Hello and welcome to the first episode of the Awaken Together podcast.
I am Jennifer.
And I'm Kat.
And today we are going to tell you all about who we are, how we met, and our goals for
this podcast.
Yes.
This is so surreal to be sitting here and doing this.
I like truly, I feel like fate for us really kind of brought us together to do this, don't
you think?
It's so surreal to be here.
I so agree.
It's wild to think about the first moment we met and now here we are sitting down doing
this together.
It's really special.
Yeah.
So we want to go into first just kind of a little bit of like the easy parts of who we
are, just like the quick, short and sweet.
We're definitely going to get way more into the muck of our like spiritual awakenings
that we've both experienced.
But yeah, you want me to go ahead and start, Kat?
Kick it off.
All right.
Awesome.
So yes, my name is Jennifer once again and I'm originally from Florida.
I lived in West Virginia for about three years and then moved to Colorado.
Moving to Colorado was when I really got to dabble more onto the spiritual path, but my
working journey fully started in like physical therapy.
So I've been doing physical therapy about eight years.
I started yoga teacher training in 2016 and have been teaching like various classes at
different locations, park glasses, online classes.
But yes, moving to Colorado, which would have been in 2018 is when I feel like my spiritual
journey like really took off.
So that is what has kind of like led me to this very moment.
Kat, you can give a few of your about me highlights.
I love that.
So grateful that you made the move and I did too.
There's a lot of us transplants out here.
Yeah, for sure.
I'll start by going backwards.
I am Kat, Katarina, and I'm a holistic health coach and a yoga teacher.
And I'm also living in Denver, Colorado.
Moved here from Boston, Mass.
Back in 2018 as well, January 2018 with my then boyfriend, now husband.
A lot has happened in three and a half years.
So yeah, when I moved out here, I was working in sales, educational travel in particular,
working with teachers down in North Carolina to help get their middle school and high school
students traveling abroad.
Traveling is something that has really shaped the person I am today.
And I'm 100% Greek.
So that's a really big part of me as an individual and my upbringing and my values where it all
comes from.
I love that.
Yeah.
So yeah, I mean really before that, there's a whole story that we'll get into probably
in our next episode of how we got here to this place.
We figured that the about me of us has to just be these little baby highlights because
the spiritual awakening side of us, which is what we want to make this podcast like
mainly about is going to be kind of a whole separate story.
You have your personality story.
They're like, what do you do?
Where are you from?
And then there's the deep, deep story.
Yes, the stuff you don't tell someone on like a first date, right?
Yeah.
I'm getting more to becoming that person that just does go there, but you know.
Oh yeah.
For sure.
Likewise, girl.
You and I both.
Yes.
And the way we met was actually pretty wild, right?
There's a whole story behind that.
So do you want to give some deets on how we met?
Yeah.
It is really, really funny.
And I honestly, I couldn't remember what year you moved to Colorado.
It's so funny.
We both moved to Denver in 2018.
I didn't even remember that part.
But yeah, when I moved to Denver, I had just come from West Virginia and West Virginia
was a really just kind of like odd little piece of my life.
But I knew when I moved to Denver that I really needed to cut to connect with like minded
people.
So I decided to reach out on the yoga girl community, which is Rachel Brathen's podcast
and Facebook page and reach out and to see if there were other yoga girls in Colorado,
which led me to kind of start my own page for Colorado yoga girls.
And it was just a small little throwing it out there to see if I could kind of meet anybody.
And one of the meetups I hosted, Kat ended up coming along with some few other girls
and that was like our first time getting to just meet in person.
We just did a little yoga class, got to talk.
And yeah, that led that led us to just follow each other on social media.
And then when we started noticing, I think later in the year of 2020, Kat had quit her
job her nine to five, and I quit my nine to five in January.
And I think both of us were really starting to focus on our social media pages and really
starting to share our story.
And I started going, okay, like Kat and me seem like we're in the same spot in life.
Seriously, it's kind of scary how parallel our lives have been in terms of timing, in
terms of things that we've endured, gone through, even location.
Like, it's just been wild.
So we can't wait to share more of that with you all.
Yeah, and honestly, like me and Kat have gotten to have a lot of conversations, but this podcast
will even be us getting to know some of the depths.
Like some of our interactions have just been, yeah, little conversations over the years.
So this is our first time really like getting to fully connect.
So that'll be really fun too.
And I think another part of the story that I should have mentioned in my little about
me is I'm currently living on the road out of my car and kind of traveling across the
country.
So for Kat, me and her just have all of our interactions this like last year have all
been just via social media.
So it's so fun to get a consistent space to talk to.
So I wanted, we want to go over with you two what our goals are for this podcast.
Yeah.
Yes, we've got a lot of them.
So yeah.
So goal number one is to share our experience, our spiritual awakening experience, because
it hasn't been an easy road.
It hasn't been neat, tidy, what you'd expect.
And we'd love to just share that for anyone who's interested in forging this path for
themselves.
Yeah.
And I think too, like with our own individual stories, maybe some of what we say will resonate
and you'll be able to recognize some of those things in yourself.
But this has also been a really unique time in history.
So we all just went through 2020 together.
We still are in a lot of unknown currently, even day to day.
And I think with that though, it's very unique to be able to see all these strangers out
and about and know that we all collectively just went through something and are still
going through something.
And I think that's led a lot of people to have more time to kind of focus on what their
values are or at least not have their normal escape that we all used to kind of have where
we didn't maybe have to focus on self nearly as much because yeah, we could just move through
life really busy.
And I think 2020 kind of changed our external so much that a lot of people seem to have
at least dabbled more into the internal if they hadn't previously.
Absolutely.
We are in the midst of a massive paradigm shift and we are in the age of Aquarius.
This is what the hippies were singing about back in the 60s of it's the dawning of the
age of Aquarius.
Well guess what?
We're in it now.
And it's this massive shift from masculine way of life, very corporate, very business
focused, hard, no pain, no gain mindset mentality to a more feminine and softer side where people
are opening up, people are caring about their personal growth, caring about how they talk
to themselves and wanting to shift that from a place of really like being hard on yourself
to one that's a little bit lighter and freer and just more kind at the base of it.
And I cannot wait to go into the depths with you on this masculine to feminine kind of
shift.
There is so many details to go into on all of that so I'm so glad you emphasized that.
But yeah I really do believe there is a lot of ways to look at the reality of what we
are experiencing now.
And I'm really big on TikTok.
I love making TikToks and so on that page I do know there is a lot of people kind of
seeking the spiritual world maybe a little bit more than previously.
And I think with that there is a lot of beauty because that can be a huge side by side with
the healing journey and healing from old wounds, learning to find confidence and self love
again and becoming through things a lot more consciously which is kind of what awakening
is all about.
But yeah with that also comes a ton of fear at first you know trying to figure out what
to let go of releasing old versions of yourself can be extremely terrifying.
There's like a grieving process with a lot of that and it can also be really hard when
you feel like you're going at it alone.
So that was a huge part of starting Awaken Together is that we can kind of go over the
subjects that we've already focused on in our own life but also go over a lot of the
different things that get advertised to us and kind of what the shadow side of things
can be but also the beautiful parts of the spiritual world that we definitely want to
lift up and emphasize.
Yes, said so well.
Nothing like a global pandemic to trap us all in our homes and force us to face ourselves
and all of the depths and the layers that there is to us.
And I mean in the end like of course it was a really really hard year and you know a lot
of people went through a lot of pain and I like to try to find the the rose in a situation
and I think the world is going to be a better place because of it truly.
A lot of people are leaving their workplaces if they're unable to accommodate what kind
of asks they need in order to you know feel the way that they want to feel, get support
that they want from their workplace.
Yes, literally a definition of boundaries.
Boundaries are coming into everything.
I love that, such a good point.
We're just being more clear on our boundaries now and yeah just taking time for ourselves,
knowing when we want to be social and when it's time to just draw back into that cave
and give yourself that space to refresh which I think is certainly needed.
So what would you say Awakened means for you Kat?
Because I think to me awakening is just a really big shift where instead of just moving
through like the current of things and you know just kind of letting life live you versus
you live life, there comes a moment whether it's circumstantial or just a conscious choice
of like I don't like what's happening around me where you decide I really want to know
why I do what I do, why I surround myself with the people I do, why I react to certain
things and you dig enough that that consciousness really is with you every step of the way and
at times you can fall off of that but it's amazing once you kind of wake up to all these
little things that you do so unconsciously everything really starts to shift, your perspective
starts to shift, the way you perceive just every little thing that happens to you starts
to shift.
So yeah anything to add on like what awakening means to you?
Yeah it's such a good point.
It makes me think about yoga and a little bit of yogic philosophy around Maya.
Maya is the veil of illusion and I think that's a really nice way to think about like until
you awaken, until you have that moment, a rock bottom maybe or some sort of just time
in your story, in your own journey that shakes you to your core and makes you see things
differently, that veil is going to be there.
We're all born with it.
We have to purposefully remove the veil so that we can see life for all that it truly
is.
And are you familiar with Sahara Rose's, what she's shared about with third, fourth and
fifth dimensional ways of being?
Definitely have dabbled into that.
It makes me think of that.
Yeah, go into a little bit.
I love that.
Okay super high level.
Most of the world, we live in a 3D third dimensional society and so that is ruled by the ego, our
sense of me, of I am, of pain.
It also serves a purpose.
It protects us like if you're going to walk across the street but there's cars coming,
your ego is going to say nope we're not going there, like it's not safe.
So it's that place of wearing your heart on your sleeve in the way that your emotions
are readily available at all times and you're thinking about yourself, me, me, me, right?
So the fourth dimension is the bridge between the third and the fifth.
This is the place where you begin to see things differently, like you were saying.
That's how you start to question things in society that maybe you never questioned before
and start to feel a little weird or a little icky.
It's poking holes in things.
Even conspiracy theories, which I don't love the word conspiracy theory because it is just
another way of thinking.
Of course sometimes it can get really in the weeds.
Yeah, I would love to do a full episode on that.
Yes, we would love to do that.
Yes, but it is the bridge.
So in order to get from the third to the fifth, you have to have a fourth, a 4D moment in
time and a lot of people get stuck in the third or the fourth.
Those are where a lot of people tend to be.
Now the fifth dimension, this is that place of awakening, of being in touch with your
highest level version of yourself.
This is a place of enlightenment, of being at peace with everything, even hurt and suffering
and pain.
Being able to let it pass through you rather than clinging on to that.
So this space is really common to have moments of.
It's less common to be in the fifth dimension for lasting periods of times because of the
society that we live in and we're constantly being drawn back, whether it's people in our
lives or work or different stimuli happening in our environments, we get pulled.
And so it's all just a beautiful balance of floating between one to the next, to the next
and back and catching yourself when maybe you've been in a lower dimensional way of
being for a little while long.
Love it.
Yes.
And so if all of that sounds completely foreign to you, we will definitely dive in because
these are all the subjects I love talking about.
I think beyond like, yeah, looking at what our goals are in spiritual awakening, what
we're trying to achieve, like how it was saying, like kind of getting into a totally different
dimension, our way of thinking has shifted.
That'll definitely be some of the subjects we go into, but I thought it'd be fun, Kat,
to go into some of what we each love that we like to talk about, just so you guys can
get a little preview of some of the subjects we're really passionate about.
So Kat just did a first one for me.
I love deep conversations on theory of existence, why we are here, what are deeper purposes
collectively and individually.
I love, Kat already knows, to talk about astrology.
I have spent like three years studying that as like a full-side hobby.
I'm obsessed with the Enneagram, all things self-analysis.
I love talking about different books and movies.
I'm a huge movie nerd, like love to watch the most strange out there movies.
I love reading a bunch of different books, so I share that stuff a lot.
Other categories, we're definitely going to talk about yoga.
For me and Kat, that was our catalyst for a lot of things, so that's another subject
we're definitely going to get into in these first several episodes as well.
You want to share a couple of the stuff you like to side-double in as well, Kat?
I'd love to.
Everything you mentioned, basically, you're definitely more of like the Enneagram nerd,
which I love because I love always hearing everything you have to say about it.
Aside from that, I know we're both Reiki practitioners, so protecting your energy.
I love helping people with that and really focusing in on it for myself because as an
empath, it's really easy to become out of balance in that and just find yourself with
other people's energy residue.
That is a big topic that I love to talk about.
What else?
You are the nutrition baddie.
Don't forget.
Kat posts these pictures of food that make you salivate if you follow her page.
I love food.
Food's my favorite.
The Greek background really makes some sense too, I feel like.
Yes, we love our food, travel, hospitality, all of it.
This is a little off the cuff, but it's our podcast, so I'm saying it, but psychedelics
is something that-
Plant medicine.
In the past few years, it's really propelled me forward on my path of healing.
It's not just because of those substances, it's due to really just exploring the inner
workings of my mind and fully learning how to trust myself and no matter what kind of
situation I'm in.
So self-trust, taking risks, poking holes in society, all that 4D way of thinking.
I love your little sass on your little, let's break all the old down because I'm like,
yes, I feel that.
Let's tear it down.
Tear it down.
Yeah.
We'll rebuild it.
Definitely.
I do think that's another angle and category that I hope to share too because for me with
awakening on my journey, I grew up in a very conservative Christian household, so my journey
really looked very tiptoey, very guarded and careful.
I really went through the route of psychology before I started really allowing the spiritual
stuff to hone back in because I was so guarded and careful on which things to invite in and
put my energy to, but I really think that's a huge part of what I can share too is this
can be extremely overwhelming to talk about some of these subjects with just the average
person because there's a lot of things that we get born into with our families, born into
even societal or culturally and it makes it kind of scary to tiptoe beyond fully accepted
beliefs in some people's eyes, but arguing slash debating against the reason these stuff
really do matter.
I'm really passionate about getting into conversations on different people's perspectives too because
it is good that we do this all together even if we all have disagreements on how to interpret
some of this stuff because it's something every day, you might have a day where you're
feeling so in tune, so in that receptive state where you just feel like you're right where
your soul is supposed to be and then other days you might really have taken on, like
Kat was saying, too much energetically or been in a space where you really didn't feel
like you could be as authentic and so there's definitely stumbling blocks in this and that
is another reason why all these different subjects and categories as you learn different
methods you have more tools to kind of turn to if something is feeling a little off or
if you want to kind of explore different avenues and different perspectives that have kind
of led to overall the same results.
That's such a good point.
Little Jen ran.
No, I love it and it kind of reminds me, I think it was back in 2014, 2015 I was taking
a yoga class in Boston where I'm from and I remember the teacher saying something along
the lines of now allow your healing to happen and he was talking all about healing and this
was new to me then and it's crazy to think about now but I had a little moment of defensiveness
where I was like, I don't need to heal anything.
This is why I was thinking in my head, I was like, I don't need to heal anything.
I'm good.
What do all these people have to heal?
And now, like, oh my goodness, I had no idea.
I was just at the surface but then after that I couldn't forget about it and it prompted
me to just think about what healing is as a whole, what that can mean.
It's not just like having a wound, an obvious thing on your skin that needs to scab up and
heal, these things are invisible most of the time.
Yeah, yeah.
And I do think that that was a beautiful story because that is really kind of usually how
it happens is these little seeds get planted along the way and as they start to bloom,
you start to piece together like, whoa, that led to this, which led to this and it's like
everything just starts to seem so much more kind of divine and beautiful and I think you
get a whole other lens of realizing this journey of being here and existing is actually really
beautiful even though we have so many things telling us that we don't have enough or that
we are lacking.
You can fall into that space of gratitude so much easier, which me and Kat have talked
about this before.
It is interesting with awakening because your external life might look a lot more boring
but your internal life, this beautiful vivid connection, you feel just so much different
on the inside and although other people can't always see what's changed about you, I can
attest from my own journey that my internal dialogue and the stuff that I used to think
and feel so intensely, so much has diminished along the way and so that has been a huge
reinforcer that I'm on the right path and that I'm doing what I'm supposed to but that
is why we have to do it together is because one thing that you might tell someone the
other day is exactly what you need to hear months later.
Absolutely.
It's wild.
And that's so beautiful.
I love that you shared that, Jen.
You're definitely on the right path, that inner self-talk.
Feeling that difference is so vastly important.
Yes.
So this was an awesome episode one.
We are so thankful that you guys will be tuning in.
I hope you get so much out of this podcast because even just getting to talk all this
stuff out means the world to me and I know it means the world to Kat.
Our next episode is going to go all into our spiritual awakening and what that actually
looked like for each of us.
Can't wait.
We'll see you all next time.
Thanks for joining.
Yes.
Thank you, Kat.
Bye.
Thanks for being here.