Podcast Summary

Podcast: The Mel Robbins Podcast
Episode: The Exact Words You Need to Hear Today If It Feels Like Nothing’s Working
Date: November 13, 2025
Host: Mel Robbins
Guests: Mark Nepo (poet, bestselling author), Chris Robbins (Mel’s husband)

Episode Overview

In this heartfelt and uplifting episode, Mel Robbins welcomes poet and philosopher Mark Nepo, whose beloved "Book of Awakening" has provided solace and inspiration to millions, including Mel and her husband, Chris Robbins (who joins as a co-host for the first time). Together, they reflect on how simple words and daily reflections can help us reconnect with life when we feel stuck, closed off, or overwhelmed. Nepo shares transformative personal stories, offers practical wisdom on reclaiming presence and meaning, and discusses how creativity, connection, and compassion can guide us, especially through hardship.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Power of Presence and Connection

• Mel’s Welcome & Intention: Mel opens by sharing how the right words can land in your day “like an anchor… and suddenly you can breathe again” ([00:02]). She believes the episode will do the same for listeners.
• Introducing Mark Nepo: Mel describes Nepo as a writer “whose words have lifted me up more times than I can count” ([04:11]), explaining the personal importance of his work.
• Mark’s Opening Message:
  • “Life is always where we are. One of the big menacing assumptions in the modern world is that life is other than where we are...there’s only here.” ([06:30], Mark Nepo)
  • Mark views his calling as helping people rediscover their direct connection to life: “My job is to open a heart space we can enter together. In that heart space, we discover we’re more together than alone.”
  • Chris adds how Mark's work brought light and insight during a difficult, emotionally closed period in his life, leading him to share Nepo’s work in men’s groups as a tool for self-awareness ([08:19]).

Rediscovering Meaning When Feeling Stuck

• When Life Feels Flat or Disconnected: Mel and Mark discuss how achievement and busyness often mask a loss of connection to life’s essence, leading to anxiety and numbness ([10:00]).
• Questions to Reconnect:
  • Mark suggests two compassionate questions for those feeling stuck:
    • “What’s it like to be you right now?”
    • “What do you care about?” ([11:50])
  • “Invite them to tell that story, not tell them they’re stuck. What good does that do? Or ‘cheer up’—did that ever work?” ([12:00], Mark Nepo)
  • He illustrates the transformative power of this approach with a story from his teaching—a moment in which asking these questions helped cultivate empathy and connection, even among people who felt nothing was true ([11:50–15:20]).

On Suffering, Grace, and Opening Up

• Origin of "The Book of Awakening": Nepo explains how facing cancer in his 30s forced him into the present—“the door I had come in by was no longer there” ([17:39])—and to live in deeper relationship with grace and life’s flow.
  • “To be broken is no reason to see all things as broken.” ([21:30], Mark Nepo)
  • He defines grace as “the larger currents of life that we’re always connected to…and if we’re open to them, they will carry us.”
  • “Everyone will be dropped into the depth of life at some point…We’re not deifying suffering. It could be wonder, it could be beauty, it could be being loved unconditionally for the first time.” ([18:30], Mark Nepo)

Appreciating Small Moments and Opening the Heart

• Daily Practice: The Book of Awakening offers “365 daily meditations … to help you grow as a human being, be in the moment, live with more courage, deepen relationships, and connect more deeply with life itself.” ([04:11], Mel Robbins)
• Reading a Passage: "Two Monkeys Sleeping"
  • Mark reads and reflects on witnessing two monkeys deep in sleep, touching hands—a metaphor for the “life of touch” and trust in connection:
    • “It was clear that it was this small sustained touch that allowed them to sleep. As long as they were touching, they could let go. I envied their trust and simplicity.” ([23:33–25:12])
  • Mark explains the lesson:
    • “The first practice is to open, but then the next is to connect. If I open my heart and don’t love, what’s the point of opening?” ([25:54])
    • "No one has been here who's you—and no one can do it alone." ([27:00])

Honoring Your Gifts and Loving Yourself

• “You have a gift. Honor it and let it be your teacher.”

  • Mark recounts advice from his 102-year-old mentor: to honor one’s unique talents and let them guide one’s development ([34:20]).
  • On “honor”: “Honor means to keep what is true in view.” ([34:50], Mark Nepo)
  • Adds: “What brings you more alive? … Do more of that.”

• Being Authentic Brings Love and Community

  • Mel reads Nepo's entry, “The flower doesn’t dream of the bee, it blossoms and the bee comes,”—emphasizing how “tending of my own soul … invites love to begin” ([38:40–39:05]).
  • Mark: “The greatest respectful gift we can give someone who loves us is to own our own light.” ([44:22])
  • Practical step: Identify and spend time with one thing you feel good about yourself, no matter how small ([45:17–45:36]).

Overcoming Resistance & Following the Heart

• Metaphor of the Salmon ("The Way Is Hard, But Clear")

  • Chris reads a passage about salmon finding the rushing current; Mel notes this mirrors how people often avoid the path they sense is right because it’s hard or scary ([56:13–63:12]).
  • Mark: “It’s important we can’t do it alone, and we don’t have to do it all at once…We’re often humbled into letting go of where we think we’re going.” ([60:26–61:17])
  • Compassion means: “To be with you means I agree to feel your pain…and joy. No one can live your life, but we can’t do it alone.” ([64:02])

• On Admitting Truth and Starting Small

  • Both Mark and Mel stress that change starts with “admitting what is true,” both to oneself and others ([67:27]).
  • Mark: “Admit means to declare what is true, but also to let in…The most powerful thing we can do when feeling powerless is admit what is true.” ([67:27–68:55])

Ritual vs. Habit: Staying Present

• Morning Rituals: Mark describes meaningful morning rituals—opening blinds, caring for his dog, making his wife coffee—and distinguishes rituals from habits:
  • “When I inhabit them fully, they change the whole day. That aligns me for the day.” ([69:53–71:20])
  • Ritual, from Sanskrit rta, means “the hidden order of the universe." ([72:05])
  • “By being present and open hearted, we recover the miracle of it. There will be days I feel I have to do this...tomorrow you say, ‘I get to make the bed and look out the window.’” ([73:15–75:51])
  • Advice: Don’t save what matters for last—do it first to widen your outlook for the day ([75:51]).

Creativity, Aging, and Purpose

• On Growing Older and Creativity ("Fifth Season")
  • Mark shares the metaphor of a meteor, which becomes “brighter and brighter until there’s nothing left but light”—a guide to “let that light be my teacher” as we age ([76:47]).
  • Memory, he says, is useful not for nostalgia but for recalling feelings of aliveness or love, and finding their presence within us now ([77:25]).

Faith, Community, and Final Wisdom

• Functional Faith:
  • Buddhist word saddha: “resting the heart in what is true.”
  • Theologian Tillich: “Faith is an act of ultimate concern.” ([80:31], Mark Nepo)
  • Mark’s poem Free Fall, with the closing line: “Fear wastes air.”
• Core Takeaway: “We are more together than alone. … Life is more than anything we could dream of if we truly meet each other and meet ourselves right here, right now.” ([80:31, 83:04])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Mel Robbins ([00:02]):
  “Have you ever had one of those days where the world…just feels like too much? … And then out of nowhere, you hear a quote…and it just, boom, drops into your day like an anchor... That's the magic of my guest today, Mark Nepo.”

• Mark Nepo ([06:30]):
  “Life is always where we are…there's only here.”

• Chris Robbins ([08:55]):
  “Looking back on what has been a decade plus of both reading and rereading [The Book of Awakening]…it has been the source of my own awakening…a light and a lens into our own humanity.”

• Mark Nepo ([21:30]):
  “To be broken is no reason to see all things as broken.”

• Mark Nepo ([25:12], "Two Monkeys Sleeping"):
  “I pray for the courage to be as simple in asking for what I need.”

• Mark Nepo ([34:50]):
  “Honor means to keep what is true in view.”

• Mel Robbins ([39:06], Reading):
  “If I've learned anything through the years, it is that…our capacity for joy is carried like a pod of nectar in our very own breast.”

• Mark Nepo ([44:22]):
  “The greatest respectful gift we can give to someone who loves us is to own our own light.”

• Mark Nepo ([45:17]):
  “I would always try to come down to small steps…identify and spend time with one thing you feel good about yourself.”

• Chris Robbins ([56:13], Reading):
  “The passage of truth comes at us with a powerful momentum because it is clear and unimpeded…”

• Mark Nepo ([67:27]):
  “I encourage you not to look at life as I do, but to find your own direct connection with life. And I’ll meet you there.”

• Mark Nepo ([80:31]):
  “We are more together than alone…Rest your heart in what is true.”

• Mark Nepo's poem "Free Fall" ([81:22]):

  “If you have one hour of air and many hours to go, you must breathe slowly.
  If you have one arm’s length and many things to care for, you must give freely.
  ...Fear wastes air.”

Important Timestamps

• [00:02] – Mel’s context-setting and welcome
• [06:30] – Mark Nepo’s opening wisdom
• [11:50] – Questions to reconnect with life (“What’s it like to be you?”)
• [17:39] – The origin of The Book of Awakening: surviving cancer
• [23:33] – Mark reads “Two Monkeys Sleeping” and discusses meaning
• [34:20–34:50] – On honoring your gifts
• [39:05] – Mel reads “The flower doesn’t dream of the bee…”
• [45:17] – How to begin loving yourself: small steps
• [56:13] – Chris reads “The Way Is Hard, But Clear” (the salmon metaphor)
• [67:27] – “Admit what is true” and practical advice on change
• [69:53–75:51] – Mark’s daily rituals and the importance of presence
• [76:47] – Growing older, memory, and creative purpose (The Fifth Season)
• [80:31] – Functional faith (“rest the heart in what is true”)
• [81:22] – Mark recites “Free Fall”
• [83:04–83:28] – Mark’s final words of encouragement

Actionable Practices & Takeaways

• Check in with yourself and others using open questions: “What’s it like to be you right now? What do you care about?”
• Reintroduce small rituals (morning, evening, or spontaneous) with presence and an open heart.
• Honor your gifts: Regularly notice, appreciate, and act on whatever brings you alive—even in small ways.
• Admit what is true: The first step to meaningful change is honestly acknowledging reality.
• Lean into connections: Both in suffering and joy, reach out, receive, offer support, and dare to ask for what you need.
• Trust the rushing water: Listen to your intuition and don’t fear where the “current is strongest.”
• Practice presence over perfection: You don’t have to get it all right; simply showing up open-hearted changes everything.
• Rest your heart in what is true: In every season, faith and resilience are fostered in being with what is.

Use this episode as a gentle nudge to slow down, reconnect, and “rest your heart” in what’s real—right where you are.

(All advertisements, intros, and outros have been omitted for clarity and focus on the conversation.)