The Power of Oxygen 1st
When my son was little, I was a single mom who was doing it all alone. I was putting everyone else first and my own needs last. To everyone around me, I was successful but little did they know that my success was tied to pushing, stressing, sleepless nights and early morning workouts pushing my body and my limits to the extreme. Until one day I was flying alone and nearly crashed an airplane and I realized that I needed to take care of my own needs first before anyone else. You see, when you’re a pilot, if you have any issues in the plane, you put on your oxygen mask 1st, not your passengers. They need you to land the plane.
This podcast is all about this journey to healing, to getting clear on the desires of your heart… and stepping into them with courage while leaning into, asking for and receiving support. I hope you feel inspired to do less, to follow your passions and infuse them into your daily life and truly claim the life you were meant to live: a life filled to the brim with epic ADVENTURE.
The Power of Oxygen 1st
EP 85: Remembering Who You Really Are - The Journey Back to Your Truest Self
Have you ever wondered what happened to that fearless, authentic version of yourself from childhood? The one who didn't apologize for taking up space, who followed curiosity without hesitation, who led with heart instead of fear?
This episode takes you on a deeply personal journey of remembering and reclaiming your most authentic self. We explore how returning to our essential nature isn't about becoming someone new after hardship or transition—it's about remembering who we've always been beneath layers of conditioning, trauma, and survival mechanisms.
Through personal stories of childhood determination, boldness, and heart-forward living, we uncover what it means to let your truest self take the microphone again. Whether you've experienced divorce, career transitions, or simply feel disconnected from your essence, this episode offers a gentle roadmap back to yourself. Those qualities you once expressed effortlessly as a child—creativity, determination, joy, truth-telling—haven't disappeared; they're simply waiting for you to create space for their return.
The episode provides practical journal prompts to help you remember who you were before the world handed you its rulebook and to actively reclaim those qualities now. Through reflection on childhood photos, memories, and current moments of bravery, you'll discover how to let your heart lead again instead of your fears. Because the brave little girl or boy within you isn't gone—they're waiting to rise and guide you back to a life that honors your deepest truth.
Ready to reconnect with your authentic self? Download our new Hiring ROI Calculator at dotrockconsulting.com and discover how receiving support can create space for your truest self to emerge. Follow me @dot_rock_ on Instagram and share which insights from this episode resonated most with you!
Download my free Support + Breathe Calculator here: https://dotrockconsulting.myflodesk.com/hiring-calculator It’ll show you how much time and energy you can reclaim by letting go of what’s not yours to hold.
Remember: your energy is your greatest asset. Protect it, invest in it, and always put your oxygen mask on first.
Subscribe to the Power of Oxygen First podcast on your favorite podcast platform and never miss an episode!
- Book a Coffee & Connection Call
- Free Gift: Learn How to Hire a VA
- Connecting the Dots - 1 Hour Strategy Session with Dot Rock
Connect with Dot
Instagram - www.instagram.com/dot_rock_
Remember: your energy is your greatest asset. Protect it, invest in it, and always put your oxygen mask on first.
Hey guys, this is the Power of Oxygen First podcast and I'm your host, dot Rock. I am an entrepreneur, a mom, a stepmom and a scaling consultant who is obsessed with the art of hiring support and that dirty word we call delegation. I'm a recovering perfectionist who pushed my body and my limits to the extreme until one fateful day I learned that, just like pilots, I needed to take care of myself first. This podcast is all about the journey to healing, to getting clear on the desires of your heart, stepping into them with courage and leaning into and asking for support. I hope you feel inspired to do less, to follow your passions and infuse them into your daily life and truly claim the life you were meant to live. Well, hello my pod squad friends. I hope everyone is just doing so well out there. So today's episode is about this remembrance and reclaiming the brave child, the brave little girl, the brave little boy that you once were. So welcome back to the Power of Oxygen First. You know, in this space we just are leaning to choose self-care and self-honesty and learning to no longer self-abandon while we nourish our souls before we do the to-do list and before expectations, and before we let in all of the noise of the world around us. There's so much noise right now, right, of the world around us. There's so much noise right now, right. But I want to talk about something that feels really sacred for me and my life right now and it's something that I keep clinging to, and that is just the return, and the return to my very truest nature, that one that's deep in me, that was there long before I had to dim it and I'm really noticing what it feels like to be that true self around different people's energy and what parts of me that brings out in the dabbling, the dating world and just being a single woman and being around people and feeling their energy. And it's made me think a lot about who I am and for me, when I think of who I was when I was a little girl, it kind of makes me laugh because that's really intense and I also was deeply heart forward and I was brave, so intense and really determined.
Speaker 1:I remember just being told I couldn't do something and I thought, well, of course I can, and if I couldn't before, now I can because you told me I can't. You know, I was the younger sister and so I was always trying to keep up with my big brother and also do my very own thing. I was deeply, fiercely independent from the moment I entered this world, I believe, and also part of my life made me that way and and made me more of that right. So I see this little girl and I remember at one point I told my grandma I was standing by her swimming pool. There's a picture of this we'll probably post it with the social media post that goes with this but there's a picture of me by the pool in my bathing suit. And she said what are you? And I said I'm a celebrity.
Speaker 1:And I remember not thinking I would be famous, I just remember thinking I would have an impact. So I knew that about myself when I was a little girl that impact mattered Not people's perception but impact. And I was pretty wild. I did flips everywhere I went. I ran up and down the hallway and jumped on the couch. I taught myself to ride my bike. I remember my mom offering and I said no, I can do it myself.
Speaker 1:And of course there's been a lot of unlearning in my deep independence, but that was more about determination than that was about independence. Right, that was about a I can do it and I'm really trying so hard to return to that part of myself, and I encourage you to think about what that would look like for you. Maybe it's being a wild creator or a joyful dancer or just a truth teller. Who, who were you? And how can you infuse that back into the life you are leading right now? Because there's the powerful truth. You don't have to become someone new at this age. After you've been through hardship, after divorce, you actually just need to remember who it is, that you really are. Okay, so let's like don't close your eyes while you're driving, but let's kind of close our eyes or just start pondering what it's back to go back in time together.
Speaker 1:Think about yourself at five, six, maybe seven years old. Who were you before the world handed you this rule book? Before you learned? You were too much or too loud or too intense or too sensitive. Like I said, for me, I was bold, I was brave and I was so deeply determined, and I want to infuse that back into my life and my business every single day. It's who I was before as a little girl. I learned to apologize for the power that I held. My heart led the way and I'm trying so hard to get back to letting my heart lead the way Soft front, strong spine. I know when I was little I was this fiercely loving, deeply intense little girl who was entirely unafraid of my truth.
Speaker 1:But over time, through socialization, through trauma big T, little t trauma, and ultimately two divorces and being a single mom, there's parts of me that have gotten tucked away. They're not gone, but they got quieted a little bit and I'm letting them just totally regrow and blossom again. They're prettier flowers than they used to be and I'm letting that deep joy I used to I just came up with so many pranks was really the life of the life, the connector of the dots for people, the friend that brought people together, and I'm letting myself become her again. And I think sometimes part of trauma is that it makes us let fear lead the way. It makes us let the old stories and the old traumas that happened to us rule our lives. And I refuse to do that. I refuse to be terrified of marriage again because I've been divorced twice. I'm not saying I would do it, I'm not saying I will get married again, but I'm saying that I will not let fear and the past completely drive that choice If that ends up being what my heart wants someday, I plan to honor it, Because I just don't believe healing is about building new versions entirely of ourselves, but it's about letting the little girl or the little boy in ourself take the microphone back and build from who we were in the beginning.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying all the puzzle pieces fit back together either. I really think we rebuild. I really think we rebuild. We put new puzzles together. So I just want to encourage you to think about what it looks like to just rebuild from this sovereign place.
Speaker 1:I know, after my divorce I didn't just want to survive, I wanted to sovereignly rebuild, and I knew I couldn't do that by being who I was told to be. I had to return to the little girl I once was, the celebrity, the little girl who once saw George Bush Jr or you know, I don't even know how to say his name, but second George Bush at a baseball game and I ran to him to go meet him, to introduce myself. I was bold and I was brave. He was the governor of Texas at the time, well before he was president, but he was part owner of the baseball team and I wanted to meet him. Not for fame, not for glory. I just wanted to meet him and I ran to him and I pushed through the crowd and I introduced myself and I want to be that little girl again and I'm letting myself. I'm letting myself be as bold and brave and determined as I once was, and it so liberating Because that version of me as a little girl knew how to speak up, she knew how to dream and she knew how to love without apology.
Speaker 1:She didn't wait to be ready, she trusted the fire in her belly and she did flips everywhere she leapt, she believed she led. And she did flips everywhere she leapt, she believed she led. So being still has helped me hear her voice again and honor her every day in small choices. And as I honor her in these small choices, it's helping me let her lead again, and this is what I want for you. So I just want you to know. If you feel like there's pieces you've that have gone missing, this is your reminder. They're not gone, they're waiting. Start your return today, maybe.
Speaker 1:Do a little gratitude practice, revis, revisit your childhood photo, journal, memories and speak out loud this affirmation of I remember who I am and I give her space to rise. I also have a few journal prompts for you to do this and maybe this will resonate with you. But maybe it's about picking up an old photo and remembering. I have this thing with photos that I remember what I felt when that was taken and who I was. Some of those are like these grief-filled pictures and these versions of myself that were so broken and some of them are so alive. But also journal prompts really do help me. So here's a few journal prompts to help you reconnect to that bold, heart-led version of who you were as a child, that one who existed again before the conditioning and before survival kicked in.
Speaker 1:Here you go.
Speaker 1:Number one what do I remember most about myself as a child? Number two what qualities did I naturally express that felt effortless or joyful? When did I feel most free as a child? What was I doing and who was I with? Number four what messages or experiences may have caused me to hide or dim parts of myself? And five if I could tell my childhood self one thing right now, what would it be? Those ones are about remembering yourself, and here's five about reclaiming who you are now. And here's five about reclaiming who you are now.
Speaker 1:Number one what parts of me are beginning to resurface as I heal. In what ways am I braver, louder or more open-hearted, more heart-forward lately? What qualities have I reclaimed that I once thought I'd lost? Number four what am I no longer willing to apologize for? And number five what does the truest version of myself want for me in my daily life? What does it want more of in my daily life? All right, I will leave you with that today. I wish you well, I wish you love and I wish you light. Try to return to who you were, try to feel her, try to let her back in. She's waiting.
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh, gosh, am I excited to share this new hiring return on investment calculator freebie that I have been working on for about six months. You're probably thinking what the heck is a return on investment? Well, that's when we take our revenue minus our expenses and it calculates how much return we get by investing in something. I've applied this very masculine concept to hiring and to the art of receiving support. And so what this little tool does that you can just go and download from my webpage, dot rock consulting dot com. What you can do is go and download this and use curiosity. 15 minutes total of your time. Go through this tool and it's going to help you make a little bit of data driven decision making around hiring and why it can help you in either your personal or professional life. You don't have to be an entrepreneur, but you could be an entrepreneur and it's going to help you understand the impact hiring or delegating more or handing off more tasks, or even not spending any money on this and simply asking for more support how that could change your life.
Speaker 1:I'm excited about this freebie and I hope you will go check it out. Download it. Dot rock consulting dot com. Enjoy. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the power of oxygen first podcast. I hope you walk away feeling inspired to do less, to follow your passions and infuse them into your daily life and truly claim the life you were meant to live, and I hope that you start leaning into the art of receiving support. I'm here to support you on that journey. Find me at dotrockconsultingcom or dot underscore rock underscore on Instagram. I'd love it if you'd go follow me and shoot me a quick DM and let me know what takeaway from this episode hit you the hardest, sending you love and adventures on this beautiful day.
