Ashleigh Bodell (00:00.172)
Hello and welcome back to the Big Crystal Energy podcast. I'm Ashley and I am so excited to be here today. However, I was hoping this podcast was going to be launched this morning, but I just got back from Nashville last night. I didn't even get home until 730. And then with everything going on at home, there was just, I was exhausted. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to give myself a little grace this week.
I'm gonna record late, I'm gonna release the episode late. It's still gonna be on the same day, but just later in the day. So it is what it is. We're working with what we got here. So this week, since I'm just coming off of this trip with my girlfriends, I wanted to take some time and talk about friendships. And of course, with a crystal twist. But.
I got back from this trip. We went to Nashville this year. Last year we went to Santa Fe, New Mexico and this group of girls that I travel with, we try to get together once a year. We have been friends for the past, I think it's about 17 years since we met when we were in graduate school for physician assistant. And we really clicked from the very beginning and we've gone on many trips together. We've stayed in touch very closely over the years. We've gone through ups and downs and tragedies and...
so much laughing till we can barely peel ourselves off the floor and sadness and all of the emotions. And every time I see them, I'm once again reminded how lucky I am to have them because it's hard. I feel like in today's world to find people that you really connect with, especially on a soul level. Sometimes this late in life, I mean, we all live in different parts of the country, but yet we come together and every time we see each other, it's like we were never apart.
So I wanted to make this episode about friendships, about them in particular, and also about crystals to help us with our friendships. The first thing and foremost, before I get started is when we were in Nashville, we were walking around with lanyards around our neck often because my friend Angela, she recently lost her beautiful cousin to lymphoma.
Ashleigh Bodell (02:23.852)
in January and she is doing a drive kind of like she's raising money that's what I want to say for the leukemia and lymphoma society and she's trying to raise herself fifty dollars fifty thousand dollars not fifty dollars we would have already gotten that by now but fifty thousand dollars so that she can have a grant in her cousin's name and yes her sweet cousin was only 47 years old when she passed so
We were trying to raise money. We did raise some money while we were in Nashville and that was really cool, but she still has a little ways to go before the end of May. So I'm going to post a link in the show notes. If you have it in your heart to donate to Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, that would be great. And the link will go straight to my friend Angela so that she can collect the donations and hopefully we'll be able to get a grant in her cousin's name. So that was the first thing I really wanted to talk about and shout out because I think it's really important.
And it's also important to support our friends. But it's also to me, like one of the things that I was thinking about as I was driving home, I mean, not driving home. Oh my gosh. I am going to be having so many brain spasms today because I am not used to staying up late. I'm like a girl that goes to bed at eight 30 or nine with my kids. And we were up consistently until about three o 'clock in the morning every night. And we were partying and going hard for us. And my brain is needing a little bit of time to recover. So.
Pardon me if I make a lot of slip ups today, I'm trying my best. But when I was flying back yesterday, I was thinking about the fact that being around these girls, and not just them, but any close friends that I have, it always fills my cup to see them because I feel like we can always pick up where we left off. And even if they're going through good times or bad times, it's still fulfilling to be with people.
that you know so deeply at all the different stages of their lives to support them through those different times, good or bad. And I just feel like connected at a soul level, particularly with these women. I think too, because we went through such a transformative period of our lives together. When we were in our medical training, it was a really transformative time because I felt as though it made me.
Ashleigh Bodell (04:47.5)
in particular kind of have to grow up fast because all of a sudden I went from being a college student to someone that was actually in charge of someone's health. And I feel like those two years were very formative. And so to spend that time with people going through a similar thing, I think that really connects you. And I know a lot of people that go to nursing school together, they go to medical school or whatnot, a lot of them really do seem to maintain those bonds because they're just...
you go through such a major ordeal and it transforms who you are and you connect on that level. And when we were together in Nashville, we really did want to record an episode together and I did my best to make it happen. I bought these special little microphones and I was trying to figure out how to hook them up to my phone. And then I had this app to record podcasts on my phone. I couldn't figure it out and we just weren't having that much time for me to sit and fiddle with it. And then...
By the last night we were cut, we came back after dinner and I was like, Oh my gosh, we should do it. And I couldn't figure it out. And I was just getting really tired. And so I was like, okay, well, I'm not sure that this is going to work, but I thought, okay, well, I will take the lessons that I learned from this weekend, being with them and create a podcast about it. Because I always feel like they teach me so much every time I see them. And I feel that way. Anytime I see any of my close friends, I always feel like there's a lesson to be learned.
because we all have such different perspectives on the world and we all react to things in different ways and we all look at things in different ways. And so it's so helpful to just get those different perspectives because we're all coming at it from a different vantage point because everybody's been, their life journey has been so different. We shared that one common thing, but after that school and that training, our lives all went kind of wildly in different directions. And a lot of us do have similar.
things that have happened to us or similar bonds that we share, but also such wildly different life experiences. So it's always interesting to see how all of that comes together. And one of the things that I was talking to my friends about is that we saw each other almost exactly the same weekend one year ago. And for most of us, we have had dramatic life changes within that one year. It really goes to show you that you can change your whole entire life in one year. So you could start off.
Ashleigh Bodell (07:09.42)
in such a dark space and in the course of one year you could make some changes that could create a whole new life for you. I know that's happened to me and I've seen that happen to the other girls in the group too. And sometimes the things can go the other direction too. Maybe sometimes we meet and life is going really well for one of the girls and then within that one year everything can kind of dramatically change and maybe things are just not going as well. And so I feel like during those times,
We can really be there to support each other either way. So I find that really interesting how much, um, how much you can change in one year. I feel like, um, we, we are all showing how much, um, adversity that we can overcome. And then we all, you know, also staying strong in ourselves. Um, I have a friend that I'm going to be talking about later. I mean, she has such a strong passion for animal rescue and dog rescue. I always am impressed by that, how she takes all of that on.
despite working and having kids and just the lifestyle, that is such a strong passion for her that she makes it work because it's so important to her. Another major overarching lesson that I learned this weekend is that sometimes we don't want to stay stuck in an unhealthy situation. And it can be very hard and challenging to move out of that situation. But then once you finally get the strength and courage to do it,
try something different. Sometimes you realize, number one, how bad the other situation was, and then two, how happy and relieved you are that you actually step beyond it and you're trying something new and different. And I also love to just see the evolution of how we as individuals have changed so much over the past 17 years. But I still think we all look the same and very young and gorgeous since when we graduated school as well. So.
Yes, so friends are everything. I definitely have gone through times in my life where my friend circle was not as important to me. I think a lot of those times is when maybe when I had my first son, Finley, when he was really little, I was pretty much not, I mean, I was really not feeling that social during that time. I was spending a lot of time just with him and feeling more introverted.
Ashleigh Bodell (09:33.516)
But as the years have gone by, I feel like I have gotten to be significantly more extroverted. And maybe that's just an age thing, or maybe it's just, I also think that maybe I admire extroversion in other people so much that I often push myself to be more extroverted. And I come across that way, but I'm definitely someone that really, really loves my quiet time and time away from people. But I really never get that since I had little kids. But.
Anyway, it's just so much can happen in one year, good or bad. And it's always wild to see what everybody's up to. So number one thing I want to talk about is the specific lessons I learned from, or lessons I learned from my friends on this trip. And just I want to highlight little things about them. I'm not going to go into detail on their.
I'm not gonna say their last names, I'm just gonna say their first names and I'm just gonna say kind of generalized stuff about them with their permission, of course, but I also want to highlight a crystal for each of the girls, especially some of them picked out there, they felt drawn to certain stones. So I'm gonna name those stones that I saw that they were very much drawn to. But one last thing before I get started, I just really wanna say thank you to them. They were so...
For me in particular, they were so supportive and so sweet about my crystal journey. I had stickers that I had written the back, I had these crystal stickers and I had written the back of my podcast on the stickers. They were helping me give those stickers out to people. They've been so supportive of me and the podcast. They've been sharing it with their friends. They...
They always humor me with any of my crystal stuff. We went to a crystal and metaphysical shop in Nashville, which I'm gonna mention later because it was a really great shop and we got lots of cool stuff and it was affordable. But I just appreciate the support because sometimes when you are doing something that's kind of like wildly different than anything that you've done before, you can often feel like are people gonna get this? Are my friends gonna feel weird out?
Ashleigh Bodell (11:52.684)
weird about this or whatnot, but they've been so supportive and it's made me feel really, really good and feel like I'm on the right track, even though everything I feel in my life tells me that I'm on the right track. So thank you girls. I really appreciate the support. Number one friend, Angela. Angela, she's my friend that I was talking about earlier who is very passionate about animals. She's always, she does a lot of
dog fostering and dog rescue. And it just totally impresses me how involved she is and she rehabilitates these animals that are often in really bad shape. And then she finds them new homes and often gets very attached to them in the meantime. So I'm not sure how she is able to let them go to new homes, but it's really, really beautiful and impressive. And maybe one day she'll have her own animal rescue and things like that, but.
I just always love seeing, I always love seeing what she's doing with the animals. And she was in a famous band, a drummer, this band called Omit Josie. They were from Texas. I'm not sure if you remember them, but they were big.
She was very attracted to this beautiful piece of green opal when we went to the metaphysical store. So I hope that she's able to find a piece of green opal like that somewhere closer to home so that she wouldn't have to travel with such a big heavy piece. But the green opal was beautiful. It has this green color that has like this very mid -century vibe. And she has a home that is very mid -century.
And so hopefully she'll find a piece to go in that home. My beautiful friend Anne, she is seriously like the most incredible mother. She is such a hard worker. She's an amazing wife. She just like does all the things. She carries a lot. She's so intelligent. And she's such an incredible medical practitioner. I'm always amazed when I hear her talking about her practice and about...
Ashleigh Bodell (14:06.86)
all the things that she does and all the knowledge that she has. And when I walk away from being with her, I'm always like, man, I need to up my game at work because she's just so knowledgeable and she's so open and openhearted and kind. And she just tries so hard and she does the best for her patients. And I just find that so incredible. I don't know. Maybe I just said that again, but yeah, she's just an amazing person and she was very attracted to obsidian.
And so when we were at the crystal shop, I found a gorgeous piece of obsidian that kind of had a gold sheen to it and I got that for her. And I hope that she keeps it close because that is a beautiful piece and obsidian is just one of my favorites as well. My beautiful friend, Heather, I think her and I were the first to meet or hang out in that group and she has overcome a lot in life. She has been through...
basically been through it all, but despite all of it, she is in a beautiful relationship now. She's happy, she's doing well, and it just makes me so excited. And she really shares an interest in crystals and all this magical stuff like me. So I'm hoping that when we do our family trip to Salem, Massachusetts in the fall, she will be able to join us because she lives up in that direction.
And she's very much attracted to Labradorite, which is awesome. I love Labradorite. And she was able to get a beautiful new piece of Labradorite jewelry when we were at the crystal shop in Nashville. My beautiful friend Stacey, she has really overcome an incredible amount too. And one of the things that we talked about in our conversations is that she is a Yale trained.
surgical physician assistant and that is a very hard thing to do. She went to a surgical, general surgical residency after PA school because she knew she wanted to work in surgery and she's been working really hard all these years and she got a position last year that made her, that was something that she had been working towards and she had always kind of been wanting that particular position and when she got to that level it was not what she was expecting and
Ashleigh Bodell (16:30.508)
It was really hard on her because she kind of felt like, why I've been working so hard at this and now I'm at this top level and it's not what I was expecting and I'm absolutely miserable. And it paid really well and that came with all the bells and whistles, but it wasn't making her happy. And so many people would stay stuck in that situation because of the money and because of the, you know, all the other benefits, but it was making her absolutely miserable.
So she was bold enough to try something completely different. She's still working in surgery. She's still doing amazing things, but she put herself on a different path. And I'm so proud of her because so many times, and I sometimes even feel with this with myself, we get stuck in something and we're scared to try something new. But if we would have just tried that new thing, our life could have been completely better and different. Now, I don't know if she is particularly drawn to the stone.
quartz, I mean not quartz, turquoise, but I feel like turquoise is her color because she had gotten the most incredible turquoise cowboy boots before we went to Nashville and they were absolutely perfect for her. And when I saw her wearing those turquoise boots, I was like, that is her color. So Stacey, you need some more turquoise in your life. And my beautiful friend Dipti, she's gone recently through some major relationships.
things and to be honest, I feel like she's doing better now. She's such an incredible medical provider. She's such a beautiful friend. She is such a lovely person to be around. It's always like such good energy when she's there. Yeah, she's just like seriously the sweetest and she despite going through a really hard time as of late, she is just moving forward and she.
when we were at the crystal shop, she picked out some rose quartz and I thought that was perfect because rose quartz is very much all about like self love and friendship and finding relationships and all these different things. And I was like, yeah, you know what? You went through a really hard time. So now it's time to be kind to yourself and show yourself some love. And I felt like that was a really great stone for her. My friends, they're...
Ashleigh Bodell (18:55.34)
They're just always incredibly supportive. I think of them as like cheerleaders. We're always therapists to each other because of course, you know, we know everything and we're also medical providers to each other. And we're always trying to bounce ideas off of each other. But the overarching theme of the whole trip was everybody was mostly just talking about their poops. So yeah, we're at that level now.
Trying to figure out what we can take to keep our bowels moving. Yep, the struggle is real. And I just kept laughing because I'm like, oh my God, girls, really? This is where we're at now. We're not that old. But I guess we're very sensitive to the food that we eat. And I have to say, I was very impressed with the cuisine that we had in Nashville. I did not like the food in Savannah.
And so then here we have this trip to Nashville, which is in the South and Nashville is actually not that far from Georgia or Savannah. So I thought it was going to be kind of like a continuation of that, that Southern cuisine, that, that greasy like fried. No, my friends, well, they're kind of there while they are foodies and they picked some incredible restaurants. I, I had some of the best meals I've had in a very, very, very long time. Absolutely amazing.
So yeah, so friendship, it's the best. It's so important. I'm sad I only get to see these girls all together once a year, but at least I get to see them once a year. Next up, planning our next location. We're thinking about going somewhere international, but it can't be too far because I think the maximum we could get off together is a week. So I don't want to spend half the trip traveling anyway. So we're trying to nail down ideas on where we want to go, but that's...
That will take some time, but it's all in the works. So I also just wanted to talk about five other crystals that are good for friendship. They're good for strengthening and attracting friendships. Excuse me. I'm gonna take a sip of some water here. Travel is so dehydrating. I kept trying to drink water and stuff all day on the plane yesterday and then I got home last night and I just felt so dehydrated. I mean, it could have been...
Ashleigh Bodell (21:19.852)
the excessive drinking that we were doing on our girls trip. I mean, that's a thought, but also flying just takes it out of me.
Ashleigh Bodell (21:33.708)
Okay, so crystals for friendship. Number one, pink opal. Pink opal, oh my gosh, so gorgeous. I am gonna make, for this particular podcast episode, I'm gonna make a little thing for my Instagram account that shows these five different crystals, in case you're not really familiar with what they look like, because it's hard for me to explain some of these things without a picture, and that's why.
Hopefully, eventually I'll be able to get a YouTube up of my podcast episode so I can hold up these different stones and then you can take a look. Number one, Pink Opal, it's great for making new friendships and it provides protection from negative people and situations. So that's something I think we could all use. Number two, Rose Quartz, it helps you be yourself. It attracts authentic friendships and strengthens old friendships. Number three, Malachite.
It opens your heart to the possibility of making changes to attract new friendships. Four, lapis lazuli. It helps create an atmosphere of openness, honesty, and harmony, and it's good for overcoming conflicts or having those tough conversations with your friends. And number five, now this is a big controversy. Do we say it, peridot or peridot? Because half of my friends say peridot and half say peridot.
And then we looked it up online, the pronunciation and it said peridot, but I just feel like it's still peridot. So if you could weigh in and let me know, is it peridot or peridot? I would love, love your opinions. Um, but, uh, it is the stone of friendship and it has such good vibes. It's for self -worth and self -awareness. So pink Opal, Rose quartz, Malachite, Lapis lazuli and peridot, peridot are the top five.
crystals that I wanted to present. There's lots of other crystals that can be used for friendships but I don't want to get into every single one of them right now. So I'm coming to the end of my episode here but I did want to say that please please please if you have it in your heart donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
Ashleigh Bodell (23:55.596)
It would be so amazing to get some donations from my podcast audience. I'm going to link the website link for my friend Angela in the show notes. So please just click on that. I'm also going to post something on my social media. So if it's hard for you to click on the link in the show notes, you can click on the link in my social media and I'll try to put it on my link tree as well. So we have that going on until the end of May.
Not much time left, only about six weeks. So if we could get her to $50 ,000 by the end of May, that would be incredible. I also want to talk about the crystal and metaphysical shop we went to in Nashville. It was called Cosmic Connections and you could go to their website and I will put their website in the show notes as well. I was really impressed. When I walked in, they had their, all their,
crystals and tumbled stones. They had them all super organized, which was amazing. They had them labeled so that when you get them home, you have the label of what it was. They had all the different shapes, like all the different spheres and free free form and all these like organized. So you could go into different sections and find what you want based on what kind of crystal shape or size or what you want. They had a room with. Oracle cards, tarot cards, they had a room of incense, they had a room of tapestries.
I mean, it was just such a lovely organized shop. I was just really impressed. And I, and then the lady that was working there at the desk, she was so gracious when I gave her a stack of my stickers with my podcast name on the back. They're like, yeah, we'll put them out. And then I was like, oh my gosh, I really need to get some like sticker business cards that I can hand out. That would be awesome. So I'm working on that now too, but it was a great place. She was trying to tell me about some crystal fairs that were going to be coming up in the area. Obviously I don't live there. So.
That's not going to work. But you know, maybe if I could plan a trip to that area again in the future when they're having their crystal fairs. I mean, it seems like that area is very open to the whole metaphysical vibe. So if you're going to the Nashville area, check them out. We didn't get to any other crystal shops, but I was extremely impressed by that one. And it was within walking distance to the Airbnb where we stayed. It was like literally around the corner. Any of the other crystal shops in Nashville were far from where we were staying. So.
Ashleigh Bodell (26:20.972)
Once again, if that's not a sign, I don't know what it is because it was meant for us to be there. I did pick an oracle card before the episode started so that I wouldn't have to spend time shuffling the deck, but I pulled it again from this folklore oracle by Mike Bass. I think that was the oracle deck that I pulled from last week. But the card that I picked for today is a card called the Banshee. And I wanted to...
read what it says here about guidance from Banshee. In our lives, we all have people and things that are important to us, such as our family, friends, pets, profession, passions, and hobbies. Banshee is a reminder to be actively conscious in life, to be alive in the moment and attentive to those who are important to you. We feel that in being vigilant, we can keep them safe away from harm. The true benefit is your watchfulness.
In being aware and actively involved in everything you hold dear, Banshee is assigned to be observant in your everyday life. Keep your eyes open and learn to recognize what's likely coming before it happens. The affirmation associated with this card says, I live my life with awareness and stay present in the moment. I loved this card and I thought it was so perfect as a reflection coming off of this trip because when I was on the trip, I really...
I hardly got on my social media at all because I just wanted to be present in the moment. I took lots of pictures. I will post pictures of my adventures later on my social media, but I just wanted to be present in the moment. I wanted to take pictures, but then I didn't want to spend a lot of time like trying to post the pictures in the moment because then I would thought I would miss more moments. So just be present in your everyday moments. We get so caught up with our phones and all the different things that are going on. Sometimes.
You need to just stand outside, feel the breeze, stand outside, look at the tree, look at how one of the my favorite things that I love to do is look up at a big tree and see how the tree and leaves like contrast against the background of the sky and the sun. It's always just such a beautiful visual. And just notice the small things. I was reading something somewhere. They call them these glimmers, like these little glimmers of hope or these little moments that are.
Ashleigh Bodell (28:43.18)
just these little moments of beauty. And I think one of the things that's brought me so much happiness and peace in the past year is just noticing small, beautiful things. We always get so impressed by these, by grand things that we see, like the total solar eclipse. Obviously that is something that if you got to see that, that was a grand, magnificent, beautiful thing. But sometimes,
watching like think back to that movie that was really popular in the 90s that movie American Beauty Do you remember that scene where? That guy is just videoing that plastic bag just like floating around in the sky and like just dancing in the wind I think those moments like that are just so beautiful just watching nature just watching these little moments like If you just really start focusing on those small things
and focusing less on negativity, your life will change so much. And if you spend more time around people that build you up and make you feel confident in yourself and are there to support you and you're there to support them, that can change your life too. And the thing that I've noticed also, especially with this group of friends, is that even though I only get to see them once a year, if I really spend time after my trip with them to journal and reflect and like think about,
all the lessons that I learned during that weekend. It's almost like a friendship seminar. Like I have so many takeaways from this weekend. So many beautiful memories. So many things we laughed about. Hard things that we talked about. And just being with people that you can feel like totally yourself and you can feel totally open and comfortable with. That is a beautiful thing. Because that is hard to find. And I feel so fortunate that I have that.
circle of people and even if it is only for one week when weekend a year or one week a year it's enough to fill my cup with their spirit and then you know we can always communicate in different times but yeah so friendships are everything they mean the world to me they mean the world to most people I think and let's just have a beautiful week and if you have any questions you have any comments concerns whatnot just message me at dot
Ashleigh Bodell (31:09.868)
Ash, sorry, oh my God, at mystical .mama .ash or at the Big Crystal Energy podcast or at my bigcrystallenergy .gmail .com. You can send me an email there too with any questions or comments. It does help so much. If you can click the five star review on Apple or Spotify.
Um, if you can leave a review, that would be even more amazing, but the more re the more reviews I get, the more that this podcast gets pushed up. So when people are searching for podcasts, they can see it without just having to type in the name, it will become a suggested podcast. So that's the way that we, that I can get the word out there. I'm also going to be working on getting these sticker business cards. I'm going to be doing everything I can to promote myself. It feels so weird, but what else can I do? And.
Yeah. So just have an amazing week and get out there. Feel the big crystal energy. Um, find a crystal that you love this week. Hold it, take it with you, cleanse it, do all the things. And I will talk to you next Tuesday. Bye bye.