Turning Your Fear into Power with Koya Webb

We all want to be brave enough to confront our fears, but we often find it difficult to succeed. We are scared of what the future holds. But at some point in our lives, we realize that holding onto our fears will only lead us to an unhappy and unproductive life.

When we face our fears, we open ourselves to new opportunities. We surprise ourselves with what we can do and what we can be. Confronting our fears can lead to social change that can benefit all of us. Change is always scary. Facing your fears is never easy, but it's worth it in the end. 

In today's episode, Koya Webb shares with us how we can turn our fears into our strength. She discusses how overcoming difficult conversations and confronting social injustices with love can result in social change. She also shares with us her journey towards self-love and the advantages of yoga and meditation.

If you want to change your life by embracing your fears, tune in to the episode! 

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

1. You will learn how to confront your fear and use it as a tool to overcome your struggles.
2. Koya Webb gives advice on how to deal with difficult conversations that can lead to social change.
3. How does Koya Webb feel radically loved? Find out toward the end of the episode.

Resources

• Let Your Fears Make You Fierce: How to Turn Common Obstacles Into Seeds for Growth​ by Koya Webb
• Koya Webb's websit​ e
• Get Loved Up Podcast by Koya Webb​

Episode Highlights

Pivotal Moments in Koya's Life

• As a child, she grew up full of fears. She was afraid of speaking up and embarrassing her family and herself to other people.
• The hardships in her life led her to become more grateful. She feared that if she's not appreciative enough, the things she has will be taken away from her.
• She found yoga and started her spiritual practice after a track and field injury. It enabled her to feel more connected and fulfilled in her life.
• Removing her fears and recognizing her power and fierceness gave her the ability to step into who she truly is.

Experiencing Trauma Through the Normalization of Social Issues

• Society sometimes tends to normalize issues so quickly that we don't even realize we're being traumatized by it.
• Creating uncomfortable conversations leads to changes. We are all part of the change we want to see.
• Through breathing exercises and meditation, Koya was able to understand her fears.
• We have to breathe love into spaces and issues society has normalized or doesn't want to discuss.

Why People Are Scared to Talk About Complex Social Issues

• People don't want their comfort challenged, so they tend to choose what is easy.
• If something is not okay with someone, it's not okay for everyone.
• We have to communicate with each other to heal and feel love through difficult conversations.
• When something frustrates you, you are scratching the surface.

How Koya Uses Her Fierceness to Overcome Her Fear

• When Koya got injured, she started doing yoga and figuring out what she would do next. She realized she wasn't loving and taking care of herself during those times.
• People should realize that loving everyone and opening up conversations mean loving themselves and creating change.
• Talking about social issues is uncomfortable, and it's okay. Growth and evolution are always messy.
• Breathing exercises help her overcome discomfort and get through hardships in her life.

Koya's Motivation on Continuing Her Purpose

• Koya reminds herself that life is a duality. You have to show up in your life because light comes after darkness.
• Looking through nature gives you a sense of what it feels to be human.

On the Younger Generation’s Struggle with Anxiety and Stress

• The use of technology created a lack of tangible connection and human touch, which adds to the younger generation's anxiety.
• Anxiety is a compounded fear and affects mental health. Feeling fear is normal.
• Doing yoga and meditation and taking deep breaths can help with anxiety and stress.
• Oversharing your life can lead to fear. You have to process your emotions first to avoid basing yourself on other people's opinions.
• Go back to nature and connect to heal some fear.

How Koya Fills Her Love Bank

• When you're in a dark moment in your life, do the things you love to process your pain.
• It's okay to talk about darkness. You don't have to fear challenges.

The Person Who Gave Koya a Solid Foundation

• Koya's biggest inspiration is her mother.
• Her mother always reminds her to ask herself if she's happy.
• When you're living, you will experience emotions.
• Our stories are what make us beautiful.

Koya's Definition of Freedom and Her Advice to Others

• Freedom is being able to express yourself, to love and be loved freely without judgment and fear, and to receive love.
• She reminds people that they are loved and necessary in this world.

5  Powerful Quotes from This Episode

“When you grow up in a space of fear, you are afraid of yourself.”

“Once I removed all those fears, all those barriers, and all those and lies, I was able to step into who I truly am.”

“People don't want their comfort challenged. People are comfortable with things like, ‘Oh, everything's okay, and it's fine.’ No, it's not. If it is not fine for someone, then it is not fine for everyone.”

“I can see at the end of the day, we all want to love and be loved. And there are people on both ends of the spectrum that are not happy and suffering. So let's talk about it.”

“There are people who have good intentions, and they just don't realize that they're not loving themselves by not loving everyone, by not listening, or not caring, or not opening up the conversation. But then once they realize it, there's an opportunity to change.”

About the Guest      

Koya Webb is an international yoga instructor, health coach, and author. After a track injury that put her promising career as an Olympic Gold Medalist on pause, she turned to guide others to happiness through physical, emotional, and spiritual awareness. She is devoted to helping others understand their fears and thrive with their unique gifts and talents. 

If you want to connect with Koya and join her community focused on self-love, you can visit koyawebb.com.​

Enjoy the Podcast?

If you felt radically loved from listening to this podcast, subscribe and share it with the people you love!

Love to give us 5 stars? If you do, we'd love a review from you. Help us reach more people and make them feel loved.

Do you want to turn your fear into power? A simple way is to share what you've learned today on social media.

FREE meditation ebook! Create​             a daily meditation ritual in just seven days! Download

BUILD YOUR DAILY MEDITATION RITUAL and other freebies at RadicallyLoved.co​m!​

Don't forget to send us messages on Faceboo​k​, Twitte​r,​ and Instagra​m.​ Thanks for listening!

To feeling radically loved,

Rosie

Creating Your Own Reality and Tapping into the Divine Within with Christy Whitman

Many of us face obstacles every single day. There are times we can handle them confidently and there are times when we feel like giving up. But, it’s not the obstacles that limit us. Our reaction towards them can make or break our path to fulfillment. We have the innate power to move and change the course of our lives. We are meant not only to survive in life but also to thrive in it.

Joining us in this episode is law of attraction coach Christy Whitman. She shares how we can tap into our divine selves and how our thoughts and words can change our reality. She also shares some valuable insights on how we can thrive in any situation and how we can attain a life of abundance that has always been meant for us.  

Check out the episode highlights below if you want to start living the life you are meant to live. Be sure to subscribe and listen to this podcast!

About Our Guest

Christy Whitman is a transformational leader, Master Certified Law of Attraction Coach, and New York Times bestselling author. She is also the CEO and founder of the Quantum Success Coaching Academy, a 12-month Law of Attraction coaching certification program. Christy’s work has been featured in several magazines, and she has appeared in The Morning Show and The Today Show.

How to Tap into the Divine Within You

Christy’s Journey

• In her 20s, Christy had everything that she thought would make her happy, but she was still miserable inside. Thus, she began meditating.
• She realized she was extremely judgmental and critical of herself. When she understood that she can shift her perspective, good things began to manifest.
• One night, while meditating, she heard a voice that inspired her to write her book.
• She started speaking in spiritual bookstores and churches to promote her book. That’s when people told her she could be a coach.

Our Divine Self

• Our divine self is there for each one of us.
• When we understand that we're more than just our physical body, that's when we can tap into the quantum field. It is where we can tap into the energy of what we want to experience in our lives.

Coming Out of the Lack Mentality

• The love of money, not money itself, is the root of all evil.
• Money, like everything else, is light and energy. However, there is no empowerment if you look at money as your source.
• Money responds to the energy we give. If we say that money has power over us, we have a dysfunctional relationship with money.
• The lack mentality comes from a victim consciousness where things happen to us. Instead, we need to move into that next level of consciousness where we exercise our free will.
• We need to allow ourselves to understand that we can have what we want and we deserve it.
• It's the belief that we are limited by our backgrounds that keeps us limited. Thus, we need to shift our perspective.
• When your perspective comes from a place of empowerment, you're opening up your energy. You're coming from a place of choice, not a place of lack or limitation.

The Power of Words

• Instead of looking at what's wrong and bad, look at what's right and good.
• Everything is vibration, and we are energy towers. We are sending out signals every day through our thoughts, beliefs, and actions.
• If we want fulfillment, we have to consider both our physicality and non-physicality.

Financial Wellness as Part of the Divine

• Money is part of our spiritual journey because we need it to survive.
• We are divinely designed not only to get by but also to have abundance in all aspects of our life. That includes our financial wellness.
• Our mind is always looking for the next best thing. Nothing is ever enough. But when you appreciate something, no matter what it is, you're in alignment.
• Everything of a higher vibration—passion, success, contentment—are energy first. And then the form follows the energy, not the other way around.

Freedom in Contrasting Experiences

• We're always going to have contrasting, unwanted experiences.
• When we give our attention to the contrast and let it affect us, we continue to create more contrasting experiences.
• Focus on the options you have and the clarity you need to notice.
• Shift your energy to connect with your divine self. Focus on what you want to feel, not what you don't want.
• When in contrasting situations, practice your faith and commune with your divine self. There is no other solution.

5 Powerful Quotes from This Episode

• “You create your own reality.”
• “When we allow ourselves to understand that we can have what we want and that we are deserving of it and it's our birthright and that we're divinely designed to have abundance in all aspects of our life and to have loving and supportive relationships and be able to have creative self-expression, whether it's a book or a painting or a piece of music or a business or a product or whatever it is that we're wanting to give our unique energy signature to, all of it is supposed to thrive. We're supposed to be enjoying our life here.”
• “We are divinely designed to thrive, not to survive. We are divinely designed to be able to have abundance in all aspects of our lives and that includes financial. We are divinely designed to have health and well-being and vitality. It's not like the divine goes, ‘Oh, you could only have a little bit of health and well-being.’ No, it's the fullness, 100% full-tilt health and well-being, 100% full-tilt abundance in all aspects of our lives, success in all aspects of our lives.”
• “If you find the reason, the real essence of why you want what you want, all of it, if you really dig deeper and continue to spiral into it, is because you want to feel the sense of fulfillment. You want to spill the sense of all the things that are of a higher vibration, like passion, like joy, like abundance, like freedom, like success, like contentment—all of these things.”
• “My definition of freedom is knowing that you have a choice in how you will react, how you will respond, what your perspective is, what your thoughts are about it. It's being able to be in this world and be able to choose how you want to experience this world. That's freedom.”

Resources

• Quantum Success: 7 Essential Laws for a Thriving, Joyful, and Prosperous Relationship with Work and Money by Christy Whitman
• The Art of Having It All: A Woman's Guide to Unlimited Abundance by Christy Whitman
• Watch Your Words by Christy Whitman

To connect with Christy, you may reach her on her Twitter and Instagram. You may also visit her website to know more about her and her work.

Please help us continue this podcast going by subscribing on iTunes and write a review! Please share this episode with your friends, and don’t forget to send us messages on Instagram or Twitter. Thanks for listening!

Finding Your Self-Worth to Be Relationship-Ready with Heidi Busche

Not many people find themselves in loving relationships. It takes a significant amount of responsibility, commitment, and self-awareness to make it work, and these things aren't easy to learn. Personal insecurities may get in the way, and oftentimes you may feel rejected by the person you love.

It's okay. No one gets it right immediately. You should remember, however, that facing your demons is the first step to be completely “ready” for fruitful relationships.

In today's episode, Heidi Busche shares with us the process of writing her book Relationship Ready: How I Stopped F*cking Randos And Started Cupcaking My Soul Mate. She discusses how she resolved her issues, how to know if your partner is emotionally available, and the importance of self-worth. This episode is for every woman who find themselves asking, “Why am I dating this person again?”

Three Value Bombs: Why You Should Listen to the Full Episode

1. Cementing your self-worth is essential so that you will not lose yourself in your relationship.
2. Being emotionally available means you're matured enough to talk about personal issues and work through them.
3. Dating is a process of gathering information.

Resources

• Relationship Ready: How I Stopped F*cking Randos And Started Cupcaking My Soul Mate by Heidi Busche
• The Relationship Ready Online Course
• The Relationship Ready Podcast

The Journey Toward Finding Your Self-Worth

On Her Book Relationship Ready

• The book depicts the lowest points of her life in her relationships with men.
• It also shows her process of identifying painful patterns that she used to repeatedly do.
• After she finished the book, it transformed her perspective on men and relationships.
• It allowed her to find a sustainable relationship with her husband right now.
• The book is valuable, and other people who are struggling with relationships can relate to it. She wrote the book to share the knowledge and tools she acquired from her experiences in dating men.

On the Trend of Dating Apps

• Dating apps make connecting with people more convenient, but we might struggle to honor our truths there.
• The attention and excitement dating apps bring are addicting. Thus, they can make it harder for us to be our authentic self.

Is the Relationship Serving Your Highest Good?

• Heidi found herself in a dark place in relationships that weren't serving her highest good.
• In her first marriage, she found herself compromising her feelings, and she felt suffocated.
• She was too scared to test the resilience of her marriage and stopped being honest with herself. She felt like drowning.
• Society conditioned women to push down their feelings and not speak up. Due to this, women usually have a habit of second-guessing themselves in making decisions in a relationship.

Heidi's Learnings from Marrying Young

• Heidi first married when she was 24. Now she believes no one should get married that young.
• On the surface, her marriage looked pretty good. It had all the trappings of a great marriage.
• Whenever she found herself unhappy in her first marriage, she rationalized her feelings and stopped honoring her truth.

On Growing Up with an Emotionally Unavailable Family

• Growing up, Heidi didn't have great relationship role models. Her family usually avoids talking about conflicts in their household.
• Due to this, she had a problem expressing her emotions. In her first marriage, she would be scared to bring up an issue, fearing it would put an end to the relationship.
• Maturity and getting the tools you need to advocate for yourself are important in figuring out what you want.

Heidi's Road To Recovery

• Heidi has been sober for eight years now.
• She has two alcoholic parents. Her mom overdosed on drugs and is now sober for 20 years. Her dad died due to alcoholism.
• She recognized that she had to be sober first to get mental clarity and know what is right for her.
• She recognized the importance of sobriety while writing the book because it requires self-awareness, willingness, and discipline.

Importance of Self-Worth in Dating

• So much of what Heidi put up with was due to a lack of self-worth.
• For a long time, she felt the need to compromise her wants when she's dating.
• Living with her sorority sisters at the University of Pittsburgh brought out her physical insecurities. Because of her lack of self-worth, she had trouble being with them.
• She pretended to be the “cool girl” willing to do and put up with anything instead of being true to herself.
• Playing the cool girl made her feel even more disconnected from her feelings when she had no self-worth in the first place.

Heidi’s Biggest Lessons In Relationships

• Heidi learned how to trust the resilience of a relationship. She learned how to come to the table, willingly going to her husband when something bothers her.
• She learned the most about being in a relationship by being with someone who is emotionally available and willing to work on issues with her.
• Outside her current marriage, one of the most interesting lessons she learned was taking a break from dating to work on her self-worth.
• Working on her self-worth allowed her to recover from dating failures faster to find someone who is relationship-ready.

Recognizing Emotional Availability

• Emotional availability comes with a level of maturity.
• An emotionally available person can come to the table, have a conversation with you, discuss what's going on in his life, and work on it.
• If you got divorced, Heidi believes it takes about a year to be emotionally available. The reason is that nobody who had a fantastic marriage with open communication would get divorced. You need time to work through it.

Women’s Obstacles in Finding Their Soulmate

• The wrong partner gets in a woman’s way of finding her soulmate. You already know all you need to know about the person playing you.
• Time is a valuable asset; don't waste it with the wrong person.
• Think of dating as information gathering. Go out, assess your compatibility, go out again, and then reassess.
• You can always change your mind as you gather information about your partner.
• So many women know a guy is unavailable but still live in denial and invest more time in that man.
• Women don’t need to give second chances to men who treat them badly.

5 Powerful Quotes from This Episode

“I compromise a little bit of myself here and there in order to go with the flow and get in where I fit in. But eventually, towards the end of my marriage with him, I felt like I was suffocating.”

“I had all these rationalizations and all these ways to talk myself out of honoring my truth, which is that we weren’t a good match from the start.”

“I had to get sober first to get the mental clarity that was required for me to feel my feelings around what was good for me and in my relationships with men and what wasn't good for me.”

“That cool girl syndrome was so painful. It was like death by a thousand paper cuts.”

“One way to know if someone's emotionally unavailable is if they can come to the table and have a conversation with you about what's going on for them and they've done some work around it.”

About Our Guest

Heidi Busche is a speaker, author, and relationship expert. Her book, Relationship Ready: How I Stopped F*cking Randos And Started Cupcaking My Soul Mate, talks about her experiences in painful relationships, finding her self-worth, and being relationship-ready. She helps women recognize and change their painful patterns around men and relationships.

You can connect with Heidi on Instagram, Facebook, and her website.

Enjoy The Podcast?

If you felt radically loved from listening to this podcast, subscribe and share it with the people you love!

Love to give us 5 stars? If you do, we'd love a review from you. Help us reach more people and make them feel loved.

Do you want to help other people create sustainable, loving relationships? A simple way is to share what you've learned today on social media.

FREE meditation ebook! Create a daily meditation ritual in just seven days! Download BUILD YOUR DAILY MEDITATION RITUAL and other freebies at RadicallyLoved.com!

Don't forget to send us messages on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Thanks for listening!

To feeling radically loved,

Rosie

Sobriety and the Importance of Being Honest to Ourselves with Laura McKowen

We dislike it when people lie to us. But somehow we tend to lie to ourselves more. It's hard to tell how we genuinely feel due to the fear of being ridiculed, criticized, or vulnerable.

The thing is, lying doesn't help anyone, moreso to ourselves. All of us have different coping mechanisms for stressful events. Some people act like a chameleon to show people they're okay, although they're not. But some go through addicting habits to hide the pain. All of us go through hard times; for us to overcome it, we must first be honest with ourselves. 

In today's episode, Laura McKowen will share with us her journey toward sobriety and the importance of being truthful to ourselves. She will also talk about her book We Are The Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life and give advice to anyone who wants to start anew.

Check out the episode highlights below. Be sure to subscribe and listen to this podcast for a thorough discussion!

About Our Guest

Laura McKowen is a yoga teacher, speaker, and author of We Are The Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life. She is the former host of the HOME Podcast and Spiritualish.

She mostly talks about addiction, sobriety, and saying yes to a bigger life. She had a long and successful career in public relations and advertising. After deciding to become sober in 2014, she is now a leading voice in recovery and personal development.  

Sobriety and Being True to Ourselves

Laura's Addiction and Journey to Sobriety

• Laura grew up in Colorado with a family who treated drinking as normal behavior.
• Drinking had become a part of her life in college and when she started working.
• She gravitated to people who drank as much as she did.
• She coped with her issues through drinking. It made her feel that everything is possible and made her forget about her distress.
• She later realized that drinking alcohol is a short-term fix to her problems.

Addiction as a Way of Coping

• Addiction is something anyone can relate to because all of us have coping mechanisms.
• It tends to feel good because it takes away the feeling of discomfort. After a while, you start to feel disconnected. It brings you to the end of the spectrum.
• Alcohol only works for a time.
• Coping is our body's natural desire to seek comfort until it manifests unpleasantly.

Motivation for Writing We Are The Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life

• After her separation with her husband in 2012, her drinking habits worsened.
• At her brother's wedding, she left her four-year-old daughter in a hotel room overnight unguarded. Her daughter found her family, fortunately.
• She realized that even if her daughter was physically fine, it must've been hard for her emotionally. She then started to work on her sobriety.
• She has always wanted to write, and it has helped her organize her thoughts.
• Addiction is a more significant problem than alcoholism. You have to peel everything in your life to fully recover.

How We Are Dishonest with Ourselves Without Realizing It

• While working on her sobriety, she discovered that she has been lying ever since she was young. She grew up in a dysfunctional family and had to learn to lie and play roles to hide her struggles.
• When you lie to yourself, you're invalidating your experiences. You start mistrusting yourself.
• She wanted everyone to like her, and it worked because people seemed to like the image she presented. Alcohol allows her to pretend even more.
• It became vital to her to create one version of herself to maintain sobriety.
• Women tend to be more dishonest with themselves because people-pleasing is perceived as a noble quality.
• Dishonesty can lead to resentment with ourselves and feeling victimized in our relationships and life.
• There's a distinction between being honest and becoming difficult.

Relationship with Social Media and Her Advice on How to Be Honest with Ourselves

• It's fascinating how much we try to pretend to have a perfect life.
• We must have a base level of awareness to be honest with ourselves.
• Writing journals can help us find our truth.
• Dishonesty is born out of adaptation. We're lying because we're afraid.

Laura’s Gift to the Readers of the Book

• Laura wrote the book for herself initially.
• She dedicates the book to mothers who struggled with addiction. She wants to remind them that it is a human experience.
• A beautiful life is available to all of us.

Lessons Learned After Writing the Book

• Used to leaving things early, she learned to become someone who stays with something for a long time.
• The generation today wants to escape.
• She believes in the human spirit and our capacity to triumph.

5 Powerful Quotes from This Episode

• “I kept drinking more to try to fix it. That's the thing. All these things that we do to cope, they do work, for a while. They're this short-term fix first. We find these little band-aids of things that work.”
• “I just started talking about what was going on because I had the sense that there was this much bigger thing than just like, ‘Laura has an alcohol problem.’ We're all hiding. We're all numbing out. We're all lying about how we're doing.”
• “You learn to leave yourself and to lie and not trust what you're experiencing. So I just carried that forward. I kept being that person because I wanted everyone to like me. I shapeshifted very easily.”
• “I was people-pleasing. A lot of, I think, women especially do this and sort of think of it as this noble quality. And it's dishonesty, right? Because you're not presenting the truth of who you are, what you want, and then it creates resentment inside of you, and you feel like you're victimized by your relationships and by your life.”
• “I also believe in the human spirit and the capacity to triumph in these amazing ways.”

Resources

• We Are The Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life by Laura McKowen

To know more about Laura and her journey toward sobriety, you may visit her website and connect with her on Instagram.

Please help us continue this podcast by subscribing on iTunes and write a review! Please share this episode with your friends, and don't forget to send us messages on Instagram or Twitter. Thanks for listening!

Living a Produced Life While Staying True to Yourself, with Carolina Groppa

Not only actors but also the people working behind the scenes bring a film or TV show to life. And one of the people behind the scenes is the producer. We know that a film or a show cannot exist without a producer, but do we know what exactly is it that they do?

In today's episode of Radically Loved, we're joined by a fantastic guest, Carolina Groppa. She is an Emmy-nominated film producer and the host of the Life With Caca podcast. She will talk about the reality of being a producer and her experience producing films. Also, she will share how yoga and meditation have helped her deal with the demands of her profession.

This episode is full of firsthand insights. Check out the episode highlights below and make sure to tune in to the full episode!

About Our Guest

Carolina Groppa is an Emmy-nominated film producer for her documentary, Autism in Love (2015). Her work also includes Miss Virginia (2019) and The Female Brain (2017). Aside from being a producer and an actress, she is also the host of the Life With Caca podcast. There, she holds intimate conversations with other producers about their experiences in the industry.

How Carolina Stays True to Herself

Life With Caca

• Even among people in the industry, they don't know what the different types of producers do.
• Life With Caca is a podcast space for producers, especially women in the field. Carolina invites colleagues to understand how they got there and what the lifestyle of a producer is like.
• “Caca” is not just Carolina's nickname. In Portuguese, it means “something messy.” The podcast looks deeper into how producers go through both the wonderful and the messy parts of their lives.
• The lifestyle conversation also tells stories of diversity and representation in the industry.

Mindfulness and Meditation

• Most people in this field are very anxious people. They're good at problem-solving and thinking about problems that don't exist yet. It is an excellent skill to have in the job but not in personal life.
• When she discovered yoga, she didn't fully understand it. A teacher broke it down for her and made her love the physical practice. Eventually, she learned that yoga starts off the mat.
• Yoga helps her lean into a place of love instead of fear.
• Be patient and kind to yourself when meditating. Set realistic boundaries.
• Without mindfulness, we can get caught up in the motions of life. However, once you are a “woke” person, being absent from your body and the world is harder.
• Living a balanced life means hitting your goals, big or small, one day at a time.

Becoming a Producer

• Carolina is originally from Brazil. Her family moved to Florida when she was nine.
• In her early teens, she discovered acting and auditioned for a conservatory in Los Angeles. However, that coincided with the writers’ strike, so she didn't get the traction that she wanted.
• She started producing to create acting opportunities for herself.
• She did everything from producing the show to marketing it and playing the lead; it was a huge success.
• Your brain has to be wired for multitasking to be a producer.

Life of a Producer

• Some producers take advantage of their colleagues, and that breeds a lot of misconceptions about the profession.
• You will never know where your experiences will lead you. But if you put in the work, success will find you. And you will only connect the dots looking backwards.
• You're never going to learn until you work on something.

Honesty and Authenticity

• There is a disconnect between reality and what we see on social media.
• Carolina started her podcast to break away from that mirage. The life of a producer is not glamorous every time.
• The more you practice yoga, the more you can realign with the most authentic version of yourself. That, in turn, creates a ripple effect.
• She feels authentic when she can make someone's day a little better or inspire and motivate people through her podcast.
• Because of social media, we spend zero time grounding and going into our bodies.
• Before she interviews her guests, she aligns with myself so that she can be connected with them. It allows her to have profound conversations with them, and they respond to that.

5 Powerful Quotes From This Episode

• “There's a lot of actors and comedians and writers and directors with podcasts, and they're all fantastic. But nothing, no one is talking to the producers. And as a producer, I know how frustrating that can be to have something you work on so hard, get a ton of visibility, and then you rarely get to have a moment to share your story or your perspective on that experience.”
• “I think with social media, oftentimes, we can just get a very myopic, one-dimensional view of what it takes to get to that one photo that you're seeing. And I've been using this metaphor, a lot, of a garden. It's like you're seeing someone's garden in full bloom, and you're not seeing the years of planting seeds, and weeds that you have to pull out, and things that you thought would grow and blossom that didn't, and the frustrations that come with that, and then what is it that makes people keep going.”
• “Lately I've been thinking that this idea of a balanced life is not an overarching thing. It's a balanced day. Every day you have to decide, “Okay, today I want my day to be 60% work and 40% home life.” Or “80% I'm going to relax, and 20% I'm going to do the work.” And if you can hit those, whatever that is for you daily, that is living a balanced life one day at a time.”
• “Frankly, you're never going to learn until you're just in it. And that's so much of this career path, which is why it's so well-suited for my personality of you just figure it out as you go along. And that isn't for everybody. Some people are terrified by that… It's always evolving. And in a way, it's terrifying. But it's exhilarating. And that's why I think because it can have these two very diametrically opposed extremes to yoga and the mindfulness is a thing that brings me back to try and find the middle of that pendulum. Otherwise, I spiral out of control.”
• “I think [freedom is] having autonomy. There's the freedom that we can discuss of, like I live in a country where I can walk out of my house, and as a woman, I can go pretty much anywhere, and do anything, and wear anything, and say anything, and most of the time be okay. There's still precautions, of course, as a woman, you always have to take, but there's that freedom. And I think having that freedom gives you ammo to have autonomy and to feel empowered, go after the things that you want to do.”

Resources

• Life With Caca by Carolina Groppa, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and YouTube

To know more about what she does, visit her website, lifewithcaca.com. You may also reach her on social media, @carolinagroppa.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends, and don't forget to send us messages on Instagram or Twitter. If you have any comments or feedback, please don't hesitate to leave a review and subscribe to us on iTunes.

Thank you so much for listening!

On Love, Life, and Loss: The Legacy and Teachings of Michael Stone with Carina Stone

Life has value because it is fleeting and impermanent. In the limited time that we are given, we can touch the lives of other people and accomplish different milestones. Nonetheless, it is especially hard for us to accept the permanent and unreturnable loss of a loved one who has passed.

In today's episode, we're joined by Carina Stone, the wife of the late Michael Stone. She shares with us how life is like over the last two years since Michael's passing and the lessons she has learned in this journey. She also talks about the inspiration that has encouraged her to put out Michael's teachings out in the world today.

Check out these highlights and don't miss this episode about life and loss that will tug at your hearts.

About Our Guest

Carina Stone is the wife of the late Michael Stone, a prominent Buddhist teacher, yogi, author, and the host of the Awake in the World podcast. Michael was the founder and director of the Centre of Gravity Sangha, which is a community of yoga and Buddhist practitioners. Carina stewards his legacy as she speaks about his life and teachings.

On Love, Life, and Loss

Meeting Michael

• Carina and Michael met in 2000 as a student and teacher and slowly fell in love. They became a couple in 2010.
• She was preparing to leave the community because she couldn't face him, but he confessed that he also had feelings for her.
• She had an awakening experience when she became a practitioner.

The World Comes to You

• The book contains Michael's teachings compiled before his passing.
• On the day he died, the last message he sent to the world was to his editor, Erin Robinsong, to thank her for the work she was doing on the book.
• Its contents, including the placement of chapters, are honed to Michael's voice.
• The point of the book is to be brief and potent.

Michael's Life and Passing

• He had lived with bipolar disorder type one and was experiencing an increase in its effects over the last few years before he died.
• He seemed to be doing well from the outside.
• Michael craved natural alternatives, opium, in particular, to the meds that he was taking.
• A few months before he passed, they were discussing how to downsize their lives.
• A few weeks before his passing, something in him went quieter.
• Before he passed away, he went to town to run errands and had access to a street drug. He was found unresponsive a few hours later.
• Michael overdosed on 100% fentanyl.
• He was kept on life support for three days to be an organ donor. He donated his lungs and two kidneys, saving three lives in the process.

Being Awake in the World

• Forgetting, checking out, numbing, cocooning—they all serve an essential function.
• "Vividness and being able to be in my body and the world at the same time."
• As a bodyworker, for her, it is feeling that her body is not leaning away from her center.

Moving Through Grief

• Carina mostly practices meditation and focuses on being a mom.
• She comes back to where she feels centered.
• She was ready when she met Michael in the hospital.

The Biggest Lessons

• Michael taught him that there's nothing wrong with her.
• The biggest lesson she taught him was sharing a home where he could always return.
• Lesson from her children: Children are resilient and vulnerable. They can handle so much, and they are hopeful.

5 Powerful Quotes from This Episode

• "In my process of losing Michael, every now and then, I had to let myself relax and check out. It was actually hard. There was such vividness after he died. Daily life was extremely vivid and awake moments and just all strung together into three in the morning. There needed to be a time for rest and for not being awake."
• "I think practice sets you up for those moments. And maybe that's the whole point is you're ready for those, where you're ready differently. And so when I met Michael in the hospital, I could meet him there. I was ready to meet him there."
• On the biggest lesson that Michael taught him: "But like, there's nothing wrong with me. Yeah. I think that I feel it more now since he died. I feel like I'm still learning that from him now since he died."
• "And I felt love, like we were this unit. And now, I feel like I see through this process, like our heart just has such a huge capacity, and where we draw the lines around that are really interesting. But kids really don't. They can just be so open and resilient."
• "I feel like life is a fabric. And the fabric is made of joy and love. And it moves around a lot, and various things move around a lot. I feel loved by the fabric."

Resources

• The World Comes To You by Michael Stone

To know more about the legacy that Michael Stone left, visit Michael Stone Teachings. You can also follow their Facebook page.

Leave us a review or any thoughts and questions about this episode! Please help us continue this podcast going by subscribing on iTunes. Please share this episode with your friends, and don't hesitate to connect with us on Instagram or Twitter. Thanks for listening!

How Yoga Can Help You Heal and Recover with Donny Starkins

We all feel the pressure of social expectations. Leading a life pleasing other people can lead to losing our identity and sense of self. Thus, it is important to make time for recovery and healing so that we can accept ourselves fully and extend the same love and compassion to others.

In today’s episode, yoga Instructor Donny Starkins shares how yoga helped him towards self-actualization and personal development. He also gives some insights and tools on how you can start on your journey to recovery and how yoga can bring healing to our body, mind, and soul.

About Our Guest

Donny Starkins is a yoga instructor and personal development coach. He is a former Division I baseball player, and pain and medication were constant in his life. In search of physical and spiritual relief, he embarked on his yoga journey in 2005. He now leads transformational classes with a focus on mindfulness.

Healing the Body and the Soul Through Yoga

Yoga for Self Development

• During his athletic career, Donny underwent seven operations on his left knee. Because he was in constant pain, he became addicted to pain killers.
• Yoga saved his life and healed his mind and soul.

Journey Toward Embracing Yoga

• When Donny started teaching yoga, he feared people’s judgments.
• He teaches some classes in upper-class areas in Phoenix and Scottsdale. He observed that though people live fancy lives on the outside, they are dying on the inside. So, he asked himself the question, “How dare I not teach the soul?”
• Seane Corn’s Off The Mat, Into The World leadership training inspired him to pursue teaching yoga.
• At the end of the five-day training, he created a monthly community yoga class called “Sunday Yoga Service.”

Going Beyond the Struggles

• Donny goes to an all men’s meeting once a week for accountability and to be of service.
• He also continues to share the message he learned from Seane Corn’s training.
• Little by little, he let go of other people's opinions and learned not to give them power over him.
• Now he is on a lifelong journey of personal development.

Being a Yoga Teacher

• He started as a teacher who was stuck to his small self and believed that he needed to be perfect.
• As a yoga teacher, he doesn't want to be put on the pedestal. He wants to be human and be one with his students and help them heal.
• He realized his mission—to teach a message to the soul in a language that everybody can understand.

Who Is a Soulful Teacher?

• A soulful teacher is vulnerable and full of humanity.
• A soulful teacher channels something from the middle of the heart.

What Holds People Back?

• What holds them back is their growth or transformation.
• People fear what others think of them. They are caught in the limitations of the mind or the story that they're telling themselves.

Social Media as a Tool

• He has a love–hate relationship with social media.
• Although social media stresses him out, he uses it as leverage. He holds on to his mission to share the message of healing through yoga to as many people as possible.
• You should be able to self-regulate on social media.

The World of Recovery and Helpful Tools

• First is the tool of breath and meditation. The Muse meditation headband, which gives biofeedback of the brain's activity, is a great example.
• The 90-day workbook in his coaching program is also useful for journaling.
• You should have the ability to surrender. Go to any lengths to get sober and break free of your addiction.
• You should have the HOW: honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness.

5 Powerful Quotes from This Episode

• “The more I started to chip away at the things that were getting in the way of me showing up as the best, the most authentic version of myself, the more just all the other opinions of other people don't even matter anymore.”
• “It's again that vulnerability and that humility that someone who you can tell is just channeling something. It's not scripted, and it's just right from the middle of the heart.”
• “In [the] recovery world, there has to be a willingness—like if you are struggling with an addiction, whether it's a substance or its sex or shopping, whatever it is—the ability to surrender.”
• “I use the equation ‘willingness equals freedom.’ If I am willing to go to any lengths, I can be as free as I want to be.”
• “So we can only love as far as we're willing to love ourselves. And when we can do that and we can truly love us, our flawed works in progress that we are, we will then not have to look outside of ourselves to try to fill a void that we can't fill ourselves.”

Resources

• Off the Mat, Into the World training by Seane Corn; Hala Khouri, M.A.; and Suzanne Sterling
• The Shift to Sobriety program by Donny Starkins

To know more about yoga and check some upcoming events and retreats, you may visit Donny’s website.

Please help us continue this podcast going by subscribing on iTunes and write a review! Please share this episode with your friends, and don’t forget to send us messages on Instagram or Twitter. Thanks for listening!

Building a Supportive Community for Women in Recovery with Taryn Strong

Recovery, whether from a physical, spiritual, emotional, or mental injury, is never easy. It requires a lot of internal work that can take a toll on our overall well-being. Because of this, the role our community and environment play in our recovery process is just as important as the efforts we put ourselves. A supportive circle can make all the difference in the world and can be our best hope as we go on this path of recovery.

In this episode of Radically Loved Radio, we have the incredible Taryn Strong as our guest to share her personal journey of healing and recovery. She also shares with us her experiences in using her platform to build a community for people who are in similar situations.

Check out the podcast highlights below. Be sure to subscribe and tune in for all the details!

About Our Guest

Taryn Strong is the co-founder of She Recovers, a yoga program that aims to incorporate yoga and meditation with recovery. She is a rising influencer for women who, like her, are recovering from multiple things. Taryn herself is proud of bouncing back from eating disorders, drug addiction, and even self-harming. Now, she dedicates most of her time to building a safe community for women in recovery.

The Path to Recovery and Enlightenment

The Cycle of Addiction and Recovery

• Taryn recovered from multiple struggles such as self-harm, eating disorders, codependency, and even self-esteem issues. At 16, she suffered from substance use disorder as well.
• Recovering from rock bottom is one of the most transformative moments of her life.
• She had thought she’s done with recovery until she was reintroduced to her vices.
• Her lowest point was when she wasn’t in alignment with herself and not living her truest self.
• Some time in between, Taryn and her mom started the She Recovers yoga program while Taryn was still under the influence. It was only after fully acknowledging her unhealthy ways that Taryn finally started the journey to recovery.
• Her mom is also recovering from workaholism, anxiety, depression, cancer, and domestic abuse.
• Their different approaches to recovery are what helps them both.

Women in Recovery and Understanding Yourself

• Everyone is recovering from something.
• Not everyone suffers from the same thing. What matters is you are doing your best, and you are in a supportive community.
• It’s essential to make the spiritual and emotional connection between your struggles and what you feel.
• Recovery is not a one-size-fits-all process.
• When you begin to understand yourself and your needs, that’s the time you can ask for the help and support you need.
• One of She Recovers’ main guiding principles is that people need support to find the patchworks and pathways to recovery.

Making the Connection Between Yoga and Recovery

• Taryn has been a dancer for most of her life, and she realized that movement is therapeutic for her.
• When she finally listened to this connection, she explored and fell in love with yoga.

The Concept of Permission and What Recovery Path Works for You

• Give yourself permission to know your modality. Surround yourself with supportive people who understand your mode of recovery.
• There is no single template for recovery. We shouldn’t feel like there’s a “system,” and that if we aren’t part of it, then we aren’t recovering.
• Unsupportive environments require you to be dogmatic and evangelical about their methods.
• Listen to your voice and intuition.
• People’s healing will be different, and their personal journey is a way of honoring themselves as well.
• Women always have to ask permission to do things.
• It gives off a feeling of guilt and a constant wanting to do something to resist.
• For Taryn, her recovery wasn’t only from her substance abuse and eating disorders, among others. It was also recovery from patriarchy.

Building a Supportive Community for Recovery

• Growing apart is normal for relationships.
• Choose quantity over quality. Stick to people who you know will genuinely and strongly support you, no matter how few they may be.
• Taryn’s broader community just came by organically. These are people who she hasn’t met yet in real life, but has supported her over the years.
• There is a heart and soul connection, even when you have not personally met some people. You’ll know when every time you talk or interact with them, you just feel better.

Three Main Foundations of Building a Support Group

• First, stay open-minded and open-hearted. Try not to get too fixated on one idea or one opportunity.
• Second, believe that you are worthy of love, recovery, and healing.
• Third, trust yourself.

5 Powerful Quotes from this Episode

• “What I was losing was myself, and I was completely out of alignment with myself and not in integrity. And that was the worst imaginable feeling for me—not being in alignment and not living my truest self..” (Taryn)
• “Everybody is recovering from something.” (Taryn)
• “When we can get to a place where we understand who we are and what we need for ourselves, we can then be able to get to a place where we can ask for help and get the support that we need from the people that we need it [from].” (Rosie)
• “I see it every day; when we give women support and permission to recover in their own way, they do recover, and it's different for everyone. I mean, all of our experiences are different, so it just makes sense that our healing journeys are going to be different as well.” (Taryn)
• “When you start living your truth, whatever your truth is, or when you do start this path of healing, you just find each other.” (Taryn)

Resources

• She Recovers Podcast with Taryn Strong

You can connect with Taryn through her Instagram. You may also reach out to She Recovers through their Facebook and Instagram. Meanwhile, you can find all the details about their upcoming events, retreats, workshops, yoga coaching programs, and podcasts on their website.

How You Can Live a Better Life with Yoga with Dr. Christa Kuberry

Yoga has been around for thousands of years. Most of us probably started practicing it by exercising in mind. But as we go on, we realize that it goes beyond the physical aspect. It helps us discover what's truly in our hearts, it clears our mind of any distractions, and it allows us to become free and vulnerable. 

In this episode, Yoga Alliance's Dr. Christa Kuberry joins us to talk about how she got into yoga, what American yoga is, and how yoga has evolved through the years. She also shares how yoga has helped her manage her emotions and how you can do it too.

Check out the highlights of the episode below. Make sure that you tune in to the show to know all the details!

About Our Guest

Dr. Christa Kuberry is the Vice President of Standards at Yoga Alliance. She leads the company's efforts in evaluating and evolving yoga teacher training standards. She is a yoga teacher, practitioner, and scholar. She also serves on the steering committee for the Yoga Theory and Practice Group.

Living a Better Life with Yoga

Yoga as a Career Path

• Dr. Christa started her first yoga class in 1999, and she became a practitioner in 2002.
• She started yoga from an exercise perspective.
• When she was getting her masters in religious studies, she became interested in yoga and began bringing her academic knowledge into the studio.
• She then became a yoga teacher trainer.

Findings in American Yoga

• Dr. Christa wrote her dissertation on American yoga. She says yoga in the United States is very individualized.
• She argued in one of her papers that yoga in America is similar to a mash-up song, with different pieces thrown together in one underlying beat.
• Yoga is not going to stop growing because it has so much viability and is useful in different settings.
• People get into yoga from different perspectives, but they all seek a deeper understanding and a more holistic picture of yoga.

Yoga Is About Connection

• Yoga is a lifelong journey of education, and there are different ways to begin that path.
• Dr. Christa believes in the Hindu aphorism, “Tat Tvam Asi,” which translates to “You are that.” We are already what we seek to become.
• Individual practice leads to collective betterment.
• She's writing a book about the complex history of yoga and its concepts from an academic lens.

Practicing Ritual and Gratitude

• Ritual is an essential piece of her life because she has to have a structure in her busy life. 
• The first thing Dr. Christa does every morning is to meditate and practice some Asana.
• Before she goes to bed, she reminds herself of two or three things she’s grateful for, no matter how mundane they are. It helps her go through the next day with less overwhelm and more gratitude and compassion.

The Gift of Vulnerability

• Everyone is a beginner at one point in their life.
• The process is just as significant as the end result.
• Yoga is a heart-based practice that makes you vulnerable and courageous at the same time.

Freedom and Yoga

• Dr. Christa believes freedom comes from presence.
• Yoga helps her be present in everyday moments.
• It also helps her feel free from everyday moments once she steps on the sacred rectangle of her yoga mat.

Dealing with Emotional Chaos

• Yoga has taught her that she has to acknowledge her feelings and work around them to get past them.
• We can't help what happens to us, but through yoga, we can learn how to react better to what happens to us.

5 Powerful Quotes from This Episode

• “We have a lot of brand new yogis, and there [are] a lot more people looking for depth. We start in this space of going to yoga because we want to have toned arms or we want some stress relief. And then something seems to happen. It's called Yoga Pratyaksha—this whole moment of superordinary consciousness where you're like, ‘Whoa, something happened in that class, and I want more of that.’”
• “The thing that really speaks to me, especially from the Rigveda, is an aphorism ‘Tat Tvam Asi,’ which essentially means ‘Thou art that’ or ‘That thou art.’ For me, I really look into that as, ‘I might be a drop in the ocean, but I am also the ocean.’ So I have to live in both of those spaces.”
• “The gift of vulnerability leads to the gift of yoga, as far as stepping into those spaces and being courageous enough to do so.”
• “Know that yoga is itself a heart-based practice and that you can be courageous enough. Wear your heart on your sleeve. Walk into that space. Know that every single person in that room, at some point on their path, probably also felt just as uncomfortable as you. People don't like to think about this either, but some part of yoga is also about being uncomfortable. It's about what that feels like to not always have everything figured out or sitting in it a little bit.”
• “Being part of what we speak to when we speak about yoga is just as important as having a perfect or working towards some sort of idea of perfection and alignment.”

Resources

• Yoga Sutras of Patañjali by Edwin Bryant
• No Mud, No Lotus by Thich Nhat Hanh

Visit Yoga Alliance to know more about how they serve the community. You can connect with Dr. Christa via email or Instagram.

If you want to learn more about this topic, subscribe on iTunes, and don't hesitate to leave a review or any comments. Follow us on Instagram or Twitter, and let's start a discussion. If you like this episode, please share it with your friends. Thanks for listening!

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