Christina: Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. I am super excited to be coming on here. 

Christina: This is gonna be a solo podcast, just me. I have been just doing the most. I had some home projects wrapping up some important projects for my corporate job, which included some traveling. , 

Christina: I’ve been recording this podcast. I have some incredible guests lined up that are going to be released in various episodes after this podcast episode. I’ve been putting the final touches on something very, very special. 

Christina: My class that will be kicking off my new divorce with divorce course, which has been several years in the making, you guys, it’s not something that I have been taking lightly. I realized with just everything that I’ve had going on. It was so impossible for me to create something that means so much to me with so much going on externally when you have a lot of big projects.

Christina: Just a lot of things that are happening in your life. It’s tough to funnel or channel that energy into creating something new, when you’re so in the rat race, for lack of a better word or loop with other things going on. So with that, it’s a lot has come up for me when I try to sit down and channel my energy to bring forth all my knowledge and experiences to the forefront to give my very best to the people that I wanna serve, which is this community. 

Christina:  If there’s one thing that I’ve been aware of and continue to fine-tune and evolve for myself and my own journey. It’s knowing myself enough to know when my output energy just isn’t there and when it turns into something that I’m forcing versus something that’s flowing. For me, that’s when it’s an indicator to jump into a different flow.

Christina:  A lot of times, it means letting go and releasing that perfectionism and that control. Trying to kind of juggle so many different things. I had to just be okay with not knowing or having all of the answers or having everything all figured out. Like they say on airplanes, putting on my own oxygen mask first and not feeling bad about it.

Christina: We put so much pressure on ourselves when we have all of these things going on. We wanna try to create something new for ourselves or implement a new habit, implement a new goal, or try to just work towards this new goal that is outside of what our daily lives or our daily responsibilities and our daily routine look like. 

Christina: I have been seeing so many friends of mine post about this too, which makes me realize that a lot of us must be feeling these really big shifts in life right now. So I wanted to record an episode of how I’ve gotten to know my habits and where I’m at right now. When things like this happen and how do I make these times work for me versus getting stuck or feeling focused on the fact that I’m lazy or whatever it is that I used to label myself as? 

Christina:  I can only describe this feeling when it comes up for me as feeling paralyzed. Not necessarily lazy. It’s more of a lost feeling. I’m pretty uninspired. I’m not really stimulated by anything. I don’t have this energy to go out and create.

Christina: I’m not necessarily excited about it, and I know that in these moments, I have to wait and observe and tune in with myself to get clear on what it is. I’m doing what it is that I wanna say, what it is that I wanna present, what it is that’s happening inside me. Because if you’re trying to create either a new goal, or you’re trying to realize a new dream that you have for yourself, or you’re trying to implement a new habit or something like that, you get lost in this sort of in-between.

Christina:  In those moments, we can just beat ourselves up about it, but that is the prime time to evolve. Those are the moments when the universe is giving us the lesson and the things that we need to learn to get to that spot. I know that, at least for me. I just wanna get there already. I just wanna make the change and implement it.

Christina: when I get really excited and really passionate about something, and the idea pops into my head to create it, that is the start of the momentum, and then halfway through the momentum, just like flat lines, and I’m like, what the heck. That’s when all of these feelings come into play, but time and time again, when this happens, I know that this moment is a small container for me to receive. 

Christina: There are things that I need to learn to get myself to this other place. It sucks because it shows us that we really are not in control of much in this life. We can have our intentions, and we can have our timelines of when we wanna do these things, and sometimes it works out just beautifully. But when it’s something big that is going to be life-changing and really alter who we are as humans in our evolution. These moments are a real gift. 

Christina: I wanted to just put together an episode of five non-negotiables on how to utilize this time and find the meaning of it and get back on track. Because if we don’t have guides for ourselves. We can very easily get stuck and just say, “well, it’s easier to go back to the way I was doing things because that’s all we know.” next thing you know, six months go by, and you remember the thing that you wanted to do, and you’re like, “oh yeah, whatever happened to that,” and it just kind of fades away.

Christina: So, If you are in this feeling, if you feel what I’m talking about, there’s a difference between surrender and giving up, and so I will give you the five non-negotiables that I have to be able to pull myself out of it.

Christina: I already mentioned the first one, so that is surrender. There is a difference between surrendering and giving up. When we surrender, we also surrender the feelings of guilt. When those feelings of guilt come up like we should be doing this, it allows us to acknowledge that it’s there and be okay with it. This is a beautiful thing, too, because we experience guilt in so many other areas of our lives when we make exceptions in relationships and when we are trying to implement boundaries.

Christina: if we can get used to acknowledging this guilt that we feel, then the more comfortable we are when it comes up for us in other areas and will allow us to implement some of these habits to make better choices. I have found that it is really helpful for me. The guilt that I’m feeling for allowing myself to be in this little time cocoon.

Christina: The guilt is just about myself, right? It has nothing to do with my relationships with anything externally. It’s beautiful for me because I get to practice, and we can only get good at something when we practice it. My first tip on that is surrendering and acknowledging all of the feelings that come up once you make that decision to surrender control of your timeline.

Christina: Another thing that I wanted to touch on is turning that guilt into curiosity. So I talked about acknowledging it and putting that into practice, but then the nugget of gold is taking that guilt and turning it into something else, turning it into a positive, changing the way that we view those feelings.

Christina: This is also something that I am consistently practicing over and over again because we have been hardwired that certain actions invoke certain feelings that we label, in this case, guilt. But what if it isn’t really feeling guilty at all? What if it is just curiosity? What if we could train our brain so that anytime we experience guilt, It’s an instant shift into curiosity, asking ourselves questions and staying with those questions and being silent for the answers.

Christina: I talked about this time cocoon, and I talked about how these times are there for us to really dig deep and learn some of the lessons that would allow us to propel to either this next level or bring this new goal into being. That really requires us to ask questions and observe the answers. 

Christina: It’s not necessarily going to be anything that we’re going to get from the external outside world, but really it’s just a matter of being present and being open to things that come up.

Christina: You may discover it when you’re out for a walk, and that answer will all of a sudden come into existence in your mind as a thought process. You’ll realize how special the silence can be. 

Christina: I’ll recap it real quick, surrendering, taking in all those feelings that come with surrendering, one of them being guilt, acknowledging it, practicing feeling what that feels like in your body, and then turning that guilt into curiosity and not being afraid to ask questions, and then being silent for the answer.

Christina: The third thing that I wanted to touch on is giving time and meaning by finding beauty in the simple things. This is where new opportunities happen for us to get reinspired and to really solidify a lot of the ideas that you initially had when you wanted to bring this new thing into existence. 

Christina: Finding beauty in the simple things can really be as easy as going outside for a walk for five minutes every day, getting fresh air, and being in nature. Having five minutes in the morning to drink your coffee and not do anything but sit there and drink your coffee or your tea. So this time that we often label as feeling lazy, what if we called it something else? What if we said that we were taking our time too? Just be present. 

Christina: My third tip is really kind of giving this time new meaning versus what maybe some of my other thoughts would come up initially and tell myself that I’m lazy or unproductive.

Christina: Another thing is having structure. Having structure can be really helpful during these times because if you allow yourself to be open and curious and ask those questions, we’re also implementing boundaries, which is with a structure to create these containers. 

Christina: Structure can be the walls that we are creating for the container, for all of our ideas and our inspiration and our creativity, and all the answers to the questions that we’re asking and the lessons that we need to learn. The structure is the walls; that’s how I look at it. So for me, what’s really important is having bedtime goals, bedtime rituals, and waketime rituals.

Christina: I make it a point to be in bed by a certain time and when I’m in bed, then at that point I implement reading or journaling. That’s been really huge for me during these times to get my ideas out on paper or to also be newly inspired by. I don’t necessarily read books, but I listen to a lot of audiobooks so that at the same time that I’m listening, I’m journaling some ideas that come to my mind. 

Christina: A lot of times, it is in those moments that I’m reinspired, or I find those nuggets that I’m searching for, if you will. Another really important structure that I put in is moving my body and being open to new forms of exercise. 

Christina: Recently, I have been slowing it down. I like to run, and so before, I would run and just put my body in this really high-stress state. I’ve been really curious about it, and it’s called LISS. I think its low-impact, steady state is what it stands for. I have been really curious about how this feels. I’ve been doing it for the last couple of weeks now, where I’m doing workouts that don’t stress out my body.

Christina: If you work out hardcore or you do hit classes, you kind of feel like you have to die to make an impact on your body. I have been really loving these new ways to explore moving my body that doesn’t involve torturing myself.

Christina: I’ve been doing, walking uphill. I’ve been doing a lot more weightlifting that is slower, and so things that are slower in pace. So I invite you to be open to new forms of exercise. Also, when we learn a new form of exercise or when we implement something new, then we also learn a new habit.

Christina: Our brain is learning, firing off in different ways because we’re doing something that we wouldn’t normally do, and moving your body is just so good to get your blood flowing. It’s amazing for stress and anxiety. There is that. Another thing that you can bring in when you have structure is introducing new rituals like the moon rituals, full moon eclipse, new moons, and things like that.

Christina: I definitely follow a lot of those times as the for during the moon cycle, and it’s been really, really awesome. I don’t necessarily follow it like religiously, but when I have certain moments where I. Feel stuck or I feel a little bit uninspired or lost. I will look at the moon and see, okay, what’s going on in the moon’s forecast?

Christina: I tend to kind of gravitate towards that to help ground myself. So that’s another thing for you if you’d like. 

Christina: The last thing that I will talk about is to write goals. Now, I know that this is, seems like a no-brainer, but what I always do is without looking at any other goals from before entering this phase, I will just write down goals as they are on my heart or on my mind at that moment and then you can go back to the goals that you’ve had before and see if they still ring true for you. 

Christina: Maybe it’s the same goal, but it’s a different path that you initially thought you were gonna take to get to that goal. Maybe during this time, you were able to figure out a new way, or maybe that’s not even your goal anymore, and maybe it’s either evolved, it’s shifted into something else.

Christina: But this is really important to start having things to look forward to so that you don’t get stuck in the past because I will tell you as someone who deals with fears of failure and wanting to just be perfect. Sometimes our fears of moving forward are weighed down by experiences of the past, and it can really prevent us from moving forward, and that’s how we get stuck.

Christina: So it really is important to reevaluate your goals to write down goals as they are in that moment. like I said in the beginning, these seasons, these phases, these time cocoons, they really are so important to help us learn these lessons that we don’t necessarily learn when we’re moving in this really fast-paced life.

Christina: This is also a great way to look at the goals that you have with who you are in this moment, in this season, in this phase, and see how much you’ve grown. A lot of times, I always have new ways of doing things, where I thought for sure that the timeline to whatever goal I had was not the same. I often find new or more efficient ways of doing things, or maybe I even get real with myself and realize that what I thought was the goal initially was really not that big of a deal to me, and I wanna gravitate towards this other thing.

Christina: So writing down goals for just that purpose alone is really helpful, and it also helps us have those conversations with ourselves. Am I feeling paralyzed because I’m scared of change because I’m scared of the future? Or is it really because I maybe have tried to do this before in the past and I failed, and I really, it’s my imposter syndrome that is keeping me stuck?

Christina: When we are trying to create new things for ourselves, it’s so common to evaluate, and these seasons are important so that we can figure out what exactly it is that we stand for. What exactly is it that we’re trying to say and bring forth in this world? These are my non-negotiables of what I bring in and how I use this time for my greater good.

Christina: So I have learned that it also means that this is a sign that whatever it is that you’re trying to do is important to you and that it’s important enough for us to pause and use this time to figure it out and eventually we will get there because what is meant to be will always find its way to you. 

Christina: I hope that this was helpful for you. Let me know, and send me a DM. I’m for sure gonna post about this, podcast episode on Instagram. either send me a DM or write it in the comments. I would really love to hear from you and to hear if any of these helped you. If these are some of the things that you already utilize, it just means so much for me to connect with all of you.

Christina: Thank you so much for listening, and I will catch you on the next one.