Episode 18

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Published on:

3rd Nov 2025

Disaster Diaries, Day 3: Messages, Money, and Meaningful Connections

Welcome back to Disaster Diaries, Sacha’s daily audio journal series from The High-Functioning Disaster.

In this third installment, Sacha reflects on productivity, loss, and unexpected signs of connection. Between editing podcast episodes, reading The Total Money Makeover, and cheering on her husband Brandon as he launches his own show (Ashes & Aftermath), the day takes a deeply emotional turn when a message from her late father comes through a guest medium.

This entry blends the practical with the spiritual — from decluttering her office to the reminder that love and energy don’t fade, they transform. It’s a tender, real-time look at grief, gratitude, and the small ways our stories intertwine.

💡 Mentioned in This Episode:

  • The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod
  • The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
  • Ashes & Aftermath podcast (by Brandon Holder)
  • Unsilenced Grief podcast (by Marie Lesses)
  • The High-Functioning Disaster upcoming episode with Steve Gamlin
  • Podmatch – where meaningful podcast connections begin

✨ Support the Show:

If you’d like to help keep The High-Functioning Disaster and Disaster Diaries rolling:

🧭 Key Takeaways:

  • Grief doesn’t end — it evolves and connects us in unexpected ways.
  • Productivity and healing can coexist when approached with grace.
  • Financial empowerment begins with awareness, not perfection.
  • Connection — whether spiritual or human — is always worth nurturing.
  • Every day holds both the ordinary and the extraordinary.

⚠️ Content Note:

This episode includes discussion of grief, loss of a parent, and a brief mention of mediumship and spiritual connection. Listener discretion is advised if you’re sensitive to conversations around death and spiritual communication.

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Keywords

Disaster Diaries, The High Functioning Disaster, Sacha Holder, daily podcast journal, self-reflection, family dynamics, caregiving stress, post-COVID fatigue, mindfulness, Miracle Morning, No Spend November, yoga and Pilates, FitOn app, grounding practices, humor in healing, productivity with compassion, vulnerability, authentic living, morning routine, mindset growth, Target organization, decluttering, Costco finds, self-kindness, podcast diary

👉 Make sure you’re subscribed to The High-Functioning Disaster so you don’t miss this next entry.

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About the Podcast

The High-Functioning Disaster
High-functioning on the outside. Hot mess on the inside.
You’ve got the color-coded calendar, the competent job persona, the “I’m fine!” mask down to an art—and a mental load heavy enough to throw out your back. Meanwhile, life? That's a hot mess express—total chaos with zero chill and a full tank of emotional baggage. And what makes it even worse? Nearly no one’s talking about it.

Welcome to The High-Functioning Disaster, a podcast for people who are doing their best to hold it together while navigating burnout, grief, trauma, anxiety, caretaking duties, family drama, body image issues, and a to-do list that never quits.

Host Sacha Holder isn’t the disaster (neither are you!)—life is. And this show is about making space for that truth and giving ourselves permission to say it out loud. Every week, Sacha explores what it means to be deeply human in a world that keeps demanding more. Sometimes she’s flying solo, sometimes she brings along guests and friends—but the vibe is always real, raw, unfiltered, and grounded in radical self-acceptance and permission to be human.

We talk boundaries. Body image. Mental health. Emotional labor. The moments where everything feels like too much—and the ones where we catch our breath and keep going.

This isn’t a self-help podcast. It’s a self-permission podcast.
Permission to be exhausted.
To not have it together.
To be honest about what’s hard—without needing to package it as a “lesson.”

Because you don’t need fixing.
You need space to fall apart—and still be seen.
Because some of us are just trying to make it through the day.
And here? That’s more than enough.
New episodes every Monday. Come as you are. Seriously.
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About your host

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Sacha Holder

Sacha Holder is a project manager, podcast host, and bariatric patient who’s not here to pretend it’s all perfect. With over a decade of professional experience and a whole lot of lived experience, she creates podcasts that tell the truth about what it means to live, heal, and grow — through chaos, and curveballs, while keeping it together (mostly).

She’s the voice behind Life in the Bari Lane, a bite-sized bariatric podcast for real people navigating post-op life, and The High-Functioning Disaster, a show about showing up even when everything feels like too much. Through humor, honesty, and zero judgment, Sacha builds community through conversation — because no one should have to figure it out alone.