Find Your Lady Tribe

Finding Your Inner Guide: Navigating Identity Shifts with Jen Carew at the Whole YOU Retreat

• Brenda Billings Ridgley • Season 3 • Episode 14

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Have you ever caught a glimpse of yourself in the mirror, only to realize the person staring back is a stranger? This episode is your beacon through the fog of self-discovery, with our special guest, Jen Carew, guiding us on a journey to reclaim our identity. Jen, a connoisseur of mindfulness, meditation, and spiritual companionship, joins us at the Whole YOU Retreat to shed light on the holistic healing that intertwines body, mind, and spirit. Her insights promise to catalyze a transformation for anyone yearning to tap into their full potential and align the intricate parts of their being.

Weaving through the narrative of life's inevitable transitions, this conversation touches on the common thread of feeling adrift amidst the sea of change. Jen opens her heart, sharing the contours of her own identity crises, and how these pivotal moments have carved her path to enlightenment and empowerment. For every woman who has ever felt overshadowed by the cacophony of societal expectations or who has lost her inner compass, this episode stands as an invitation to step into your power and join us at the Whole YOU Retreat. Let Jen's wisdom lead you to a deeper understanding of your personal odyssey, as we explore the resilience of the human spirit and the beauty in embracing every chapter of your story.

To learn more about the retreat: www.wholeYOUretreat.org/breckenridge

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Speaker 1:

Hey everybody, I am really happy to be back today with another guru from our Whole you Retreat and I'm really excited to talk to Jen here. Jen Carew, she is our mindfulness and meditation teacher and she also is a spiritual companion.

Speaker 2:

thank you, yes, sorry, I saw you looking for the word I appreciate that.

Speaker 1:

So, uh, this will be her first uh time at the whole year retreat and we just couldn't be more excited. Uh, we have. What we have going on up in breckenridge and and soon in costa rica is so special the positive energy we bring and the women that we attract and I feel like we got to attract you, jen, into our tribe as well. That's so sweet.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm really happy to be joining you and to be part of this experience. It's definitely what I really appreciated when I looked into the retreat itself was the like the entire body, mind, spirit aspect of the experience, and I think that's really what makes this unique. You know, we're we're three parts, right, like we're not just our minds, although our minds would like probably tell, try to tell us differently, so um, but we don't like get in touch with our body very often, or our spirit or consciousness or awareness, whatever you know language you use. So it's an opportunity to kind of get back in touch with all of the parts that make us who we are, bring them into alignment, and when you do that, like the, the power of that is really being able to fully realize or self-actualize into the. You know your potential. So that's what's cool about this experience and I'm really happy that I get to be a part of it.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and my favorite thing is, you know, bringing this group of women together who most don't know each other. We've got people coming from all over the country, even Canada, into our little cute Breckenridge town and a lot of these women have kind of like, are kind of feel like they're floundering in their life right now.

Speaker 1:

Maybe they've gone through some kind of transition or one's coming up, or they've invested so much of their energy into other people and other things that they've kind of lost themselves and a place to really kind of dig deep inside and figure out who I am anymore and who do I want to be, because we've got a lot left in us, right.

Speaker 2:

Well, yeah, I mean and I think so many of us I mean life is really a series of transitions, right, and those transitions disrupt our lives, sometimes in really liberating and generative ways, and then sometimes in ways that just leave us feeling like lost and like disconnected and not sure of who we are anymore. And the challenge is that we haven't really been given a lot of tools to like get back or to help ourselves figure out, like who am I now and who? What are these emotions that are rising? And like how do I navigate them? And then, how do I bring again like all parts of who I am now not who I was, or maybe even who I thought I was going to be Right, Sometimes life takes us in other directions. So what is the opportunity to understand? Like what is showing up for me now? And like how can I integrate it and use it instead of resisting it? Or like feeling bad about it?

Speaker 1:

right, right and what other people think I should be right, yes, right.

Speaker 2:

there's the weight of all of that, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's that, so Jen would you just kind of share with all of us a little bit about more about you and why you do what you do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So you know, when I talk about disruption, I don't I mean, obviously, speak from experience and also identity crises, like I had my own a couple of years ago. So, um, I'm somebody that has always been um, really on the path, like a path of seeking path, like always seeking, seeking, seeking and um, and then finding ways to manifest all of these amazing things in my life. And so, um, by the age of 45, I had reached this pinnacle of success in my life. I had my dream job that I'd worked 10 years for leading learning and development for a major corporation, and this was like the dream job. I was like married I'm married to the love of my life. We had just bought our dream home and we were like just getting through the tail end of COVID.

Speaker 2:

Uh, and I just sat there and I was like I have sort of checked all of these boxes that I thought that were going to make me feel fulfilled and joyful and I don't feel like that and what is wrong with me?

Speaker 2:

And also, um, I felt like I was sold a bill of goods, right, and then, um, and so, uh, the, the person that I am couldn't live with that Like I was, like I got to figure out why I don't feel fulfilled. So I decided to leave my corporate career that was really like my quote unquote dream job to figure out, like what fulfillment really is and how I could find that within myself. So I spent nine months really studying spiritual texts, meditating, journaling and finding a connection with my own inner voice and my own inner wisdom through that experience. And now my mission is to help other people connect to that inner voice and their own inner wisdom, and for me, meditation is the best way I found personally, in that stillness that comes with meditation, to access that inner voice. And then meditation is what cultivates mindfulness in our lives and the ability to be present and nonjudgmental about what is arising for us because it's in the ways that we react to what arises which creates our suffering.

Speaker 2:

So and then the third thing, the spiritual companion part, which people are like. What is that Exactly? That is really somebody that walks with you on your spiritual path, on your own inner journey. So having that having it's not a coach, it's not a therapist, it's somebody that helps you by listening right, sometimes the thing that we need the most is somebody to really listen and to see us and someone to share, like what's happening when I do turn inward, because very few people understand that unless they've experienced that themselves. And so the people in our lives aren't the best people necessarily to talk to about those things, and that's where a spiritual companion comes in.

Speaker 1:

Very, very interesting. I'm really excited to really learn more and deep dive over the our long weekend together and I love your story and I think it's unique but also not in that you know, and it's so really um great for you to share that. You know, you, you had it all and but it didn't feel right, didn't feel enough, and I think we we build these lives that from the outside, looking in, looks so perfect and we try to put out all, all of best, everything out there, and stay positive and and I believe in being positive, you know as much as possible, but yeah, to the point to the exclusion of people knowing really who you are anymore and you not knowing who you are really anymore. That's that's the work and that's the point. You know, that's very much what we focus on at our retreat and you just, I'm just thrilled you're going to be a part of it. What are you most excited about?

Speaker 2:

for this, your trip to Colorado. Oh well, I mean.

Speaker 1:

I grew up in Colorado.

Speaker 2:

I live in southern Wisconsin now, but I actually was raised in Colorado, so I lived there from the time I was four until I was 20. And then I moved out of state but so I really grew up there and I love Colorado. So I mean that part is wonderful. But for me, any opportunity that I can have to just be in relationships with other women that are sincerely like seeking to discover their inner voices and their inner wisdom Like that's the stuff that just like that's gets me up in the morning, that's the thing that I'm most passionate about and that's why I do this work. So there's going to be a lot of sharing of what I call like our sacred stories, and sacred sounds like really serious, but it's really just about sharing like our innermost selves, right, and having a safe space to do that, and maybe having parts of ourselves become illuminated that we've like not become aware of before, and and and or sharing parts that we have been suppressing for whatever reason, you know Right.

Speaker 2:

So I love I mean I am not, I love getting down deep that we have been suppressing for whatever reason, you know Right. So I love, I mean I am not, I love getting down deep. That's why I do the work we do. I'm not really a surface level kind of person, I just don't do that well, and so that's like the opportunity for that real connection is why I love like I'm excited about this experience.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, totally, totally. And you've known our exercise and wellness and health guru for I don't know, I don't know, maybe longer than high school. Yeah, I guess so. So I've known her for about over 20 years, I don't know. So, about 23, 24 years, and I just love her right oh my God, everyone loves her.

Speaker 2:

She's like I. Honestly, every time I'm with her, I'm like how do you have this much energy?

Speaker 1:

I should say her name is Stacy Stedman and she is our, our health coach at the retreat and just a ball of energy, exactly Just like you said. Where does she get it? I don't know, she's always going, going, going.

Speaker 2:

It's always been like this, like ever since I've known her.

Speaker 1:

So and truly a bright spot at our retreat. Just to bring the energy up whenever you know we don't. I don't want our it to sound like um the weekends, like it's so deep, right, I mean yes, that's why all that.

Speaker 1:

But we also have so much fun. That's so much fun to unwind and relax and get a massage and, you know, get your hair and make it done if you'd like, and get a new look and totally maybe even get some photos taken of you, who people don't get nice photos taken of them anymore, you know, unless it's a selfie or a.

Speaker 2:

Right, yeah, or a family photo, but like who? Who does individual photos of themselves? I mean, probably the last one is you're seeing a senior photo, right so?

Speaker 1:

that's something else that the women really kind of I didn't know when we first brought it to the retreat, the, the stylist and the photographer, that oh, they are booked and I mean there's time for everybody but it's but, but it's very highly regarded. Those, those services, yeah yeah, absolutely well.

Speaker 2:

I mean, there's all sorts of opportunities to pamper yourself inside and out, right like so. I think Stacy and I are really kind of like yin and yang and very much like um. I would describe myself as more like calm and sort of like steady, and Stacy is just the fire and the energy Right, and so we're like I'm more grounding and she's uplifting, so it's really like our energies together really blend well.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. Well, I just know it's going to be perfect fit all the way around. So for anyone out there who has it's kind of on the fence about coming to the whole year retreat once you give us, give a plug. What do you? What are you? Why are you coming? What?

Speaker 2:

do you think? Well, I mean, I think again, like, when is the last time you did something just for yourself, right? And? And I think as women, we, um, we tend to put ourselves last, and that sounds like a cliche, but it's really the truth for most of us. And so, um, to not have to do dishes and cook and to just spend some time like doing whatever you want to do, right, like we have an awesome agenda that people can plug into and or just plug out of at any time, right, and so it's. It is definitely like choose your own adventure and fill up your cup again and and also get what you need out of this experience. So maybe you want a deep inner soul dive, right. And or maybe you just want to relax and get a makeover and a massage, like. Whatever you're looking for, there is something here for you. So that's what I think is is so unique about it. It's it's got things on all levels.

Speaker 1:

Yep, Absolutely Awesome. Well, again, I just can't wait to meet you in a couple of weeks in person. Give you a big squeeze and we'll be the greeting, giving everyone a big squeeze when they should love the Breckenridge. That's what we do. It's kind of the guests are like wow, you guys really do like each other, but we just it's a. There's something about feminine energy that it's a kind of love, a motherly love, if you will, that you can't really get from any other relationships and that's why.

Speaker 1:

I teach. What I teach is because I feel that feminine friendship is so important. It's a big part of what I, what I teach.

Speaker 2:

So yeah.

Speaker 1:

I love what we've created. I'm so excited You're going to be there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thanks, I'm really looking forward to it.

Speaker 1:

All right guys, until next time we'll see you. Bye the Thank you. I actually love you.

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Brenda Billings Ridgley

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