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 90: Finding Peace in Transition
Sometimes the most powerful moments of clarity come when we're surrounded by chaos. In this deeply personal episode, I take you along on my journey of packing up our home for a major move while reflecting on the incredible transformation my son and I have experienced over the past year.
The simple act of pausing my packing frenzy to journal revealed insights I hadn't fully processed until putting pen to paper. I share the raw, unfiltered journal entry that flowed out—a testament to how our lives have evolved from throwing belongings into trash bags during a hasty exit from a toxic situation to now packing with intention and hope. You'll hear about the baseball trip that "saved us" during our darkest moments, the lengthy divorce process that coincided with my son's serious health challenges, and how facing false rumors and accusations ultimately led to freedom rather than despair.
What emerged from my journaling session wasn't just a chronicle of past pain, but a celebration of resilience and anticipation for the future awaiting us in our new city. This episode serves as a reminder that life can change dramatically in just twelve months when you prioritize healing and put your oxygen mask on first. Whether you're facing a major transition or simply feeling overwhelmed, I hope my story inspires you to create space for reflection and to trust that even the most difficult chapters can lead to beautiful new beginnings.
Ready to experience more freedom in your life and business? Download my new Oxygen First Hiring ROI Calculator at dotrockconsulting.com and discover how getting the right support can transform your daily experience. The possibilities truly are endless when you learn to receive help and prioritize what matters most.
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.
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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 podcast friends. How's the pod squad doing? I hope everyone is thriving out there.
Speaker 1:Post-4th of July, which has always been one of my favorite favorite holidays. I love fireworks, I love parades and water and just all the excitement without the pressure of gifts. I love the fighter jets flying by here in Colorado through our parades and just all the things. So this podcast. I just want to share a little update on what is going on in my life, and I started thinking about that this morning and I thought so. I journaled about it. You know I have a daily journaling practice and, of course, daily meaning. I don't always do it, but most days when I wake up the first thing I do is make my coffee right next to my bed and I get out my journal and I just free write a couple of pages. I always play the same music and I write and write and write and it is such a good energetic clearing for me, brain dump, and it actually just really helps me piece together thoughts that I didn't realize are kind of percolating within me.
Speaker 1:So today, as I'm recording this, it's a Sunday, it's right after 4th of July and I started packing today because Dominic and I are moving and we're moving really soon and we're moving pretty far away. I started feeling chaotic, grumpy, not happy about packing the boxes. The mess, the chaos of moving really, really bothers me, and I'm actually very good at moving. I've moved a lot and I'm hopeful that this move is one of our last for a long time, as I've purchased a house in another city, but the fact is we're moving and so there's these waves of grief and emotions and anger and frustration and, quite honestly, just the mess of the move just moving is messy is frustrating to me.
Speaker 1:So I set a timer and I started packing for a couple of hours and did a couple of 30 minute timers, went on a walk in between with Obie, and then I decided I was going to just take a break, I was going to just nurture myself, I wasn't just going to push through it, I was really going to put my oxygen mask on right. And so I sat down in my room and I knew I needed to podcast today. I'm a little behind on podcasting right now and you know I try to just stay within the rhythm and record on the same days each week, but it's tough with traveling and being sick and life and life and life right. So anyway, I sat down and I journaled and I let myself have this space and journaling in the morning is typically when I journal, but it's the afternoon right now and I paused and I journaled and I think it's really interesting because right before I journaled, I was just so frustrated and so annoyed and so angry Not angry but just like so bothered by packing. And so I sat down and I journaled and I'm going to read you what I wrote, because what I think is interesting is what came out, because it's not what I expected to come out, and it's one of the biggest reasons that I am such a proponent of having a daily, um, what I call morning pages ritual, where you just dump all the thoughts, because it is cleansing and detoxing, I guess, for my brain and my soul and my spirit more than it is for anything else. And I didn't know I never know what's going to come out, like I might know a little bit, but I don't know all of it, and it helps me piece together what's going on or what went on, or I don't even know. But it definitely is a practice that I hope to forever participate in, because it's so powerful for me, and so that's why I'm sharing it with you, and today's journal entry is also a glimpse in what is going on for us. So as I wrote this, it was July 6th 2025. And here is what I wrote.
Speaker 1:It's funny to look back a year ago we were just moving into this little safe landing spot, we were planning the East Coast baseball trip. We felt so relieved and so very free. Broken, too, the life I thought, the future I had poured everything into was gone, and the drama was high, the rumors I was planning a trip that touched my heart in a way. Nothing ever has or will again. Cooperstown, the east coast baseball, baseball trip, a trip that saved us, a trip we had carved, we have carried I'm sorry, we have carried with us ever since. A trip Dom spoke about after his surgery, while he was in recovery. He woke up from recovery from the appendix, by the way, this is a side note and he kept saying to the nurse where's my mom? We went on a baseball trip. We went to Cooperstown. Where's my mom? We went to the Yankees Where's my mom? We went to the Mets Where's my mom? We went to Cooperstown Where's my mom? That trip we've carried with us ever since and one year later, here we are packing again.
Speaker 1:We faced intense adversity, grew and have both changed just so very drastically. From all of it I am calmer, more peaceful, more tired. I didn't know the divorce process would be so long and so hard but pale in comparison to Dominic's illness and health journey. I didn't know my work would be put on hold, that I would be ghosted by those I cared the most about and that rumors would be so wild that they even surprised me, but that ultimately I would not care. I would not care that I was accused of an affair because in my heart I'll always know it wasn't true. I'm the only person I ever have to face. I didn't do any of those things that I've been accused of and I get freedom now, peace, joy and new beginnings, packing now with purpose and passion for me and my boy. A new home, a new life, a new city. The boxes they surround me again, no trash bags this time, because the last move was so sudden and I was throwing things in trash bags. I felt so unsafe. I am now filling these boxes with intention, with tears, with pause, with grief and with so much gratitude and love, with how far we have come and so much excitement about the unknown future and knowing soon we'll be in our new city, in our new home and feel safe again In our new home and feel safe again, safe to rebuild, breathe and grow again when we plant these seeds.
Speaker 1:That was my journal entry and I just share it with you. A for the practice of what the pages, what this pause of journaling looks like for me. Like I said, I turn on the same music every time and I journal for between 11 and 20 minutes. Sometimes I'll just restart the music and I just let it flow. And to me it totally, today, shifted this overwhelm and this chaos of packing these boxes and it reinvigorated me, and I'm so grateful to be where I am A year later.
Speaker 1:A year ago, we were planning that amazing trip and taking these leaps of faith and just feeling relieved to be out of a toxic situation. And now here we are, really excited about the future. It's like so many doors closed because of everything that happened and it happened for me, not to me. It happened for us and not to us. But we are stepping into this future with such excitement and so much grief. Of course, leaving a city that I have been in on and off for 29 years is I don't even know. It obviously takes away my breath to think about. But it's time, and I never would have been facing this had everything turned out differently in my marriage than I thought it was, than I, you know, than it did.
Speaker 1:And here we are with such excitement. Dominic is trying out for a new baseball team next week and we'll go up there and then we will leave this town that has provided us so much love and joy for so, so long, to embark on a totally new journey that is filled with excitement and love and support and friendship. And you know, I hope that someday I'll love again and I hope that someday soon for Dominic he will fit into a new school and thrive and we'll take him off of antidepressants and all those things. But I'm just really excited about this future and filling up all these boxes. It will be hard and all the tears and all the goodbyes, but most of those goodbyes are see you laters. I've moved so many times and I'm just so grateful for our new home that we're moving to and Obi will have a yard. I'm going to get a chance at a fresh new start and me as well, and I hope to just settle us into this new home with peace and love. And the possibilities are just ever so endless and I hope that for you as well, no matter where you are, no matter what you're struggling with, I hope you know that the possibilities are ever so endless and so much can change in such a short period of time and so much can change in one year's time. I'm sending you love and light and, of course, your oxygen mask.
Speaker 1:First, hi, my podcast friends. Hey, have you heard about this new hiring return on investment freebie on my webpage, dot rock consulting dot com? If you download it, you'll get some valuable insights that are simple and fast, that can help you shift into understanding why hiring, or just plain asking for support, can help you save precious resources and increase your time, your energy and your freedom, and they can help you delegate in your business and personally. And it's backed up by data in your business and personally and it's backed up by data. So head on over to dotrockconsultingcom to access the very first Oxygen First Hiring Return on Investment Calculator. You'll be able to finally hire with confidence, make some data-driven decisions, but also really shift into the mindset of receiving this support and how it's going to add to the bottom line of fulfillment and joy in your life.
Speaker 1:I hope you enjoy it. 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 dot rock consultingcom 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.
