From Nauseous Nights to Perfect Mornings | Life in Costa Rica

The Angry Therapist Podcast

John Kim

Mental Health, Health & Fitness

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, licensed therapist John Kim takes you inside his personal journey of building a new life in Costa Rica - the highs, the lows, and the unexpected lessons about presence, clarity, and decision-making. From nausea-inducing dirt roads to perfect mornings surfing in Costa Rica, John unpacks how life-changing decisions aren’t made in one big moment… but in a collection of small ones. You’ll learn: Why clarity about life, love, and career comes from moments, not constant certainty How to notice and “bank” the moments that matter when deciding whether to move abroad, who to love, or what path to take The challenges of living in Costa Rica - from unpaved roads to missing city comforts and the surprising joys that outweigh them How being present is the only way to truly capture moments (and how most of us miss them) Why life’s “yes” often comes from an accumulation of tiny affirmations rather than a single sign Join the conversation! What moments have shaped your biggest life decisions? Have you noticed when your “piggy bank” of yeses finally tipped the scale? Share your story with us. Like this episode? Please LIKE & FOLLOW for more unfiltered conversations about expat life, self-discovery, and building a life that actually feels like yours. Order John's new book, Break Up. On Purpose,⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Jump into John’s new Single. On Purpose app⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow John on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Find out more about John⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I remember lying in bed thinking, what the fuck are we doing here, right?
0:04.4	You know, so you have moments like this where you like miss the city, kind of questioning things.
0:09.7	But then you wake up, 8 a.m. we get into this thing, drive 30 seconds to the beach.
0:16.0	Then you have a whole different moment than I had the other night.
0:19.5	My point in sharing these two moments is that when people ask me, like, how do you know
0:25.7	or where you're at or what are you going to do?
0:28.5	The answer is everything comes in moments.
0:32.0	There isn't a solid knowing.
0:33.3	It is a ebb and flow and you have moments where you doubt and struggle like in any relationship
0:41.3	and then you have these other moments where you're like oh this is it and also maybe some
0:46.7	spiritual moments where you feel like I'm meant to be here and I just know because I feel my body
0:50.4	so I think the knowing is moments you you know, like if you imagine these moments
0:57.1	as kind of like coins that you deposit into this is piggy bank, right? When that fills up,
1:02.6	start making decisions.
1:07.2	I'm John Kim, a licensed therapist who used to be a miserable fuck before going on a hero's journey and turning expired relationships into revelations.
1:15.7	I use my story to help others come with you instead of at you, unrehearsed on purpose, because self-help doesn't have to be polished or complicated.
1:25.4	Just honest.
1:37.5	I'm a little mad at myself because I just took the two pills and I'll tell you what two pills I'm talking about.
1:46.1	Right after I tell you that this is a walk-in talk episode, but I don't think I'm going to be doing a lot of walking. The two pills were for a mini hangover. I had one and a half beers last night and I have very little
1:54.1	tolerance for alcohol. You know, alcohol is a poison. I don't know if you know this. And a lot of
1:59.2	people, some Asian people, don't have the gene that fights off the poison. So when I drink, I'm literally dying when I'm drinking. So one and a half bills, beers, and I'm like huge hangover the next morning, which I think is a good thing, right? Because it prevents me from drinking. But I told myself that I'm not going to take the time in Lao because I'm in Costa Rica.
2:24.7	I'm trying to be all natural and shit. I'm drinking kombucha, going on walks, right? I'm trying
	...

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