Shows / KIZUKI the Podcast
KIZUKI the Podcast
KIZUKI the Podcast is a collection of inspiring stories that center around the Japanese concept of kizuki. The host, author and awarded yoga teacher Mae Yoshikawa defines kizuki as a moment of epiphany, an ‘aha’ of realization or insight which opens the knower to a new dimension of truth.
Diving into an up close and personal telling of the kizukis that have starkly shifted Mae’s perspective and transformed her life and mind, it is Mae’s hope that these episodes may serve as a catalyst to…
Episodes
KIZUKI the Podcast134 Pivotal Kizuki — The Very Premise Behind Striving
In this deeply personal episode, Mae shares two pivotal Kizukis that helped her unravel a lifelong pattern of striving to earn her worth. Beginning with the…
KIZUKI the Podcast133 The Rules of Love
After a three-and-a-half-hour date with a Japanese man leaves her completely bewildered, Mae discovers that even growing up in Japan doesn’t mean she…
KIZUKI the Podcast132 How to Finish a Love Loop
Returning to her childhood school as a parent brings back an unexpected memory for Mae: a track coach who tried to recruit her year after year, despite her…
KIZUKI the Podcast131 The Suicide Widow
In one of the darkest periods after losing her husband, Mae went searching online for other widows—and encountered a woman whose loss forced her to look beyond…
KIZUKI the Podcast130 No Silver Lining
After finding herself repeatedly fantasizing about escape, Mae turns to her journal and confronts a feeling she usually tries to transform. This episode…
KIZUKI the Podcast129 Before You Begin, Look at How They End
After experiencing both divorce and widowhood, Mae reflects on something people rarely consider at the beginning of a relationship: how someone behaves when it…
KIZUKI the Podcast128 The X She Drew Through My Family
At fifteen, Mae sits across from a psychiatrist as her collapsing family is reduced to circles, lines, and one enormous X. Decades later, the memory raises a…
KIZUKI the Podcast127 I Don’t Want to Fall
After discovering that only a tiny fraction of her life feels like pure play, Mae begins questioning the careful management underneath the freedom she has…
KIZUKI the Podcast126 What Happened the Last Time I Let Go
After years of understanding the grief of losing her husband, Mae recognizes a trauma response she hadn’t fully seen before—and the surprising intelligence…
KIZUKI the Podcast125 The Inheritance of Absence
A child can turn a parent’s limitations into beliefs about their own worth. By looking at how absence is passed down through generations, this episode reveals…
KIZUKI the Podcast124 The Master Wound — I’m Not Worthy
Mae uncovers what may be one of the core kizukis of her life: beneath her patterns of independence, achievement, and difficulty receiving was an old question…
KIZUKI the Podcast123 Authority Issues
Mae explores how early experiences of feeling unprotected by authority unknowingly shaped her relationship with power and leadership. She discovers that…
KIZUKI the Podcast122 I Want to Do Something Bad
After joking that she wanted to “do something bad,” Mae is unexpectedly confronted with a Tokyo exhibition that invites visitors to steal. What begins as a…
KIZUKI the Podcast121 Invited to the Italian Table
After a scene of an Italian family gathered around a long dinner table lingers in her heart, Mae realizes that what she’s been searching for was never…
KIZUKI the Podcast120 A Conversation with Life
Beneath years of healing, grief, and self-discovery, Mae had also been deeply angry with Life itself. Through an imagined conversation with Life, she explores…
KIZUKI the Podcast119 The Abundance Apology
Mae explores the Japanese concept of mottainai (“what a waste”) and the subtle line between reverence and fear. Reflecting on cultural inheritance, nature’s…
KIZUKI the Podcast118 Uncomfortable as Hell
Mae explores the surprising discomfort that can arise when lifelong identities begin to dissolve. Through reflections on old roles, pathless woods, and the…
KIZUKI the Podcast117 From the Rebel to the Receiver
A series of quiet evenings led Mae to an unexpected realization: after letting go of old identities built around striving and endurance, the next chapter…
KIZUKI the Podcast116 Domino Kizuki #5 — Daddy Issues and Money
Mae shares a powerful realization about how her nervous system unconsciously linked money with her father. Through this kizuki, she explores scarcity, trust…
KIZUKI the Podcast115 Domino Kizuki #4 — The Anger Diaries
After years of believing she wasn’t an angry person, Mae discovers that anger may have been one of the most repressed emotions in her life. In this episode…
KIZUKI the Podcast114 Domino Kizuki #3 — Sit Beside Your Pain
Mae reflects on a powerful realization: understanding pain is not the same as feeling it. As she explores long-buried anger, grief, and self-abandonment, she…
KIZUKI the Podcast113 Domino Kizuki #2 — The Hidden Cost of Carrying
Mae reflects on how “The Carrier” became a survival identity rooted in preserving connection. Through her relationship with her family and father, she explores…
KIZUKI the Podcast112 Domino Kizuki #1 — The Endurer No Longer
Mae shares the first episode in a deeply personal new series exploring a domino effect of transformative realizations. In this episode, she uncovers “the…
KIZUKI the Podcast111 Every Child Needs a New Dad
A tender bedtime conversation with her son Ayden turns into an unexpectedly funny and profound reflection on family, normalcy, and the way children make sense…
KIZUKI the Podcast110 Permission or Preference?
Mae explores the subtle but life-changing difference between living from preference and living from permission. Through reflections on desire, self-expression…
KIZUKI the Podcast109 When “Just Be Yourself” Feels Impossible
Reflecting on the disorienting process of untangling herself from lifelong patterns of pressure, perfectionism, and survival, Mae explores who she is beyond…
KIZUKI the Podcast108 I Thought It Was Hope—It Was Fear
A deeply personal two-week loop comes to a close with an embodied realization: what once felt like hope was, in part, a subtle form of fear. Through physical…
KIZUKI the Podcast107 A Basis of Yes
A sweet moment between her two sons has Mae reflecting on a deeper truth about growth, control, and connection. Through parenting, she uncovers how a subtle…
KIZUKI the Podcast106 Trusting the Unformed
In this quieter, more introspective episode, Mae chooses not to rush clarity while in the middle of a personal process. Instead, she offers a poem that…
KIZUKI the Podcast105 How Best to Love Yourself
Mae shares two grounded shifts around self-love: moving away from self-improvement as a form of self-rejection, and learning to stand by yourself most when…
KIZUKI the Podcast104 Are You “Too Deep”… or Just Closed Off?
Mae reflects on how early life experiences shaped her sense of living with depth. Through personal stories and a gentle but powerful realization, she explores…
KIZUKI the Podcast103 Intentional Space
Mae reflects on the Japanese concept of ma and the power and beauty of intentional space. Through everyday moments like walking, cooking, and choosing to be…
KIZUKI the Podcast102 The Answer Isn’t the Point
Mae shares a school incident with no clear truth and expands it into a wider realization: in moments where life offers no “correct answer,” what matters most…
KIZUKI the Podcast101 The Dissonant Note
An evening at a chic Tokyo restaurant unexpectedly revealed a deeper realization in Mae. As she navigates feelings of belonging, authenticity, and preemptive…
KIZUKI the Podcast100 One Hundred Episodes. One Conversation.
In this milestone episode, Mae responds to two listeners navigating quiet misalignment in careers and relationships. She introduces the four-step Kizuki…
KIZUKI the Podcast099 No More Pedestals
Mae reflects on growing up in a vertical culture of hierarchy and unexpectedly becoming “sensei” herself. Through her resistance to pedestals and followers…
KIZUKI the Podcast098 The Camouflaged Damsel
Mae shares a striking realization from her Life Brief retreat: that beneath her ambition and talk of alignment was a subtle fantasy of being “carried” by the…
KIZUKI the Podcast097 Self-Responsibility Without Self-Blame
Mae explores the subtle but critical difference between taking responsibility and turning inward with blame, using a vivid dream to show how the same mistake…
KIZUKI the Podcast096 How Not to Judge Your Neighbor
Mae reflects on an unexpected comment from her TEDx talk and uses it as a doorway into a deeper exploration of judgment, resonance, and separation. Drawing…
KIZUKI the Podcast095 Not Letting It Mean Anything
Mae reflects on an ordinary day that once would have spiraled into self-judgment, and the small but pivotal realization that marked her growing out of…
KIZUKI the Podcast094 The Thought That Counts
Mae reflects on an exchange with her father and a fleeting, unspoken wish—revealing how love doesn’t always need to become action to be real, and how…
KIZUKI the Podcast093 The Balance You’re Not Supposed to Work For
Mae reflects on a slow New Year’s beginning in Japan and a journaling insight about nervous system safety. She explores how balance and equanimity are not…
KIZUKI the Podcast092 More, Without Shame
Mae reflects on a childhood memory that wired her nervous system to associate wanting more with shame and danger. Through a quiet, healing moment many years…
KIZUKI the Podcast091 Living Without a Countdown
Mae explores how high-achievers internalize constant self-measurement. She invites listeners to question timelines, resolutions, and the mind’s obsession with…
KIZUKI the Podcast090 Beauty That Doesn’t Ask to Be Seen
Mae reflects on growing up in a family of models and how early exposure to beauty as a commodity subtly shaped her sense of worth. Through a small but…
KIZUKI the Podcast089 Love in Inconvenience
Mae reflects on a moment that revealed love as action rather than intention, and how showing up—especially when it disrupts comfort—can change a relationship…
KIZUKI the Podcast088 A Year of Roots, Light, and Becoming
Mae reflects on the subtle but powerful ways this year shaped her. It’s an intimate look at growth, softness, and the quiet pride that comes from honoring your…
KIZUKI the Podcast087 How People Reveal Themselves at the End
Mae reflects on how beginnings often mask the truth of who people are, and how endings reveal everything. Through stories of past relationships, divorce, and…
KIZUKI the Podcast086 Truth Over Harmony
Mae shares a deeply personal moment when clarity arrived only after surrender, leading her to make a difficult decision that created friction. She explores the…
KIZUKI the Podcast085 When Adults Get Cute
Mae explores why adults sometimes slip into childlike behavior when conversations get uncomfortable. Through real moments and psychological insight, she…
KIZUKI the Podcast084 The Boyfriend Who Cried
Mae revisits a long-ago love and discovers that true love doesn’t end when relationships do. Through a message from her past, she realizes how love can outlive…
KIZUKI the Podcast083 A Lone Wolf No Longer
After years of walking through life as a lone wolf, Mae reflects on how preparing for her TEDx talk became a turning point—from independence born of protection…
KIZUKI the Podcast082 Quiet Guilt
Mae explores the subtle ways guilt disguises itself as humility, asking women to shrink in the name of modesty. Through personal stories and cultural…
KIZUKI the Podcast081 Ready or Not, You’re Not Alone
As Mae prepares for her TEDx debut, she confronts the fear of public speaking—and the deeper fear of being judged. Through practice, community, and a powerful…
KIZUKI the Podcast080 The Gate That Opens the Shrine
A surprise meeting in Tokyo sparks a vivid memory from Mae’s twenties—when a single decision led her to witness one of nature’s most miraculous phenomena. In…
KIZUKI the Podcast079 Leave the Door Open
A single sentence from a friend opens Mae’s heart to something she hadn’t realized she’d closed. In this episode, she reflects on how pain can harden us—and…
KIZUKI the Podcast078 The Way Light Falls
Mae departs from her usual storytelling to share an original poem, written in spring 2025. A meditation on presence, legacy, and love’s quiet transformation of…
KIZUKI the Podcast077 Love the Real
Mae unpacks how the search for answers can quietly become a form of self-punishment—especially when we judge the version of ourselves in the middle of…
KIZUKI the Podcast076 Emotions in Layers
Mae shares a powerful reflection on how emotions don't always appear in their purest form. Through her own journey, she explores how grief can unlock…
KIZUKI the Podcast075 Three Types of People
Mae shares a personal story of practicing her TEDx talk with her teenage son—only to find him asleep mid-speech. What could have been frustrating turned into a…