Simple, powerful conversations to help you set boundaries, protect your peace, and apply to your daily life.
Not in My Bucket is a practical and uplifting podcast hosted by Sarah Bentz—licensed counselor, therapist, trainer, and owner of the Hope and Growth Center in Keller, Texas. With over 15 years of experience helping thousands of individuals grow, heal, and create healthier lives, Sarah brings both expertise and real-world wisdom to every episode.
Introduction
Welcome to the Not in My Bucket Podcast!
Not in My Bucket is a practical, encouraging podcast I created to help you live with greater balance, purpose, and fulfillment. I’m Sarah Bentz, a licensed professional counselor, and I’ve seen how easily our “bucket” of time, emotions, and identity gets filled with things that don’t belong— trauma, expectations, and other people’s “stuff.” In each episode, I share simple truths and real stories to help you recognize what’s yours, what isn’t, and how to create healthy boundaries that protect and empower you. Whether you feel overwhelmed or running on empty, these brief conversations are designed to meet you where you are—and help you move forward, keeping your bucket better balanced.
Bucket Basics
In this debut episode, we sit down with Sarah Bentz, a Licensed Professional Counselor and owner of the Hope & Growth Center, to explore a unique and powerful metaphor for mental health: the bucket. Sarah breaks down the complex world of boundaries by visualizing every person as a bucket, specially designed for what truly belongs to them.
Bucket "Not" List Part 1
In the second episode of the series, Sarah Bentz digs deeper into the invisible nature of boundaries and how we often don't realize they are broken until our lives feel like a "hot mess."
Sarah explains that just as a piece of land needs a surveyor to mark its limits, we need to identify the specific behaviors that signal when our buckets are overflowing with things that don't belong to us.
This episode serves as a diagnostic guide to identifying the symptoms of poor boundaries.
From sacrificing your own desires for others to the exhausting pursuit of perfection, Sarah provides a roadmap for listeners to begin cleaning out their buckets and reclaiming their personal space.
Bucket "Not" List Part 2
In this episode, Sarah concludes her breakdown of the "Boundary Not List"—the top ten behaviors that signal your bucket is overflowing with things that don't belong to you.
Following up on the first five signs discussed in Episode 02, Sarah unpacks five more patterns that drive us to overextend ourselves, ignore our own well-being, and sacrifice our peace to manage other people's expectations.From the exhausting reality of masking our pain with a happy face to the art of saying "no" without actually using the word, this episode offers practical strategies to reclaim your limits.
Sarah challenges listeners to stop carrying around hypothetical reactions and remember a fundamental truth: protecting your bucket is your responsibility, because no one else will do it for you.
The Rescue Bucket
In this episode, Sarah Bentz introduces the first individual bucket profile: The Rescue Bucket. Inspired by a vintage 1940s firehouse bucket from eBay, Sarah uses the imagery of first responders to examine our own tendencies to rush in and save others.
While rescuing is vital in real emergencies, acting as a constant relationship rescuer often crosses the line from genuine help into unhealthy enabling.
Sarah breaks down the exact moments where rescuers go wrong—such as stepping in for irresponsible people and working harder than the person they are trying to assist.
Through relatable examples spanning parenting, workplace dynamics, and addiction, this episode challenges us to stop dipping into other people's buckets and to start letting them face the consequences that promote true personal growth.
