Live Your Extraordinary Life With Michelle Rios

Finding Your Higher Purpose with Anniston Riekstins

• Michelle Rios

Share episode

Send us a text

This episode of the podcast is a powerful and transformative conversation with high-performance coach and best-selling author Anniston Riekstins. Join us as we dive into the intersection of authenticity, personal growth, and success. With insights from her acclaimed book, The Universe is Hiring, Anniston shares her personal journey of self-reinvention—navigating uncertainty, overcoming challenges, and realigning with her true mission.

In this episode, Anniston reveals how tapping into your authentic self is the key to not just success, but fulfillment. She unpacks the importance of energetic alignment in sales and business, going beyond surface-level transactions to create meaningful connections and impact. As she shares her own experiences with health struggles and external distractions, Anniston offers a fresh perspective on protecting your energy, prioritizing emotional well-being, and embracing uncertainty as a pathway to opportunity.

Whether you're a professional looking to elevate your career or someone seeking clarity in your personal journey, this episode is packed with practical insights and actionable strategies to help you break through fear, step into your power, and live with greater intention.

Tune in, take notes, and get ready to redefine success on your own terms. Check out my new course (see below)! And, don’t forget to engage with me on social media—I’d love to hear your thoughts on how the show is helping you live your extraordinary life!




WAYS TO CONNECT WITH ME:

Speaker 1:

This episode of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast is brought to you by Extraordinary Wealth. Mastering the Art of Selling with Soul a revolutionary sales course designed for heart-centered entrepreneurs, online course creators, coaches and sales professionals who are ready to transform their sales game. This course is your key to mastering a soul aligned, high impact sales approach, One that's authentic, powerful and, most importantly, works. Based on 25 years of experience, this course will teach you how to leverage your energy, because your clients buy you before they buy your offer. Plus, we'll rewire those limiting beliefs so that you can sell with confidence and ease. Visit extraordinarywealthco to learn more and claim your spot. It's time to start selling with soul and succeed like never before Again.

Speaker 2:

Visit extraordinarywealthco extraordinarywealthco Right now. Now is the time, I believe, to start reconnecting to what makes you the unique snowflake that you are, that will never be replicated, and through that comes the self-love and the self-worth and realizing like, wow, I really do have something to offer here.

Speaker 1:

Hi, I'm Michelle Rios, host of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. This podcast is built on the premise that life is meant to be joyful, but far too often we settle for less. So if you've ever thought that something is missing from your life, that you were meant for more, or you simply want to experience more joy in the everyday, then this podcast is for you. Each week, I'll bring you captivating personal stories, transformative life lessons and juicy conversations on living life to the fullest, with the hope to inspire you to create a life you love on your terms, with authenticity, purpose and connection. Together, we'll explore what it means to live an extraordinary life, the things that hold us back and the steps we all can take to start living our best lives. So come along for the journey. It's never too late to get started and the world needs your light.

Speaker 1:

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. I'm your host, michelle Rios, and I am thrilled to be able to introduce to you a dear friend, aniston Ritzens, who is here to talk about her extraordinary life and the work that she is doing as a high performance coach for women, as the co-host of the Empowered podcast and as the author of her new book. The Universe is Hiring. Welcome to the show, aniston. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

I am so excited to be here and just to connect with you again and I know you and I share a lot of similarities and I love to listen to your podcast because I always connect with all of the guests that you have on because I feel like you really are starting quite a movement, which is really exciting.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, Well, we're going to start where I start, with all my guests, Aniston, and that is what does it mean to you to live your extraordinary life?

Speaker 2:

To live. My most extraordinary life is to have the freedom to create what I'm feeling inspired to create when I'm inspired to create it and to feel so ignited to show up as my authentic self in every moment.

Speaker 1:

That is my most extraordinary life Sounds juicy and delicious, all right. So right now, the world for a lot of people feels like it's turned upside down right. There's a lot happening, no matter where you are and this has nothing to do specifically with politics or anything like that but there's just a lot happening in the world. I think for me, I've sort of summed it up to there's a lot of distraction, there's a lot of noise, there's a lot of heartache. How is it that someone like you, who's working in this environment of high-impact coaching, what is it that you do to stay disciplined and focus and stay the course when gosh? It is really easy to see that so many in our space are finding it hard to do so.

Speaker 2:

Yeah that's a great question and I agree with you. I think we're in really interesting times and I think it's a really interesting time to be alive, and I think we are amidst a tremendous amount of change that is happening and a lot of it's needed to happen. How I regulate myself and really practice energy management which I think is really what it's about is I have my habits and I have my practices in place that really keep me grounded right, and I definitely believe that having habits that support you living how you want to live is key. And then the other thing is remembering that, at the end of the day, we always have choice, and what I mean by that is I make a choice not to watch the news. I don't watch the news. I do not get news feeds on my phone. I make a choice not to get online until I've been awake for at least two hours. So I have my time right in my world and I'm very, very cautious about what I bring into my awareness.

Speaker 2:

Some things you can't control. Right, you're going to see things, you're going to hear things and you're going to have reactions, and that's okay. But there's a lot that we can control. And if you're doing something that when you sit back and ask yourselves, how do I feel when I listen to this, or when I watch this on Netflix, or when I stay up till late reading this scary book, whatever it is, if it's not leaving you feeling in a good spot, then why are you doing it? And I think right now it's about taking accountability and being fully accountable for how I feel and making the tweaks necessary to get me into a space that I'm at my best.

Speaker 1:

I love that. All right, I want to kind of pull back the onion on your book writing experience, and we've had this conversation before. Ibook is going to be coming out this year, and the writing process has been a very cathartic and growth-oriented journey for me. Just when I think I've sort of figured something out, there's a new level, there's a new devil. Talk to me about how this book even came to be, because I know that you also share a passion for writing.

Speaker 2:

I do. I do share a passion for writing. For a long time I didn't feel worthy to be a writer. I've always been a consumer of the written word. I mean, michelle, I am still like, literally after this, my kids are coming home, we're going to the library, like that's. One of my favorite places is still the library or going to a bookstore and immersing myself around the written word, and I've always been that way.

Speaker 2:

But it really wasn't until my mid-30s that I actually even started to entertain the idea that I could write a book. So, with the universe's hiring, I actually received the idea in a meditation. This has happened to me many times. Actually, I've received many book ideas. Most of the ideas and the things that I've created in my life that have been the most profound and created the most profound change have been received in that way. So it was an inspiration. I was meditating All of a sudden it was literally like I saw the book cover, I saw the outline and I just had this understanding of what this book was and I actually started laughing out loud in my meditation because I was like that's funny, the universe is hiring.

Speaker 2:

And this was during COVID, mind you. Okay, this was like when no one, everyone was freaking out about their jobs. You know what's going to happen? What if all the jobs dry up? What if, you know, no one knew anything, because it was unprecedented times. We were kept being reminded, right, and so when I received this information, it almost seemed like an answer to my own fear. Right, I had been furloughed. It was like, hey, guess what? You have a purpose and you have tools to align to where you need to be going, and this is going to require you to lean into when you're in the unknown and uncertainty. I feel like it's an invitation to more deeply lean into our divine gifts and into really trusting this guidance system within us. Right, that is the gift, in my opinion, in uncertain times, and I think sometimes, maybe, why these things happen? Because it forces us inward. And so I would love to tell you that I started writing the book right away.

Speaker 2:

I did not. I wrote out the outline, saved it in a Word doc on my desktop and it lived there for I don't know a good year, year and a half, and it was during that year, year and a half, that I wound up going through some of the most transformational healing of my life. I have been studying spirituality and personal development since my early 20s. I thought I knew it all and I'd done all the work right, and for me it wasn't until I came up against a chronic health issue. And in that process I actually didn't write about this in the book, which is interesting, but it wasn't a part of the original outline I got. So I really stayed true to that.

Speaker 2:

But I wound up having this chronic health issue and it was in the process of really just beating my head against it. Well, I'll just say what it was. So I was having chronic UTIs, which any woman who's listening to this knows that that's just pretty horrible. I'd never had them in my life and then all of a sudden, within one calendar year, I'd had 10. Oh my gosh. And it was like as one would heal, another one come, and as one would heal, another one would come.

Speaker 2:

And I was in such a good place in my life. I was, you know, I was a vice president, you know, for an organization. I, you know, rudy, and I had launched a podcast. We had this coaching company. I mean such a full, amazing life and yet all of a sudden, I have this sickness and I was like I take really good care of myself and nothing was working.

Speaker 2:

And finally, when I was in New York City for a training event, and this was the morning, I woke up with my 10th UTI and I just laid on the bathroom floor in the fetal position crying. I was like why? Like what am I missing? What am I missing? And then, all of a sudden, I heard this little voice in my head and it said what if this pain is trying to tell you something and you're not listening? In my head and it said what if this pain is trying to tell you something and you're not listening? And it was so clear because I heard it so clearly and it just stopped me and I was like, oh my gosh, like, of course, like I've kind of always known what to do because I've studied energy healing and I practice emotion code. I practice like these ways of releasing emotion. I guess I just I had been trying to heal by doing what we've been taught to do right, which is medicate.

Speaker 1:

You know, go to the doctors do what they tell you to do. Another prescription.

Speaker 2:

Right, I wasn't actually really thinking about what is the core of where this is coming from, and so I got my journal and I wrote you know what is this pain trying to tell me and I wrote, and I wrote and I wrote for hours and, long story short, a lot of repressed memories came up for me, and memories of sexual assault when I was, you know, 16, and memories that I had never shared with anybody and that really became the beginning of a very deep journey to do the real work you know what I mean Like the work I had been avoiding for so long.

Speaker 1:

First of all, thank you for sharing I think that that's something that so many of our listeners can relate to that so much of the work that needs to be done is actually healing these repressed experiences and memories from earlier in life. How did you walk through it? What was the process that you went through, and did writing become a tool for you to?

Speaker 2:

release it In the very beginning. It did, and I've come to learn that you need to feel it to heal it right and for a long time. And especially, you know I'm a high performer, like you, right, and we we're doers, right, we get in there, we get it done. We pride ourselves on being the go-to girls. You know what I mean and you busy yourself.

Speaker 2:

Get it done, Get it done right, and I became the queen of, and for a long time I didn't realize this, but I really would deny a lot of my own feelings. I didn't want to feel anything. So even if I was reading a book, Michelle, if I was reading a personal development book or a spiritual book, and at the end a book, Michelle, like if I was reading like a personal development book or a spiritual book, and at the end they would have like exercises, like journal, these things, I'd be like I'd read over, I'm like yeah, no, no, we're good, we're good, I know all these things Right Cause you think you know right.

Speaker 1:

But a hundred percent.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, but it's not until it wasn't until I really wrote everything out. I went home the next morning and I sat down with Rudy, my husband and I. Just I read everything aloud to him, like I gave a voice to stories I had never told anybody ever. It's like it reactivated that energy within me and then I didn't know what to do. It was like I could tell. I was like okay, the pain is still here. I clearly haven't healed. So like this isn't the end of this, now what? So I tried a lot of different modalities. This was really for me where I became very aware of all of the energy healing like that is available right now. Right, so I am, um, I practice emotion code. Are you familiar with emotion code?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but tell, for our audience's sake, please walk us through it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, sure. So emotion code is. It's actually a work by Dr Bradley Nelson. I discovered him, I don't know, probably five, six years ago and I would just kind of dabble in it here and there, but essentially it is a process that you can do on your own. It's pretty simple. It utilizes muscle testing and then through muscle testing you're able to identify where there is basically stuck energy in your field, and emotions that become stuck in your field then will start to vibrate and create imbalances in your system and thus then cause physical issues, right, and what's interesting is I noticed that a lot of the emotion that was coming up to be cleared was shame, A lot.

Speaker 2:

And I believe now, because I've told this story on many stages at this point and I've had so many women come up to me, that I think even just talking about UTIs, women have shame about it. They feel shameful about it, right. So if you think about that right, then you take that where I think the correlation is is with assault, if those things that happen to us, to so many women, that we carry shame around and we're not releasing that shame. So I do think UTIs. I don't know again, I'm not a doctor and I can't prove this, but just from my conversations now and really supporting a lot of women, I do see a correlation there. And so that was when I did hypnotherapy. I have a great girlfriend who's very gifted there, so she was able to help take me back to some of these instances.

Speaker 2:

I did a lot of journaling but what I realized, michelle, is that as I started this healing process, I think we overcomplicate it and think we need to go and identify all the experiences that are causing the issues. But what happened for me was that life started to show me them. Right would give me an experience to allow this emotion to bubble, like for me to have an emotional experience about something the minute I start being like where else have I felt this before? And I would, I would recognize oh my gosh, I felt the exact same way when this happened 20 years ago. You, you know what I mean. So it really was like an unraveling and letting go of not only emotion but an entire identity. And when I did that and when I released the identity that I didn't even really realize was there unconsciously, which is I'm weak, I'm easily taken advantage of you know what I mean. A lot of those things that were-.

Speaker 2:

Worthiness issues of you know what I mean A lot of those things that were worthiness issues, just self-protection, all of that it's not safe to be seen. Oh, that was a big one. I don't want to be noticed, I want to blend in. That was impacting everything. I had started to write a book about 10 years ago. I wrote the entire book, the entire book, michelle.

Speaker 2:

I wrote the book, I had it edited, and when it came time to publish, I was paralyzed. I was completely paralyzed, and I couldn't understand why the visibility the visibility, it's like my whole system was like mayday, mayday. This is not safe, and I couldn't understand, because, when I would look back to my past, I'm like I had a pretty easy childhood. I had things here and there it wasn't a big deal and what I realized, though, was it was all that healing work that I did. When I finally did the work then, when it came time to write this book, I was ready. You know what I mean, because I had dealt with and released, and done the work of turning my pain into gold, into purpose, into strength, becoming an alchemist.

Speaker 1:

You really helped turn that into something purposeful. But now, okay, inquiring minds want to know what happened to the other book, and is that other book ever going to see the light of day? Aniston, I kind of cheated on this. I actually heard this in a podcast interview that you did with Amberley.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, and actually it was funny. I was just on with Dana Grant. She said the same thing. She's like you are going to publish that book. I'm like I will. I promise you hand to heart. You know what? It's interesting because I and I think it just at this point in time in writing the Universe is Hiring. I just felt like the right time for that book. However, to honor even just myself, right for that the girl who, through all of her fears, wrote that book, and it's brilliant, and, again, it was an inspiration. I just wasn't equipped to hold the energy of that book. Yet Now I am, and so I will absolutely publish that book next.

Speaker 1:

You have goosebumps. This is exciting stuff. Okay, we're having a breakthrough right here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 1:

All right, let's talk about the Universe is Hiring, because it is a bold title. It's very intriguing what was the spark that led you down that path of this particular book at this moment in time? So?

Speaker 2:

for me one of, I think, one of the hardest things for me to get through, and I think this is very common, especially for those that are in business, that are professionals and you know the corporate sphere, or even those that are entrepreneurial. But I had a very, very hard time fully feeling safe to be my authentic self in my role, and I had been in corporate America for 20 years. I'm just recently out of it and so I experienced in my early career where I would try to compartmentalize right and I would say, okay, I always felt like the role I was in was temporary because in my heart I knew I had this calling, I knew I wanted to help people and I always would kind of have, I would be like I would take these positions and do well and I would like be offered, you know, elevations, but for whatever reason, I just always felt like it wasn't safe for me to bring all of me to work Meaning. I'm a very spiritual person. I use tools and practices for intention and manifestation and I never wanted to talk about that at work because I always believed that if I did I wouldn't be respected, that I wouldn't be taken seriously. I believed that if people knew that I was writing a spiritual book at home out in that way, and so, because of that, I feel like I attracted a lot of people that were dealing with a similar issue and I started to see the need.

Speaker 2:

And so, during COVID, Rudy and I launched our coaching company, I thought I was done with corporate America right as we do, right, Like that's it, I'm done. And then we make plans and God laughs. Right as we do. We're like that's it, I'm done. And then we make plans and God laughs right. And then this opportunity came and this was four years ago and I made the decision and I told Rudy it just kept coming and kept coming and I was like you know what? I think this might be something I'm supposed to do, even though this is not part of my plan to get back into corporate America in a high-level position. I am going to do this differently this time. I am going to show up as me. I'm going to wave my freak flag. I'm just going to be who I am. If that's not okay, then I'll leave, because I know that I have other options. I know that I have gifts to share and I really want to help and impact people, but who am I to say? I have gifts to share and I really want to help and impact people. But who am I to say, oh well, the people have to be these kinds of people, but they can't be people in an organization, right? I was praying and saying please bring me more people to impact. Well, here's several thousand, right, here's several thousand that for me to impact.

Speaker 2:

So you know, I started doing a lot of trainings within the organization on mindset and I would bring a little bit of spirituality in there and then we would host these leadership events and it turned into a really big thing and I became known for that there and I had never been happier, I had never been more fulfilled and I had never been more successful or made more money. And I think there was a lot of lessons for me there, because I used to really limit myself, because I realized when you're not showing up fully, authentically, it's almost like you're leaving half your power source at home, A hundred percent. And then people wonder why am I not shining? Why am I not being seen? I know that because I used to ask that same question, Like why aren't people seeing me and thinking about me for that position or whatever, and when you just show up as yourself, 100%, authentically, like number one, you're connected to inspiration, right, so you're going to be the one who gets those good ideas, those ideas that move the company leaps, and then utilized for that, which means you're really excited to do that and you're excited to show up to work every day, and then from that, opportunities continue to come to give me times to do what I love, and then people outside the organization started noticing and then that started opening up other opportunities and then it just expanded into a life of its own. And then I knew when it was time for me to go.

Speaker 2:

Versus me, sitting there waiting and waiting and thinking when I leave this job, I'm going to start impacting people. That doesn't work, folks. I'm here to tell you you have to start being what you want to be now. If your goal is like my goal, which was to coach and teach and to write books and start now. That really is the crux of this book, and I wanted to give people the same framework, the same roadmap that I followed. That was very successful, not only for me, but for so many, so many people that I've coached and trained on this topic that have also followed the roadmap and been like wow, this formula is simple, it's doable and it's helping me keep me aligned with what I believe I'm here to do in this life.

Speaker 1:

So much to talk about in this.

Speaker 1:

First of all, no, thank you. This is exciting, and I think this is where a lot of people get tripped up because they think well, that's easy for you, aniston, you must have been in an environment that was just much more primed for that kind of culture. And this is where I think it's important to challenge that limiting belief, because most of the time I think maybe 99.9% of the time the problems arise because we do not fully trust ourselves to be our authentic selves, not necessarily because the culture has said oh, you as yourself not good enough, but we read that into the tea leaves, right, we project that fear out there. And the difference between those people who end up being their authentic selves and you know I joke about this and you just said it, so I'm going to say it as well the freak shows that we all are. That separates those that really truly are living an extraordinary life, which means highs and lows people. It does not mean Instagram, curated, problem-free existence. It means embracing the highs and lows of a very rich, fulfilling life. When you are there, you trust yourself, and I think that is the key difference, because most people haven't come to terms with trusting themselves. There's this sense of like. I want to, but I don't fully think I'm capable of believing that what I think or feel or what's coming up for me is valid, so I'm gonna fold back on the sidelines. So what you've done and what you've put out here, I think, is just so monumentally important, because it's the difference between In my opinion and again, I think this is where we need to delve in a little bit more where people are searching for purpose versus where the calling finds you.

Speaker 1:

Your calling will get you. It's going to just keep at it until you pay attention, because I don't. I spent I think a lot of us do this a long time in my 20s searching for meaning, searching for purpose, searching outside of myself, right, searching out there, out, there, out there. And the reality is the calling comes up from within and it is why it's called the calling. It calls you to it. You don't need to go find it right. Talk about your experience around that, because I think so many people confuse this idea of purpose with something they have to go search for high and low, versus knowing that your purpose is. Calling is something that finds you, that you are beckoned to.

Speaker 2:

Oh, and it's a part of you let's start there Like you've never been disconnected from it, right, ever. You can't be disconnected from something that you are. It's impossible to extricate the you that you are from your purpose. It's more of, I think, an unraveling and an unpacking, because what happens is is, I think, we wind up looking at the world and at ourselves through very dirty glasses. Okay, I don't know about you, but like sunglasses like my sunglasses they're always constantly dirty. I'm having to like always smudge. It drives me crazy, like how can you do that? And I'm like I don't know, I'm just kind of used to it. Okay, so there we go. It's right there. Yes, exactly.

Speaker 1:

I'm like whatever, it's fine, that's what happens when you have little kids and grimy little fingers.

Speaker 2:

So I think skipping the part of where you need to wipe off those lens so you can see yourself clearly and your path clearly and your gifts more clearly is, in my opinion, it's avoiding the magic, right. So for me, and kind of circling back to what we initially talked about, about the healing journey we all are on, I believe, on a healing journey, right. Some of us are moving through different stages of it, and it's not linear, it's like circular, right. So just as you think you've healed one thing, you kind of come back to it again. You go for a deeper level and come back to it again, and come back to it again.

Speaker 2:

And so I think a big part of the process is number one when you are feeling confused, when you are feeling lost and you're like I have no idea, First of all recognize you're not lost. Okay, you just need to do a little work. And that's that is. The question is, are you willing to do the work, Are you willing to sit with yourself and to ask yourself some really good questions? And and just even coming to the, the awareness that you are feeling lost, that you're not sure what you want to do, like congratulations, because that means you're ready, Like you're so close, because most people that you will see walking around are like zombies in an apocalypse they don't even question, they don't even think to question our full survival mode. Right, and that might be, and that's okay. That's their journey.

Speaker 1:

That's where they're at, and we are all at that at some point in time. We can't deny that Like we fall into that or have been part of that autopilot living at one point or time or another, but that moment of awareness that you just talked about is everything.

Speaker 2:

It's everything when you start asking better questions, you're going to get better answers. So it's not a really complicated process. In the book, in the first part of the book, it's really about clarity, right. It's about discovering and really kind of reconnecting with who are you, what are your passions, who are you authentically, and really getting to know yourself again in a way that's deeper than who you think yourself to be just in your normal narrative. Because the normal narrative that you have of your identity, of who you are, what you're good at, what's possible for you, that is probably pretty false. I mean, some things might be true, right, but there are probably some things that need to be updated. It'd be like if you get a laptop or computer and you just never updated it, right, your identity needs to be regularly, updated regularly and for you to be clear on, well, this is who I am and this is what I'm about and this is what I'm capable of and what I'm ready for. And, more than that, I think it's really starting to recognize what you are uniquely good at.

Speaker 2:

I believe the age that we're in right now is an age where AI is coming in hot right, a lot of efficiencies and people kind of feel fearful around that, like, well, what kind of purpose am I going to have here when, with all these efficiencies happening in the world, it's ending? It's like, well, that's one way to look at it. Or you could look at it as a gift that will give us more time to do the things that we love so well. And while we used to trade in information right, it was what you knew is why you got hired I think the future is we'll be trading in genius, because what AI can't do is connect to a higher power and a source and receive information from the quantum field, right. What AI can't do is connect to a soul that is connected to the all, that is, that can receive these intuitive downloads at the right time, at the right place to touch somebody's heart. Right. That can receive these intuitive downloads at the right time, at the right place to touch somebody's heart right, like right now.

Speaker 2:

Now is the time, I believe, to start reconnecting to what makes you the unique snowflake that you are that will never be replicated, and through that comes the self-love and the self-worth and realizing like, wow, I really do have something to offer here. And not devaluing these gifts because you think, oh well, that person has those gifts and they're really successful, and I don't have those, so my gifts aren't that great. Your gift is great and I guarantee you it's needed. And I think that that is going to become more of our calling card is to be known for what we do so well, so uniquely well, that people will start coming to you for that and you'll start going to them for what they do so uniquely well, and we'll start to get to know each other on a much deeper soul level. So I know that was a long answer to your question.

Speaker 1:

I love that. Well, look, this audience is prime for this, because we talk about all things spiritual here on the show, and one of the things I know we share so deeply in common is a love for the late great Wayne Dyer and this notion that you know, we are spiritual beings having a human experience and so the eternal part of us right, that soul that we all are not that we have, but that we are is something that I think most of the folks that are listening here recognize. And unfortunately, we need to have regular reminders that this human experience that we're all going on is the temporary field and that we are going to experience some really beautiful things. But we're also going to experience a lot of heartbreak and disappointing things, and that's part of the human experience we get to, as spiritual beings that are walking through this, decide how we're going to respond and, I think, reflect our light through all of that. Right, that's where I think so much of the inherent worthiness that we need to be reminded that we have comes into play. There is no better soul, lesser soul. We're all spiritual beings, we're all souls, right, there's an equality of that. It's beautiful as it is, we are beautiful as we are, and then we inhabit these human lives that come with different tools and gifts that we get to experience and get to share and burdens that we have to live through that most of the time end up being the places that we get to bring back to the world in some sort of role of teaching or healing, or where our true calling is to be and holding that space for other people that have either come behind us and need encouragement or need light as they go through their own experiences.

Speaker 1:

So I think so much of this idea behind the book really being built into the fact that nobody but nobody can play the role that you came here to play is such a wonderfully beautiful reminder. And I'm curious you have young kids. What do they think of the book? Have they experienced this? I mean, first of all, they must think mom's a rock star, but besides that, I know that you and Rudy I've had Rudy on the show before, so our audience will remember Rudy these two are a dynamic duo, but you really do embody what you teach here. How are the kids reacting to the success of the book and the work that you're doing?

Speaker 2:

You know, it's been such a blessing this whole process because I've gotten to experience my children in different ways through this. So when I decided that I made the commitment, I was like I'm writing this book, I knew that it was going to come. There's always a trade-off, right? There's always a trade-off. And people say, well, how are you doing that with a full-time, high-level job? And you're doing the podcast, you're doing this, you're doing that. And I'm like well, you make time for the things that you value, right, you make time for the things that are important to you.

Speaker 2:

And I knew that if something happened and I was at my deathbed and I had not written this book, I would have such regret about it. So I really my why was so strong? And so I sat the kids down, rudy, and I did, and I said listen, this is my goal, this is. I believe it's a big part of my purpose. I believe I was given this to create it, to impact other people and I could really use your support. And so we talked about it and that daddy was going to help them in the mornings when I was writing and some weekends I would be writing. And they said okay. And I said and once this book is published, then we will all go together and celebrate to go to Universal Studios, like this became a thing They've never been, which we're still. We have the plan, so we're going this year, and so they felt like they were a part of it, like they would check in with me How's it going. So they feel like this is their book too, like they've been a part of this process.

Speaker 2:

And my daughter now is writing her own book she's nine and my son is writing music. And you know, it was such a reminder to me that I think the greatest gift we can give to our children is to live our most authentic big lives and to honor our calling and the dreams that are put on our heart, even if it means that I have less time to do some of the motherly things that I would have, because I think what I was able to model for them was what it looks like to follow your dreams and to follow your heart and to do it knowing that you don't have to choose, like you get to be a mom, you get to be a wife, you get to be a high-powered career woman, you get to impact people, and it can be a lot of things. So, yeah, it's been a great process.

Speaker 1:

That's so beautiful and I'm so glad you shared that. I mean, one of the biggest gifts that I've been given was, you know, my son, alex, was a major part of my own journey. I remember during COVID he came into my office and said, mom, are you on Zoom? And I said I am. And he said are you on speaker? And I said no, I'm on mute.

Speaker 1:

And he said oh good, when are you going to stop helping everybody else and start writing your own book? And I remember going else and start writing your own book. And I remember going fully. I said well, you know, just as a matter of reference, that job that you're criticizing right now is paying for this lovely home you live in and all these phenomenal vacations we've taken on in the past. And he said, mom, I don't think it matters, I really think you need to go do the thing that you were meant to do here. That was my then 12-year-old, or almost 13-year-old, and I remember going oh my gosh, out of the mouth of babes. And he's been, and I was a pretty high power executive for a while here. And he said I've never been more proud of you than the day that you walked away from everything to start doing the things you were meant to do.

Speaker 2:

And now he's the same thing.

Speaker 1:

He's on his entrepreneur journey himself. He just got accepted to college. Like we're going through all this process, we're going to be dropping him off in the end of the summer and to start his own journey. And he said watching you hit the reset on certain goals so that you can start living what you were meant to do is the thing I'm most proud of, mom. Look at that.

Speaker 2:

not the thing that gave us all the toys and the things and the nope nope, and I think that also just showing what it looks like to pivot, because I know for sure, like I don't regret a day that I spent. That was my qualification, to be honest, like I feel like really good, and I'm still being qualified every single day. I'm being qualified for what I'm doing. But I was meant to be in that role. I was meant. Every job I've had has taught me something so important. And so I think that the problem is when we get so attached and we hold on with these fists because we're so afraid nothing is on the other side of this. And when you really start to open up and start to trust, I think, in the universe and trust in your creatorship here and your ability, through your energy and vibration, to co-create your reality, it starts to open up doors for you. And I know for a lot of people, money is a big issue. They're like I'm not going to leave my corporate job because of money. And I do think that there is something to be said for, like start where you're at and see what opens up for you, because you might not even have to do that. There might be a role that you find within your current organization that really checks all the boxes, leaves you feeling fulfilled. So don't like blow up your life because you think you have to change everything in order to be happy. First get happy, get fulfilled, become abundant yourself and in your abundant vibration that will outweigh any circumstance. And I'll give you an example.

Speaker 2:

So I left my job in January, okay, and I had a very healthy paycheck. And right now I'm busy coaching and I'm building some new things that I'll be offering which I'm really excited about. But you know, logic would tell you, okay, well, we need to plan for a certain amount of time where I'm not going to have this income. But I was like actually, no, we're not planning for that, because I believe that I have a certain worthiness level as it relates to abundance and I have a whole chapter on this called the universe's payroll, and I was like I'm taking my own advice, I'm on the universe does payroll, and I was like I'm taking my own advice, I'm on the universe's payroll baby, and I am open to receive abundance for wherever, wherever God wants to send it from.

Speaker 2:

And two days ago we get a completely unexpected check in the mail and it is for I'm thinking even to the cent what my monthly paycheck was from Wow, unexpected, did not anticipate it. Rudy was like is this real? And I was like yeah, I think. So Deposit it, you'll find out real fast. And it was like it was just. We both just killed ourselves laughing because you could totally stress yourself out and be like doomsday, oh my gosh. But I really, truly believe and my life is continuing to validate for me that if you are abundant and you feel worthy, that there are an infinite amount of sources of potential for income for you.

Speaker 1:

Hallelujah and amen to that. So those of you who are listening right now know Hallelujah and amen to that. So those of you who are listening right now know I 100% believe this. This is part of we talk about wealth frequency and the energetics of money on this show pretty regularly and it's probably one of my most downloaded tools that I offer to our community is this idea and notion that we do not stop where we believe our abundance factor is. We raise to the level of that and so it is. All it is is energy. We know that. We know that this whole universe, including Aniston and I, are made of energy, that money is nothing more than an energetic exchange and that we raise to the vibration of that frequency of that which we want to experience.

Speaker 1:

So I love the fact that you didn't get into that scarcity mindset, that you maintained that no, this is where our family is going to live and thrive and be, and you continue to grow at that place and be in that space and that mindset. That is how you continue to bring the abundance in from all the places, places you didn't even anticipate they were gonna come from. That's how it happens, people. So don't be surprised if the universe says, hey, random check coming in from this place that you didn't even know you had something waiting for you. When your expectation is there, you need to believe and be grateful that it's already coming. So thank you for sharing that. That's such a wonderful reminder.

Speaker 2:

You're welcome.

Speaker 1:

Isn't the place to tighten the belt. This is the place to stay in expectancy and stay in belief and know that it is coming.

Speaker 2:

It's being in the flow and I think it's really living in. Uncertainty itself is a gift. If you can set like one goal for yourself this year, I would say get really comfortable with uncertainty and see the gift in it, because when you're uncertain, you open up just to the infinite amount of potential that's out there. Right up, just to the infinite amount of potential that's out there right, when we're in certainty and we are so committed to certainty and we're committed that means we're committed to control we're basically saying we're very much limiting our potential to only the things, right, that we're like well, it has to be this way.

Speaker 2:

But when you step out of what is what, out of what is known, into the unknown, and you're like, well, I have no idea what this is going to look like, but I know that I'm excited and I know that I'm protected and I know that I'm guided and I'm connected to all the information that is going to guide me ahead and bring in all the necessary resources, life becomes magical and you start to see the magic every day.

Speaker 2:

And so, even though, yes, I think I know what's, I mean, I'm starting to kind of see the vision. I'm not in a hurry to give it a label. And I'm not in a hurry to get it all figured out, because this time of uncertainty has been such a gift and full of just the most incredible things. So I just want to encourage anyone out there that is really struggling and afraid right now because you're in uncertainty that a shift in perception was the course in miracle says a miracle is just a shift in a perspective, in perception, and one little shift and how you're perceiving a situation can completely turn your world around.

Speaker 1:

So, a hundred percent an thank you so much for modeling what it means to live an extraordinary life. It is not about having it all figured out, it is not about certainty, it is not about curated experiences. It really is being present for the moment that you are living now, with all your gifts and all of your full potential being expressed and willing to embrace what we would normally label as humans good and bad and recognizing that they're all just experiences that we go through as humans and that our mission really here is to serve love wherever we go. And you are doing that so beautifully and I'm just honored to call you friend and I'm so proud of you and this work that you're doing. Thank you so much and I can't wait to read your book. Sister, it's coming. It is coming, folks. Again.

Speaker 1:

Aniston's book is called the Universe is Hiring. I highly encourage you to go get it. We will include the link in the show notes. Aniston is very active now. She is out being seen and heard on Instagram, so please go look for her there. We'll make sure we have her Instagram handle. Aniston, I'll give you the last word. What else would you like for our audience to know?

Speaker 2:

Well, I would just say yeah, I'd love to talk with you on Instagram. Come find me. The Empowered Life podcast is what I co-host with Rudy, and we're always talking about all things spiritual. Very similar to you, michelle. So I just wish everyone the best and I hope that you got what you needed out of this episode.

Speaker 1:

Well, thank you for an inspiring afternoon conversation and until next time, everyone, go and live your extraordinary lives. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to rate and review. If you have recommendations podcast episode, please take a moment to rate and review. If you have recommendations for future topics, please reach out to me at michelleriosofficialcom. Lastly, please consider supporting this podcast by sharing it. Together, we can reach, inspire and positively impact more people. Thank you.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Michelle Rios

Host