House of JerMar
Welcome to the House of JerMar Podcast where Wellness Starts Within. The House of JerMar 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.
Each week, our host Jeanne Collins, will invite guests to share how they focus on inner wellness through home and life design. Jeanne is an award-winning interior designer, published author, mindset coach, and motivational speaker. Her stories and life are examples of how to find wellness within.
If you are feeling stuck, unmotivated, or unsure of how to live all in, together, we can learn to create lush inner sanctuaries that fill us with self-confidence, peace, and a feeling of purpose in this world.
Welcome to the House of JerMar community. We are honored to have you join us on our mission to empower 1 million women to live all-in!
Please subscribe and share with like-minded women to help us build our community. You can also learn more on our website www.houseofjermar.com.
House of JerMar
Wellness Warriors: Two Female Entrepreneurs Share Mindset Tools for Life Transformation
What if creating a wellness practice was less about following someone else's routine and more about discovering what truly resonates with you? In this soul-nourishing conversation, Jeanne Collins welcomes returning guest Sue Saller for an intimate exploration of how we can cultivate genuine wellness by honoring our unique needs.
Sue, author and host of the "Small Steps, Big Wins" podcast, shares her journey through post-traumatic growth and how she's learned to quiet the constant noise of modern life. Together, Jeanne and Sue unpack the powerful yet simple practices that have transformed their wellbeing—journaling to anchor themselves, breathwork to open new possibilities, and nature walks to restore perspective. What's most refreshing is their emphasis on grace and permission; wellness isn't about perfection but consistency in whatever form serves you best.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when they distinguish between intuition-based and fear-based decisions. Sue offers a brilliant insight: intuition often comes when opportunities find you rather than when you force circumstances. This perspective shift alone could transform how we navigate life's crossroads. They also challenge the outdated notion that we must find one purpose and stick with it for decades. Instead, they suggest embracing how our purpose naturally evolves through different life seasons—a liberating concept for anyone feeling stuck or uncertain about their path.
Whether you're overwhelmed by wellness trends, questioning your direction, or simply seeking more peace in your daily experience, this conversation offers gentle wisdom and practical steps forward. Tune in to discover how small, intentional practices can lead to profound inner change, and why your evolving purpose might be the greatest gift you give yourself.
Sue's book: Small Steps Big Wins: Use Your Traumas and Challenges to Transform Your Life
More about Sue:
Susan Saller is a writer, speaker, small business operator, coach, and host of the Small Steps, Big Wins Podcast. Her journey from a life of control to one of self-love and acceptance was inspired by her own struggles and the guidance of her coach. Now, she empowers others to embrace transformation and take bold steps toward personal growth. With a diverse background ranging from teaching to financial advising to small business operations, Susan is dedicated to inspiring and supporting others on their own paths to success. She resides in Davenport, Iowa.
https://www.facebook.com/susan.k.saller/
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Read Jeanne's Book: Two Feet In: Lessons From an All-In Life
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The one thing about creating a wellness program for yourself is creating something. That number one you know you're going to do. Number two it's what you need. It's not what somebody else tells you you think you need. You can listen to all these different things, but you lean into the one that resonates the most.
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. Welcome to the House of Jormar podcast where wellness starts within. I'm your host, jean Collins, and today we have our first guest who is a returning guest. We have Sue Saller on the show. She is such an amazing woman. I've been on her show. She has a podcast called Small Steps, big Wins. She has a book under the same title. I've been on her show, she's been on mine and we decided that we wanted to get together again to just chat. So this is going to be a little bit different format than normal, but, sue, I am so excited to have you on the show.
Speaker 1:Oh, me too, Jean. I was counting the moments till we did this, and so we were talking beforehand. We're still all smiles from that conversation, so let's just continue.
Speaker 2:I'm excited we are, we are. So the beauty of this conversation is we decided to have a chat because we are both podcast hosts, we are both coaches, we are both authors as well, and so we, every time we get together and we get on the phone and we hop on a Zoom call, we just talk and talk, and talk and talk, and there's no lack of stuff to talk about. However, when we were talking last, it was kind of like we should be recording this because this could be valuable to our listeners and we have a very similar platform. We talk about very similar things, we have a similar audience, and so we just kind of wanted to chat, and so I think what we're going to talk about first, for everybody, we're going to talk a little bit about wellness and we're going to talk about mindset. So why don't you, before we get deep, why don't you share with everybody a little bit about where you are right now in your life and your journey towards figuring out who you are and where you're going?
Speaker 1:That's not a small question, I know. So, as you mentioned, I'm an author. I'm a podcast host. I have a podcast called Small Steps, big Wins that's been running for almost two and a half years now. When I think about that, I go, wow, that's amazing. I do have a book called Small Steps, big Wins and that just chronicled my experience through post-traumatic growth and how my coach helped me get to where I am today post-traumatic growth and how my coach helped me get to where I am today. And so if anybody's out there and they feel like they are stuck right where they are and they don't think they can do big things, grab a copy of my book, because there's a lot of practical tips and application in there for you to kind of maybe get you a little unstuck. So writing a book as you found probably Jean is very cathartic.
Speaker 2:It's therapy, guys.
Speaker 1:It was. It was therapy and it wasn't done to produce massive amounts of money. But my thought behind it was if I can help one person, 10 people, 20 people by my story then it was 20 more people that were helped than if I had kept this story inside. So that was completed last year. Where I'm at right now is I am just leaning into and listening to the small still whisper that's going on inside my universe and asking myself every day what is my purpose? Why am I here? What is my best highest calling? And looking to see where that takes me and how I can lean into that creativity.
Speaker 2:So how are you doing that? How are you listening? What specifically do you do to try to accomplish that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great question, because we live in an age where there's so much noise and so much distraction and I will be the first to tell you, I am often distracted and I'm often sidetracked by the noise. So what I've been leaning into lately is a couple of different things. One I have definitely picked up my journaling more. I have journaled for the last oh, I would say, three years, sometimes very consistently, sometimes not, and I find when I'm not journaling I step out of myself and I kind of forget where I am. So it's a little woo there. But journaling is a way to anchor and ground. It's also a way to get all of the things that are swirling around inside of your head out onto paper and you can process it a little bit differently. So journaling is one of those anchoring oh, I can't think of the word Tools Tools, thank you that are helping. The next one is I have rediscovered breathwork and you and I have a common contact, christopher August, who has a breathwork app called Beats and Breath, and I've been leaning into that as well. He was on my podcast and even before that I started studying the importance of breathwork and how you can really get grounded with yourself and you can open up just different thoughts, different possibilities, literally by breathing and breathing certain ways. And so I was also introduced to breathwork in my coaching program. I'm a certified heroic coach and within that we also use breathwork as a way to help clients overcome obstacles and difficulties and just as a way to get quiet with oneself. So breath work, definitely. So we've got journaling. I've got breath work in there.
Speaker 1:I've been getting out in nature more, so just walking. It is incredible what exercise does for the body. I mean, I've always been a runner and I've run inside, primarily on a treadmill, but I have been blessed with the opportunity to be able to walk in my own backyard literally for miles, and so getting out to walk in nature has also been another tool that I've used to get grounded. So those are the top three. I'm sure I'll think of something else while we're talking. So let me ask you about those three because, from a let's call it ritual time commitment for these things, how much time are you devoting every day to journaling?
Speaker 2:breathwork being in nature.
Speaker 1:Well, nature. I'll start with the last one first. Nature tends to get pretty easy for me because I have a dog, so when I take him out and walk, it counts. It's a double whammy, it counts. Love it, yeah. Sometimes three times a day, depending on how nice it is. He likes his morning walk, and sometimes I just get out after lunch and walk for 15 minutes. It doesn't even have to be a long, long walk, it just has to be out in the sunlight and just movement. Yes, so that's one.
Speaker 1:The breath work it's either breath work or meditation as well. I have a meditation app, usually 10 minutes, although yesterday I sat for almost an hour and a half in silence and I just made myself do it. And that was the other thing. Jean, like just saying, I'm going to make this time for myself. I mean, that's a huge step right there, because we can know things in theory, but when we actually put them into practice that's a different story. Yeah, and then journaling. I have to say I don't do it every day, but when I'm inspired I will sit and write 10 minutes, five minutes, whatever thought was on my mind, just to get it out on the paper. But I shoot for at least three times, if not four times, a week you and I both do a lot of things.
Speaker 2:We do a lot of the things right and we've met a lot of people that do a lot of things, and so we dabble in lots of things when it comes to wellness, and I think sometimes for people that aren't in our shoes, it feels very overwhelming when I go through the list of journaling, meditating, breathing, exercising, right All these things that we do. It feels very overwhelming and that's why I was curious. I didn't know your answer for the amount of time that you committed to it, but it's very interesting how little you might be giving to those things on any given day and it can change on any given day but yet you're finding that they are impactful.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, that's exactly correct. I mean, it didn't start for me. Well, actually it started for me with the Miracle Morning. That's what started all of this. I had really no mechanisms in place. I had no rituals in place, no, any kind of routines, nothing for a long time. And you know, there was just something in my soul that woke up one morning and say, you know, there's, there's, there must be something to these routines, because I was coming across people that were doing them and they were moving the needle in their lives in a way that I wasn't experiencing. I'm like, hmm, I wonder if they're I could be doing something that they are. That's going to help me as well. And it does come back to small steps, to big wins, because I started with one thing.
Speaker 1:I read the book Miracle Morning for Millionaires, and if you're familiar your listeners are familiar with the Miracle Morning series. It's the savers. There are five things that you do daily that you don't have to commit a lot to, and I just started with that. That helped me. Now that's evolved over the years. I don't do all of the savers, although every once in a while I go back to them and I will do all of them. Sometimes I do all of them in capacity. I just don't check them off. It just really depends. The one thing about creating a wellness program for yourself is creating something. That number one you know you're going to do. Number two it's what you need. It's not what somebody else tells you you think you need. Does that make sense? Yes, you can listen to all these different things, but you lean into the one that resonates the most with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know there are some people that will say, oh well, I do cold shower, I do the cold plunges, you know, and that's a self. That can be a form of self-care ritual, right, that's not appealing to me. I don't think you're going to find me in a tub of ice cubes, however. I will take a cold shower, but I won't get in those ice cubes, but it works for them. It's not going to. That's not what my soul needs, right, you know. So you have to start with that one small thing. So, if somebody is listening and they're overwhelmed, they're like I have no idea, my life is chaotic. Well, ask yourself, get curious, ask yourself the question well, where is my life chaotic? And then why? And then what's that five minute thing that you can do to slow you down, to give you a respite from the chaos? And then start listening and try it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and try it and then, if that doesn't work, don't give up. Yeah Right, try something else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and try something else. Yeah, and sometimes that thing that does work after six months isn't working anymore, and that's okay. That's. The one thing I had to learn, jean, was that I would get into a rhythm of something and then it really wasn't serving me anymore, but I'd still keep doing it, and it's giving yourself permission to walk away from something that's not productive anymore. Right, yes?
Speaker 2:Well, and you mentioned something else that I feel like often I struggle with, which is feeling guilty about not doing all the things and giving yourself permission to do the things that are the most impactful for you at any given day. And you know and I use meditation as an example I really enjoy meditation, but I don't always have the time for meditation, and that might be because I spend more time journaling and then, all of a sudden, the window that I have on my calendar blocked for journaling and meditation is, like you know, I'm left with like 10 minutes, and that might be it, and then maybe I choose those 10 minutes to be on Instagram instead. But it's learning. I had to go through this process and I don't know if you did too of learning to give myself grace that all those things are valuable, but I don't. I can have routines, I can have rituals. All those things are valuable, but I don't necessarily have to do every single one of them every day in order to feel like I am grounding myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. The one thing you said, jean, is grace. To give ourselves grace to do that, and I found me personally in my own life. I didn't give myself grace. And if you couple grace with permission, then whatever you do, if that's something that is refreshing or resets you, then that's the right thing to do, regardless of whether or not you hit all the check boxes Right. When you get done, it's walking away from that time and saying I feel more refreshed, I feel better, I'm glad I did that thing, you know, yeah.
Speaker 2:Whatever it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, whatever it is, and what comes into that, and that what's threaded in our conversation is our words to ourselves, what we say matters and how we use the English language in the internal voice that we tell ourselves matters. If you tell yourself, oh well, I failed today because I didn't do all. I didn't do journaling, I didn't do my meditation and I didn't get my walk, or I only got two of those three things in and you say, gosh, I didn't get the other one, I failed at that thing. Well, of course, even saying it, I mean me, because I'm just in tune to it, even me saying it feels like a low energy, it feels draining.
Speaker 1:But if you turn it around and say you know what I accomplished my journaling and my meditation today, and I feel great, and this is what was revealed to me. Well, who cares whether or not you got the walk in Right Exactly, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter and you know what, jean?
Speaker 1:you asked me. What else was I doing to lean into the small still voice? I just remembered it's looking for external signs from the universe as well, signs from the universe as well.
Speaker 2:So share more. I love signs from the universe. I ask every day.
Speaker 1:I every day. I'm like thank you, universe, for showing me signs, yeah, yeah. Now you asked me for a specific example and I'm trying to. Oh well, I can take, um, I can take the most immediate one. It's not grandiose or anything, but sometimes they just come in small little nuggets and you're like, oh, wow, okay, that that made sense. So I'm looking for the next best version of myself. So I'm in the process of putting my feelers out there and deciding where I'm going to use, like where, what I'm going to become. So a couple of days ago I had this internal thought to myself you know, maybe I had to reach out to a recruiter and see, and I just, that was just. It was like that third, it was a three second pass through my brain and I was like mommy, I don't know about that. Well, my partner says to me today he's like you know, I think maybe he says I was just thinking about this and maybe you ought to reach out to a recruiter.
Speaker 1:Or like you know, that came in my mind a couple of days ago. Are you sure I didn't say it? He's like you didn't say anything to me. Okay, all right. So you lean into, you find those little coincidences that really aren't coincidences.
Speaker 2:Correct no-transcript, you know, or it's just something else where it really helps, right, yeah, it does Well and do you feel like quieting yourself has allowed you to be more in tune with what is your intuition Sure?
Speaker 1:Absolutely yeah. How do you tell the?
Speaker 2:difference between intuition based decisions and fear based decisions.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a good one, let's go. Okay, let me. Let me give you an example of in my own life, of a fear-based decision, and then I'll I'll tell you about. A fear-based decision for me would be a decision made out of desperation. I would take a job that wasn't totally in alignment with who. I am Right. I knew it wasn't in alignment, but I did it anyway because I needed a job. I needed X, y and Z. I wanted to do that thing. That was a fear-based decision, even though you knew.
Speaker 1:Even though I knew.
Speaker 2:You could say you knew it wasn't the right thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I knew it wasn't the right thing, but it was exciting to go do the challenge anyway, yeah, and so I think I'm the type of person that I think I can do anything even though I really can't.
Speaker 2:Yes, you can. Don't talk to yourself like that. I can't Well, no All right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was just talking about words matter, right? Well, it's true, but it's not, jean. I mean, think about it. I'm not wired to be an aerospace engineer. It's like it sounds really cool, but I'm just I'm not going to go there. I probably could do. I'm not going to, I'm not wired that way.
Speaker 1:I mean, there are things that you know we're all given gifts and talents and nobody can be everything a hundred percent across the board. I do get these thoughts where it's like, yeah, I want to go try that thing, just to say I went and tried that thing, to go see if I could do it. And then you make a fear-based decision because you don't want to say no, because it's exciting, or you don't want to say no because you don't want to let somebody down. I mean, there's a whole host of reasons of why you would make a fear-based decision. But to go back to your question, that fear-based decision, when you slow yourself down and listen, it just doesn't feel right in your soul, right?
Speaker 1:There's something that's off. That's what we would call that gut instinct. Yes, and that's what we don't listen to enough. And you're going forward and you're doing that thing, even though you know that you are not operating at your highest, best potential or you're not operating in a positive frequency that makes their high frequency. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, an intuition based decision would be one where you it resonates deeply and a lot of times it's an opportunity that doesn't come, that you didn't force yourself into. It came looking for you.
Speaker 2:That's a great distinction that the opportunity came looking for you versus something that you forced. I like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So intuition-based would at least for me, being a manifesting generator, intuition based would be something that comes my way, that I could have manifested, but it was something that I didn't force myself into or I didn't manipulate either a person or a circumstance to go the way I wanted it to go, circumstance to go the way I wanted it to go. And I don't mean that in a negative kind of way. I mean we all do it to some capacity. You know where we'll say something to somebody to kind of get them to see our point, or to bend our way something like that.
Speaker 1:It's not malicious or anything, it's just that I would really love that thing. So I'm going to orchestrate the conversation so that that thing can happen. Right, so intuition based would be. You didn't come looking for it. It was like wow, this came out of nowhere, and then it resonates in your soul.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, and sometimes I also find the other thing is the timing of it might not have happened at the time that I thought it should or would, and I had almost in some instances let go of that thing, and then it comes back at a different time and then you're like ooh, that now feels much more aligned with my soul because it's not happening at the time I thought it would. Do you find?
Speaker 1:Jean, when you look back, you're glad it didn't happen earlier.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, yes, so, so, so glad, and I can say that for my relationship, I can say that for my career. If I had gotten fired from my job two years prior to when I did, I don't think I would have made the same choices in my path, my future path, which has completely changed my life, if that had happened two years prior. So it helps look at that situation, which is somewhat negative, of getting. Feeling like you're getting fired is sometimes a very negative feeling. I can reflect back on that as what an incredible gift that it happened at the time, that it did happen, even though at the time that it was happening I wasn't so sure it was a gift.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had the same experience. I was also fired from a job and it was very liberating. At first it was like damn, I really wanted to make this thing work. They don't like me. Blah, blah, blah. You go down that negative path. And when I stopped myself and realized, wait a minute, this is a blessing in disguise, I'm glad they fired me because now all these other positive things can come out of it.
Speaker 1:Once you turn a situation around, it changes your perspective and we all have the ability to take any type of situation and look for gratitude and be thankful for it, regardless of what it is. Yeah, and I know that might be a hard statement for some and I'm not discounting grief, I'm not discounting true tragedy, that's not what I'm saying. I'm not discounting true tragedy. I'm not like. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not giving a blanket. Hey, everybody, you have to find gratitude and everything's rosy, even if it's not. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying is, after you process, after we process through whatever emotion we have to process through, there's always the opportunity to find one thing that you're grateful for in that circumstance. And when we start training our minds to look for gratefulness, to look for thankfulness, then it takes a very difficult situation and makes it feel lighter on the soul. And makes it feel lighter on the soul Right.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I will say for our listeners, you are not saying that lightly. Your background if you haven't listened to our first episode, go back and listen but you're not saying that lightly. And you share in your book about, you know, wanting to commit suicide and being so unhappy in your life that you wanted to end your life. And that's a very heavy place to be. And so I have so much respect for you because of how much you've been able to work through all of that. And I will never forget something you said on the first podcast, which was that you realized that you didn't want to end life. You just didn't want to be in the life that you were in anymore, and so you were able to change your perspective to it's about the circumstances of your present life that you wanted to end, not necessarily living in its totality and I think being able to make that shift mentally for you was such a game changer and so insightful for people that are at a very difficult crossroad in life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And I would add some days it's a battle too, Jean. I mean, some days I go back to that, at least for me. I can fall back into that thought process, that suicidal ideation where you think about gosh, you know, because I lived in that space for so long. I don't want to say I'm cured, I don't think that's it, Because every once in a while it does creep up, Right. I don't think that's it because every once in a while it does creep up, Right. But the difference is, when it does creep up, I course correct a lot faster and I realize okay, this is just a thought. I am not a compilation of my thoughts, my feelings, my ideas, my emotions, Like they don't, they don't define me. It takes a lot of on my part, it's taken a lot of work to realize that I'm not those. You know I'm not. Uh, I just have to be, you know, I just have to live. I have to stop forcing life the way I want it to go and instead allow things to unfold for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and embrace your journey, embrace the journey, embrace the journey. But those thoughts were real and those thoughts were yeah, I mean, they were there, yeah, definitely, and that's a hard place to be. And that's a hard place to be, it's a very hard place to be, because you can cross that Rubicon from theory to practice into actually implementing something. Where at some point, I actually did cross that, where it's like, oh, I figured out how I could do this and succeed, right, and I still didn't do it and I'm grateful, but it's very real.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and very raw. It doesn't go away right, it gets less.
Speaker 1:when you realize, when you realize you can create the life you want and you don't attribute challenges and difficult circumstances to yourself personally, then that's when it starts to get easier At least that's what it did for me and when I realized that I need to stop forcing and analyzing and defining and dissecting and controlling all these areas of my life, then it's I realized that, you know, if something's not going right, I have the decision and power to change it, and even if I can't change what's happening externally, I can always change how I process it internally.
Speaker 2:Yes, which is such an important lesson. Which is such an important lesson and it ties back into what we started with, which is learning how to quiet, learning how to go inward, learning how to find space for yourself, to process and for your best self to come out and evolve in your journey, which is what we start out talking about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and journaling has helped. Journaling has helped because you can go back and read your thoughts at that moment, and that has been very influential for me.
Speaker 2:Question just out of curiosity have you kept all of your journals yes, I have or did you get rid of them?
Speaker 1:You have. No, I have journals from 10 years ago. Interesting, which I mean, yes, I kept like a mom's journal years and years and years ago. Interesting, which I mean, yes, I kept like a mom's journal years and years and years ago and then I stopped journaling for a while and then I picked it up a couple of years ago. But yes, I have them all. How about you?
Speaker 2:It's so interesting. So I did for the longest time. And then I had a podcast guest, Emma Mumford on. She's known as the spiritual queen over in the UK and she's written multiple books and she brought up a really interesting point that I hadn't thought about because I had some journals that were specifically from a really what felt very dark time in my life and I had wanted a relationship to work and it wasn't working and I wasn't getting what I wanted and I was journaling about it and trying to manifest and thinking and visualizing, and visualizing.
Speaker 2:I did all the things to manifest this relationship and this partner that I wanted in life and none of it was working and it was. I was trying to force something at a time that was not the right time and I just didn't see it at the time. So I had a lot of journals about that time and about those things and those journals are really sad and filled with a lot of negativity and grief and me not feeling worthy. And Emma made the point that those journals contain a tremendous amount of negative energy and you should actually get rid of them and you should release the negative energy from those journals and I thought it was really very interesting. And so the last full moon I actually did. I went and I collected all of those journals and I decided, okay, let's release all of those. And I was like I don't know if it's right or wrong. I don't know, yeah, I was just ready. I don't know if it's right or wrong, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was just ready to say there's no such thing as right or wrong. So I'm curious how did you release them? And then, how did you feel after they were released?
Speaker 2:So I was going to burn them in the fire and so I was going to, but then some of them had covers that were plastic and I was a little worried about like burning that in the fire. You know, some of them had covers that were plastic and I was a little worried about like burning that in the fire. You know, some of them were like coated and stuff, and so I was a little worried about that. So what I decided to do wasn't as dramatic, but I sort of I put them all in a pile and I sat on the floor and I sat there and I put my hands on the journals and I just kind of said to myself like these served a tremendous purpose in healing, in my healing, in my growth and in my healing, but yet I'm ready to release the pain of those situations and I don't need to go back and read that.
Speaker 2:I lived it, I know it. So having it sit in my bedroom in particular, I decided, was negative. So I put my hands over it, I said a little prayer and I put them in a bag, I put them in the garbage can and the next morning they went away with the garbage. Man, how'd you feel after you?
Speaker 1:did that.
Speaker 2:I actually felt really good and I am in the middle of this month. I'm doing like an accountability group, a health and wellness accountability group and every day we have to write what we do for self-care, for ourselves and you know, I do a lot of things, so I don't write the things that I do every day because I feel like that doesn't count and I literally listed that as one of my things as part of my full moon ritual.
Speaker 2:I decided to take those journals and release them and some of the more positive ones I did look through a little bit and kind of looked at the dates and reflected back and was like, wow, we've come such a long way Like really just commending myself on that growth Yep, such a long way like really just commending myself on that growth. But I was like I don't need this book that has that written down to remind me of that. I think I can find other ways to do that. And so it actually felt really healing and that might work for some people. It might not work for others, but I kind of like it was kind of healing for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, letting go of negative energy is just so important for our mental wellbeing, and physical too. Yeah, Think of the word. A friend of mine brought this to my attention the other day. Think of the word ease. Right, when we do things with ease, when I say I'm going to do this difficult project with ease, there's something about it that makes a task that could be difficult a little lighter, a little easier. So take the word ease, let's go to the word disease D-I-S-E-A-S-E dis-ease. So where does disease come from? It comes from dis-ease within the body, Totally.
Speaker 1:And so there are things out there that we create for ourselves because we take ourselves out of this ease and cause disease, dis-ease and the things. Sometimes we hold onto those things and we tell ourselves those stories that may well in your case, with the journals, they were what you thought at that time. In my book I talk about stories that we tell ourselves that happened 40 years prior. They may or may not have happened that way, right?
Speaker 2:Yes, it's so fascinating.
Speaker 1:Interesting. What we tell ourselves, what we remember of those stories probably aren't even true, but yet we tell ourselves that story over and over again, and then that's what creates the limiting belief, that's what holds us back, that's what keeps us grounded in the past, paralyzed in the present and then unable to move forward in the future.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you're attaching yourself to the past. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So let's get practical a minute, because we like small steps, big wins, and we like practical and we want to take care of ourselves. I guess my question for your listeners would be think about that one thing in your life right now that is holding you back. Think about something that you can feel right now coming up in your soul that's keeping you stuck, and then ask yourself the question is it attached to a story that might not even be as accurate as I remember it? Yes, that's true.
Speaker 2:Talking about you know, letting it go, meditating, breathing, thinking about that thing and then committing it to the past and don't allow it to have power over you anymore, and one thing that's really interesting about doing those types of exercises is trying to evaluate the things that are holding you back. Are those things internally within yourself or things that are controlled by external forces? And recognizing our ability to control the external is not that great, and many times the external is just the mirror that is reflecting the internal. So if it seems like it's an external thing, don't think about it by it being external. Think about it as a mirror. And what is that actually reflecting back about you internally? Because that's where the core stuff is. It's internally within you. Cool, I didn't think about that At all, because everything is a mirror.
Speaker 1:External is mirroring back towards you.
Speaker 2:I didn't think about that External is always mirroring back. It's just like energy, right? So it's like mirror. External is mirroring back towards you. I didn't think about that. External is always mirroring back. It's just like energy, right? So it's like energy. Think about the energy. The higher your energy vibration is, the more you're going to attract other things into your life at that high energy vibration. If you're at a low energy vibration, that is 100% what you're going to be attracting, because you're vibrating at a low frequency. You're going to be attracting things at a low frequency. The mirror is the same thing. Everything that's happening in your external world is actually just a reflection of what's happening in your internal world. And so if you're struggling with something externally, really think about it, like looking at yourself with an internal mirror, and it's not about that external person or thing, it's about you and how you are processing that thing or how that thing is impacting you, and really digging into the why, why is a very interesting question to ask oneself, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Before I go down that road, I want to ask you, jane, what do you do to keep yourself in a positive state of mind? We've talked off and on now about resonating at a positive or high frequency versus low frequency vibration, and what do you do for yourself to make sure you stay in that positive, high frequency, high energy world?
Speaker 2:So I do a couple of things. So first is an awareness of where my energy is at any given point in time no-transcript. So if I feel like I have low energy, I will do one of three things normally. First will be to journal and I will sit down and I will journal about everything I'm grateful for. And I will force myself to journal about everything I'm grateful for for three to five minutes nonstop, just free form writing, and I find that starts to raise my vibration up, just because you start to be in a more positive place. Then I'll also journal about the future me that I want to become, and how does that person look and feel and what does that life look like. Because we all have goals, we're all striving to build or design or do something, and so it's allowing my brain to live in that future state, in the present state, and that also helps me raise my vibration. And then I also do two other things.
Speaker 2:One I have a trampoline. You go jump on a trampoline. It's like being a child. Not only is it really good for your lymphatic system and your nervous system, but if you really get into it and you turn on some loud music, it reminds me of being a child and the freedom of jumping, and so it's, and it's exercise as well. So I do that. Or, like you said, nature if I'm having a down day, I go out for a walk and I really find like getting connected with the ground, getting connected with nature. And I really find like getting connected with the ground, getting connected with nature, being reminded of just the beauty that surrounds our lives, helps me raise my energy. Oh, I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the walks, just so that anyone listening understand, like this is where I'm coming from. I'm sure you're coming from as well. There's no phones, there's no noise. There's no phones, there's no noise, there's no distraction. It is you go out in nature and you look at the trees and silence sometimes is very difficult for people.
Speaker 2:Painful.
Speaker 1:Silence is painful, painfully difficult. It is Painfully difficult. Let's go back to that question of why, how challenging that is for us to ask that question. Why? Because that can be a scary question, you know why. What is your purpose on earth? Why are you here? What is your calling? Even what, what and why? So those W question words? Yeah, and it's challenging sometimes to come up with the answers, but the answers are often found in the silence. So we'll bring it back to where we started.
Speaker 2:The answers are often found in the silence. And I also find, especially if you're talking about the subject of why and purpose, I have learned over the last five years that what your purpose is at one point in time is not necessarily what your purpose will be at a different point in time. And recognizing that, at least in my opinion, it's not about seeking out the lifelong purpose. It's about what is your purpose at this point in time in life. What is your purpose at this point in time in life? And when you look at it that way and it's about okay, let's look at it and understand your passions at this point in time in life.
Speaker 2:Because I'll just use myself for an example right, I mean, I worked in corporate America, all the things, right. And then when I left that and I became an interior designer, I could have easily said my purpose is to design beautiful things and to create luxurious spaces. Well, now, now I feel very purpose driven towards empowering women and doing that on any platform that I possibly can, which could be a podcast, could be speaking, it could be coaching, it could be a book, it could be I don't even know but that it's such an evolution in the purpose at that point in time. But it's such an evolution in the purpose at that point in time and I think so many people are struggling to feel like they have found their purpose and I think if we chunk it down to a little bit smaller timeframes it makes that task much less daunting. Wow.
Speaker 1:Jean, that's beautiful. As you were saying that, I was thinking like talking about our purpose evolving and going from one thing to another. How liberating that is. Even as you were saying it, I have to tell you I felt a lightness on my end and a lightness in my soul when you said that, Because I think you and I I think we're the same age, we're within a couple of months of each other. We grew up in a time where our parents got a job. They did that job for 30 years, yes, and their parents got a job, did that job for 30 years and lived for retirement, and so that mentality was passed on to us.
Speaker 1:You and me we're in our fifties, that you go get your job. You stay at it for 30 years and then you retire. But what happened in your case and my case is we're not doing the same job we started at 30 years ago. We're doing something different. But what happens is you have that generational imprint on your mind that says, well, you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing. You don't have that job that you were doing for 30 years. Now the brain's going to look for that it's looking for. You've been generationally conditioned to look for that life quote. Unquote lifelong purpose.
Speaker 2:Right, and people like us are like no, we're going to take a different path. Yeah, we're going to go a different way.
Speaker 1:But it's also releasing that and understanding that that belief system is just somebody else's belief. It's not your own Right, but it's the realization of that, because some people believe things they don't even know why they believe it or where it came from. It was just because, oh, because mom and dad did it, or grandma did it, or grandpa did it. That's why we do it. But when you start challenging that belief and say, well, wait a minute, I don't have to be the same thing. And the other test on that to really throw us off would be well, think about what you were doing five years ago. And if you were doing the same job, suppose you were a teacher and you were doing that five years ago Well, what else in your life was happening at that time? And has that thing changed since then? Right, and you realize that this generational model of you have to sit in a job and do it for 30 years and then retire really is horse crap.
Speaker 1:It is Because life does change. It does, and you can go in a different direction and that's okay. So I am so thankful, I'm so thankful you said that for somebody like me who's still searching, and I'm like well, I got to find that thing that I'm going to do for the next 10 years of my life. No, that doesn't have to be. You don't True? I don't. I just have to lean in to quiet yourself enough to hear what that authentic self inside is saying and what you're supposed to go build and do and create, and then, run after start leaning into that and then, as these opportunities flow that you didn't force, that you didn't go look for, as those start coming your way, then you know you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, you're on the right path, right?
Speaker 2:Yes, it just feels different it does.
Speaker 1:So I'm so glad you're supposed to be doing. You're on the right path.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, it just feels different. It does. I'm so glad you said that it does, and I do ask the universe every day to show me signs that I'm on the right path, and lots of people use lots of different signs. For me, my signs are angel signs and I always ask the universe every day, especially if I'm struggling with something. I will ask the universe to show me angel signs if I am on, if I'm on the right path and I'm in tune enough with myself to pretty much be able to know what my intuition is and be able to tap into that through a lot of work. It took a long time to do that and I do every day that I do ask that like that. I really consciously ask for that. I see them. I adamantly see them.
Speaker 1:And I have friends who are like.
Speaker 2:I look for angel numbers and I never see them, and I'm like are you kidding me?
Speaker 1:I must have seen like 10 of them in the last day. I think when you start telling your brain to look for something, it's going to find it, and that's the reticular activating system. I mean, there's the science behind that that supports that. If you go looking for a red car, you're going to see all the red cars. You know, I bought a red car and I didn't see any red cars anywhere until I bought a red car. And now I see red RAV4s everywhere, everywhere.
Speaker 2:Everywhere I was like wow, I bought a car that everybody else has.
Speaker 1:No, it's just that I started seeing it, and it's true for the positive and the negative. If you start looking for all the faults in people around you, you're going to see the faults. So if you're that type of person that you find you're finding the faults all the time, ask yourself the question well, wait a minute, why am I looking for the faults? And then change the narrative, find the positive, find one good thing in everybody that you meet.
Speaker 1:Because there is there are good things in everybody, and there are good things and you said this before finding the gratitude.
Speaker 2:There are good things about every situation and I don't know if you see that feel this as an entrepreneur, but I've really had to lean into this over the last year. When business doesn't necessarily come that you want, hope, expect and are relying on for your business, I have been able to acknowledge that pause in the business as a positive to allow me to free up time to focus on another growth area, whether that be a growth within myself personally, a growth within my health, more time to exercise, a growth within my relationships, or more time to work kind of on the business or on my future things. Do you struggle with that same thing? Because I feel like as an entrepreneur, when that project doesn't come in, you're like I really wanted that revenue.
Speaker 1:I really was excited about that. I was excited about that client and then you feel like it's a loss.
Speaker 2:But having to shift my mindset around that loss has kind of been a game changer. I will say for me personally in the last year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%, everything. You just said 100%. And it's changing again. It's changing the language. It's not a loss, it's the universe giving you the opportunity to pause, to lean in, because if that job came, let's go down that road, say that job that you really wanted you didn't get. If that job came then you probably wouldn't have the time to lean into the thing that you really needed to lean into and fix, or do or create whatever to do that.
Speaker 1:So, yes, a hundred, everything you just said. 100%, yes, I've seen it in my own life as well, and the thing is this it is I think about it this way you only have so much time and energy. God or the universe, whatever you want to believe has given each and every one of us capacity to only do so much, and a lot of times things have to be taken out in order for something to come in, and I keep that in mind when I think I quote unquote lose something or something went away or something's not there, it's because there's something better coming along and the universe is getting my attention to free up, my time to focus somewhere else, which is what you've been saying. 100%, yeah, absolutely. As an entrepreneur, yes, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:All right. So before we run out of time, I want to make sure I get to ask you something that I think is really important for your podcast, right? Because this will air and I want people to go and watch your podcast. Please Can you share with us some of the guests that you have had? It's been two and a half years, so that's a deep library of guests, but a few of the guests that you found were the most impactful on you personally and why.
Speaker 1:The first one that comes to mind is Brian Johnson. Brian Johnson is the founder of Heroic and Heroic. I'm a certified Heroic coach. So through my interview with him, learning about him, learning about what he does and going through the 10-month-long coaching program, that profoundly changed my life. So I was very thankful he was one of the guests absolutely I'm so, so grateful for. I also referenced Christopher August. He's one of my more recent guests and he introduced me to the depth of breathwork. I already knew about breathwork, but he took it to the next level and we had an amazing conversation. So that also was another memorable guest. Michael McLean would probably be my third choice. Michael McLean's an entrepreneur. He, oh my God, he did so many different things. Just he just built all different kinds of businesses and just his mentality is just, he just has a. Can I say?
Speaker 2:badass mentality, I mean that's just you know.
Speaker 1:he's just a badass entrepreneur and I had the opportunity to interview his 12-year-old entrepreneurial daughter on my podcast.
Speaker 1:It was an incredible conversation. So not only did I interview him, but I interviewed her as well, so that was a lot of fun. So those are the top three that came to mind, although I probably could name 10 more if I go down my list, because here's the thing about being a podcaster and you probably have seen this too, jean Every conversation that you have, you always walk away with a little bit of that person and you always learn something more about them and about yourself.
Speaker 1:Yes, so it's really hard for me to say which one has been most impactful on me, because each of my guests have impacted my life in some capacity and I'm grateful for every single one of them.
Speaker 2:I could not agree more. Yes, and it's a gift. It is a gift to be able to have a podcast and to be able to meet people and connect, and that is how we met.
Speaker 1:It's a gift to have oh yeah, that's right it is. And it's a gift to have people listen.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is Correct and to give an hour of their time To give an hour of their time, you know, is a lot and to let us share our wisdom and the wisdom of our guests with them and in the hopes of inspiring and educating them, is truly, it's truly a gift and one I feel very fortunate for.
Speaker 2:And as a result of me meeting you, we have interviewed similar guests, we've shared some guests on each other's show and gotten connected to some similar people and it's amazing how you start to kind of build this little universe of people that don't live where you live but yet have similar focuses, similar grounding, a similar connection that we do to really wanting to grow and help other people grow and to become the best versions of ourselves and go through this process and also admit like it's not sunshine and roses every day, folks, it's work. It's work, but having a community of people that you can call on and lean on during that journey. I remember you and I also had a conversation about menopause. We went kind of deep on menopause last time we talked.
Speaker 1:I think we were supposed to talk about that. I think that's what springboarded this, and it was the midlife crisis. It's like what you go through in your mid 50s. Well, we'll just save it for another time.
Speaker 2:It's a lot. You can come on my podcast, we'll talk about that.
Speaker 1:We can talk about menopause, exactly that's right, because that does require small steps to big wins, because there are so many components to that and just actually just the whole midlife crisis conversation is around that. Yeah, and I think it actually ties back into real quick what we were talking about, where you had you think you have to be in this thing for 30 years or do the same thing for 30 years?
Speaker 2:how much of that is fabricated. Midlife crisis, right, exactly, yeah, well. And also I think we're at a different age. Back then people did retire at 50, 55, 60, 65. And now, the closer I don't know about you, but the closer I get to 65, I'm like, oh wait, I need like a way longer runway, because I financially can't afford that yet. But I can't even imagine I would be bored out of my mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean. Retirement is not a word in my vocabulary.
Speaker 2:Me neither. Yeah, it's not.
Speaker 1:It's just, you're just iterating into a next version of yourself. And really, retirement for me, if you want to put a definition to it, is when I can wake up in the morning and say this is what I'm going to do today and nobody else controls my life. Well, that's an entrepreneur too, but it's to a point where I don't have to worry about money. My income's taken care of. I've got things like I can sit around and read for five hours, right, you know that. That's what. I'm not. Not there yet.
Speaker 1:Or it's just creating a life where you get paid for doing something that you love.
Speaker 2:Exactly Right, I say all the time I would do this podcast.
Speaker 1:There's no there's no time frame on that. You know, if you're doing something that you love, that you love, at 80 years old and you're getting paid for it and you're adding value to somebody and you're still have all your capacities at 80. Great, who cares? Yeah, like it's okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know some 80 year olds who still work and they do because they love it. They just love it and they're giving back and they're helping other people and they're staying busy and they're keeping their mind going and they just love it and they're like if I wasn't working, I don't know what else. And you know they have flexibility, they have all the other things. It's not like, you know, they're not working.
Speaker 1:I know people in their seventies. Same thing they're still, they're still going to work and they're still doing it because they want to, because they're like well, what else am I going to do? I can do this thing, and it's on my own terms and it's on my of. You know what's your definition of retirement? It's going to look pretty similar, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah Right.
Speaker 2:All right. So before we jump off, I'm going to share one word that I think is really impactful and I want to see if this word hits you as well. People talk about having goals and often people are like my goal is to be happy, and I always tell people that's a crock of shit, that like can't be your goal, that's like not enough. That's not enough, folks.
Speaker 1:Because it's not realistic. No, happiness is a real, is a moving target right.
Speaker 2:So my latest thing that I journal about all the time and really think about and I've been able to encompass everything that I think I want in life into this is wanting freedoms and whatever freedom can look like for you, and that could be freedom of time, freedom of money, freedom of choice, freedom of creativity. It could be whatever you want, and I have really been focusing on the word freedom.
Speaker 1:Yes, that is my highest core value. Whatever my next iteration is, or creating around that next iteration is, or creating around that it has to have freedom baked into it. It's got to fit under that parameter. And I would say to anyone listening if you don't know what your core values are or what your core beliefs are, start there.
Speaker 2:If you're wandering through life and you're not sure where to, go yeah and sit with those, sit in silence and let those come to you if you don't have them.
Speaker 1:All right, Jean. So ask me, what's my book recommendation.
Speaker 2:Oh, I get to ask you that. Okay, because this is a non-traditional podcast. Yes, what's your book recommendation?
Speaker 1:My book recommendation is to follow up on that core value. It's I'm actually interviewing this author in a couple of weeks value I'm actually interviewing this author in a couple of weeks. It's called Be Bold.
Speaker 2:Today by Lee Burgess.
Speaker 1:Be Bold Today by Lee Burgess. I'm halfway through it. It is an amazing book. It talks about how we can create boldness in our lives and what that looks like, and how we really dig into our souls and go deep and we ask. You know, she asked in the book what are your core values, what are your belief systems? When you flush those out, it allows you to be not only creative, but to lean into those areas that you should in your life, to become bold.
Speaker 2:I love that. I'm going to have to read that because bold is one of the six values of my business of the House of Jarmar Bold is one of them. Then she needs to get on your podcast. Absolutely, I would love that and I'm going to read her book. So, thank you so much oh.
Speaker 1:Sue.
Speaker 2:I love every time I get to spend with you. Your energy is amazing. Even on your lowest days your energy is so high and you have so much insight and wisdom. And everyone if you are not currently following Sue and her podcast Small Steps, big Wins, you absolutely must go do that. Follow subscribe rate review on Apple and buy her book as well. I read her book in a day and a half. It was so good. I was so engrossed in her story and she's so inspiring. So thank you, sue.
Speaker 2:We will stay in touch and I'll talk to you soon. Yes, thank you. Thank you as well. Have a beautiful day. 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.