Hi there. You know, whether someone invited you here or you found it yourself. I'm really glad that you're here. This is a podcast for women who are deep, good, caring women. And you know that there's a way to get unstuck and know that there's something calling you to an even more fulfilling way of being where you get to be heard and understood. And this is a place where you also get to feel the truth of who you are on a regular basis, right? When you are that person, you get to express all her facets. Now, doing a podcast is definitely not a natural thing for me. I've had to learn how to do it, to do all the elements of it, to do all the planning of it, and then of course, to do the speaking of it, the communicating. But the real core of what this has been about for me is getting to that place, learning to have my voice, and learning how to let myself be heard, and to truly believe in myself that what I have to bring, what I have to share, and the connections that I'm making with other people, to bring them to you and to finally express myself in a way that's also in alignment with my highest values.

All of these things I needed to learn. And I'm very grateful to have done that because I want you to get the support that you need. Now, in my life today, at first glance, you wouldn't know that I grew up without a voice. Usually when people first meet me, they think I'm like super outgoing and adventurous and all this stuff that they see on the surface. And while some of those things are true, at times, I grew up not even knowing or dreaming or even asking myself like what I wanted to be. And nobody else asked me. So I didn't know what my life could become. I wasn't dreaming about becoming this or that until years into my adulthood. And then I think the other thing that isn't obvious to most people, because I find myself constantly in situations where I need to set boundaries because people don't get that I'm not like super strong.

I look pretty resilient on the outside, but I'm not that strong. And I'm also not super outgoing. I can't maintain the bubbliness and like the ability to interact with a lot of people without stopping and pausing and going into a quiet space. Growing up, I had the kind of childhood where I needed to walk on eggshells, partly because I was misunderstood. I was an introvert in a house of extroverts and there was always something going on with other people. My mother was very social, my dad was social, although he did most of his socializing outside of the house. But my mom would do it in the house. And my sister was pretty outgoing, and I just wasn't. And I kept receiving this message that I was too sensitive over and over and over. If I had a tear come to my eye, I'd, you know, be sent to my room and told to stop crying, that was normal for me. Like it happened over and over and over. Why are you crying? I was like crying because I was scared, wasn't comfortable to be myself. I didn't know how to interact with my own family. So in response to that, or in reaction to that, I hid out outside of the house. And one of my favorite areas to hide out in was the woods. We were in a neighborhood that was surrounded by undeveloped land.

And so I could go there and I could go climb trees and I would do that. I would go climb trees by myself. Occasionally somebody would go with me, but that was really rare. Like I could count on one hand the number of times I was out there with somebody else. The other thing that I did to take care of myself was I would go ride my bike around the neighborhood. And it is funny 'cause I have these memories, like this strong sense that every time I would ride my bike, I was just hoping please, you know, somebody, maybe some school friend, because there were a number of kids in the neighborhood who I went to school with. And I was just hoping, you know, that they would come out into their yard and wave and just notice me and say hi. I felt pretty invisible most of the time.

So I spent many hours, many days riding bikes alone. I spent hours upon hours climbing trees and my primary survival mechanism when things got like sketchy at the house, or felt dangerous, I would just freeze, right? So my mom had some anger issues and she would go from like, happy, happy social, this, that, the other to just exploding. And that was really scary for me. And a lot of people might have fought her, or, my sister would fight her now and then, she was good at the verbal punch and a lot of people might run away, right? So we know about fighting and fleeing, but my response was to freeze. I was just like a deer in those proverbial headlights.

This freezing behavior eventually led to my just never voicing an opinion, right? And instead of a default of speaking up, my default was to just listen. That was my safe place. Just listen. As long as I didn't speak in public or utter an opinion that others could criticize, I thought I'd be okay. And when I was put on the spot, like asked a direct question, I found comfort in being the good girl and just like reporting back that I was doing well in my grades. So getting good grades, being the good girl became important. 'cause it was really the only thing I felt comfortable enough even to talk about. And it had this kind of safety net to it. Like, as long as I'm getting good grades, nobody's upset. Eventually I became more and more stressed. Certainly by the time I was an adult I was having stomach issues, but I was actually having them earlier on and they were just not diagnosed.

And I also had a few rounds of depression because I was unable to process emotional information in a way that left me feeling good. It just left me feeling overwhelmed or criticized. So all of that kinda led to this low energy. Like I was always on the blue part of the emotional range and feeling down. So at some point in my young adulthood, I started to realize that if I was gonna break the cycle of disconnection in myself and with the universe, that I needed some kind of deeper healing. And so I started that journey as I endeavored to have more meaning in my life, to make sense of things and to receive some kind of help. I started to ask, you know, like, who's gonna be able to help me with that? And I looked and I looked, I read so many books and I started to see therapists.

And this is in my mid twenties. I then started to find healers. And the minute I came across something called soul retrieval, I knew that that was something that I needed. And that was a little more out there, a little more esoteric, but there was no denying it. I knew that I needed it all the therapy that I've been doing and, all the practices and skills that I was doing were weren't getting me over that edge. And I just kept cycling up and then cycling back down. And so I learned to fill up and bring back my fragmented parts myself, all my essences. And now rather than feeling like a little bit disembodied from that, all those free states, I am now grounded and I'm here on the earth and I can manifest things better as a result. I can bring things into reality now and not just feel like I'm going through the motions of life or that I'm just here to serve other people 'cause that was certainly a big piece of things.

Later on when I was in my professional life, I began noticing some themes. And in one of the certification courses I was taking, I noticed that people didn't always respond well to my communications. And somehow when I did speak up, people would experience me as abrupt. And I was noticing that also in some of my friendships. And people would be reactive to me when I was just trying to share something. And they'd judge me and they'd be like, you shouldn't be that way, or you shouldn't say that. And then I would get cut off and not be able to finish my thought. And after, you know, enough of that happened over time, I began to study things like nonviolent communication and public speaking. 'cause I knew something wasn't connecting. A couple of things that I took away from those studies were first about compassion, right?

Compassion was a huge piece of my learning and to be kind to myself. When I talk about compassion, at first, I didn't know how to be compassionate with myself at all. So I practiced compassion on others, and that also helped me to feel safe. So I had the sort of like this protective, compassionate stance. And then there was like an authenticity piece. Like I had no idea what that even meant, but I kept hearing it and I was like, what does that even mean? Authentic authenticity? Well, how am I not authentic? Aren't I being authentic when I try to say what I wanna say? And then finally I understood at a certain point what it meant to be authentic. And just I'll say briefly, like that really is about being in connection and knowing who you are and expressing from that place of soul.

So I learned to manage all my scared feelings and I learned to be authentic. A bit later I became a leader for the Hoffman Institute Foundation, where I ran a department and trained over a hundred facilitators across the nation. And so I learned a lot about communicating with compassion and witnessing people and creating safe spaces. And I also got a whole bunch of different healing certifications. And holding that safe space for people was a very important part of my identity and how I learned and how I interacted with others. Eventually, a friend of mine asked me to work for her as a dating coach. And that opened up an entirely new level of feminine words and energy and how we say things. And when we say things, we're impacting our own beliefs. We're either grounding something in that we don't want, or we're creating a new way of being that we do want. And so our beliefs around it must shift or conflict will show up in our lives. All this stuff has to do a lot with what comes back to us in life. And so it seemed like the more that I embraced my feminine energy, the more successful that I was, and the closer I was able to get to people, to friends, and the closer I was able to get to my family as well, and to bring some balance and new perspectives and healing to those relationships.

And this concept, this idea of feminine energy actually became essential to how I live my life because it's in alignment with what I value and what my soul values. And I would say that it's eliminated probably at least 99% of the pushback I used to get in my earlier life, especially the pushback from men and people in authority. So all of that's turned around. And one of the things that's resulted from the work that I've done over the years is recognizing my passion for helping women to uncover what really matters to them. And also to help them see new ways to create their dreams, to fulfill their dreams and have a life that's interesting and has meaning for them. And I don't mean just like the every day, like my family has meaning for me. I mean deeper stuff, right? The stuff that lights them up and maybe your family does light you up, but there's also something about being really present to yourself and bringing your full self to those relationships.

And I find working with clients that there's kind of like a veil around what women really want or a lack of clarity around what they want. So in my own journey, I learned to ask the right questions and to obtain the skills that would help me see my own vision through. And to do that without falling into self-doubt or into self-criticism. A key component for me was, something that was really important was that I wanted to be closer with people. Not just like go do my work, you know, on myself and feel good about myself. I wanted to have greater connection with others and I wanted to get over like the whole isolating myself, whether it was personally or professionally. So eventually I got the calling to step out and run my own business. And this was rather unexpected for me. I'd never had the thought that I would wanna run my own business one day.

I was content to go here and go there and do a little floating and maybe work for a few years over here. But this calling came in and I could not deny it. Suddenly I was just consuming information to help me learn and to kind of light up those ideas like, what does this even mean? What could it look like? And I don't even know why I wanted to do it, but it just filled me and it gave me the chills. Like it really moved me forward paying attention to this desire to have my own business. Well, for some of my clients, it's not about having a business. It might be about something else. Might be living somewhere or pursuing a particular interest or having a particular relationship. But having a business, it was a thing that was missing that I didn't even know was missing.

And it was a thing that would allow me to actually be fulfilled on a level I could not even imagine. And so I let go of the safety of the paycheck for that. But I have to tell you, the thing that scared me the most was not the paycheck. And believe me, I could have used that paycheck. But as much as I needed that paycheck, the thing that scared me the most was knowing that if I was going to have my own business, I would also need to have my own voice. And to believe in myself enough to trust that I actually had something to bring, something to say, and that I could find a way to say it. So I had to get to that place of myself where if I discovered that people didn't like what I had to say or they judge me that that was their choice, I had to be okay with that. I needed to learn to depersonalize and recognize that other people are totally entitled to their opinions. Even if their judgmental or critical, that's their their right, it's their choice.

I needed to learn not to take it on. And so now I feel like more than ever is really the time for the Say Yes to Your Soul podcast. And it's time for me to share my message. I think there's something happening in the consciousness, global consciousness, in the energy of the planet. There's a lot going on. And I think there have been enough shifts in the collective at this point, enough conversations happening to help bring Earth and all her people back into balance and harmony. I think it's no coincidence that we're in the age of Aquarius, where in this age, like the structures of the past topple down so that there's new opportunity, right? And this is all about breaking down of the old systems. So there's an opportunity for us to come together new ways and create a new version of our best selves.

And I think we can do that with greater connection and understanding of one another. You know, years ago I learned a word. I forget what the book was that I was reading, but I was really looking at it. And at first I was trying to comprehend what it meant. And eventually I really got it. And something to me shifted. And that word was interdependence. Not just independence, which we definitely can put on a pedestal in the US Bay, as I think as a country that broke away from another country and, you know, put an ocean in between. There is that very strong pioneering spirit, individualism, right? Freedom, independence. But if we keep doing that, we're gonna drive ourselves away from one another. There were certainly themes of my family around being independent. You know, I was, from the time I was, I think it was 12, I had this maybe before, but for sure at by the age of 12, I was like being pushed away from my family.

Go be independent. Somehow. I was supposed to be independent. I didn't really know what that meant. It just didn't feel good. It was like they were trying to get me out the door, but I was not ready. And don't ask for help. That was a problem with that thinking, you know, I know that they were doing it 'cause they thought, oh, if she's independent, she'll, you know, make something of herself and then we don't have to worry about her. But it basically felt awful. It felt like, don't ask for help, don't ask us for anything. And you know, you're bad if you do.

And I tested that out a few a couple decades later, and I was right. That's exactly what happened. I was made to be a bad person because I asked for something. I asked for support from a family member and just got completely shut down. And I was just looking for information. It wasn't like some big ask. So you could be feeling that way too. You could be feeling like, I can't ask for help. I can't get the support I need. And maybe you're the one that's giving it all. You're the support person, you're giving to everybody around you, and that's keeping the status quo. But this is the time we need the divine feminine to have a stronger voice. And one of the ways we bring the divine feminine to the earth is through us, through being feminine. Collectively, we're all part of that. We each express unique facets of the divine feminine. We're gonna need to be willing to be heard and to take more risk when the time is right, right? To not just be in the shadows or be that secondary or the support person, but to really be heard for your ideas. You know, I want you to be heard for your inspirations, your knowing and just your reflections. Like your truth, your feelings.

And in my heart, I believe that it is time for women to come into that feminine power to be clear, to be sure, and especially to be themselves. Now, I'm not talking about being a defended version of yourself. I think we do see a lot of that going on. A lot of masculinized women who are sort of in this protection mode of needing to defend. That is not what I'm talking about. It's not about being tough or getting along in a masculine society. It's about being you and belonging there just as much as everybody else. It's actually possible to be authentic and alive and open and also vulnerable. I want you to know that sometimes when we think about vulnerability, we start to freeze up or bad. Maybe the panic button gets pushed or something like, Ooh, that's scary, that's hard. You know, I don't know if I could do that. And there's a kind of a sense, I think under deeper down, like we could be destroyed. If you're too vulnerable, I could be wiped out or exiled. But what I've learned about vulnerability is it's the opposite. Cannot. When you practice real vulnerability, when you understand what that is, you cannot be picked apart. And vulnerability is not a weaknes, it's actually a strength.

So I know that you could be living more freely and in a way that doesn't feel like you're stuck or trapped by choices that maybe you made a long time ago, or maybe your choices were even made for you by someone else, or your genetics or your ancestral line. I know that you can allow your voice, your energy, your soul and your heart to be received and heard by other people, and that you become a vibrant part of the tapestry of life. Not just taking care of others, not just supporting others so that they succeed not at the expense of yourself. And you can be a glorious feminine woman expressing beauty and intelligence and sweetness of the divineness that is you. That is your right, that is your soul light.

Because your soul light is important to the healing of the people around you and also to the healing of this world. I mean, it's pretty clear that we can't keep going the way we have been. And so this is part of the redirection I'm calling you forward, calling you to be you. Not that defended you, not the survival you or that hurt you or the fragmented you, but to be all of you, your whole you. Because you do matter to the entirety of consciousness and to humanity and to source into the universe. So I'd like to take a little space here to state my high intentions for you. You could think of this like a prayer if you want to. I just ask that you see if you can receive whatever feels right for you to receive at this time. May you deepen and enliven your direct connection to universal wisdom and to the divine. May you make your personal journey just as important as everyone else's. May you restore your wholeness so you reunite with your full soul. May you express your true voice and be heard and feel heard. May you discover how to create safety within yourself and also outside of yourself, so that you can feel confident about your choices and learn to create possibilities from a place of love.

And as you open up to receiving the goodness in life that the universe has for you, may you feel valued and understood may all past binds be released. May you learn to move past self-criticism and to deepen your sense of belonging and purpose here at this time. And as you prioritize your needs and your desires on your path to fulfilling your dreams, may your beautiful soul connect more profoundly with others and your loving relationships deepen. May you experience greater confidence, compassion, and flow. And while your soul is infinite, may you live in the knowing that now is the time to show up fully and beautifully in partnership with your soul. May you create an abundant, fulfilling life on all levels as you come to know great happiness, peace, and love. So be it. Wonderful. Thank you for taking that in and for receiving the energy, the words, whatever it was that resonated for you. And I invite you to allow it to continue to grow in your heart. I look forward to getting to know you. So come back and listen again, and go on a journey with us. Go on a journey with me and with the other guests that are gonna be here week after week, show after show, blessings and light.