Making Space for Possibility with Erin Neuhardt

Featured on this episode is Erin Neuhardt, the leader of the Possibility Retreat in the Let Your Soul Shine and Enjoy the Journey Retreat Tour of 2024. Erin shares her incredible wisdom with us about how she plays with possibility in her life, work and how to explore the idea further to carve your true path. Erin is a delightful visionary and collaborator. Listen to Erin's magic shine through her humor, vulnerability and honest insights.

Episode References:

Erin Neuhardt
Author, Teacher, Consultant
Moon Productivity Enthusiast

Erin Neuhardt is an Author, Teacher, Retreat Leader, and Consultant dedicated to helping individuals live a more aligned and empowered life. Through her courses, workshops, and retreats, she guides others in deepening self-awareness, productivity, and purpose. With a unique blend of energetic practices—including Human Design, Gene Keys, and moon cycle wisdom—Erin helps clients connect with their authentic selves and create meaningful change. She is the creator of transformative offerings such as the Moon Productivity Course, Soul Aligned Visibility Sessions, Energetic Hygiene, and, most recently, Rewrite Your Reality. A certified Reiki Practitioner known for her ability to hold supportive space, Erin finds purpose in community settings, empowering others to cultivate clarity, courage, and alignment in their personal and professional lives.

Possibility Retreat
YMCA Camp Tockwagh
Worton, MD
12/6-8, 2024
https://katelemay.com/products/dec-6-8-2024-worton-md-theme-possibility

http://www.erinneuhardt.com/

https://www.instagram.com/neuhardt.and.soul/

Kate Lemay, Artist of Conscious Evolution & Retreat Director
https://katelemay.com/

Christina Alexa
https://alexaflows.com/

Bhagavad Gita

Harry Potter

Kevin Garnett

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Transcript

This is the True for You Podcast, a place where we show up for ourselves fully. I'm your host, Renee Cupples. Becoming a yoga teacher helped set me free from trying to always have everything figured out and surrender to what is again and again.

If you're looking for inspiration and direction in your life, look to yourself and what you love. I am here to serve as a mirror to remind you of how amazing you truly are. Let's begin.

Welcome back to the True for You Podcast. It's your host Renee Cupples, and I have a wonderful guest for you today. It is Erin Neuhardt. I met Erin in 2019 at the Live in Love Retreat on Sandy Island on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. And Erin dove into the lake with just pure, sheer joy and bliss.

And I was just blown away by her courage and witnessing that you can take leaps like that in your life and just be yourself. And, I've been so honored to know and grow with Erin through the years. So thank you, Erin, so much for being here.  

Renee, thank you for having  me. This is so exciting. And I love that you... it makes me really happy and I might get a little teary eyed through this conversation because that's such a sweet memory. I love that that was one of your first memories of the two of us meeting. 

Mm hmm. 

Yay. 

And Erin, you are the host of the final stop on the Let Your Soul Shine and Enjoy the Journey Tour of 2024.

You're hosting the Possibility Retreat this coming December. It is December 6th through the 8th in Worton, Maryland at Camp Tockwagh. And I'm so excited for you to be the host and Erin,  introduce yourself. Give us a little bit more about your background and then we'll talk a little bit more about possibility.

Okay. I love it. Thank you so much. And thank you for having me. So I feel like I'm a true seeker. I'm someone who really wants to understand the world myself. I want to understand myself better. And so throughout my life, I've just sought out different information and different knowledge to help me understand, help me make sense of things.

And I'm just curious. And so my professional background is in a lot of different things  around community building and hospitality and, and a lot of formal training in those places, but, I've always kind of looked for this other vein of information. And so it came out of a necessity of needing to understand how to manage my energy and be in large groups of people that I started looking at yoga teacher training, which we came through the same teacher, Christina Alexa. And from there, my world has just been open to beautiful humans, beautiful community who has really seen me for who I am and allowed me, kind of cradled me in my own evolution.

I have felt so alive and so able to be myself amongst all of these humans that we're all on this journey together. And, it's really exciting. So that's a little bit about me, I think.  

And, and during yoga teacher training, Erin, you often tell the story, it's a beautiful story about how you really loved learning about the moon phases and how you can work with the cycles of the moon. So can you give us a little bit more background on that? 

Yeah, absolutely. So, we were sitting in a circle, during yoga teacher training, during one of our weekends together. And all of a sudden, our teacher, Christina, brought up moon medicine and what the moon has to teach us and that each different moon has a different flavor or something different to teach us and what we can do to sit in reflection in that and help find out what we need to move ourselves forward.

And that was a really curious place. I started to lean in more. I could feel myself being like, what is this that she's talking about? What is this moon medicine?  And so from there, I really started a deep dive. I started doing releasing ceremonies around the full moon. From there, I then incorporated a new moon practice of setting intentions and kind of looking at my month ahead. 

And because of the background that I have in hospitality, project management, those types of more different veins of expertise, I saw a parallel to project management and how we manage our lives and different activities and the different phases of the moon. And so I married those together and now I teach a course called the moon productivity course, helping people get more aligned with their own natural cycles and understanding their cycles through the phases of the moon so that we can enjoy more of the ebbs and flows of life, as opposed to feeling like we always have to push or that the creativity is never going to come back or just sitting and allowing for people to  receive the rest that they need, which I think is one of the things that we are at a deficit right now is that we don't allow ourselves to rest as much as we could.

I now, very unconsciously,  I can understand my own cycle, my own energy levels each day. And then even if I'm not necessarily tuned into what the moon is doing, I'm like, huh, I wonder if it is. And I'll go and check. And I'm like, yep, it's a waxing crescent or it's a waning gibbous or what have you.

So I get really excited about it. And I've had several friends, several people come through this course that say that they've shifted a little bit of their perception, their awareness and they're a little more in tune to how they operate in their own energy levels.

So it's a really cool experience.  I love the moon.  I love the moon! 

Thank you, Erin. I think that it's such a beautiful tool because there definitely are certain times where you have more energy or you have less energy and you don't always know why and having a tool maybe to help track it and notice if there is some parallel. 

I never knew that new moon time was my jam.  There's one week every month where I just want to crawl into a deep dark cave and talk to no one. And I actually prefer that time. I come out of it with more energy and more ideas because I've allowed myself to cocoon.

And I always thought I was weird that I liked  that energy, but working with you, I was like, oh, it turns out, maybe that's more my default and I can really use that to my advantage. So, thank you for that. 

Oh, thank you. Yeah. That 100%. And that's, I think the beauty of it that you just expressed is that if we allow ourselves that space and time to cocoon, that feels very natural to you and maybe it not very natural to some of us who are like, go, go, go that you do, you come back out of that time with a renewed sense of energy, purpose, ideas, all of the things are cultivated in that time of just rest and reset. And I think it's a beautiful thing. So thank you for, for honoring your own rhythm. And then also mirroring it back to the rest of us as to like, no, it actually does work. So it's good stuff. 

Yeah. And, and speaking of ideas, the theme of our chat today is  around the theme of the retreat that you're going to be hosting in December. And, it's based on Kate Lemay's painting, Possibility. And what does the idea of  possibility mean for you, Erin? 

I love the theme of possibility. I'm actually I'm so honored and I'm really excited that I get to steward this one through. This feels really, really good. Possibility for me is that we've taken the training wheels off and we allow ourselves to experience life  unfolding in a natural way, without dampening what we think is possible, what we think can happen. So I really love asking the question, what is possible? What is a curiosity? What can I achieve? And also I think that there's a sense of self-sovereignty in that, that so many of us look outside of ourselves for validation of what we should want or where we should be in life or what we can have.

And there's a sense of actually pulling it back and being like, but what is my heart? What is my soul speaking to me? And what is my soul saying to me about what I want to create or what I bring into this world? Or how I want to serve and also honoring our inner child too. What did our inner child want?

What were the possibilities that our inner child could feel and experience and see for us that maybe we've lost track of and that we don't see for ourselves anymore? 

I think that that's what it is. It's about really allowing ourselves to kind of think bigger about opportunities and whatever it might be.  

I love that you brought in that inner child too, because I think when you're younger, you don't even question if it's possible or not. The limits of your imagination are just absolutely limitless. And the more that we put limits on ourselves, the more that we think we need to stay in our own lane or whatever it is.  And I love that you used the analogy of taking the training wheels off, because what is possible when you do that and you don't have that thing that's holding you back and maybe keeping you safe and making you feel better.

But you know, once you can fly free and you feel that sense of freedom and you feel that expansiveness, and why am I even questioning if this is possible or not? It's actually a beautiful way to get an idea or to get an intuitive hit or an inspiration because you're going from so, so big  and then you kind of have to narrow down what you specifically want to focus on.

But I love that big expansive space, how open and wide it feels and I think when we open ourselves up in that way, sometimes we can see more than we can see when we are in more of that stuck, smaller space so it's, it's almost like there's so much possible even talking about possibility because  it has that you have to kind of take it from the broad and narrow it down a little bit.

100 percent. Sometimes though, it's also about taking the things that keep us safe that we think are important, to question those things and say, do I need these things? Is it actually keeping me safe? How can I expand my view or my thinking a little bit?

That's one piece of it. And then the other piece I just want to go back to the cocooning of the new moon. Part of it is allowing the space and the time to almost  be bored or to totally recharge in a way. That you're not piling a bunch of stuff on top of you so that you can have the clarity of, what is it? You're actually opening your mind up as opposed to kind of the synthetic, well, I'm going to read this. I'm going to listen to this. I'm going to do this activity, which is going to get me into a place of possibility. Sure. There are lots of things that you could do, but also the more that you put on the possibility train, if you will, trying to get possibility to go, the more you're actually turning to whatever it is that you are  viewing, listening to, reading, whatever it might be. So the space is super important in all of that, which is why it feels so wide open too.  

Yeah. And it kind of sounds like you're talking about going on a retreat when you say  going and recharging. One way to step away from your current existence is to go on,  is to retreat away and that can then open up possibility.  Why do you go on retreat, Erin?  

I go for a lot of reasons. I go for the community. Like I said, this has been the most nurturing community for me. I feel like I can totally be myself.  I feel completely unjudged to play and experiment and just be myself, which feels really good.

I think so many times we feel the need to show up as a specific thing or in a specific role and retreat allows me to be fully myself. Not that I ever feel like I'm not myself when I'm in other areas, but you know, you form to meet what the expectations are of that specific situation. And I don't have to do that at retreat.

That's a beautiful part of it. I also go to reset.  I use these as opportunities for possibility and to gain clarity or ideas, or just sit to allow myself that time.  And then I think also, honestly, I go for service. I see this as a part of my service, to  how I can serve right is going to retreat and being community and supporting the retreat leaders, everyone. So it does feel very much like a service as well. Those are my reasons for retreating.  

Yeah, last year at this camp in Maryland, our theme was present, and it's making me remember Erin that you did, you were of incredible service and did a workshop with us you were teaching us a little bit more about gene keys, which is a spinoff of human design, correct me if I'm wrong. And you pre-did everybody's and brought all these printouts where we could look them over and it blew me away because I've worked a little bit in the area of human design before, I'd heard about gene keys, but I didn't really know anything about them. And you had been saying sometimes human design speaks a little more to people sometimes gene keys and for me the gene keys I was jamming on them so much because it just felt   it felt super expansive and meditative and that's, that's more me. And I was so, so blown away after your presentation. And I really appreciate it. So, if anyone's into human design or gene keys or wants to know more, definitely hit up Erin.  

Oh my gosh, I could jam out on it for so long too.  It really, it was one of the first and I've had this response from a few people where they actually get tears in their eyes and are like, I had never felt as seen as I have now that I understand my chart. The things that I thought or felt or experienced in my human existence in this meat suit that we are running around in, I never felt truly seen.

And then I saw my human design or my gene keys and it resonated so strongly. And I was like, that's the way I think, or that's the way I feel. And I love that. And to your point, I love human design, but I really, I think from a yogic perspective, specifically, I love gene keys because it is more of that meditative, contemplative space and it's about a continuum or practice.  It's not a point A to point B. It is literally, this is just something to continue to explore and it's layers of an onion and you're going to peel things back and you're going to see something different every time that speaks to you in a way that you needed to receive that message. So thank you so much. I love it. I have so much fun talking about it.  

Yeah. Cause I think that sometimes, a lot of us might hit up against the same stuff all the time, right? The same problem keeps resurfacing. And you're like, I thought I've evolved enough to go beyond that. But it's coming back for a reason, right?You're learning something new. And that's one thing I did love about the gene keys. It was like, this might be something that you're always, whether it's self worth or whatever it is, you're always going to come up like, oh, I thought I've worked on my worthiness. And I believed I was worthy. Oh, you thought? No, you didn't. So it keeps coming back because you have a new lesson to learn from that. And you have a new way to empower yourself. So, you know, don't get mad if the same types of problems keep coming up in your life because that could be your...  I'm thinking of like the Bhagavad Gita, right?

In yoga, that's your dharma, the warrior, the battles that you're meant to fight. That's, that's it. That's your battle. And you're going to overcome that over time. But if you are pushing against it, why is this coming up for me? This is so annoying.   Get really curious. This is coming up for me again. What is that? And seeing it from a different perspective can be helpful because it can be exhausting feeling like you're living the same human experience over and over. And you want to be able to expand and find those possibilities in other ways.

That's right. Or yeah, the detachment from the outcome or the surrender to just doing things a little bit differently the next time, or the awareness that you did treat the same situation a little bit differently this time, and you liked the outcome better, I agree with you.

I think that it's really, really good.  And we're not living a linear life.  These are things that  each one of us has a different contract in this life as to what we're here to learn and what we're here to do and how we're here to serve. And so that to me... yeah and I really love it.

I think it's so, so helpful.  

Do you have any sneak peeks, Erin, for us, for our listeners, as to what is going to be going down at the possibility retreat? Anything we have to look forward to? 

We... yes, I do. I'm really excited about it. I think, you know, one of the things is expansiveness. So I'm hoping that people really come, you know, this is the first weekend in December, so we're right in between holidays, we're in between different things. And so I'm hoping that this creates a space and a sanctuary for you to come and be and reset and spend a little time with yourself. And also what I love about it being in December is that it really has the ability for us to take some steps towards how we want to show up in 2025, too.

Right? So if you're looking for something that is kind of an end of the year, how do I want to reset and go into the new year differently, this could be a beautiful place for you to do that. So we're gonna spend a little bit of time playing in possibility. We're gonna look at some of the things that might be holding you back from possibility.

And then, I'm just really excited. I'll be speaking on Saturday night. So I'm going to be sharing a little bit more of my story and that's both exciting and a little nerve wracking, but I'm really thrilled because I do think that one of the questions I get asked a lot is, Erin, how do you continue to make big moves or big leaps?

And sometimes they feel like big leaps for me and sometimes they don't. But I appreciate what people are seeing. And I'm hoping that I can bring some gravity and some tactileness to that as well as just hopefully, giving some flight to everyone else's possibility too, right?  That's what I'm really excited about, is to see what everyone else comes out of the retreat with, in terms of where they see themselves being able to go, the possibilities they see for themselves.

And then I want to follow up with them. I want to follow up with everyone going to the retreat and be like, okay, are you working? Is that something that's still, are you excited about this? Is it coming up? Are you making moves towards it? 

I'm cracking up laughing because you said, Erin, people ask you, Erin, how do you take big leaps? And the day that I met you, you literally took a giant leap into the lake. I was amazed and you'd just come off, your group that had all graduated yoga teacher training together had just come off graduation and you all just were so full of joy and I was so happy to witness that big celebration for you all so you literally take big leaps literally and figuratively so it's that's beautiful to bare for people and to let them know that that's possible for them too.

And sometimes you have to take the big leap and it might not, you might not always land. Right. You might not. 

Oh, that's a huge, that's a big one. Renee is the the fears that hold us back,   allowing yourself to try. I think that, it's been really beautiful to be a witness. I have a two year old nephew who I'm just absolutely in love with. He's the best thing ever, but to watch him, a two year old, figuring things out and wanting to try things and it not necessarily working out the way he might've thought and allowing himself to continue to try. That has reset for me a lot of my own  insecurities about  where I am on a path or a journey or whatever.

It's not about being perfect the first time out.  It's about allowing yourself to live in a place that it is possible to take a leap  and then seeing where it goes, because whatever your brain can concoct as to where it can go will never be as amazing as what you allow. 

I love that so much. This is so, so good, Erin.  Yeah, I can't wait to go to Maryland and to witness you being of service. And it's such an honor to be able to witness that truly. And  as someone who I think really honors their truth and leans into their truth, that's why this podcast is called True for You. I like to interview people like you that have really embraced who they are and really leaning into that and trying to encourage other people to do that for themselves.  What advice would you give to someone  about how they could lean more into being their most authentic self?

I really feel like it's, it's so much harder and more exhausting to wear a mask or to walk through life trying to be what you  perceive other people's expectations or their vision of who you are, what you're supposed to be in life. 

And it feels so scary to be vulnerable and yet it is the only way forward.  Because the masks crack, the perceptions and the personas,  and it's hard to hold those up for long periods of time, exhausting,  and it's just, it's the only way forward, really, I can't see another way anymore, and it's taken me a long time  to get to this level of authenticity, which I don't even know as I'm truly there. And that's the crazy part is that it feels like, I feel the most like myself that I have ever been.

And yet, who knows if this is really the thing, because the layers were so deep and it felt so entrenched. So, I would say, in the spirit of possibility, take that first step. Allow yourself to be very ruthless about your investigation of who you are and what is actually true for you and what are the things that are the things you've put on or carried around with you because it helped you feel safe or it helped you feel more accepted. 

And, I think that it's the only way forward.  It's so hard to try and keep up with the in crowd or the, whatever it is for you, right? It's so hard to carry all of that and try and keep up with all of the things. And as soon as you just let them go and you allow yourself to be, that's where the true magic starts to happen. 

I don't know why I have this visual in my head, Erin. Maybe it's here for a reason. I'm thinking of Harry Potter and he wears the invisibility cloak, right? And nobody can see him. So think of all these things we walk around, we're almost trying to make ourselves invisible. And when you take off the invisibility cloak and actually make yourself visible and really stand in what you love and show yourself, right?

That's right. 

That's when you're actually stepping out. Imagine if we're all just wearing invisibility.  That's when you take them off that your true magic shines. I mean, that's, I mean, I feel like it's a metaphor for life that why are we trying to be so invisible and blend in when all of our unique individuality is actually what makes everything so good, when you can stand in a room and you can see maybe some commonality with people, but that everybody has their own unique flavor and  way to express themselves and way to be .

It's so beautiful when you can see rather than, oh, they have that and I don't, you know, you can actually see that. Oh yeah, they have that, good for them. And I have my thing, good for me. It actually helps to see other people in a light and lift them up because then it helps lift you up.

No one's trying to take you down. I mean, and maybe they are, but that's not your problem. 

That's not, that's not, everyone else's opinion of you is not your... that is part of it too.  I feel like for so long I was walking around trying to manage other people's perceptions and expectations and opinions of me, and this is exhausting.

I have my own life to live and my own life to run and I'm trying to curate for you all. That's exhausting. So yes, I agree. I love the idea of the invisibility cloak because it truly is. And it's,  it's so much better when you can sit in a room with all of those people who have magic in them that they're sharing from a place of authenticity and truly appreciate each and every person and not be like,  oh, well, they have this and so I can't or it doesn't work for me or whatever, that's, it's so much cooler. 

It actually opens you up to more possibility to admire everything that you love in other people. Yeah, that's a direct reflection of even if you're not good at that thing that someone else is good at. It's a direct reflection. The love that you bounce at them will bounce back to you.  Right?  Seeing goodness in them will allow you to see the goodness in you.

It's a true practice. It's very hard because that critter brain that's always telling us otherwise, but, really being open can help open yourself up to other people and see what that opens up for you. I think sometimes, how do I open up? What do I do? Just watch other people do it and then it will help you.

So thank you, Erin, for opening up today and sharing your light and your magic with us. I'm so excited for Maryland and  I'll post all the information about the retreat in the show notes. I know the early bird deadline's coming up on November 22nd for people to save a little bit on the price, but if someone wanted to get in touch with you to work with you Yeah, or to learn more about the retreat, what's the best way to get in touch with you? 

Yeah, so you are welcome to go to my website, which is just erinneuhardt.com or just find me on social media. I'm very accessible. So, on Instagram I'm @neuhardt.and.soul or on Facebook, I'm @erinneuhardt.

So I would love to connect with you. I can't wait. I hope that I get some of your listeners, Renee. I would love to have conversations with them and see what resonated.  

I keep thinking of too... So, my son is a really big basketball fan and the Celtics won the championship last year, right?

But the last time they won was in 2008. And their slogan in 2008  that Kevin Garnett, one of their famous players that helped them win was anything is possible. That became like the hype slogan for  2008. Kevin would scream and be like, anything is possible. And I truly believe that anything is possible.

And people like you, Erin, help us see that and feel that. And I just want to witness that because, I'm so proud of you and I love creating and, sharing space with you. So thank you so much for joining me today.  

Renee, thank you for having me and thanks for being a co-conspirator in this life.  It's so fun. 

Yes, co-creation at its best. So thanks everybody for listening and I'll post in the show description all the ways to get in touch with Erin, including the Possibility retreat in December and make space for allowing possibility in your life. Take care.