd.com // @drleewarrenListen to Dr. Warren's Podcast here.Order Dr. Warren's New Book, The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery. HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @LeanneEllington // @theteenagerbrain To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if the very thing mental health culture tells you to do—focus on your trauma, honor your feelings, explore your pain—is actually reinforcing the patterns that are keeping you stuck? In this episode, Dr. Lee Warren and I tackle one of the most controversial (and most important) truths about how the brain works: where you put your attention literally shapes your reality. What you focus on expands. And if you're spending years focusing on your trauma, your pain, your "broken" parts, you're training your brain to keep running those patterns. We talk about the observer effect from quantum physics, how the ACC (the social-emotional brain) operates at the subconscious level, and why your beliefs have to align with what Scripture says about you—not just intellectually, but at the deepest level where your brain is automating your identity. This isn't about toxic positivity or pretending the pain isn't real. It's about understanding that constantly rehearsing "I AM anxious, I AM broken, I AM not enough" is literally giving your brain permission to keep being that. And there's a better way. If you've ever felt like you've been "working on yourself" for years but you're still stuck in the same patterns, this episode will show you why—and what needs to shift. GUEST: Dr. Lee Warren // wleewarrenmd.com // @drleewarrenListen to Dr. Warren's Podcast here.Order Dr. Warren's New Book, The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery. HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @LeanneEllington // @theteenagerbrain To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We have more mental health resources, more awareness, more support than ever before. So why are anxiety, depression, and suicide rates at all-time highs? In this first episode of our brand-new Spiritual Brain Surgery series, Dr. Lee Warren and I dive into the paradox that's plaguing our culture: more help, worse outcomes. We unpack the stats, explore what's missing from the current mental health model, and ask the hard question: what if the foundation itself is incomplete? Dr. Warren explains why most mental health approaches are built on theory, not on how the brain actually works. We talk about the difference between managing symptoms forever and actually repairing the root problem. And we dig into why knowing the "why" behind your patterns isn't enough if your subconscious self-image is still running the old story. Here's the truth: if your beliefs and self-image undermine what Scripture says about you, it doesn't matter how much therapy you've done or how much you intellectually "know." Your brain will keep automating the old patterns until you learn how to interrupt them at the root. This episode is the foundation for everything we're going to unpack in this series. If you've ever felt stuck—like you're doing all the "right things" but nothing's actually changing—this conversation will show you why, and what's missing. GUEST: Dr. Lee Warren // wleewarrenmd.com // @drleewarrenListen to Dr. Warren's Podcast here.Order Dr. Warren's New Book, The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery. HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @LeanneEllington // @theteenagerbrain To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this final episode of the Teenager Brain series, Leanne dives into the root of it all: the identity crisis. Teens today don't have a stable sense of self. They don't know who they are, what they value, or what they stand for. And their sense of self rises and falls with every like, every comment, every comparison. One day they're confident. The next day they're convinced they're not enough. And you're watching it happen—not knowing how to help them. Here's what makes it even worse: Nobody knows what's real anymore. Your teen is scrolling Instagram, comparing themselves to someone's "perfect" skin—but they don't know it's a filter. They're comparing themselves to someone's "perfect" body—but they don't know it's AI-generated or Photoshopped. They're measuring themselves against a standard that doesn't even exist. Their self-image is being shaped by lies. By filters. By comparison culture. And they have no stable sense of who they are. But here's the good news: We can teach students how to build a self-image that's rooted in internal truth—not external validation. Leanne peels back the curtain on the 4-step system taught inside the Teenager Brain curriculum—the system that builds emotional fitness, which builds emotional resilience: Step 1: Regulate – Go from panic to calm in under 30 secondsStep 2: Separate – Separate truth from lies, data from dramaStep 3: Narrate – Take ownership of your story instead of letting your brain spin worst-case scenariosStep 4: Use Your Inner Compass – Build a self-image rooted in who you are, not what the world says about you This is what happens when we teach students the 4-step system. Not perfection. Not eliminating hard things. Just giving students the tools to build emotional fitness—which builds emotional resilience—before these patterns become decades of struggle. Ready to bring these tools to your school or teen? Head over to TeenagerBrain.com to request a free sample lesson. You'll see exactly how the Teenager Brain curriculum works and test-drive a full lesson from the perspective of both the student and the facilitator. We're looking for our next 25 pilot schools for Fall 2026. This is a 4-week plug-and-play emotional fitness program that teaches students how to regulate their emotions, separate truth from lies, and build a self-image that lasts—without adding to your workload. The window is open. Their brains are ready. The time is now. HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @LeanneEllington // @theteenagerbrain To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Leanne dives into emotional dysregulation—why your teen melts down over the smallest things and can't bring themselves back down. When a teen experiences something that feels threatening, stressful, or overwhelming, their brain's alarm system (the amygdala) goes off and sends them into fight-or-flight mode. Their heart rate spikes, their breathing gets shallow, and their prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain responsible for rational thinking and emotional regulation—goes offline. That's why your teen can't "just calm down" when you tell them to. Their "sound mind" is literally offline. And here's the thing: In teenagers, the prefrontal cortex is still under construction. It's not fully developed until around age 25. So when a teen's brain goes into fight-or-flight, it's even harder for them to bring themselves back down. But here's the good news: We can teach students how to regulate their nervous system. We can teach them how to go from fight-or-flight to calm in under 30 seconds. Even if they've never been able to calm down before. Even if meditation doesn't work for them. The way we teach it at Teenager Brain is different—it's a foolproof way to access the nervous system through the sensory system, and anyone can do it. Leanne shares powerful examples of what changes when students learn to regulate—from handling friend drama without spiraling, to processing a bad grade without melting down, to navigating social media rejection without falling apart. This is what happens when we teach students how to regulate their nervous system. Not perfection. Not eliminating hard things. Just giving students the tools to process their emotions, respond instead of react, and be emotionally available to themselves. Ready to bring these tools to your school or teen? Head over to TeenagerBrain.com to request a free sample lesson. You'll see exactly how the Teenager Brain curriculum works and test-drive a full lesson yourself. We're looking for our next 25 pilot schools for Fall 2026. This is a 4-week plug-and-play emotional fitness program that teaches students how to regulate their emotions, separate truth from lies, and build a self-image that lasts—without adding to your workload. HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @LeanneEllington // @theteenagerbrain To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.