Live Your Extraordinary Life With Michelle Rios

Reclaiming Feminine Power Through Surrender with Po Hong Yu

• Michelle Rios

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Can the art of surrender lead to reclaiming your feminine power? In our latest episode, we sit down with esteemed somatic healer and Taoist practitioner Po Hong Yu to uncover this compelling journey. Po shares powerful insights on balancing the yin (feminine) and yang (masculine) energies within us all, particularly for high-achieving women who often feel the pressure of hyper-masculinity. She reveals how simple practices like softening and relaxing can help women reconnect with their bodies, melt away internalized stress, and embody their true power without losing their edge.

We also break down the barriers to authenticity that many high-achieving women face, including the fear that relaxing might make them less effective. Po introduces us to concepts such as "functional freeze" and discusses how somatic healing can address these issues more effectively than traditional talk therapy. Through engaging practices like voice activation and inner child healing, she offers pathways to reconnect with intuition and express one's true self, creating a more balanced and authentic life.

Lastly, we delve into Po's transformative personal journey through trauma, depression, and addiction, and how these experiences have shaped her commitment to self-liberation and holistic healing. We discuss the importance of addressing small issues before they escalate and the profound link between pain and the human experience. Po also shares her wisdom on integrating spirituality with entrepreneurship, emphasizing intuition and authenticity as keys to success. Tune in to learn about her upcoming program, "Coming Home to You," designed to help individuals heal and embrace their inner power. Don't miss this incredibly enriching conversation on reclaiming feminine power and holistic healing.

Connect with Po-Hong:
IG: https://www.instagram.com/pohong.yu/
Website: https://www.taoofpo.com
Coming Home to You Program: https://www.taoofpo.com/coming-home-to-you
Tao of Po Podcast: https://www.taoofpo.com/podcast

WAYS TO CONNECT WITH ME:

Speaker 1:

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. I'm your host, michelle Rios, and I am thrilled to present my dear friend, po Hong Yu. She is a somatic healer. She guides women leaders to reclaim their feminine power so that they can live in flow, experience inner peace and be unapologetically themselves. Her foundation of Poe's work is really based in Taoism and we're going to get into a little more detail on that as we go In the practice of surrender. Drawing on her background as an acupuncturist, she uses a holistic approach, integrating the spiritual, physical, emotional, mental and energetic realms. All of her work is devoted to the remembrance of who we are and living from that place unapologetically. So, without further ado, welcome to the show, po, thank you for having me, Michelle.

Speaker 2:

I'm so excited.

Speaker 1:

It's been a long time coming and we made it happen, so we met. Now, gosh, it's been two years yes, incredible. And you I've just watched you soar during this time, so I'm so excited. I really want to talk everything from the deep work that you do, the inner work that you do to really create transformation in people's lives. But I also want to spend some time on the back end talking business, because so many people listening in are coaches and consultants in the entrepreneurial space, in the entrepreneurial space, and you're one of these people that I've watched really reinvent yourself and take your business to new heights. So there's just so much richness here to delve into.

Speaker 2:

I'm excited about it because I love business. I've been an entrepreneur for 20 plus years and I consider myself a practical mystic. So I work with the energetic, but I'm also very grounded and efficient and practical. So I work with the energetic, but I'm also very grounded and efficient and practical. So I'm excited to get into this.

Speaker 1:

I love it. All right, so let's start. I want to go right into the work you do. It's so deeply rooted in Taoism and the practice of surrender. For those who may not be as familiar with this type of work, could you talk a little bit about Taoism and how you got started, because you have this deep, rich family history?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so my dad is a Taoist spiritual teacher. He was a Jesuit priest and he taught me what yin and yang essentially is on an energetic level, yin being the feminine, yang being the masculine, and with the emphasis on yin, because in our culture we are hyper-masculine, right, We've been taught to be hyper-independent and have a lot of extra structure and planning and have a deficiency in the feminine energy which is really about receptivity and softening and embracing and allowing. And so, from his teachings for many years, as well as being an acupuncturist, really laid the foundation for me, because Taoism is really the foundation of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. So it was like it was all divinely orchestrated for me. And then that, combined with my own personal healing journey, which I you know goes way back, and it was very challenging for many, many years, a lot of traumas, et cetera All that combined brought me to this place of really embodying what that yin energy is. And I find that so many women that I work with leaders, executives, CEOs, founders they're so good at doing the thing right.

Speaker 1:

At the doing, at the doing part, at doing the thing right At the doing At the doing part Exactly.

Speaker 2:

They're so great at that, and a lot of them actually are in functional freeze, which is very interesting because they're highly functional but their nervous system is frozen. But they have found a way to thrive, which was my case as well, and so you know, the yin energy really helps to thaw the nervous system, helps to allow us to really embody our true power as women, and so my own journey showed me how that's possible, and now I get to guide other women to do that.

Speaker 1:

For those who may be unfamiliar, let's talk a little bit about what surrender means in the context of really talking about the yin and really understanding how you can step into your divine feminine power and still allow surrender to occur. Talk a little bit about that, because I often run into women who are high achievers, that are used to being the doers and driving things forward, and even the concept of bringing up surrender creates an overwhelming feeling in the nervous system of like are you kidding me? I've worked so hard to get here, why would I surrender? So talk a little bit about what we mean by surrender in the context of the work you do.

Speaker 2:

I love this question because I get it all the time and I get that response as well, because surrender sounds so scary. Right, it means like, oh, do I have to, like, completely fall apart or let go of every single thing I've built? And that no is the answer. I mean, sometimes that happens if that's what's in alignment for you and your truth. But we can use another word to replace it. Right, we can use softening, we can use relax, right, like actually I coached my client yesterday on that and she's like oh, my body really responds to that word relax.

Speaker 2:

Because we're so tightly wound up in our culture and so in my work it's really about 1% at a time being willing to be with what is.

Speaker 2:

When we talk about relaxing, it's not about saying it like it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2:

It means we get to be present and aware with what is alive within our bodies.

Speaker 2:

And a lot of times I find that these women who are high achievers which was myself are very much in their heads, right, overthinking and analyzing and figuring things out and planning, and then there's a disconnect between their mind and their body and I like to joke sometimes that they're kind of like a floating head, like they've completely forgotten about their body because, honestly, there's a lot that's living in our bodies that many of us want to ignore and sweep under the rug and that might not be a conscious thought, right. A lot of times people are like I'm not afraid to be in my body or I'm not afraid to feel. But once we start really excavating they realize oh, there's a lot in my nervous system and I didn't even realize I was holding onto it or I didn't realize I was repressing all of these memories or emotions. And so really the surrender is about allowing ourselves to relax into our bodies, into the moment, and allow the natural energy and flow to happen, versus resisting, containing or constricting or controlling. I was like an expert control freak.

Speaker 2:

It was part of my nature and it took so much work for me to rewire that in my system.

Speaker 1:

I always talk about.

Speaker 1:

There was this period of time in my life, a very extensive period of time in my life, probably from about age seven to at least 37, if not older where I felt every day like I was pushing a boulder up a hill in order to do what I needed to do to quote unquote succeed in the world.

Speaker 1:

And then there came a point in time where I finally was like, why am I carrying this boulder?

Speaker 1:

I'm just going to put the boulder down and see if the world falls apart if I do and the reality is, not only did the world not fall apart, but I could stand in my being, not just in my doing, and realize it was all going to be okay and that was a game changer.

Speaker 1:

And that gets us to a really interesting tension, I think, maybe in this whole personal development space between people who talk about mindset work I'm certainly culpable of it where we, of like, get to change our mindsets. We need to change our thoughts and and I don't not think that, but I also recognize that so much of what we experience lives in the body and it gets back to the roots of your work as a somatic healer, and I do think that while it's sort of mainstream in the world of personal development, there are a lot of people out in the world that aren't as familiar with the terminology and what we mean by somatic healing. So could you give us just a little bit of a 101 grounding on what it means to be a somatic healer?

Speaker 2:

Yes, absolutely. Before I answer that, I would love just to talk about the mindset piece, because I think it's very important, right? So, as a somatic healer, I don't ignore the mind. For me, it's all about the balance and flow between the yin and the yang, the masculine, the feminine, the mind and the body. And so we need our minds, but the thing is, we need to be fierce with it, like I teach something called cultivating your mental fierceness, because in order for us to do the work that we do and heal and thrive, we need to be able to use our mind for what it's meant to be, which is to put attention on what we want, to put attention on what to focus on.

Speaker 2:

And so, as a somatic healer, the soma is the body, and so we do the work of healing the nervous system, allowing those emotions to flow, because emotions are energy, and as an acupuncturist, I saw that all the time. And so energy, by nature, needs to move, needs to flow, and when we restrict it, it causes harm to our mental and physical state. I saw that time and time again as an acupuncturist a lot of women who had repressed anger and grief or whatever emotions, it showed up as depression, anxiety, tightness in their chest, fibroids, right-sided pain, things like that, headaches, whatever you name it. And so, you know, as a healer, in this way, we need to really embrace every part of us, including the mind. And so, when I talk about mental fierceness, we get to notice when we're in our heads, spinning or believing the lies our ego is telling us, and then we get to redirect our mind, redirect our focus into the body, feeling the sensations that are living on our body, feeling the emotions that are bubbling up inside, instead of shoving it down, you know, and just like literally distracting ourselves. Am I going to lose control? Am I going to go back to, you know, depression that I had when I was younger? Or, you know, am I going to get stuck there? And the answer is no.

Speaker 2:

Actually, I have experienced so many clients that freed themselves because they were able to finally be with their body and be with what was living inside of them. And it requires courage, but it's not scary what people think. It's kind of like this anticipation of the worst case scenario, but with my guidance, I guide people gently, 1% at a time, yin focused, and we just open up a little bit at a time, we soften a little bit at a time, and it doesn't blow you out, it just connects you. It actually helps you to cultivate an intimate relationship with yourself, and in order for you to have intimacy with other people, you have to have intimacy with yourself, and a lot of my clients who are these CEOs and founders they desire more intimacy, but they don't know how to have it and the answer is through their own body and spirit and heart first, and returning home to themselves, which is a theme that's woven throughout your work.

Speaker 1:

I strongly believe, like I always talk about the longest journey I've ever taken and I've gone all around the world the longest journey I ever took was the one to return home to myself Hardest, longest, most courageous journey. But let's talk a little bit deeper about that, because I do think that when women hear it's okay to be unapologetically yourself, which often means relax, allow the feminine out more, because we've been so conditioned to be hyper masculine in order to survive in this fast paced modern world we live in, and yet so many of them find the barrier of if I soften, will I still be able to survive and thrive in this world? Won't it be difficult for me to keep the pace I was doing? How can I quote-unquote succeed doing? How can I quote, unquote succeed? And I think it's a very logical question. Of course, it's one that you can't feel when you talk about that freedom that you were talking about earlier.

Speaker 1:

That is the result of going on that journey. Nothing compares to it, but I do think, from a logic perspective, which a lot of high-powered, high-achieving women are like this are thinking, the minute I really relax and allow myself to soften. I'm never going to want to go back to being that hard-edge doer and then I'm going to lose my footing and then it will all unravel. I know that that's not the case. However, how do you really work with them to recognize that actually stepping more into the scene will allow you to have more intuitive insight and power and other things that will allow you to create from a different space than you've been operating? How do you get them there?

Speaker 2:

Great question. So it's a process and it's a practice, and so that's a really key word is practice, because a lot of times these high achievers, they want it yesterday right.

Speaker 2:

They don't, they want it and it can happen relatively faster than what they think. But they have to show up on the mat, so to speak, right the yoga mat and practice, practice, leaning into feeling like we talked about earlier, but also tuning in to that deep wisdom that's living in their body, because a lot of people don't realize there is wisdom living in our body. If we tap into that wisdom then we are guided. It's like our internal GPS system and from that space we get to take the next right step intuitively, moment by moment. And so the way we do that is by slowly feeling what is happening in their body, acknowledging that they have these inner child wounds which I help them to heal, because there's so much happening in the undercurrents in our lives that I have experienced. Like we want to just move on, like we that was back then right, like why do we even need to look back then?

Speaker 2:

And this is very different than therapy, and I'm not anti-therapy, but talk therapy is different than somatic healing, because we can, and this was my experience. I went to therapy for a bunch of years and could talk about all the things. I could tell you inside, outside, upside down, why I was the way I was Great self-awareness was the way I was.

Speaker 2:

Great self-awareness, yes, I understood it all logically, it all made sense to me, right? But I was still having the same pattern show up in my life, and that's when you know that something is living in your body that needs healing, because you will notice, pattern after pattern. Why is this still happening? And it wasn't until I dropped into my body and was able to do that inner child healing work and really see myself. So part of the work is really having them see with radical honesty what is happening for them in their current life and how that connects to their past, and allowing that energy to move through their body, whether it's through vocalizing, like what I call voice activation, because so many women I work with have a tight chest, tight throat, lump in the throat or tight jaw, and that happens because it's like a bottleneck, because when you suppress and repress your emotions, it requires so much energy to hold it in. That's why a lot of people are exhausted, and so the neck, this chest area, is like the bottleneck of like holding it in, and so there's so much that happens when we open up our voice and share whatever it is that needs to be shared, that was pushed down from many years ago.

Speaker 2:

And of course there's other tools that you know I support them with with moving their body and just or being still and just feeling the thing. There's multiple layers to it, but that's some of what we do in our sessions to help them connect, because once you clear the clutter I like to call it clutter sometimes because it's like there's no space inside, right, they're like it's so overwhelming and just like feels like a lot. You have to move that energy to create that internal space. And then, guess what, when there's that space, that inner wisdom that we talked about, that intuition, that feminine power, that unapologetic you and that embodiment, it just arises naturally. So we don't need to force it right, we just need to clear that space and then it naturally opens.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah, so we talk authenticity. We had the opportunity earlier a few months ago actually, when I was on your show to talk about authenticity. I know it comes across for a lot of people as an incredible buzzword that is overused and misunderstood, but that said, it doesn't make it any less important, and I always say one of the most difficult things for people to experience is the removing of the barriers that allow them to step into their full authenticity. That's the work that you do, really helping to create that space for people to step into their authenticity. What would you say is the biggest barrier for people to embrace authenticity?

Speaker 2:

for people to embrace authenticity? Wow, that's a really good question. I have so many thoughts coming up. The first thing is what I kind of mentioned earlier around functional freeze. I really feel like that's such an important piece for the type of women that we're talking about to really notice for themselves, because a lot of times they don't even realize they're in a freeze and that frozenness internally is really creating walls, right, it's a protection, it's a protective mechanism, it's the way that they learned how to survive and it's so subconscious and so you know. That's the part that I would invite your listeners to feel into for themselves, and what that looks like sometimes is like, you know, you're not frozen like necessarily like somebody who is in acute trauma, but it's like you're shut down, right, you're disconnected, you're emotionally frozen because you've taken those emotions and said, ooh, this is uncomfortable, I don't want to feel this right now.

Speaker 1:

Let's put this away. This right now, let's put this away. And you do create those walls in order to continue to function if you will move through life. But you are disconnected. That floating head analogy works really well because I can imagine it. I've experienced it myself on many occasion back when I was running corporate and running around with my head cut off, running big teams, where you're like there's this going on and there's the reality of what needs to get accomplished, and so you sort of shut that down for a later time and sometimes there's no coming back to that, right, and that's when. What did we? What did they say? The things that you don't attend to that might be like small whispers now become loud screams later. So true, right.

Speaker 2:

So true, and what I find is my clients are usually come to me last when they should come to me first, and you know, because they have hit that rock bottom or they hit a wall and they feel stuck and there's so much that can happen before that I have. I work with a eight figure private client. She owns an eight figure business and highly successful, obviously, runs a big team, you know, she's a top leader in her industry and she's in functional freeze. So, like I think it's so important to like normalize this, because a lot of times we have this image of these powerhouse women but really a lot of them inside are scared or don't feel as confident. Right, like, and they, they tell me this, they tell me this, and, and so you know, being honest I think that would be another answer to your question is, like, can you be honest with yourself? Like I mentioned radical honesty earlier, like it requires that level of honesty to be able to shift and move out of that.

Speaker 2:

And then the third part I would say is devotion, devotion to yourself, because many of these women prioritize every single one else their business, their kids, their partner, everything else they're holding, literally holding everything together. They're holding their family together, their household and their business. And guess what they get left behind right their self-care, their connection to themselves, and so that deep devotion to self is really such an important beginning step, because if you don't have that commitment, everything else is harder. Being able to do the practices is harder, and that was really my place when I hit a bottom in my 20s a couple of decades ago. I said I am no longer willing to not prioritize myself anymore and, no matter how long it takes, I'm going to love myself as much as I can until I get to a place where I feel good, because I was depressed for so long and it took years, but I got there.

Speaker 1:

So, having also gone through this, where the awakening happened in my 20s, don't you just feel incredibly blessed that it happened really relatively early, because so many of the women that we're working with and for me, men too are two decades older plus and just allowing themselves that space to be able to recognize what they've felt for a long time but haven't known what to do with and say this can't go on any longer, like something's got to give. And you had your real awakening in your twenties. Can you tell us a little bit about what was going on? Because I do think from our experiences is really that foundation of like, where we are jumping off points are for the work that we end up being destined to do. Tell us a little bit about the journey that you went through, because it's quite an incredible story.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I mean, there's so much to it but to make it digestible for this podcast. You know I had many traumas as a teen sexual traumas, my family falling apart that was really my biggest pain, like wound of abandonment really. And so I endured a couple of decades of depression, anxiety, self-destruction, addiction. I tried to commit suicide when I was 13. Like it was. It was really really hard and I did not know what to do, right? I felt very alone and that that did go into my thirties. But in my twenties I had that awakening moment and we have to start somewhere, right? Because it's like and you have multiple, and you have multiple awakenings.

Speaker 1:

You don't have one awakening right. Like there's an awakening and you're like, oh, I remember that one. But then there are multiple and the reality it's never like a light switch, it's phases and levels.

Speaker 2:

Yes, but this time in my twenties was huge because at that point I did not make that commitment to myself that I just spoke about, right, I was literally just all over the place and didn't feel that deep fire of desire of like I am going to liberate myself no matter what it takes. And I had. This is a wild story, but I, in my depression and anxiety and addiction, I started gambling online and I lost tens of thousands of dollars playing blackjack online and it was just in a matter of a couple of weeks. It was very quick, wow. Yes, that shows you how deep in suffering I was and how lost I was.

Speaker 2:

And I had a moment where I saw myself figuratively in a tunnel and that tunnel was pitch black and it was long. It felt like it was miles and miles long and I was laid on the ground like completely collapsed, like so much shame, so much, just like self-depriving thoughts and all these things. But I looked up at the end of the tunnel and I saw a little little glimmer of light, like the tiniest. It was just a little tiny speck of light, like the tiniest, it was just a little tiny speck. And that moment I realized that that light was where I wanted to be and I knew that I needed to move towards that light. And I also had this realization that it might take time, right, it's not going to happen right away. And so I committed in that moment I will do whatever it takes to get to that light and walk through this tunnel. And so I started by crawling, and that crawling turned into standing up, then I was able to start walking slowly, then I was able to walk faster, then I started jogging and then finally, years later, I got out of the tunnel and I just realized, oh my goodness, I'm in the light now.

Speaker 2:

And it was probably about seven or eight years, so it was in my mid thirties or so. So it took time. But I got there because I said to myself, even if I get to the light by the time I die, that's okay, at least I will arrive there. And that light symbolized happiness to me, because for my whole life I didn't think I could actually be happy. And so in my 30s I got there and I said, oh my goodness, wow, I actually got here. And it was because of that devotion and like. That's why I always say to people we're either motivated by inspiration or desperation, and most people it's desperation. That's just human nature. There's no shame in it, it's just the way it is. And so can we use that moment or those moments to allow for that awakening, allow for that inspiration, allow for the movement and the momentum to start to happen. And so that was a huge, huge, pivotal moment for me.

Speaker 1:

It's incredibly important to share these kinds of stories because I do think people in general feel that or don't recognize that in their brokenness, in a broken state, that there is growth possibilities, that they're so overwhelmed with shame or grief or depression or self-doubt that they feel that their worthiness has been so compromised that there's no way out. And the reality is, it's usually in those darkest, broken moments that there's the momentum to make a change and do something different than what you've always done to cope, and for me it definitely. I would love to say all the changes happen in moments of inspiration, but the reality it's been in moments of desperation, of like moments of inspiration, but the reality has been in moments of desperation of like this can't go on anymore.

Speaker 1:

This is just enough is enough, and I think that's the way for most people and I really love the fact that you're so open with your story and we're in a community of women who really are very vocal about those things in our past. That might not be the prettiest because I think it shows others. Hey, it gives you permission to realize not only is there hope, but you can use the broken pieces to give you momentum to move forward. Often it's to me the adversity becomes that fuel for transformation.

Speaker 2:

A hundred percent yes.

Speaker 1:

I want to talk a little bit about returning to ourselves, because this is a theme we both talk about. It means a lot to us. I know you have an upcoming program and we're going to talk more about that in a little bit. That's all about coming home to yourself, mm-hmm. But in your view, what is the cause, in your point of view, that we forget who we are true selves? And if you subscribe to this because I'm not sure we've had this conversation, but we're spiritual beings having a human experience what causes us to forget our true nature? What is it that happens? Is it just being in this human world? And did you have glimmers when you were younger that this is temporal, that this isn't really who I am? There's something more.

Speaker 1:

I'm curious about your own experience with understanding your true spiritual nature and what I think you and I talk about. When we say come home to ourselves, it's really coming home to that innate spirit that is who we are across all time and planes and spaces. And authenticity is not just about genuineness, that that's sort of a surface level, but it is really about being our most true nature, which to me goes back to spirit.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, thank you for this question. I believe that being human is to experience pain. It's just the way it is, and for us to not accept or embrace the reality of that actually creates suffering, and that doesn't mean that the pain is necessarily easier, but the resistance to feeling it and moving through it becomes easier. So I feel like those moments of trauma that everybody has and, by the way, there's little t, big T traumas, there's a whole spectrum. And I find that a lot of people will say, oh well, I wasn't X, y and Z, so I don't have that. And that's not true, because I work with a lot of women who have those moments, but they have minimized it because it didn't look like what you see on the news, et cetera, right, and so all of these moments fragment us, I believe, internally and in the journey they talk about the hero's journey, right, like coming back home and allowing us to be whole again. I really believe that our spiritual journey is to do this work and experience life in all of what humanity is, our humanness and our divinity. It's all one, and so I think the release of that judgment has been really powerful for me.

Speaker 2:

But personally, yes, I had sparks of it as a child. I laid my hands on my mom when I was about eight years old, not knowing what I was doing, but, like now, I realized that I was doing healing work. And then, you know, I knew I was intuitive and psychic starting around 13. And so I started cultivating that practice. So I had these moments of understanding, a bigger perspective, especially because my dad was my spiritual teacher starting around my teens. He would teach me about the laws of energy, and so I had that as a foundation.

Speaker 2:

But I was still living this dual life because I was going through so much suffering and pain while still having this connection to the divine and understanding deeply life, you know. And so there was this whole journey of like really coming back to myself and remembering right, this remembrance, and I feel like we have access to it all the time. But again, that clutter is inside that, all that energy and overwhelm is inside that it's hard to even tap into it. And so, for me, I always had glimmers, but the pain and the suffering was so intense that it was hard for me to really grab a hold of it and really anchor into it. And so it took time and it takes the time it takes, you know and I'm always still practicing right we don't arrive at a mountaintop and that's it. There's other mountaintops after that, and so I'm constantly coming back to remembering who I am, over and over and over again incredibly important and that is not recognizing that this human experience is inevitably marred with pain and suffering.

Speaker 1:

That that's sort of the human condition, and to think that we're supposed to be happy and in a happy state all the time really creates so much suffering. And when I talk about the reason why I actually use live an extraordinary life, a lot of people thought, oh, she must mean like yachts on the Mediterranean, and hey, I'm all about a yacht on the Mediterranean Any day, call me up, I'll be over. But it really is about understanding that life is meant to be fully experienced and that means the pain, the loneliness, the depression, the suffering and the love, the communion, the unity, the wholeness. That it's not one or the other, that it is. An integral part of the human experience is to feel all the things. So why would you short circuit that that this is part of?

Speaker 1:

Quite frankly, I had a friend. I have a friend who, like you, is a modern day mystic and he said to me, because I asked him, what do you think the whole point in us coming into this human experience is? And he said well, I know, you know the answer to this it's to love. But what is the one thing that the divine, the all-knowing, all-powerful source that is perfect in all ways that we have within us. What is the one thing that it cannot experience? And the one thing it can't experience is imperfection. It cannot experience brokenness. And so we come into this experience to learn how to love. But it also allows the divine to understand something it cannot on its own unless it watches and is part of the human experience. And I found like there was such a profound answer of realizing that's what it's meant to be this way. It's not meant to be perfect and in a bow.

Speaker 1:

Living an extraordinary life isn't about living a perfect, instagram worthy life. Living an extraordinary life isn't about living a perfect, instagram-worthy life. It's about living a full life where you're in communion with yourself, yes, and recognizing the divinity that runs through you and that that is actually the continuation of the through line. Right? Like you said, do we ever arrive at that place? I don't know that in this plane, we ever arrived there. I think it's like you got to go to the next level, right? Who knows what will happen then? But like that transfiguration, if you will, when we move out of this human realm and on back to spirit realm. Whatever happens, then I think then that you know more will be revealed. But that's freeze you up from going through so much suffering.

Speaker 1:

I almost feel like we should be like hi human, you know, here's your manual, right, it will all make sense. If you want to skip the beginning, that's okay. Go to chapter nine, yes, yes. And someone asked me, like, why are you writing the book that you're writing? And I said you know, it's interesting. I'm not writing, yes, yes, where my attention is flowing right now, because they need to come into the fold. We're already here and working through things, but those folks that don't even know the possibilities are living under their full potential. That's where my heart breaks on a daily basis right.

Speaker 1:

How do we bring them into the fold?

Speaker 2:

Same. I just want to add to that really quick is that this piece around living your most authentic life, like you talked about it, is this full spectrum experience, deeper work of being with what is, with being, with the pain, that expands their capacity to experience joy and gratitude and intimacy and connection and peace and all those things. So they are directly connected.

Speaker 1:

A thousand percent. And the one word I would add to that list is freedom. Yes, until you actually go through this, you're never really free. And the level of freedom that is possible when you allow yourself to go through this experience, you're never going to want to go back. You're going to be like, okay, I'm at level whatever, two and we're going to keep moving forward because it really is expansive, it's exciting. All right, I want to delve into the realm of entrepreneurism, because you're one of these people that not only are you deeply rooted in your practice of the energy work, of the somatic healing that you do, of bringing people back home to themselves, but you're also a very savvy businesswoman and you've learned a lot over the years, and I think you have a lot to teach others. So I'm going to ask you a couple of questions around this realm. In your experience, what do you think is the biggest barrier for entrepreneurs to succeed, to really have a flourishing and sustainable business?

Speaker 2:

Oh, flourishing and sustainable business, business, I would say that, trusting yourself, really honoring your truth and not feeling like you have to do it some other way, that you know, cause there's so much information and consumption that's happening. And, yes, we can learn and receive all of that, but ultimately you know what is best for you. And yes, we require you know, support and coaching and mentors. But there's a truth that lives in all of us, a calling that lives inside of us, and so when we can tap into that, knowing it will guide us in the direction, always and forever. Like my path of entrepreneurship was all over the place and beautiful and I just allowed myself to do the next right thing based off of what I intuitively felt. And every time I went off track and ignored my wisdom, my inner knowing, that's when things didn't work as well. And then also the second part I would say is, the more myself I am, the more free I am, the more I am not trying to control my outcome. Guess what? I make more money.

Speaker 1:

The more it flows, you attract the people and resources that you need a thousand percent.

Speaker 1:

It's been such a joy to watch you over the last two years because I know you've had a reinvention of your business in that time and I've watched you, like so many entrepreneurs, experiment with systems.

Speaker 1:

I always say like the most evil word you can say to a person who's in the somatic, healing, personal development world is system Right.

Speaker 1:

That just feels awful, but you are so savvy and you're open to experimenting and testing things and I think that's so important because you get these folks who have callings and they're all in on the calling and they really want to be good practitioners and they really want to learn the art of the work that we do, and yet they don't have the business savvy and I think without one, the other does suffer because you don't reach all the people you need to, that need to find you. So I just want to say thank you for being such a light in this community, because you're so open about what you're working on and what you're testing and who you've worked with and who's been a great mentor to you. And we all know that nobody can do this alone. It's too lonely a journey, and so thank you, thank you for being you, thank you for being a light, thank you for sharing so much of yourself and, before we end, please tell us about this program that you have starting imminently, I think next week.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, it's next week. Thank you so much for that. This is like such a joy. I've had great. This is a great conversation. I cannot wait to share it with my people.

Speaker 2:

And yeah, Coming Home to you is the name of the program. It's a six month portal into rebirthing yourself and really healing your heart, healing those deeper wounds, going deeper into yourself but really stepping into the next level of you and your unapologetic, expressed self and really you know saying like I am a powerful woman, and awakening that power within Everything we talked about really is this journey and it's great for the perfectionists, the people pleaser, the ones that have not been able to speak their truth and actually use their voice in the ways that they desire, and so I'm excited about it and I'm probably going to extend the entry, you know, a week or so. So if people are interested, they can contact me, schedule a discovery call if they have questions. And I'm really excited because you know this is my last one for a while, because I'm entering more into the one-on-one work, and so if people feel a call to do this work, I highly recommend joining us for this cohort.

Speaker 1:

Wonderful, so I'm going to include all the links to your social and website. But what's the best way for people to reach out to you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so Instagram, facebook I also have a podcast that just ended that you're on, like we mentioned, so they can tune in and binge listen to those episodes. So or, or you know, website I have a contact page on my website. Any of those ways are great to connect and I would love, love, love to connect with your audience and I would love to give them a free PDF as well if they're interested.

Speaker 1:

That's wonderful. We'll put all the links for you to be able to access those and please, please, go check out what Po is doing. She's very active on Facebook and Instagram and she's very responsive to DMs, so reach out to her to learn more. Thank you again, po, it's been a pleasure.

Speaker 2:

Such a pleasure. Thank you so much.

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Michelle Rios

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