Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Choosing The Narrative: Meditation Teacher Megan Monahan on Meeting Health Challenges With Grace, Breathwork for Stress & Unmasking Trauma Responses

Transcript

Choosing The Narrative: Meditation Teacher Megan Monahan on Meeting Health Challenges With Grace, Breathwork for Stress & Unmasking Trauma Responses · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You get to choose how a life changing moment changes you.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: We all have the ability to author our story in
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: whatever way we want.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Hey everyone, Emily Abody here.
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  Speaker 3: You are listening to another episode of Hurdle, a podcast
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  Speaker 3: featuring the mindset, secrets, and true stories of the most
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  Speaker 3: inspiring women in sports and wellness, empowering you to live
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: a healthier, happier, more motivated life and of course, conquer
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: your own hurdles. Joining me today is meditation teacher and
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: author Megan Monahan. Meghan's journey is one of profound transformation,
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  Speaker 3: sparked by a spiritual awakening sixteen years ago that shifted
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: her path from high stress living to a life rooted
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  Speaker 3: in purpose. In twenty twenty four, that foundation was tested
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a challenge she
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: met with incredible mental and emotional resilience. In today's episode,
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: Megan shares the raw details of her diagnosis, from the
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: sudden loss of vision in her right eye to the
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: clarity she found during a silent eight hour wait. In
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: the er, we dive deep into what it truly means
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: to be authentic and how to unmask personality traits that
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: are actually just trauma responses, tactical tools for navigating adversity,
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: including the four seven eight breathwork framework and the power
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: of somatic shaking, and her experience learning from spiritual titans
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: like Deeppak Chopra, and the life changing realization that you
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: are not your thoughts. To say that this was a
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: well timed episode for me personally is the biggest understatement.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Meghan is a dear friend of mine.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: And her perspective on lifting the heavyweights of life is
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: an inspiration for anyone navigating their own hurdles. Make sure
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: you are following along with hurdle over on social It's
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: over at Purtle podcast.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: You can also check out iHeart Woman's Sports.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Over at iHeart Women's Sports and me over at Emily
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: a Body.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Listen to Hurdle with Emily a Body on.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: And with that, let's get to it. Let's get to
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: hurdling today.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: I am sitting down with the Megan Monahan. She is
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  Speaker 3: an author, a meditation coach, a good friend of mine. Meghan,
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: welcome back to hurdle.
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: How are we thank you?
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  Speaker 1: I'm well, I'm really happy to be back. It's been
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: a minute since we did this the first time around,
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  Speaker 1: And it's so interesting when you are putting in context
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: like this, because so much has changed and you can
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  Speaker 1: see those things, and yet like certain things have really
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: just fortified. And so I always think it's fascinating to
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: kind of boomerang back fortified.
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  Speaker 4: What we're starting off strong.
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  Speaker 1: Literally, Yeah, you know, I think especially because when we
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  Speaker 1: first when I was first here, when we first had
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: this first conversation, it was when my book was coming out,
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  Speaker 1: which was I think twenty nineteen. So certainly what I've
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: really anchored into in my personal practices and what I
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: teach about and talk about has fortified. It's you know,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: become even more solidified than it was in twenty nineteen,
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  Speaker 1: which is the beauty of time.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the beauty of time.
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  Speaker 3: And so much has happened for you personally since twenty
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  Speaker 3: and nineteen. I've been able to kind of have a
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: court side seat, if you will, to learning from you
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: and staying in touch with you and witnessing your growth
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: over the last six years, and I can say that
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  Speaker 3: it's been really admirable.
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  Speaker 2: But not without challenge.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, not without wait for it, hurdle.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Hey, yeah, exactly.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, And you know that point.
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  Speaker 1: As as you expand, as life expands, I do think
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: that our capacity to learn from life and whatever hurdles
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  Speaker 1: and challenges and adversity brings like that also expands. So
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I think you kind of can't have one without the other. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I don't think you can have a real expansion of
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: blessings and growth and evolution without an expansion of the
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: kind of life classes that you're taking.
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  Speaker 3: And it's quite hard to go through these life classes
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: and navigate difficult moments and lessons without falling into this
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: victim mindset. So before we talk maybe about how to
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: stave off victim mindset or at least escape it within
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: a reasonable amount of time, let's catch everyone up to
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: speed on some of the latest with you.
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  Speaker 1: So, you know, professionally, to your point, I'm so grateful
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: and I've got to do some amazing things so many
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: with you and brands, and I've really expanded what I
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: get to talk about in this world and what I
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: can share that will hopefully impact people, because that's what
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: wakes me up every single morning. Personally, I have moved
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: through not I guess ironically not surprisingly, a really big
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: health hurdle. I was diagnosed with multiple scrosis a couple
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: of years ago, which is again not ironic given that
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: the reason I started meditating and started doing this work
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: sixteen years ago is because I was navigating a health
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: crisis and my body was really breaking down from which
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: we talked so much about on the first episode.
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  Speaker 4: If you haven't heard it, go back in the show
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  Speaker 4: really listen.
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  Speaker 1: But so much of my journey started with my body
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  Speaker 1: breaking down from stress and me having this really kind
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: of spiritual awakening and connection to purpose for the first
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  Speaker 1: time in my life. And cut to sixteen years later,
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  Speaker 1: I moved through an experience getting diagnosed with multiple scrosis,
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  Speaker 1: which really affirmed kind of everything that I've been doing
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: for the last sixteen years. And as much as it
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: was and is, you know, adversity, pretty objective adversity in the.
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  Speaker 4: Medical sense, it really.
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  Speaker 1: Hasn't been as difficult mentally and emotionally because of this
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  Speaker 1: work that I've been doing for so long, in these
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: sort of mental muscles that I've been strengthening, So it's
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  Speaker 1: been not unlike the first time, not onlike the first
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  Speaker 1: go around, such a source of inspiration and like a
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  Speaker 1: reactivation of purpose.
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  Speaker 3: What a beautiful way to look at what I know
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  Speaker 3: to be and is for so many and extremely challenging
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  Speaker 3: and dare I say devastating diagnosis. Where were you when
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  Speaker 3: you started to get this understanding that I don't think
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  Speaker 3: these symptoms are going anywhere anytime soon, when you first
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: started to realize that something's up here.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know, autoimmune symptoms are so difficult to as
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: so many people experience, to diagnose. And so I've had,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: you know, very umbrella autoimmune symptoms for a long time.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the brain fog and the fatigue and you know,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: some stuff with my metabolic health right and all of that.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Most doctors will be like, oh, that's a little bit,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: you know, autoimmuni. But again, until you have a symptom
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  Speaker 1: that's definitive enough for a diagnosis, a lot of times,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: or your blood work shows something, a lot of times,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: you don't get a specific diagnosis. But I had, you know,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: a thirty six hour period where I had a very
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: specific symptom which was losing not the complete vision of
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: my eye, but a lot of the vision in my
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: right eye, which caused me to go to the eye
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: urgent care that exists here in LA for anyone that
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: might be ever needed.
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  Speaker 4: Hopefully you don't.
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  Speaker 1: And that led to, you know, thirty six hours then
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  Speaker 1: in the UCLA emergency room, which I sort of joke
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  Speaker 1: is a self inflicted silent meditation retreat that I put
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: myself on.
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  Speaker 4: Because of the truly just.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Like comedy of errors that occurred on that day. And
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: I'm happy to share that quick story if you want. So,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I show up at the eye urgent Care,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: they take me back. I'm really losing a lot of
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: the vision, and I'm realizing that something might be more
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: wrong than just put some eyedrops in your eye and
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  Speaker 1: you'll be fine in forty eight hours.
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  Speaker 4: Kind of wrong.
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  Speaker 1: And the optimologist there comes in after doing you know,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: tests and all of the things that they do, and says,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: you have what we call optic and aritis, which is
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: oftentimes a symptom of a multiple sclerosis flare up. So
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: I need you to go across the street to the er,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: and I need you to wait there until you can
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  Speaker 1: get an MRI. And I'm thinking to myself, Okay, my
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: dog's at home. That was like legitimately my first thought.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: My dog's home by himself, my partner who I live
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: with is out of town. My mom, who lives in
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: LA is out of town. None of this is logistically ideal.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: It's August. I'm wearing this like mini sun dress. I'm
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: wearing sandals. My phone is at about forty percent. I
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: don't have any food or water. I haven't had anything
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  Speaker 1: to really drink or eat. And I walk across the
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  Speaker 1: street and I check myself into the er, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: they say, it's going to be a while for you
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  Speaker 1: to wait to get this.
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  Speaker 4: MRI.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Sit over here, since you haven't eaten or drink, just
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: stay fasted in case we need to do any tests
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: that might require you to be fasted.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: That's great.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: And so I sit down and I can't really use
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: my phone because I need to save this battery with
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: all of my energy, right, so I can't just be
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: scrolling for hours on end. My I'm not eating or
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: drinking anything. I don't love asking for help, which is
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: another huge lesson. I think when you move through a
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: moment like this, like what are the things that you
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: resisted embracing in that moment that in the you know,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the next turn I would do so next time, I
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: would call any of the number of people in La
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: that would have brought me pants and a charger and
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: or just sat there with me, right, but I but
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: I didn't want to do that, and so, you know,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: so I'm really just sitting there with myself in the
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: er for probably eight or nine hours until they could
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: bring me up to get an MRI. And as much
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: as I had, of course, moments of oh, this is
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: scary and what does this mean? And you know, I
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: was born in the eighties, the nineteen eighties, back in
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the nineteen hundreds, and you know, people with MS that
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: I saw were not okay, right, Like it's not you know,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: back at that point, medications weren't they were. It really
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: was sort of a not a death sentence, but really
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: a sentence that would absolutely affect your mobility and your
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: quality of life. And so of course I had thoughts
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: like that, But the overwhelming thought and narrative that was
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: going through my mind for no reason and without me
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: really having to try to be positive, was really just
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: like unhinged thoughts like what if this is the best
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: thing that's ever happened to me? What if on the
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: other side of this diagnosis is everything I've ever wanted?
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Is Like, how I get to share what I know
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: and what has transformed my life with the world. What
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: if this is the way that I can have impact?
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: What if this is how I become the version of
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: myself that I have always wanted to be right? What
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: if this is the key that unlocks it all? And
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: I started having It's really gratitude for things, you know,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: I remember thinking to myself, I'm so grateful that, you know,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: I have enough money that I don't have to deal
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: with how much parking is.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: And there's no part of me.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: You know, if I was diagnosed, and I don't know
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: when I was nineteen, I would have been sitting in
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: that Uclaer thinking to myself, well, how long am I
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: going to be here?
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: Because it's you.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Know, four seventy five every three minutes to park in
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: this garage, And you know, I remember thinking to myself,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: I'm so grateful that that's not a concern, and that
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: I'm you know, forty thirty nine getting diagnosed, and that
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: thankfully I can pay for parking without having to freak out.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: And I'm so thankful I have health insurance. I'm so
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: thankful I have a partner that is so supportive and helpful.
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: I'm so thankful you know all of it.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: And it really was this again, moments of this feel scary,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: moments of like I'm crying, moments of what does this
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: mean and what's going to happen and do I really
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: have ms? But really the home base was I felt
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: like Tom Brady in the Super Bowl. I felt like
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: we're down by so many points and there's no way
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: we can win. But somehow this is not a disaster
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: and this is how we win. And it really was
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: such an affirming moment for me of what can happen
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: when you're practicing things in your life and practicing thinking
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: a certain way and seeing the world a certain way
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: and embodying again these sort of mental muscles. When you
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: build those muscles up and life hands you a bigger weight,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: you really can lift it. And it might not be
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: comfortable and it might not be like the fun workout,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: but I'm strong enough to lift this.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: It's really a test meant to your strengthening and building
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: of a resiliency muscle, something that is not an easy
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: thing and often requires going through the muck and going
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: through the work right, But having gone through some of
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: that work, you're better for it. When challenge, when hurdles
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: arise moving forward.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: And it's also not say I, admittedly I say this
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: all the time, this is not what I would have
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  Speaker 1: been like. This version of me is not who would
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: have shown up that day pre sixteen years of meditation,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: right right, That version of me would have been using
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: the battery on my phone to call anyone that would
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: listen to me and be like, oh, can you believe
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: what's happening to me? Of course this is happening to me.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Why wouldn't this happen to me? I would have been
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: in again, such a victimy place. And again I don't
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: want to discount an experience like that, because there is
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: something that's happening that is incredibly scary and painful, and
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I never want people to bypass that, especially and authentically.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: And I certainly have gone through periods where I felt
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: scared and sad and had tears and all of that.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: But the perspective that I would have had on this,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: the lens that I would have seen this through pre
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: doing that work that you said, would have been completely different.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: So this is not a matter of oh, that's just
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: not who I am, right, because who you are this
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: is very fluid concept that can change and how you
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: see and perceive things.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: This also is an example of how clarity can be
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: a good thing regardless of outcome, because clarity gives you
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: essential information that you need to move forward and to
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: take in next action steps. So, yes, the vision being
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: the blaring symptom at that time, which was what brought
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: you in to that er, right, But there were surely
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: other symptoms that you had been experiencing for a myriad
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: of years that you had no answers to.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: And if I hadn't had that moment of opticnuritis, maybe
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't have gotten an MRI that day and gotten
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: this diagnosis that day. And then to your point, you know,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: there were many is the word they used, many lesions
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: on my brain, so more than just a few that
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: you would count and say, I have many lesions on
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: my brain, and thankfully so much of your brain, not
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: that it's like dead space, but there's a lot of
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: matter in your brain that doesn't get affected by what
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: was happening because of my ms.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: But who knows, maybe if I had kept.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Going, there would have been a lesions somewhere else on
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: my neck or my spine, and maybe that would have
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: caused a mobility issue, and maybe that would have been
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: so much worse.
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: Right, So, yeah, I'm.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: So grateful that I had the clarity, have this diagnosis
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: and this information.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: Someone hears that and they sit here and think, I
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: just cannot relate. I cannot relate to the perspective of
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: seeing something like this in that way.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you say to them, I get it, I get it.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: I didn't see the world that way. And it's something
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: that you get to choose to shift and change if
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: you want to. And if it's not working the way
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: that you're seeing the world and the way that you're perceiving,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: especially things like adversity, then know that you can.
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: Do things to shift that.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: And also you don't have to right, this is a
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: you know, I always say, you know, since this's happening,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: like you get to choose how a life changing moment
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: changes you.
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: We all have the.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Ability to author our story in whatever way we want.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: That is such a such a thing that we have agency.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Over and again, I am not one to ever say,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: you know, just tell yourself a better story about what's happening.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: And everything is right. It doesn't have to feel fine,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: it doesn't have to feel Okay, you don't have to
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: feel grateful for it, especially in the beginning, But emotions
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: only last ninety seconds in the body, and then after
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: that it's our mind that gets attached to that very
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: temporary feeling and creates a narrative that we continue to
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: live out over and over and over. So one of
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the biggest things, and really like the pillar in one
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: of the big pillars and how to navigate stress so
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: that it really is a net positive on your body
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: and your mind, is to change your relationship with your
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: emotions and to recognize this is a temporary feeling, this
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: is a big wave, Like this is a big ass
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: wave that I'm feeling of fear of whatever it might be,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: of scarcity, of doubt, whatever it might be.
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: But that's not who I am.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: I am just this container that this big wave of
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: energy is moving through that doesn't define me, just as
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: a thought doesn't define you. Yes, you get to decide
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: what you want that story to be and really not
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: to be too meditation teachery. But here we are. You
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: get to ask yourself, is this happening to me? Or
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: can I look at this as something that's happening for me?
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: And can I pull something from this that is strengthening
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: me that I feel good about, you know, and all
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: of the things that I've ever navigated, you know, my dad,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: you know, dying when I was twenty nine, and movement,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: which is really what got me into this whole first
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: wave of work, and navigating his alcoholism, which is subsequently
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: was the cause of him passing away, you know, changing
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: my industry of work, moving through health crises MS. Certainly,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: all of those things which I never would have chosen
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: off of the life menu are the things that I
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: credit with the parts of myself and the parts of
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: my life that I am the most in love with.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And what a beautiful reframe rate again, choosing to
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: pick up the pen and author your own story based
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: on maybe things that you wouldn't have chosen, but in
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: a direction that excites you rather than one that makes
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: you feel more often than not or succumbing to this
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: feeling of frustration again, that victim mindset and going down
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: that road.
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: And you know, if we want to keep using that
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: workout metaphor, oftentimes the things that make us the strongest
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: are the workouts that we hate doing or the move
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: and I hate doing burpees every time they say okay, great,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: let's do I just think to myself, I don't want
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: to do this, and yet it's this full body thing
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: and it raises your heart rate, and there are all
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: these things that happen on the other side of doing burpies.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: And then when you're walking through life and you feel stronger,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: you feel more energized, whatever it is, you're so grateful
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: that you did that. I think we mistake the need
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: to enjoy the experience or the process.
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: With finding value in it.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: We mistake the need to enjoy the process.
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: And that's quite interesting as well, because we're constantly seeking
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: joy and happiness. And this goes back to the point
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: of making the conscious decision to say, what is it
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: that I want out of this? That is is that
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: simple question, what is my goal here? Is something that
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: I go back to each and every day, specifically when
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: it comes to having hard conversations or thinking about what
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: it is that I want with work right and how
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna word an email even And I'll be the
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: first to admit that although that is a practice in
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: my routine, although I am constantly asking myself what's the
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: goal here, that doesn't mean that at one point or another,
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: my emotions are going to get the best to make.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: I had a very difficult conversation yesterday, and my emotions
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: got the best of me, despite playing over and over
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: in my mind what I knew the goal was and
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: what I wanted to get out of it. And so
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: I'm human, and now all I can do is take
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: that as information and move forward and try to communicate
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: better the next time, which goes to again going back
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: to your story and saying sitting in that room and
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: now having the tools that you have sixteen years later
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: that you didn't have before to navigate this crisis.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: And those muscles again continue to strengthen as you practice
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: these things. And it's not about to your point, it's
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: not about being perfect. And I think it's really also
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: important to recognize that you can be again not on
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: workouts to not to belabor the metaphor, but you can
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: be really good at like strength training, and then someone says, okay, great,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: go run five miles.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: It's like, well, I don't. I haven't practiced that muscle yet.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: So you have to keep looking for the areas when
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: you are mistaking feeling uncomfortable with feeling unsafe, which is
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: what often happens with the nervous system, right. I love
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: to avoid a hard conversation and especially give me, like
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: a good romantic partnership hard conversation. My nervous system is like,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: you know what, let's just swallow how we're feeling and
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: avoid talking about that, and we'll just endure whatever's happening
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: because the idea of talking about this is so much
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: worse in my body. Right, So it's like, Okay, great,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: I'm not as good at that workout, and I get
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: to keep leaning into that I might be a superhero
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: at navigating medical adversity turns out out, but there might
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: be this other area. So I do think it's also
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: really important to have enough humility to look at where
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: you still are really needing to keep lifting those weights
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: in a really intentional way.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: I also think that we can't downplay the importance of
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: allowing for the feelings to come up that happen when
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: things don't go as we had hoped or we do
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: get news that is unanticipated, right, Like, there has to
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: be grace for the frustration, sadness, etc. That comes up
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: in those moments, and then what happens next is your opportunity.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, I can't stress enough. When I was
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: in the er on my silent meditation retreat for eight hours,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: I had waves of oh, I'm going to cry for
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: a few minutes now. I didn't plan it, just to
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: work clear checked out two minutes of crying. But you know, oh,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: this is feeling like a lot, This feels scary, this
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: feels it's just not the home base that I was
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: sitting in.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: So how does MS present for you now.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: As a I mean, as a physical symptom, not not much.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: You know, I still have I still have the autoimmunity
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: things that I've always had, which is like brain fog
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: and fatigue and some things like that. But I'm really
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: grateful that I have, you know, a treatment that I'm
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: on that I am responding really well to, and I
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: don't have a huge number of physical symptoms that I navigate.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: I think it continues to be something that I seek
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: inspiration from, and I continue to ask myself, what does
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: this larger than life diagnosis, right this thing that feels
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: so much bigger than me? What can this give me
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: permission to be that is so much bigger than me?
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: Right now?
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Whether that's I you know, how could I not choose
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: to be more authentic? How could I not choose to,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: like go for a bigger opportunity? How could I not
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: choose to? So I think again, when something that happens
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: that's bigger than you, it gives you an opportunity to
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: become a bigger version of you. And you know, not
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: unlike someone that you know diagnosed is diagnosed and beats
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: cancer that has this new lease on life, about life
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: is really short and you have no idea what's going
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: to happen tomorrow? Right, So how can this give me
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: permission to be an even more authentic, free, powerful, purpose
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: aligned version of me? And that doesn't happen every day?
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Just so we're clear, Just so, just so we're clear.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: But that's what I mean. You know, these things that
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: we move through that are bigger than us can be
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: a source of inspiration.
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: It's bigger than us.
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: I want to talk about the word authentic because we
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: hear so often it's so powerful to be a more authentic,
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: take version of yourself and you should really be authentic
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: in your situations and your relationships. And some people hear
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: that and they're like cool, cool, cool, And what's that
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: actually mean?
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Right, So let's.
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: First, it's also so much harder them. Well, let's dial
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: a less.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: On what it means to be authentic and then perhaps
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: hash out a little bit about how to enable and
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: empower more authenticity within self.
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: I think for me, it is continuing to connect with
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: who you really are. And I believe that who we
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: really are is the essence of us that is expressed
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: in all of these roles that we play. Right, So
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: I am not a meditation teacher or an author, or
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: you know someone that was raised in North Jersey or
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: that lives in la or that as a singer. That's
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: not who I am. Right, Those are the friend, the partner.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Those are places where I funnel my essence who I
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: really am. There is a part of you that can't
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: be diagnosed with MS. They can't be broken up with,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: they can't be broke, they can't be relocated.
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: Right, That is who you are. And I think it's
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: really easy to.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Define ourselves with all the tangible, the very the very material.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I can see it, I can measure it, other people
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: can see it and measure it. It's really easy to say, oh,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: that's who I am. And when you are defined by
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: these external outlets, there's always going to be an element
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: of anxiety. There's always going to be an attachment to
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: how that's going. Because if I'm defined by being a
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: meditation teacher or an author or whatever speaker, and all
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, I'm not getting work, or I give
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: a talk and it doesn't go well, or I give
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: a talk and it does go really well, all of
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: a sudden, that is impacting how I feel about who
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: I am, and that's not who I am. And so
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: for me, authenticity is this really never ending journey of
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: connecting to who you are, really are basing your sense
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: of self on that and not the external representations, because again,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: if who you are is these external outlets that you're
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: plugging into, you're always going to be running around looking
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: for another outlet and there's never enough, which is why,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: you know, if you're defined by the relationship outlet, and
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: you you know, finally after years of being single or
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: like in a relationship, then the outlet at some point
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: starts to not be quite as potent and you don't
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: get as much charge, and so it's like, well, now
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: I need to get married, and then now we need
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: to have a baby, and now we should really try
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: to buy a house, and now we should really maybe
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: have another baby, and right, there's never enough. The line
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: just keeps moving. If the external outlet is who I
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: am is how much money I make? You make the
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: money that you thought would set you free, and then
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: you're like, well that's not enough money. It turns out
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: turns out I need five million dollars. One million dollars
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: is nothing, Right, I need five if it's defined by right.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: So the line we'll just keep moving of who you
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: are is dependent on the external expression of who you are.
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: Right, So seeking then a b understanding of what it
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: is that makes you regardless of external factors is how
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: we dial in on authenticity. So doing something like a
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: values assessment, asking yourself, what is it in my life
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: that is important to me? Or what characteristics and ways
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: that I go about my day to day that I
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: exhibit that I seek what makes me feel good, what
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: makes me feel bad?
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: It makes me feel alive?
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: Exactly what brings me joy?
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: The last time that I felt joy, what value was
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: being expressed? The last time that I felt truly frustrated?
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: What value was being challenged? These are critical questions that
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: you can ask yourself to identify who it is that
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: you are at your core and then be able to
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: have a better understanding of what your authenticity is comprised of.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and when you're not outsourcing your worth, it's a
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: lot easier to be authentic to who you are when
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: you are out you know. And again, especially in relationships,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: this is so prevalent. This is something that I navigate
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: and have worked on my whole life with codependency work.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: When your sense of self is outsourced to someone else,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: whether that's how someone else is doing or what they
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: think about you, of course you can't be authentic, right,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: because being an emotional shape shifter is the thing that
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: you find success with, right, It comes to this other thing, right,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: So being authentic is such a I mean, it's such
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: a tall order.
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: It's not a right.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: This is not an easy thing to just just be
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: more authentic, just be more honest about who you are,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: and just move through the world unapologetically expressing your true
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: you know, that's like lifelong work, right.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: Because it's human nature to be concerned about how you're perceived.
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: Especially women.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: You know, women for ever since the daunt of time,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: maybe have really been rewarded for being compliant, for being easygoing,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: for not needing too much or like making too many waves. Yeah,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: be you know, and truly you know since the beginning
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: of time as a sense of survival, you know, not
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: to get into the anthropology of it all, but you know,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: women couldn't own property, women couldn't So women's survival really
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: did for a very long time depend on what other
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: people thought of her, how a tribe would embrace her
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: or not, or how a partner would embrace her or
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: not to keep her alive.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: The work that I've.
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: Done to stop saying the sentence I am a lot,
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: The work that I have done to stop this unfounded
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: while societal but to stop this narrative that because I
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: am confident and sure and have an opinion that makes
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: me quote unquote too much for people, we're walking past
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: that in twenty twenty six. We've been walking past that
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: for years now, We've been we have been on hike
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: for a minute now. But it is so true, right,
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: It is literally instilled in us as women from a
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: young age not to be boisterous about the space that
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: we consume, the space that we take up. And in
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: embracing my authentic self, I have garnered this really beautiful
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: understanding that the things that I once viewed as maybe
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: even problematic are actually such a testament to the goodness
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: that I bring into this world.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love and I love that you're acknowledging as
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: I always try to do. It's a thing we walk
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: down forever, you know, really coming back to ourselves, coming
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: back home to ourselves. And I think what's really powerful
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: is that the more that you come home to yourself,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: the less apologetic you are about who that really is.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: And I think that's when really the truest expression has
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: a chance to come out because nothing is threatening it.
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: And it's really beautiful what happens with embracing that level
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: of authenticity for self. But then also when we think
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: about energy and energy attracting energy, and the people that
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: you will pull in as you are yourself and also
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: the people that won't stay around. You know, if we
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: then go back to this conversation on relationships, right, so
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: many times maybe I've held my tongue when getting to
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: know someone of a romantic interest because I'm concerned of
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: again coming off as too much. But the reality is
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: that for the right person, I will never be too much.
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: And to know that again not just in romantic relationships,
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: but then also within your friendships and your working relationships,
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: to be true to who it is that you are.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: You'll never regret it because it will bring to you
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: what is meant for you.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: But it's also then this sort of blanket permission to
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: empower other people to be who they authentically are, which
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: is the other piece of this. You know, the thing
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: with personal development work is it can be really easy
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: to get caught on the piece of it that's about you, right,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: that's about us, where it's.
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: Like I'm just wondering who I am.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: But on the other side of that, really from like
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: a dharma purpose perspective, is that we then get to
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: go be in the world as this really embodied, authentic
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: version of ourselves which embodies or you know, which allows
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: and empowers everyone else to do the same because if
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: you get to be authentic, and if authentic you means
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: I'm someone that has really big emotions and feels big
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: emotions and expresses my feelings, then that allows someone else
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: to do the same thing. Right, So it ends up
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: being this really incredible ripple that then.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: Get shared of the world, and which is why we
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: do this work and it's scary. Yeah, it's scary because
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: there are going to be moments when people come into
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: your life that you develop care and concern for, and
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: in being yourself, you might realize that the things that
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: you thought that you wanted aren't necessarily what's serving your
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: authentic self for your higher purpose.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Right or what right what you wanted versus what you
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: wanted or what other people wanted for you. I read
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: this I was just having a voice note back and
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: forth with a friend of mine.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: About this love a voice note. I love a.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Long voice note. I love it so much. I usually
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: start with like, I'm so sorry that I'm sending you
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: a voice note.
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: But here we are. It's my authentic self. What can
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: I say?
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: I saw this Instagram like whatever image at one point,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: which was this whole poem about looking at what parts
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: of your personality are really a trauma response, and that
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: really hits me up in the.
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: Best way possible.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: It really because I thought about it, and I still
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: think about I think about, Wow, oh, you know, I
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: used to be very sarcastic and very sort of self deprecating,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: and I'm you know, I realized through all of this
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: work that's not actually who I am. I am very
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: New York like quick wit loves loves an under one liner,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: right that.
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: We'll go into the conversation.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: But the sarcastic self deprecating that is not who I am.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: That's a trauma response, and that's the way that I
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: avoid pain or shame or discomfort or right. So I
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: think it's also really powerful when you realize that in
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: this journey of discovering who you really are, you will
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: also discover who you are not, and some of those
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: things will probably fall into that category of who you've
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: been being.
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: Wow, I'm like thinking about the beauty and discovering who
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: you are not, because I mean this goes back to
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: the concept of like the stories that we're telling ourselves, right,
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: And so here you are telling yourself that like this
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: is so who I am, and then you realize like, no,
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: this is just the wall that I'm putting up to
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: protect myself.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which is great and we all do that, yes,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: right yea. And so discovering who you really are, you
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: might realize at some point, oh, I'm not actually too much.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: And when I feel when I'm acknowledging myself and loving
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: myself and I'm receiving that with people around me, I
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: don't actually feel the need to whatever it is that's
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: too much. Sometimes I'm not saying that all your entire
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: being is right, it's a trauma response.
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: But we'll use that as an example.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Right, But there are things that we all do that
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: we think are who we are, and it's not. It's
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: just part of this identity that we've created to feel
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: safe and to receive love and to receive belonging and acceptance.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: And it's scary to put those things down because even
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: if they're dysfunctional, they have served you.
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: You talked so beautifully before about this sense of deeper
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: perur knowing that this difficult situation would eventually have the
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: potential to open up doors for you. What doors have
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: opened for you since receiving your diagnosis.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: I've connected with so many people that have been diagnosed
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: with MS and who have never meditated before and had
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: no idea that so many of these tools exist as
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: a way to cope with challenges, cope with symptoms, change
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: their relationship with their body where they're really kind of
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: on the same team as their body, which I think
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: is something that I really feel called to bring into
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: the conversation.
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: You know so much.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: So much of what I see, understandably with MS with
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: cancer is just this very there's so much anger, and.
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: It's like FMS and like f cancer.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: And while I understand nobody wants this, I'm such a
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: believer that accepting what is and not fighting with what
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: is doesn't mean you like it. It doesn't mean you
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: are happy with it, doesn't mean you wanted it. It
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: just means you're not going to argue with reality. And
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: when you let go of fighting with what exists right now,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: it opens up so much energy to shift how you
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: feel about it moving forward. So I'm so grateful for
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: the organizations that I'm starting to work with and the
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: people that I get to connect with, and really the
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: clarity and the resurgence of purpose that it has given me.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, which is just so special.
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: Right to be able to take this step back and
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: ask yourself, what is it in my life right now
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: that I truly deem valuable and how can I be
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: putting my energy into those things? Relationships, tasks, opportunities, et cetera. Yeah,
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: When you now take a step back and you examine
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: the toolbox that is your meditation practice, it is a
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: large toolbox. It is a large toolbox. So knowing that
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: you have all of these tools at your disposal, is
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: there any which one or which way that you've been
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: able to utilize now more so than ever, to enable
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: you to step into your power in these difficult situations.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: I think, from like a tangible tools perspective, meditation to
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: continue to change, which is what is available for everyone,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: by the way, not just me, but when you meditate,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: you really start to physiologically change the way your nervous
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: system responds to stress. So there's which is what I
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: experienced in the hospital. There's this window that's available between
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: the stimulus and your response. You don't have that automatic
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: I'm having this reactive moment and in that space between
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: you get to kind of choose and witness what you're
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: thinking and feeling and then say, okay, what do I
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: want to do with this information? Which, unfortunately, when you
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: don't have that is when you lose a lot of
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: agency over your experience. I mean even in the hospital,
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: I you know, I was in the er, I got
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: an MRI. The neurologist came back down and said, you know,
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: you have an active active inflammation on this one lesion.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: That's why you're losing your eyesight. You know, we're comfortable
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: diagnosing you with multiple sclerosis. We're going to admit you
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: for five days, give you IV steroids, and then you know,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: you'll move forward from there. And I said, why do
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: I need to be in the hospital for five days
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: for that?
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: And they also wanted to give me a lumbar puncture.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: They said, we're going to give you a lumbar puncture.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: We're going to admit you for five days. And I said,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: I said, what's the lumbar puncture for? And they said, well,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: we might need that for some diagnostic markers. They said that,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: I guess before I got that, maybe the MRI. And
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: then I said, why, uh, why do I need to
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: be in the hospital for five days? And they said, well,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: we need to give you IV steroids And they said, well,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: can I come in and get them? They said it
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: takes not an hour. I said, can I come in
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: every day and get the IV? And they said, well,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: maybe we can check with your insurance to see if
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: they would cover. We can't do that, but maybe they
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: would cover someone come in to your home. So instead
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: of since being there for five days, I was there
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: for one night and then I came home and somebody
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: came to my house because of my assurance and gave
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: me an IV steroid because I asked a question about
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: a lumbar puncture. I didn't end up getting a lumbar puncture,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: which is, you know, a fairly invasive, uncomfortable procedure. Because
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: they didn't end up needing that information. None of that
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: advocacy would have been available to me if I was
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: in a reactive stress response. Right right, so have And
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: again this is why building these muscles prior to Yes,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: I can teach you moment like what to do in moments,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: but building these muscles prior to the big weight being
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: dropped in front of you is really what changes your
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: response in that moment. So I would say Tool number
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: one is obviously my meditation practice, which has changed literally
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: how my body shows up and the ability to respond
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: instead of react, changing my relationship with emotions through I
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: mean meditation through maybe something like tapping, like an EFT
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: tapping technique when I'm having a feeling.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: For someone who doesn't know EFT, yeah.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: Emotional freedom technique, it's I mean it's literally tapping your
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: body or somatic shaking. I love practicing shaking. We call
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: it all these esoteric things. You're just like shaking your body.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: It's not that serious, but you know, even just shaking
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: your body for sixty seconds two minutes. Humans are some
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: of the only mammals animals and captivity and humans really
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: are the only two mammals that don't shake out their
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: stress automatically. I mean, if you ever notice a dog
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: when they you know, when I walk my dog and
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: there's a dog across the street that's barking at him,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: and even if nothing physically happens, if there's like a
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: moment of that, instantly he will and not just like
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: some like bs like let me like vigorously shake out
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: his body, right, Notice how often you see animals doing
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: that because it's an automatic response for humans.
• 43:20
  Speaker 4: It's not an automatic response.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: Humans just hold and swallow or sometimes they might verbally
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: right let something out. But having a practice of shaking
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: tapping out energy emotions like huge toll for me, love shaking, shaking,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: love shaking. And then and then yeah, that third one
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: is really continuing to ask yourself, like what can I
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: take from this that I'm on board with?
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: What can I take from this? That is nectar and
• 43:52
  Speaker 4: not poison.
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: Nectar and not poison.
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: You said that, Yes, I can give you an example
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: of what to do in the moment. Let's talk about
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: what to do in the moment when a stressful situation
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: arises something unexpected. What would you recommend to someone so
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: that they can, at the very least make an attempt
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: to come back to calm and reclaim some of that
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: mental space.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love a few rounds of a four to
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: seven eight breath. Breathing in for four, hold it for seven,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: excel out for eight. Anytime you can regulate your breathing,
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: it sends a message to your nervous system that you're
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: not actually in mortal danger in that moment. If you
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: really were in mortal danger and you were fighting or
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: running or freezing for your life, your body wouldn't be
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: able to if you were running from a tiger, rightah,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: all the tigers in the world that are always just
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: trying to get to us, If you were running from
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: a tiger, you wouldn't be able to say to yourself, Okay,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: let's breathe in for four and ruld. Your body would
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: automatically do whatever with the breath that needed to do
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: to either rev you up or slow you down. So
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: anytime you can regulate your breathing number one, it always
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: brings you back to this moment.
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: Your breath.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: Never your body is never thinking about a past breath,
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: it's never anticipating a future breath. So if you can
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: bring yourself back to your breath, you're here, which is
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: not usually what we're stressed about. It's usually a future
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: thing that we're thinking about. And again, it sends that
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: message to your nervous system that Okay, we're not actually
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: in mortal danger. And you can even say to yourself
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: in the moment, I'm not in mortal danger, like top
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: on your chest, even though this feels really scary, even
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: though this feels like the thing that's going to overwhelm
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: me and take me down, I'm not in mortal danger
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: right now. Four seventy breath shaking any It's so much
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: of it is the somatic, the body stuff in.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: That and highlighting the importance of a longer exhale.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, slowing down, yes, so your inhale is shorter
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: than your exhale.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: It is a tool that is the most readily available
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: to us, that is arguably the most underused, the breath.
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is some thing that when.
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: It feels as though everything is out of our control,
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: is within our control. But because the stimulus can be
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: so overwhelming, it's understandably easy to forget that.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's also meditation, working with your breath. Sometimes,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: I think the most simple tools and things that we
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: can learn and strengthen that the simpler they are, the
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: harder it is to implement them, to practice them. You know,
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: we're so trained to want to be doing and meditation
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: and you know, focusing on your breath are passive, They're boring,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: you know. And yes, maybe you have the meditation where
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: you you know, see the light or you have some
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: right moment of clarity about who you are in your life,
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: but you know, a lot of the time, it feels
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: like sitting and doing nothing. So I think it's also
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: about redefining what working these tools looks like.
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I do think it's of importance to note that
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: in your journey to becoming a meditation practitioner and now
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: an author and someone who does a fair amount of speaking,
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: you had a really great opportunity to learn from some
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: really excellent teachers in your day. Let's shed some light
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: on that and then perhaps talk a little bit about
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: perhaps the most foundational lessons you learned from that time.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: I was experiencing all these physical symptoms and from stress
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: in my life, and my therapistaid, I think you should
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: learn how to meditate. And that was two thousand and nine,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: so there were no apps, there were no studios there.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: Meditation was not a multi billion dollar business at that point.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: It was super woo woo and not something that you
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: could easily access. And I googled wellness Southern California and
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: the first thing they came up with Deepak Choprah's Wellness Center.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: I called my mom and I said, do you know
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: who this is? Is this like a cult? What are
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: like is? I had never heard of deepok d or
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: none of this was in my upbringing. And she, you know,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: she kind of like chuckled that. She was like, no, yeah,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: of course I knew who that is and I know
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: it's not a cult, and yeah, check it out. And
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: so I went down to San Diego, which is where
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: the center was at the time, and I'll never forget
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: I had like a mind body medical consultation with a
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: doctor with like a Western MD there, but that was
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: very integrative and I took an intro to meditation class
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: and I paid for, you know, an overpriced salmon salad
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: at La Costa, which is where the center was at
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: the time, beautiful resort, and.
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: I remember feeling a sense of.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: Resonance with so much of what I was hearing and
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: what was being shared with me. And I remember having
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: this feeling, and I'll never forget. I was like eating
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: my overpriced salmon salad and I called my mom and
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: I said, I think that I can heal here with
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: all of these things that I'm learning and these ways
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: of thinking about my body differently, which is like a
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: huge foundational tool that I've carried with me and then
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: I use all the time, even with my MS. I
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: had chronic hives at the time when I went down there,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: and the doctor that I saw said, you know, I
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: want you to stop thinking of the symptoms that you're
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: experiencing as something that's wrong, and just think of it
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: as a way that your body's trying to talk to
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: you and tell you that there's an imbalance. And instead
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: of just trying to fix the symptom, I want you
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: to really start embracing your body and talking to it.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: And she said, she said I want you to get
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: coconut oil and I want you to put it on
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: your hives, and I want you to start rubbing your hives,
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: and I want you to say to your body, I
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: hear you, I hear what you're trying to tell me.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: I'm working on it, like we're going to fix this.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: Thinking of your body as you know, a layer of
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: your being and like me, which is not how I
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: ever thought about my body. I always thought of it
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: as this thing that I was sort of fighting with
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: very regularly. And so after that, I went and I put,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: you know, a week long retreat on a credit card
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: and went down there and did something called Ponta Karma,
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: which is this very thorough, intense five step cleanse Indian
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: cleans And within a year I was working there. And
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: when I say yes, I worked with incredible people, but
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: it had nothing to do with me. One other huge
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: foundational lesson that I didn't even realize I was practicing
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: was what happens on the other side of acknowledging what
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: you really want. And what I connected with after I
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: had really experienced so much transformation through these teachings was
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: I want to help people transform their life. I want
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: to help people like remember who they really are and
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: transform their life the way mine has been transformed.
• 50:45
  Speaker 4: And I didn't. I didn't have an attachment to what
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: that looked like.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: I didn't say I want to work with Deepak Chopra.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: I mean I interviewed atlule Lemon and Beverly Hills because
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: I thought maybe I transformed the world with wonder unders
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: like I don't know, maybe they're great legging. It's true,
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: I didn't get the job just so were their wonder arnders.
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: Weren't your game, they were not my purpose, it turns out,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: although I did become a little Lemon ambassador and I
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: did so much work with them, so you know, maybe
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: I was maybe I was glimpsing something to come, But
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: I you know, knew that I wanted to help people
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: and was super open to whatever that looked like. And
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: because of that level of detachment, while also having this
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: deep connection to the why underneath the desire, which is
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: why I always tell people when you're manifesting something, think
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: about why you want it, not just what you want,
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: And when you can be dedicated to the why and
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: really open to the what it really and like surrendered
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: truly like I'll do whatever it really gives, I think
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: the universe a chance to like pick you up and
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: place you in the greatest possible version of that what
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: which for me was very synchronistically without ever applying for
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: a job, without having any experience, like without having any
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: reason on paper that I should have been hired getting
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: a job working for the show presenter.
• 52:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know.
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: And I moved to San Diego and I worked there
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: for a few years full time and became a teacher
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: underneath depok there and was around you know, I think back,
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: just again, not a credit to me doing anything, just
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: being so open and in a space of surrender. But
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: I was surrounded by you know, Wayne Dyer and Eckhart
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Toll and Marian Williamson, I mean, just the titans of
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: what we would consider these spiritual thought leaders, and learning
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: from them and learning how to hold space and facilitate
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: this work for others. And I mean I really got
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: a master's in that.
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: Work, circling back to learning from them. When you think
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: about the most valuable takeaway from that time in your life,
• 52:58
  Speaker 3: what comes to mind, you.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: Are not your thoughts, like one of the biggest sort
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: of like just mic spiritual mic drops that I ever
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: heard you puck shop er se, you are not your thoughts.
• 53:11
  Speaker 4: You don't have to believe every thought you have.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: I heard that in that first I think week that
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: I was there meditating, and I had never thought of
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: my mind like that, And I was just running around
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: believing every batshit crazy that I had, which is why
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: my life looked the way that it looked right and
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: why I was experiencing life the way that I was
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: experiencing it. Yeah, you don't have to believe every thought
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: you have.
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: What is it that your hope is for individuals that
• 53:39
  Speaker 3: come into contact with you as your most authentic self?
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: What is it that you hope that they walk away with?
• 53:47
  Speaker 4: M I hope that.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: They walk away with either a little bit more of
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: a glimpse of who they really are or a knowingness
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: that there is a path to find that. That's really
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: That's really what I feel connected to as a sense
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: of purpose is, you know, remembering who I am and
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: being a space to.
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: Help other people, being a space, being.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: A container, creating a container for somebody feels safe enough
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: to say, wow, I don't know who I am or
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: this is not who I am, and who am I
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: it's so, you know, I talk about the stuff all
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: the time, so I sometimes have to remind myself. It's
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: really vulnerable and sometimes terrifying and sometimes really uncomfortable to say,
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: I don't think I know who I am. And I
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: see a lot of external things that kind of resemble
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: who I am. But if that's not who I am,
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't know who I am.
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: And this goes back to our entire conversation about finding
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: your validation and like sense of self worth in external factors.
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: But that's not why it's called self worth. Yeah, right, Yeah,
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: it's about you. Yeah, and it starts with you. And
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: so to have the opportunity to sit down here with
• 55:13
  Speaker 3: you today and garner that sense of how great is
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: it that we have this opportunity to figure out who
• 55:20
  Speaker 3: it is that we are and live that each and
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: every day, It truly is that.
• 55:23
  Speaker 4: It's like the chills, that's what we're here to do.
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, when you look in the mirror, Megan, what do
• 55:30
  Speaker 3: you see looking back at you?
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: I love that question, I see. I mean, I think
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: it depends on the day. It depends on the day,
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: It depends on it depends on I think it honestly
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: depends on what I'm moving through. In that moment, I see, though,
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: I see someone that I am really proud of, and.
• 55:50
  Speaker 4: I see I see like the little Megan.
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: I think at this point in my life, like in
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: this huge present moment, time and space, when I look
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: in the mirror, I see that little Megan really kind
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: of cheering me on to let go, like to just
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: keep letting.
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: Go, which is so powerful, right and just.
• 56:17
  Speaker 4: Like lego, like just keep like letting go.
• 56:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right, now you have an opportunity to offer yourself
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: a piece of advice. Let's go right back to when
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: you're sitting there in your short sun dress. You realize
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: you're at forty percent. You have no idea what's about
• 56:36
  Speaker 3: to be revealed to you. Knowing what you know, now,
• 56:41
  Speaker 3: what do you tell yourself going through that Hurtle moment?
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: I would say your greatest strength is not that you
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: can navigate huge things by yourself, and that you are
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: doing yourself a disservice if you don't invite people in
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: to help you with this. Wow, that was such a
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: like red flag moment. And again talk about parts of
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: my personality that are actually just a trauma response. I
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: am someone who you know likes to process alone, and
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: you know, meditates for a living, which is a solo
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: like withdrawn. Right, I'm like a master of withdrawing. That's
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: not a healthy superpower to have, you know. And maybe
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: it is as a meditation guide and as a you know,
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: a meditator, great, But but I would tell her you
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: don't have to sit here by yourself.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: And also often because you are alone in being doesn't
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: mean that you are alone period. Right. Yeah, So just
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: because I work alone, and I often travel alone, and
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: I live alone, it does not mean that I have
• 57:52
  Speaker 3: to handle everything on my own. And that is such
• 57:56
  Speaker 3: a powerful and beautiful realization to come by, Megan.
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: I'm so happy that we did this today.
• 58:01
  Speaker 4: I'm so happy we did that.
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: For the people that.
• 58:03
  Speaker 3: Aren't following along with you, just yet give us the info.
• 58:06
  Speaker 3: How do they keep up with you?
• 58:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: You can always spiritually slide into my DMS. It's at
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: Meg Monahan on Instagram. There's a twenty one day really
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: accessible easy place to start meditation digital course at Meditate
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: with Megan. So if you're wanting to bring a practice
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: into your life, it's such a difficult thing to do
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: on your own and I think apps right now can
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: be really overwhelming with all of the choices. So if
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: you're looking for that, it's literally twenty one days of
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: meditations that take you from that mindset of surviving into thriving,
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: which is really what we're talking about. Yeah, and I
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: would love to stay connected with all of you, all
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: of them, all of them.
• 58:47
  Speaker 3: I'm over at Emily A. Vadi and at Hurdle Podcast
• 58:50
  Speaker 3: Another Hurdle Conquered.
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: Catch you guys next time.