#105 - From Cocoon to Comeback: Re-Engaging With Purpose and Grace

Hey sister, I'm back—and oh, how I've missed this space! In this deeply personal solo episode, I'm sharing where I’ve been for the past two months and what it means to intentionally cocoon during life’s wildest transitions. From unforgettable mountaintop moments with my daughters to full-blown celebratory chaos (yes, we graduated three kids in 14 hours!), I’ve been living deeply and cocooning with purpose. But now? I’m waking up—and I want to help you do the same.

If you've ever needed permission to pause or felt stuck on how to re-engage with your life, your mission, or your spark—this episode is for you. I walk you through five heart-centered principles to help you transition out of a cocooning season and re-enter your world with clarity, energy, and grace. Let's wake up together.

⏳ Timeline Summary

[1:08] - Why I went silent for two months and what cocooning really meant for me
 [3:20] - Sacred time with Chloe in Zion: the unexpected start of a transformative season
 [5:15] - Jet-setting, FOMO, and three unforgettable family graduations
 [10:22] - Partying like rockstars and the crash that followed: my three-week illness
 [14:06] - My declaration: This is my summer of serenity and surrender
 [16:35] - Facing the empty nest with both fear and excitement
 [17:48] - Waking up from the cocoon: five steps to re-engage with your life
 [26:35] - Honoring the pause and giving yourself grace
 [28:22] - What’s coming next for the Girl Out of Order podcast

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Transcript

Christine Gale (00:01.678)
Hey there, sister. Welcome back to the Girl Out of Order podcast. Well, if you've been listening to Girl Out of Order for any number of months, maybe even years, you may have noticed that I have been silent since April 21st. That's right. I have not dropped an episode in two months. And that's really strange for me, but I want to tell you why.

And I want to share with you where I'm at and where we are going because there's so much to talk about. There's so many things going on. And I know that the message of Girl Out of Order can truly change our hurting world. So let me begin with where the heck have I been? Well, you hear the little cough?

That's in part where I've been. was sick, but that was more of a footnote or a side note or whatever the kind of note you want to call it. What has actually been going on is the part of the title of this message. I have been intentionally cocooning and I'm calling this message, waking up from the cocoon. I'm going to give you some tips to re-engage with life.

when you're going through a transition of pretty much any kind. mean, honestly, you can fill in the blank. When we go through major life shifts and upheavals, sometimes it's not only necessary to cocoon, it's healthy, it's vibrant, it's intentional, it's life-sustaining. I don't know, vibrant's the right word. That word just slipped out, but girl, I gotta be honest, because you know at Girl Out of Order, we...

We just tell it like it is. And I don't think vibrance the right word. However, what I love about that word slipping out is that vibrancy is what awaits on the other side of this cocooning. So where have I been? Well, let me just tell you, it snuck up on me a little bit. Although my calendar saw things coming, I'm not sure my spirit

Christine Gale (02:24.634)
and my planning for the podcast and social media, because I haven't even been showing up there and in my community, I'm not sure I really gave what was coming enough credit for the attention, the intentionality, the spiritual.

I don't want to use the word draining because I don't think that's accurate, but just the spiritual energy that was going to be necessary for my life between the end of April and actually the end of the summer, but we're through a lot of the really big craziness. And so after I dropped the April 21st episode, I was getting ready to go on a trip with my oldest daughter, Chloe. We went to

We flew into Vegas had a lovely day in Vegas and then drove up to Utah and we hiked Zion for three straight days and it was Such a no pun intended. pun intended mountaintop experience Being able to have alone time with my oldest daughter Holy smokes, it made me so deeply grateful and aware of how

precious that relationship is with Chloe and how little time I've had with this daughter of mine in the last six years. So Chloe is 24. She just started PA school, physician assistant school in May. And so we grabbed a hold of this five days to go away together. And from the moment she got here and we packed up the car,

to the moment I waved goodbye when she was heading back home, it was sacred. And it was like the starting gun for the next several weeks. And what do I mean by that? Holy smokes. So Chloe and I, we go on this fabulous trip. I'm back for about four days. And then I got the amazing opportunity. I think I said amazing. That's not a word by the way. Amazing.

Christine Gale (04:44.296)
opportunity to go back to Vegas again. I literally boomeranged back to Vegas to have three incredible days with my true legacy collective, my TLC sisters. It was the kickoff for our new year. I was not planning on going. I don't even think I was there the whole three days. I don't even remember. It's such a blur. I wasn't planning on going because I had another incredible experience that I got to have another mountaintop experience.

But of course, Christine struggled a little bit with FOMO and I love this collective of women so much. I knew that this time in Vegas was gonna be so sacred, so connective, I did not wanna miss out. So I was back for a few days, working, working, working so hard on my business, packing things back up. I don't think I ever fully unpacked. Flew to Vegas and listen to this, got back on Wednesday night from Vegas.

And then Sean and I turned around and at the butt crack of dawn on Thursday, we flew out to Utica, New York. That's upstate New York by Syracuse for all of you who, I had no idea. To watch our daughter Delaney run in the junior college national track meet. So we had three days there. I think it was three. So we got Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Yes, three days. I lost track of that too. It was.

pouring rain, it was cold, was windy, then it got sunny and it was just, she became a four time All-American. Like I wouldn't have wanted to miss a moment. And so I'm still chugging along, like taking in all of the, see this is all good stuff. This is all good stuff sisters. So what I want you to hear as I'm telling you my story, before I give you all the crazy principles at the end.

is that sometimes our necessity for cocooning and wrapping ourselves up in a smaller version of our big crazy life is necessary because there's so much richness happening and you don't want to miss a thing. So we get back, we get back from Utica, New York celebrating our four time All-American. It was a wonderful experience.

Christine Gale (07:02.572)
And that was on a Sunday. And then on Friday at 1 p.m. in the afternoon, Delaney, the same person who was just in New York with, she graduated with her associate's degree from junior college. And it was so much fun. And then we had dinner and then we went to sleep and then we got up the next morning and at 10 a.m. we graduated Sophie, our baby from high school. Yep, the next morning. But of course it doesn't stop there. We took super fast pictures. I don't know if you guys ever watched the...

national lampoon's vacation when they were trying to get out to California and they stopped at the Grand Canyon and the dad's it's there he's like okay great looks good let's go and they don't even get a chance to soak up the Grand Canyon well that's what happened because we had to fly into our car drive three and a half hours north to run into the auditorium to watch our second daughter Chelsea graduate with her bachelor of science from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse we literally

graduated three children in, what was it, 14 hours? It was mayhem and it was amazing. So we have the trip to Utah, then we have the trip to Vegas and I go back to Vegas. Wait, no, trip to Vegas in Utah, go back to Vegas, go to New York, come back, have all these graduations. And then we are having such an amazing celebration. Sean and I being the we,

Seem to have forgotten that we're not in our 20s. And so we partied like rock stars that night at all the different college bars with Chelsea and her fiance, Ken, and our daughter, Chloe, and all their friends. We must have partied till 2.30, three o'clock in the morning. And on Tuesday, I got sick. surprise, surprise. Like, how could I possibly have gotten sick? I don't know where that came from, but I got sick sick.

I coughed myself to the point of vomit off and on for about three and a half weeks. It was something else. Why am I sharing all this with you? Because I want you to know that I have not disappeared. I have not given up. I care deeply about you and the mission of Girl Out of Order. Let's remind ourselves what that is. It is to cultivate bravery.

Christine Gale (09:27.074)
to do the work to live in alignment with your true identity. Cultivate bravery. Number two, it's to inspire boldness, to inspire you to go out and live this beautiful, big, gorgeous, compelling life. If you heard the new intro to the podcast, it's a lot shorter, but it's really to the point. And we want you to make the most of your one wild and precious life. So that requires boldness. And then number three,

We are here to build bridges among all women. That is still my passion. That is my mission. That is my goal. That is my desire. So I am sharing all this with you because all of a sudden Christine just dropped off the face of the planet and I don't think I did it well. I didn't do it elegantly. Yes, I cocooned. I don't regret that. I don't begrudge that. I did the right thing for myself, my family, my health, but I didn't let people know in this community and I should have done that. So I learned from the way I handled this.

that sometimes when we need to cocoon, when we need to fold in on ourselves, when we need to pull the proverbial blankets around us so that we don't miss a thing or so that we can take care of our priorities and we need to disconnect a bit from the things around us, we should do it with elegance, grace and thoughtfulness. I didn't do that. And I would do it better. I would do it differently. But I am back. I am here.

I am excited, I am ready, and I can't wait to tell you the rest of the story because there's more! Because why not? So I came out of this sickness finally. my goodness. It is so hard to be sick, especially when you have to talk in court, when you're meeting with clients, when you're just sitting out at the bar with your husband. Thankfully we're not in a time where, you know, during that mandatory pause where everybody stared at you, cross-eyed at you, coughed. However, still hard to be in the movie theater.

I don't know where I went on that rabbit trail, but come on back on with me. not last weekend. Gosh, was it just last weekend? Yeah, just last weekend. Time is flying by. Just last weekend, we had the honor of hosting the engagement party for Chelsea and her fiance, Ken in our backyard. And when we said yes to that, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. my goodness.

Christine Gale (11:50.54)
Wow, what a dress rehearsal for the wedding planning. I don't regret a thing, however, I wish I would have been maybe a little bit more dialed in, a little bit more aware of what it would cost, how it would feel, how much work it would be because it was a lot. It consumed so much of my day. And there were many times where I'm like, okay, we got through the graduations, I'm not sick, let's reengage in the podcast.

Get out there, Christine, and all I could do was plan menus, iron tablecloths, order things on Amazon, follow up with family members. And it was amazing. It was a beautiful celebration of bringing together of these two families in our backyard. Actually, yes, it's two families, but my husband's side of the family is super complicated. So that was a really fun event. But seeing our backyard transformed into this beautiful

reflection of Chell and Ken's love and all this family and in the pool and the grandparents, Ken's grandparents, two sets of them drove two and a half hours of this family and the food and the drink and the games and the laughter. was freaking amazing. And let me tell you, sister.

if I had been pushing and striving and straining and being hard on myself because I wasn't showing it for every week, I wasn't on social media every day, I wasn't doing all the things and checking all the boxes, you know what would have happened? I would have missed what was right before my very eyes. My soul would have been depleted and instead my soul was so present.

I made a declaration in a meeting for Unleash Her Power Within our alumni, and I didn't even really realize what my mission was for this summer, because there's even more, believe it or not. I'm cocooning because this is my summer of serenity and surrender. You see, in two and a half months, in two months, we take our last baby to college.

Christine Gale (14:06.966)
And two weeks later, we take our third baby to college and then we come home to our empty nest.

Christine Gale (14:17.014)
And even as I say it, it catches in my throat. Who am I speaking to out there? Who am I speaking to that has gone through a major life transition where you know it's right. You want it to happen because it's absolutely how it should be, but you just don't want it to get here. That's what we're feeling. That's what I'm feeling. I can't speak for my husband, but I...

Suspect his little mild panic attacks and lumps in his 30s feeling the same way because I'm gonna be really honest sister I'm not sure who I am if I don't have children at home. It's been a quarter century since I've been a mama with children under my roof and Everything is changing Everything is shifting and it is so scary and so Exciting, holy smokes. It's a both-and

What do you say to that? It's a both and. Both things can be true.

But if I was not in my cocoon, if I was not resting and flowing and receiving, then I'm not available for a daughter who comes into my office in tears, mom, can I talk to you? For a daughter who's like, I don't know who I'm living with, mom, how do I find a roommate? For a child who is feeling sick and needs me to get her halls and to rub her back because she can't sleep.

These are the things that you create space for when you choose to intentionally cocoon in a season where you need to rest, receive, and be present.

Christine Gale (16:06.798)
But that's not the title of this message. The title of this podcast is Waking Up From the Cocoon. How do we engage? How do we re-engage? Like, what do we do? How do we re-engage? Because here's what I found. Let me see if you can relate. What I have found is that I'm really liking this slower pace. What I have found is I might...

be a little bit lazy. What I have found is some of my motivation and passion has waned and girl needs to self-tase and wake up. Self-tase, what the heck does that mean?

I just wanna wake up, but here's what I wanna do differently and this is what I wanna share with you. I'm gonna give you some practical tips how you too can wake up from your cocoon, how you can begin to re-engage with your life, your passion, your vision, your mission, your finances, your relationship, your health, whatever it is for you.

Christine Gale (17:22.158)
How we wake up often determines the trajectory and the quality of the new stage we're going into. Let me say that again. How we wake up from our cocoon often determines the trajectory and the quality of the new stage we're entering.

Christine Gale (17:48.878)
So the first thing you need to do when you start to feel you're stirring inside that cocoon, when you're ready to start emerging into this new stage of life.

It's just embrace the pause. You embrace the pause. I was speaking with Lauren Lahav, my mentor, about being frustrated that I haven't made more bold moves and I'm not pushing ahead and I'm not, you know, making all these strides and launching the book and all this kind of stuff. And she said to me, she's like, you are struggling so hard to give yourself grace.

And I'm going to be honest, I get really pissed off when people say that. But isn't it funny that I've had lot of opportunities to get pissed off for people saying that because there must be a kernel of truth in that. So she asked me, what is grace to you? And it rolled right off my tongue. And I'm just going to share my brilliance with you. Grace is number one, acknowledging my humanity.

acknowledging my humanity. What I've been going through is a lot of really intense emotional experiences and I'm having a human experience of letting go. And it's okay that that is pushing me, that that is hard, that that can involve some grieving. So I want to give myself some grace in this pause and acknowledge my humanity. Recognize my potential. This is huge.

When you're giving yourself grace, recognize your potential. Just because you haven't done it yet doesn't mean you can't do it. Just because you haven't launched the thing or started the business or paid off all the debt doesn't mean you don't have the potential to do all of those things in the right timing. And then the third one is to celebrate my progress. So giving yourself grace is acknowledging your humanity, recognizing your potential and celebrating your progress or

Christine Gale (19:51.008)
celebrating your impact. I want to speak on stages. I want to finish my first book. I want to launch all these crazy big things. And if I don't acknowledge or excuse me, celebrate the impact I'm already making on my coaching client and my mastermind ladies and in this podcast and in my own daughters first and freaking foremost, then I am not giving myself grace. So embrace the pause, sister.

Sometimes taking a step back is exactly what we need to gain clarity and to get the rest we need to have more energy. Give yourself that permission to embrace the pause and then redefining your purpose. So I'm using the terminology and the metaphor of a cocoon and it's such a common, sometimes overused analogy. the caterpillar goes into the cocoon and emerges a beautiful butterfly.

And it's a wonderful metaphor for so many things in life. What is often overlooked is what actually happens inside that cocoon, for that caterpillar to become that beautiful butterfly. It's the dismantling of the very essence of the caterpillar and the reforming of that caterpillar into the butterfly. You're transitioning from one stage, from one essence.

to another.

So my second tip for you when you're waking up from your cocoon is to redefine your purpose. throws change. Life is always changing. That's one of the constants in this world is life changes. Tony Robbins adds, things end. Life changes and things end. Are your kids leaving for college? Are you going through a divorce?

Christine Gale (21:53.154)
Have you made it through cancer?

Christine Gale (21:58.05)
Maybe you had a major surgery. Maybe you had a breakdown with a girlfriend. Maybe you a breach in your relationship with your mom. Maybe your mom died like mine.

Emerging from your cocoon is such a beautiful opportunity to redefine your purpose, your passion, your mission, your goals. You get one shot at this big, beautiful, crazy life. What are you going to do with it? Emerging from this cocoon, done with intention, done with pacing, can absolutely be a blank canvas for you to recreate.

who you want to be, what you want to do, where you want to give your energy, what things you need to let go of, and lovingly wrap up.

Number three, recognize that small steps when you're waking up actually have really, really big impact. Me taking this small step of re-engaging in this podcast, I know it's going to have a big impact because I know there are listeners out there who need this message that it's okay to cocoon for a time. But when it's time to wake up,

Give yourself grace, take those small steps. Manageable actions. It's about building momentum. See, I think what I was feeling and struggling with is that I kind of liked being lazy, but then I started to call myself lazy and realized it's not about laziness. It's about intentional pausing and breathing. And I don't have to just

Christine Gale (23:52.238)
pop out of bed and start marching through the next phase of my life. It's not gonna happen that way. You've heard me say this a lot. Tony Robbins says it a lot. Two millimeter shifts make massive changes over not actually that long of a period of time. So take those small steps to wake up. What's one thing you can do to reengage with your mission? What is one call you can make to change your job situation?

What's one step you can take to start investing for your future? Reconnect with a hobby, start a new routine, do your cold plunge. I got my cold plunge back out after the party and it felt so good just to do the routines that make me feel meticulous and organized and reliable and frankly really healthy, especially when it's 95 degrees out. Number four and this is critical.

community and connection. You are not alone. You don't have to be alone. You don't have to choose to walk this road by yourself. Whatever stage or phase you're going through, whatever reasons you got into that cocoon and you pulled back from the things that you were doing that you loved, that you thought gave you purpose.

You don't have to do it alone. There are so many people out there wanting to connect. There's groups you can join. There's places you can volunteer. There's phones. This whole thing called phones, where you can actually pick up the phone and call somebody you love that you haven't talked to in a while. Re-engaging in relationships. Finding a supportive community can make a huge difference in getting your motivation back.

And sometimes when you connect with a community, you realize that one of those things you pulled back from to get some perspective, to rest, to listen, to be present might actually need to be permanently closed. Recently, my podcast coach, the one that actually got me started, she just stopped doing her podcast. She put out her last episode on June 11th. And I want to honor her.

Christine Gale (26:12.366)
Keisha Fitzgerald Get Married has made a massive impact on millions of women who've listened to her podcast, gone to her live shows, and engaged with her community. And she's going through a different season of life, and she's made a decision to permanently pull back from her podcast. Well, permanent. Nothing's ever really permanent, especially not with Keisha, because she's always changing and moving that one. But she's engaging in a different community.

She's finding different connections. She took some time due to some really difficult personal situations to pull back and do her own version of cocooning so she could grieve. And now she's emerging as a very different butterfly than I think she ever thought she'd be. But she's not doing it alone. She's engaging with her best friend. She's engaging with her husband. She's building a different kind of community. One thing that woman does amazingly well is she does not walk this road alone. And then lastly,

Sister, I'm saying this as much for me as I am for you, celebrate progress every step forward, no matter how small is worth celebrating. Every time you get up and you make a social media post or you send somebody a DM or like me, I'm gonna be sending out invites to be a guest on Girl Out of Order. Is that you? Would you like to be featured on the Girl Out of Order podcast? If so, please DM me, go into the show notes.

all the ways to contact me on there. you're interested in being a guest on the Girl Out of Order podcast and you believe you have a message that can resonate with listeners like you, hit me up. See, what did I just do? I just took some action, made some progress, and I'm celebrating. It's that simple. Celebrate those little tiny steps, no matter how it's worth celebrating. It's a reminder, sister, that growth is happening, even if it feels gradual.

Even if it feels glacial, I love that word. Even if it feels glacial, it's still progress. It's still happening. So celebrate it.

Christine Gale (28:22.264)
Just to recap for you so you don't forget, embrace your pause. If you're getting ready to launch some kids, be present. I am. Yes, I'm doing this podcast, but I am going at my own pace and I am putting no pressure on myself because I am in flow, damn it. And I do not want to miss a thing. Like my husband told me as he was, his arms wrapped around me in the pool yesterday, he's like, don't you dare. He literally said that. Don't you dare. Don't you dare push too hard, go too fast.

and then take yourself out of this present moment because we never get these two months back. Create the space, embrace the pause, and then use this opportunity to wake up by redefining your life purpose. Be gracious with yourself, acknowledge your humanity, recognize your potential, and celebrate your impact and your progress. Take small steps.

Don't go flying out of this cocoon thinking you're somehow going to start soaring. Take small steps and build momentum and foundation. Get into a community, connect with people. Don't go this road alone. then lastly, celebrate your progress. You're doing amazing. I'm so happy to be back. I've got a couple great interviews lined up. And I can't wait for you to hear from some of the most incredible women that I have in my life.

The Girl Out of Order podcast is back, baby! Woo! We are back and I am so excited. It's going to be an incredible ride and I appreciate you being on it with me. And I'm gonna leave you like I always do. Sister, please keep being a Girl Out of Order because this world needs you now more than ever. This world needs what only you can provide and we are in this together.

I love you. You're doing amazing. And maybe I'll even hear from some of you about being a guest on the Girl Out of Order podcast. Until next time.