House of JerMar

Intentional Living

• Jeanne Collins • Season 1 • Episode 21

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Would you say you live intentionally and embrace spirituality in your daily life? Join us this week for an inspiring conversation with Emmy-nominated Courtney Meyers, who shares her incredible transformation from a successful TV career to launching her podcast, "Intentional Living with Courtney Meyers." Her story begins in Southern California, where life's expectations set her on a path as a writer and producer, only to be dramatically altered by the introspection brought on by the COVID pandemic that resulted in a move to Tennessee. 

Courtney's journey is a testament to the power of prioritizing wellness and self-care. She opens up about a significant health scare that prompted her to reevaluate her priorities and reconnect with activities that bring joy and fulfillment. As a busy professional and parent, Courtney emphasizes the importance of making time for wellness practices, like walking and reading for pleasure, and how these simple acts can profoundly impact our well-being. Her vulnerability and openness invite us to consider the role of spiritual and energy healing, advocating for a holistic approach to health that recognizes the mind-body connection.

Courtney Reference Recommendations in This Episode:
Spiritual Mentor: Sonia Choquette (Her books Ask Your Guides and Trust Your Vibes)
Books: Anne of Green Gables, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, The Night Circus
Plant Paradox - Dr. Gundry
Holistic Healer - Dr. Brooke Stuart
Dave Asprey
Dr. Mark Hyman
Dr. Amen
Samantha Lotus
Aggie Lal - Biohacking for Women


More about Courtney:
Courtney Meyers is an Emmy Nominated writer & producer with 18+ years working with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. She is a best-selling ghostwriter, authoring her debut novel and host of the breakout podcast Intentional Living with Courtney Meyers.

She's a graduate from The University of Southern California's prestigious Annenberg School of Journalism & has trained extensively with Multi Best-Selling Author & Renown Intuitive Mentor, Sonia Choquette.

A wife & mother of two, Courtney is a California native living in Tennessee on a mission of growth, healing & soul-searching, striving to help others UNLEASH THEIR VOICE, connect to their most authentic self, and live a life they love!

Courtney can be found below:
https://www.courtneymeyers.com/

Intentional Living with Courtney Meyers Podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQZldkv38l00pDGrJx43ksA 
 
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/intentional-living-with-courtney-meyers/id1686847873

House of JerMar:
Learn more on our website: houseofjermar.com.

Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/houseofjermar/

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@Houseofjermar

Read Jeanne's Book: Two Feet In: Lessons From and All-In Life

WELCOME TO OUR HOUSE!

Speaker 1:

I think you said something really big. There is the priority aspect. Like if I wanted to truly make wellness a priority, I would have I've had to look really hard at that, like obviously this hasn't been a priority. Otherwise, the kids are an excuse, work is an excuse, we have all these excuses, but if it's a true priority, you're going to make time for it, and so it's kind of that mindset shift also. It's like okay, let's be honest and make it a priority, and if it's not okay, then set it aside. If it's not, that's okay too.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the House of Germar podcast, where wellness starts within. The House of Germar is a lifestyle brand, empowering women to live all in through interior design and personal wellness. We are a destination for women ready to reimagine what is possible in their homes and lives and then create it. We are honored to have you join us on our mission to empower one million women to live all in. I am your host, jean Collins, and I invite you to become inspired by this week's guest.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the House of Jermar podcast where wellness starts within. I'm your host, jean Collins, and today's guest. Get ready, folks, this is a great one. This is Courtney Myers. Courtney is the host of a podcast, intentional Living with Courtney Myers, and I was honored to be a guest on her show. She also is an Emmy-nominated writer and producer and I have to tell you, if you do not follow her podcast you all must it is one of the best produced shows I've ever seen. Her marketing material is so great and her guests are so inspiring, but Courtney herself is really inspiring, so I am honored that Courtney is willing to take some time to come and talk to us. So, courtney, welcome to the House of Dermar podcast.

Speaker 1:

Oh my goodness, jean, I am so excited for you this podcast and to be here. I mean, I feel like I should take that little open and put it as my open for my podcast.

Speaker 2:

It's really hard to talk about yourself sometimes.

Speaker 1:

but thank you, that was so nice.

Speaker 2:

It's hard to talk about yourself. I can understand that, but you have such an incredible resume and you do so many things, so I'm so excited to get into wellness in your life and how you started your podcast and what intentional living means to you and your journey, because I think your journey is also really inspiring and one of my goals with the show is to inspire other women, just like you have. That goal on your show is to inspire other women to really be living our best lives and how do they do that and giving them inspirational stories. So, to get started, can you share with us what is your career journey that led you to where you are today?

Speaker 1:

You know it's funny. I was listening to a podcast this morning as I was walking and it was someone. She was in her late 30s and she was talking about how she finally got to the point where she realized everything she was doing in her life in her 20s, you know, the pushing for her career and all these different things were leading her to where she was now. And that's exactly what I think I've experienced. You know my career journey. It's like I knew what I was going to do. I was told what I was going to do from a very young age. It was like Courtney, you just can't stop talking. Shocker, I have a podcast now. But like Courtney, you just talk. And I'm experiencing that. By the way, my daughter is five now and she is just like me and I'm just like I need to call my parents and apologize. She'd never shut up, but that was me.

Speaker 1:

And so, at a very young age, it was like Courtney, you're going to be a news anchor or you're going to be a lawyer. And so I had that in my mind from day one. I was going to do one of these two things. Mind, from day one, I was going to do one of these two things. And then you know, growing up I became a writer and became really good at it, and everyone was just like you're a great writer, you have to go into news. So immediately I went to journalism school, thinking I wanted to be on camera and being a reporter or a news anchor. But then I let my fear get the best of me and people say, oh, you're going to have to, like, move away from your family and move all around the country and you're not going to be able to settle down and have kids because you're going to be pursuing your passion and your dream. And so I didn't.

Speaker 1:

And so I went yeah, which I'm like caution everyone, listen to yourself, listen to your inner guidance. So I took my journalism. I went to journalism school, broadcast journalism started. I went in LA. I had great internships, turned into jobs. I graduated early because it was like I have to start, it was just so fun. And I started writing for television. So I wrote for TV and produced for TV for like 20 years, always kind of being like I can do that, I deserve to be on stage, I want to be there.

Speaker 1:

And it wasn't until COVID happened that things changed and I was on a daytime talk show. They took everything in house, kind of everything slowed down and I was kind of left sitting there going what am I if I'm not my career? What am I if I don't have my creativity? What am I if I'm not doing this and creating for the world? And it took a move across country with my family and a lot of soul searching, a mentorship with a spiritual advisor and it turned into like no, you need to follow your path, you need to have a podcast, you need to continue to write. I ghostwrite for books now, other people's books, I have my own I haven't put out yet and I really like the whole dream is actually what happened, and I know we'll probably touch base on it, because I got sick over the summer. That really made me start to think clearly, kind of get back to where I was, and it is.

Speaker 1:

The real mission is to create intentional media, which is a place where everyone's voices can be heard. It's not about how many followers you have, it's not about your name if you're ABCD-less celebrity and you can sell something. It's about real ideas, real connection and allowing our voices to be heard. So that's kind of how the podcast came to place and that's the starting point of it, where I'm helping people get their voice into the world and, like you, inspire women. I think we connect on our stories and our journeys. And so, yeah, there's accolades along the way. I have a nomination for my work on Ellen. I worked on every TV show you could possibly imagine, every award show you could possibly imagine. I've been in TV for a long time, but now it's just me, me myself and I producing everything. So it's a beast.

Speaker 2:

It's your own TV show, it is. And I remember when I first met you I was like, okay, who does your marketing? Who does your pre-reels? Promo reels are unbelievable. And you're like me, yeah, wow. And you're like me, yeah, wow. That inside itself is so inspiring, because I think people are so afraid of making a change because they don't know everything they need to know to make a change, and it's really scary being an entrepreneur and being a solo entrepreneur is very scary. So how do you?

Speaker 1:

But if you don't do it, the the thing is is you actually have the skills. Like, if you think about it, all these things that I was doing for 20 years led me to be able to do this now. If I didn't do that, I didn't know how to do this. Now I want to pass it off to somebody else. It's a lot of freaking work, no-transcript showing people how to do it, and I had another mentor and advisor say to me no one actually wants to do it themselves. When you say you do it yourself, no one cares because they're like shit, I just hire you, I'm never going to succeed, if that's what's required, how much can I outsource?

Speaker 2:

Because I can't learn all of this. But you have that background, so you don't have to learn it all, but it's daunting.

Speaker 1:

What made you?

Speaker 2:

decide podcast.

Speaker 1:

I wanted to be in control of the message. I think for so long and that's been a big foundational, like a big sticking point for myself is that I have written for so many people. Even in my ghostwriting work I write for so many people. I literally take on their voice and I intuitive write. So it's not just like tell me your story and let me like report it back to you. I really like take it on. And so I think for so long I felt like my voice wasn't being heard and that's what I wanted to do is I wanted something that I could, grassroots, be in control of, and the podcast allows that, you know, allows you to produce your own work.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, and you, you pick the subjects, you get to talk about, whatever you want to talk about and you're about to start season three, so congratulations.

Speaker 2:

That is amazing. That is amazing when you look back to the beginning of it. Do you go back to your first episodes and think, like it's like, you know, like I'm a designer, I look at like the first rooms I designed as as a designer and I was like, oh man, I would do so many things differently now, but it is part of the journey, so you have to respect that. Do you have the same feeling when you go back and look at the very beginning, to where you are?

Speaker 1:

now I have the same feeling about everything I do, whether it was back in my Hollywood career versus now. You know, I was actually just working on the website the other day, because I'm doing all that too Like literally I do everything right now and I looked at where it started to where it is, because, you know, I just have my little account. You can see the old ones. She's like, wow, that was bad. But you know, we don't know, you don't learn until you start doing it, and I think that's what you kind of were talking about.

Speaker 1:

We're so afraid to like get our hands dirty and put out messy work, and my first couple of podcasts were really messy. It was really messy until I got to the point where I'm like I'm just going to have conversations with people, stop scripting myself and allow things to flow. Then it kind of got into rhythm. But yeah, I totally cringe looking back at things. I cringe now because I took a three month hiatus. I'm like I feel like I'm getting back on a bike and it's a little wobbly. I'm trying to learn it again. So we all have to go through it.

Speaker 2:

We do, it's all good. What did your family say when you said you were going to make this shift and become an entrepreneur and start a podcast?

Speaker 1:

They are not the most supportive usually about it. I think it's hard for your family to see you do something different. That's not safe, not what they would plan for you. And two, when you start to open up and speak your own truth and let people in on your life, it can be very triggering for others I think, especially your family and people closest to you. Because, one, they either think it's about them, even if it's not, or something could be about them and that's not either. One, it's not their truth or two, it's like they don't want to share that.

Speaker 1:

So you're walking a fine line. So it's hard sometimes to get that total, like gung-ho support of people around you. My husband is extremely supportive. My kids are too little to really have any sort of support. They're like, no, you're not working, stop working mom. So they're kind of negative against it. But yeah, it's hard to find that support sometimes I think until you get the true like real big success. I don't I had a conversation with someone about that yesterday that sometimes it seems a little it's hard to get that support from those closest to you until they see like, yeah, you made it.

Speaker 2:

Well, right, because they equivalent. You know everyone's like oh, you have a job, you have a job title, you're here on the org chart, you make a, you know you get a paycheck and when you're doing. I feel like when we move into these much more creative fields where you it's not structured like that and the business grows and it evolves, and it starts with a business plan, but sometimes it evolves into something else. And you're like me and we're going to talk about this the woo-woo side of life right.

Speaker 2:

You're very into the woo-woo, which I love, yeah, but woo-woo is really scary for a lot of people that don't understand it, and I have the same thing in my family my family. You see the eyes glaze over. They are just like. I don't even want to talk about this. What do you mean? You manifested something. Go out and work hard and get a real job. Yeah, it's like, oh boy, it's tough, yeah. So my question for you around this subject is do you feel that you had to personally change in order to deal with this? Are you different now than you were before?

Speaker 1:

I am completely different. But that came before this started. That came with me saying, when COVID happened, I had a chance to really sit down and be like, okay, I'm not stuck in Southern California anymore, I can change my life, I can step out on my own now because if I'm not going to have to be on set, I can be anywhere. You know, at the time I was driving from San Diego to LA. For the days I was on set I was working from home when I wasn't, but when I was filming I was in LA and I was working East coast hours. It was a lot. I mean, you know you sacrifice so much to work in that industry, especially behind the scenes, sacrifice the time, and so it was kind of like this huge weight lifted off me, like I can go anywhere and I can do anything, and I always had this bug in me that I wanted to move and leave.

Speaker 1:

But you know, my parents were five minutes from my house. My sister was five minutes from my house. My cousins were five minutes from my house. My cousins were five minutes from my house. My grandparents were five minutes from my house. You know, I grew up with this family very close and we were all right there and I felt like I couldn't truly do what I wanted to do. Sometimes, you know, I couldn't Sure. Yeah, you just, you just go along, you want to make everyone happy. And so my husband and I had a long discussion and we're like we want a different life and we want a different life for our kids. And it wasn't about anyone else, it was about us. It's what we wanted. And so we moved across country from California to Tennessee, and with two littles I mean, hayden wasn't even one yet- Harper was.

Speaker 2:

They're 21 months apart. I can't do the math, I'm not a math person.

Speaker 1:

Three-ish yeah three-ish and we moved across the country and that's what opened up the space and freedom for me to step into this space. And I also had a mentor along that time which, oh my goodness, so valuable. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for her, sonia Choquette, look her up, everyone you like Lou, holy moly, she's like one of the top and and she like held my hand and baby, stepped my way into this. But even like you were saying, things evolve. When I started this, the show, I didn't want to come out, or not even the show.

Speaker 1:

When I started my company, I didn't want to come out and say I talked about spirituality. I was like we're going to talk about intentional living as intentional home. I mean, you're a designer, like what do we bring into our home? Creating an intentional home? Because I was like tiptoeing my way into this idea of talking about spirituality, even though I'd been studying it and working with different mentors for 10 years and I had already ghostwritten books about it, like I was already in it.

Speaker 1:

But I didn't want to like say, hey, here I am some weirdo and I think that's. You know, it is becoming more mainstream now and so you can kind of talk about it more. And even if you look at people in business, even the Oprah's of the world talk about how they manifest and things like that. So you know it is a little bit more okay. But it took about a year of like tiptoeing around it to finally come out and say okay, we're going to start this podcast, we're going to talk about this stuff. Spirituality is part of it, but it also covers a lot of other things and we can be normal and still be spiritual people.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, right, and it's not a bad word. We're not witches? Well, we are, we are, you're so good.

Speaker 1:

You got a tarot reading from one of my guests who says where would you sell? I did, I did.

Speaker 2:

I love her. Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 1:

Yes, tara Laurie.

Speaker 2:

Yes, she is so great. And last weekend I was going to go to there's a crystal store near me and I was going to go there I was like, okay, I need to get my own cards.

Speaker 1:

Like I need to start reading and figuring this out to start reading and figuring this out, and I know she's putting out a book about it.

Speaker 2:

I've read her Burn your Shit book, which is so great, but I know she's putting out a book about it and I know you read them too, and so I feel like, who am I if I'm not educated on this? So-.

Speaker 1:

I know, and I'm not even an expert on it, but every once in a while my husband's like can we pull some cards, Can? He has his own business and he loves if he's having a hard time trying to figure out which way to go or this or that. He's like we just pull some cards and we do it. I'm trying to normalize it with my kids. I'm not great at it, but it's fun. It's fun to practice and it's always on, it's always right on, it's crazy, which is so crazy.

Speaker 2:

Now, how do you transfer this down to your kids?

Speaker 1:

That has been a big thing for me is because they are so young I can start them young. And so a couple things have happened since we've moved and I lost my grandfather the April after we moved, about a year after we moved. He had a wonderful life, but he was one of my biggest cheerleaders and before he passed he said to me I'm glad, glad, courtney, to finally seeing you on screen and putting yourself out there. So that's kind of like you know. He knew I should have been doing this and he's been the person. Minute after he passed, they were talking about him.

Speaker 1:

Papa Hayden would stand up in his crib and go Papa, papa, papa, pointing in the room at night. And then one morning I was looking at a picture that one of my cousins had posted on Instagram of Papa and he was like 18 years old or something like nothing like that my kids had ever seen, and they go Papa, big Papa. And then my daughter started having like, like, like nightmares or things like that, and she was like it's okay, Big Papa keeps me safe because the little kids called him big Papa. Big Papa keeps me safe. He comes to me in my dreams with butterflies and tells me I'm going to be okay, she goes. He used to kind of scare me, but now he's my friend so I have conversations with him.

Speaker 2:

Whoa.

Speaker 1:

I know it's like it's freaky, but amazing, because kids are so connected and I think that is a huge thing. We shut it down, we don't believe them, we don't let them talk about it. So, instead of making it scary or there's a ghost, I'll literally talk to my one-year-old, my three-year-old about it and we'll sit down and be like, yes, big Papa's there and we'll talk about death appropriately, that we never leave. So we talk about the spirit. We talk about the spirit on the other side. I have books about mindfulness, I have little cards about it, so we do it where we can. We don't hide these conversations. We talk about our intuition and how you feel. I want to normalize it in my house so it's not shut off for my kids and that they can grow up following their intuition rather than suppressing it. So we just have open conversation, appropriate open conversation, but open conversation.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, of course, Right. Well, and it will get interesting as they get older and start to have older friends groups and what those friends are and who they attract. And I see it in my daughter. She has some very spiritual friends and I feel like she's attracted those people into her life because that is how she is. And I will tell a quick little story just because I don't like it to be about me, but this will give you some hope for the future.

Speaker 2:

So my daughter is 17 and she graduated from high school and moved to New York City and about a week before she was going to move, I just started to have this total emotional breakdown. She's an only child. It's been the two of us for years. Her entire life it's mostly been just the two of us. And I took that out on her and I was like, well, if you think you're moving in a week and you needed to do this and you needed to do that, and I'm going through my list and I'm sort of like yelling at her of all the things she needed to do and when are you going to do these things? You're not getting it done. And she looks at me with a straight face and she said Mom, please don't take your emotions and project them onto me as anger.

Speaker 2:

And I lost it. I was like, oh my goodness, who are you? Who are you? And it was the straight like. I literally burst into tears and she gives me this huge hug. But as a parent, it was such an important moment because we spend all this time parenting our kids and trying to do the right things and hoping that we're instilling some value and hoping that they are connecting with themselves emotionally and feel like they are empowered. And they have all these things. And you know, you, just, you go along and you keep trying to hope that some of your mindset work is instilling onto them and then to hear your 70-year-old daughter tell you that you are basically taking my emotions and projecting them as anger, I was like you are so correct. I am heartbroken that you are leaving. Let's have a moment, Isn't it?

Speaker 1:

funny when you get a dose of your own teachings from them, I mean.

Speaker 2:

You do, but it was such a powerful moment because I was like you know what this does work. I've made you a better human because I've taught you some of these really important lessons and really important ways to think about how you're feeling and your emotions and be honest and open about them so that you can handle situations differently. Because I think the earlier you start, the better off you are.

Speaker 1:

I agree. I wish all parents would take this approach. It's like anytime I can talk about kids and spirituality and just being in touch with themselves, like I'm not an expert. I literally was having a breakdown this morning. My kids are just at an age where they just want to scream and bite at each other and I'm just like, well, I'm going to ship you, put you on a plane and ship you back to California, please, you back to California, please.

Speaker 1:

You know it's a little hard to be spiritual in those moments, but you know, when you see these things come through them, my daughter all I keep hearing from her teachers, her dance teachers, her she's starting to go to birthday parties now, so her friends, parents and things like that you know is how kind she is and how thoughtful she is and how inclusive she is, and like I don't care what grade she gets if that's the person I'm raising. And then I think I'm like I must be doing something right. I must be raising an empathetic child that actually cares about other people. And so to me, I do what we can. They're young, we'll see what happens, but the younger we start them, the better off we'll be, I think Correct.

Speaker 2:

Correct, we will. I love that. So you're doing a great job. Let's talk about wellness. Oh my goodness, it's such a broad subject and we could talk about so many things, but to get us started, what do you do for yourself, for your wellness routine, for your mental health, your emotional health, your physical health? What are some of the things that you personally do that you found Because I know you do lots and we'll touch on a lot of it what do you do?

Speaker 1:

That's a loaded question. It's deceiving. You think I would do a lot. I don't think I do anything because and let me preface this I want to do so much and I want to step into the space of wellness and over the summer I had like a huge, huge health scare that, like they said, I have mass on my liver, a lesion in my kidney. I've been dealing with mono, I have celiac, I have gluten intolerance and I might have Hashimoto's, like literally that was my summer. It's like holy moly, like what more can you throw at me? So you would think I would stop down everything and just focus on wellness, and I didn't.

Speaker 1:

And the thing is I think we are fed so much, especially in the work that I do, the work that you do I feel like I'm drinking out of a fire hose a lot of the time. I have way too much information. I don't even know what to do with it. So now that I've got my kids both in preschool, I finally have started easing myself back into a wellness routine that I used to kind of have pre-kids, but those first five years, the last five years, have been all about them and I've neglected myself so much. So best thing I've done over that time is probably have conversations like this, open conversations, allowing dialogue and allowing these things to happen. Baths have always been my go-to a warm bath, it's like where I get a lot of ideas. It's where I decompress, I'm getting the jade rollers. I'm doing the things. I'm waking up now, going for walks. I used to do all the time with my dog. That was wonderful for me, just walking twice a day. We would do that. Kids stopped all that, literally. I let my kids be my excuse for not doing any of this Reading.

Speaker 1:

I'm trying to get back into reading. I think I've also gotten to the space of I deal with this. I work in the self-help space so much that I think I always have to be doing self-help and I've forgotten the joy I had for reading. So I'm putting the self-help books aside and I'm starting to bring in pleasure books, you know, and things like that. So it's literally kind of trying to remember what I used to love and stepping into those spaces again and I think that's a really good place to start is trying to remember what did you love, what brought you joy, what lit you up, and then kind of, okay, let's explore and do a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more of that, and so that has been my last couple of months and I will say it's working finally, so I love it.

Speaker 2:

I love your honesty about the fact that you haven't been doing the things that you were doing before because your kids became a priority. And I love the honesty of acknowledging that you know what. We're not perfect and you can't always be perfect all the time about all these things, but recognizing that now you're in a space in your life where you might have some more time because they will be gone some more. And I think your health scare probably, you know, is always a wake up call that we're only here once and we only have this one body. And what am I doing for myself, to make myself a priority? So I love the honesty. So thank you for the vulnerability and the honesty with that.

Speaker 1:

Of course. Well and I think you said something really big there is the priority aspect. Like if I wanted to truly make wellness a priority, I would have and I've had a hard, I've had to look really hard at that Like obviously this hasn't been a priority. Otherwise, the kids are an excuse, work is an excuse, we have all these excuses. But if it's a true priority, you're going to make time for it, and so it's kind of that mindset shift also. It's like okay, let's be honest and make it a priority, and if it's not okay, then set it aside. If it's not, that's okay too.

Speaker 2:

Right, yeah. Well, I also love that you talked about reading, because I'm a huge proponent of reading and, like you, I mean I have so many self-help books and business books too. Right, I mean, we're trying to run a business, but sometimes it is really nice to just read a beach book and just escape and give ourselves that and for me, it's not give yourself the critique of oh, you should be spending that time trying to advance all these other things and it's like no, there's value in just escaping for a little bit and that's okay, that's good, yeah, yeah. And you have a lot of books you have. On your website you have a list of books that I went through, of guests of yours who recommended books, and I always ask everyone to recommend a book too, and I was like, wow, there are lots of good ones on there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, the thing is also, when we read, I think we forget and I have to take my clients through that as a ghostwriter. A lot of the times they come to me and they want to write this book and they want to change the world with it, which is a lofty, amazing goal. I think most of us yourself included when we write a book, we want to impact people, but I think we forget sometimes that when we read a book, it doesn't have to be just like a 12-step self-help to change the world. Some of the books that have changed my life are the books I read as a child Anne of Green Gables, laura Ingalls Wilder, little House on the Prairie all the books I read in my 20s about, you know, ann Bolin.

Speaker 1:

You know these are powerful women that stepped in and did something that was out of the norm. You know you could take lessons from any kind of book. One of my very favorite books, the Night Circus, is like total fantasy, but there's so much truth in it and if you are a spiritual person, the more you look into the arts, you will see the truth of the universe or your truth or all these little tidbits come through. So it doesn't have to be like change your life by doing this, this, this, this, this. Sometimes just getting lost in a story can change your life just as much, and so I think we have to give ourselves grace that fun beach read might actually impact us just as much as that.

Speaker 2:

You know how to get rich, and whatever book you know Right, yes, exactly, yep, yeah, and it's just about taking time, it's taking a pause and having giving your brain a chance to do something different Other than talk, to be honest, other than talk, all right, so I would love if we could talk about some of the woo-woo stuff, because you have so many incredible guests on your show. So, first of all, how do you pick who's going to come on and what woo-woo subject they're going to talk about? How do you decide? Because there is a lot, there is so much out there. There are crystals and healers and tarot card readers and intuitives, and I feel like I've done them all. How do you decide?

Speaker 1:

You follow your gut, you follow your intuition, you see where it leads you. I will say, before my break I found myself falling into the hole of just like work, work, work. I was in the vortex Just got to get this done. I wasn't listening to my intuition and some of the conversations I was having were very like one note. They were very keynote speaker, very like stay on message. And I you know, you know me, I like this intuitive conversations, I'd like to let things flow and so I've kind of like, okay, we need to get back to like discernment here and understanding what feels right and what feels in alignment. And I think it's really about that. Like you get that feeling. You can't explain it, you just know you're drawn to someone and that's kind of where I go and those are the best conversations we have. Usually it's just like you're on the same wavelength and frequency. So I really just that's where I really follow my gut and my intuition and really lean into how guided we all are Right because you're very in tune and you're paying attention.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I say that all the time to people. One of the biggest things is you have to, in spirituality and in creating all of this and manifesting is you have to be willing to pay attention and stop the rabbit race which I feel like. Corporate America, for you and for me, prevented that from happening because there wasn't any space to be paying attention to anything. You're just running all the time, just trying to survive and keep your head above water, and then you don't stop to listen. And when you stop to listen and pay attention, sometimes it's amazing. What will get served in front of you? Well, and what will get served in?

Speaker 1:

front of you, well, and what will get served in front of you and who will come along your path. Some of my best friends now aren't people I even have met in person. They're people like you that I've just hit it off with from being on the show and it's taking those cues. When something falls in your lap, it's not coincidence, it's not chance. These are messages. These are things that are leading you on your path. I don't believe in coincidences anymore. I believe we are being led and guided a hundred percent of the time and it's how we choose to see these little droppings along our way.

Speaker 1:

Even when I found had my health scare, one of my guests, alison Canavan, she literally texted me the day that I found out the information about something totally different and I had a breakdown to her. She was one of my biggest cheerleaders and helpers throughout the whole time. She's someone I met on the podcast. We just hit it off. We've been friends now. You know it's just one of those things you never know when these people are being put into your life, why they're being put into your life and how long they're going to be in your life. You know, but that's what the podcast has done. You just let these people fall into your place. You were pitched to me and I was just like yes, yes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like I just I look at it and I I barely even look at the people, I barely barely even research them. I go with my gut. Is this a yes or no? My first thought, that's I go with my gut. Is this a yes or no? My first thought, that's where I go.

Speaker 2:

Which is so powerful that you do that because you trust yourself, which is another thing that so many women struggle with is trusting themselves. So many of the risks and changes you've made that you've talked about here is because you trusted yourself, but you also trusted a higher power whatever you want to call that power that you will be okay and that is very powerful. Not everybody has that gift to do.

Speaker 1:

It's hard, it's not easy and it's scary.

Speaker 2:

So do you mind? Let's talk about your health scare for a little bit, if you don't mind talking about it at whatever level you want to talk about it, because I think your health scare is a perfect example of life can change at any moment, at any time, and your approach to that and your approach to evaluating what the doctor saw and found I think is really powerful. So if you wouldn't mind sharing that a little bit, I would appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

Well, yeah, I was just open to everything the minute I got the answers. My husband and I were very proactive. I was going to get the best of whatever I could in my area to deal with whatever was wrong with me. I get the call first thing in the morning when they say they're not going to call you back till later in the evening, type of thing, and it's like it's kind of one of those calls sit down and I've been sick. You know it's scary. I'm sitting there with my kids.

Speaker 1:

In the middle of summer I had been sick for a week or two. At that point we had just gotten back from vacation. I was kind of chalking up the way I was feeling to the fact that I had just been traveling. We had been seeing family for 10 days. We'd been on and off planes early hours, traveling with two toddlers, and we're living, you know, not in normal living conditions. I was just exhausted and by the end of our vacation, you know, my body started kind of swelling up. I had to end up. I ended up getting my wedding ring cut off because my finger was turning purple. I was that swollen and so I but I'm not a person that goes to doctors. I'm like I'll be fine, I'll be fine, I'll be fine.

Speaker 1:

And about a couple of days into having a 102 temperature, my husband's like we're going to the doctor and he dragged me to just urgent care. I'm so bad about my health, I don't even have a GP and he dragged me to urgent care. And they you know, they went down this laundry list of things it could be. I've been traveling. Maybe I have hepatitis C. I was like what? Maybe I have an autoimmune issue. You know like I don't know. So they're just running tests left and right and then the calls start coming in Okay, we're nervous about this. We're worried about this. Your enzymes in your liver are too high. It looks like you've had mono, but this is something else. Your white blood cell count is high. We need to run more tests. It's the weekend. We're going to send you in for an ultrasound because we need to look at what's going on. So I get to the ultrasound Scary, totally different from when you're having your kids and you get to go hear a heartbeat. It's like what are you going?

Speaker 2:

to find in here and they stop a little extra time. You're like why are you stopping? Why are you stopping? Can you turn this?

Speaker 1:

way we got to get a better look. I'm like, oh God, what's happening? And they're like, yeah, we'll read this today, but your doctors might person might not call you back for a couple of days. It could take them a long time and literally the next morning they called and they're like you have an 8.6 centimeter mass on your liver and you have a three centimeter lesion on your kidney. And I just start bawling. It was just like the first thought. We go to that negative you know the negative thought I have cancer and I'm going to die, like that's a, that's a huge mass, that's like a size of a peach, that's not just like a little. Well, there's a little blip on there. There's like wow. And so they're like we need to get you to a liver specialist. We're scheduling the MRI, we're going to get that all taken care of. And in the meantime, my husband and I are on the phone. He just stops his day. Put the kids in front of the TV system is not easy always to get right in.

Speaker 1:

Luckily, I had angels on my side and we got into such a wonderful doctor, a liver specialist, and we went through every scenario in our head leading up to this and I was struggling with this idea If I have cancer, they're going to prescribe radiation, they're going to tell me I need chemo. They're going to do all these things and I had come back from my trip thinking I want to clean up my life, I want to go on an anti-inflammatory diet, I want to get rid of the toxins in my life. I want to get off the pill. I want to get off my Sertraline, my very low-dose anti-anxiety medicine. I don't think we are built to continue to put foreign substances and chemicals into our body. There has to be a better way. I've been on these for too long. It's time to like, regulate and get back to my natural self, and so I already had that in mind. Now, faced with this, I'm like now I'm going to go put like poison in my body.

Speaker 1:

Poison, and so I was very much struggling with that. And I walked into this doctor's office and he was amazing. It wasn't like a 15 minute in and out appointment where people you know the doctors just run in. They let the nurses do the talking. He spent an hour with me and my husband going over everything, assuring me I was going to be okay. This is after the MRI which I had a freaking panic attack in because you know the nurse and the tech they're walking me back there and making small talk and being so polite, but of course the whole time they're talking about my kids and then they put you in an MRI machine and if you've ever had an MRI, it's very confining and you have to breathe at certain points and it's like a 45 minute process and I had a panic attack. I had to have them pull me out actually in it, because all I could do was think about my kids and I just started bawling. But I made it through and this doctor was like it's benign, You're okay. So let's talk about the other stuff.

Speaker 1:

And so I had to go to a urologist to find out about my kidney, which I have a pseudotumor. You have columns of Burton in your kidney, between these little triangles and mine, was enlarged, and it's actually quite common. They used to operate thinking it was a tumor In the past. Imaging has gotten so much better. Now they don't do that, and so I found out that I have just an enlarged column of burden in my kidney. And so, those two things aside, the blood work came in.

Speaker 1:

We started doing some more tests and turns out, you know, I have gluten intolerance, lactose intolerance, possibly Hashimoto's, and that was huge for me to find that out, because it's like, oh yeah, I've been living this way, my body feels like shit all the time, and then I just thought that was normal.

Speaker 1:

Now that I've taken gluten out of my diet and I've limited dairy and I'm working on that stuff, I'm realizing how good I actually feel. And if I have something that I didn't realize had gluten in it, I know within an hour like, oh, that wasn't good for me. So that was huge. But even going through all the Western medicine, I was like there has to be another way and I called on all my spiritual counselors and friends and people I've met along the way and, like I said, Allie Canavan, who helped me. She introduced me to a Delta healer. And this guy is amazing. He's like 90 years old, he's in India and we've spoken at like weird hours over the phone and he did an energy scan on me without knowing anything. So this is where we get a little woo.

Speaker 2:

No, but I love.

Speaker 1:

I know this is the stuff. So this is kind of almost like a mission of mine. Something I want to do is like okay, how do we combine the woo and the medical, like the Western medicine, and like show that we can spiritually fix ourselves as opposed to just depending on Western medicine? And so it's kind of like a mission. I cannot wait for my next follow-up, because I have follow-up appointments now. I have an MRI coming up again to see where we are now that we have a baseline, and I'm like I can't wait to shrink this mass, like I can do this, like my mind can do this, like it's so cool.

Speaker 2:

It can. There's so much proof about it, so much proof. So talk to me about the Delta. What is a Delta healer? What? Is a Delta healer? Do you even know?

Speaker 1:

No, totally.

Speaker 2:

So, dr Rishira, I mean it's like an episode of Eat.

Speaker 1:

Pray Love. I felt like.

Speaker 2:

I was going to do that. Yes, I know I love that. I'm like I want to do, I want to do.

Speaker 1:

I know he lives in like Ponte Cherry, india or something I'm like let's fly down and see him. He has open hours, you could just go see him at any time and he'll heal everything. But he had a picture of me and picture of my face and my name and he did a scan and he told me that I had a benign mass on my liver. He told me that I had cancer in my kidney. He said this was in my left kidney. Now the doctors have only been focused on my right kidney. And he told he's the one that said I have Hashimoto's, which I have been fighting doctors for years since my 20s, for 20 years, asking them to look at my thyroid and I think I have a thyroid issue. But they've always laughed me away, said I was in, said I was vain. When I was pregnant with my son, they did an ultrasound. They're like, yeah, it's a little enlarged, it's okay Like this, like I've been pushing for someone to deal with my. My intuition's telling me there's something wrong with my thyroid, but everyone pushes me off. This doctor says I have Hashimoto's and I believe him. And so I have another holistic wellness doctor who's going to be doing some more tests for me now that I found. But yeah, he did a scan and he like we were talking at 11 o'clock at night our time, it's like nine in the morning his time and he's just like, but I can remove it all. This is a very complicated case, but we can do it. And so he literally will have a conversation with you and it's just like poof, it's gone. It's like that simple.

Speaker 1:

Now this guy used to run hospitals in America and Canada. Like he's like a trained, he's a trained doctor, like when it's like Cambridge or something like ridiculous, like super smart, and he realized energy healing it's like quantum healing, but it's one level above. So it's not like performing miracles like he's God, but it's like on an energy scale, like one level underneath that. So he sees what's going on and he can just like kind of pluck it out of your system, remove it. So I say, what does it hurt to let him heal me and the other thing, and let's see if I do that healing with him. Let's see what happens when I go back from ramaray and see if it like shrinks.

Speaker 2:

I'm excited, actually, weirdly no, but it's so cool and I think for people like us that believe in the power that your body can heal itself, like, yeah, it really can. Your body is capable of doing things that we don't give ourselves credit for, and there isn't enough focus on that In the medicine society around here, it's oh you have this, let me give you a pill, as opposed to oh you have this, let's have you start eating differently, or let's give you a special tea, or you need you know different things that you can start doing, even in your environment. Let's look at the toxins in your environment. We don't give that enough weight, but I think there are so many incredible cases and stories and I'm so excited for yours to be another one of them where it really does work, thinking about how can you cure yourself.

Speaker 1:

You know why they don't let you cure yourself or you let your body heal itself is because it's free, it doesn't cost anything, it doesn't make them money. We're in a pill-popping society. We live with legal drug dealers. I have another story about that. I broke my foot a couple summers ago and it was on the verge of needing surgery. The doctor was like but let's put you in a boot and let's see what happens. At the time I was doing Plant Paradox, dr Gundry's anti-inflammatory diet, and I went back after six weeks to kind of see what was going on. The doctor she was the head of surgery at this school and of this program in San Diego, like a very high level surgeon, and she looked at it and she goes I've never in my life seen something heal so well. It's because of the inflammation and what I was doing to my body.

Speaker 1:

Even now I'm working with another quantum healer who does like Joe Dispenza type work. It's my cousin-in-law and he does that stuff and he's just like it's all in your mind. If you don't believe it, you don't have it. And that might seem a little layman's, you know, that might be a little simplistic, but there is so much power in us creating our reality, our own reality, and I think if we can take a little bit more ownership, we can heal ourselves. Now, I'm not a medical expert. Definitely seek out medical advice from where you feel comfortable, but you know, I'm experiencing it and it's fascinating.

Speaker 2:

Also, you talk about your diagnosis of some of the things with the celiac and the lactose. It's like okay, if you have this mindset that like, oh wow, all right, these doctors are great, they found some of the things that have been causing me all of these problems. Now what can I do outside of that and with that diagnosis to figure out a more holistic way to make myself feel better? Yeah, how do you find holistic healers?

Speaker 1:

So, for someone who's listening to this and has never touched holistic healing at all, Well, dr Rishira was referred to me from my friend Allison and I didn't actually know about Delta Healing. I knew about other type of energetic healings but I hadn't heard about that before. My quantum healer he is family but you can find them everywhere. You have to once again listen to your intuition and find some discernment and see who works for you. I love the work of Dr Amen and Dave Asprey. You know those guys, you know. But you will find people along the lines like that. Work with them. My holistic healer, dr Brooke Stewart, who I'm working with, she's been on my show. We're going to do some work together and then I'm going to bring her back on so we could talk about, like, my progression. She's in a mastermind with Dr Mark Hyman, so there's like the leading experts in there and then they all have their offshoots and the information is so readily available to us. It's what you want to believe. I mean, it's really hard, there's so much, but I once again I just say you know, get a good referral, find someone you trust who has a show like yours or mine, and we talk about this stuff and then start to dig into those people and find the ones that will really take the time to listen to you and not just say this is it because it's so individualized? All that we're going through? The tests are only going to show one thing I have a slew.

Speaker 1:

I've been actually working on a referral for like a referral page on my website because I talked to, spoken with so many experts that are really, really, really good at helping us get to the bottom of things. I mean root cause healing is passion of mine. Samantha Lotus is another one that's been on my show, who I love, and she does everything from root cause. If you're not losing weight, let's not look at the weight only. Let's look at the other reasons behind it If you're sick. Here there's so many different things that are connected that we don't think about, and so it's just really taking your health into your own hands and becoming the CEO of your own health That'll change your life. It really will. I'm just learning, but I'm still a patient.

Speaker 2:

I'm still learning this, but I'm learning how to dive into it too, and how to make yourself a priority and make your health a priority for you, so that you're putting the time and the effort into listening to the podcast, reading these people's books, reaching out, getting more information. It does take some work, it doesn't get handed to you, but that's okay. Yeah, oh, and Mark Hyman is a good one.

Speaker 1:

Oh, mark Hyman yeah, and I know I feel like I'm just name dropping all these people, but like, if anyone's interested in stuff like follow these people, aguilal is like amazing and biohacking for women, because so much of what is being told out there or said about medical issues or how we should optimize our bodies and systems are things focused towards men. It's not really focused on women and we are so different, our biology is so different, and she's biohacking. She's gearing everything towards women. So it's really, really cool to see and I mean a lot of these people I haven't spoken to. I would love to, but their work is so inspiring.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so inspiring. Well, I will list. I'm going to list all of these in the notes of the show notes so that people have like a really easy resource list of different places in addition to your website. Two last questions for you. One did you go to an intuitive after you got your diagnosis to see what they had to say? I'm just curious.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I call my mentor, my psychic, on speed dial. Yeah, she's, you know, sonia's one of the foremost leading intuitive guides psychics in the world. She's 30 plus odd bestselling books with Hay House. I mean, she's been mentoring and doing readings like this forever for God, I don't know how many, however many years. She was one of the very first people I texted and talked to her and we were talking through the whole thing. So she told me I was going to be okay, which gave me, calmed me a little bit.

Speaker 1:

But that's the one thing too. It's like I knew in my heart I was going to be okay, I knew it, I felt it, but everything in my mind kept saying be scared, be scared, be scared. And so I was really struggling with this. I need to be scared, I'm going to be okay, but I should be scared. But, yeah, I did go into it and into it, and that's why she prompted me to send the email which I know you received from me about taking a pause and hopes and prayers and thoughts and prayers. She was the one that really guided me and pushed me to do that, because that was very outside of my comfort zone is to ask people in my community to think about me, because it's like you don't always want to share these things. You keep your personal life personal sometimes, but sometimes we need to let the outside in, so yeah, I definitely did, because then you get help that you would have never necessarily gotten yes.

Speaker 2:

Because not only do you get positive vibes and prayers for you, but people, I am sure, reached out offering their services, offering their help, offering their experiences, offering a dinner, whatever a time to talk, whatever it is when you are willing to be vulnerable and open yourself up, then you allow the universe the chance to provide for you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and then you feel a little silly afterwards for sending that email and causing alarm and everyone being so concerned, I'm like, but I'm okay. And now I'm like, ugh, I shouldn't have said that. We're like, no, no, it's okay.

Speaker 2:

It's okay. It is okay. Everyone's happy to hear I'm good. Yeah, absolutely. That's the best outcome you could imagine. That's wonderful, yes.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I love it. What's on your bucket list for the future? I think on my bucket list is really to get intentional media up and running for its full force, and that's I invite anyone to pitch me ideas. That's creating documentaries, that's writing more books, helping other people get their books out, publish you know, taking all of my media experience and creating that platform so that I don't want to call it free speech because I don't want to make it political but like true, honest ideas can come out into the world that aren't fueled by money.

Speaker 1:

And yes, do we want to make money? And of course we want to make money, but if we're being honest and we're being open and we're bringing our messages to the world and we're connecting, the money will follow. So it's like I just hate this like skewed system we're in right now that just dictates what we can hear and what we can't hear. And I think it's so important to allow real voices and real conversation to happen so that everyone can make their own decisions about life in general or find the inspiration they need, or whatever that may be, to stop the clickiness and to allow, you know, a real community to evolve. So that's kind of my big bucket list, right?

Speaker 1:

now aside from doing some house projects which maybe you can help me with.

Speaker 2:

And being so happy that your kids are preschool, so you get a few hours a day without them.

Speaker 2:

After the long summer you're like, oh my goodness, it can't be time to pick you up already. Really, I know it goes by fast, it does, it does All right. One last question, then I have to let you go, because I've taken so much of your time. So I always ask my guests to recommend a book that has changed their life or their career or that they think is impactful, and you've mentioned so many different resources, so I will put all those. But is there a book that you think that's special, that you think everyone is a must read?

Speaker 1:

I think I would recommend out of everything especially if you're interested even in the slightest of going down that spiritual path or learning about your intuition is Ask your Guides. It's by Sonia Choquette, my mentor. It was one of the very first books that I picked up on the subject. That changed my life. Now I've read it multiple times, I've listened to it. I actually like to listen to it in audio because her voice there's something different about listening to her speak about it. It has really given me that foundation that no, we are here, we're being supported and we're not alone. Like we have spiritual help. We have help every step of the way, even if we feel like we don't, it's there. So that one really, and it changed, like literally some of the things that she tells you to do, I ask for my parking gods to help me all the time and I literally I have a coworker I used to work with in LA and we'd go to lunch in this place.

Speaker 1:

It was horrible to get parking and he's like you're driving. He said I had to drive every time because I always had my parking gods following us around. We'd get like a front row spot every single without fail, so I asked them to come in. So that book, that book will give you the foundation for intuitive living, for sure.

Speaker 2:

Anything she writes at that one. Yes, perfect recommendation. I will link it in the show notes and I have, I have it. I haven't read all of it, but now I love that you mentioned the audio version of it because I will go and download it and listen to it when I walk, because I do love to listen to those types of things when I walk. I find being out in nature and listening to people talk about nature and life and spirituality is makes me feel so alive when I come back and just and I get my steps in, it's great, I know and follow it up with trust, your vibes right after it, like in her voice.

Speaker 1:

It's something like she programs it with her voice. It'll. It'll change your life, oh I promise you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much. I am so grateful for you being on the show. You are a wealth of knowledge. Everyone you must follow Courtney and follow her podcast, help her grow her incredible intentional living platform. And you are just so inspiring. And congratulations on the positive health news. I am 100% confident that you will just kick this and you will be great. So thank you so much for your time. It's been an honor.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much, jean, it's been so exciting honor.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much, Jean. It's been so exciting. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the House of Jermar podcast, where wellness starts within. We appreciate you being a part of our community and hope you felt inspired and motivated by our guest. If you enjoyed this episode, please write us a review and share it with friends. Building our reach on YouTube and Apple Podcasts will help us get closer to our mission to empower 1 million women to live all in. You can also follow us on Instagram at House of Jermar and sign up to be a part of our monthly inspiration newsletter through our website, houseofjermarcom. If you or someone you know would be a good guest on the show, please reach out to us at podcast at houseofgermarcom. This has been a House of Germar production with your host, Jean Collins. Thank you for joining our house.