The Motyv Podcast · Shayden J. Bertagnolli MS LMFT Men's Mental Health Expert

The Motyv Podcast Episode 9 | Learning to Balance the Light and Dark with in You

·26 min·1 clip

They land on a two-wolves framework: feed the good wolf or feed the bad wolf.

1. The Motyv Podcast Episode 9 focuses on learning to balance the light and dark within a person. 2. Jordan, Sadie, Blake, and Phyllis talk as a small group, and Phyllis says it is her first episode. 3. The episode asks what to do with inner thoughts, selfish reactions, and the 'natural man' described in scripture. 4. Sadie opens with a client conversation that stayed with her all weekend because it raised questions about private thoughts and public behavior. 5. She uses a preschool driving story and says she caught herself exaggerating with a 'Hitler-Stalin carpool' comparison before reducing the thought to 'I just don't like their driving.' 6. Sadie and her client compare car behavior with elevator behavior, noting that people say things in traffic that they would never say face-to-face. 7. Jordan connects the discussion to 'ego archetypes' and says people have a servant side, a dominant side, a progressive side, and light and dark within them. 8. He argues that drive can be a light attribute, but obsessive drive can turn into a dark one. 9. Sadie says empathy is not just being sensitive, but a disciplined curiosity about how another person's world makes sense to them. 10. The group keeps returning to the habit of comparison and the tendency to notice differences instead of similarities like insecurity, impatience, and ego. 11. Blake points to the phrase 'the natural man as a condition' and links it to the scripture language about a singular weakness rather than many weaknesses. 12. He says his own version shows up in driving, especially when he feels late or wants control over getting somewhere on time. 13. Sadie shares a story from a choir rehearsal at a state conference where a woman next to her said, 'I don't even like Phyllis,' and Sadie initially took it personally. 14. She then reinterprets the comment after thinking about the woman's autistic son and her monotone voice, and she describes that correction as a 'spiritual spanking.' 15. Jordan uses the idea of blind spots to explain why people judge others for behaviors they also do, including cutting people off in traffic and then forgetting their own behavior. 16. Sadie tells a story about her father after an intoxicated driver hit him and caused major brain damage, including damage to the frontal cortex. 17. In rehab, her father muttered that he had to visit the widows, which Sadie takes as evidence that refined habits can remain even after severe injury. 18. The opposite example comes later at a dollar store checkout when her father under his breath judges a woman by how she looks, which she treats as proof that uglier instincts live in everyone. 19. The conversation stays informal and conversational, with overlapping responses, personal stories, and direct coaching language from Jordan and Sadie. 20. People interested in therapy, empathy, scripture language, and self-reflection would likely stay with this episode, while listeners wanting a light or purely informational discussion might skip it.

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