Unfixed episodes

Kimberly Warner
May 20, 2024
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People love fixer-upper stories, miracle cures and answers but many wake up each day without any of these. Our world needs more models for how to live a meaningful, unfixed life—a life liberated from fixed notions of how we must feel in order to live fully. Unfixed humans may be in pain but they are learning to integrate it into a larger definition of themselves. The Unfixed audio-visual library demonstrates that living well is not about eradicating our wounds and weaknesses but understanding how they complete our identities and equip us to help others. Current productions include the Unfixed Mind mini-series, Unfixed docu-series, Unfixed Focus, Life Rebalanced Chronicles, MS Confidential, Long Haul Voices, the Unfixed podcast, ICU podcast, and a feature documentary film Why We Matter.

The birth of Unfixed

Kimberly Warner
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July 13, 2023
The birth of Unfixed

Hello friends! Don’t worry, it’s not Sunday. Some of our readers have been requesting helpful resources on “living unfixed.” We all encounter adversity in life. For me, early traumas, perfectionism and a nervous system stuck in “flight and freeze” became fertile ground for chronic illness to take root in my flesh.

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Why does your life matter?

Kimberly Warner
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August 3, 2023
Why does your life matter?

Have you ever stopped to question modern life, our busy, productivity-crazed hallowing of gladness? Is a meaningful life an accumulation of objects and accolades or rather a fine, chiseling away of all the extraneous conditioning, revealing at its heart the immaterial but no less substantial movements of kindness, creativity, gratitude and love?

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Why Dylan's story matters

Kimberly Warner
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September 7, 2023
Why Dylan's story matters

When I began filming Dylan in 2019 for the Unfixed documentary, he was already communicating through an eye-tracking device—eyes slowly scanning across a keyboard screen and selecting letters to type out his thoughts. But the progression of ALS is making the muscles of his eyes weak and dreams of sharing his expansive mind with the world are fading.

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I was, I am

Kimberly Warner
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May 19
I was, I am

I’m getting to the point that because of the condition of my heart being in such a place of healing, I don’t need my body to be healed anymore. And I want to be able to spread that joy and that hope and that trust that I have to other people...to know that your body doesn’t have to be fixed in order for your heart to be healed.

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What if...

Kimberly Warner
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October 5, 2023
What if...

Last week we visited the question: Would you give up everything you’ve learned from adversity in order to erase the event from your storyline? And if you didn’t get a chance to read the responses, you’re in for a treat. Thank you to all who responded to the prompt with such intimate, powerful reflections.

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Sex, hugs and the chronic toll

Kimberly Warner
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Feb 14
Sex, hugs and the chronic toll

"Hm. Intimacy and chronic illness. Two things that don't naturally fit together in a sentence...and really don't fit naturally together in the real world either. We all know that intimacy is vitally important for a relationship but it’s constant effort when you feel like dog doo all the time."

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Unfixed Mind: Navigating Mental Health Today

Kimberly Warner
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October 26, 2023
Unfixed Mind: Navigating Mental Health Today

You’re invited to a special premiere! This year Unfixed Media and Health Story Collaborative, created a four-part, limited series, The Unfixed Mind: Navigating Mental Health Today, chronicling the real-life stories of six people living with mental health conditions. The mini-series aims to provide these individuals an opportunity to authentically share …

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Food: The agony & ecstasy

Kimberly Warner
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November 22, 2023
Food: The agony & ecstasy

"I survived and flourished in COVID because of peanut butter. I rediscovered peanut butter as so nurturing and sensual and every morning I learned that I need to ask someone to feed me exquisitely slowly, so slowly it’s painful for other people, but that’s the way I really love to enjoy my food—really slowly. So I take a spoonful of my crunchy peanut bu…

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Dear Diagnosis,

Kimberly Warner
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Jan 24
Dear Diagnosis,

To hate you, Ehler's Danlos Syndrome, would be to hate a part of myself and you don't get to have that power over me. You don't get to take my happiness. You don't get to keep me down. On the contrary, you have shown me how strong I really am and that I am capable of so much more than I ever would've thought possible.

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Kintsugi human

Kimberly Warner
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Apr 21
Kintsugi human

Every crack is not an entry point for weakness, but rather an exit point for the light to shine forth. The more cracks, the more light. -Rachelle Alford In Japan it is customary to repair pottery by mending the areas of breakage with powdered gold, silver or platinum.

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A collective sigh

Kimberly Warner
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December 21, 2023
A collective sigh

The year is coming to a close. In the silence, perhaps we can hear a collective sigh. Not so much a sigh of relief as a unified exhale, a laying down of arms, disappointments and heaviness. Just as trees cyclically lay down their verdant promise, eventually to be buried under snow and winter rain, in this season we, too, are asked to let go. Pause. Allo…

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Good day, bad days

Kimberly Warner
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Mar 6
Good day, bad days

Good days, bad days. We all have them. But how do humans living with chronic illness make this distinction when our moments are often mash-ups of joy and pain, insight and defeat? It's human nature to judge our experiences. When something hurts, we label it "bad." When something brings us pleasure we want more. When we feel relief, we say "good riddance.…

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Brian Nice

Kimberly Warner
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Jun 23
Brian Nice

Life can turn on a dime. Brian Nice is a world-renowned photographer, athlete, and Traumatic Brain Injury survivor. He has had two brain bleeds as a result of a condition referred to as cavernous malformation in the pons area, caused by an abnormal capillary that slowly hemorrhaged. Most people do not survive this condition, but after two surgeries the w…

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It's a family affair

Kimberly Warner
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Jul 21
It's a family affair

Many years ago, Abram Maslow created a diagram called the “Hierarchy of Needs.” This hierarchy shows which needs are most crucial to humans. The wide base of Maslow's pyramid diagram represents basic needs - food, water, shelter, clean air. The next level up are security needs followed by love and belonging. In a healthy, functioning family system all t…

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Holding is healing

Kimberly Warner
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Sep 1
Holding is healing

History doesn’t typically write tidy story arcs and satisfying endings, but media tells us differently—if we present ourselves to the world with a shiny bow on our heads and a clever narrative, then we will be of service. Then we are worthy of this world. But living in an unfixed body is teaching me that a meaningful, successful life doesn't exclude our…

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