I'm baaaaack!

In what has been a stellar start to 2023, I have taken a hiatus to figure out what currently is sucking my joy. This episode is about the importance of joy, and why "proving to yourself you can" is so important.

One of The Four Agreements (from the book The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz) is “don’t take anything personally.”

Yet, when people remain unhealed in an area, something you say MAY touch them in a way that’s triggering. They may feel intense anger for you and your very being.

This is a transformation reality.

When Julia Machinshok lost her mother suddenly to pancreatic cancer in August of 2006, her world seemed to get out of control overnight.

At the time, she was drinking and partying very heavily and didn’t visit her mother the day before she died due to being hungover. The spiral of guilt and upset led her down a spiral of deep depression and alcohol abuse, and she found herself losing her job, having her car repossessed, and ending up without a place to stay at 8 months pregnant.

All of this was very traumatic for Julia. She was also repressing trauma from childhood, which she had not yet come to understand.

In 2014, things finally started to take a turn for the worse. Julia had been battling depression, alcoholism, and poor mental health in general. She began having horrible nightmares that would not subside, so she sought help from a psychiatrist.

The psychiatrist put her on a bunch of heavy-duty psychiatric medication, which didn’t seem to help.

The medication drug Julia into a place of numbness, and having her life slip slowly in and out of her control for years became too much. She attempted suicide twice.

Julia knew she had to take radical control of her life if things were going to change.

She sought out a therapist who she had once seen in the past who began specializing in a holistic approach to treatment.

Through months of work with mindfulness, hypnosis, and working through past experiences, Julia was able to conclude that her life and experiences were completely within her control.

She no longer takes medication, has been sober for four years, and now works as a case manager at a substance abuse treatment facility. Immediately, she knew it was where she belonged. She works with a phenomenal team, loves the work she does and feels fulfilled in knowing she is helping people live better lives.

People like to think that changing a bad habit is simple, but outside of the physical addiction, there’s an entire element of identity that gets shifted when you change anything about yourself.

The problem? Most of the people in your life don’t change right along with you.

Negativity is infectious. Yet, when it comes from others, it rarely has anything to do with us. Here are some tips for dealing with negativity, and why being able to neutralize it is so important.

Many times, when people are stuck in a lifestyle that doesn’t serve them any longer, the thing they view as their “identity” is the very thing that’s keeping them stuck.

When we think about “identity,” we’re really just thinking about our story that we tell ourselves about our lives. Many people do not want to give up their story, because they feel giving it up will invalidate their very real experiences. Thus, many people live their whole lives in victim consciousness, unable to expand.

Changing what you perceive to be as your “identity” does not take away any validity from any part of your life. It simply allows you to have a better, freer future.

Back in 2015, I thought about jumping in front of the train every day. It signified a much larger problem- that I was not living my life purposefully. This podcast is about hope and change, and taking control over your own life.