101 Transcript: How to Stay Conscious and “Woke” While Protecting Your Tender, Tired Heart (with Casey Erin Wood)

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J: You’re listening to the Vibrant Happy Women podcast, episode number 101.

Intro: Welcome to the Vibrant Happy Women podcast, stories of vibrant women living happy lives. And now, your host, Jen Riday.

J: Hey there, welcome back to Vibrant Happy Women. I'm Dr. Jen Riday and I'm a mom of 6 and I'm a recovering martyr and a woman who suffered from ‘not good enough’. But I've learned to take care of myself and to set boundaries and to have fun and to do everything I can to be happy so I can teach my kids how to be happy too. Welcome to the show. You are not too late to enter for our giveaway. Last week, we celebrated 100 episodes of Vibrant Happy Women and we're giving away several $100 Amazon gift cards to celebrate. You can enter to win at jenriday.com/giveaway. Today, I'm talking with Erin Casey Wood and she is an expert on what it's like to be an empath. What's an empath? Well, it's someone who feels more deeply than the average person. You might be an empath if you've been called overly sensitive or you need to suck it up and toughen up, and you find that you just feel emotions more deeply sometimes in your body, sometimes in your psyche. Casey shares that it's actually a critical gift and you have an important role in our society today, especially in this time of more shadow, where things seem more like a struggle with shootings and politics and darkness. Empaths are lighting the way. How do you do it? Well, you have to engage in exquisite self-care. Casey talks all about that; how to identify whether you're an empath, how to take care of yourself, and how to use your gifts in your creativity to make the world better. You're going to love this episode. So let's go ahead and dive in to this fantastic conversation with Casey.

My guest today is Casey Erin wood and she's a writer, coach and founder of the Ruby Slipper School of Magic; so cool sounding. When she's not helping women remember they've always had the power, she's dreaming of a world without small talk, obsessing over her latest TV addiction, or musing on this mess we call life over on Facebook and Instagram. Casey's been featured on The Huffington Post, The Muse, and Scary Mommy and is currently at work on her first book. Welcome to Vibrant Happy Women, Casey.

C: Thanks, Jen, so happy to be here.

J: Yes. And before we started recording, Casey told me she has a motto instead of a quote. I am so on edge to find out what this is, so please share your motto with us; this is going to be good.

C: Yeah, my motto is, “Trust, surrender, leap,” and it came to me and I've been working with it for a few years now. And I take it so seriously that last summer, I had it tattooed on my arm.

J: Ooh!

C: So I told you I take it seriously.

J: Seriously, you take it seriously.

[Laughter]

J: So tell us what, you know, the power behind those words for you, yeah.

C: Yeah. So I'm a big believer in trusting and synchronicity and trusting in the signs of the universe. So that's what trust is about, but it's also about trusting in yourself. So that's the foundation of the first one. And then moving into surrender, it's allowing things to come to you as they will. We can have goals and desires and dreams and it's awesome to move towards those things, but sometimes the universe has different ideas for us; better things. So it's learning to surrender to the outcome. And then leap is getting into action; just moving forward. And, again, intentions and affirmations, beautiful, wonderful things, but we actually have to move our feet; we have to get into action. So that's what move is about.

J: That's perfect, I love it. And it involves all of the areas, you know, you can't just leap without a bit of trust and a bit of surrender to make it really work.

C: Exactly. You need all 3.

J: Exactly. So tell us more… you know, before we have the interview, you and I talked and you described yourself as an empath. And this is a popular word; more and more people are becoming familiar with it. I would say I'm kind of a… an empath; maybe not as high level as some. But, for me, that word means you connect with feelings more easily than maybe some other people. But tell us what empath means and what that's look for you and your life.

C: Yeah. So empath’s sort of a word that is coming up a lot more for people's; so is ‘a high sense perception’. For me, it's about being really in tuned with what's going on around, being able to notice other people's emotions and feelings quite easily, even when they're trying to maybe put forward some other kind of face or a front. And I think a lot of empaths and high sense perception people right now in the world are noticing that it's kind of feeling the energy of what's going on.

J: Mm-hmm.

C: Especially right now, right? There's so much going on. And as empaths and people with high sense perception, it can be a little bit overwhelming at times and I found that's been my journey when I was young I was very connected to noticing things.

J: Mm-hmm.

C: And I found often, my journey, when I was young, I was very connected to noticing things. And as I grew up, I was not supported in that. You know, I lived in a regular household and I was told, “You’re being too sensitive, you’re overreacting,” all those kinds of things that shut us down. And I think that's happened for a lot of empaths is that our gifts have kind of been almost seen as burdens. I know a lot of people who are empathic also experience a lot of body stuff, a lot of stuff in there; they… you know, they maybe get sick or feel like they're getting sick more often than other people, and you can see it almost as a negative. And I find that when people start to really value the gift, that those kinds of negatives go away, the body stuff goes away, you start to notice that it really is something beautiful. It has to be managed, especially in today's world but… you know, to protect your tender little heart, but… (Laugh)

J: Mm-hmm.

C: But it really is a gift.

J: Yeah. Well, you said especially in today's world, and I think we'd all agree, in many ways, things feel really dark and heavy.

C: Mm-hmm.

J: And so, how do you manage that energy if you're an empath?

C: Yeah. There's a couple of things that I always suggest. The first one is to face it and to feel it and to not numb out, because that's another coping mechanism, especially one I used for a long time, was to numb out to what's going on. And that can happen in, you know, a million different ways; overwork, alcohol, you know, sleeping too much, just anything that kind of like makes you not have to deal with what's going on. And so the first key is to actually just notice it. Because when you notice it coming in and you face it, then can work with it, then you can move it through your body and process it. So that's super important. That being said, you also don't want to like go down the rabbit hole like. I know some empaths and people, when something bad happens, say a tragedy, they’ll like tune in to CNN for like 12 hours to like hear every part of it. To like…

J: Oh! Oh, that’s so sad!

C: Because they want to understand it.

J: Oh.

C: But that's really hard on an empath… it’s hard on anybody, but it's hard on an empath. So face it, but don't wallow in it.

J: Mm-hmm.

C: Those are, I find super, helpful things. And boundaries; creating physical boundaries are important. If you can remove yourself from being inundated by the news and those kinds of things, that's important. But also energetic boundaries like, I'm a big believer in the, you know, the trained energy healer. So surrounding yourself in like a golden bubble of energy that just says, “I'm only allowing the highest good in right now because I'm kind of full.”

J: Yes.

C: (unclear) [07:34] Yeah, right? Yeah.

J: So, you know, with that golden bubble, that's a strategy I've used before; just imagining myself safe in this bubble, especially when things were really hard in my marriage.

C: Yeah.

J: And then choosing to cautiously and carefully learn how to send positive energy out. And it just made me feel like an increase of love that way. But how do you recommend people apply this thinking of this golden bubble of safety or energy when they're in a situation such as at the holidays or together with family, you know, and where you're inundated by crazy energy of guilt or past problems or someone you hold a grudge against? What do you do then?

C: Well, it's interesting that you… (Laugh). I do have… I created a meditation called the ‘golden bubble meditation’…

J: Ooh!

C: … that I'll give you a link to; it's free as well, it's just on my website and there's a blog post that introduces it.

J: Ooh, nice.

C: And it literally addresses things like sitting at the Thanksgiving table with like a passive-aggressive relative and how to deal with it. So one is, when you practice sort of surrounding yourself in this golden bubble in the not stressful times, like in your at home on your own, and you just take, you know, 10 minutes to sort of be in this bubble, it's a lot easier to sort of click into it when you're in a more stressful situation. And I find there's another little of sort of physical energetic check you can use when you're around people that you can't physically get away from, and that is to look literally turn your body so you're not facing them directly so their energy isn't coming right at you.

J: Ooh.

C: I don't know how much, you know, about chakras and things. Do you talk about chakras on this program at all?

J: We just did on the last episode, but let's go deeper. (Laugh)

C: Oh, love it! Okay, so our chakras… I mean, we have chakras in different places in our bodies, but the 7 that most people are familiar with run up and down our spine.

J: Mm-hmm.

C: And they're open, sort of on the front of our body. So if, you know, you have a passive-aggressive, I don't know, sister-in-law and she's… you know, you can't kind of get away from her, if you even can just turn so that your side faces her and she's not able to kind of connect into you that way, that can be really, really helpful.

J: You know, that's interesting. And for those who aren't, you know, maybe big believers in chakras yet but open to the idea, I've seen studies and TV shows about body language and how the tiniest little shift means so much. But if we start thinking in terms of energy, yeah, just slightly turning to the side feels kind of protective. I can imagine why that would work.

C: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it also sends a message to your brain, right, like, “We're not accepting this right now.” It's… so you have the physical movement, like you're saying, when you put yourself in certain postures, it tells your brain, you know, “Okay, this is what we're doing right now,” you know, there's like the Superman pose and where you like feel really powerful.

J: Yeah.

C: But then there's this and it just says, “Nope, not today, thank you.”

J: Oh, I love it. So did you get to try this during the holidays; you know, turning to the side? (Laugh). Hopefully they're not listening. (Laugh)

C: Oh, I know, right? I actually had the blessing curse of living quite far from my family.

J: Uh-huh.

C: From my immediate, like my siblings are my mom and stuff. So…

J: Uh-huh.

C: (Laugh). (unclear) [10:39] triggered. But I had been… in November, it was my mom's 70th birthday and we all lived in a house together for 4 days. And there's 4 siblings and, you know, 10 grandchildren and my mom and… and all the spouses, and I got to practice it then. (Laugh)

J: Oh my goodness; 10 children you said?

C: 10 grandchildren, yeah.

J: Oh!

C: Like my mom has… so we were all.

J: Oh yeah, I bet.

[Laughter]

J: Oh, that's great. Well, so we were talking about, you know, living in this kind of dark and heavy time. Any strategies aside from the golden bubble of light that can just help us cope with that?

C: And this is for everybody, but I do see empaths being able to sort of do it at a… at a sort of really strong level is, when you let those heavy energies in and acknowledge that they're there and then process them by creating, and whatever creating means to you, creating… you know, it could be music, it could be painting, it could be writing, it could be sort of some of those more acknowledged ways of creating.

J: Mm-hmm.

C: And also in new ideas and in speaking your truth, when you move those through your body, and you're processing them for the people on the planet who aren't able to do that right now because they're so… with this increase in heaviness, there's an increase in numbing out. There's also an increase in people who are getting woken up. So the people who are woken up and who are willing to examine what's going on and let their hearts be heavy and let themselves get angry and let themselves move the emotions through journaling, writing, creating, whatever that is for you, know that you're processing this for more than just yourself; you're raising the energetic vibration on the planet.

J: So ‘woken up’, would that mean the same as raising your vibration?

C: Woken up is being… is acknowledging and noticing what's going on; is noticing the shadow especially that's coming out right now. You know, whatever your political affiliations are, there's been such a shake-up in the last, you know, year especially that a lot of the shadow, of our cultural shadow, is coming to the forefront.

J: Yes.

C: Right? So we have to acknowledge that and we have to acknowledge our place in it, and we have to be willing to talk about things that are hard. People are coming to realize, with the part they play, even if it's not… like I would never, in my wildest dreams, consider myself a racist, but I tell you, with everything that's come out, I've realized how much privilege I have as a white person.

J: Yeah.

C: That has been an interesting thing to examine. And so having the hard conversations, the vulnerable conversations where you say, “Okay, what can I do? What do I do? I don't know the right answer, but I'm willing to have these conversations.” So that's being woke. And then, when you actually start having the conversations and speaking about it, then we start raising the vibration. Does that make…?

J: Yeah. So how could someone listening, if they want to be a part of raising that energetic vibration, being more woke, as you said, how can they be more active as leaders in this process of, you know, not numbing out and not dialing back?

C: Yeah. This is some of the stuff I've already talked about for sure is… is feeling it, but it's really important. There's so much shake up right now and there's so much what… I'm hesitant to use the term ‘political correctness’, and I think people are afraid to say things or do things because they don't want to offend people, they don't know what the right thing is, we need to vulnerably say, “I don't know. I don't know what the right thing is, but I'm willing… I don't know the right answer, but I'm willing to play with the questions and I'm willing to have conversations that can be uncomfortable,” because that's what's going to create connection. And between, you know, people who might… it might not have been before, but also just connection to ourselves and our own inner wisdom. And then that is what is going to (I believe) really raise the vibration on this planet.

J: Hmm. So being vulnerable, getting out of the comfort zone, doing what's uncomfortable because that creates connection; I love that.

C: Mm-hmm.

J: And we talked a lot about authenticity and vulnerability, but a lot of times we don't know what it means; but get uncomfortable, people.

C: Yeah!

J: (Laugh)

C: Exactly. I say, “The only place you can connect is from a place of vulnerability,” you know, it's really easy. And we all do it; we wear masks around and we… you know, we be, not exactly their full selves. But if you drop the mask and say, “Hey I don't know what's going on either, but I'm willing to figure it out together,” it's such a beautiful place of connection.

J: Yes, I agree. And when I started Vibrant Happy Women, one of these friends that I have met online, her name's Sarah, she was actually a guest on the show; and I'll link to that in the show notes. But she said, “Jen, way to go; way to create a bubble of light.”

C: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

J: And I've pondered that ever since. Do you feel that empaths have a special role to create these pockets of light in the midst of that shadow and darkness?

C: I actually do, yeah. I actually believe that's why the gift exists is because, when we allow it and we allow these feelings in and we allow ourselves to bring them out through creation, through creating, we are doing the processing, we are creating more light on the planet. And right now… and again, I'll use a term ‘artist’ in a very, very broad sense. Artist’s job is to create this change that we need to see right now. And empaths have a unique ability to sense what's going on so they can bring it through their creations in a really powerful way.

J: Ooh, wow. So it's like the blessing curse; the curse I'm feeling everything, but the blessing of being on the cutting edge and leading into that energy of light and higher vibration.

C: Absolutely. If I could just speak to the empaths right now, I'd be like, “Remember that. Remember that you are doing really important work. Because it can get really heavy sometimes, but the work you're doing is super important.”

J: So we all have those moments when it gets really, really heavy. And so we just return to our bubble of light and feel it and then we try again? I mean, when is ‘enough’ enough?

C: Yeah. So enough is enough sometimes, right? You need to just step away. And I call it… I don't just call it a self-care, it's exquisite self-care.

J: Oh yeah.

C: Like you take the best care of yourself. You eat all the nourishing foods, staying away from as much toxins as you can. Because we're taking in so much energetic toxin that keeping yourself clear and as many other ways as you can are super important. You know, the bubble baths, the walks in nature, the disconnecting from all of the inputs and just play with your kids, cuddling your dog, anything that switches your brain into that relaxation state, that switches your brain into that pleasure state. When I talk about magic, that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about that state of… of just not… when you're just in complete relaxation and pleasure; that is a very magical place and it's a very nourishing and healing place, and we need that as much as anything else. As much as doing the work, we need the nourishing and the self-care.

J: Yes. Well, when I read your bio, I read about the Ruby Slipper School of Magic. Tell us about that and how that connects to exquisite self-care.

C: Well, it's interesting. The Ruby Slipper School of Magic is basically a combination of all the work I've done and I've put it into one nice beautiful home that I absolutely adore. And it's a place where women can come and learn the foundational tools and rituals and practices (I call them feminine practices) that enable them to connect into this magical place; into this energy of magic, which can sound a little, “What does that mean?” but to me, magic is the place where you feel in flow, it's the place where you're inspired, it's a place where you look at the work of another and you're just in awe of how brilliant they are. It's where you feel deep connection to one another and to yourself.

J: Mm-hmm.

C: It's where your best work, you… right? You can feel it. It's getting juicier and juicier because you know that place.

J: Yeah.

C: But get to that place sometimes it takes… you know, it's not as easy to get to that place. So the Ruby Slipper School of Magic, I designed it as a way to give them any easy doable tools and practices. So when women first join, I ask them to take the initiation challenge, which teaches things like learning to connect into your intuition, the feminine art of receiving, we talk about exquisite self-care because it's so important.

J: Mm-hmm.

C: Talk about synchronicity and how to bring more of it and notice it and trust it in your life.

J: Oh yes.

C: Right? Because a lot of people, you know, they want to and they kind of and then they do and then they step back. But when you are able to really start trusting those signs from the universe, those divine links, it's really quite magical things that happen.

J: Yes.

C: And then the final thing we talk about a lot is gratitude and desire in that initiation challenge.

J: Ooh, it sounds heavenly.

C: It kind of is.

[Laughter]

J: Well, so where could we find that?

C: There's a couple places. If… you know, I'll say it verbally, but I'm assuming your show notes we can probably pop it in that. It's www.tinyurl.com/rssm… (so Ruby Slipper School of Magic) rssmchallenge.

J: Oh, nice. Yes.

C: And (unclear) [19:27] that you write in the door, if you go to my website which is really simple, it's just caseyerinwood.com, there's lots of links to get you over to that there as well.

J: Oh, sweet. And we will have that on the show notes, and that will be at jenriday.com/101.

C: Ooh! Ooh! 101; I love that!

J: That's like synchronicity, it’s something; it means something. (Laugh)

C: Exactly.

J: Oh, I love it. Well, let's take a quick break for a sponsor and then we'll come back and talk about some of your faith things.

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(Interview resumes) [22:43]

J: Alright, welcome back, Casey. I love what you're talking about. I definitely feel like I'm an empath and I love how you've kind of inspired me to feel like, “Mmm, that's for a purpose. Everyone who called me too sensitive, they're just silly and I have a work to do, and I'm doing it with my podcast.” Everyone listening, thank you for listening because this just feels so big now that Casey’s put it into words; so I'm great. Well, let's talk about your favorite things and starting with your morning routine. How do you kind of fill up your cup so you have more of that magic; that energy you talked about?

C: Okay, my morning routine is really intense. (Laugh). It's really long, so I won't go into the whole thing.

J: Okay.

C: But the sort of… and it does ebb and flow a little bit, depending on how busy I am, and… but there's some sort of rock solids that I don't change; and that is, I do morning pages, which is…

J: Mm-hmm.

C: I don't know if you're fami… yeah, they're from ‘The Artist’s Way’; read that book like a million years ago, been doing them for like… I think I found a journal that said I've been doing it for like 20 years or something.

J: Wow! Well done!

C: Not every day; not every day but, you know, for a long time. So morning pages are a staple. I go through my desires and my goals and do like a visualization every morning of that.

J: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

C: And I also meditate.

J: Mm-hmm.

C: There's a bunch of other things that weave in there, but those are the staples, I would say.

J: Cool, that's great. And I do most of the same things; that's awesome. I feel like we're kindred spirits actually, Casey.

C: Same feeling here.

J: Well, and like everyone listening, you can just hear us chatting, but I can't wait to end the recording so I could really talk to you.

[Laughter]

J: Ah, so funny. What's your favorite easy meal?

C: My favorite easy meal is just a simple pasta dish, you know, when you have nothing in the house. I live pretty remotely when in Canada; I live in Florida and Canada back and forth…

J: Mm-hmm, okay.

C: … with winter. So sometimes like my closest grocery store is like 50 minutes away.

J: Uh-huh.

C: So my favorite meal is like a garlic sun-dried tomato olive oil pasta, and I like literally just listed the ingredients. You know, just… it's so simple and tasty and the whole family loves it.

J: Ooh, I'm making that. Thank you.

C: Mm-hmm.

J: What's your favorite way to relax?

C: My favorite way to relax is probably journaling or reading.

J: Oh yeah.

C: Or walking. (Laugh)

J: Yeah! Cool.

C: (unclear) [25:02]… those to get through the day.

J: All those are good. And if your mood’s ever low, you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, how do you boost it fast?

C: Working out, without a doubt; moving my body in some way. It could be yoga.

J: Mm-hmm.

C: I just recently started doing… have you heard of Orangetheory?

J: Yeah.

C: It's like…

J: Yeah, it's a fitness center, right?

C: It’s a fitness center, but I'm loving it! I'm loving like putting the… the reigns, giving them to somebody else and they just tell me what to do for 60 minutes. (Laugh)

J: Tell me about it. So you show up and…

C: Yeah.

J: … there's a human, what, a trainer? (Laugh). There's not a horse?

[Laughter]

C: No horses (unclear) [25:40].

J: (Laugh)

C: It was like week 2. But there's a trainer and they switch it up every day. There's like… it’s 24 people in the class.

J: Really?

C: And they move you around; so like half the class is doing one thing, half the class is doing another.

J: Oh, nice.

C: And there's like a wait Center and then there's like a cardio component. But, yeah, they just say, “Do this now, move to this, do this,” and they're encouraging as well, of course.

J: Yeah.

C: And so…

J: So it's like a kind of like a boot camp, kind of?

C: A little bit like camp. It feels a little more gentler than.

J: Ooh.

C: But they… you know, especially as entrepreneurs, like decision overload and decision fatigue, it's nice to like go somewhere somebody else tells you what to do.

J: Yea. Yes! Don't you want that? I know; totally. (Laugh). What's your favorite thing to do in your free time besides the reading; like when you want to connect with your loved ones?

C: We like to… well, we’re down here so I'm thinking in that mode; in Florida mode. We like to ride our bikes. I hadn’t ridden a bike for forever, and then we moved to our place in Florida here and it's right on this giant like flat. (Laugh)

J: Uh-huh.

C: Like, I have sort of this great cruiser bike and we just go out, you know, go down to the beach or go for lunch; I really love that.

J: Do you have kids?

C: I do. I have 2 stepsons that don't live with me because they're 22 and 24.

J: Ah.

C: And then I have an 11-year old daughter.

J: And she moves with you, and so is she homeschooled or..?

C: We do something called unschooling.

J: Ooh, I've heard of that.

C: Yeah, yeah.

J: Tell us what that means, in case someone doesn't know.

C: So unschooling, in a quick short nutshell, is we don't follow curriculum, we don't… she basically learns from life.

J: Mm-hmm.

C: So some people call it childhood learning or bliss learning. So whatever she's interested in, we kind of just go all in. And I tell people, in a real short hands, she learns fractions through baking. So that's like an example of how she learns.

J: Yeah, yeah.

C: Yeah.

J: Ooh, I love it.

C: It's a lot of fun. That's a whole other podcast episode; homeschooling.

J: Truly, truly. And I feel like that's the education of the future.

C: Yeah.

J: I don't know, you know, how quickly it'll be everywhere, but where we're at, my son's in a school where he gets to choose what he wants to learn and the teachers act as guides and kind of mentors, but he designs everything he's learning. So it's kind of like unschool or home school, but it's still at school, so I'm loving it.

C: Is it a Sudbury model?

J: I don't know. It's called Exploration Academy, and it's a high school and they're moving this model to our entire high school. I don't know how they'll pull it off, but it's amazing.

C: Yeah, that's so cool.

J: And it's public, not even private.

C: Oh! Wow! (Laugh)

J: Yeah, no kidding! I know! Well, thanks for letting me share. Anyway, so what is your favorite book or books?

C: Well, we won't go into… you better let… make me stock that one.

J: Okay, okay.

C: Because I have a gazillion. I'm going to go with ‘Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom’ by Christiane Northrup. I think because I'm just in this place where I'm really wanting women to remember like how important our bodies are and being in our bodies and understanding our bodies and taking good care of our bodies. And she provides such a beautiful holistic view of that.

J: Mm-hmm,

C: Yeah. And that she does some great like intro stuff to things like chakras. You know, she says straight up doctor, but she really believes in sort of Eastern medicine as well, so I love that book.

J: Oh, I want a doctor like that. (Laugh)

C: Mm-hmm, right?

J: Yes. And what's the best advice you've ever received?

C: Yeah. When I was 10… think I was about 17 or 18, my aunt who had been previously engaged, and the fellow refused to take the engagement ring back, she gave me that engagement ring and told me to never settle.

J: Oh! (Laugh)

C: To never settle with anything. And I've taken that to heart many, many times. (Laugh)

J: So I've got to learn more. Tell us, where have you not settled? You know, how do you have the strength to do that? What does it look like? That's a hard thing for women.

C: It's really hard. When I was… probably the biggest example, I used to be in the film industry.

J: Mm-hmm.

C: I went to film school and I ended up… I was… I guess I was about… I was my late 20s and I was making bucket loads of money and, you know, had a beautiful apartment and I was doing really well and… except for on the inside, I was like dying. I was smoking like almost 2 packs a day, I ate fast food almost exclusively. I was like so unhappy and disconnected and numbed out; I was killing my poor little empath self.

J: Mm-hmm.

C: And one day, I just decided I couldn't take any more and I just quit. I had no prospects for another job; I had nothing. I was just like, “I'm not going to do this anymore. This isn't… this isn't for me.”

J: Yeah.

C: “(unclear) [30:06]… just settle.”

J: Yeah. And so…

C: Yeah.

J: You survived, you're still here. (Laugh)

C: I did, I did. And I went down a whole other path, which was what I needed to do.

J: Yeah, “Don't settle,” okay, well, that's great. I have to ask, so your spouse, was that hard to find the right guy and not settled there?

C: Well, it took 2 times. (Laugh)

J: Uh-huh.

C: Two different… I was married when I was younger.

J: Mm-hmm.

C: And it did take a while, and we were together. My daughter was 8, which is… he's the father of the daughter. And we had been together for, I think, 13 years before I agreed to marry him.

[Laughter]

J: Oh, you’re so careful! (Laugh)

C: I mean, I did know I was going to be with him anyway, but, you know, it was really important to me that I find somebody that was the right person for me. Don't get me wrong…

J: Right.

C: We still have all the same stuff as any other married person; people.

J: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

C: But, yeah, I was really careful about making sure he was the right person for me.

J: Hmm, great, I love it. Well, let's talk about what it means for you to be a vibrant happy woman.

J: Hmm, what does that mean? I think more than anything, it means feeling good in my own skin. Just feeling… which means feeling like myself. Anytime I feel connected to myself and feel like myself, I feel good. When I'm kind of spun out, a little bit spacey, I'm grounded, that sucks all the energy out of me. (Laugh)

J: Yeah.

C: So other words are grounded, in flow, things feel ease (unclear) [31:33], there's like… the world's just full of grace.

J: Mm-hmm! Ooh, I love that. Well, let's have a challenge from you to our listeners and then, unfortunately, we'll have to say goodbye; mmm.

[Laughter]

C: I… I’m a big believer in, I call the magic breaks; so taking time in your day to like incorporate magic. And, again, that just means, to me, giving yourself a moment of pleasure; something pleasurable. Like it doesn't have to be, you know, chocolate or something like that. It can just be like a moment to step away from your desk and give yourself like a great stretch; something like that. So choose one day this week and get your timer ready on your phone and give yourself at least 3 of them. But let your timer go off, you know, 3 times a day where you just stop and do something that feels good; that feels good to you in your body.

J: Yeah. You know, as you were sharing that I thought of cats. And I'm not a cat lover but they… they totally do that all day! They sit in the sunny window then they'll get up and stretch and then eat a little bit and they're just so chill. So I think it's great.

C: Yes, it is. And that really does connect you into that energy of magic and it makes a whole lot more possible.

J: Yeah, awesome. Well, this was phenomenal. Thank you so much for being on the show, Casey.

C: Well, thank you so much for having me, it so much fun!

J: Take care.

C: Okay, bye-bye.

J: So you learned all of this amazing stuff from Casey. I loved it; I hope you did too. But how are you going to take action? Well, I want to challenge you to engage in exquisite self-care. On the happy bit last week, I talked about getting in bed and being the thinker of your thoughts and getting outside of your comfort zone. Those are just a few pieces of exquisite self-care. Take a moment today and meditate; have a mountain moment. Maybe grab a journal and think about, “What does it mean for me to engage in exquisite self-care?” What does it look like for you; getting in bed for a day, girls night out, taking a weekend away with your friends, taking a trip somewhere with one of your kids, maybe just reading a book for a few hours? Let me know. Email me at support@jenriday.com and tell us all about it or give us a phone call. The phone number is on the bottom of the show notes page at jenriday.com/101. So many great things we can do, I want to hear what you're going to be up to. Again, that's jenriday.com/101. I will see you next week, talking with Lauren Zander all about personal integrity; aligning your thoughts and your beliefs with your desired outcome. Wow, right? Powerful! Aligning all 3, being perfectly committed and having integrity will get you the desired outcome. So we’ll talk about that with Lauren next week; I can't wait. I will see you then. Take care.

Outro: Thanks for listening to the Vibrant Happy Women podcast at www.jenriday.com.