308 ~ Personal Evolution: Unraveling and Becoming

Hello Magical Human & welcome back to Madison Mindset the Podcast 🪬

Life moves in cycles of unraveling and becoming, with each transition phase leading to a new level of growth and understanding.

episode overview:
• stepping away from Instagram and social media to reconnect with authentic purpose
• comparing current self to past selves to appreciate growth and evolution
• understanding that dreams can be forks in the road rather than final destinations
• learning to step aside when things are falling apart instead of trying to hold them together
• finding peace in the knowledge that unraveling is a normal, natural part of life

Join me on Patreon for extra podcast episodes & practices - I appreciate your support always 🙏🏼 (link is below)

Love,

Madison Mindset x

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Madison Mindset
• 2:00 Recording in Nature's Embrace
• 4:00 Unraveling and Becoming
• 8:15 Stepping Away from Instagram
• 13:00 Realigning My Business Approach
• 18:00 Navigating Life's Changing Currents
• 22:45 Embracing Your Unraveling Process
• 27:05 Looking Back at Growth

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hello Magical Human and welcome to Madison Mindset the podcast. My name is Madison, I am 27 years young, I am from Australia and I am a yoga teacher and a mindset and spirituality coach. Most importantly, I'm a student of yoga and a student of life and I'm here to share with you my lessons, the teachings that have helped me and practices that can assist you in living a life that you love. You are worthy. Hope you enjoy the episode. Hello Magical Human, welcome back to Madison Mindset the podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:49

I have taken you out into the forest, I've got my laptop and my recording mic, so the audio is a little bit better. But it's so strange sitting down here with a laptop. I have to say the laptop appears to be very wrong in this environment. It's interesting. You know, nature doesn't recognize the laptop. The laptop doesn't recognize nature. It's just, you know, searching for a Wi-Fi signal or a Bluetooth connection or some kind of connection, I suppose, and it's interesting to see them both come together. And when you've got your laptop, you know, sitting on a mossy rock, it's quite interesting, um, but yeah, I feel more grounded out here doing recordings. So you know I'm not. If you've been listening for a while, you know me pretty well Like I'm not. I'm not a big recording studio fan with fancy tech equipment. I'd much rather try and bring you know these creations into nature best as possible and, you know, allowing that to influence what I say and the energy of the episode. I think it's so nice. So, yes, I will have a mossy rock for a table and, yeah, I'm going to listen. I don't know if you can hear it. I don't know if the mic is going to pick it up and, yeah, I'm gonna listen. I don't know if you can hear it. I don't know if the mic is going to pick it up, but I'm about 10 or 15 meters away from a running stream, so that might have a bit of ambient background noise for you or something, but depends how good this mic is. We're about to find out.

Speaker 1: 2:20

But yeah, today I wanted to bring you a beautiful episode that's going to be focused on constant becoming and, more specifically, the constant unraveling and becoming. Lately I've gone through a personal journey of unraveling and becoming and I wanted to share that with you. I'm not going to give you the details on a personal level, but it did impact my business as well, which is part of what you're listening to right now so that I will share with you. But just to give you an idea, I've been teaching yoga for five years and doing the podcast for four years and being a mindset coach for about the same time, and you know I've been studying along the way and going through my own stuff along the way and it's fascinating how different I am from when I started. You know, it's very interesting. You know the way I did things, the way I was thinking, what was going on in my head is very different.

Speaker 1: 3:22

Only yesterday I scrolled all the way back on my Instagram, all the way back to the beginning, and watch some of the reels I used to put up and, oh my goodness, I was so not embarrassed, because you know you go through stages, right, and I'm very proud of the version of myself that I was then. You know I was 22 or whatever I was when I started that Instagram and you know I was so young, so young and figuring this out. I knew what I wanted to create, but the way I was doing it was hilarious. You know I was doing like these trendy dances and using these intense filters and then trying to teach about mindset and the teachings were pretty good. I was like, yeah, that's not too bad, like, um, I would have said I would say it differently now, but you know, that makes sense. But oh, my goodness, I was just some of them. I was like, oh, cringe, just because it's like you grow up and you continue to grow up. You know, when people say like, oh, you're all grown up now, it's like no, I'm still growing, still growing. You'll still look back on yourself, you know, in 10 years time, and go, wow, I was so naive, I'd learned so much.

Speaker 1: 4:27

Since then I'm a different person. You know, I don't think that ever stops, but I've observed how much you know, unraveling and becoming that I've done, and in the last few months everything just kind of unraveled for me all at once. You know, you get these feelings of like, oh, I don't want to be doing what I'm doing anymore. I don't like the way I'm doing it, the way it's functioning, the way it makes me feel, the way I you know, I kind of described it, as you know feeling like I need to chase my tail, like there's more to do than I could possibly ever do, and it just doesn't make much sense and I'm not getting, you know, much satisfaction from it.

Speaker 1: 5:07

So what I did, which some of you may have noticed, was get off Instagram. Um, because I noticed that when I wanted to be busy or when I was doing work, I'd just make Instagram reels. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's a great marketing technique, but that's all it is. You know, it's a, it's a marketing thing, it's a way to connect with people in a different way, but it's certainly not work. It's not the place where you're going to create the magic. So I just realized I'm in an unhealthy habit here. I'm just going to get off Instagram. So I got off Instagram for the majority of this year and I've only just come back on the past week and shared some stuff, and I'm much more grounded. I'm not scrolling on it anymore. I'm just simply coming on with a purpose, sharing as authentically and what's the right word here? Basically, I don't want to.

Speaker 1: 5:56

I don't know how to say this, but in a lot of those dances I saw myself doing, which were were trendy dances, I wasn't making any of the dances up, but basically, you know back in what? When was it? I, to be honest, I don't see many of these dance trends anymore. I'm sure they're still a thing, but it's definitely not part on my algorithm, I don't see it but they, a lot of them, were quite sensual, you know, like they weren't quote inappropriate, but they were definitely suggestive and that was one of the things I hated the most. It was like, you know, that version of myself, that younger version of myself. You know, you see these successful people who are doing these trendy dances and you're like, oh, I must have to do these trendy dances.

Speaker 1: 6:39

And you know, now people are showing, you know, yoga content where you yoga is a science of the mind, it's a gift and actually teaches brahmacharya, which used to be translated to celibacy but could be, you know, as recently more defined as moderation. You know, and conserving your energy and not sharing your energy in an inauthentic way or in a way that doesn't serve you, that gives part of you away, and I very much saw that I was giving part of myself away youic way or in a way that doesn't serve you, that gives part of you away, and I very much saw that I was giving part of myself away, you know, not in a bad way, it was not bad. By the way, I've deleted all these videos, so if you're like, I'm going to go and see. They're not there, so don't even bother. I was like I don't want that on the internet, I don't want that to be seen anymore than it already has. You know so. But I've kept some of them up there that were just, you know, not that bad and had a good teaching, or I liked the audio as a good message. There's one of them on there that reminds me of when I was six years old doing dances for mum and dad in the living room. You know so.

Speaker 1: 7:36

There's nothing bad about them, but there was definitely an element of I have to sell my body in order for anyone to pay attention to me, or I have to use this method to get attention in order for people to actually see what I'm, you know, promoting, which is, you know, the mindset in yoga. So you know it's sad that we've gotten to a point where people who are quote selling yoga are, unfortunately, most of the time, you know, a lot of it. I'm not saying it's everyone, it's not everyone, but unfortunately A lot of the really popular stuff is hot women in barely any clothing. You can see everything and it goes off, and that's so sad because that's not yoga, but people are into that because they like what it looks like. So you're actually turning people away from yoga when you do that and pulling the wrong crowd. But that attention seeking is the way you get followers and things like that. So I didn't want to be a part of that at all. And to see, I didn't think I was a part of that, but when I reflect back a few years ago I can see that that was definitely making an influence on me. So that's why that was I had to get off Instagram.

Speaker 1: 8:48

I had to give myself some space and figure out who I am and what I want again, without all the influence and the noise of the external world. You know, and you know I don't promote Instagram at all. I really hate Instagram. I'm like the only reason I'm on there is to help promote business. You know the yoga studio and also you know the podcast and you know. But if I was, if I was to ever hire anyone, the first person would be a social media manager.

Speaker 1: 9:16

Because I do not want to do it. I don't want to be on there. I deleted my personal account. You know, I don't believe in it at all and I actually tell people all the time to get off it. You know it's not good for you. Go and live your life. Go and put your feet on some mossy rocks, you know. Get off it. Make a scarf, do some painting, do some singing, you know, hang out with people. Put your phone away. So it's also you know. It doesn't align with me to promote Instagram in that way and encourage people to be on there. So, forever, my content will be pushing people to find themselves and to connect with life more. So, yeah, so that's definitely going to be changing.

Speaker 1: 9:54

But basically the unraveling was me going what do I want to do with my life, how do I want things to go? And a lot of this stuff you'll find out over the coming months and year because a lot of it can't be shared yet, because there's a lot of things in the works and but you'll find out as we go on. But basically, for me, I feel much more grounded in what the podcast is for and much more grounded in how I'm helping people. So, for example, you know I'm on Patreon and I had a few tiers up there. Tiers are like the different sub, what's it called? Subscription doorways? We'll call it to give it a bit of a spiritual effect. Yeah, you can basically sign up to different tiers and each one has a different value.

Speaker 1: 10:41

I didn't like that because it put a lot of pressure on me to record and show up and because I'm still building that Patreon, it's very hard to do it when there's very few people on there. It's like, oh, you don't have to keep showing up, and because I'm still building that Patreon, it's very hard to do it when there's very few people on there. You know it's like, oh, you don't have to keep showing up. And I say this to anyone who wants to build anything Like when I started this podcast, I would get like 10 listens a week, you know. And now it's like 5,000 listens a week and it's up near the 3 million download mark. You know you have to give it some time. This is my fifth year doing the podcast, so you have to give things some time. So I'm aware of that. But at the same time, you don't want to run yourself thin, so I've changed it to a one tier only.

Speaker 1: 11:20

It's super cheap. It's $5 USD a month. It's basically an opportunity for you to support me. You know, if you enjoy this podcast, if you value it, it basically gives you a way to support and to give back. You know, $5 a month. That's, that's one coffee, not even. Um, yeah, it's really beautiful. And on there, going forward, there will be one journaling practice a month, a bonus podcast episode between 20 to 30 minutes and a bonus practice episode which could be the affirmations, could be meditation, but it will be something completely separate to the podcast. So I'm basically just going to give a little bit more to you to say thank you for supporting me and being willing to give back, because that really allows me to do this as a job, you know, and it gives me more time to create with intention and it means the world, you know.

Speaker 1: 12:16

So, yeah, it's that's what I've and it feels so much better, you know, because I had to record going back only a month, plus three Patreon things, we'll say per week. So it was a lot, plus the editing, plus teaching yoga full-time, plus all the other things. It was getting ridiculous. I couldn't keep up with it and it was getting to the point where I lost the joy for it, because when you feel like something has become too hard, it's very hard to feel the connection to it. So, yeah, now I feel free, but I also feel like. I've got a really special place on the internet to give back.

Speaker 1: 13:04

You'll also find in the coming weeks I'll be offering a meditation workshop on Patreon, which will be a one-time payment. So you literally buy this three-hour meditation workshop that was recorded live and you have it. It's yours, you know. Listen to it as many times as you want, yeah, so I'll basically be putting up workshops, classes, practices for sale, basically. So you don't need to subscribe to something and have that constant payment. Instead, you just simply buy the workshop, buy the class, buy the session, and then it's yours, you know, and that feels so much more aligned for me because I don't have the pressure of continuously showing up for you when you've, when you've spent your money. But you have something of value that's there, you know.

Speaker 1: 13:54

So you know, the first one that goes up will be the meditation workshop. It's called Harness the Mind with Meditation. It's actually a live workshop I taught about a year ago and I recorded the audio, yeah, so that we could edit it and have it up there for people who attended the workshop they really, you know, wanted to keep listening to it and for people who couldn't be there or who perhaps live across the ocean and couldn't be there for obvious reasons, you know. So that'll be coming up in, that'll be up this week, I believe this week or next week. So yeah, I'm, I feel really so much more aligned with that. It feels like I'm creating more intentionally, so yeah. So that's just to give you a quick rundown. There is so much depth here and you know, my two closest girlfriends have both heard about me, rave on about you know what I've been thinking and what I've been dealing with and what's been going on in my mind and basically I've just done a 180 in what I want in the future and how I want things to continue. So, basically, what I've shared with you is what I feel comfortable sharing now and is relevant to the podcast, but the rest of it will be revealed in time as I settle into it. So, basically, I feel like I've done the unravelling for now, and this week I stepped into becoming and this is what has inspired this episode Because you know, you may think you know what you want, you may think you know the direction you're heading, you know how you're going to do it, you know how it's going to work, and then something changes.

Speaker 1: 15:37

You know, it's a feeling, it's a sensation. It's a start of a spiral and you end up questioning and the more you try and grip on to what you wanted, you know, and trying not to change what you wanted, you know you're trying so hard to grip on. No, I wanted this, this is my plan, this is what was going to happen. You know, if you try and fight the current, this is so aligned because I'm watching a current now right Flow like all this water is not going to try and fight the direction, it's not going to try and go back to where it came from, because this is where it's going. You have to allow things to flow.

Speaker 1: 16:12

So if you're becoming or transitioning into something new, or your ideas are evolving, your dreams are unraveling, you have to know that sometimes dreams aren't or goals are not a destination. Sometimes they're a fork in the road. You start heading towards it and you're like this is great, and then you get there and you realize it's a fork in the road and that dream was simply a catalyst to get you to the next one. You know, even if you didn't achieve it, you may find that that desire just simply led you to the next, the next hint, you know, and this you know I've had many unravelings and becomings in my life, and so have you. You know you think you've got everything sorted and then everything gets turned on its head in a big tornado and then and then you settle again and you realize you've got it again. You know, that's that's why you keep growing, that's why you're never fully grown up in this life. You know.

Speaker 1: 17:09

So I want you to know, want you to know that if you're going through an unraveling process, if you're learning, expanding, changing, growing and things are not how you thought they were going to be, it's completely normal, that's part of life and it's expected. So we have to get really comfortable when you end up in a period of unraveling. Get comfortable with the fact that it's leading you somewhere else, potentially, and you're going to eventually walk away with more clarity and more purpose and more energy. But if you fight that unraveling, if you're like, no, I'm going this way, I don't want to do it that way, I don't want to have this, I don't want to do that, if you fight it, it just drags it out and it becomes more and more painful. It's like ripping off a band-aid slowly. You know there's no point. If you notice there's an unraveling, you notice the current's changing direction. Sometimes you've got to go with it and then eventually you'll be left with peace, serenity and clarity. So my advice to you is not to run away from any period of unraveling, anything that feels like it's coming undone.

Speaker 1: 18:16

Don't try and hold it all together. Okay, if things are meant to fall over, they're meant to fall over. You know, right now I'm also looking at a lot of toppled trees, because we had a massive flood through here a couple years ago and all the trees are leaning slightly towards the direction of the current right and a lot of them fell over in the process. If you were here when those trees were falling and you didn't want it to fall over, you could hold onto it all you want. You could try and help it stand up. These trees are massive right. So if you get underneath that tree and you're trying to hold the tree up and you're like, no, it's not going to fall over, it's going to go anyway Eventually you might delay it by a moment, it's going to go eventually and probably crush you in the process, you know. So if some part of your life needs to fall or needs to rebuild or needs to change and morph.

Speaker 1: 19:02

My advice to you is step out of the way and let it fall. Let the chips fall where they may and once it's settled, then you can look at the damage. Then you can look at okay, where am I going from here, what's the plan now? But don't try and stop it, because it's part of life. We're going to go through these unravelings and I'm so glad that I did. You know, I had a really hard couple of weeks, months of going. What am I doing? And it's so frustrating, you know. But I'm so glad that I was able to trust and listen and play with different ideas and experiment and learn, because I feel like I've upgraded. You know, I feel like I've leveled up in this game called life. You know, I feel like I know, moreed up in this game called life. You know, I feel like I know more. I have become more. So I encourage you to do that. You know, don't? You can't force an unraveling. You can't force a becoming.

Speaker 1: 20:00

They will happen by themselves. Sometimes you get heaps of them in a short period of time and sometimes, maybe, maybe you get none for a couple years, who knows? And sometimes maybe you get none for a couple years, who knows, but an idea you know. If you are like am I going through an unravelling? Do things feel like it's falling apart? Is everything feeling unstable, unsteady, unsure, do you have a lot of doubt, questions? Is your energy quite low and you're struggling, Then potentially there's an unraveling happening and if you feel like you've got it all together, everything's going really well, you know you've got plenty of energy. You're floating along perfectly happy, having a great time. You're probably in a becoming. You know you've just leveled up and you get to enjoy.

Speaker 1: 20:45

You know when you I'm going to use a video game reference everybody oh, my goodness, this might be the first one. I used to play video games when I was like 13 with my brother. It was the classic things, especially like. We used to love Minecraft and stuff like that Nerdy side coming out. Anyway, you know, when you level up in a game and after you level up for a moment, it's very peaceful.

Speaker 1: 21:11

The thing that's coming to mind is I cannot believe I'm about to say this on the podcast, but Call of Duty, you know the original zombies. If anyone can resonate with me here, drop something in the comments if you're on Spotify. So I don't feel like a complete nerd by myself. But when you leveled up in Call of Duty zombies which means it's going to get harder, right For a moment after you level up it's quite peaceful. You're like, yeah, I did it, awesome. And then slowly the new challenge begins. But there's definitely like a celebratory moment of like yes, you know, I feel great, this is awesome. I leveled up, that's great. That's kind of like what a begumming feels like.

Speaker 1: 21:50

You know, you've leveled up, you've done all the challenges, you completed it, and now there's a moment of enjoyment and I think that's life's way of saying good job, pat on the back. You know, let's have some fun and take it easy for a bit. And you know life didn't have to do that. So be very grateful if you're there. But you know.

Speaker 1: 22:07

But we're always in this series of unraveling and becoming, unraveling and becoming Just like the seasons of nature. Look at all the beautiful trees that become these most beautiful leafy, green, gorgeous, massive, beautiful trees. And then autumn comes and they unravel. All these beautiful leaves fall off and it starts again. That's you fall off and it starts again. That's you, that's literally you, you know. So I want you to feel settled in that it's not a bad thing, it's a great thing.

Speaker 1: 22:40

I'm so glad I went through it, but it was hard. I'll admit it was hard. It was emotionally draining and mentally frustrating. You know there was no physical pain involved in it, but you know life gives you different challenges. Sometimes it's a physical unraveling and you know the pain and the frustration you feel in the body can be really bad as well. So I really think you know doing meditation and doing all these beautiful practices and learning how to you know love myself and love life and understand this is a natural process of life. It really helps because when you feel like there's something wrong with you for going through a hard time or going through an unraveling, it's extra hard to go through it because you feel like it shouldn't have to happen. This is why the practices that I've shared on Patreon on that supporters page, by the way, it's only $5 USD a month, right. There's nearly 100 practices on there that can help you with this, that can help you befriend this, okay, and there's more going up. Really, when you learn this work and you get good at it and you settle in the knowledge that you know things change and it's normal, it's much easier. There's less resistance for you, much less resistance. When you don't resist it, not only do you get through it faster, but it also feels more intentional and you actually can have quite a lot of fun on the way. So yeah, I just want this episode to be a reminder that life is like that. No one's got it all worked out, because as soon as you do, bam, there's your next moment of unraveling and awakening, and it's just, it's constant.

Speaker 1: 24:12

Before we finish up this episode, I wanted to tell you about a moment I had this week which is quite interesting. I was cleaning out. You know spring cleaning, I call it becoming cleaning. When you come out of this unraveling, suddenly everything needs to be moved around in your house and you have to clean everything. Clean up fresh prana, fresh energy, all that stuff in your house. And you have to clean everything. Clean up fresh prana, fresh energy, all that stuff.

Speaker 1: 24:31

I came across my year 12 yearbook, which I haven't seen for 10 years, and ironically, in that yearbook they made us all write where do you see yourself in 10 years? And funnily enough, I picked up this book 10 years later. I'm pretty sure the last time I touched it was when I put it away, when I was 18, you know, and now, 10 years later, I pick it back up and I go to find myself in there. What did I say? Where did I want to be in 10 years? The exact thing that I wrote was hopefully living by the beach and teaching at a primary school. Nothing could be furthest from the truth. Now I live in the country and I crave a forest over a beach any day. In fact, I love the cold weather. I'm out here in winter right now, with barefoot, barefoot, bare feet, you know, looking at the creek. It's beautiful, you know. And there's no way I want to teach in a primary school, because I don't. I don't like the system. So I had no idea where I was going.

Speaker 1: 25:34

10 years ago, I was a completely different person, even looking back four or five years ago, when I was doing sensual dances on Instagram to get attention for my business. You know, I thought you know. You keep thinking you have it. You don't have it. I don't think we ever have it completely. It's a process.

Speaker 1: 25:56

So I want to encourage you to reflect back. If you have an Instagram, scroll back. If you have a year 12 yearbook or end of high school yearbook, go and look back on it. If you have a really old journal from a few years back. Go and read it. Go and reflect on some of the photos, some of the things you wrote, some of the things you said you know. And if you're not sure you know, ask your parents, maybe if they're still around, say what did I want to do when I was 18? You know what was I like. Get some perspective and you realize how far you've come and then understand that you'll continue to change my journal. Understand that you'll continue to change that, my journal that I'm using right now, that I think I'm. You know very. I've got it all together and writing in my journal Look how cute I was four years ago. I bet you in a couple of years time I'll look back at the same journal and be like she had no idea, she had no clue. I bet you that happens, it will continue to happen.

Speaker 1: 26:48

So I want you to walk away from this episode with clarity and an understanding that's normal. Have fun, play with it, go through the challenges, evolve. But the best advice I can offer you and if you take anything away from this episode, let it be this Don't fight the current, don't fight the tree falling over If it has to fall, if it's stronger than you. If it's going to fall anyway, step out of the way, let it fall. It might be hard to watch, it might be hard to feel, it might be really painful, but I promise you it's happening for a reason. Do not fight the cycles of life. Do not fight the seasons coming and going. Do not fight chapters closing and chapters starting. You're in a constant process of that. It's very hard to resist trying to stop things from changing, but you need to find a way to allow it, and this is where meditation, all these practices, can help.

Speaker 1: 27:52

Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Beautiful human, I appreciate you. Please share this episode if you got something out of it, or send it to a friend or a family member you know who's having a hard time. Share it on your instagram stories and tag me at madison underscore mindset. I'd love to connect with you. Leave a rating and or a review on the platform that you listen to this podcast through. I am so grateful. I'm nearly at a thousand reviews on Spotify. I need six more, so come on. If you haven't done it yet, I would love that. It would make my day. I very much appreciate it. If you have any questions or want to chat about this episode, either leave a comment on Spotify, email me the details are below or DM me on Instagram. If you want a quick response, email me, otherwise I'll find you on Instagram when the time aligns. Thank you for being here. I appreciate you. Have a wonderful rest of your day, love.