S9E1 Using our THREE Brains for Better Mental Health.S9E1 Using our THREE Brains for Better Mental Health.
Red Roof Recovery show
Tanya McIntyre introduces a gentle three-brain approach—head, heart, and gut—to support mental health, addiction recovery, and self-discovery. She blends mindfulness, Tai Chi, and body awareness to help people grow their capacity for pleasure, safety, and a life they no longer need to escape.
5:16•23 Jun 2026
Using Your Three Brains to Build a Life You Don’t Need to Escape
Episode Overview
- Tanya explains the idea of three brains—head, heart, and gut—as a simple framework for understanding thoughts, emotions, and nervous system signals.
- She highlights the difference between chasing self-improvement and practising self-discovery, encouraging people to build lives that truly suit them.
- Mindfulness and Tai Chi are shared as ways to stay present, listen to the body, and support mental health and freedom from addictions without pharmaceuticals.
- Tanya suggests that resisting emotions often hurts more than feeling them, and that allowing emotions to move can lessen their grip.
- She describes pleasure as awareness of sensations in the body and suggests that growing your capacity for pleasure helps your nervous system feel safe.
“Many people don’t want to feel emotions because they think it will hurt. And it’s actually the resistance to the emotion that can be painful.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This short, calming episode of the Red Roof Recovery show offers a gentle answer through mindfulness and a surprising idea: you’ve got three brains working for your mental health. Mindfulness mentor Tanya McIntyre introduces the “head, heart, and gut” as practical guides to better emotional balance and freedom from addictions, without relying on pharmaceuticals.
She contrasts self-improvement with self-discovery, pointing out that you can hit every life milestone and still feel lost if you haven’t asked what actually suits you. As she puts it, the key question is whether you are building a life that truly fits who you are.
Tanya explains the head brain as the thinking centre, the heart brain as the emotional and connection centre, and the gut brain as part of the nervous system, rich with nerve endings and feel-good chemicals like dopamine and serotonin. Everyday phrases like “I’m stuck in my head” or “I’ve got a gut feeling” suddenly make more sense when you hear her use them as a framework for mental health.
Blending mindfulness and Tai Chi, she invites you to slow down, feel your body, and ask: is there a more pleasurable way to do what you’re doing right now? One of her most helpful reminders is that “many people don’t want to feel emotions because they think it will hurt.
And it’s actually the resistance to the emotion that can be painful.” Designed for people in recovery and anyone worn out by stress or anxiety, this episode offers a soothing space to reset your nervous system and gently grow your capacity for everyday pleasure and safety. Could tuning into your three brains help you build a life you never need to escape from?
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