The Wellness Engineer: Blending East, West, and Inner Wisdom With Monica Stein

In this episode you will hear what happens when Monica Stein a fromer engineer decides to redesign more than airplanes — she redesigns lives? In this inspiring conversation, my guest shares her journey from the world of engineering to the realm of holistic wellness. With a background in science and her training at the Chopra Center, she blends the wisdom of Ayurveda with practical, evidence-based tools. The result? A unique approach that bridges East and West, offering clients a path to balance, healing, and inner transformation.

One of the most powerful moments Monica shares is this: “I jumped, and the universe caught me.” It’s a reminder of the courage it takes to follow your inner calling—and the magic that unfolds when you do.

Key Takeaways:

• How an engineering mindset can be applied to healing and personal growth
• The influence of Ayurveda and Chopra Center teachings on her work
• The balance of science, spirituality, and ancient practices in modern wellness
• Her personal leap of faith into a new chapter of life
• Why clients describe her work as both practical and magical
• Tips for bringing more alignment, wholeness, and inner wisdom into your own life

Whether you’re curious about holistic healing, fascinated by Ayurveda, or simply seeking inspiration to take your own leap of faith, this episode will spark something within you.

Connect with Monica Stein at:

On IG:https://www.instagram.com/monica.inspires/ 

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/prana-and-possibilities/id1792757354

Website: http://omthenticyou.com/

You can find me at:
https://www.instagram.com/cataton/
https://www.facebook.com/casey.taton/

You can find what sparks me at:
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1AgeRtyojY/
https://www.instagram.com/lmbdcelebrations/

Music by: Jason and Ashley Scheufler
Artwork by: https://www.instagram.com/graphx_ink/

Transcript

0:04

Hey friends. Welcome to the Enter Spark podcast. I'm your host, Casey Caton. If you're looking to hear stories of transformation and personal growth, this podcast is for you. My guest and I will be sharing those sparking moments that has changed the mental living a more fulfilling authentic life. I'm so excited for you to hear each unique story. So sit back, relax, and let's get started. Hey friend. Welcome back to the Enter Spark podcast. I'm your host, Casey T, and today I have Monica Stein with me. She is a beautiful, amazing person. She's an energy healer, a dog mom, a self-care guru. She went from being an engineer to engineering wellness for herself and her clients. She blends a spiritual with the practical. Use Eastern and Western. And her clients keep coming back for more of her magic. She walks her talk and practices the modalities she offers. Hi, welcome. I am so excited to have you here. I'm excited to be here. I haven't been on a podcast in a while, so I've been like, have I have my own? I've been interviewing people, having just my own, and it's been a minute, so I'm really excited to be here too. I am honored to have you here. I wanna tell them a little bit about how we met. Yeah. Um, yeah, so we met in, Kathy Heller's world, in our podcasting world, and then we both follow some other coaches and we have got to deep connect you're just a magical human being and you are so talented in so many areas. And it inspires me and lights me up to learn more and more and more. So would you tell them a little bit about, your backstory? Absolutely. Yeah. I just wanna also just kinda start off, it's kind of my backstory, but I wasn't always like this magical, or maybe I was, maybe we're all magic and we forget, right? Yeah. We just need to remember. Um, the, the energy that I bring now is, it's something I worked at. I wasn't always. Like this, I was very fiery and passionate. I call it passionate, but it's really, it's like type a very fiery need to be just like this. Otherwise I get angry and I get so angry, you know? But that, that has slough, that ship has sailed every now and again. I do get a little bit more passionate. but yeah, I grew up in a tumultuous home and, I had to protect myself. Yeah. So what I did was I hid a lot in my bedroom that I shared with my sister, and I studied a lot. It was me and my homework, me and my books, me and my little cocoon, because of it. So I don't know where really that took me and how that has helped me. Maybe it's just me self caring for myself at a very. Young age, that probably has stayed with me my entire life. Just being just protective of myself, I guess. Keeping myself safe wherever I go. You know, a few weeks ago I mentioned to my husband that I realized, I actually put it into words. I realized that I was very risk averse, and he's like, hello, duh. Have you met yourself? And I'm like, I have, like, I know who I am, but sometimes it takes a minute to, yeah. To hold space for ourselves in that way when we're recognizing something, not that it's a bad thing, that I'm risk averse, but it's just something that I'm remembering and that I'm recognizing. And that really only happens when we're present, when we're aware. Part of my upbringing. That it was tumultuous is because we kept moving like a lot, and one of the places we moved to was Brazil. Oh, wow. My family is Brazilian and I went there. My sister, my mom, my dad and I. We went there and my sister and I didn't really know the language per se. Like my parents spoke to us in Portuguese and we responded in English, so like we had basic understanding, but they put us into a Brazilian school. Oh my goodness. They couldn't afford the American school. So we got put into a Brazilian school and. I will tell you this, when we moved, I was, I had just finished my sophomore year of high school, and here we have four years of high school there. There's three years of high school. Oh. And so I went from being a sophomore here to then being last year student there. And what was difficult about that, besides the language is that here when we go to high school normally, well this is, this was my, my journey. Year one, right? When you're freshy, you take biology, maybe you take chemistry the second year. If you decide to go that route, physics is maybe your junior year there. They really build on it. So it's not biology first year, chemistry, second year, physics, third year. It is, you are learning all of it every single year. So they had already the foundations of biology, chemistry, physics. For the first two years. And so I was going into the third and last year of high school with just the foundation in biology, but not even in Portuguese'cause I had it in English. So, and I hadn't taken chemistry here. I chose not to take that route. But when I got to Brazil, I had to choose a path. Was it gonna be the sciences or was it going to be more liberal arts? And I chose the sciences because I figured that would be easier for me to translate in my head. And I did enjoy math. So, yeah, so I basically went into my last year of high school with no foundation and all in Portuguese. and when we came back I did get into a college there for engineering, which was kind of exciting. And when we came back, which we weren't supposed to come back, uh, we were meant to be there like for the rest of our lives mostly. we came back after a few years and I just felt so smart. So smart because the education system there was so good for me. Yeah. Um, and I just, I was, it was so good. It was so good. Um, anyway, so he came back here and I just, you know, I started my path and. I came back in April of 90, so I couldn't really transfer into a college because April's kinda late. Mm-hmm. You know, to even start Right. Applying and taking care of that stuff. So I ended up going to community college and then I stayed there for a while till I was ready to move forward. I. And then my dad had a heart attack and triple bypass at that point, my parents were already divorced. When we came back from Brazil, they got divorced, which was a, A blessing. A blessing. I was very grateful for that. Um. My dad had a, a heart attack, triple bypass. My sister went away to school. I stayed around, but I didn't wanna go to, I was done with community college. I didn't even wanna get an associates. I just said, I'm done. Yeah, I need more now. Um, so I transferred to a technical school in the city and, which was amazing. I met so many beautiful international people and I made so many friends. And because of, because I went there, I got to. Take this internship slash co-op at the Department of Transportation, which was also brilliant. I got to meet more people. Why did my world, it broadened my world. It was so beautiful. Um, and then after that, because it's so interesting when you look back and you see like where the pieces were left for you. So while I was at the Department of Transportation. I met this group of guys who are interning there. I was a co-op, so I was stayed for like seven or eight months. Um, but I met these guys there and they all went to university of Illinois, Champaign Urbana, all in engineering. And one weekend that summer, one of the guys had a party and he's like, come. So I took my roommate and we went and I had such a brilliant time. And at that same time, my home, my mom's home, which is kind of where I was staying. Was, I will refrain from swear words. It was not going well. Who? Emoji. Okay. Yeah. It was not, it was not going well. I had to make a decision, um, what to do with my life. My sister was already out of the house. She was already at school, um, living there, and I had to make a decision. What do I do? I, I didn't wanna go live with my dad. He didn't have the room for me, and I didn't wanna stay where I was and so. I think it was July. In July, I called up the University of Illinois and I said, Hey, I'd like to transfer over there. What do you need from me? What colleges of engineering are still available to me? And one of them was civil and I forgot what the other two are. Did it matter? I chose several. And I said, great. I got, I sent my transcript within a month, sent my transcripts, sent my essays, um, found an apartment. And they accepted me. And boom, within a month I was starting at the University of Illinois. Wow. I'm gonna take you back for a second if that's okay. Yeah. Because you came off as this girl who hid, right? Yep. And you hid and you read and, um, like that kept you going, and then all of a sudden you were this person who was like. I'm taking action, I'm doing this. Um, where do you think that switched in? You, do you? Oh boy. I think that, I mean, do you think it was like traveling or do you think it was like, um, I don't know that it was traveling and I don't, I wonder if it was a little bit of maybe living in Brazil and getting that confidence. I'll tell you that for the first year that we lived there, I cried like almost every single day. Hated it. Didn't know what to do with myself, but I had this wonderful friend who I still have now 30 years later. Um, and she took me under her wing. She didn't just like me because I was American, like she was really my friend. And so nowadays, when I go back, I stay with her. I see her. Um, it's, it's a very beautiful, um, relationship. I'm really glad that she's my friend. Um, the value of friendship, I think it's right. That's a long time. Um. I think it's because I knew at that point that I needed to take care of myself, that I needed to make decisions for my own life, to take care of me because I knew that my parents weren't gonna be able to help me, they weren't gonna be able to support me. And once again, and this has happened repeatedly in my life. and maybe it's happened in in yours too, but we make decisions based on someone else's decisions, right? They make a choice. Yeah. It doesn't fit us right? It doesn't work for us. It doesn't resonate. It's not supporting us. We need to take a step back and say, okay, this is their life. How do we take care of ourselves? Right? We are our own wisest self. How do we move forward? And I needed to make a decision. I needed to make a decision, and that is the decision I made. And I can see how the universe supported me in that. And also sidebar, someone had told me once upon a time that I have a little guardian angel, and so I just kinda stay with that. I'm like, great. I have a guardian angel. And so some, you know, I remember that. Yeah, it's been quite a ride for myself and I remember doing this exercise. I'm not really sure where I. I think it was a writing exercise. Anyway, I think it was during my Veda training. It was part my Veda training. Part of my VEDA training was life coaching also. And so we had to go through it, these, these exercises. And so we were kind of journaling on our like landmark things that happen in our lives. Right, like the highlights. Yeah. And as I was writing, like what was going on in my twenties, I'm like. Oh my god. What a PO show, right? Yeah. Like it was like it was, and it wasn't anything I did. It was the choices my mother made, and then I had to figure out what to do next. What, what do you do next as a, you barely have life experience. What do you do when you're 20? I. Right. How, how do you take care of yourself when you're 22? Most people go to college, right? They graduate high school, they go to college. They started about 18 or 19. Mm-hmm. And you start getting some responsibilities a little bit. But I was still living at home, right? Going to community college, going to the other school, you know, before I transferred out of town. And like, how do I take care of myself? What are the decisions I have to make given the limited knowledge that I had at the time? How do I take care of myself? And I saw that the universe supported me. I jumped and the universe caught me, said, Hey, we got you. We're gonna figure this out. That's so powerful. Um, it's really inspiring and it's really powerful for someone. I'm gonna be honest, I've never traveled outside of the United States. So for someone who left the United States and then got in a school and didn't even speak the language and then. You came back and then you just it's like mind blowing to me of like, and then all of a sudden you were just like, okay, I'm ready. My life is starting and I'm taking control of it, and I'm going for this. Yeah, but it takes its toll, right? Yeah. So I, I had to protect myself a lot. I had a lot of decisions I had to make and make a lot of choices. And at some point it catches up to you if you're not caring for yourself and when you're in your twenties, maybe thirties. You take life for granted, right? Especially if you are healthy, you take life for granted and you're like, I'm invincible. All good. I don't have to worry about things. I'm gonna speed, I'm going to, you know, drink a lot, eat a lot, whatever it is, right? Yeah. Until something happens, right? And that's something happened to me when I was 31. So, you know, and, and that's when life is like, okay, hello. Take a look at your life. What do you wanna do now? How do you wanna take care of yourself? What are you gonna do moving forward? Right? We flow with whatever happens, right? With our own lives. We're getting to know ourselves in a different way as we're growing up, right? I went to this woman's retreat this weekend. It's a beautiful retreat, and I'm still learning things about myself. I'm gonna be 54 in a week. Or six days, and I'm still learning like so much about myself. And the most common comment I get when I go to these types of things is, oh, hey, did you come with someone? I'm like, no, no, no. I came alone. And they're like, oh, you're so brave. And I'm like, why is that brave? Like I do this all the time and, but maybe it's because of how I grew up and all the circumstances I've had where I'm just like, whatever. I just go by myself. Like I get to meet people and I usually, most of the time walk away with the new friend, you know, with a connection and. That's all good. I think that's, uh, yeah, no, I think it's super powerful, because it is difficult when you've never traveled or done these things alone. I just said that to a friend the other day and it was even going somewhere in my own hometown. I was like, God, I wish you lived closer so you could go with me. I mean, not that I can't go by myself, but sometimes it's it's intimidating. And, and so I, I think that we are always doubting and like questioning ourselves and it's like finding that inner confidence of like, and it's freedom. I imagine like how much free you feel when you do these things. Like empowering, like I can stand on my own two feet. Yeah. And like I know you have a husband, but also. You also get to stand on your own two feet and do these things and meet new people. Yeah. So it just is, it's truly powerful. Yeah. Don't get me wrong, I was scared. I was scared. I have to drive. I have to drive. I get to drive. Yeah. You know, and I know that without traffic, it takes about an hour and a half to get there. I think it was like 70 something miles or something. But there's always traffic in the Bay Area and I was concerned. I was leaving Friday afternoon. What does this look like? My GPS was taking me in a different route altogether that was gonna take three hours. And triple the miles. And I'm like, why is it taking me down there? There's like nothing going on up here. Like, I don't understand. I had to pull off, look at my, look at my, like Google app or whatever the maps and, and then look at my GPS and I'm like, what do I do? And, and I kept changing it. What's funny is like on my car, I kept changing it to. Fast, fastest, and it would take me there and then like 10 seconds later it would revert back to, no, go this way. And I'm like, I have to make a decision, right? Maybe there's something that the GPS knows that I don't know, but I'm like, whatever, I'm just gonna go the way that I know and that's just the way it's gonna be. But I was so, I was scared because of traffic. I was scared because I don't usually leave my town. Okay. Yeah. Like I have everything here. Um, and I'm meeting all these people. I don't even know how many women were gonna be there. It, it was at camp. I don't go camping. Like, that's not me. I went to day camp when I was younger, but never overnight camp. Right. For me, like going, camping is like a two star hotel or one star hotel. Like, I don't know what that is. Okay. So like, this was new for me. I didn't know what to expect. I have a lot of dietary restrictions and I put that down in the form. I did not know what to expect, but there was something inside of me that just said. Don't worry, you'll be fine. I was gonna bring my pillow, my blanket. I was gonna bring, oh, so many other things. And I'm like, you know, Monica, you're still here in the Bay Area. Like, it'll be fine. Don't worry about it. And like, and I'm going and one of the things I had to do while I was driving there, I. Let's go on this windy road up the hill, and that makes me nauseous. Yeah. Fortunately I had an apple and I'm eating the apple and, and I'm like, it's okay, Monica. We're almost there. It tells me only four miles. We're almost there. So, you know, there's still a lot of scary, and then I get there and I'm still, here's the thing, people say, yes, you're brave. Yeah, that takes courage. And yes, I'm still scared, but there's that part of me that's still, and I recognize this, even just this, even this week, this past weekend, like I felt like my energy was all. Here. It wasn't out here. Yeah. Like I was still very nervous when I got to the pickup point, uh, for the shuttle. Nobody greeted me, not even the counselors who were there, and I thought, what the hell? Right? Like, this is terrible. Um, but then these other women who just parked their cars came up to me and like said, Hey, do you know what's going on? And I'm like, oh, great. Someone's talking to me. I don't usually, I'm very shy, so. You know, when I approach people, but here's the thing, when I got there, they looked at me, but they never said hello. They never said welcome and then people are like, well, why didn't you say hello? And I'm like, I just got there, aren't they? Mm-hmm. Maybe I'm making up stories right for them. Like, shouldn't they be welcoming? I'm judging, but I don't know. I just, I feel like. We should be welcomed when we come in someplace. And that is what I do when people walk into any event that I have. Right? When I was president of this women's group last year, people came in and like I welcomed them even though I was president and busy doing other things. And I have this one woman who was so wonderful and she actually told me a few months ago, she goes, you're the reason I joined. Because even though you have a hospitality table, nobody really welcomed me. It wasn't until you walked up to me, I. And started talking to me that I felt welcome and I said, thank you for saying that, because there's so many things that we do and how we show up that we don't recognize we're just being our true, authentic selves. Right? Yeah. But we don't recognize it until somebody says to us, here's what I saw, here's what I experienced. Right. And sometimes they don't share that information. They keep it hidden too. Right. For some reason. Tell me more. Right. Whenever I see someone, I'm like, oh my God, I find something. You know, acknowledge, you know, that's so funny that you would say that you're shy. And I think it's just because we've got to know each other because I don't see it at all. I like see you as like this person that's just like, I mean, very welcoming. I mean, you can be shy and welcoming in a different way. Um, so I mean, I can see how, I mean, that's how I am and it's never a second guess of just like, hi, how are you? Even though I'm, I'm more quiet when I don't get, when I don't know you, but. The power that that has in it. Um, just to welcome somebody. It's so powerful and I'm so glad the lady said that to you. I know. Yeah. It's these little blessings, right? That we can accumulate along the way in our lives, right? When people remind us of who we are, like we remember, like Kathy Heller always tells us, remember to remember right. And I'm remembering things about myself, and I'm getting to know parts of myself that I forgot or didn't even know about, haven't acknowledged in forever. But when other people come and share these blessings with you, hold them close. Right? What a beautiful exchange. That's impactful. And it's funny because we never stop learning, and I think in Kathy's community, that's one of the biggest things that we've learned is that. It doesn't matter our age. We're all ages in there. I mean, I'm 41 and we're all ages and mm-hmm. We're all learning and growing together. Yeah. And it's just, it's so, so powerful. It's so powerful. Yeah. And so, you know, just remembering you know who you are and what, what's the energy that you bring, right? Yeah. Into the space. Because you can influence it. You can influence it, and I think. You know, I think that because of all the work I've done on myself that has changed me, my, my energy, the meditations, the energy clearing, you know, all, all the things that I've studied and I practice anything. And it doesn't even have to be a study, honestly. You can learn from other people, like from their mistakes and say, I'm not gonna do that. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And then you embody that. Right? Mm-hmm. And you bring that with you wherever you go. Any book you read, anything you digest, it's not just food, it's what you're reading. It's who you're spending time with, what you're watching on television. You know, they, I think one of the books that I studied, I can't remember who it was at a Tell My Cabinets, you are the five people that you surround yourself with. I call it the Five Energies. Because not all the time is it people, right? One of the things could be news. One of the things could be social media, right? Because you spend, we spend a lot of time. With social media, a lot of us do, right? Oh, yeah. My aunt spends a lot of time with her news. She listens to the news all day long on repeat, and so we are digesting that, right? We're either looking at it or digesting through our eyes. We're digesting through ourselves. We're digesting through our ears. What are you bringing into your life to help calm you down, right? Yeah. Can you close your eyes and not take some stuff in? That's, yeah. That's so powerful. I actually did, a podcast episode that's released on that, about who you spend your time with and where your energy goes and is what you're doing lifting you up or is it physically draining you? Yep, because it's, I don't think people realize it, and even on a daily basis, I have to check in with myself. Of where am I going with this and how, like, how did it make me feel? And that's why I released it.'cause I had had a, a week and I just thought, let me reflect on this week and see where I'm at. Yep, yep. Where are you at? Right. But sometimes we don't wanna see that. We don't wanna see where we're at. Right. So we keep filling our buckets, our lives with so many different things so that we don't have to acknowledge where we are. Okay. With all that being said, I have a question for you. I wanna take you back because we're talking so much about energy and who we surround ourself with. So how did you go from being an engineer? Mm-hmm. Going to school for that engineering to what? What switched you? What changed you? What sparked you to do something different? I think it was all the illness. It was all the illness. Um, so, Hmm. I loved engineering. There were so many parts of engineering that I loved. And I still use a lot of that in my business today, but there were certain jobs that, did not resonate with me. And I tend to stay longer than I want in those jobs because. I like having purpose and I like having community and I like having financial stability. Um, yeah, so that was really important to me. And so, you know, I, while those jobs did not make some jobs, did not make me happy. I did look for other jobs within the company. When I was about eight years old, my dad taught my sister and I reiki and. Meditation. And so that actually has come full circle. So with my very last job at Boeing, which did not resonate with me at all, and that was like a whole fiasco all by itself, I just ended up, I'll just keep it short and say I ended up leaving. I ended up leaving for the last time. That was enough for me at some point, some years previous to that, I had, I was standing in my living room, I was living in Seattle at the time, and. As many of you may know, Seattle's not known for sunshine. Yeah. Um, so I was standing in my living room and I was looking out the window. It was an overcast day, overcast with a peak of sun. And so I was standing there and I'm just looking out the window and all of a sudden there's this tear that's coming out of my eye. And I'm like, what's that? What's going on? I don't understand. And that was the moment where I really connected to myself. I said, oh my gosh, I'm just unhappy. I'm unhappy here. I have a beautiful house. I have great friends. I love all the things. I love the beauty. I'm tired. I just can't do this anymore. I cannot be here anymore. And so I planted a seed in the universe, in my husband's head. I planted a seed. Yeah, it took several years. So I ended up leaving the Boeing company in 2013, October of 2013. My husband left Amazon in a year later, and he said to me, this is gonna be quick. Whatever happens, he's in tech. So he's like, this is gonna be quick, whatever we do. And I said, okay. He looked for jobs out here in California, northern and Southern. Um, and he ended up with several job offers and he asked me where I wanted to live and I said to him, that's a very loaded question because I need to know if you need me to have a job because if you want me to work, if you want the second income, we're gonna have to move to Southern California because that is where aerospace is. That is my experience. Yeah. And. I asked him in return, I said, which job do you like? Because you're the one who is gonna be earning more than me no matter what. Mm-hmm. Um, where do you wanna go? I was asking him to uproot. I didn't mind uprooting. I'm used to moving around. But yeah, he likes, he's very stable. He likes stability. So he said, the one in San Francisco. And I said, okay, if you're okay with me not working. Then little did I know that was a manifestation that I would not be able to get a job. Um, anyway, sidebar, um, we moved to the Bay Area and after about 10 months or so, he's like, okay, I like it here and we can stay. And I'm like, great, let's buy a house. Okay. That was the start of a different kind of journey of Yeah. Overpriced houses and multiple offers and. Bidding over asking. That was quite the adventure for us. But we found a beautiful home and it's been great. We've been here 10 years. 10 years in March. Wow. And I wouldn't know where else to go really. Um, so we got here, I had a cat who was not doing well. She had a tumor. We needed to remove it. So most of my time. Was settling in, unpacking, getting to know the new area. Finding a good vet for her. Yeah. Um, meeting people. How do I meet people? How do you meet people when you are not working, when you don't have a job? Yeah. So I joined a newcomers club in my area, and they were women, maybe like one person my age. but most of'em were older. They were empty nesters, they were retirees. Mm-hmm. They just moved here. So that was good. For a while. I didn't make any friends, but I still kept going, you know, try new things. I'm always listening to, not always, lately in my life, I've been listening to inspirations. Anytime I get a little in my ear, I'm like, oh, lemme go check that out. What does that mean? What am I supposed to do with this? So I've given myself permission to follow those inspirations wherever they might go. So, yeah. Ah, yeah, it's been hard. I've made some friends, but also I've, you know, I have friends in Seattle, so I go back and one of my friends actually moved to Sacramento, so kind of far, it's like an hour and a half, but still closer to the Seattle instead of being hour and a half on the airplane. I'm an hour and a half in the car and she comes here a lot. So that was great. She was my bestie in Seattle. So it's been good and. During this time, I am trying to find things like a part-time job, but nothing's calling, nothing's happening. And I just, my sister calls me up that first year that I'm here in 2015 and she says, I need a break. I need a break. We did a little research. We ended up at the Chopra Center in San Diego, which is no longer there. We ended up there for a week. It was a week long. Retreat and we didn't know what we were signing up for. We're just like, okay, see you there. And she was coming from Chicago. I was coming from here, see you there. We're sharing a room. That's it. And it was so brilliant. And so that week is where we learned how to meditate with Deepak Chopra. Mm-hmm. And it was so, so brilliant. And this like, it just, for me, that just became full circle. While I was an engineer, I studied a lot, like a lot of other things just to bring me into balance. Mm-hmm. Um, animal communication coaching. Aura cleansing. Like anything that was just any, anything fun, curious tarot cards, like whatever, quilting, whatever it was, I'm like, let me do that. I need to release the stress in my body from engineering. So I've learned a lot of things. Anyway. This was so beautiful and this was the meditation that I needed and I still guide people to this day. Even today, I had a meditation this morning that I guided, a group of people and I love this meditation and it's. To me, it just started my full circle journey to when I was eight years old and healing myself and taking care of myself, right? Given all the circumstances I grew up with, taking care of myself, protecting myself. So I got certified. My sister and I both got certified at the Chopra Center for Meditation. To get certified, we needed to study a little bit of Ayurveda. I had no clue what it was. They weren't helping me. I didn't understand it, so I decided to study it so I could understand it more. And so that then I got certified in Ayurveda and then I got certified in yoga teacher training 200 hour. And then we had this pandemic. I'm like, know what? so I was teaching online. Before that, I was teaching in person, but then in the pan, during the pandemic, I was teaching online and I studied more. I studied more Ayurveda. I studied health coaching, life coaching. I studied more meditation. I studied like so much. So now. I'm in a place that just feels so, so delicious and so in alignment and really, you know, our mentor Kathy Heller, like she really helped with that. Like, I've been following Kathy for over maybe a year and a half now, and it's been so, so good. Um, just my whole energy, like my alignment, it, it, whatever she did, whatever magic she has really allowed me to find my own magic again. We all have magic. We just need to find it. We need to remember it, we need to share it. We need to share our light. And so that's really what I help people with in, with energy healing. How can I help you heal? How can I help you shine your light? And it's just so many ways. And, you know, I've had a lot of business coaches, well, not well, several business coaches, and they're always saying the same things. Do it my way. I absolutely can help you. I can totally help you do it my way. And, and you really have to listen and you get caught up in that excitement, right? You, oh yeah. We all carry, we all carry energy, right? Mm-hmm. And we get sucked into the energy of that person, right. The five people we surround ourselves with, right? Yeah. And it doesn't, and it's not just five people or five energies, um, in general. Like, it's just like, what about those five people in that one day? Yeah, right? In that one hour, who are you surrounding yourself with? So I get sucked in and I'm like, oh my God. Oh my God. Now, there were some beautiful blessings from these groups, for sure. Mm-hmm. But this is the first time where I felt like I was given permission to do what I needed to do and not second guess myself, because I wasn't doing it their way. I was doing it my way. That's so powerful. There I was looking for, right. I was looking for what is fun for me? What am I going to enjoy? What, what is gonna bring me delight? How can I be of service to people with, with my gifts? What does that look like? Because once we know that and we're in alignment, that's where the confidence comes in. It's not listening to the other people and their way, their way worked for them. We are all unique human beings. We all have our strengths. We all have our weaknesses, right? Mm-hmm. What, what can we do with these gifts that were gifted to us on the day that we were born? What can we do with them? So I just went back to energy healing and it took me a while too. That took me a few years too, like am I a meditation teacher? And this is like, it's a lot of mindset stuff too, right? Yeah. People who know me as an engineer, then there are people who know me as a meditation teacher and then an Ayurvedic health coach, and then a life coach and energy healer. And they're all different people. But those people who were with me from the beginning, they start thinking like, what the hell is she? Like wishy-washy. First, she's an engineer. Now she wants to teach meditation. Now she wants to teach yoga. Now she whatever. You know what? It's all part of me. It doesn't matter. I'm reading the book by Mel Robbins. Right. Let them let me, right? Okay. Yeah. Let them have those stories about me. Let them, it's okay. That's, they're entitled. They can do make up whatever they wanna do. If that's their life, I'm not gonna let it bring me down. Right? I'm thinking those things too. They're not the only ones thinking that. Can I make a decision? Do I know what I want? I didn't have the right mentors. So look for the right mentors, right? Be around the people that inspire you, not drain you. Just going back to what you said, right? What's draining you? Mm-hmm. Don't, don't, don't be around those people that drain you. Right? We wanna be around people that lift us up, that support us. I have this new friend that I met at the Kathy's Summit last year, who is like my biggest cheerleader, like overt. She's always like just right there, smiling, cheering me on all the time, all the time in front of other people. And I'm like, I don't know what to do with that. And I told her this. I'm like, I don't know what to do with that because. I've never received that before. This is so new to me. Thank you for helping me to get comfortable with it. That's powerful.'cause I never was, right? Yeah. So really here I am like 54 in six days and like still figuring out my life, still figuring out myself. Yeah. And what's fun, right? Like what do I wanna do when I grow up? And I love what I do and it just like all of this just came together. All these healing arts, all the things. That I know and I love with like, hi, I'm practical. I don't, I'm not a hundred percent guru. Like I'm not, right. I live in the modern world, like there's stuff that happens. I buy stuff that's already cut up for me. I don't cut it up. Okay. Fruit? Yeah. Whatever it is. Vegetables. No, because life happens and even though technology is supposed to help us and it kind of does, it also takes time. So. Yeah. You know, there's, there's things and we wanna have a good time and we can have a good time cooking if that is our passion. Mm-hmm. But there's also like, I wanna have a good time with my friends and so let me just hurry up and make myself a meal and enjoy the meal and go do stuff that I wanna do. You know, exercise, go outside in nature, have a, I'm going to meet a friend today. I am gonna meet her new foster dog. So I'm excited about that. Like, how do I make time for that, you know, right before I go volunteer. So, yeah. What lights you up? What, what is your body telling you that you need to do? And I think, no, ultimately, I just wanna say, and I know you didn't ask me like final parting words, but really, like, ultimately I feel like this has come full circle already. Yeah. Um, is that, you know, what, what lights you up? And, you know, maybe it's something that's full circle for you too. What did you enjoy when you were a kid, right? Mm-hmm. What lights you up? And maybe this is a journaling practice for you to figure out. Maybe it's a meditation practice. Maybe it's just you spending time by yourself, which so many of us do not like spending time with ourselves. Very true. Right. So what, what is that? How can, how can you bring your gift into this world? Mm-hmm. And this gift, it doesn't have to be the same one all the time. I believe that my gift, like when, just as far back as I can remember, thinking like I, that I was in purpose and on purpose mm-hmm. Was a few of my jobs at Boeing. Right, or being surrounded by those people and who I was helping, that was my purpose at that time. This is my purpose. Now, that can change. And one of the things I learned was that, you know, we have purpose and there's little purpose with, uh, you know, so Dharma in Sans Strut, that's small. D and then there's big Dharma with a capital D. The big dharma is our umbrella, right? This is like our overall big purpose, but daily, hourly. We have our purpose, our small purpose, and all that little purpose is doing is guiding us towards our bigger purpose. It is like different assignments that capture our whole big purpose in this life. I had a meeting. I went to an Ayurveda conference a few weeks ago. Go fast. Will you tell listeners what that is? Oh, Ayurveda. Oh yeah. So Ayurveda is the sister science of yoga. It translates as the science or wisdom of life. It's about bringing balance into your life and just to keep it simple, if you're feeling really, really, really, really cold, are you gonna drink like a nice hot tea? Or are you gonna have like a ice cold beverage? You know? So kinda like that. How do you bring in balance into your life? Okay, so I went to this conference. there are six pillars of health in Ayurveda movement, meditation, nutrition, um, movement, meditation, nutrition, emotions, sleep and self-care, stress management type of thing. So I do all of those and. So I went to this conference and I learned so many beautiful things. There are doctors there who are Eastern and Western, and it's so beautiful and just hearing what is going on in Ayurveda and how it's supporting Western medicine and how it overlaps, it supports, and it's a lot of, there's something I read a long time ago, and it was like the pills that we take the. The medicine that we take in general, when the doctor prescribes it to you, that is all based on plants. Like it started that way, right? Yeah. They added some chemicals. There's some other things. Right? So it's all plant based sort of. Yes. I won't get too much into that, but that's where it started. That. Ayurveda is just a beautiful way of being in balance and being aware, and that's really what it's about. Being aware of what's going on so that you can bring balance into your life. Too much of something, too much sugar. You can feel kind of disgusted and cloying and whatever, and sticky, um, too little of something. Can also not feel good. So how do we bring ourselves into balance? So I went to this conference and they're trying to raise funds. I made a donation so that I could get an A, an astrology reading and a geo ti astrology reading, which is different than western astrology. Anyway, so she said to me at the end of the, our conversation based on my astrology chart, she said to me. That I am exactly where I'm meant to be. That I am supposed to be the healer at this point in my life. I am supposed to be the healer and people will come to me for healing. And while that wasn't one of my questions, it was validation. It's also validation. When people come to you and they ask you a question, they're asking for advice. Those are clues for you, right? Mm-hmm. What are people asking me? What are they asking me for? That is a clue for you because that is something that they respect about you, that they feel like you are the guru for them to help them. So, I don't know. Anyway, I just thought it was so beautiful. The other thing she said to me was, I really appreciate, and I didn't get into, all I said was my, she asked about my upbringing and I said it was tumultuous and that was it. And she said to me afterwards, she goes. It's good that you decided to not have a relationship with your mother. she didn't know, you know, anything. Just looking at my chart and she had said some things about my mother and like I started to cry because no one has ever said these things and I was just like, I was receiving and it unfortunately resonated and. That's hard when it's a parent, you know? Oh, yeah. But I went to a therapist just to kind of talk about this stuff, and she said, you know, mom, dad, whatever, it's a label. It's just a label. Whatever. It's, it's just a label. So, you know, there's, there's things, and see, it's still me trying to protect myself, right. Creating those boundaries. Mm-hmm. Um, self care all, all the time. Do I feel like going somewhere? Do I not feel like going somewhere? What's my body telling me? So everything that I do, I, I just, I put me first. I have to put me first because if I don't, I can't be there for my family. I can't be there for my clients. That's so powerful. I could go a hundred ways with this and we can break this down into like another five hours of conversation. Um, yeah. So anyway, full circle. Full circle. First, you know, eight, eight years old, Reiki and, and meditation, and I relearned meditation with, you know, different meditations. But the one that stuck with me is with Deepak Chopra, the reiki. I actually, I went back to look at my notes and. I have my certificate, like from 2006. I learned reiki in 2006. So I recently got re attuned with a friend of mine. I didn't need to, but I wanted to get re attuned. She's like, you don't need it. And I'm like, I want to. I just wanna know, am I in the right path? And she re attuned me. And if you're familiar with reiki when the attunement happens, um. The symbols came and I didn't even remember what the symbols were. The symbols came on top of my head. I closed my eyes to her seat when she did this, attunement. And it came up over my head, these symbols. And they were dancing. They were dancing all over the place and my tears. And I'm just like, oh my God. So, you know, there's so many messages that we can receive if we're available, if we allow ourselves. To receive them. So yeah, all of this, how did it start? That's how it started. And it's just pieces, right? The universe provides us with opportunities. Are we listening? And if we're not, the universe is gonna come back and give us a little bit more of a nudge. And then if we're still not listening, it's a little bit more of a nudge. So, you know, it just, it just keeps coming back, right? It just keeps coming back. and the people, and it might not even be the same people who keep coming back into your circle. It might be different people with similar energy or similar messages. Right. It's just, it may not come the way you want it to come. Yeah. But it comes and I, I kind of feel like, I wonder, it's a good question to ask. I'm wondering if, if we all come full circle at some point, you know, while we're aware, you know? Yeah. Like in this point, like, I know, you know, we, we are born, we die. But in between do we notice any full circle moments in our lives? That's definitely an interesting question. Is it? I, yeah, I mean, I think we should, we should put a, a toll out or a pull toll a pull out on there and like, and see like what people say because, um, we're not taught to listen to our bodies. So like, I think it's a, a really gift that you learned a lot of this at a young age, and then kind of moved back into it. You always had these tools, but. I mean, I've told you that I, I learned some of it from my grandmother at a young age. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, I didn't fully embrace it all until, you know, I got older. Um, but so many people aren't even aware or it's frowned upon to do things like this. And I think that it's coming, it's happening that our world is just becoming more open to look at different things. Yeah. You kind of already answered this. Um, well first of all, can you tell people where they can find you at? Um, sure. So, um, where can they find me? So, my, my website is monica.coach, www.monica.coach. That will take you to, um, a, a different website, which is authentic. You and a lot of people dunno how to spell that. So I just say I just keep Monica coach. Um, and there's an opportunity there to meditate with me on Monday mornings at eight 30. It's free. I have a little community, um, and it's, it's really beautiful and it's the meditation that I learned with Deepak Chopra. It's called The Four Soul Questions. And so I meet eight 30 Monday mornings and you can sign up there. I also have a podcast, prana and Possibilities. You can find me on Spotify, you can find me on Apple Podcasts. Um. I just, I think those are, those are some good ways. And if you have, you know, a question for me, you can always email me@helloatmonica.coach. M-O-N-I-C-A dot C-O-A-C-H-I think so. No, I'll leave those in the show notes so people can find you. I do ask everybody, and you kind of already answered this, but if there is one thing that they should go do today, to get them started on, finding that inner spark, what would you say? One thing to find that inner spark, I would say close your eyes. Close your eyes. Bring your hands to your heart space, your left hand on your heart space, your right hand, on top of your left hand, and I invite you to go through these four soul questions with me. Who am I? Who am I? Notice what comes up for you Notice, acknowledge all the labels, every beautiful piece of you that's coming into your mind right now of who you are. Acknowledge, give gratitude, release. Let it float away. It'll always be a part of you, and each time you ask yourself this question. Different things will come. Same thoughts, but maybe different things too. Who am I? Who am I? What do I want? What is my heart's desire? Lemme check in with yourself. Check in with your heart. What does your heart want? Maybe it's an image. Maybe it's a thought. Maybe it's a feeling. What is it that my heart desires? What is my purpose? My dharma? Notice what comes up for you here. An image. A thought. What is my purpose? How can I be of service to myself, and how can I be of service to others? What does that look like? What does it feel like and what am I grateful for? What am I grateful for? This can be itemized. You might be grateful for your breath, your home, the food on your table, your appliances. It could also be the energy of gratitude. What does that energy feel like of being grateful? How does that change? How does that change the energy in your body? What am I grateful for? Just notice that energy filling you up, surrounding you, emanating from you, and we're grateful we attract more things to be grateful for. It lifts our vibration. It raises our vibration. Am I grateful for? Hmm hmm. You can release your hands. Vote your eyes open. These are the four. So questions that I've learned and. Sometimes, you know, just asking yourself what they are, who you are in this moment, what you want in this moment, what you'd like to see in this moment. Maybe journal on it, notice what comes up for you. Sometimes the answers don't come during the meditation during this time. Sometimes they, they're shown to you a little bit later outside of this space and you recognize it. Ah, that's what it's, that's what's resonating for me. We need to be aware, right? Can you be aware? Can you be with your breath? Can you be present in your own life? This is the one life you have. Can you be present in it? Thank you so much for that special gift. I wanna thank you so much for coming on the show. I will drop all your links so listeners can come find you. Thank you. You guys, I, I don't know what you took away from that. I wanna thank Monica for the special gifts at the end. I encourage you to go find her. She is an incredible woman from becoming an engineer to just connecting, coming home to herself through everything she has studied and learned, and. She's so knowledgeable about so many different things and just how she pulls them all together to be uniquely who she is. it just truly lights me up. So I encourage you guys to go find her, go listen to her, and as always, go let those sparks fly. Thank you for tuning into another episode. I hope today's story inspired you to embrace your own journey of growth and change. Remember, transformation isn't always easy, but it's always worth it. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe. Share it with a friend, and leave a review. If you found something that sparked you in this episode and may spark a friend, I encourage you to go share with them. If you have your own story you would like to share, I would love to hear it. So please reach out to me. Until next time, friends, go have some fun and let those sparks lie.