Hello everyone and welcome to the Awaken Together podcast.
I'm Jen and I'm Kat.
And today is our end of season three.
How are we here?
And it is really wild.
Jenny and Kat just listened to our episode from the very end of 2021 and how much has
shifted and changed since then and whoa.
It's crazy to look back on an entire year and be like, oh my God, that was just a year
ago or like that was so long ago.
It's funny having the same like different reactions to the same year in the way that
we just remember different things.
So that was fun to look back on.
Yeah, we were discussing that some of the same lessons from the universe have definitely
circled around from last year at the very end to now.
And it's also really wild to think about that at the end of 2021 when we recorded the last
episode that was just after the eclipse season and we were also doing the same reflection
and me and Kat, we just exited eclipse season again.
We were just reflecting and we definitely could see some of the commonalities.
So we will share with you a little bit of what we've been recently unpacking.
So Kat, if you want to give just a little life update and then we'll go into reflection
mode too.
Yeah, it's wild to think about how some of the same lessons reappear at the same time
of year because we haven't fully embodied the lesson, the teaching from it.
The same universe keeping us.
So wise.
So wise universe.
Yeah, we wanted to share a little bit about our Spotify rap because we're still relishing
in the celebration of how amazing you all are, our listeners and how fun it is to see
our awaken together family grow.
It was so cool to see how we've created 896 minutes of episodes here, which apparently
is more than 91% of the category that we're in.
Content queens.
You're welcome.
And apparently your podcast personality as a listener, Spotify says you're the time traveler.
How spiritual.
I know, right?
It says you seek out podcasts that are new to you regardless of whether you're new to
the rest of the world.
It's such original secrets.
So another cool, fun thing that we learned is that our pod has been listened to in over
53 countries with the top being the US.
Naturally, if it wasn't, that would be weird.
Number two is Canada, then the UK, Australia and Germany.
So thank you so much family for listening from near and far.
We love you so much.
Yeah, that Spotify rap had me in like full tears.
I so needed it because I was really already starting the process of unpacking what has
been happening, what's been going on.
And just to see that and sit with the gratitude that when we recorded our end of 2021 episode,
that was the end of season one.
And here we are.
And just thank you for listening with us and growing with us and unpacking this because
we're really sharing what we are living through and going through and just sharing it along
the way.
So thanks for growing with us and being a part of all of this.
Yeah, we appreciate it so much and look forward to lots more exciting new adventures in the
new year.
So without further ado, I'm going to start to tee us up for our meditation.
And if you listen to our meditation last year, it's going to be the same one.
So hopefully this starts to build some familiarity.
And we really love this way of looking at four different categories in our lives year
over year to have that consistency and be able to track and measure like how you're
growing and what is literally happening in these categories over time.
So those categories are home, mind, body, and soul.
Without further ado, we'll set up for meditation.
So wherever you might be right now, if you have the space where you can sit or lay, if
you're at home, I really encourage you to do that to find a comfortable position, one
where you're both comfortable and alert.
So go ahead, get any little wiggles out, gently close your eyes if you feel safe doing so.
Begin to bring your awareness simply to your breath.
Start to slow it down.
Take five slow, deep breaths together.
Take a breath in.
Exhale, let it go.
Again, breathe in.
Breathe out.
Seeing if you can slow your exhales to be a little longer than your inhales, breathe
in.
Exhale, soften.
Again, inhale through your nose.
And exhale through your nose, empty out.
Hold at the bottom and take in one last deep breath all the way in.
Feel your belly expand, ribs expand.
And this time, open your mouth and sigh it all out.
Begin to settle your mind down.
Return to your normal breathing in and out through your nose.
No need to control it.
Just let it be natural.
Start just by taking notice of where you are at the moment, scanning your body and mind
for information.
Notice how you feel physically and mentally.
And then begin to observe your thoughts in a neutral, non-judgmental way as they come
and go.
This practice isn't about clearing your mind, but rather noticing your gut reaction of what
comes up first, your instinct.
Now begin to replay the year in your mind slowly, as if you were watching a movie reel
of highlights, lowlights, big and small moments from your year.
And as you do, keep in mind the following four categories of your life to help guide
your thoughts and memories.
Home, what happened with your family in your house.
Mind, this is literally thoughts, themes that came to mind, your work, your hobbies.
Body, how did your body feel?
What changes did you make in how you take care of yourself?
How you move?
How you eat?
And finally, the fourth category is spirit or soul, considering your spiritual practice,
any internal talk, shifts that you've experienced.
Let's start with January 1st, New Year's Day, and move through your year, month by
month, recalling the people, moments, emotions, activities, details, mistakes, highlights,
all of it.
Just play through these memories from the year little by little in your mind as they
come to you and watch them like a recap of all that happened.
Try to stay with each moment for a little while, moving on to the next, handling it
one month at a time.
You can begin.
As your mind wanders away from your reflection reel, gently bring it back.
Which month are you in mentally?
What's happening?
Now I know we all move at our own pace and I don't want to rush you, so I invite you
to pause this podcast to continue thinking about each month, the highs and the lows,
and don't rush it.
When you reach the end of December, finish the movie reel of the year and notice how
you feel.
Now begin to settle your attention on your biggest challenge from this year.
In what ways did this experience, person, or situation challenge you?
What did you learn from this experience?
What was the lesson behind the teaching?
Now begin to settle your attention on your favorite moment from this past year.
Hold it at the center of your mind and take it in through all of your senses.
Really replay this moment in your mind's eye.
Try to take that feeling into all of yourselves with your entire mind and heart.
Really feel that state you were in when you were living through this favorite moment.
Don't rush this part.
Recall how your body felt, what your mind state was, what your energy felt like.
Recall any colors, images, and sensations.
As you bring your attention to this positive memory, identify what you can do to experience
more feelings like this in your life.
What is in your control?
Stay with it for another moment.
And then slowly transition your mind back into the present moment by bringing your awareness
back to your breath.
Deep inhales and slow exhales.
It's now the time to take all of the general feelings in this year and pick one word that
encompasses what it taught you.
Take a deep breath in through your nose.
Exhale, let it go.
When you're ready, you can begin to open your eyes, bring your awareness back, and we'll
turn to some journaling.
Writing down your thoughts and ideas helps to really reinforce any learnings that comes
with reflection.
I'm going to offer a few journal prompts, and we'll share the rest of them on our Facebook
and Instagram pages for those who'd like to really go deeper.
You're welcome to take five minutes or two hours to put all of your thoughts down on
paper.
You can write in an instruction, really unstructured way, or you can respond directly to these
prompts, whatever works best for you.
So prompt number one, what mattered most to me this year?
What mattered most to me this year?
Number two, list the things that you were proud of in the last year.
List the things that you were proud of this last year.
Number three, list the things you regret and why.
List the things you regret and why.
Once you've got those down, you're welcome to write away, and then you can pause this.
You're welcome to return after you've done your journaling prompts, or you can do it
after this podcast wraps up.
I encourage you to take a look at what you've written, given all your responses, list out
the things that you'd like to create, feel, achieve, and plan for the next year.
So just to review one of the main reasons it's really nice to sit in reflection on the
year that has just passed is I feel like it's so common just to write down what's coming
focus on the future, and I think we can move through so many things without anchoring ourselves
back and processing what we've already been through.
And I think that's where you can really start growing a little bit more rapidly is when
you take enough time to actually sit and reflect on maybe there's a pattern here, maybe there's
lessons that I have just been skimming over.
And yeah, as we said, like so much of what happened last year has kind of circled back.
So to share a little bit of that for me, I definitely last year after eclipse season
had just been sick.
And I was really struggling with control problems, which is my endless thing to unpack with the
universe.
But when I had nothing I could do because I was just kind of quarantined and stuck,
it was very triggering for me.
And I start problem solving things that really don't even matter because I'm so scared of
just sitting in discomfort and letting it be.
And just in this last eclipse season, the same thing happened.
I had a lot of seemingly like inconveniences all seemed to hit at the same time.
I just stopped being able to get to work in the right way.
Me and Danny share a car.
We had a lot of conflict with that.
I bought a bike and it broke and I had just like endless test of things where it was really
out of my control and it brought up feelings of discomfort again.
And instead of sitting with them, I often try to completely reestablish my life and
resolve and just go right into problem fixing mode instead of being like, maybe this discomfort
is a part of what I'm supposed to be with.
And I think I recognized it quicker this year and I sat with it instead of, you know, changing
up everything.
I can see I'm getting a little bit better on my relationship with that.
So that's kind of my lesson that circled back.
But to give you the home mind body spirit reflection on this year and just a brief summary.
So home for me this year, I finally landed back in Denver, which means I got to finally
be with Kat in person.
We had only met once.
I got here at the beginning of this year.
And yeah, so we got to record podcasts in person.
I got to get an apartment and it was really fun making a home just a little bit different
than what it had been before our year on the road and traveling and living out of my car
that I did last year.
I painted my walls like really fun and kind of made it way more of a neurodivergent friendly
space.
I wanted my I always get into this mindset of I'm not going to be here forever.
So why put as much effort into it?
And I kind of threw all that away and was like, I'm going to make my house like evoke
the most joy for me because I you know, just because I'm not in a house that I own does
not mean that I shouldn't live out this expression.
And that's been really beautiful to like inspire me and just to look over and see this brightly
colored wall and all these little drawings I've done.
It helps me feel like I can cultivate more expression into my life.
And it's been really nice for me and Danny to get to ground and sit together and be in
one space, kind of get back into our routines.
I've had friends come to visit, which has been nice because last year I was such a nomad.
I was just like staying at different houses.
So it's been nice to kind of host, have people over, get back into the swing of like hosting
little parties.
Kat came to my Halloween escape room.
It was so fucking amazing.
Like, I'm still blown away.
Thank you.
Which is like such a joy.
And that's something you can't do without like a home space.
So it was like so nice to have that.
And then for the mind category, as I always am doing, I feel like I really got to delve
into more learning, which is always so stimulating for my mind just to continue to just to learn
big concepts.
I delved a lot deeper into astrology as a bad one.
I don't know if it's ever going to shake, shake away.
But I also got into human design, which is really fun.
I started really unpacking a lot of that.
And I continue doing astrology readings, having this podcast, having TikTok is all these outlets
just to channel my voice, actually like dump out my thoughts.
And yeah, I was telling Kat, you know, it was really alarming when I used to have all
of you guys see my content, maybe potentially through my senseful wellness page, all of
the content I share, all that used to be floating around in my head.
And it was a lot.
So having all these tools for self expression has been so good.
A few other things I reflected on in the mind category was I finally got back on ADHD medication,
which I think was really huge because I spent two years without it, which was nice.
But I also think, you know, with having the ADHD diagnosis, it's sometimes nice to be
on that medication because I can ground a lot easier and put my attention to things
better.
And it's been nice to have that back because it's brought a lot of my routines into place
a little bit more concretely.
And I think I really needed that.
And I also did a lot more processing on religious trauma.
And that was a huge part of the mind category for me because I think Roe v. Wade kind of
triggered for me a lot of deeper processing that I needed to do still around my religion
trauma.
I think I had unpacked some of it, but I think I hadn't really fully saw the picture.
And I think Roe v. Wade kind of clicked a lot of dots for me at that time.
And going out and protesting was big.
And I think a lot of emotional release came out with that, which kind of spirals right
into body because I got a lot of emotions out through that.
I was looking at my Spotify rap as well.
And I had listened to Maddie Zams songs so much.
And she really talks about her experience with religious trauma.
And I just had a lot of good journal sessions on that.
And another thing with the body category, I feel like I got really nice and in the swing
of my gym routine, which I had lost last year.
And it was good last year.
I feel like I said that I didn't focus on my body as much.
And that was kind of a huge win because I usually hyper focus on my body.
But it was nice to just be able to go right back into my routine with body movement practices.
And yeah, it's been really looking so fit.
Thank you.
Yeah, it came so naturally.
And I just realized like those practices, I get scared sometimes I'll lose it because
I had so much trouble in the past, like balancing diet and working out.
And it was because of my relationship to my body and knowing that I could come right back
into my practices effortlessly was so nice to see.
And a lot of last year was just because I was driving in the car all day.
I was a full time nomad.
It was hard to kind of get that same, you know, gain and muscle strength that I could
get with having, you know, weights around.
But that's been nice.
And it feels good to be back in clothes that were not fitting and just getting back without
without a lot of pressure needing to be on top of it.
I love that.
And then to take it finally to the spiritual category, me and Kat led two retreats together
and oh my gosh, like memories just flood when I think of them.
I will remind in case you never heard, like our very first retreat was in Breckenridge
together and the most spiritual thing of that entire retreat was we did a micro dose as
a group and we literally had a mom and baby moose come and sit in our backyard for like
an hour.
And then they like left us and they just felt safe.
You could feel it so magical.
We were just in awe.
They just trusted us like a mom and baby and sat with us, let us just like take them in.
And then they just walked right past our front door.
Not even like a slight fear.
It was so freaking beautiful.
I think of that all the time.
And then we held our witch retreat, which was like so beautiful just to feel into that
like more manifesting spell chanting energy and do it as a group.
We had the most beautiful house.
We were right along the beach.
We had the most beautiful moon come up for us and so much magic in that too.
So the both experiences so spiritual and I led a bachelorette party retreat in Sedona,
which is also so, so magical to be in the Sedona space leading another group that felt
like full circle and to get to lead like a bachelorette party was so surreal.
It's really like fun to bring like a spiritual element into that.
And then yeah, I did a lot more unpacking of my past life.
That is going to be for another episode that I will have to rock you guys down that rabbit
hole.
But it was good to sit with a lot of experience for that.
That also brought up a lot more emotional releases.
But I delved into that for like a good period of time.
And that was a very spiritual kind of full circle.
And I went to my favorite yoga festival that I think I'm going to try to go to until the
day I die Floyd yoga jam.
I got to go with a bunch of girls from the, from our first retreat, we all reignited and
it's just so beautiful in that space because you're camping in the middle of nowhere under
the stars and you're with a bunch of hippies and it's just so intimate and vulnerable and
magical and just getting to be in that space with people when I normally go by myself was
really kind of full circle spiritual for me.
And yeah, so many little synchronicities that kind of played out.
So anyway, that's kind of my quick little review of the year.
Go ahead, Kat and give us all your things.
What a year, right?
That's amazing.
Oh my God.
So dynamic in so many different ways.
Did you coming into this year set a word as an attention?
Yeah.
So I looked back and I had put inspired action.
What a, I feel like it so happened.
It really did.
You manifested it.
Yes.
I love it.
Oh, that's so great.
Thanks for sharing.
Yeah.
My word for this year was rooted and that really applies to all of these different categories.
So I'm excited to share more.
But I had felt like last year I was kind of like, uh, I had been working my business for
a year and a half full time and I loved everything, but I was also missing that feeling of like
being a part of something with community and having shared goals and actions.
So that's what ultimately led me this year to getting a job again.
Um, and so I'm kind of skipping ahead to the mind category.
I'll come back to home.
But, um, that was like one goal that I had for myself this year.
And it was late May when I accepted a job offer at nurture here in Denver.
And it just felt like the stars aligned.
It's just, I still think about it.
And it's so wild that I found something that hits all my boxes in terms of like small business,
entrepreneurial fields, startup vibes, amazing team, like-minded, super just cool and heart-centered.
And I don't have to pretend to be somebody else.
Like I had felt like I needed to in past jobs where I was like this corporate sales cat.
Um, and I could just be me, like all layers of me.
Like, it's such a spiritual vibey place.
It is.
If you're in Denver or are visiting anytime, come visit nurture in the Highlands.
It's really special.
Um, so yeah, I started that late May and it's been a whirlwind of amazingness and just like,
you know, so much growth in so many different ways.
So while I was doing that though, I haven't left all of the things that I'm doing in my
business with health coaching, meditation club, retreats, um, all the things.
And I just can't let go of it.
I love it all so much.
So I'm just constantly trying to find the harmony between all the things.
So that plus also teaching yoga.
And this fall I actually stepped up as a lead trainer in the 200 hour, um, yoga teacher
training at Black Swan.
And that was seriously a dream come true.
Such an honor.
Um, but also I accepted that before I started my full time job and quickly realized like,
Oh wait, I just signed up to like work a lot of weekends and I'm working full time and
I'm doing all these things.
So that was a massive lesson for me this year was like saying yes to everything, how that
kind of negatively affected my life.
And it was no one else's fault but my own.
Um, but you know, I did the best I could and it all ended up being pretty, pretty awesome.
Um, but going forward, like I had to regrettably like put that down, the yoga teacher training
part and hoping that I can continue in the guest capacity for future times.
I really, uh, flourished in that way because it was just enough time.
Um, but yeah, I'm loving teaching yoga once a week.
So it's really, uh, allowing me to stimulate my creative juices in a way that brings me
so much joy.
So all the things, all the things make me so happy in my mind and my mind needs a lot
of stimulation.
I've learned we are air signs.
You can't tell we are air signs.
So yeah, we just need a lot of different stimuli, a lot of different avenues in order to check
with boxes.
So that's my mind category for a home.
This was also really big for my intention of rootedness because I bought a home.
Really started the year with that.
We closed in February, three days before my birthday.
And so I was like, Oh yeah, just got a home for my birthday and BD.
Well, we moved in, we settled in and during that whole process, we had a lot of chaos
with it being broken into and cockroach infestations and all of these different things that were
like nightmarish, you know?
But again, we learned so much and now we're like super happy with the house and we're
recording in it now.
Yeah.
And we got to lead a little sleepover in your backyard.
We sure did.
So it's opened a lot of doors of opportunity in that regard.
So that's felt really nice.
Something else like Kyle and I are working on is that decision of whether or not to have
a child.
And so that in terms of home life and family, like that is very present in our day to day.
And we're listening to this book called The Baby Decision by Merle Something.
I so recommend it for you and your partner if you're in a similar boat or even just wanting
to be prepared for parenthood and like have really productive, meaningful conversations
before you make that huge decision of your life.
Read it separately in your own time or listen to it.
That's what we're doing at Audible.
And then come together and have like a weekly book club and we're talking about a chapter
at a time and making notes in our own spaces and just chatting about there's like all these
different exercises that you should do together and separately.
And it has brought us so much closer in terms of this big subject that in the past has felt
very polarizing for us.
So you know, I don't know where it's going to end up.
I know I'm hoping for my way.
And Kyle is just like wonderful in terms of like we were approaching this as a partnership
and it's just coming back to that feels so nice.
And yeah, this year was also just chiller at home without having to plan a wedding.
It feels great having that done and having those memories and just has allowed for some
space.
So that's home.
And then moving into body with the move out to Lakewood from Denver.
I'm a little bit further from the yoga studio that I teach at at Black Swan and Capitol
Hill.
And so it's been like a little bit trickier for me to focus on my practice because I used
to be, you know, 10, 15 minutes away, no highway in the middle, so I could just go any time.
I used to practice three or four times a week.
And now it feels like it's like one or two times a week.
And so that's a really big difference for me when I used to practice five days a week,
even before that.
So just like moving my body has been something that I've had to try harder for.
And it's been interesting.
I'm still doing my walks every day, but I've had to really lean into like workout videos
online and I'm really glad that I found some that really work for me with cardio kickboxing.
Shout out to Kick It with Eliza.
We went to college together and I still love her videos like 10 years later, which is cool.
And yeah, some Pilates and just trying to mix it up.
It's hard for me to do yoga videos because I don't know, I'm just really picky with yoga
videos.
So I still do go into the studio for that and just like squiggle and squirm around my
own mat sometimes without doing an actual flow.
That's been really nourishing for me.
And then finally for Soul, Minnie is barking.
This has kind of gone in waves for me of being really connected with myself and then also
just kind of feeling like I'm a victim to my busyness.
And so that's been a really big teaching for me this year.
I think I shared a bit before, but some of the highlights for me in this category were
our retreats, which Jen talked about.
The Breckenridge one was my first one leading in person, which was so freaking magical.
And then Florida, my God, the witchy retreat, just everything's been amazing.
So with meditation, my morning routine, it all feels steady.
There's been lots of awesome music.
Electric Forest was so fucking beautiful to be back to and just amazing friend and community
time.
So super, super grateful.
Yeah.
Are they here?
Okay.
You want to sit there?
Yeah.
So yeah.
Okay.
Well, Kat, thank you for sharing all of that.
I hope that as you do our meditation from this episode and you process your own categories,
you could always reach out and share.
I hope it helps you connect some dots so that you can walk and set intentions or maybe just
a word for next year.
We thank you for writing this season three with us and we look forward to seeing you
in February for season four.
Thank you.
Love you all so much.
Happy new year.
Bye.