As we’re nearing the end of the year, I’m recognizing that the space I'm currently in has been calling me to trust the unknown and take some breathing room. You can probably already tell from the title, but we’re taking a pause on new podcast content until the new year. While I'm in Zurich I wanted to be able to explore and be present, while still continuing to connect with the TGS community through weekly emails.

When it comes to self-care, we often overcomplicate things, thinking we have to make huge changes. Our guest this week, Danika Brysha, Wellness Entrepreneur, Body Positive Fashion Model signed with IMG Models, and a Self-Care + Lifestyle Design Coach, is the perfect person to explain why self-care starts small. She shares how her own journey led to the creation of a self-care checklist and why we should take things one day at a time. Danika encourages us to look inside ourselves and start asking important questions because we already have the answers inside us.

I'm not sure if you've already heard, but I’m currently in Zurich, my husband and I will be here for the next couple of months! Recently, I've been struggling to embrace the space around me, to fully be in the present moment instead of worrying about what's next. So I came to the decision to take a little pause on the podcast starting this November. I’ll have another episode explaining this in more detail but this week, I wanted to share an experience in Central Park as a tangible way to talk about the things I’ve been learning about creating space in your life and embracing the space in hopes that it will inspire you, too, to embrace your own present moments.

What happens when a child has emotionally immature parents? How do you recognize it and heal yourself? This episode is inspired by Lindsay C. Gibson’s book Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents. After this post, you’ll have the ability to better create boundaries with ease and focus on living from a true, authentic space. Rather than spending tons of time and energy on a parent who won’t change. Shoutout to Jenica from The Good Space community for recommending this book!

Our guest this week, Rachel Jepsen, nonfiction writer and executive editor for Every, is the perfect person to speak on finding your voice and what that looks like. I know many members of the Good Space community have some type of involvement in, and passion for, creativity in some way. For me, that's through my writing and through The Good Space. Rachel shares with us why she feels that "chaos isn’t only necessary to create anything, harnessing chaos is possible and our ultimate creative state." By the end of this post, I hope you’ll feel inspired and encourage to step further into your creative voice.

My goal since I’ve lived in New York City is to figure out how to exist in a serene peaceful bubble without needing to move. Life can get crazy so I wanted to talk this week about feeling more peace even when things around you feel hectic. It’s been three years and I’ve gotten better but realized a few key things: feeling peace is a lifelong commitment, slow down, be ok with going against the grain. If you feel like you've been searching for a more peaceful life, this is your sign to go for it. You don't need to wait for everyone else to start. You’ll have wasted so many precious years not having peace.

A while ago, I received a request from a Good Space community member to bring Sarah Baldwin, a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and an Embodied Coach, on the show! So, this week, she joined me for a conversation I think we could all use, what emotional trauma really is, and how to actually begin healing it. We discuss how to know if you're dealing with your own trauma, where it can stem from, and how we can teach our bodies to feel safe again. Sarah also takes us through how our bodies carry trauma what can happen if trauma does go left untreated and gives practices you can use to begin your own healing.

We’ve talked in the past about dealing with negative people, but this week I want to talk about dealing with your own negative thoughts. I truly believe we can re-learn how to think so that we don’t allow our negative thinking to take over our life. I want to share an exercise that I've been using for years that allows me to challenge my negative thoughts and then choose a better one. This exercise helps your true self override the programming of the ego. You'll start to internalize the exercise, automatically challenge them and pull in the reins. Give it a try and then let us know how it goes.

I’m so excited to welcome back Dr. Jody Carrington, our guest from episode 8, for a conversation about connection, relationships, and being brave. As the author of Kids These Days and newly released Teachers These days, we catch up on everything that’s happened since she last joined us and how her mindset and strategy have changed since writing her first book. Jody also shares why connection is more important than ever, especially as we’re adapting to life while the global pandemic continues, and gives us brave actions we can take to start reconnecting.

Our guest this week, Jules Evans, researcher, philosopher, and the person that inspired me to dive into this whole realm of mixing spirituality with conspiracy, joined me for a conversation to talk all things socratic and ecstatic, conspirituality, and creating boundaries in your own spirituality. Jules tells us how a freak skiing accident helped him heal from a life of misadventure with drugs, and led him all the way back to the Stoics of Ancient Greece and the work that he does. We chat about the concept of conspirituality and being able to enjoy spirituality without falling into these more darker areas.

In our culture, we develop negative beliefs around self-care and focusing on ourselves. Things like self-care is selfish, taking time for self-care is lazy. But our guest this week, Katie McDonald, creator of b.nourished, had to learn the hard way that taking care of yourself is the only way you can take care of anyone, or anything else. Through illness, burnout, and a deep desperation, Katie came to the hard truth of why recalibrating and healing your own relationship with yourself is really the key to your happiness, your success, etc. She reminds us that we do have permission. “Self Care is not indulgence. Self neglect is selfish.”

I’m joined this week by the host of the News Du Jour podcast & founder of Sugarfree Media, Annie Bowles. She started Sugarfree Media with the intention of speaking her truth and not sugarcoating things anymore. With a career history in politics, Annie noticed a lack of reliable information and news geared towards young women, and has since made it her purpose to fill that hole. We chat about what it means to be “Sugarfree,” how to start finding and consuming the facts, instead of the BS, and how we can start to speak our own truths.

Have you felt this way at any point in the last year? Like nothing’s working the way you want it to. Like the law of attraction isn’t working. You find yourself focusing on stress. Focusing on the desire for something. This post is for you. I’m going through a season of spiritual independence and a few listeners in The Good Space community told me they are, too. We’re tired of being spoken AT and are ready to start trusting ourselves more. Keep reading to see what 5 common beliefs sabotage your ability to trust yourself.

I’ve been called “The Resistor” several times now because when I don't know something I doubt my ability to make the right choice. But this made me start questioning why that was my default setting. Are you reading this and thinking “wow, I struggle with resistance too?” You know, that feeling of energy being blocked rather than flowing with the tides of life? I’ll take you through why we struggle with resistance, letting go of what feels misaligned, and the 6 Rs of Working Through Resistance. So, what do you resist the most in your life?

This week, I’m having a raw conversation with you that has been on my heart for a long time. It wasn’t until I started reading a book my friend recommended and later found out the author is a QAnon sympathizer and anti-vaxxer among other things, that I sat down to finally have this conversation. I want to talk about this eye-opening experience and how it reminded me of the importance of standing for your values and beliefs and being ready to take a stand for them. I want to encourage you to get uncomfortable so that you too can take a stand. I’m getting really honest about what The Good Space stands for and represents and encourage you to step up into what you believe.