Stop Being Polite

This one is for the ladies. Because we were taught to be ladies and to always be prim, proper and polite. And where has that gotten us exactly? Exactly.And, look, I am a please-and-thank-you kind of gal. I like manners. Manners make the world go 'round. But I'm sort of done with being polite.Now, this isn't to say I condone being rude. I absolutely do not. We have enough rudeness in our society. And, please note, I didn't title this ep "Start Being Impolite". No. There's a big diff between not being polite and being impolite. Right? We just don't need to soften our responses in order to make rude people feel better.And if you're interested in the t-shirt I mentioned, get it here.Follow the podcast on Instagram, Threads and Facebook @HappyRebelPodcast and go deeper into your eudaimonic wellbeing at The Happyist Substack.Leave a review on Apple Podcasts and DM a screenshot of it to me on Instagram (@happyrebelpodcast) along with your preferred email address to receive a free month of The Happyist Substack plus a discount on a continuing subscription. (Please note, this is a manual process. The only AI I use is *actual* intelligence.)Be a Happy Rebel VIP! Join our email group!To work with me, or for further inquiries, please visit TheHappyist.me Ready to start your own podcast? Consider Buzzsprout as your host. They make it easy and affordable. Use my referral link for a $20 credit on any paid plan. ©2025-2026 Happy Rebel LLC All Rights ReservedMusic: "Punk Attitude" by Flash Fluharty licensed via PremiumBeats

Words are powerful things, in both good and bad ways. We can use them to build ourselves up or tear others down. And we should be mindful of how we use them.We are taught from a young age to use our magic words. Aside from "Pretty please" and "Thank you", there are also mantras, the most magical of words. But we aren't taught to use them like we should.You probably think mantras are only used while sitting in lotus position, eyes closed and speaking them in a language you may not know. Nope. The most powerful mantras are the ones we create for ourselves and we can say them with our eyes wide open and doing the things we need to do, like driving or getting groceries. So, if you don't have a mantra of your own, let's create some magic words for you to use.Follow the podcast on Instagram, Threads and Facebook @HappyRebelPodcast and go deeper into your eudaimonic wellbeing at The Happyist Substack.Leave a review on Apple Podcasts and DM a screenshot of it to me on Instagram (@happyrebelpodcast) along with your preferred email address to receive a free month of The Happyist Substack plus a discount on a continuing subscription. (Please note, this is a manual process. The only AI I use is *actual* intelligence.)Be a Happy Rebel VIP! Join our email group!To work with me, or for further inquiries, please visit TheHappyist.me Ready to start your own podcast? Consider Buzzsprout as your host. They make it easy and affordable. Use my referral link for a $20 credit on any paid plan. ©2025-2026 Happy Rebel LLC All Rights ReservedMusic: "Punk Attitude" by Flash Fluharty licensed via PremiumBeats

I had some fun the other day in the dentist chair. She was replacing a crown and, my gawd, that drill is loud. So I turned up the audiobook I was listening to, but nothing was happening. I kept pressing the button and cursing my Airpods — you’re supposed to be noise-cancelling, FFS! Then my phone started vibrating. My audiobook went silent and the 911 recording started.What I thought was the Volume Up button was actually the SOS.When the dentist took her hand out of my mouth for a brief second, I shot up, and started pressing every button to end the call. You have to confirm you want to end the call, BTW. With the glare from the overhead lamp and my privacy shield keeping things private, it was hard to see the screen. I noticed a countdown — 3, 2, 1 — for what, I wasn’t sure. Before I could stop it, my emergency contacts were called and the dentist had her hand back in my mouth. Lying there, helpless, I started getting calls and texts from my two besties who serve as my emergency contacts. Couldn’t do anything about it until the dentist’s hand was out of my mouth and she was off to her next victim.I was finally able to pick up one call and return the text of another before my temporary crown was attached. Good to know that SOS system works! And also that my besties have great senses of humor. BTW, you have to turn off the SOS or they will keep getting texts with location pins until you do. Learned that on the drive home. The more you know…I have amazing friends. That was intentional and truly worth the effort to make, maintain and deepen those relationships.Follow the podcast on Instagram, Threads and Facebook @HappyRebelPodcast and go deeper into your eudaimonic wellbeing at The Happyist Substack.Leave a review on Apple Podcasts and DM a screenshot of it to me on Instagram (@happyrebelpodcast) along with your preferred email address to receive a free month of The Happyist Substack plus a discount on a continuing subscription. (Please note, this is a manual process. The only AI I use is *actual* intelligence.)Be a Happy Rebel VIP! Join our email group!To work with me, or for further inquiries, please visit TheHappyist.me Ready to start your own podcast? Consider Buzzsprout as your host. They make it easy and affordable. Use my referral link for a $20 credit on any paid plan. ©2025-2026 Happy Rebel LLC All Rights ReservedMusic: "Punk Attitude" by Flash Fluharty licensed via PremiumBeats

Dollars to doughnuts, if you are listening to this — especially if you are GenX — you have seen and/or read The Secret. If you haven’t, you really didn’t miss anything. In a nutshell, and what I found really irritating, was that it focused on a materialism mindset. Think really hard about the shit you want and you’ll get it! It really missed the mark on manifestation and it sent people — yes, including me — into what I call Malignant Optimism. Because, as we were told, “the secret” was to really, really, really believe that what you wanted would come true. You would manifest it. And, if you didn’t, you were doing it wrong. You didn’t believe enough. It’s all your fault.Let me tell you, I did believe. I had the LLC and bank account open, ready to receive. The team around me telling me it was going to happen any day now. I could see it, smell it taste it. And nope. I just wound up deep in a five-figure hole.And that’s okay, because it led me to discover what the real secret really is.Follow the podcast on Instagram, Threads and Facebook @HappyRebelPodcast and go deeper into your eudaimonic wellbeing at The Happyist Substack.Leave a review on Apple Podcasts and DM a screenshot of it to me on Instagram (@happyrebelpodcast) along with your preferred email address to receive a free month of The Happyist Substack plus a discount on a continuing subscription. (Please note, this is a manual process. The only AI I use is *actual* intelligence.)Be a Happy Rebel VIP! Join our email group!To work with me, or for further inquiries, please visit TheHappyist.me Ready to start your own podcast? Consider Buzzsprout as your host. They make it easy and affordable. Use my referral link for a $20 credit on any paid plan. ©2025-2026 Happy Rebel LLC All Rights ReservedMusic: "Punk Attitude" by Flash Fluharty licensed via PremiumBeats

I don’t know about yours, but my ego is a petty, petty bitch. I'm trying to help her grow the eff up. Mature. Evolve! And we are having this ongoing battle —- which I'm sure anyone who’s elevating, changing, and stepping into your next-self experiences as well. TBH, I don't want to be bothered by people who are not worth my time. You know the ones. And I'm sure they know who they are. Unfortunately, I can't just cut them out of my life. I have to deal with them on a day-to-day basis. Welcome to the world. I just have to get to the point where I not only don't take it personally — because at least I’ve gotten that far — I have to get to the point where I don't want to engage. Because I am really good at engaging. And that petty, petty bitch of an ego of mine is too happy to play a game she will likely win. But at what cost?Follow the podcast on Instagram, Threads and Facebook @HappyRebelPodcast and go deeper into your eudaimonic wellbeing at The Happyist Substack.Leave a review on Apple Podcasts and DM a screenshot of it to me on Instagram (@happyrebelpodcast) along with your preferred email address to receive a free month of The Happyist Substack plus a discount on a continuing subscription. (Please note, this is a manual process. The only AI I use is *actual* intelligence.)Be a Happy Rebel VIP! Join our email group!To work with me, or for further inquiries, please visit TheHappyist.me Ready to start your own podcast? Consider Buzzsprout as your host. They make it easy and affordable. Use my referral link for a $20 credit on any paid plan. ©2025-2026 Happy Rebel LLC All Rights ReservedMusic: "Punk Attitude" by Flash Fluharty licensed via PremiumBeats

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to Season 4, the last season of the first year of Happy Rebel, and we are greeting autumn with a Cheshire cat grin.Autumn and spring are my two favorite seasons. Not just because of the weather (I love sweater weather that allows for open-toes shoes), but because these seasons are intentional. We plant and then we harvest. We have to be thoughtful and thorough, present and purposeful during these times…especially in an election year. And make no mistake, rebellion is intentional. It might look chaotic, but it is deliberate AF. Be sure to take advantage of the October offer on my Substack, thehappyist.substack.com. New paid subscribers get a 30-minute private consultation with me. Offer is limited to the first 22 paid subscribers and ends October 31st. xoFollow the podcast on Instagram, Threads and Facebook @HappyRebelPodcast and go deeper into your eudaimonic wellbeing at The Happyist Substack.Leave a review on Apple Podcasts and DM a screenshot of it to me on Instagram (@happyrebelpodcast) along with your preferred email address to receive a free month of The Happyist Substack plus a discount on a continuing subscription. (Please note, this is a manual process. The only AI I use is *actual* intelligence.)Be a Happy Rebel VIP! Join our email group!To work with me, or for further inquiries, please visit TheHappyist.me Ready to start your own podcast? Consider Buzzsprout as your host. They make it easy and affordable. Use my referral link for a $20 credit on any paid plan. ©2025-2026 Happy Rebel LLC All Rights ReservedMusic: "Punk Attitude" by Flash Fluharty licensed via PremiumBeats

You know what I’ve noticed a lot lately? People smoking. And where I live — in a West Los Angeles beach town, full of health-conscious, Lululemon-clad people coming and going from yoga and Pilates or their gym of choice, likely on their way to Erewhon to get a $20 smoothie — seeing a cigarette sticking out of a car window is weird. And that weird is happening. A lot.Now, I’m GenX. When I was in high school, we literally had a smoking section in the parking lot on campus. It was where the punks and NewRo’s and headbangers hung out. Where I hung out. But I was the sole non-smoker. You see, I had asthma. Pneumonia twice before I even got to pre-school. And both of my parents were chain-smokers. Like, in the car, windows up.Needless to say, I find it to be a nasty habit. And we know what we know. We know it’s destructive, and not just to the smoker. We know it’s expensive, and WTF isn’t these days? But what it symbolizes to me is the unhappiness that is so prevalent. That the anger and frustration we feel about the effing world is turning inward. I get that smokers use cigarettes to self-soothe. But is it working? And isn’t there a better method? Like one that doesn’t come with a government-issued warning label?IYKYK...if you don't, here's the YouTube:https://youtube.com/shorts/zT4qQMdyB3U?si=_cgWJ8tPlIyz5S8kLink to the course, as promised:https://thehappyist.substack.com/p/coursesFollow the podcast on Instagram, Threads and Facebook @HappyRebelPodcast and go deeper into your eudaimonic wellbeing at The Happyist Substack.Leave a review on Apple Podcasts and DM a screenshot of it to me on Instagram (@happyrebelpodcast) along with your preferred email address to receive a free month of The Happyist Substack plus a discount on a continuing subscription. (Please note, this is a manual process. The only AI I use is *actual* intelligence.)Be a Happy Rebel VIP! Join our email group!To work with me, or for further inquiries, please visit TheHappyist.me Ready to start your own podcast? Consider Buzzsprout as your host. They make it easy and affordable. Use my referral link for a $20 credit on any paid plan. ©2025-2026 Happy Rebel LLC All Rights ReservedMusic: "Punk Attitude" by Flash Fluharty licensed via PremiumBeats

Every day, society checks to see what we will tolerate. And every day, we lower our standards, cross our own boundaries, and accept things we find unacceptable. Usually, for our convenience.As a person in Los Angeles, I will say, we tolerate the gas prices. Because it's easier to tolerate them than to figure out public transportation. So we say, “Yes, we will accept this obnoxiously high gas price,” while the CEOs and the shareholders make their money and show absurd profits. Meanwhile, the planet heats up and fires burn. We are being tested every single day on what we will tolerate. And we do tolerate some intolerable shit. Can’t blame us. We’re busy, stressed and financially terrified. Because of what we tolerate, we are participating in the creation of this weird world. And, no, that’s not to say it’s our fault. Not at all. However, the longer we tolerate this, the more complicit we become. Because we are forgetting that we do have options. They just might be inconvenient.Follow the podcast on Instagram, Threads and Facebook @HappyRebelPodcast and go deeper into your eudaimonic wellbeing at The Happyist Substack.Leave a review on Apple Podcasts and DM a screenshot of it to me on Instagram (@happyrebelpodcast) along with your preferred email address to receive a free month of The Happyist Substack plus a discount on a continuing subscription. (Please note, this is a manual process. The only AI I use is *actual* intelligence.)Be a Happy Rebel VIP! Join our email group!To work with me, or for further inquiries, please visit TheHappyist.me Ready to start your own podcast? Consider Buzzsprout as your host. They make it easy and affordable. Use my referral link for a $20 credit on any paid plan. ©2025-2026 Happy Rebel LLC All Rights ReservedMusic: "Punk Attitude" by Flash Fluharty licensed via PremiumBeats

Boundaries. I love them. And they can be super disrupty because some people don't know what the fuck to do when you assert them. Their assumption is, if you assert your boundaries, well, then you're not a nice person. And if you're not a nice person, well, then you're certainly not a happy person. And I am here to tell you all of that is crap. Being happy doesn't mean being a doormat. It doesn't mean tolerating bullshit. And it doesn't mean automatically forgiving people for their bullshit. Being happy means having standards and holding to them.Let me tell you, one of the things that makes me super happy is accountability — that of others and my own. And you know what keeps people accountable? Yep: Boundaries.But here’s the thing: Boundaries are not setting rules for other people to abide by. Nope. Boundaries are about holding a set of standards and values for yourself. You aren't trying to tell somebody how to behave by honoring your boundaries. You're just letting them know their behavior isn’t for you and if that’s the only behavior they’re capable of, you're moving on. There is a diff.But some people are confused by that. They use their boundaries to hold other people accountable to their rules and regulations, expecting others to acquiesce to their whims. They think of their boundaries as a rulebook for others to play by. Uh uh. That’s just a form of control and manipulation. Which is totally inappropriate, unhealthy and gross. Follow the podcast on Instagram, Threads and Facebook @HappyRebelPodcast and go deeper into your eudaimonic wellbeing at The Happyist Substack.Leave a review on Apple Podcasts and DM a screenshot of it to me on Instagram (@happyrebelpodcast) along with your preferred email address to receive a free month of The Happyist Substack plus a discount on a continuing subscription. (Please note, this is a manual process. The only AI I use is *actual* intelligence.)Be a Happy Rebel VIP! Join our email group!To work with me, or for further inquiries, please visit TheHappyist.me Ready to start your own podcast? Consider Buzzsprout as your host. They make it easy and affordable. Use my referral link for a $20 credit on any paid plan. ©2025-2026 Happy Rebel LLC All Rights ReservedMusic: "Punk Attitude" by Flash Fluharty licensed via PremiumBeats

Think about it for a moment. Give it a good Scooby-Doo. Who benefits by you being unhappy? Because someone does. And it isn’t you.And you know the impact being unhappy has in your life. It doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t get you anywhere. So, who benefits if you remain unhappy? When we are unhappy, we are compliant. We are stuck. We stick with the devil we know. Our nervous system has acclimated to this misery and has deemed it safe. How can something that makes us unhappy be safe? Because we are breathing and alive and that is safe. Our nervous system is basic AF.Follow the podcast on Instagram, Threads and Facebook @HappyRebelPodcast and go deeper into your eudaimonic wellbeing at The Happyist Substack.Leave a review on Apple Podcasts and DM a screenshot of it to me on Instagram (@happyrebelpodcast) along with your preferred email address to receive a free month of The Happyist Substack plus a discount on a continuing subscription. (Please note, this is a manual process. The only AI I use is *actual* intelligence.)Be a Happy Rebel VIP! Join our email group!To work with me, or for further inquiries, please visit TheHappyist.me Ready to start your own podcast? Consider Buzzsprout as your host. They make it easy and affordable. Use my referral link for a $20 credit on any paid plan. ©2025-2026 Happy Rebel LLC All Rights ReservedMusic: "Punk Attitude" by Flash Fluharty licensed via PremiumBeats