House of JerMar

Psychedelic Journeys

• Jeanne Collins • Season 1 • Episode 35

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Imagine unlocking the secrets to personal transformation with the guidance of a seasoned life coach and psychology practitioner. Niki Wells joins us to share her extraordinary path to becoming a leading figure in psychedelic guiding and journey work. Through her work with psilocybin mushrooms, Niki helps individuals transcend the ego and form a deeper connection with their higher selves and the universe, fostering profound life changes. This episode reveals how psilocybin can break old habits and build new neural pathways, setting the stage for healthier lifestyles and mindsets.

Niki opens up about the critical aspect of integrating insights gained during transformative journeys into everyday life. She shares compelling stories of clients who have made meaningful changes by embracing simple, yet profound, realizations. From the practice of daily mantras to integrating soulful practices amidst the responsibilities of motherhood, Niki's experiences illustrate the powerful blend of spirituality and practicality in her work. 

We also explore Nikki's aspirations for hosting retreats in Mexico, combining personal growth with the allure of travel. UPDATE: The Mexico retreat she mentions for the Spring has been postponed to the Fall. You can connect with her via her email below to learn more about having a journey in the US in the meantime, so you do not need to wait.

Niki's book recommendations:

A New Earth and the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle 

The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

More about Niki:

About Niki Wells
Certified Life Coach \| Positive Psychology Practitioner \| Psychedelic Guide
 
Niki Wells is a transformational leader who helps individuals unlock their potential and align with their purpose. Combining certifications in life coaching, applied positive psychology, and psychedelic guidance, Niki facilitates profound breakthroughs through workshops, retreats, and coaching. Known for her intuitive approach and commitment to growth, she empowers others to create lasting, meaningful change.
 
 Connect with Niki:
 🌐 www.nikiwells.com
 📸 IG: @nikiwells__
 📧 Email: nicolewellsintl@gmail.com

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:

The work that I do is specifically with psilocybin mushrooms, so that's psychedelic or plant medicine work, but we're talking about creating transcendent experiences, right, and it sounds like that's what you had.

Speaker 1:

We're taking ourselves out of our normal state of operation and connecting, kind of removing the veil, and removing the veil of the mind, of the ego, as we dissolve that veil and we can connect to our higher self. You know, if you believe that we are, you know, fully human, fully divine, we are mind, body, spirit, right, we're not just our mind and our body, but there's also this spiritual aspect and there is, you know, in my perspective, a thing greater than us. I call that thing God, other people call it the universe or source or spirit, and other people have very, even more specific, you know, ways of connecting with that. But that thing that is greater than us, it is, it exists and it is part of us. And going on these journeys allows us to remember and to reconnect with the truth of who we really are at our core that mind, body, spirit connection, and it's so easy in our day-to-day life to get disconnected from that.

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 1 million women to live all in. I am your host, jean Collins, and I invite you to become inspired by this week's guest. Invite you to become inspired by this week's guest.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the House of Germart podcast, where wellness starts within. I'm your host, jean Collins, and today we are kicking it off with something really exciting. We have Nikki Wells here and I am so excited to talk to her. How many of you have ever heard of psychedelic guiding and journey work? Oh my goodness. So Nikki is a life coach. She's also a psychology practitioner, but she specializes in psychedelic guiding and journey work. Oh my goodness. So Nikki is a life coach. She's also a psychology practitioner, but she specializes in psychedelic journey work, which, up until recently, I had no idea what a journey even was. So I am so excited to have her on the show. Her energy is amazing. I follow her on Instagram. You have to follow her. Her story is really cool and the work and transformation she does is so exciting and I can't wait to share her with you. So, nikki, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1:

Oh, thanks for having me, Jean. I'm so excited. What an intro.

Speaker 2:

It's so great to have you and we are recording this at the beginning of January, so I feel like this is just. This aligns so well with the things that I'm talking about for January and just trying to get people to be educated on different things, and it'll come out a little bit later, but the fact that we're talking the beginning of January for me feels really good. The times have changed, right. Yes, the time of change and evolution and growth.

Speaker 1:

How do we make it happen?

Speaker 2:

How do we make it happen? Yeah, so where are you located?

Speaker 1:

first of all, I am in Chester County, pennsylvania, which is outside of Philadelphia. Okay, for the time being.

Speaker 2:

Right, and you spend a bunch of time in Mexico as well.

Speaker 1:

I do, yeah, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, kind of in the Puerto Vallarta area, sayulita. I used to live there and I'm heading back for some time here, and in my ideal world I would split. I would be half the time here and half the time there. So we'll see. Ooh, I like that.

Speaker 2:

I like that. We'll talk a bunch about Mexico because this is going to come out, you're doing an event in Mexico and we're going to make sure we talk all about that, because that is very cool. So I love to share my guest journeys because a lot of us don't wake up one day and say, yeah, I want to share the stories of my guests and how did you get to be where you are today?

Speaker 1:

So if you wouldn't mind give us a little background about how you got to where you are today, I like to go way back and when I was in, let's say, 2006 or 2007, probably 2007, I was a sophomore in university at Penn State and I took a class it was like an eco-biology class, but really it was just consciousness studies and this class completely opened my eyes to an entirely different world than what I had thought life and the world was all about, and it really, I think, changed the I don't think it did change the trajectory of my life, and so from that point on, I started to get into studying holistic healing and wellness and alternative consciousness ideas and all these kinds of things. And so since then, this has been my path and I've had many twists and turns along the path In I guess what was that? 2016, I did my first life coach and health coach training program and that was really when I found coaching. I was like, wow, this as a modality is and I know you know this right it's life changing, the tool of coaching and I. So I started working with people and specifically in mindset, and I've always had a very much of an interest and passion in the workings of our mind, like how does, how do we be, who we are right and how, understanding.

Speaker 1:

When I understood, through the sort of consciousness studies that I was doing that and spirituality studies, that we can change the life that we're experiencing through our mind right and through the thoughts that we're thinking and the subsequent actions that we're taking, it changed everything for me. It really, really did, and so I started doing mindset coaching with people and working with a lot of entrepreneurs and other coaches. I co-founded a coach training program. I've trained over 500 coaches. It was called the Cannabis Coaching Institute. So love that.

Speaker 1:

Yes, my business partner at the time. She had a really popular cannabis blog called Wake and Bake. It's still going on, you can check it out and we came together and started teaching people how to help people get healthier using cannabis. And so my role in that school was training and teaching, coaching and teaching mindset and anyway, along the journey, along the pathway we go, I had a personal.

Speaker 1:

I started using exploring psychedelics and different psychedelics and plant medicines, probably from that time in 2007, when I took the class onward and I had a journey on mushrooms, on magic mushrooms psilocybin in 2019. And the journey the mushrooms very clearly gave me the message of you need to go back to Mexico, you need to go to Oaxaca and you need to start working with the mushrooms in your work, and so that was really. From that point on, I connected with some teachers and started learning how to facilitate and work with these mushrooms, and combining the tool of what a journey is, what we can talk about, of course, with transformational coaching. I was like this is the thing for me, this is amazing. And so here we are.

Speaker 2:

So that is such a unique combination that you are combining not only coaching with journey work with the psychedelics. So, before we go too far, what is a journey Like? Let's go back to a little basics, because I have to admit I did not know what a journey was until I went on one back in October for the first time and it was transformational.

Speaker 1:

So and I see the word journey- what kind of journey did you go on?

Speaker 2:

I went on a breathwork journey and it was like I saw my younger self. It was. I was blown away by. I saw my higher self. I saw my younger self. Things became so clear to what was blocking me in that journey and I had no idea what to expect. I mean really none Like I went in the complete naive person. I had no idea what to expect. I mean really none Like I went in the complete naive person who has no idea what I'm doing, and it was truly transformational. And I see on Instagram people talk about journeys all the time. So what is a journey and, in particular, what is a journey like?

Speaker 1:

with you. That's a great differentiator there, because I mean a journey in general, right, when we say, when we talk about doing journey work, like you were on a breathwork journey, the work that I do is specifically with psilocybin mushrooms, so that's psychedelic or plant medicine work, but we're talking about creating transcendent experiences, right, and it sounds like that's what you had. We're taking ourselves out of our normal state of operation and connecting, kind of removing the veil and removing the veil of the mind, of the ego, as we dissolve that veil and we can connect to our higher self. If you believe that we are fully human, fully divine, we are mind, body, spirit right, we're not just our mind and our body, but there's also this spiritual aspect and there is, you know, in my perspective, a greater a thing, greater than us. I call that thing God, other people call it the universe, or source or spirit, and other people have very, even more specific, you know, ways of connecting with that. But that thing that is greater than us, it is, it exists and it is part of us.

Speaker 1:

And going on these journeys allows us to remember and to reconnect with the truth of who we really are at our core that mind, body, spirit connection and it's so easy in our day-to-day life to get disconnected from that. And when we're disconnected from the truth of who we really are, it's very hard to live authentically, right? And that's where we get into those states of questioning everything and feeling stuck and feeling in doubt and feeling like things aren't flowing, and living with a lack of trust. So, journey work when we talk about journey work, that's what we mean, and then we can get specific. Are you doing a breathwork journey? Are you doing a plant medicine journey? Are you doing a meditation? People who do Vipassanas and go and meditate for 10 days? That's a type of journey, right. So think of journey work. Whatever you connect with, it is taking yourself.

Speaker 1:

And we can also draw the relation to the hero's journey. I think that's a construct, an archetypal construct, that people can really connect with. We've heard of the hero's journey. It's documented across all of histories, right? That is the transcendent human experience that we are all meant to go on. So, getting specific with what I do experience that we are all meant to go on. So getting specific with what I do, I work with psilocybin, which is magic mushrooms. Most people have heard of magic mushrooms before, and so psilocybin is the compound in certain mushrooms that creates that psychedelic experience. It helps you create that transcendent experience, and so I take people on mushroom journeys, plant medicine journeys and we work through. I have a very specific process of, like we already mentioned, working with bringing in the tool of coaching. So journey work and psilocybin journey work. I could like nerd out and go into some things here.

Speaker 2:

No, I love it. Oh, I love it though, but I think it's so cool, it's fascinating.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I got to like organize my thoughts. Working with psilocybin is an incredible and going on that kind of a journey takes you to a. It has the potential to take you and to connect you to parts of yourself that you've never been connected to before and to connect you to that. You know, I've met God in my journeys and it's life changing. And when we combine that with the tool of transformational coaching, we're talking about changing your entire life. You have the potential we already have the potential to change our entire life just through changing our habits of thought and behavior. Psilocybin and doing this mushroom journey work basically gives you this 10x, 100x opportunity to really change, because not only is there the spiritual aspect that I've just spoken to, but there's also a component of how psilocybin works in the brain.

Speaker 1:

Psilocybin has a neuroplastic effect. It creates new neural pathways in the brain. What are neural pathways? Neural pathways are all the connectivity that makes you who you are, all the thoughts that you think on repeat, the habits that you take on repeat, which 95 to 98% of our life experience is subconscious operation. So it's habitual operation. They're all pathways and they're well-worn pathways. If you can think of, you know you're at a ski slope and a bazillion people have gone down the same and it's super packed down and it's pretty icy and it's just kind of like you just go right there's no effort there, you just do it, you just do it.

Speaker 1:

You just pizza down Right, and so there's a well-worn pathways Psilocybin. When you go on a psilocybin journey and you activate this new potentiality for new pathways, psilocybin repairs the brain, repairs neural networks, creates new pathways. And what those new neural pathways are? The most simple and direct way that I can explain that is it's potential. It's opportunity for you to begin to break out of those old habits that have been keeping you stuck and create something new. Now, of course, you can break out of those old habits. The brain works with repetition, so you can, you know. Let's just take the New Year's example of everyone going to the gym right and starting your new, your fitness routine right. You and every year, by like two weeks into January, most people fall off of their fitness routine right, and so that's because they have a current existing pathway that is very well-worn, that does not go to the gym.

Speaker 2:

That version of you does not go to the gym. Doesn't like the gym?

Speaker 1:

yes, the pathway is like no, we don't go to the gym, that's not who we are right. And if you were to push up against that and you were to stick with your routine no matter what, and you do that for 75 days, you create a new pathway. And now the old pathway, which is we don't go to the gym, is no longer the one. And now you're operating on the pathway of I do go to the gym. So you can create change with repetition. But when you do the journey work, you get this opportunity because all this activity happens in the brain and now you get to decide okay, what do I like, where am I going in my life? If I was to be unstuck, where would I be? Okay, that's where I want to go, great. So now I have to take the actions and think the thoughts that take me there and, having done the journey, you you've just got this like leg up and supporting getting you there.

Speaker 2:

Right, Do most people who come to you? Are they feeling stuck and they're looking for help to get unstuck, but they don't know exactly what that is.

Speaker 1:

I would say yes, and I would say so. If you look at research, they do research on very specific things, like they're doing research on using psilocybin to treat anxiety and depression and PTSD Mostly anxiety and depression is what we have the most research on right now. So certainly like opportunity to, if you're someone who is struggling with depression or struggling with anxiety, to do journey work, to do work with psilocybin mushrooms and see if that helps to create change for you. We see in studies results of like one year after the journey, even 80% of improvement in those symptoms. So it's pretty significant. It's more significant. There was a study that just came out that it's more effective than taking antidepressants. So we have that sort of category of people. And then we have the category of people who are just sort of generally feeling very stuck in their life, feeling like they need a change. They don't know what that change is. Um, they feel like on the precipice of something and they come to do journey work and to help maybe find out what that might be.

Speaker 2:

Right, sure, okay. Basic question Are people awake during journey work? No, basic question.

Speaker 1:

Are people awake during journey work? Oh, great question. Let me tell you how it goes right. So we're people, you know, and I think with psychedelics, you know, there's sort of been a bad rap. People hear about bad trips and there's all this sort of like negative propaganda that really is kind of unfounded. Yes, do people have bad trips sometimes? Yes, and I'll tell you what that's about. But basically when you I journey people in a sort of combination of ceremony and therapeutic styles. So this means that we're lying down in, um, not we.

Speaker 2:

I'm not lying with you in um, not we.

Speaker 1:

I'm not lying with you, so you'd be lying down on a on a bed and you have an eye mask and headphones on, and so the reason that we do the eye mask and the headphones is because it removes the external stimulation. If you consume the mushrooms and then you're outside in nature, you're going to have a completely different experience than if you were to be lying down and you're not able to see and you're listening to music. The music takes you very much on the journey, and removing the visual stimulation keeps you inward.

Speaker 2:

So this is an internal journey.

Speaker 1:

Yes, is it wonderful to take some mushrooms and go for a nature hike? Absolutely. I highly recommend it once you've had some experience and you know what you're doing. But you are awake, you're totally conscious, like if I was to tap you on the shoulder and ask you hey, jean, how's it going? What's coming up for you? When you're in your journey, you'd be able to tell me and sometimes people are like I don't really want to talk to you, nikki, leave me journey you'd be able to tell me, and sometimes people are like I don't really want to talk to you, nikki, leave me alone. And the other times people want me to record things for them. And so you're totally conscious in that way and it lasts about. Everyone's metabolism is a little different, but let's say, five hours of solidly, kind of like on the bed doing that thing, and then you have some time in the beginning, in the end, when you're coming up and then when you're coming down.

Speaker 2:

Wow, now do you talk, like? Do you talk to people through the headphones or the music? You're just letting the music and the mushrooms do the work of helping people internally deal with their their stuff to find what comes up.

Speaker 1:

Both. I don't talk to you through the headphones, so my preference as the guide is to have you journey, just you and the mushrooms and the music. That is because I can't possibly know what's really going on for you in the experience. I find it more effective if I'm able to sort of like leave you be. That being said, there are certain points where it's helpful for me to check in with you and maybe give you some thoughts to consider. I also work with my clients.

Speaker 1:

We do a minimum of three preparation coaching sessions, and that's where we're really taking time to unearth all the things that need to come to the surface. We talk about from when you were born up until today and what's going on in your life and what's keeping you stuck. So much of the patterns of stuckness that we experience are founded in our experiences as a child, from zero to seven. Zero to seven is the forming of our identity, our identity. Stories, and that's the core woundings that we have, like I'm not enough or I'm unlovable. Those stories, they happen and get cemented into our being when we're really little, and so we spend time talking about those stories and talking about the origin of your stuckness, of your anxiety, the origin of your depression. So that way, when you go into the journey, you're kind of like you've got material to work with, right? You're like, yeah, well, I've been thinking about this in my life, I've been thinking about my inner child and I give you a lot of work to do and preparation in that way. So you've got kind of material to be with. And then we also have your intentions. What is it that you are hoping to ask yourself or hoping to experience through this journey? And I might ask you to connect in with those. So there is sort of like opportunity to connect with me and talk throughout. And some people are like, hey, leave me alone, I'm doing fine, I want to journey on my own and of course, I'm going to totally respect that.

Speaker 1:

On the other side we have people who might be having a hard time or a bad time, and what is that about? Usually that is when someone is resisting whatever is coming up. So I can give like a very clear example of a of a client. She was having a really tough time because she she could see her inner child in this dark space. She was able to vocalize to me. There's just so much pain around her and I don't want to go, I'm afraid to go there.

Speaker 1:

The conscious part of her, the adult part of her, could see her inner child in her journey and she was aware of the pain and she didn't want to connect with that pain and so she was kind of stuck there. She was stuck in journeying and the mushrooms are like here be with your inner child. This is the, this is what you need, this is the medicine that you need now. And she didn't want to go there, she was afraid, and so she spent a lot of the time crying and crying and crying. I don't want to go there, it's too much pain, it's too much pain. So that's kind of an example of like when someone has a bad trip, it's because they're resisting or they're afraid to be with what needs to be dealt with. Right, yes, and I explain this to people in advance, because the truth of the matter is is that wounded inner child is living on your shoulder 24, seven, every single day, every day.

Speaker 2:

They're with you every day, right.

Speaker 1:

And so it's like it's not something that you, that you aren't already experiencing. Whether you're conscious of it or not, she's affecting you every single day, and so why not have the courage to go and be with the part of you that needs to be seen and needs to be witnessed so that you can heal it? That's what you come to the journey for right. Yes, yes, so yes, that would be an example of when someone doesn't have a good time, like what that might look like and why usually that happens and what normally happens afterwards.

Speaker 2:

Do they automatically remember what's happened? Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

And this is okay. So we have the journey, we have the preparation and then we have the journey and then, after we have integration and integration is the, in many ways, almost more important than the journey itself because we're taking the insights from the journey and we're applying them. What does it mean? We're making meaning of them and we're applying them to our life. Yeah, so if you let's say, in the journey, you usually the insights are incredibly simple, but but feeling very profound, Sure, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I met God and God was like everything's okay and everything's working out for you and that's what you have to trust in. Okay, it's like really simple, right, right Right.

Speaker 2:

You're like thanks for that. Okay, Now what?

Speaker 1:

Okay, but true integration is is taking um, that and okay. So what does it mean for me to actually begin to believe that everything is working out for me, that everything's okay in my life and so, yeah, um, I had that was an example that I had in a journey personally and then, following that journey in the months to follow, there was a lot of life stuff. Then, following that journey in the months to follow, there was a lot of life stuff that happened that was challenging, like a health thing and a breakup and all these things. And what I did was I kept taking myself back to okay, remember the journey, remember that you decided everything is okay, everything is working out for you, god is with you, and so in those challenging moments, I would just like go through that as a mantra right, and connect back to.

Speaker 1:

That was so true and so profound for me, and I have to believe that now, even though, even though this challenging life thing is happening, and so I did that over and over and I remember vividly one day just thinking to myself huh, I really truly believe that now, like that everything is okay, everything's in me now, right, and so we might say that I formed a new neural pathway of belief, that that is my reality, and so then my work is to keep being that right, keep believing that, and so that's sort of like integration is taking the insights that you gather from the journey and figuring out what you're gonna do with them.

Speaker 1:

I have another client who she had a journey, and she really was like I have to slow, like I'm burning myself out so deeply and I really have to slow down. And the thing that I'm going to do, that I'm going to be so deeply committed to, is going for a walk in nature by the river every day. The river was a very important element of the journey for her and she's like, okay, I'm going to walk by the river every day and I'm going to see what happens, and so it's really simple. But she's so deeply connected to this change that's happening in her life because of the journey and what she gathered and the insights that she gathered.

Speaker 2:

She's internally drawn to it because it's coming from a much deeper part of her core than just a concept that's out there in her mind. It's in her body.

Speaker 1:

That that's what she needs to be drawn to, all right.

Speaker 2:

So I have to ask what is a day in your life like? Because what you do for a living is not like what everybody else does for a living, and to be someone who's so probably very soulful and connected to yourself and your own inner wellness and your own grounding and your own direction, your own spirituality, what is a day in your life like? You're also a mom, by the way, of a little one who just turned one.

Speaker 1:

I have a one-year-old. Yes, if you had asked me a year and a half ago, my day might be very different than it is now. I think for me, through all the work that I've done over the years whether it was just coaching or now this journey work the most important thing that I've connected to, for me personally, is time outside and connecting to nature and letting that be my, my guide. I feel like when I'm disconnected from that, when I'm not spending time outside and I'm not going for walks and I'm not breathing outside and feeling the air and connecting to all, that is because, for me, being in nature is direct connection to, to God, right, all that is, and so that is, I would say, to like in my ideal world. That's the most important part of my day. So, you know, right now, as I move, my daughter just turned one, and so I'm starting to.

Speaker 1:

In the last couple of months I've started to pick up doing a lot more work again with clients, and so I usually work with um in-person journeys, and these journeys are in person. So it is a lot of energy expenditure because not everybody. Sometimes people do have a challenging journey and it's a lot of. You know me holding the space and clearing the energy and all the things. Um, so I work with people. I work usually with two clients a month is my sort of like capacity right now, and so my time is really you know, you know all the sort of marketing things that we have to do to put our work in the world, and so much work to be working on the business.

Speaker 1:

This work is not, it's a gray area. We'll call it of, of um. I, okay, I'll say, I'll say this I formed a nonprofit church, and so the government. Uh, there's a law that says that you can't determine what someone's religious sacrament is, and so we can use plant medicines as a sacrament, and so, um, when my, when clients come into my world, they become a part of my organization, got it? And I also have a private membership association. So I have sort of two levels of protection, for myself and for clients, and confidentiality of how we do this work.

Speaker 1:

And so word of mouth is the best way for me to do this work. Yeah, yeah, right, yeah, and the organization is there as a structure. And so, as I'm kind of like coming back out of my postpartum period and working with clients and kind of figuring out that balance between um, I can't just go like full force ahead with what I do online, because it doesn't I most. I recently got a little, uh, I got like some kickback. I got kicked off of like all my financial platforms. So, yeah, like Venmo and PayPal and all the things I'm so naughty. It's a lot of, it's a lot of like connecting with people and having conversations like this that help get the work out. I think this work is so, so, so needed and and powerful and very unique.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, very, very unique. All right, let's talk about Mexico, because you are going to Mexico shortly, for like months yes, do you do that every year, and you do have a journey retreat there too, so I definitely want to talk about that and touch on that, because that's a whole experience.

Speaker 1:

Mexico is so near and dear to my heart. I'm actually I'm actually a dual citizen, so I love Mexico, and so I'm going back to Sayulita area, which is on north of Puerto Vallarta, and I have a retreat that I'm hosting there. I'm actually the retreat is getting a major upgrade. It was going to be a really a small retreat and now it's actually going to be for about 10 people.

Speaker 2:

That's a lot of people to journey with and stuff. How do you do that?

Speaker 1:

Well, I'm bringing in another facilitator and so it's going to be able we're going to be able to better support people with some other support staff there and stuff like that. But you know, I would really love to be able to start. This will be my first time hosting a big retreat, so I've done small groups in person and obviously a lot of one-to-one work, and so this will be an exciting new adventure for me and I'd really love to be able to do a couple of retreats a year in Mexico and keep doing private you know, journey work here in Pennsylvania.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a good bucket list to have, though, and you get to be in Mexico for a while, and your daughter's only one, so, like now's the time to do it before she. It's a girl. Right, you have a girl, yeah yeah, before she starts school, and then, even then, you can homeschool her, and wouldn't that be amazing.

Speaker 1:

I know I hope we'll see. I just started my master's in clinical mental health counseling. So I'm also going to school and, yeah, you know, really hoping to be able to fully support people in this work that I do. And when people come and present with big trauma stuff, it's like there's always this part of me that's like I'm not quite. I need a little bit more tools in my toolbox to be able to support people. So, but yeah, so Mexico.

Speaker 1:

So in my ideal world I would love to live in Mexico for half the year and run a couple of retreats and then come back to PA and have people come down and journey here. And if I really had my ideal world, I would have a journey house. I would have a journey house. I would have a journey house here in Pennsylvania and have a journey house in Mexico and just like be back and forth and, yeah, homeschool my daughter or do some kind of schooling. I don't know, I got to finish my master's first too before I can get licensed. It's like all these steps along the way. But you know, the world is changing and I'm sure people have seen psychedelics and plant medicine talked about, of course, but it really is for many life changing, so what do your family and friends think about this?

Speaker 2:

Do they think you're like witchy and druggy and crazy? Are they like whoa? You're on a whole different planet than us.

Speaker 1:

They have the reservations, but they're pretty supportive and most of my friends are pretty supportive and because I've been in sort of the online coaching and spirituality in this world for a long time, I've got a lot of friends who do a lot of weird stuff so kind of like oh cool, you do that.

Speaker 1:

You know, I've had some opportunities to work, like I worked in New York at a ketamine clinic in Manhattan and ketamine is a sort of psychedelic that we're using for psychedelic assisted therapy right now and that's the only thing that legally that we have sort of psychedelic that we're using for psychedelic assisted therapy right now and that's the only thing that legally that we have sort of above ground that you can go to a clinic and do. And I bring that up because if you ever hear about ketamine therapy, it is a really I think it's a great opportunity for people to sort of enter into, especially if you have anxiety or depression like that and you want to be in a very clinical setting. It's a great opportunity to see if working with psychedelic medicines could be helpful for you in healing. Or you could just find me and you could come and do a journey.

Speaker 2:

You could do a journey with you. Yeah, I love it. I love it. I find it just so fascinating. I have to say, I love following you on Instagram because you also you bring a lot of that mindset work into what you post about on Instagram and you make it really real and you give people a lot of really actionable, helpful advice from a mindset perspective. And so I definitely will tag all of that here because I think everyone needs that and they're looking for guidance and they're looking for direction and you do it in such a calm way. Does your daughter ruffle your feathers Like cause? You just feel so calm and so collected, like is there a non calm and collected Nikki?

Speaker 1:

that your daughter like brings out.

Speaker 2:

A daughter would do it for you, if anybody does it.

Speaker 1:

It's going to be a daughter. You know, I think she's going to be my greatest. I don't think I know. She's my greatest teacher in this life and she and I have a she, actually her spirit came to me in a personal journey and a mushroom journey and she landed in my heart and she said and we had this conversation and she said I'm here and you're ready. And I said I'm ready and she said you're ready, and and I told her, okay, and you know not to go into the whole story, but I was, yeah, I was pregnant like three months later and she was a surprise.

Speaker 1:

She wasn't, it wasn't um, I'm not with her dad, and it was. It's been a whole thing and, um, I know that she and I had this soul contract and so, yes, she ruffles my feathers. This morning she refused to let me put her diaper on and I just was like, ah, you're going to. Ah, okay, fine, you know. And it's like okay, I'm going to take the chance and do something else with you for a while and hopefully you don't go to the bathroom on the floor and if you do, it's fine, right. So I'm learning. I'm learning lots of things with her.

Speaker 2:

Patience, patience.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, her, yeah, patience, patience, yeah, you know, but I think in all the work that I've done over the years, I know that we, like we alone, have the capacity to, to change our life and we really can change our life in any way that we desire to. But it takes, you know. It takes commitment and takes discipline. It takes intention, if you do a journey.

Speaker 1:

And then you, you know my client who's going for a walk at the river every day, like she has to show up for that. You know she can't just like I did a journey. Why am I not just like at the river every day, just magically? Right, it doesn't work like that. There has to be deciding that you want to create change for yourself, and so many people are so stuck because they don't believe that change is possible for them or they're not willing to take the level of responsibility that is required. It's like I know all that to be so true and I want people to see that, and I work through that every day in my own life in so many different ways.

Speaker 1:

And you know our mind is very tricky. Our mind is very good at keeping us where we are. It prefers to keep us where we are, because where we are is the known and we're safe and we're not dead here. It's easy, right, it's easy Exactly. And so I think you know when people are feeling stuck and feeling like they need change in their life. There's so many ways to go about it, but the first, the first part, is deciding that you're committed to that, that you're going to hold yourself accountable to whatever change it is. And I think you know, starting with pick one thing. You know, pick one thing and watch your life change. My client's trusting that she's going to go for these, you know, 10k steps by the river every day and see, and she knows that her life will change in many ways because of that. Oh, it will.

Speaker 2:

And it will Not just physically but mentally and being out in nature and the things that will come to her and the ideas if she just stays, and also the pride that you can have in yourself by having an intention, setting a goal and doing the work that it takes to get to it. You know, people talk about manifesting all the time and it's like you don't just like have a thought and write it down and then just magically it appears. You know you got to take steps to make it appear. You have to show the universe that you're really in. It's not just this thought out there, okay.

Speaker 2:

So your retreat in Mexico, just for and I'm going to put it all in the show notes and we're going to launch this before your retreat so that people can sign up if they're interested your retreat in Mexico is in April. You live in Pennsylvania, you do retreats and you're just going to start doing those journeys in Pennsylvania starting in May, if I have that correct right. You'll be back, okay, and then I'm going to tag you on Instagram so everyone can follow you, and I love to ask all my guests at the end before we go to recommend a book to people, because I think books can change lives, and I think books are so powerful. So I ask everyone to recommend a book that has impacted you personally or professionally, that you would recommend someone read. So what book would you like to recommend?

Speaker 1:

You know, I think that the the, when I really think about the books, that like started the whole thing for me and started me going back to the things that I was reading and doing in 2007,. I would say that the Eckhart Tolle books A New Earth and Power of Now were the most life-changing for me at that time and I've read so many since then. But those, I feel like, are really foundational books in understanding that there's an alternative way of viewing the world than what's prescribed in front of you. And if I could throw one more in, I'd also say the Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. I really love that book. It's short, it's easy, it's super digestible and it really helps you understand how your mind is keeping you from and the fear and the stories that you're telling yourself are keeping you from living the life that you want to live and the capacity that you have to create anything.

Speaker 2:

So that's a good one. I haven't read that one, but I've heard of it, so thank you. Thank you for recommending different ones, because I do go and I read all the books that all of my guests recommend. Um, if I haven't read them, I do go and read them and then recommend them, you know, on social media to everybody, cause I think you know we have to be walking the walk and talking the talk. So it is fascinating. Thank you so much for your time and, you know, for getting up and looking so beautiful and getting it all together, and with a one-year-old I would have shown up with, you know, like milk and throw up on my shirt and all of that. So the fact that you have it all together in the morning with a one-year-old is impressive.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, I appreciate that and yeah, you know I've. I have my days and I'm also. It feels good to. It feels good to put yourself together in the world and present that question again of who am I being. I think that's the most. I want to say this. If I can add one more thing the most, the most important question that you could ever ask yourself is who am I being, who am I really being right now? And the version of me who has the life that I want to create. You know, who are they being, how do they show up to their world? And if you get honest with yourself about who you're being today and who that version of you is out there, that's the gap that you get to ride on a daily basis and that's the commitment part, that's the discipline part, that's the self-accountability part that creates change. Right, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So look at you. So you also have the part that can get dressed up and get it all together, which I love. Oh, nikki, thank you so much for your time. This is so just really interesting, and I'm so glad to be able to share what you do with my audience, because it's something that you know, people don't talk about and not a lot of people know about, so I'm really happy.

Speaker 1:

More people need to know about it, because it's life changing.

Speaker 2:

They do, they absolutely do, and we are going to put all of your information in the show notes. We're going to tag you, we're going to put you out on Instagram and everybody definitely follow Nikki and look her up if you're interested in the journey. It's definitely some cool work. So thank you. I hope you have a great day. Thanks, thank you for joining us for another episode of the House of Germar podcast, where wellness starts within. We appreciate you being a part of our community and hope you felt inspired and motivated by our guest.

Speaker 2:

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 germ are and sign up to be a part of our monthly inspiration newsletter through our website, house of germ are calm. If you or someone you know would be a good guest on the show, please reach out to us at podcast at house of germ arearcom. This has been a House of Germar production with your host, jean Collins. Thank you for joining our house.