The Daily Ascent

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 114 | Why You Can't Rush Your Way Back After a Hard Season Apr 09, 2026

Show notes

In today's episode, I'm telling you about something my mother said to me about Danny — my 75 pound lab mix who just had surgery and is currently on the mend — that I genuinely cannot believe I had to be told.

It changed how I think about recovery entirely.

Pema Chödrön reminds us that the trick is to practice gentleness and letting go — because whatever we practice, we strengthen.

Question to carry into your day: Where are you not giving yourself the grace of a full recovery?

Want to chat about working together? Me too! Visit https://link.allyone.io/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall to schedule a free call about my Stop Starting Over System.

Let's Stay Connected:

Subscribe on YouTube
Instagram: @mollycarmel
Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront
Questions or want to share your story? Email me at dailyascentpod@gmail.com

An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

Ep. 113 | Why You Can't Make Brave Decisions Based on What Might Happen Apr 08, 2026

Show notes

In today's episode, I'm telling you about an amend I almost didn't make — because I was certain I already knew how it would end.

My spiritual teacher said something to me that I have never forgotten.

Thomas Merton writes that we have to stop depending on the hope of results and start concentrating on the value, the rightness, and the truth of the work itself.

She didn't pick up. And something in me still cleared.

Question to carry into your day: What are you not doing because you've already decided how it ends?

Want to chat about working together? Me too! Visit https://link.allyone.io/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall to schedule a free call about my Stop Starting Over System.

Let's Stay Connected:

Subscribe on YouTube
Instagram: @mollycarmel
Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront
Questions or want to share your story? Email me at dailyascentpod@gmail.com

An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

Ep. 112 | How to Love Someone as They Are (Not as You Wish They Were) Apr 07, 2026

Show notes

In today's episode, I'm telling you about a wedding vow that stopped me in my tracks — and a question my spiritual guide has had to ask me more than once.

It starts with a marriage, but it ends at Trader Joe's.

Anne Lamott writes that love is a piece of toast and a diamond — sturdy and imperfect — and that what we stand to lose when we truly love someone is the illusion of control.

Question to carry into your day: Who in your life are you struggling to love as they are — and what might that be telling you about yourself?

Want to chat about working together? Me too! Visit https://link.allyone.io/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall to schedule a free call about my Stop Starting Over System.

Let's Stay Connected:

Subscribe on YouTube
Instagram: @mollycarmel
Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront
Questions or want to share your story? Email me at dailyascentpod@gmail.com

An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

Ep. 111 | What If Your Hardest Healing Work Is Actually a Privilege? Apr 06, 2026

Show notes

In today's episode, I'm telling you about a friend of mine who had a real breakthrough — and spent the whole time describing it like a prison sentence. I had to stop her.

Because what I was actually watching wasn't a burden. It was one of the rarest invitations a person can receive.

Henri Nouwen writes that the only way to get to the new country is naked and vulnerable — and that trust is what's essential, even when you have nothing to fall back on.

Question to carry into your day: What are you calling a burden that might actually be an invitation to something greater?

Want to chat about working together? Me too! Visit https://link.allyone.io/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall to schedule a free call about my Stop Starting Over System.

Let's Stay Connected:

Subscribe on YouTube
Instagram: @mollycarmel
Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront
Questions or want to share your story? Email me at dailyascentpod@gmail.com

An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

Ep. 110 | How to Rewrite the Story Your Body Has Been Carrying Apr 03, 2026

Show notes

In today's episode, I'm talking about one of the greatest gifts of being human: the ability to rewrite our stories.

I've done it over and over — getting sober, healing my eating disorder, changing how I relate to friendship, work, love. The EMDR reached the stories that were cemented deepest in my body.

But you don't need EMDR to rewrite your story. You need the willingness to see the old version for what it is — a first draft — and the courage to start acting into the new one.

Mark Nepo reminds us: "There is very little difference between burying and planting. For often, we need to put dead things to rest, so that new life can grow."

Question to carry into your day: What story has your body been carrying that your adult self is ready to rewrite?

Want to chat about working together? Me too! Visit https://link.allyone.io/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall to schedule a free call about my Stop Starting Over System.

Let's Stay Connected:

Subscribe on YouTube
Instagram: @mollycarmel
Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront
Questions or want to share your story? Email me at dailyascentpod@gmail.com

An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

Ep. 109 | What the Flu Taught Me About Letting Go of My Plans Apr 02, 2026

Show notes

In today's episode, I'm telling you about the time I got the flu, cancelled my whole week — including patients, which was not easy — and thought I had surrendered.

And then discovered that the real surrender was still coming.

Post-viral fatigue taught me that my body doesn't check my calendar before deciding it needs more rest.

And the distance between the bratty scream and the surrender? It's getting shorter.

That's not perfection. That's practice.

Melody Beattie reminds us: "At no day, no hour, no time are you required to do more than you can do in peace."

Question to carry into your day: What is your body asking you for right now that you keep saying no to?

Want to chat about working together? Me too! Visit https://link.allyone.io/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall to schedule a free call about my Stop Starting Over System.

Let's Stay Connected:

Subscribe on YouTube
Instagram: @mollycarmel
Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront
Questions or want to share your story? Email me at dailyascentpod@gmail.com

An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

Ep. 108 | How to Change Your Perspective When Everything Feels Wrong Apr 01, 2026

Show notes

In today's episode, I'm telling you about the time my kitchen turned purple — and how the worst thing about my house in Charlotte turned out to be the very best thing about it once I got Danny.

It's a story about perspective, about how fast we decide something is a disaster, and about what happens when we stay long enough for the gift to reveal itself.

John O'Donohue reminds us not to be afraid to receive each day's surprise, whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy — because it will open a new place in our hearts.

Question to carry into your day: What are you looking at right now that might look completely different six months from now?

Want to chat about working together? Me too! Visit https://link.allyone.io/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall to schedule a free call about my Stop Starting Over System.

Let's Stay Connected:

Subscribe on YouTube
Instagram: @mollycarmel
Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront
Questions or want to share your story? Email me at dailyascentpod@gmail.com

An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

Ep. 107 | What Are You Fixing So You Don't Have to Feel? Mar 31, 2026

Show notes

In today's episode, I'm sharing the phone call where my friend and I were deep in fear about the state of the world — and then she pivoted to asking about a supplement.

And the sacred pause that followed when she realized: I'm not looking for a supplement. I'm looking for an escape from how I feel.

Geneen Roth reminds us: "All any feeling wants is to be welcomed with tenderness. It wants room to unfold. It wants to relax and tell its story."

Question to carry into your day: What are you fixing right now so you don't have to feel something?

Want to chat about working together? Me too! Visit https://link.allyone.io/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall to schedule a free call about my Stop Starting Over System.

Let's Stay Connected:

Subscribe on YouTube
Instagram: @mollycarmel
Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront
Questions or want to share your story? Email me at dailyascentpod@gmail.com

An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

Ep. 106 | Why You Should Never Stop Trying New Things in Your Healing Mar 30, 2026

Show notes

In today's episode, I'm getting honest about why the EMDR intensive hit so deeply... I have no idea.

What I do know is this: you never know which healing experience is going to be the one that cracks you open.

And because you can't know, the only option is to stay open, stay relentless, and keep walking through doors.

The Al-Anon daily reader Courage to Change reminds us: "Building trust takes time, change takes time, healing old wounds takes time." And: "I will trust the process of recovery. I'll let time take time."

Question to carry into your day: What have you given up on in your healing that might deserve another chance?

Want to chat about working together? Me too! Visit https://link.allyone.io/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall to schedule a free call about my Stop Starting Over System.

Let's Stay Connected:

Subscribe on YouTube
Instagram: @mollycarmel
Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront
Questions or want to share your story? Email me at dailyascentpod@gmail.com

An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

Ep. 105 | Why the Messy Middle Isn't the End of Your Story Mar 27, 2026

Show notes

In today's episode, I'm talking about the phone call I had with a friend of mine who told me she was "grieving the end of her career."

And why I gently pushed back — because what she was describing wasn't the end. It was a messy middle.

And our brains are actually wired to prefer bad certainty over good uncertainty, which is why we'd rather call something dead than sit in the not-knowing.

Brené Brown reminds us: "The middle is messy, but it's also where the magic happens. You can't skip day two."

Question to carry into your day: What are you calling "over" that might just be unfinished?

Want to chat about working together? Me too! Visit https://link.allyone.io/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall to schedule a free call about my Stop Starting Over System.

Let's Stay Connected:

Subscribe on YouTube
Instagram: @mollycarmel
Check out my Pocket Sages on my Amazon Storefront
Questions or want to share your story? Email me at dailyascentpod@gmail.com

An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

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