The Daily Ascent

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 210 | How to Check On Someone You Love Without Making Them Feel Judged Aug 21, 2026

Show notes

I'm out in Long Island with my dearest friends, where I go to my meetings a few times a week and everyone knows it. One Sunday night at dinner, I said I had to leave early for a second meeting, and as I got up, my best friend Jason quietly pulled me aside.

He asked if everything was okay, said he'd noticed that was two meetings that day, and put his hand on his heart: I just wanted to check in with you. I didn't feel judged for a second. I felt loved. It turned out I was the speaker that night, so he was wrong, and it didn't matter at all. It was a masterclass in how to check on someone you love.

This is an episode about the difference between checking up on someone and getting curious, why silence and confrontation both miss, and how to ask the real question with an open hand.

Question to carry into your day: Who in your life could you get curious about today, not because you've decided something's wrong, but because you love them and you want to know?

Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall

Let's Stay Connected:

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Questions or want to share your story? Email me at dailyascentpod@gmail.com

An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

Ep. 209 | [FAVORITE] Letting Go Gracefully: How to Know When Something's Complete Aug 20, 2026

Show notes

I started a podcast with two dear friends. It was magic. And then slowly, it wasn't. But I kept pushing through, telling myself good friends and good projects deserve endurance.

Then one of them sent an email saying it was time to come to a natural close. My stomach dropped. And after a long walk with Danny, I realized the truth: I'd just been too scared to say it first.

This episode is about the quiet endings that sneak up gently and whisper, this has run its course, and how to meet them with grace instead of grief.

Question to carry into your day: Where in your life might you be gripping too tightly or cutting too quickly, and what would completion look like if you met it with grace instead of fear?

Ready to do this work with real support? Book a strategy call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall-organic

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. 208 | Why We Don't Have Rituals Anymore Aug 19, 2026

Show notes

I've been collecting rituals for years, from different teachers and traditions. Full moon ceremonies, burns where I write out what I'm carrying and set the paper on fire, nights with friends where we say our intentions out loud.

I don't do all of them and I skip whole seasons. But every time I do one, I get calm and I get connected. I had a boyfriend once who thought it was bizarre and asked why I did this, and I said, what's the downside?

I've thought about that for years. His question is the question. Not why do I do it. Why did he need a reason.

Today's reading is from Wintering by Katherine May, quoting D.H. Lawrence: "We must get back into relation: vivid and nourishing relation to the cosmos and the universe."

This is an episode about what rituals actually do for us, why a culture that measures everything quietly cut them, and what moved into the empty slot where they used to be.

Question to carry into your day: What are you not doing because you can't explain what it's for?

Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall

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. 207 | [FAVORITE] The Permission to Rest Aug 18, 2026

Show notes

My friend Michelle pulled up to teach our class together holding her laptop, completely fried, planning to keep working in the car. And I said, put it down. Let's just talk.

By the time we got to class, I could see it. So I told her, let me teach the whole thing. Just rest. She cried in the closing circle. She said she didn't realize how badly she needed to not be in charge for a minute.

This episode is your permission slip.

Question to carry into your day: Where in your life could you give yourself permission to pause, ask for help, and stop holding everything together on your own?

Let's Stay Connected:

Subscribe on YouTube
Instagram: @mollycarmel
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Questions or want to share your story? Email me at dailyascentpod@gmail.com

An Operation Podcast production | @OperationPodcast

Ep. 206 | The Real Reason You Quit Right Before It Gets Good Aug 17, 2026

Show notes

I was staying with friends in North Carolina, and every morning I took all three dogs on a walk. It was my contribution, lifting a real thing off my friends' plates. And at first it was chaos: three dogs, tangled leashes, wet dogs climbing all over the car. But almost a month in,

I noticed it had become the most peaceful part of my day. I even took all three to a roadside coffee shop on the trail and they sat there like little angels. It didn't get easy, I got fluent, and the only thing that made me fluent was doing it over and over when it was still hard.

This is an episode about the clumsy beginning of every worthwhile thing, why we quit right before it gets good, and how repetition quietly turns chaos into intuition.

Today's reading is from Kathleen Norris's The Quotidian Mysteries, on how the thing we think we're only getting through has the power to change us.

This is an episode about staying through the hard beginning.

Question to carry into your day: What are you thinking about quitting, that might just be in the clumsy beginning part, not the wrong part?

Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall

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. 205 | How to Enjoy Time Alone When You Didn't Choose It Aug 14, 2026

Show notes

I was in North Carolina watching a friend's dog, and my mom was supposed to come stay with me for the week. Then she got the stomach flu. I was so bummed, and I told my friend Michelle I was stuck in the monastery. Michelle has two kids and a life so full I get tired watching her Instagram stories, and she said, "Oh my God. What I wouldn't do for four days alone."

So I used the monastery. I journaled, I did a full moon ritual, I took a bath in the middle of the afternoon, and a couple of days I did nothing at all on purpose. I did what Michelle would do with four days alone.

Today's reading is from Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh: "Certain springs are tapped only when we are alone."

This is an episode about the difference between solitude you chose and solitude that got handed to you, and how to sign for a week you didn't order.

Question to carry into your day: What are you enduring right now that you haven't decided what it's for?

Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall

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. 204 | [FAVORITE] The Gift of Just Being There Aug 13, 2026

Show notes

A client came into my office completely depleted. People around her were sick, dying, falling apart. She was holding so much suffering that she was disappearing inside it. And she kept saying, "I just can't fix it. I can't fix any of it."

And I said quietly, "What if fixing isn't the only option?"

This episode is for everyone who has ever felt helpless in the face of someone else's pain, and needed permission to just be there instead.

Question to carry into your day: Where in your life are you trying to fix what simply needs your witness?

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. 203 | Why Self-Care Isn't Making You Feel Any Better Aug 12, 2026

Show notes

I'm away with friends somewhere beautiful, and I got here more tired and stressed than I want to be, doing all the restful things and still feeling empty, because I was never actually present for any of them. At dinner but thinking about work. On the walk but in my head.

My friend Sarah, who just came through a hard season, cracked it for me: self-care was never the activity, it's the presence you bring to it. She started practicing being one-minded, fully in one thing at a time, and it's what finally filled her back up. I've been practicing it all week, and it's changed things.

This is an episode about why doing all the self-care can still leave you empty, and what actually fills the cup. This is an episode about being one-minded, and being home for your own life.

Question to carry into your day: Where are you doing all the right things to care for yourself, but never actually there for any of it?

Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall

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. 202 | [FAVORITE] When Life Humbles You (But You Keep Going Anyway) Aug 11, 2026

Show notes

You're trying so hard to do something meaningful. Something good. And it just falls apart.

This episode is about what happens in that moment, the hot flush of shame, the stories we tell ourselves, the voice that says maybe you should just stop, and why staying in the room anyway is the whole point.

There's a difference between humiliation, which makes you want to hide, and humility, which opens you up. This one is about learning to tell them apart.

Question to carry into your day: Where in your life are you being invited to keep going, not because it's easy or perfect, but because it's yours?

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. 201 | The Real Reason You Want to Be Told What to Do Aug 10, 2026

Show notes

My friend and I took a yoga class where the teacher would not tell us what to do. He just kept saying "maybe." Maybe you'll take the triangle, maybe you'll hold it longer. It got on my nerves, until he explained that yoga was meant to be a personal practice, and he didn't want us obeying him, he wanted us listening to ourselves.

And it cracked something open, because I once read the research on self-determination early in my recovery and gasped, since it explained my whole life: we heal when the choice is ours, not when it's an order. And yet, even knowing all that, I still stood there wanting to be told.

This is an episode about how deeply we're trained to look outside ourselves for the answer, and how to start trusting the teacher who's been inside all along.

Today's reading is from Martha Beck's The Way of Integrity, on learning to trust your inner teacher.

This is an episode about taking back the authority over your own life.

Question to carry into your day: Where in your life are you waiting to be told, when you already quietly know?

Want to work together? Me too! Book a discovery call and let's talk about whether the Stop Starting Over System is right for you. https://link.mollycarmel.com/widget/bookings/mc-discoverycall

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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