EFR 794: Roadblocks Keeping You From Your Biggest Breakthrough, Healthy Habits That Actually Keep You From Higher Awareness, and How to Be More Creative with Emily Hayden

00:00 - Speaker 1 The following is an Operation Podcast production.

00:03 - Speaker 2 Driving there. I'm in this really difficult time in my life where I'm just processing a lot of things and I was honestly going there to probably break down at the ocean. That's how I was feeling. It just shows you how much we go throughout life holding on. I realized back then that even my healthy practices, like cold plunging, the sauna, even the things I was doing like jujitsu but it turned into an avoidance of feeling, because in those moments I could feel happy or good and I wouldn't have to address the darker or harder things that were always there, that I wasn't fully feeling and letting go of.

00:38 I'm a professional athlete. I train harder than most people in the gym. I didn't need to prove anything and so it wasn't about proving something for me. But when you actually do it and you do it consistently, it uh, it changes things within you. I don't think that someone could do that consistently for 30 days and not have something within them changed. When you realize every single moment is fear or love, you get really good at recognizing it and seeing it. It becomes a game. Of these two options, which one are you going to press, press it and go? Hello everyone, my name is Emily Hayden. I'm the host of the Evolve with Emily show and welcome to ever forward. Try this again, sorry.

01:18 - Speaker 1 I'm going to keep that in. I don't want to stress you out anymore, but I do want to bring your attention to the fact that stress is a common factor that affects everyone in today's fast-paced world, leading to a lot of different issues Maybe lack of motivation, dip in productivity, even poor sleep. What if the answer to a better stress response is actually in a key nutrient? I'm talking about magnesium Specifically. I'm talking about magnesium breakthrough from Bioptimizers, today's sponsor. This one-of-a-kind product is designed to reverse low levels of magnesium, which could be causing a multitude of other health problems, such as that high stress you're feeling more often than you would like. What really sets magnesium breakthrough apart is its ability to support healthy levels of stress hormones like cortisol, a better balanced stress response in your nervous and hormonal systems, and not to mention a healthy production of GABA, the relaxing neurotransmitter, leading to a more peaceful and better flow state. But you can't just get magnesium anywhere. It takes the right kind and the right quantity. Truth is, most magnesium supplements you'll find in health stores use only two of the cheapest synthetic forms and, since they're not full spectrum, they won't help your magnesium deficiency or do much to support your health. In fact, there are seven key forms of magnesium and you need to get them all if you want to experience its truly calming, stress balancing effects. That's why I use and recommend magnesium breakthrough from bioptimizers. It's the only organic full spectrum magnesium supplement that includes all seven unique forms of magnesium for stress resilience and better sleep all in one bottle. As a proud partner here on the podcast, you can actually get your magnesium breakthrough at a great deal by simply heading to buyoptimizerscom slash ever forward and at checkout make sure to use code ever forward 10 that's ever forward one zero to get 10% off any order linked for you, as always in the show notes today under episode resources. But again, that is bioptimizers B-I-O-P-T-I-M-I-Z-E-R-Scom slash ever forward code ever forward 10 to save 10% off of my personal favorite full spectrum magnesium supplement.

03:45 Hey everybody, welcome back to Ever Forward Radio. We've got an amazing episode for you. Today. I am back with the one and only Emily Hayden. Emily has been a friend for man years and years and years. We go way back in terms of our online fitness social media days. Emily's making a repeat on the podcast. She was with us first back in episode 134. That's over five years ago, man. I feel like it was just yesterday. I remember sitting down with her in her home in Los Angeles before she headed out of California back to Texas, but she's going to get into that a bit more in her story today what brought her back to Southern California and what she has been up to and how she has been continuously evolving.

04:27 We hit a lot of key points in this conversation and that's just because Emily, in my opinion, is someone that is so multifaceted but yet so driven and focused in everything that she does. We're going to be talking about how she gets there, how she gets these moments of clarity, her journey to clarity and finding and keeping purpose, how she overcomes deeply rooted belief systems, challenges them and challenges herself to grow and develop new belief systems. Her approach to personal obstacles, navigating fear, leading with love and, personally, my favorite section of the conversation the importance of creativity and personal development. And if you don't think you are a creative, if you think that you don't have really a creative bone in your body, emily is going to be challenging that concept and showing you, in fact, just how creative you are and how to step into a more creativity inducing environment, no matter what that needs to be for you. That's the whole point. It's very personalized and it needs to feel right for you.

05:31 And as this is live, I am on her podcast. Emily hosts the evolve with Emily podcast and right now my conversation with her on her show is live as well. So if you love listening to Emily and you want to hear her on the other side of the microphone asking me questions about personal development, business, creativity, spirituality, then you're in for a real treat, because you got her here today and you can go check out me on Evolve with Emily as soon as you're done. All right, welcoming back Emily Hayden. This is Ever Forward Radio. Ever since I've known you, you have given me this vibe, this aura that you have direction and you have clarity. To what do you owe that clarity in the direction that you take your life, and why don't you think other people have that same clarity?

06:20 - Speaker 2 What an incredible question to start the podcast off with.

06:23 - Speaker 1 Out of the gate. I think you're one of the best podcasters ever.

06:26 - Speaker 2 I've always thought that, but wow, I'm very inspired. Okay. So it's interesting to hear other people's perspective of you sometimes, because then you get this insight into how others perceive you. And I think that in my beginning years of social media I was incredibly focused because I started my social media as documenting my fitness journey and my journey to becoming a pro athlete, and back then I had the goal of being Miss Bikini Olympia, so I was just laser tunnel vision focused.

06:58 - Speaker 1 I think that's why we connected, because I also had the same goal.

07:01 - Speaker 2 Did you being Miss Bikini Olympia Absolutely Stop. That's great. How's the bikini coming? How's the bikini fitting?

07:08 - Speaker 1 Uh, summer shredding's not here yet. We'll just say that, yeah, yeah.

07:12 - Speaker 2 Okay, yeah, so I think that was like my tunnel vision at the beginning, but what happened through that journey is that competing became this platform for personal development for me. So in doing that, uh which, getting to the last part of your question about why other people may not have that deep sense of self is because I discovered myself. Through it, I discovered the deepest essence of who I am, which goes into my spiritual journey, my beliefs, my faith, my just the experiences that I've had that have allowed me to know myself at a deeper level and to know the spiritual self that exists within this wonderful me too that we get to walk around in this earth in, you know. So, yeah, I don't know if that fully answers your question, but I I've had moments and seasons even of not having clarity.

07:56 You know, I I go through seasons, just like everyone else in life, where sometimes it feels so clouded I don't know the direction that I'm going. I've had those seasons recently where I feel like, you know, I wouldn't be able to tell you where I was going, and then it's like I keep planting, I keep watering, and it feels like overnight sometimes, things just shift and now, all of a sudden, it's like everything is moving and growing again and feels aligned and good. So I think it's just a natural part of being a human being as you go through these ebbs and flows, of sometimes being laser tunnel vision and focused and getting to where you want to go, and other times doing that and life taking you down a different path. So I think it's just always tuning in with your unique essence to know am I in alignment with my deeper soul's calling? And if so, that's that's the place where you find clarity, where you find assurance and where you can find the most fulfillment. I believe, in my own experience at least you were figuring out.

08:49 - Speaker 1 Am I going to stay here? Am I going to live where I'm going to live? Where am I going? What am I doing? How? Even in the middle of the eye of the hurricane?

08:57 - Speaker 2 right.

08:57 - Speaker 1 When you're like what am I doing with my life? Is this the right place? Am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing? How then did you get to a point to where you just started laughing and just this obvious next step popped in your mind? And it wasn't just oh, maybe that's an idea, but no, that's what I'm doing.

09:14 - Speaker 2 Yeah, so I'll give the audience a little context here. So the story you're referring to is when I had moved back to Texas for a little bit and I was in a moment of just feeling like I needed to be at the ocean, because the ocean has always been my safe place, my piece of my place of serenity, the place where I feel connected, where I feel clear, and I do think that environment is huge. And, being in Texas, I didn't have time to book a flight and get to the actual ocean and so I was like, okay, what's the nearest ocean? So I looked up Galveston and that was an hour away or so from Houston and so I'm driving there. I'm in this really difficult time in my life where I'm just processing a lot of things and I was honestly going there to probably break down at the ocean. That's how I was feeling. I just knew that I needed to get there.

10:02 So the funny thing is that when I got to the ocean and I mean this with so much love to everyone that lives in Houston and everyone that loves Galveston, but, having lived in LA for seven years at you know the Pacific ocean over here on the West side uh, I get to Galveston and I just started laughing. I was like this is your beach, this is your ocean. Are you? Are you kidding me? I was like this is so clear, I need to leave.

10:27 My soul is not meant here. My soul is meant for the ocean that I experienced all those years that I was on the West coast. And so, yeah, what was a really difficult moment ended up turning into like a comical moment for me, and what was really highlighted at a deeper level for me was that all the things that bring life to my soul, all the things that are just so precious to me, were not a part of my daily experience in Texas and my soul was deeply desiring them on like such a soul level. So I very quickly booked a trip to San Diego after that, just because I knew I didn't want to go back to LA, and I figured I would check out San Diego and see what I thought. And it was pretty wild because my plan was to go to San Diego, check it out and then create like an eight month year long plan, right, so like finish my time out in Houston which is also very on brand for you.

11:15 Right, right Cause I was going to stick it through and like stick to my commitments, you know. But from the moment that I got off the plane in San Diego, I just felt this energetic flow and rhythm of life that already existed for me, something that I was trying so hard to create in Houston with like might and force and like trying to make it happen like the masculine right To hold onto and keep and contain.

11:39 - Speaker 1 Yes, yes.

11:40 - Speaker 2 And and to like form and to create Right. And then, when I stepped off the plane in San Diego, it's like I just walked into this flow that was already there, that I didn't have to muscle my way through or try to create, and I just fell in love with it immediately. That the night before my flight I went to the ocean, because I was staying right on the ocean, of course, and this ocean is beautiful and the waves are huge and it's just everything to me. And I actually did break down at the ocean in San Diego, a good breakdown, though it was like a oh, I can't leave.

12:13 - Speaker 1 What can we call a positive breakdown? You know, let's change the association to breakdown. Cause you would think oh, I had a breakdown. Oh, I'm so sorry to hear you know, like oh, I fell apart, but we have to oh. I'm so sorry to hear you know like, oh, I fell apart. But yeah, we have to kind of sometimes facilitate that breakdown so that we can have a build up of our own design, you know.

12:31 - Speaker 2 I think it was just the most authentic expression of what I was feeling.

12:35 So it was a welcoming of the true feelings that were there and it was a flood of emotions, probably because I was trying so hard to keep it all together in Houston and Texas. That just wasn't really aligned for me and I did have some personal, deep things going on that were incredibly difficult to handle. So there was a lot there, you know, and this just felt like my soul could take a deep exhale. That's how good it felt and I hadn't felt that in a long time. It just shows you how much we go throughout life holding on, you know, and, uh, I realized back then that even my healthy practices, like cold plunging or, uh, the sauna, even the things I was doing like jujitsu I loved all of them. It started as a good and a positive thing that I was doing, but it turned into an avoidance of feeling, because in those moments I could feel happy or good and I wouldn't have to address the darker or harder things that were always there, that I wasn't fully feeling and letting go of.

13:39 - Speaker 1 And then right now, I think it's never been more popular than ever for people to latch onto these quote healthy habits, and again they can be. It's never been more popular than ever for people to latch onto these quote healthy habits, and again they can be. But are we running towards them and running away from something else.

13:50 - Speaker 2 I think the biggest thing is checking in with your own intentions. So for me, an awareness popped up that you're not doing this just because it's healthy. You're doing this because you're going to break down on the couch if you don't get up and go cold plunge right now, which, yeah, use the healthy habits, but don't also ignore whatever's happening internally. And here's the thing. I think that these practices are catching on because people are at different levels of awareness. So I think sometimes people, when they get in something like the cold plunge, they don't even understand, like at all the levels and depths of what's occurring, but it's giving them some sort of sense of relief, it's giving them a sense of control, it's giving them a sense of being able to be in fight or flight in a safe way and it's positively impacting their life. So I think that's amazing and I think just like how fitness is often the first step into the personal development world.

14:43 - Speaker 1 Oh, it's the biggest gateway.

14:45 - Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. I think that these things are going to be gateway things to people caring about things like biohacking and being the best individuals that they can be and like, for example, when someone gets in a cold plunge and they think that the cold plunge made them panic or that the cold plunge brought emotion upon them. It's like, no, it actually just highlighted whatever was already there, and so I think it's really cool to have these physical, tangible practices that are acting as an initial sense of new awareness for people, that are now getting them to get curious and say, huh, I wonder, like, what else is here?

15:21 - Speaker 1 Yeah, Outside of the kind of physiological, emotional aspect of that. You know my brother very well as well. He brought this up. I did an episode with him a couple of months ago. He's like Chase, I see you cold plunging you know. Come on, man, like why you know, not you too, kind of thing Stop.

15:37 - Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, has he cold plunged before?

15:46 - Speaker 1 Of course Stop. He's going to shit on something without ever having done it? Oh, for sure, I know I just think he'd be so funny to Cold Plunge.

15:50 - Speaker 2 Yeah, actually.

15:51 - Speaker 1 Max, you should, it would be great. Please do that. I can see the ads now for Plunge. Oh for sure he would find a way to make it really funny, yeah, but his whole kind of thing was why do can choose to do hard things?

16:03 - Speaker 2 Yeah, got it.

16:04 - Speaker 1 And I'm sure you can picture Max saying that too.

16:07 - Speaker 2 For sure.

16:07 - Speaker 1 And I go. Well, Max, that's because it's easy for you, Not everybody is wired already to go. I can choose to do hard things. Or I'm going to make that conscious effort to put myself not in harm's way, but I'm going to create something. I'm going to leave my job. You know he had already been doing that for years before this whole cold plunging craze kind of came. So I'm like Max, you've already shown yourself. You've shown yourself that you can choose to do a hard thing.

16:36 You can step out on that ledge, take a risk, take a chance, bet it all, and you know, figure it out along the way. But and you know, figure it out along the way but for a lot of other people they don't have that, and getting into cold water, taking a cold shower, any kind of micro adversity, is going to show them a little bit of that. So of course it doesn't stand out to you.

16:54 - Speaker 2 Yeah, I think it's an interesting perspective and I had a friend who was a major CEO of multiple companies, incredibly successful businessman, and I never thought that he'd be interested in cold plunging. And he ended up getting a cold plunge and said that it was like single handedly the one thing that impacted his life the most. And this is like a very well respected man and so his perspective on it really changed things for me as well, because even when I started like I'm a professional athlete, I train harder than most people in the gym and at like such a sick level, to be totally honest.

17:30 - Speaker 1 Yeah, you're sick, you know. No, I just mean like I don't know that it's a good thing. No, I'm saying I agree, it's sick, it's like relax, yeah, right. Right, right, but don't, because that's you.

17:40 - Speaker 2 It is me, but it's like I didn't need to prove anything and so it wasn't about proving something for me. But when you actually do it, and you do it consistently, it changes things within you. I don't think that someone could do that consistently for 30 days and not have something within them changed 10 roadblocks keeping you from your breakthrough moment.

18:02 - Speaker 1 What is a breakthrough moment and what are two of the biggest?

18:04 - Speaker 2 roadblocks, you think, are your breakthrough moment. What is a?

18:05 - Speaker 1 breakthrough moment and what are two of the biggest roadblocks you think are out there for most people?

18:09 - Speaker 2 That's a great question. The breakthrough moments. Sometimes it's not actually just one individual moment. Often the breakthrough moment is a result of all of these seeds that were planted and it feels like it happens in a moment. So I feel like I recently went through a breakthrough moment in my business that I relaunched and it kind of felt like overnight I'm having all of these inquiries and people that left and right that are just excited and ready and willing to do the work and want to work with me, right when I've been planting seeds for months. I've been doing the work to relaunch this business years, yeah, well, yeah, years, no doubt, yeah for sure. But it's like, you know, relaunching this aspect of it. There there was a lot of time where it felt very quiet and so when I was creating that episode, I really looked at, okay, what were the things that would have blocked me from getting here and right. So two things I think. Number one is people's belief.

19:08 I think that's probably the biggest driving factor for people's actions, their mindset, how they show up to their life is the deepest rooted beliefs that they have about life, what's possible for them themselves, which were often put in at such a subconscious level before the age of you know seven or so, but it without awareness that this is driving your behavior. It's really difficult to act in a more expansive way than what you truly believe at a deep level, meaning if you don't believe that you are worthy and deserving of success in business and in life for whatever reason. Often you'll get a little bit of success and then you'll self self-sabotage and you'll make excuses or you'll give some reasons why it didn't work out or, you know, these things always happen to you kind of thing.

19:55 - Speaker 1 You won't properly manage it, it'll slip through your fingertips.

19:58 - Speaker 2 Yes, and so it's really important to look at patterns of behavior and just your, your own way that you show up to life. Because when you can identify, okay, what are some patterns that I'm having that are showing up in all aspects of my life Business, finances are a huge one, nutrition is another one, relationships so when you start to look at what's the pattern between all of these things, often it goes back down to a deeply rooted belief that you have. And so if you can identify, okay, what are the deepest rooted beliefs that I have about myself, my life, my future, then you can start to, you can start to alchemize that and create new beliefs for yourself. So one one way that you might be able to do this and it's hard because a lot of the subconscious obviously it means below the level of consciousness, so you're not thinking this like you would never say I'm not worthy of success. You might be doing all that you can to create success, but if it's at such a deeply rooted level, it's just the hardest part is the awareness. So I find that doing interpersonal work, looking at experiences from the past, digging deeper, asking yourself questions what was I exposed to, what did I witness and what did I make these things mean in my life? So if I watched my mom and dad struggle with money and if I experienced poverty or lack even just a little bit of lack right, or even if I just was a child around the conversations of money in general and it was always about not having enough, what did I make that mean? About what's possible for me in business and money? What is it? How do I relate to money? And just looking at the relationship between you and money, I heard this woman.

21:41 Her name's Regan Hillier. She has created, I think, like 50 conscious millionaires, so she's like a business coach and she, I remember she described the money relationship as if you're sitting at a table just like this, and across from you is money. How would money feel if it was sitting across from you and you were in a dating relationship with money right now? So just think about your spending habits, your saving habits, how you treat money. Are you treating money like this loving entity that you're in relationship with, or are you treating it like someone that you don't like? Are you treating it with so much resentment? Is there toxicity involved with it? Is there disrespect, you know? Are you just blowing money here and there and not paying any reverence or respect for what it is. So, yeah, I kind of went off on a tangent there, but I think identifying those deeply rooted beliefs will help you to overcome what's really holding you back, because often the reason why you're not hitting your financial goals, your budget, your macros and your nutrition, it's not because you're not disciplined or dedicated or not because you don't want it. Often it's because you don't believe that you deserve it or that you're worthy of it. So identifying that will be very helpful.

22:53 And then a second thing that is probably holding you back from your breakthrough moment Um, I think one of those is just fear of what other people will think of the most authentic expression of you. So many people are so scared to let out the most authentic expression of them because of the judgment of others, the judgment of themselves that they have on themselves and the idea of what will other people think. And I always say that. You know, getting to one of the darkest parts of my life, one of the darkest moments of my life where I of the darkest moments of my life where I was like really thinking about that, like being on your deathbed type of moment, I realized you do not care what Sally over here thinks or Mark over here thinks. I love you, sally and Mark. That's the last thing on your mind.

23:37 And when I made the intentional decision to fully come back to my life and embody my life and live it fully, I made a commitment to myself.

23:47 I would live as the fullest expression of me that way. If this was my last year on earth that I would be proud, dying from the life that I just lived. Hell yeah, and that gave me the permission slip to not care, to just not care about what other people think about me. They can talk shit. They can talk shit, that's okay. I send you love and you're probably not my people for the season, and that's okay. And if that changes, you're also welcome, you know. So there's no animosity there, but it's just an understanding that we're not for everyone, and here's the thing that there will be people that will judge you for being your authentic expression. Yet if you just go out of the door, down the hall into a different room, you're gonna have other people that are literally like celebrating you, thinking you're incredible, saying yes, more, more of that. And so I think if you're not around the right people. Just get around the right people change your room change the room.

24:37 Yeah, your environment is truly everything. So I think that kind of goes hand in hand with um those things is just making sure that you're in the right environment for growth, like, are you in an environment for breakthrough or are you in an environment to keep you tied and tethered to things of the past Habits? You're trying to break people that are toxic and negative and bringing you down. So even just assessing that I feel like could be so helpful for helping people break through.

25:02 - Speaker 1 Hey guys, quick break from my conversation with Emily. Is she not just a tour de force? She covers it all right. She's a badass athlete, entrepreneur, dog, mom. Her physical and mental resiliency is one that really resonates with me, and that's why she's back here on Everford radio, and when I personally look at Emily and a lot of the similar guests that I have on the show, these people just truly shine as beacons of energy, strength, endurance and just optimal levels inside and out, no matter what they put their minds to, and they have a lot of practices to help them do that. They take care of their mind, their body, and so do I, and one of the ways that I've been doing so in terms of my just overall baseline energy for the last nearly two years, is using Mito Pure from today's sponsor, timeline Nutrition.

25:47 And why this is such an incredible product and why I've been loving taking it daily is because, with Mito Pure, it all boils down to this one amazing ingredient, this postbiotic called urolithin A, and there have not been many nutrients to blast onto the bioenergetic center stage with quite the impressive force as the postbiotic rock star that is urolithin A. Now, this is something we can get in natural foods, particularly pomegranates, but the level to which you would have to eat pomegranates or drink pomegranate juice is honestly nauseating. No one is going to be eating this amount of pomegranates and trust me, I know, my wife is Iranian American. They eat pomegranate in a lot of their foods and they don't even come close. Not only do I know how good I feel when I take it, I love that. Timeline has over a decade of clinical trials proving that it does what it says it's going to do. And in just one serving daily, mito Pure unlocks six times more urolithin A than in diet alone.

26:49 As we age, our cells age, and Mito Pure is the first postbiotic nutrient shown to trigger a crucial recycling process within our cells called mitophagy, targeting age-related cellular decline. So if you can slow down the aging process of your cells, think about what that's going to do for you. Age-associated mitochondrial decline leads to progressive decline in our metabolism, our overall energy levels, our resiliency, our skin health and our muscle function, and once we cross over that 30-year-old threshold, things like longevity and mitochondrial health really should be more top of mind. They have been for me. If you'd like to learn more about the science behind MitoPure and even save 10% off of MitoPure. You can head to TimelineNutritioncom slash EverForward and then make sure to use code EverForward at checkout to save 10% off of your entire first purchase. I promise you you're going to feel the difference. If you don't love the way that your new baseline energy has been raised overall vitality, strength, endurance you got a money back guarantee. Timelinenutritioncom slash everforward Code ever forward to save 10%.

27:56 There's that clarity and direction again I'm talking about. And for so many people you can get to a point to where it's almost like I have no other option. I have no other option but to commit to me and to step into this life with intention and to say screw the room, screw the rest of the people, but a lot of people don't get there. But a lot of people don't get there. What do you think is the biggest thing keeping people on the precipice of stepping into and embodying fully believing that intention and acting on it? I think the disconnect is between the thinking and the doing. I think a lot of people know what they want for themselves, or they know what a next step is for that embodied self, what they want for themselves, or they know what a next step is for that embodied self, but it's going from here to doing that doesn't happen why.

28:46 - Speaker 2 I believe in life we have two choices we're either acting and operating out of fear or we're acting and operating out of love. I think everything else comes back to one of those two roots. So a guiding question I always ask myself is am I acting, am I thinking, am I showing up to my life out of fear or out of love? And for me, that's just the biggest. It's the biggest shift that I've made in my life, because it doesn't matter where the fear is coming from. If it's fear of others, fear of self, fear of success, right, or if yeah, it just doesn't matter what the actual root is. It just matters Is this fear or is this love? And if you can categorize that into one of those two categories, I believe that in a moment you'll know what the right decision is to make.

29:24 - Speaker 1 How do you navigate? Acting out of fear? When you ask yourself that question, and the honest reflection is fear.

29:32 - Speaker 2 Yeah.

29:32 - Speaker 1 What do you do next?

29:33 - Speaker 2 Immediate action, immediate action into love. So I'll give you an example Last year, at some point I won't give exact time periods but I was starting to go on a date and go on some dates with somebody, and I met someone and it was going really well and I would recognize these moments of fear being present. And so I checked in with myself and I said, okay, is this intuition? No, it didn't feel like intuition. Okay, this is fear. What is this fear of? And I realized that it was fear of the past, fear of the projected future, and I said, okay, well, I'm in this and I'm choosing to fully be in this.

30:10 So I'm going to reposition myself in love and that's when I use my nervous system regulation and all the things that help me to come back to myself, because fear and love are both energies. Fear is like the lowest vibrational frequency that you can be at and love is one of the highest ones. So when I'm in a state of fear, it's like how do I get my energy and vibration back up to the state of love, the state of abundance? And if I can't go from fear to love, can I go from fear to even just baseline Right? So really focusing on, like my own energetic output first. And once I do that, then it's easy to sub into love. And then I get reignited and fired back up, because when you realize every single moment is fear or love, you get really good at recognizing it and seeing it.

30:54 It becomes a game of. It's almost like you know you're playing the little Mario game and it's like do I want to go left or do I want to go right? You have these two options. Which one are you going to? Press, press it and go? And so for me it's like immediate action, immediate jumping into it. And that has never led me wrong, because I'm always leading with love. I'm always leading from a deep place of groundedness. Not with this idea that I'm always leading from a deep place of groundedness, not with this idea that I'm always going to get things right or that it's going to go the way that I want it to go, but just with the knowing that I'm following my heart. I'm leading in love, and if I were to die, I would know that I didn't hold back because of fear.

31:29 - Speaker 1 Hell yeah, no fear up in here.

31:32 - Speaker 2 Yeah.

31:33 - Speaker 1 A conversation I had last year with Bea and Asria Becker we were just talking about beforehand. As you discover a version of yourself that is deeply solid but is never rigid, you begin to emanate a warmth that makes other people's nervous systems unwind in your presence, without you saying a single word.

31:53 - Speaker 2 I feel that deeply.

31:54 - Speaker 1 Isn't that incredible. That just makes me. That also gives me clarity of the people in my life. That makes me think about, oh, this person acts like that, that person acts like that. And it immediately gives me this kind of direction of oh, I want to be around more of these people, I want to be more like them, I want to help them, I want to contribute to keep that flame going so that I can also help mine as well. How does that land with you? What does that make you feel think about in terms of the energetic connection of other people acting more out of love instead of fear?

32:30 - Speaker 2 as well, more deeply than I am right now. It's something that I fully believe in, that I really seek to embody and that I notice and appreciate from others as well, because I've been really just thankful in my life to have individuals like that that have come into my life and shown me what that actually looks like. And by experiencing that first myself, then I realized one of the most loving things that you could do for other people around you is to regulate your nervous system, is to choose love and not fear, because when you're doing that, yeah, you can be in a room and literally not say a word, and just because your own energy and frequency is at such a high level, you raise the entire energy and frequency of the room. And I really believe that we came here to set the temperature of the environments in the rooms that we're in, not to allow the environment to set our internal temperature, which I feel like is a struggle that a lot of people have. You know.

33:25 They experienced life in circumstances that you know they made me mad, they caused me to feel this way and it's like, no, everything's actually an internal job, and when you're good, you can go into any environment and you bring what's within you to that environment. You know my dad always has said to me since I was younger um, if you want to see who someone really is, apply pressure. So when you squeeze an orange, right, orange juice comes out. And so similar with people when things don't go their way. That's when you really see what someone's really made of and where they're actually at, as well as yourself. It's the best self-reflection to be in a situation like that, where things are not going your way or didn't you know, didn't turn out how you thought that it would, and to just observe and lovingly recognize what's coming out of you, because that's a better mirror of where you're actually at than when everything's going great and you're at a happy party setting the temperature of the room.

34:22 - Speaker 1 And that's the whole point of what we were talking about earlier as well of choosing the hard things right, Of choosing a hard workout choosing the sauna of choosing the cold plunge. When you're choosing to step into the shit, look at what comes out. You don't need to apply pressure to other people to see their character as much as you should do that to yourself as first.

34:41 - Speaker 2 I think, for sure, yeah, and it definitely just becomes a an opportunity to lovingly see what, what's there, you know and I I'm a big believer on that Like always lovingly observing, without judgment, because we're our own worst, worst critics. We don't need to, you know, kick ourselves while we're down. It's more so. Just okay, this is honestly where I'm at and that's okay, and I can just love myself right here with where I'm at, without having to change it just yet.

35:05 - Speaker 1 You, uh, you recently came and shared some of your wisdom to, uh, a small group coaching cohort that I that I run every year called the Everford Mentorship, and we talked about a unique aspect to personal development, to happiness, to seeing what happens when we squeeze our own self, and a way to support that was creativity, and I know you're newly kind of diving into the creative act, right, rick?

35:32 - Speaker 2 Rubin, I'm almost done already.

35:33 - Speaker 1 How fantastic is that book right, it's so good have you gotten the audio book?

35:36 - Speaker 2 No, you have to gotten the audio book.

35:38 - Speaker 1 No, you have to get the audio.

35:39 - Speaker 2 Okay.

35:40 - Speaker 1 It's a meditation. It truly is. He reads it. There are gongs. It's incredible.

35:44 - Speaker 2 There's gongs. There are gongs. Say less.

35:46 - Speaker 1 Creativity is something that I don't think gets enough respect. It doesn't get enough attention for everybody, for whatever your walk of life is, for whatever your profession is, wherever you are in your personal development journey, however, you are moving forward in life. I think it's something that I give a lot of credit to when I look back to oh, this amazing opportunity happened or I had this idea, or this pivot or evolution in my business, my life, things that I'm proud of and things that I'm happy about and things that I want more of. Of course, there are other variables, but I really I go back to oh, I made white space.

36:21 - Speaker 2 Oh, I connected with nature.

36:22 - Speaker 1 Oh, I did something completely different in my platform and it was more of a creative outlet.

36:34 - Speaker 2 Walk us through your approach to creativity and why do you think it's important for la-di-da-di everybody, la-di-da-di everybody, I like that.

36:38 - Speaker 1 That's an old Army phrase.

36:40 - Speaker 2 Oh is it.

36:41 - Speaker 1 It's from Boogie Abbey. It's like some old marching cadence La-di-da-di. Everybody, any of my military crew out there, they get that.

36:48 - Speaker 2 The way that my creativity has expressed typically is through writing and I lost connection with it for a little bit because I got so caught up in my success and tunnel vision you know, being tunnel visioned on my goals and really just being in the masculine energy of like getting things done and making things happen Right and I feel like in that I just didn't make time for things that weren't producing an outcome an outcome and part of something that's so beautiful about creativity, and I actually shared this on the coaching call.

37:21 But there's a quote at the very beginning of the book saying saying something along the lines of the whole point of the creative act isn't actually the result itself, but it's to be in the energetic flow of that creation just to be in that state be in the state, and I really believe that we all came here to be co-creators of our life experience, and so by doing something like connecting with creativity for anyone, even the people that think that they're not creative, what it does is, I think, that it taps you into your own soul's unique essence and allows you to just tap into this place that you are not able to reach by anything else. And when you do that, I think it's like similar to when you create new neural networks within your brain. I think it's like connecting this new part of yourself that's allowing you to think differently, opens you up to new and different ideas.

38:12 - Speaker 1 Soul has neuroplasticity too. Absolutely yeah.

38:15 - Speaker 2 Yeah, and I just think that those two things together are so fascinating. I love soul things, quantum physics, like I read about that stuff all the time. I think it's so fascinating. Uh, but creativity in general, yeah, similar or I guess along the lines of what you were saying. When you really tap into that deep place within yourself, it's interesting to watch the shifts that happen in the other aspects of life. So, for example, currently I'm I get up every morning at like five, five, 15 or so, and my very first thing that I do is I write and I'm writing this creative project and I won't share what it is, but, um, through this creation process, I do that every single morning. Yet I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to publish this one, that I'm doing.

39:00 - Speaker 1 This thing might be for myself, this first one, which is very interesting to experience Because initially it started out as this is my creative project and I'm going to Especially as someone who has been a creator for a profession for many years.

39:13 - Speaker 2 Yeah, and I do have a vision for what will come to the world, and I started doing it, but through the process of doing it it's turned into something else that I'm just allowing it to flow, and it's so deeply honest and so deeply vulnerable that I'm like this one might be just for me.

39:29 - Speaker 1 No one's watching, right? Yeah, yeah, literally at 5 am. You're like blindfolding the dogs, yes.

39:39 - Speaker 2 No, they know everything. Let's be real, the dogs know everything. I am Well.

39:43 - Speaker 1 I just hope that the whole dog translation thing doesn't come out too soon, the moment that anybody figures out how to tap into what a dog's thinking and like, or what they've seen. They've seen too much. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

39:53 - Speaker 2 So, yeah, just that act of the discipline of getting up every single day and making time and space for it, but then the the flow within it, the flow within that discipline of allowing whatever comes through to come through.

40:05 You know, some days I write, you know six pages, and other days I stay on the same page and at the end of it I just look at it like wow, I'm amazed by it, no matter how many pages it is.

40:17 And what's cool is it's been motivating me for all of my life. Again, I was in this place where, I think, because I was disconnected from my creativity, I was so stuck in the you know nine to five thing that we all do every single day, or you know six to six for a lot of us, but I was just stuck in the regular routine of things that I was really missing that sense of fulfillment, that like creative excitement when you're working on something and you don't have all the answers yet. I just I'm a creative at heart and tapping into that has allowed me to reconnect with my excitement for life, my fulfillment for life and, to your point, I think that it's changed the way that I am thinking about my own life and showing up to my own life and it's also been kind of like a therapy session.

41:04 - Speaker 1 I would have to imagine yeah, yeah, it really has.

41:06 - Speaker 2 It's interesting though, because I've been able to experience it, and sometimes I look at it, I'm like man, that's pretty messed up. But shit.

41:15 - Speaker 1 Who wrote that?

41:16 - Speaker 2 but I experience it, and it's from a different perspective. It's allowing me to revisit some difficult things without being like the one immersed in it, which has been a really cool experience.

41:28 - Speaker 1 So yeah, for me the observer instead of the participant.

41:31 - Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, and the storyteller instead of the one going through the story, you know, which is pretty powerful, I think.

41:39 - Speaker 1 Yeah, oh yeah, we can get really heady in there. I've had experiences like that to where you kind of finally realize, oh, I am a participant in my life, I'm living my life. But then you get this level of awareness through a creative outlet of sorts, and then you kind of get the observer perspective, like I'm saying, of sorts. And then you kind of get the observer perspective, like I'm saying, but then your point of storyteller is like then there's like the master puppeteer watching the observer who is figuring out what the participant?

42:04 - Speaker 2 is doing.

42:04 - Speaker 1 Then they have the full breadth of what's going on?

42:08 - Speaker 2 Yeah, that's so good. I had this experience at an Odessa concert that that just kind of as one does.

42:15 - Speaker 1 Oh yeah, I saw them live for the first time when where mexico city, october okay, just recently.

42:22 - Speaker 2 I saw them last year too that is a core memory.

42:25 - Speaker 1 Life-changing event.

42:26 - Speaker 2 Yeah, no shit oh does it, I love you come play at one of my retreats one year you know they're coming to la and like uh I do know, are you going?

42:33 - Speaker 1 I?

42:34 - Speaker 2 haven't bought tickets you should come.

42:35 - Speaker 1 You're going for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Okay.

42:37 - Speaker 2 I actually will come back.

42:38 - Speaker 1 We already have tickets.

42:39 - Speaker 2 Yes, Somehow I ended up front row. Not a single person in front of me. Here's Odessa, the entire live band that they had there the drum line and everything, the drum line. There were so many moments throughout that concert that I just stared and I was just like this is the most incredible thing I think I've ever experienced and seen.

42:59 Yeah, yeah, it was and there wasn't, it wasn't just me. There's multiple people. You know we're vibing and then we just stop and take it in and it was just. It was really life changing but all inspiring, so inspiring.

43:09 There was, you might remember, this visual. There was this visual where it was like this figure that was out in space and it was the was like this figure that was out in space and it was the this version of you song, and it was you looking back at you. I had literally just had this experience in my apartment where I paused the podcast and have a little moment.

43:25 I know, I know where I looked in the mirror so good after doing all this interpersonal work, and I like saw this like spark, and I felt like I saw myself for the first time, literally that weekend. And then I go and I myself for the first time literally that weekend, and then I go and I'm at the Sodeza concert and it's here and it's saying this version of you, you looking back at you, and I was sitting there like I literally just had this experience in the privacy of my own home, and now it's here in this most beautiful setting. And as I was walking around the festival, I had this idea. I was like I feel like this is a movie and I scripted every single one of these characters to be here because it was bringing me so much joy. As I was walking around, I loved, like, just the uniqueness of every person and all the crazy things that you see at the festival.

44:07 - Speaker 1 Very unique, very unique.

44:08 - Speaker 2 All the outfits, all like the music and the vibe, everything was just in this beautiful flow, so much so that it like took me out of the moment to observe. And this inner voice came in and said you are the creator of your own experience. And I said Whoa. And after that concert I started crafting and creating my experience here in this life, in such a more profound way, with this deeper knowing that I didn't know before.

44:35 - Speaker 1 Like I'm not joking that concert changed my life. That's amazing, yeah. In my experience, the more creative I allow myself to be and the more frequent that I am creative, I feel like it has activated my spirituality more I. I I wouldn't, up to maybe a few years ago, say that I was a spiritual person, but now I realize that I have always been a spiritual person.

45:01 - Speaker 2 Now you have beads.

45:03 - Speaker 1 Ghosted Tulum once. Literally Now I wear beads.

45:06 - Speaker 2 yes, I had to. I have beads too. I love them.

45:11 - Speaker 1 I get that all the time I can't say anything back to that. The whole point is like the more creative I have gotten. I have found it's kind of like a slippery slope to spirituality.

45:22 - Speaker 2 Would you?

45:22 - Speaker 1 agree. Why does that happen, do you think and for someone maybe like myself, that goes I'm not a spiritual person, maybe I'm on my creative outlet game, and then all of a sudden, you're wearing beads, you got to prepare. Sudden, you're wearing beads, you got to prepare. How would you prepare somebody who is not aware of the spiritual self that is most likely going to shine through once you embark upon a creative outlet?

45:47 - Speaker 2 It kind of makes me laugh a little bit when people say I'm not a spiritual person and I would never laugh at someone, but it's just kind of like it's just me, just you or maybe your brother as well.

46:03 This that everyone is watching on video right now. This is like this meat suit, this human avatar, like a space suit, but for earth. Right, that's what this is within. This is a spiritual essence, is this thing that is more eternal than this human body? And when we connect with our creativity, I believe that we're connecting with that part of ourselves and it starts to literally open and expand our awareness, our consciousness, our spirituality.

46:26 If you go throughout life and you have no awareness at all of the deep, soulful being that is within you and you just think that you are, so you're so consumed with this identity of chase, of Emily and you think this is it, and you just think that you are. So you're so consumed with this identity of chase, of emily and you think this is it. Of course, you think you're not spiritual, you think that it's just this airy fairy thing that people attach themselves to to have some hope or sense of security or whatever it is. But I feel, I feel that experiences are the best possible thing to help awaken people, because I would never just believe it doesn't hurt.

46:59 - Speaker 1 Oh, does it doesn't hurt.

47:01 - Speaker 2 Man, truly, though, man really though, music has been such a impact, such an impactful part of my life, of awakening that, that sense of self. So here's the thing even even if it doesn't happen through a spiritual manner, as most people see it right, like a meditation or breath work, going to a church service or something that people would identify as spiritual, it could be something like music, it could be art, it could be something that just connects with that deepest part of who you are, that deepest essence, and I feel that the more that you allow time and space for that, the more it grows and the more that your thinking starts to open and expand and your curiosity comes. And when your curiosity comes, all of a sudden, you say, yeah, I'll go to the Odessa concert with you and then boom your life has changed.

47:48 - Speaker 1 But I need to get some beads first.

47:50 - Speaker 2 Totally. I'm sure Chase has extra.

47:52 - Speaker 1 Funny story. I have two of this exact same necklace.

47:56 - Speaker 2 See, I told you.

47:58 - Speaker 1 Because I went funny story, I have two of this exact same necklace I told you because I went to tulum literally for the first time years ago for a wedding. I never was like yeah, tulum, whatever, and it's like people are weird down there. I go to tulum, I walk by this store. This mannequin is wearing this necklace, this like linen kind of oversized cut off shirt and I walk by I was like that's me.

48:14 I I never would have picked, picked that out out for me, but just it just spoke to me and I was like I need everything.

48:19 - Speaker 2 So I bought the pants, I bought the shirt, I bought the beads I did. I bought the whole. Thing.

48:24 - Speaker 1 I love that. And I was like that's me. And I had no idea that I got to put up a picture here on the video. It was like here Tulum Chase was born. He never thought that this would exist, but I walked by and it was so clear that that is what I needed in my life and then I thought I lost these beads. I went back to Tulum like the next year, went back to the same store. I bought them again. That's awesome.

48:46 I go back home I find the original pair. So I do have two of the exact same necklace. So Tulum Chase has a backup.

48:52 - Speaker 2 Tulum Chase do you feel like you're supposed to give those to somebody?

48:56 - Speaker 1 do you want my necklace? No, I'll give it to you if you want. I have to know I would never ask for your beads. You want my beads like no, but I don't know, I just maybe that's a good point like maybe those are meant to be maybe I'll have to now start wearing both at the same time and just like they spoke to me to find them, I'll know you, you get.

49:14 - Speaker 2 Yes, yes, you get the beats. Yes, you get the beats. Not you, not me, but somebody.

49:18 - Speaker 1 Somebody.

49:19 - Speaker 2 Yeah, I do like the black and gold, though. Thank you.

49:21 - Speaker 1 It's Volcano, stone and Amber. Of course it is. Of course I don't know what that means.

49:26 - Speaker 2 I just like nothing less.

49:29 - Speaker 1 As we look to the rest of 2024, whether it's with creativity, whether it's with you know, fitness I think a lot of people might know you from your fitness game, which you still crush. You've been with alpha lead for years. Um, I mean, you're an amazing athlete, where is the future taking?

49:46 - Speaker 2 No, where are you taking your future this year, in 2024? Hmm, one thing that I am really focused on for this year is I almost hate to say it, cause it's so kind of cliche it's finding my own version of balance between being the most authentic, aligned expression of who I am in every aspect of my life, while being as successful as I've always known that I can be, while loving and appreciating those that are around me and loving and appreciating the moments before me. And I say it that way because I do have a past of getting tunnel visioned and working so hard that I'm just racing to the finish line. So when I say that, I just mean that I want to achieve my goals, I want to be successful, I want to, you know, experience, uh, the different parts of the world, and have, you know, new experiences under my belt by the end of this year, and I don't want a moment to pass me by.

50:43 I don't want to not be present for one day. I don't want one day to go by that I wasn't fully present. So being fully present is my biggest goal amongst everything else that I have, which is pretty big too. I will share the creative project that I'm working on. I'm actually looking at entering in a completely new industry, and I won't say what, what just yet, but it's yeah, it's me entering a completely new industry, and there is this idea of, oh, I'm not this kind of person or I'm not in this industry. You know, my identity has always been in these categories. But if I close my eyes and I think about, like, if I could achieve anything, if I could achieve anything in the world, what would I do? What would I actually want to do? What would I actually want to create? What is it?

51:35 - Speaker 1 Well, it's this Got to hit him with a cliffhanger.

51:40 - Speaker 2 It's in the entertainment industry.

51:42 - Speaker 1 Okay, okay.

51:43 - Speaker 2 Yeah, so in the entertainment industry and a part of like yeah, I won't go too much into detail with that because I want to protect my creative space that I'm in right now. But I have deadlines though.

51:55 - Speaker 1 Can I probe a little bit? Okay, Did this come about? Was it like a year or two ago when you, you were working?

52:02 - Speaker 2 Oh oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Okay.

52:04 - Speaker 1 We can talk about this, yes.

52:07 - Speaker 2 So, okay, you know what's wild about this? I'll share with them. He's referring to this job that I got where I had just moved to Texas and, uh, netflix called me and was like hey, are you Emily Hayden? It's like, yeah, I am. I'm glad I answered the phone.

52:23 - Speaker 1 Hold on when you answer the phone. Did the caller ID? Did it say?

52:26 - Speaker 2 Netflix, no. But it said this is so-and-so. You know I work with Netflix, whatever. And so I'm thinking what? And long story short, they needed a personal trainer in la to train one of the, you know, main stars for this huge action movie that was coming out. So, uh, it was called the gray man. It was on netflix, it was a huge, one of the biggest budget action movies and on that netflix had chris evans and uh ryan gosling yeah, and anna anna as well yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, don't forget her.

52:56 - Speaker 1 Yeah, of course. Yeah, she was fabulous. I may crush hard on those two guys.

53:02 - Speaker 2 And so, okay, here's the crazy thing. I didn't realize this until this past year, but this past year I was going back through my journal. What were my dreams, what were my visions? And I'm looking through my journal and I'm seeing how many times I had written down Netflix. No way and to me it almost feels like silly to share Now. I feel like I can share because I have a touch point now, but before you have proof of all these breadcrumbs.

53:26 - Speaker 1 Yeah, but before.

53:27 - Speaker 2 It felt so silly, like if I were to tell someone oh, I want to work with Netflix in some capacity. It would sound so stupid. But at the time when I got the job I still didn't recognize I had written that down in my journal for years. Wow, wow. And because it was in a different format, I said Netflix for blah, blah, blah, right in my journal.

53:46 - Speaker 1 Right.

53:46 - Speaker 2 And so here comes this touch point with Netflix. I'm like this is random, this is awesome, this feels like a gift.

53:51 - Speaker 1 This doesn't look like exactly how I pictured it to be, so, of course, I'm going to dismiss it.

54:00 - Speaker 2 Well, I didn't. I didn't dismiss it. I definitely recognized it as like, wow, this was a gift for me, because here's the crazy thing they wanted a personal trainer in Los Angeles. Do you know how many personal trainers are in Los Angeles?

54:09 - Speaker 1 all of them do you want to know how I got the job?

54:11 - Speaker 2 how there was someone in the room at the right time when they said does anyone know a personal trainer in LA that would be great for this job? And somebody said Emily Heaton.

54:22 - Speaker 1 Did you? Were they a follower? Did you know them personally? I?

54:24 - Speaker 2 know the person. I know the person personally.

54:26 - Speaker 1 No way, yeah, and did you know that they worked for Netflix and had any kind of role like this?

54:31 - Speaker 2 They were in. They were in a different, they were not even in a like official thing. Wow, that's what I'm saying. Like this thing was gifted to me, wow. And not just that, but I do have to look at the fact that I wrote that down multiple times. I've visualized it multiple times. So here I am, I get this job right, I have that job.

54:50 And then it was last year this time when I um had this like idea come through and I I wrote a lot and it just came through in one session and I was like there's something here. And so when I reconnected with my creativity most recently, that's when I picked up that idea again and that's when I reconnected all the pieces and I said, whoa, this is beyond me. Whatever this is that's happening is actually beyond me. So, and here's the thing, I'm working on things right now with absolutely zero pressure or zero idea if what I'm working on at the moment will come to fruition. But I believe that the process that I'm working on right now is going to put me in the right headspace, help me have the right conversations. I'm reading the right books, I'm listening to certain podcasts. My mind is thinking in ways that it didn't before.

55:39 - Speaker 1 Oh, your daily living is completely changed now.

55:42 - Speaker 2 It is.

55:43 - Speaker 1 It's wild how just one little subtle thing, a thought, a whisper, will influence every aspect of your life and next thing you know you're on Netflix, right? Do you want to hear another crazy one? Let's go.

55:54 - Speaker 2 You just said whisper. It made me think of this.

55:56 - Speaker 1 All right.

55:56 - Speaker 2 At the beginning of the year, I was meditating and deep in meditation. This is, I've already regulated my nervous system, I've already, you know, breathed, I've already done all the things. I'm like deep in meditation and I just hear Costa Rica. And that wasn't the first time I heard Costa Rica. I've heard it multiple times. But this one was very loud and very clear and I was like okay, costa Rica, I get it. What's in Costa Rica? A teacher? I was like a teacher, okay, what's what's in, you know?

56:25 And so I started thinking, who do I know that's in Costa Rica? Who do I know that's a teacher? I was like, oh, I remember this one person. So, anyways, I kind of go on Instagram, I pull up this person, I like her photos and I see someone that she posted, and so I click on her and I'm like, wow, I love her stuff, I already follow her. I didn't know, I followed her. I don't know who this is, but I just like a few of her things and I go away. The long story short to this is that her and I end up the one whose photos I liked. We ended up connecting, we ended up doing podcasts together, we ended up being in such a flow and so much alignment that she then, two weeks later, invites me to be a guest facilitator at her all women's retreat in Costa Rica.

57:05 - Speaker 1 You were the teacher, yeah.

57:07 - Speaker 2 Oh shit.

57:09 - Speaker 1 You're the teacher in Costa Rica, Emily.

57:11 - Speaker 2 I didn't realize that. Maybe, but there might also be another teacher. Yeah, it was really profound. And in that moment I also took time and I put my vision board on my phone. So I put all these photos on my phone in that moment of hearing Costa Rica Right, and within two weeks I had like three things off of my vision board list trademark, that vision board.

57:37 - Speaker 1 Clearly it works. Can I get a template?

57:39 - Speaker 2 Sure, it's like the worst collage that you can ever put together. It looks pretty but it's not professional.

57:46 - Speaker 1 I love it. This is kind of where I want to go. I've never been a vision boarder. I've been in LA for five years. I wear beads now.

57:54 - Speaker 2 If you're beading, if I'm beading, I should damn well be vision boarded right. For sure that sounds like a good deal. I just realized I'm like oh man, that's going to come out wrong.

58:04 - Speaker 1 That won't be an inflection Prayer beads, but anyways I mean just putting yourself in these situations and just entertaining the idea of I'm not a vision boarder you know, just give it a whirl. Just give it a whirl and I have found so much ROI and so much happiness, like just joy, which I think we all could use a little bit more of in life.

58:27 But other times tangible things like next steps or opportunities or things I need to execute on by just putting myself in the uncomfortable situation of a unique creative outlet, of a unique creative outlet. It doesn't have to be all the hard, usual typical personal growth. Things that can work will work, but there's so much more out there.

58:46 - Speaker 2 And make it simple Just do something different. Literally, just do anything different than what you're already doing.

58:52 - Speaker 1 That's it, that's it, that's literally it, yeah.

58:54 - Speaker 2 Yeah, and then that'll act. You know there will be a little snowball effect from there, you know, and who knows where that could lead. But yeah, all of these little things have been so monumental and helping me to think different, show up differently, and one of the reasons also that I made the vision board on my phone was because I'd done it years ago and I kind of like lost connection to it. And then a podcast interview my guest shared. She showed me it and I just thought, yeah, why am I not doing that? And I did it. And I just thought, yeah, why am I not doing that? And I did it. And within two weeks I had those three things crossed off and it was really mind-blowing to me.

59:24 - Speaker 1 Well, all right. Well, maybe I'll just put a vision board up, just for beads, so I always know which one to look out for. Tulum Chase can have his moment, and then I'll have podcast chase.

59:35 - Speaker 2 There you go.

59:40 - Speaker 1 There cheese. There you go, there you go, um, this has been such a blast. Uh seriously, you're an amazing human being, a great friend. It's so cool to see you just thriving and living and doing your life, um, and kicking ass along the way. So I mean, you truly embody the person that I look for when I sit down on the show, that lives a life ever forward. So truly, thank you. It's great to have you back. I'll link in the show notes for everybody the last episode we were at your and Amanda's old apartment.

01:00:02 - Speaker 2 Oh yeah.

01:00:03 - Speaker 1 Before you moved out.

01:00:04 - Speaker 2 Yeah, that's right.

01:00:05 - Speaker 1 Like five years ago.

01:00:06 - Speaker 2 I think it was 2018 or so.

01:00:09 - Speaker 1 Yeah, I had just moved here. Yeah, yeah, so I'll link that for everybody down in the show notes. You got to check out Evolve with Emily and all the things you're up to. But before we kind of end today, ever forward Emily. What does that mean to you when you hear those two words?

01:00:23 - Speaker 2 Just to always look for what's ahead. Don't be tethered to the past. Don't attach your heart, your identity, your fears, your purpose anything to anything of the past. You are here and you have breath in your lungs to move forward. So continue looking at what's ahead of you and just know that if you have breath in your lungs and a beat in your chest, it's because you have a purpose and you have good things ahead of you. So believe that, because why would you believe anything else? Why would you want to believe anything different?

01:00:50 - Speaker 1 Breath in your lungs and beads on your chest.

01:00:52 - Speaker 2 Beads on your chest. Look at you dropping bars.

01:00:54 - Speaker 1 I'm done with that joke, but thank you so much. Thank you, yeah, I appreciate it. For more information on everything you just heard, make sure to check this episode's show notes or head to everforwardradio.com.