There's a particular kind of restlessness that's hard to explain. Everything looks fine from the outside. And yet something keeps pulling at you; quietly, persistently, toward something more.
Better Thinking Better Living is the life transitions podcast for the person who has done all the right things and still feels that pull. Hosted by Tonya Shankle, therapist, coach, and someone who has navigated her own life transitions from the inside out, this show is a space for honest conversation about what it actually feels like to become the next version of yourself.
No toxic positivity. No prescriptive formulas. Just the kind of clarity that comes when someone finally names what you've been carrying.
Each episode explores the four themes at the heart of meaningful life transitions: self-awareness, emotional resilience, purpose, and the transitions themselves. Solo episodes and interviews, dropping every other week.
You don't need fixing. You just need permission to trust what you already know.
Follow Better Thinking Better Living and begin your next life transition.
This podcast is for educational and inspirational purposes only and is not a substitute for therapy or professional mental health treatment. Listening does not create a therapist-client relationship
Learn more at www.betterthinking-betterliving.com Reach out at tonya@betterthinking-betterliving.com and follow on instagram.com @betterthinking.betterliving
9. Some Things You Can't "Better Think" Away. Loss, Grief, and the Peace that Finds You
Reach Out And Share Some things you can’t think your way out of, and a show with “better” in the title twice is exactly where that needs to be said out loud. This one is for anyone moving through the kind of loss nobody really prepares you for, in all its loud and quiet forms, and the grief that refuses to follow a schedule. I make the case that heaviness and peace can live in the same breath, and that you don’t need fixing to move through it. Follow Better Thinking Better Living so you don't...
7 Oct 2026
8. My House Was Never So Clean: What Procrastination Is Really Protecting You From
Reach Out And Share Your house is spotless, your inbox is empty, and the one thing that actually matters is still sitting there untouched. Sound familiar? My microphone sat on the desk for weeks before I recorded a single word. Long before that, it was college term papers. I was a creative writer at heart, stuck writing clinical, by-the-book papers that came back with B's no matter how hard I worked. So I cleaned.....and cleaned. This episode looks at procrastination as a coping strategy and ...
24 Sept 2026
7. What If You Don't Have One Big Purpose?
We've been sold the idea that purpose is a singular thing, a calling with your name on it that you are supposed to find. But, what if that's the story keeping you frozen? In this episode, I unpack the myth of the "one big purpose" and the thing that gets most in the way of seeing your own clearly; comparison. Not just feeling behind, but the less-talked about direction too. I share a story from my mid-twenties that quietly shaped what I believed about myself for years, and what it...
9 Sept 2026
6. When Your Soul Is Screaming and Your Mind Says Not Yet - A Life Transitions Wake Up Call
Some knowing doesn't feel peaceful. It feels like something already happening somewhere ahead of you, and you're not there yet. This episode started with an Instagram post I couldn't stop looking at; a woman in a chair, exhausted, and a caption about a soul screaming. That image cracks open a conversation about the specific ache of wanting something you won't let yourself have. Not dissatisfaction. Not a bad week. Something closer to a ceiling you keep bumping into, quietly, while your life s...
26 Aug 2026
5. Having More Love Than Hate
Dolly Parton died yesterday and I couldn't move on to the episode I had originally planned. This one is about a statement I have carried for years, from a story I can barely remember the details of, and what it means to actually practice it now. How it ties to Dolly and her philosophies. It's not just a mood, but a decision made every day on purpose, especially when everything around us is pulling the other direction. Come find me on Instagram and tell me what you're choosing to lead wi...
12 Aug 2026
4.The Fear Isn't Going Away. What Brave Actually Feels Like During a Life Transition
Emotional Resilience Courage was never about feeling ready. This episode is for anyone who has been waiting for the fear to go away before they make their move and the reframe that might finally get you unstuck. I share my story of leaving Kentucky with no job waiting, a truck full of belongings, and a house that had not sold yet, and what that experience taught me about which fear actually matters. Find me on your favorite podcast platform and tell me what your "jolt" is point t...
31 Jul 2026
3. What Is Your Purpose? Why You're Asking The Wrong Question.
That question, What Is My Purpose, sounds inspiring until you have to really answer it and then it isn't. For a lot of people navigating life transitions, this question becomes a source of shame, a measuring stick for failure. I discuss this question and help reframe purpose, not as a singular destination you either find or miss, but as a thread running through every season of your life. Including the ones that look like wrong turns. Learn more at https://www.betterthi...
31 Jul 2026
2. Welcome to Better Thinking Better Living. A Life Transitions Podcast
You've done the work, the therapy, the books, the routines and something still feels slightly out of reach. This first episode is an invitation to anyone who is self-aware enough to know they're capable of more, and honest enough to admit they're not quite there yet. Host Tonya Shankle introduces the show through two personal stories about what happens when you stop making everything about you. New episodes drop every other week on Wednesdays, some solo, some conversations with guests. ...
31 Jul 2026
1. Introduction
I have always believed the best conversations happen when people slow down enough to actually listen. Around a porch, over breakfast, in the moments when no one's in a hurry to leave. In this introduction to Better Thinking Better Living., I share how a lifetime of conversations, with my dad, in books, around a family table where didn't want to leave, have led me to start this podcast. It's not a two-way conversation, but I hope it sparks one in your own life. Learn more at https://www....
26 Jul 2026
Better Thinking Better Living
There are moments…… and maybe you've felt them…. where you look at your life and think: this is fine, but fine isn't enough anymore. I've had those moments too. More than once, honestly. Hi, I'm Tonya Shankle. I'm a therapist, a coach, and I like to refer to myself as a therapist with a journal and a passport. I've navigated my own transitions, done my own hard work, and I'm still in the middle of becoming…..just like you might be. This show is for the person who has done all the right things...
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