Sit, Stay & Heal with Phyllis Coletta cover art

Sit, Stay & Heal with Phyllis Coletta

Sit, Stay & Heal with Phyllis Coletta

By: Stacey Chillemi
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About this listen

 Train your “puppy mind” with humor and heart to learn to sit, stay, and actually heal.

Your mind’s a wild puppy—let’s train it. Former trial lawyer turned Zen chaplain and laugh-out-loud storyteller Phyllis Coletta, JD, uses real-life stories to make meditation simple, secular, and doable—no special postures or mantras, just sit, stay, and (yep) heal.

If you can love a dog, you can love your mind… and watch it become your best friend.

The Advisor Network Hygiene & Healthy Living Personal Development Personal Success Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Self-Guided Healing: Train Your Mind Like a Good Dog

    Self-Guided Healing: Train Your Mind Like a Good Dog
    Dec 9 2025
    What if you could stop outsourcing your healing and finally learn to calm your own mind?

    In this episode, host Lisa Urbanski talks with Phyllis Coletta, author of How to Be a Good Dog, about what real healing looks like in everyday life. Through powerful stories of marriage, cancer, grief, and caregiving, Phyllis explains how meditation, stillness, and self-guided practice can help you move from chaos to calm—without pretending your trauma isn’t real.

    In this episode, you’ll learn how to:
    🧠 Understand what self-guided healing is and why guided meditations aren’t enough on their own
    🧘‍♀️ Use meditation, stillness, and awareness to regulate emotions instead of numbing out
    🚨 Recognize when trauma and anxiety need professional support (and why that’s not a failure)
    🌊 Face long-standing fears—like illness, loss, and being alone—without getting swallowed by them
    🍃 Shift from “woundiness” to wisdom and build a calm, reliable inner presence
    🐕 See how energy, mindset, and calm leadership affect not just people, but animals and relationships
    🌍 Make small daily choices that support your nervous system, resilience, and impact on the world

    Instead of another quick fix, this is a gentle, honest roadmap to building an “alpha mind” that leads with wisdom instead of reactivity… even when life feels overwhelming.

    🔗 Links & Resources
    Website: https://www.howtobeagooddog.com/
    Blog: https://www.howtobeagooddog.com/blog
    Contact: phyllis@howtobeagooddog.com

    📘 Get the Book — How to Be a Good Dog: Learning to Sit, Stay, and Heal
    BookBaby: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/how-to-be-a-good-dog
    Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/How-Good-Dog-Learning-Stay/dp/B0F86PDJ3R
    Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/be/book/how-to-be-a-good-dog/id6745525078
    Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-be-a-good-dog-phyllis-coletta/1147392035
    Show More Show Less
    40 mins
  • Stop Doomscrolling: Train Your Brain to “Leave It”

    Stop Doomscrolling: Train Your Brain to “Leave It”
    Dec 2 2025
    If your thumb lives on your phone and your brain never shuts up, you’re not “busy”—you’re being trained like a dog. Host Stacey Chillemi sits down with Phyllis Coletta to show you how to flip the script, retrain your mind, and use her playful “Leave It” protocol to handle intrusive thoughts and phone urges like a boss.

    You’ll learn:

    📵 How to catch “fake news” thoughts before they hijack your day
    🐶 How to use the “Leave It” puppy protocol on your own mind
    📱 How to surf phone urges instead of drowning in doomscrolling
    🌬️ A 60-second breathing reset to calm anxiety on demand
    💛 How kinder self-talk and self-compassion rewire old patterns

    🔥 If your phone and thoughts are running your life, this episode hands you the leash.

    🔗 Show Notes & Resources
    Mind training + “Leave It” support doc:
    https://95f72eee-8948-4bb1-ac4d-a4728ea4d29a-1.tiiny.site/

    Additional resource / guide:
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1du-qRPVDMlQz6z8gzHP7oHE8Qh3OVX46/view?usp=sharing

    🔗 Links & Resources
    Website: https://www.howtobeagooddog.com/
    Blog: https://www.howtobeagooddog.com/blog
    Contact: phyllis@howtobeagooddog.com

    📘 Get the Book — How to Be a Good Dog: Learning to Sit, Stay, and Heal
    BookBaby: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/how-to-be-a-good-dog
    Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/How-Good-Dog-Learning-Stay/dp/B0F86PDJ3R
    Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/be/book/how-to-be-a-good-dog/id6745525078
    Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-be-a-good-dog-phyllis-coletta/1147392035
    Show More Show Less
    46 mins
  • Can You TRAIN Your Brain to STAY Focused Like a Dog?

    Can You TRAIN Your Brain to STAY Focused Like a Dog?
    Nov 25 2025
    If your brain bolts like an untrained puppy, this episode is the leash that finally snaps it back into calm, focused power.

    Host Lisa Urbanski sits down with author Phyllis Coletta to turn the dog command “stay” into a no-nonsense training plan for your mind.

    You’ll learn:
    • Why “stay” is the hardest mental command—and how to finally nail it
    • Simple mind-training moves that beat digital distraction and busyness
    • How to find the tiny gap between thoughts and turn it into your superpower
    • The “dog breed” of your mind today—and how to upgrade it over time
    • Daily sit-and-stay habits that lower drama and raise peace on command
    Download a free chart on what kind of dog you are here: https://tinyurl.com/bd7dtrey

    🔗 Links & Resources
    Website: https://www.howtobeagooddog.com/
    Blog: https://www.howtobeagooddog.com/blog
    Contact: phyllis@howtobeagooddog.com

    📘 Get the Book — How to Be a Good Dog: Learning to Sit, Stay, and Heal
    BookBaby: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/how-to-be-a-good-dog
    Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/How-Good-Dog-Learning-Stay/dp/B0F86PDJ3R
    Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/be/book/how-to-be-a-good-dog/id6745525078
    Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-be-a-good-dog-phyllis-coletta/1147392035
    Show More Show Less
    33 mins
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