Bitch Be Happy Now - Breathwork, Mindful Motivation, Meditation

Podcast: Breathe Bitch
Episode: Bitch, Be Happy (IG Series)
Host: Steven Ricciardi
Website: breathebitch.com

In this episode of Breathe Bitch, Steven kicks off with a fiery wake-up call: stop chasing happiness like it’s some finish line—it’s right here, right now. Expanding on a fan-favorite Instagram reel filmed in downtown Tampa, Steven dives into why waiting for the "new job, new car, new partner" to feel joy is a trap. Life’s a story, not an ending, and happiness lives in the journey—broke, lonely, or thriving, it doesn’t matter. Embrace it.

With his signature raw energy, Steven shares personal tales—like building Breathe Bitch while laughing off a domain name snafu—and drops a truth bomb: even when you hit your goals, it’s just the start of a new chapter. He’s shifted from chasing dollars to chasing vibes, and he’s happier for it. Expect practical tips too: grounding barefoot in nature, breathwork to reset, meditation to calm the chaos, and the non-negotiable—gratitude for the moment, no matter what.

Tune in for a mindset shift that’ll make you rethink happiness, plus a teaser for submitting your own questions at breathebitch.com. Follow Steven on Instagram (
@breathe.bitch) and Facebook (@StevenRicciardi) for more. This is Bitch, Be Happy—because the story’s where it’s at. Breathwork, Mindful Motivation, Meditation

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Let’s breathe, bitch.

Transcript

0:23

Hey everybody, it's Steven here. Breathe bitch.com. Thank you for joining us today, and today's episode is Bitch, be Happy. Now this can be part, this is part of the IG series that I was talking about, and what I'm gonna do is I wanna play a little clip from an IG reel that I did on Instagram. And we're gonna expand it. We're gonna expand it and talk about it here just a little bit. But the intention, I'm gonna go ahead and set an intention for this podcast. And my intention in this podcast is for you to find happiness. Now, stop chasing it. Happiness doesn't happen tomorrow. It happens today. You're in the moment. Be happy, be present. And it could happen. It could happen. Once you make that mind shift change. It is a great feeling, not chasing that happiness. And we will talk all about that here in just a second and how to do those and the steps to take place. But let me go ahead and start off with the IG reel. And this was in downtown Tampa. I did this one and let's just go ahead and play it now. So Hey everybody, it's Steven here. Breathe bitch.com got a question for you. So are you sitting there thinking that once you get outta school and you get that new career, that's when you're gonna find happiness? That's when you're gonna truly be happy. Or you get that new car, new house, new boyfriend, new girlfriend. That's when you're gonna be truly happy'cause you're not happy right now. Here's the thing. You need to be happy in the story, in the journey.'cause this is where it's at. You're, and stay in the present. You're in the journey. You're in the story right now. This is where it's at. You don't go watch a movie and watch the beginning and then the end. The movie is made in the story and that's where you are. You need to embrace your story. I don't care if you're hungry, I don't care if you're lonely, I don't care if you're broke. Feel it. Embrace it because this is where it's at. This is where it's made right here. Simple as that. And if you're watching my story, speaking of stories you might wanna watch the reel.'cause at the end of the reel, I'm gonna drop a bomb on you. So stay in your story. Embrace it, don't rush it. And here's the bomb. Once you get to the end of that goal, you have set that you think is gonna bring you happiness, bad news, that thing is just the beginning of a new story. Simple as that. The story does not end. That's the new chapter at that point in time. So you have to embrace where you're at right now because the story never ends. You'll never be happy if you're finally chasing it. So you gotta be happy now and. Race your moment. That's all I got for you. We'll see you in the next one. Alright, that's our ag reel. Breathe Bitch on Instagram. And yeah, a lot of'em are my favorites, but that's definitely one of my favorite ones. How true is that? If you're chasing happiness one day, one day I'm gonna be happy one day, when I lose that weight or when I. When I get that job or get that boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever the case may be, that's when I'll be happy. No, that's not when happiness happens. Simple as that. Again, as I said, it's happens in the story, not the end. And once you get to the end of that story, and I'm gonna say this a couple times in this, once you get to the end of the story, you get to that you finally get through school and you land that career, or you end up with that boyfriend or whatever the case may be. That's when the new story starts, so it never ends. And so what are you gonna do then? Say, oh, okay, I'll be happy when I get that. Next advancement at the new career that I just got. I'll be happy when I get promoted to be the, the the nursing supervisor or the clinical supervisor or, whatever the case may be. You gotta be happy in the story. Simple as that. There's nothing wrong with having the goals a hundred percent. I've got goals, I've got plans, this and that, but those plans are just the roadmap that's not. That's not where your happiness, it's not a carrot. You're dangling in front of you. The happiness is right now and I've shifted that mind shift and I'm happy right now. I'm happy in the moment. So think about this. Lemme tell you this as I was breath building, breathe bitch. In the website, you name it, everything. The Instagram. And imagine if I had the mindset of okay, once I get this website built, which I dunno if you heard the first episode, which is funny. I end up buying the wrong. Domain name. I left the E out. So many people do. And it was just breath bitch. And once I got all set up, I'm like, ah, damn, snap, I gotta go do that. Which was a whole nother adventure getting the actual, domain name'cause somebody else owned it. So that's in the first episode, we talk about that. But we did get it. We get it, we got it. But imagine this, imagine if I say, all right, have I built this website out, man, there, then I'm gonna be happy. Okay, then I'm like, okay, now let's get the website built out. It's I gotta start getting traffic, the website then that's when I'll be happy. Okay, I gotta start making some videos and put some content on'em, and that's, I gotta help people out. That's what I'm gonna be happy. I was happy through the entire process, simple as that. I truly was, and I just look at these things as a different adventure. And you'll, if you ever follow me on anything else, you're gonna hear me say this so often that life is just a series of experiences and that's all it is. It truly is. Life is just a series of experiences. They come, they go. When, whether we decide whether they're good or bad, those are just our perspectives of the experience that we're having. It doesn't necessarily mean it's good or bad, that's just our perspective of that situation. Prime example, ever look back on something and you're like, ah, man, that was a horrible situation. You look back like, ah, that wasn't such a bad thing. You've changed your perspective. Simple as that. You could be having a horrible day and you say, oh man, this is a horrible experience that I'm having. But you know what? I've said this before too, so imagine, you got a new car, all right, nice car, you're driving along, had it for a week. Next thing you smash it up, you hit something. Who knows what it is? A cyber of a bridge. I don't know. Who knows what it is? You hit it, smash it up, it's destroyed. You like, ah, man, I just lost my new car. And now I gotta rely on friends or public transportation until I get me another car. I gotta go through this insurance headache and all this stuff, man. What am I gonna do? I'm Ubering, this and that, and then imagine telling this story to somebody in Zimbabwe or something like that, and they're like, wait, what? You had a car? You got friends with the cars, you got public transportation. Wow, you're a king. It's all perspective. Simple as that, so again, so life is just a serious experiences. You have to enjoy the experience that you're in. And if you don't worry. That experience is gonna end. So don't tie yourself up to it. That experience is gonna end. But here's the crazy thing too. The experiences, the good experiences, they're gonna end too. And that's why you have to be grateful for the moment that you're in right now. Simple as that. So don't go chasing happiness. Happiness is not at the end of the rainbow. We all know it's at the end of the rainbow. That pot of gold. Nope. It does not exist. And here's another thing too to kinda keep in mind too, and this has happened to me. So I own a real estate agency now. One of the things that I own a real estate agency and I. I don't even like real estate anymore. I don't like real estate anymore. I don't like the people that I deal with in it. And that's probably my, again, my own perspective because I used to love it. It used to bring me joy. It used to be I was money hungry. I was like, let's go chase that dollar. That's what it's all about. And I no longer do that. I chase vibrations. I chase happiness and my life has completely shifted. But that one thing that brought me joy and I was like, this is gonna, this is gonna, it's gonna make me happiness. I made a lot of money at it. I did it, but and I still do it very I pick and choose who I work with. And the funny thing is when some people call and I don't like their vibration, they're so used to brokers and agents. Yeah, I'll do it. I've been over backwards for your business. I'm just like, nah, keep calling. They're like, what do you mean? I'm like, yeah, this is, this. Relationship's not gonna work out. And you gotta convince him sometime to, if somebody ever said it to me, I would just be like, okay, no problem. But you gotta convince him sometimes. No, I'm not gonna do your business. So continue to go, but again, this is something that I thought was gonna bring me so much joy and was gonna be the end all. But here's what happens. So lemme finish this. So what happens sometimes is that goal that you're trying to achieve, sometimes you change and that goal is no longer even something that lights you up anymore. So not only that, so again the happiness is not at the end of the rainbow. Even if you don't change, but you might change by the time you get there. You have to be fluid. And that's why you gotta be happy in the moment. Simple as that.'cause it's not a trophy that you're change chasing. Simple as that. It's not a finish line. And you just, the happiness happens right now. You gotta be thankful for the moment. You gotta be thankful for that. As I said in that IG reel, you know the movie is built in the story and you are in the story right now. Simple as that. You're in the story. Make it the best story you possibly can. And the ending. Unlike a movie though, the ending is just the beginning of another story. So take that moment, be happiness, and find happiness in the moment. So some of the things you can do is grounding. Go out for a walk, go and take the shoes off, let your feet fill the grass as underneath of it as you're going for a walk and appreciate mother nature. Now on my Facebook page, I talk about I'm in nature all the time. I always post videos of me i'll being the nature. I enjoy the nature. I embrace it, I respect it and I feel a vibration back from it. And so I post pictures like that all the time, and I get people, I got tons of followers that I don't know who they are. And I'm not, that's not cool thing or nothing like that, but I had this woman send me this picture. She DMed me this picture. She's I'm embracing nature. And she was on a porch having a beer and on the porch. I was just like okay, cool. That's your version of enjoying the nature. That is not enjoying nature to me. That's, that might be her version of it. Maybe she never goes outside okay. Great baby steps, but I like to get barefoot out there, walk the trails. Pick up leaves, whatever the case may be. Take deep breath, do breath work out there ground while you're out there. That, that's gonna help you be happy in the moment. And the thing is, one of the things too, I was just out at Big Cypress it's a part of the Everglades. I. National area down there. And I was just talking to somebody about this a little yesterday, matter of fact. And when I go out to places like that and I'm out there, it's I forget, it was like 700,000 acres at places. Absolutely. Just unbelievably big. And when I'm out there, it just, everything just melts away. All your problems melt away. At least for that little bit of short time here, nothing is important. The problems that we have today are just. Just part of this game that we play, whether it be taxes and bills and deadlines and all this and stuff, and you look at this, deer go up by they don't have any of that. They don't care about any of that. Granted, they don't have a shelter over their head. They don't have ac but they live and they live their life. All this stuff is just a game that we participate into. So it's nice to be able to go out there and check out and be like, you know what? I'm not playing today, guys. So that's one way to find happiness in the moment. And appreciate, again, like I said, appreciate the story. If you're studying in school and you're working your way through nursing school or whatever the case may be it sucks. I'm a nurse as well too. I don't know if you guys know that or not. It sucks, but enjoy that moment. You're gonna look back and those, ah, man, that time in nursing school, whatever the case may be, that's the story you're building right there. So I went to nursing school and I don't even do nursing anymore. I'm a pediatric nurse, but I don't even do nursing anymore. I may go back to it at some point in time, but I don't even do that anymore. But that was at the time, oh, once I become a nurse, everything's gonna change. And I don't even do it anymore. Nothing against nursing. I still like it. I just do something else that takes up much more of my time and it's far more lucrative for me at this point in time to do what I do. And it's not the breathe bitch, that's for sure. I do that just for happiness. I do that just to help people out and that, that makes me happy when I get, I wake up to a message. I just woke up to a message this morning and some of these. She wrote me, she says, I found you on your page. She goes, I'm going through so much, and the words that you've, you shared on your Facebook has really helped me out. And she asked for some little bit more advice, so I gave her some more advice. But that that's what Breathe Bitch is all about. The Breathe Bitch is about helping you guys out helping other people out. And to me that's where the riches are found. Like I said, I stopped chasing money with the real estate. And with any other thing, the investments that I used to do, I used to do some hardcore investments, lost my ass. And that's, maybe I'll tell another story on that one. Another time. Had I not put the practices in place that I do, I would be, I'd be wrecked right now mentally for some of the losses that I've taken. And I'm okay. I'm okay with it, and I'm strong. I know for a fact let's do the practices and I take place and the breath work, the meditation, the yoga I do the crystal ball meditations on Sunday nights. All that has helped put me in a great mental state where I just find peace. I'm like, okay. This is what happened. All right? It is what it is, and we'll talk about that, and then probably another episode or two. But life is what it is. It's not how we want it to be. And that's the problem. That was such a hard pill to swallow that life is what it is and it's not what we want it to be, and there's nothing we can change about it, whether we like it or not. That's what life is. It's our attachment to the outcomes. But our perceived outcomes, what we thought they would be, that bring us unhappiness. So again, don't be attached to any outcome.'cause this goal that you're trying to seek by the time you get there, that may not even be the goal that you're trying to seek anymore at that point in time. Be happy in the moment as you're building that story. So again, grounding is one way to find to be happy in the moment. Meditating, by all means, you should always be meditating. That helps everything as simple as that. And I'll say this a thousand times, meditating is like taking a snow globe, shaking it. And the meditating is stopping that show snow globe. So us walking around day-to-day activities is shaking that snow globe and it's just all mixed up. But, when we meditate, it's like setting that snow globe down and letting everything settle and letting your mind settle. And this is not some crystal woowoo full moon stuff, mindfulness. This is real deal science. It has shown, they've done CAT scans on monk's brains. And the differences in their brains. It's just amazing what meditation will do for you. Obviously, I'm gonna recommend breath work, since that's what we're all about is doing breath work, definitely look up some of the ones that we offer on a website, breathe bitch.com. But yeah so breath work and the biggest one to be happy in a moment. And this is the one you must do. I always recommend doing all these, but the one you must do is have gratitude. Be grateful for the moment. Be grateful that you are. You have that ability to chase that goal. Be grateful that you're not hungry, and if you are that you can go put something in your stomach. May not be exactly what you want and may not be the finest steak dinner or the finest veg vegan dinner or whatever the case may be, but. Be grateful that you can put something in there. Simple as that. We are so spoiled and so self-entitled in the us again this is, goes all over the place. There are some countries that are so unfortunate. I. And be grateful. Be grateful for the moment. Be grateful to take a, be grateful if you're listening to this podcast, whatever device you own to be, to listen to this podcast. I'm pretty grateful you have that. It's probably a phone that you're listening to this on, or maybe online, whatever the case may be. But you got internet where you have access to internet. Everybody's got access to internet. Every Starbucks has free internet. Most places have a lot of free internet. We have that. What a luxury. We couldn't have that. That's unbelievable. Be grateful for that. Be grateful for your health. As a pediatric nurse, I. I took care of mostly children on vents and they're ventilators and some of these kids will never ever know what it's like to breathe on their own. These are machines that allow them to breathe. And it's one of the reasons too, I, I got into breath work is'cause I've been doing that for quite some time and, breathing has been in my past for quite some time. But the fact that these children will never be able to breathe on their own, some of them will, some of them will. But some of'em will not. And the fact that if you have, you can't find anything to be grateful for. First off, you're being narrow-minded. If you can't find anything to be grateful for, be grateful that you're taking a breath. Be grateful that you're sitting in traffic and going to work right now. You might say I'm so grateful about that.'cause you're going to work. You got a job that you're sitting in a car, you're in traffic. How about that? That's amazing. That is so amazing. And be grateful for that. Don't take that crap for granted, because guess what, how you smash that car up? You might be walking on the side of the road or sitting in an Uber. And my car broke down quite some time back. I blew the engine up in the thing. Unbelievable.$6,000 later. And I had to Uber around. So I ubered around and I tell you what, that was nice to be able to have that luxury but Uber around. But man, it sure made me grateful that once I got my car back that because I didn't realize how often and I just stop at a store, grab a sandwich, or grab a, grab some fruit or grab a, some vegetables or whatever the case may be, or grab something to eat or grab some coconut water. Can't do that in Uber. I guess you can, but I don't know. I didn't feel right doing that. The luxury to be able to stop wherever you wanna stop at. So be grateful in the moment. That's what's really gonna certainly help you out and being happy and find that happiness right now. So being grateful is really the most important thing. So ground. Do breath work, meditate, and definitely find that gratitude. Gratitude for your situation, gratitude for that story you're in, and build that story and make it beautiful. Think of that. Think of it as your life, as just you're in a movie script, and go do things. I don't, and here's the thing too. If you're broke, I went through a period of time where I was broke and. And I don't know, again, I'm not gonna get into the whole story, but anyways, I was broke. But you would think I was a million. I was, I always, I've always been doing stuff like I am not one to ever sit down. I'm a go go kind of guy. Now, don't get me wrong, every once in a while I'll take a break and just relax, but that is a dedicated time that I probably set to say, all right, I'm just gonna chillax here. But like maybe if I went camping or something like that, but I'm go, I'll go. And I don't care if I got a dime in my pocket or if I got a thousand bucks in my pocket, I'm go. And you don't need to have money in your pocket to go anywhere. Go for a walk that's free. You know how many county parks you probably have around? I know how many we have around, and I would've never known it until I started looking online. How many county parts there are. Go to Starbucks, hang out, use their free internet and get you the cheapest drink they got there. There's so many things to do. There's so many things online. Meditate. Go for a walk. Like I said, that's the important thing. I dunno if you've we're lucky enough to have beaches right here, go to the beach. So many things to do. Go to a park. So many free things you can do. It's unbelievable. Look on Facebook events. Look on meetup. They have events on there to go do. There's so much to do. You don't need a dime in your pocket to do it, and if you got a dime in your pocket, save it and go do these free things. So keep that in mind. You don't need to be rich to be happy. You don't need money in your pocket. And I hate to say this, you don't even need friends to be happy. Heck. Just go meet new people. That's exciting. I'm meeting people constantly. It's crazy how many people I meet all the time, and it's crazy how quickly we click. And there's some that I just run into now constantly, and we're buddies. It's unbelievable. It's funny stuff. So find that happiness right now. It's not a distance, it's not a goal. It's not out. Don't be if you're, again, if you get that carrot in front of you, that's wrong. That's wrong. There's nothing wrong with having goals. There's nothing to shoot for those goals, but don't think that's where your happiness lies. It doesn't. It lies right now. Happiness is in this story. Simple as that. And here's another way you can look at it as well too. You know that happiness in the future is nothing different than an oasis that does not exist. Simple as that. It's just an oasis. You may or may not be happy once you get that point. And again, that point is just another starting point for another whole adventure that's coming up. So if you, but here's the thing too. If you are, if you're looking in the future and saying, oh, that's when I'm gonna be happy, that means you're not happy in this moment. And I'm not, I'm just gonna be frank with you here. It means if you're ha happy in a moment, then you're lacking gratitude for the space that you're in. So if you find yourself in that situation, you're like, oh, you get frustrated, or you're like, oh, I'll be happy one day when I get to that point. Stop. Stop for a second. Do a quick breath work, and I don't care where you could do this anywhere driving. You can do the standing. You can do this in the hallway. You can step into the the broom closet. You can step into the supply room. Wherever. Wherever you're at, work, you're at home. Step into the kitchen, wherever you need a hallway, bathroom. Stop for a second. Stop. Do a quick little breath work section. Inhale. Deep. Biggest breath you had all day. Hold it at the top. And in exhale, let it out. Just let it out gently. It doesn't have to be all out. Just let it out gently. Do another one of those. Bring them in. Bring it the biggest breath you've got all day. Get to the top now. Take a sip, sip more air, hold it for 10 seconds. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Let it out. Then think of three things that you're grateful for. Look around what your. So what are you grateful for? Your dog, your kids? The fact that you can breathe. The fact that you know that you're sitting in a car, you're sitting in tra you might say, oh, I'm sitting in traffic. It's horrible. The way you're sitting in a car, that's pretty awesome. You could be walking, you could crash that car next week and be walking next week. So be thankful that you're in that car. Ah, I'm in jerk work. I'm in a storeroom closet. Guess what? You're at work. That's great. You can be outta work, again, take that moment, find those three things to be grateful for, and then just embrace that. Know that again, there is no trophy at the end. That's just an oasis that never may be able to reach there. And here's something too. I want you to realize that tomorrow is not promised. Tomorrow's not promised. And just imagine if you lay all your happiness, you put all your chips on happiness in the future does not exist. First off, we talk about this in some other podcasts, but the future does not exist. It does not exist. The past no longer exists, but if you're putting all your chips on the future, that does not even exist, that's where your happiness is. Guess what? You might die tonight in your sleep and what you'll never be happy. Be happy now. Be happy in the moment. Be happy you're making that story. She's gonna start winding things down here. So typically this is where we would take the viewer questions and go through'em and answer'em and give our advice on the situation that you're going through. And to do that, to submit the questions. Again we're starting out early so we don't have any questions in yet. But to do that, you're gonna go to the breathe bitch.com. Scroll down to where it says podcast. Click on that button. It'll take you to the pod podcast page. And somewhere on that podcast page, there's gonna be a. The area where you send a message in, first name, last name, state, and and the message, that you may have, that you want us to give some mindful advice on. And your last name will not be used on air. And we'll do our best I can to give you our opinion of the situation through the lens of mindfulness. With the information that you provide is the best we can possibly do. And see if we can help out. I know I've helped out a lot of people. I had a message this morning from somebody who looked at our Facebook page and said, Hey because of your, the messages that you put on the videos you put on your Facebook, I just wanna let you know that I'm really going through something. And they really helped out. I really, truly enjoy helping people out. That's what I chase anymore. I don't chase a dollar. I chase helping people out. And that's what excites me. I've, if you see one of my other videos, I've done that to me, that wealth is not about the money. You have, and I've said this in another video, that wealth is not about the money you have, the possessions you have, the friends that you have, it's about directly related to how many people that you can help out. And that is true wealth, the how many people you can help out. And the rest of those are just all, derivatives or dividends from helping people out. Those are all basically byproducts from helping people out. Simple as that. So the real goal is to help as many people out as you possibly can. There's nothing more rewarding than life and than helping people out. And at least that's how it sits for me. So that's what I do. So again, submit the questions. If you have anything that we can possibly give you some advice on. Follow us on Instagram, breathe bitch on Instagram. Facebook, Steven Rii because they wouldn't let me use Bitch on Facebook, on TikTok as well too. We just started doing some stuff on TikTok, so there's not a whole lot on there, but we're definitely getting on there. So follow us on any of those. Make sure you listen to the next podcast, and that's all I got for you. I'm very blessed that you listen today and stay tuned for the next one. I'm not sure what series it'll be. It'll either the IG series. Or the breathe bitch, the journey to peace, power, and purpose, which is the book that we're working on. That's all I got for you. Have a great day, and do the best you can with the day and be, have, be filled with gratitude. That's all I got. I.