This week, we are slowing down and getting real about what it means to come home to yourself after years of anxiety, burnout, and self-abandonment.
📅 Episode drops Tuesday, November 4, 2025, at 3 AM ET 🎧 From Panic to Peace: Melissa’s Journey Through Anxiety, Menopause, and Self-Discovery
Melissa Crook’s story is not a “how-to” for fixing anxiety. It is a love letter to every woman who has ever carried too much, cared too hard, and finally said enough. She reminds us that peace does not come from pushing harder, it comes from listening.
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🔥 What’s Up with G-Rex & Dirty Skittles
This weekend was one of those perfectly ordinary, soul-filling ones that remind you joy does not have to be fancy.
G-Rex finally did the thing she has been talking about for five years, making homemade donuts 🍩 in her cozy upstate New York kitchen. Living in a rural food desert means choices are slim (Dunkin’ or bust), so she rolled up her sleeves and made magic happen. Think: homemade Boston cream, raspberry-filled with elderberry and key lime glazes, and a hazelnut-chocolate-topped masterpiece that put the local shops to shame. Sure, they were not perfec, but they were real, a little messy, a lot delicious, and proof that imperfection can still taste amazing.
Meanwhile, Dirty Skittles was living her best fall mom life, trick-or-treating with her son, soaking up the magic of Halloween night, and then warming up with a big pot of gluten-free, lactose-free lasagna soup that hit all the cozy notes. Between the candy haul and the soup, I am sure her house smelled like every childhood memory you want to crawl back into.
As we both start settling into the rhythm of colder days, when the sun dips early and the wind hums at the windows, we are leaning into the rituals that make winter feel softer: good food, too many blankets, and twinkly lights that stay up way past their “take-down” date. (Confession: G-Rex never took her tree down from last year, and honestly, I love this for me.)
This season, we are reminding ourselves that joy is not a someday thing. It is right here, in donuts, soup, laughter, and permitting yourself to do what feels good.
💭 How are you holding up as we head into the colder months? What little rituals are keeping your heart warm lately?
🔥 Special Shout-Out: Women Supporting Women 🌟 Meet Angie Hawkins
Angie Hawkins is an Inner Glow Coach who helps high-achieving women stop dimming their light to be loved and learn to love themselves so deeply the world can’t help but reflect it back.
She works with women who have done therapy, read the books, tried the spiritual path, but still feel like something is missing. Through deep inner work and identity transformation, she helps them break the cycle of not feeling “enough,” so they can experience real love, confidence, and peace without changing who they are.
She is also the author of Running in Slippers, a raw and vulnerable memoir about finding resilience after emotional rock bottom.
✨ Ready to find your glow? Book a free Find Your Glow session or join her Unshakable You masterclass to start shining from the inside out. 🔗 https://www.runninginslippers.com/
💬 Mental Health Quote of the Week
“You do not have to hit the wall to start healing. You just have to stop abandoning yourself.” — Melissa Crook
Melissa’s story begins like so many of ours: holding everything together, smiling through the chaos, and pushing past exhaustion because “everyone needs me.” Until one day, her body called bullshit.
After decades of people-pleasing, perfectionism, and running on empty, Melissa hit the wall hard. Two ER visits in ten days, a racing heartbeat, sky-high blood pressure, and full-blown panic attacks that made her wonder if she would ever feel safe in her own body again. It was the wake-up call she could not ignore. Her body was done waiting for her to slow down.
What came next was not a quick fix. It was years of unlearning. Therapy became her lifeline, but so did self-awareness. She began to see that anxiety was not a flaw to fix, it was her body waving a red flag, begging her to pay attention.
Melissa opens up about how menopause and anxiety collided, creating a storm no one warned her about. She did not even know what perimenopause was until she had been living it for years, a reminder of how little women are taught about our own bodies. She also shares how she learned to “speed date” therapists until she found one who felt safe enough for real healing. (Spoiler: the first few were not it. One literally fell asleep during a session. 🙃)
Through laughter, tears, and hard-earned truth, Melissa walks us through the messy middle, the space where you start saying “no,” start choosing rest, and start realizing you do not owe anyone the version of you that is falling apart just to keep them comfortable.
The woman who once lived in a constant state of fight-or-flight has now built an entire movement around slowing down. Today, Melissa is the founder of The Embracing Layers Network and host of The F.E.E.L. Podcast, where she helps women peel back the layers of performance, perfection, and pressure, and show up as their full, authentic selves.
In this episode, she reminds us that: 🩵 Healing is not linear. 🩵 Anxiety is not a failure, it is information. 🩵 You do not have to crash to change.
Melissa’s message is a soft landing for anyone who has ever asked, “Why do I feel this way when everything looks fine?” She shows us that peace does not come from perfection, it comes from presence, from curiosity, from choosing yourself again and again, even when it is hard.
“You do not have to hit the wall to start healing. You just have to stop abandoning yourself.” — Melissa Crook
This episode is an invitation to do exactly that, to stop abandoning yourself, to listen to your body, and to trust that coming undone might just be the beginning of coming home.
🧩 From the Conversation
💬 The heartbeat of this episode
Melissa’s story reminds us that burnout and anxiety are not failures, they are signals. After years of people-pleasing, perfectionism, and putting everyone else first, her body finally said, “enough.” From panic attacks and perimenopause to therapy and self-compassion, Melissa shows us that peace is not found by pushing harder, but by finally listening. Healing starts when we stop abandoning ourselves and start choosing rest, truth, and joy over performance.
🫂 A quote that stuck with us
“You do not have to hit the wall to start healing. You just have to stop abandoning yourself.” — Melissa Crook
🎙️ Real Talk from Us
“When Melissa said anxiety is not something you fix, it is something you learn to live with, that hit me. She gave anxiety humanity again, not shame.” — G-Rex
“Melissa reminded me that healing is not tidy. It is messy, raw, and real, and that is what makes it beautiful. The moment you stop apologizing for needing rest, you start to breathe again.” — Dirty Skittles
📓 Reflection Prompts to Sit With
What part of you has been asking for rest, but you have ignored it?
When was the last time you canceled something to protect your peace?
What does “not abandoning yourself” look like in your daily life?
Where can you trade performance for presence this week?
🌱 Gentle Reminder
You do not have to earn rest. You do not have to prove your worth. Peace does not come from doing more, it comes from finally coming home to yourself.
👥 Meet Our Guest — Melissa Crook
Melissa Crook is a thought-leader, speaker, and creator on a mission to help women stop abandoning themselves in the name of perfection, peacekeeping, and performance. Based in Fresno, California, she is the founder of The Embracing Layers Network and host of The F.E.E.L. Podcast, where she creates brave spaces to connect the dots between suppressed emotions and our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
After a health crisis at 50 forced her to confront decades of anxiety, people-pleasing, and codependency, Melissa turned her breakdown into a breakthrough. Through her F.E.E.L. Framework, she guides women toward emotional literacy, values-based boundaries, and self-compassion that sticks. Her work includes online courses, one-on-one empowerment sessions, and community panels, all designed to help women rediscover who they are beneath the performance.
Melissa believes in justice, mercy, equality, and empathy for all. Fierce, funny, and deeply loyal, she cheers for the WSU Cougs, the 49ers, and her three grown daughters with the same passion she brings to helping women heal. Her mission is simple but powerful, to help women embrace their beautiful, complex layers and live their healthiest, most content lives.
For speaking inquiries, empowerment sessions, or to connect with Melissa directly, visit embracinglayers.com.
You do not owe anyone the version of you that is burning out.
💪 Actionable Steps
Cancel one thing this week that drains you, without guilt.
Replace “I should” with “I need.”
Try the 4-7-8 breathing technique when you feel panic rising.
Ask yourself, “Am I abandoning myself right now?”
Create a 10-minute morning ritual that is just for you.
💬 Listener Engagement
Did Melissa’s story make you rethink how you care for yourself? Please reply to this email or tag us on IG @grex_and_dirtyskittles with your biggest takeaway. We would love to feature your reflections next week.
⭐ Subscribe, Rate & Review
If this conversation reminded you to slow down, breathe, and listen to your body, take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple or Spotify. Your words help more people find these stories and remind them that they are not alone.
❤️ Closing Remarks
If you take one thing from this week’s episode, let it be this: you are allowed to rest. You are allowed to slow down. You are allowed to stop trying to hold it all together.
Melissa reminded us that peace does not live in perfection, it lives in presence. It lives in small moments of honesty, in deep breaths that say, “I am still here,” in the courage to stop performing and start listening to your body.
Wherever you are in your story, whether you are holding on by a thread or finally exhaling for the first time in weeks, know this: you are not behind, you are becoming.
So, this week, choose yourself. Give yourself the nap, the walk, the silence, the permission to do nothing and call it healing. Because it is.
With love, laughter, and the courage to rest, G-Rex & Dirty Skittles Changing the way we talk about mental health, one real, brave, beautifully human conversation at a time.
G-Rex & Dirty Skittles
It's ok to be not ok, just make sure you're talking to someone
