The Power of Daydreaming: How to Manifest More by Letting Go

When was the last time you allowed yourself to dream without immediately thinking about how it was going to happen?

In this episode of Unapologetically Wild, I'm diving into the power of daydreaming, manifestation and reconnecting with the version of yourself that knew how to imagine possibilities without pressure, timelines or expectations.

So many women are stuck in survival mode—constantly doing, planning and pushing—while disconnecting from the creativity, intuition and wonder that naturally create abundance. I share why releasing attachment to outcomes can actually accelerate manifestation and how learning to receive is often more powerful than working harder.

Through personal stories, reflections from a recent Yin Yoga session and client transformations I've witnessed firsthand, this episode is an invitation to slow down, release pressure and reconnect with what truly lights you up.

In this episode, we explore:

•  Why daydreaming is a powerful manifestation practice 
•  How attachment to outcomes can block what you're trying to create 
•  The difference between living in survival mode and abundance 
•  Learning to receive rather than constantly striving 
•  How mindfulness practices help release emotional and physical pressure 
•  The connection between creativity, intuition and manifestation 
•  Why slowing down often leads to the biggest breakthroughs 
•  Small daily rituals that create lasting transformation 

Key Takeaways

•  Manifestation begins with feeling, not forcing. 
•  Daydreaming reconnects us with creativity, possibility and intuition. 
•  Living in survival mode limits our ability to receive abundance. 
•  Releasing pressure from the body creates clarity and alignment. 

 Small moments of presence can create significant shifts over time.

 If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who needs permission to dream a little bigger. 

About Kadi

Meet Kadi Sonntag, the unapologetically wild woman leading the charge on living life boldly and breaking free from the limits society tries to set. Born in Maitland in 1992 and raised in Newcastle, Kadi’s love for sports (anything but school!) started early.

From swimming at a national level to competing in high jump at nationals and playing representative basketball, Kadi was always moving, growing, and pushing herself. In high school, she was the sports and school captain, proving leadership comes naturally.

At 19, Kadi took a leap and joined the army, starting as an admin clerk and eventually becoming an army physical training instructor in 2019. She’s served on peacekeeping missions in the Middle East, taken part in exercises in Asia, and now holds the rank of sergeant. Talk about resilience!

When she’s not leading in the military, Kadi’s got her sidekick—her dog Piper—and she’s all about empowering women to tap into their inner strength, unleash their wildest selves, and live unapologetically. Whether she’s playing for the Defence National Basketball Team or sharing her journey on Unapologetically Wild, Kadi is here to help women break free, find their power, and live on their own terms.

Connect with Kadi: @kadi_sonntag

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Unapologetically Wild with Katie Suntag. I'm Katie, a woman's empowerment coach, healer, and your guide to embracing your most powerful, authentic, and unapologetically wild self. As a sergeant and physical training instructor in the military, I've spent over a decade thriving in a male-dominated industry, pushing boundaries and helping people discover their inner strength. Beyond that, I'm a certified success in life coach, Reiki and Lightcoat healer, and NLP practitioner. I'm also a proud dog mum of my big fur baby Piper, who reminds me daily to stay present and playful. Uh oh. And when I'm happy, you'll find me dancing like nobody's watching. Yes, I'm spiritual and bring a little bit of magic to everything that I do. This podcast is for high-achieving women ready to break free from social norms, reconnect their strength and sensuality, and own their unique essence. Here we'll dive into topics that are often considered taboo, share personal stories and life lessons, and host empowering conversations with incredible guest speakers, all while keeping it real, raw, and relatable. Let's get wild. Tap into your feminine power and unapologetically lead your life on your terms.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Hello, hello! Welcome back to Unapologetically Wild with me, Katie Sontag. Ah. How I want to start today is with that beautiful noise. How many of you make noises like that? Just to express yourself. How beautiful is that? I think we forget about all the beautiful ways we get to express and desire and daydream. And what I want to bring into this beautiful podcast today for you is the chance to bring all of that back. And I'm going to tell you a little story, as always, on how that is manifested in my life into daydreaming again, into desiring and honoring, but without being attached to the outcome. Now I think this piece is really important because we can daydream, and I don't really think I would call it daydreaming. We could obsess and like want to control and have an outcome happen. But I think when we daydream and we allow ourselves to dream like kids, we open up so much, right? And that's our flow and our creativity and our desire. And us as women, right, we get to create so to be able to daydream and allow without any touch and connection. It's manifestation at its rawest form. Because the daydream brings you into the feeling. And when you have the feeling, that's what you're telling your body is normal. And then it starts to feel that, and then it creates that reality. I think there's such a beautiful big thing about manifestation. A lot of the time we think it has to be this huge process. And yet all we've forgotten is how to be a child and dream. And how this brought me to this moment. And I'm going to tell you about my daydream that I had recently. It was so beautiful. I fully was in it. But before I get to that, I want to also show you how your body holds the key to this. Because yesterday was this beautiful day of receiving. I received love. I received connection. I received all of these beautiful things from people, places, things. And the flip side to that is I also was like, I don't know what I'm going to do in a lot of different situations. And there's a lot of pressure building for me in lots of different areas. Now that's not that's pretty normal. And I got to reflect that instead it used to look like survival. So, you know, when it was survival, it was like I have to do this because I have to survive. But now it's I get to choose how I want my life to go. So the pressure is still there in a different way. I think it's really beautiful to honor the difference. And I talked about it in my latest masterclass. Is survival is I just have to get it done. I have to get through this day, I have to get through this minute, I have to get through this week. And then pressure is yes, things may not look like everything's working out perfectly on the external. There's a lot of, you know, moving pieces, I might be juggling. But internally, and right now, I'm safe, I'm well, I have everything I need and more. I know that I have always trusted myself. Well, not always, but I've grown myself to trust, I've grown that muscle, right? The trust muscle. I keep doing it, trust myself. I can get, I can do this again, or I can do something different, or I can grow in a different way, or I can make sure that I, you know, have enough money for this or whatever. Whatever the thing is, right? Or I have enough clients, or I have a thriving friendship group, or I have a beautiful partnership, or all the things, right? And that's in all facets, but I can hold it. And it's not from a place of not being able to choose and having to suffer through it. It's from a place of being like, yeah, there's still pressure. Yeah, it's still not perfect. However, I can powerfully choose because I'm not in a state where I'm freaking out to the point where I'm not able to function and I can only see a tunnel vision. I can see everything, and there's incredible things happening over here, and there's so much working and so much evidence. There's also a lot of things that I need to also do that are going to help me over here, right? So it was a beautiful moment where, of course, my mind was going crazy with like, how do we work this out? And instead of attaching feeling to it, because here's the thing when you start to detach from it, you no longer are in survival because you're not associating your life with that and also giving it a feeling and a meaning. It's just really important. Because if you keep giving it meaning and emotion, you're just making it bigger and bigger and bigger. However, if you just acknowledge the thoughts that you're having, know that you've had them before, understand that they've got to come up to serve their purpose to get out of your body. They need to be released. Then don't buy into them. Allow yourself to disconnect and powerfully look at your life. And I think this is really beautiful because I have people and things that I do, obviously, practices and things that bring me back out into this, right? And it's important to honor those because they're super, they are what keep me going. And to know that I'm not in survival and it's pressure. And pressure's okay because I do really well under pressure, because I have a resilient nervous system that can sit in pressure and also abundance at the same time, and receive really beautiful peace. And so receiving all these beautiful things yesterday, and the flip side of it, also being like, I have a lot of things in life that are moving or maybe not making sense, or my puppy, are we taking her to the vets in like just fit enough time for this episode after this because she's been limping? Like, there's a lot of things coming up, right? And how do I deal with that? I used to freak out. I mean, I've talked about this. I used to have full anxiety and full attacks of like, oh my god, this is the worst thing ever. I can't function. And then I'd make a decision out of survival, a necessity, right? And then I wouldn't see the abundance or I wouldn't be able to receive it. And so now, although, yes, there's pressure, there's things that aren't, you know, materializing in the in the external world that I would love, you know, if you want to, if I was to wave my magic wand and have it here right now, that would be amazing. And though it doesn't mean that there's not so much evidence that it's coming in so many ways, and I don't need to know how. The hardest part is letting go of the how. And I was being with that in the abundance, and then I was realized I was holding a lot. Now, why I say that your body is the key is because then yesterday afternoon, or evening I should say, I had Piper and I was like, she needs to get out of the house. I'm gonna put her in the car while I go to yin yoga. Now, one of my girlfriends invited me to yin yoga, she runs it. Beautiful, beautiful woman. I don't even, I just saw it was yoga. Don't even know what yin is. I obviously do now. But at the time, I didn't really look into it because I was like, oh, I'd love to go to yoga. And also I hope to be running some classes for her. So I was like wanting to watch her do that. Now I might not be running her yoga classes, but I was like, this is a beautiful way to end the day. And yin, if you know anything about yin yoga, it's this beautiful moment where your body through the breath releases through a stretch that it holds for like three to four minutes. It's wild. And so at the moment, I've been like pushing for lifting goals. I was squatting on Tuesday. I did a really big long, the long weekend was really big because I worked instead of having a break, which was all catching up to me. And then I had business stuff and I had work stuff, and then I had um, you know, uh catching up with this beautiful woman to maybe support her in her job and also get to, you know, support her clients and different things like that. So there's so much happening, right? There's like the background, everything, there's noise, then you know, Piper's hurt herself, and then there's like all of these things. And of course, everything comes in at once. Like you've got, you know, you're receiving all these, I'm gonna say beautiful emails that to pay for things. Um, because I don't like to call them. Well, I don't really like to make them a bad thing, because if I think about the fact that I get to pay for energy to have power, it's pretty fucking awesome. So all these beautiful things coming in that when they all come at once, it's a lot of pressure, right? And so you're like, okay, how do I handle this? Now, years ago, I would have, you know, collapsed and tried to avoid it and all these things, right? And not notice the things that are coming up in my body. Now I choose to go to yin yoga and actually sit with it. And the wildest thing, right? Because our body, like I said, holds the key to what we're holding all the time. And a lot of people think when they go to the gym, that's the way you're gonna find it. I hate to tell you this. Yes, the gym is a great release, and though your body will talk to you and you're less likely to notice it unless you slow down. Sorry, my high performers who fucking love the gym. That is great. And I will never not go into the gym. And I think it's the best thing ever, and you're definitely great for your mental health, physical health, all the things, right? Never going to tell you to not go to the gym. Ever. And though the biggest revelations in my life have come from slowing down. So I went to Ian Yoga, took my mat, my beautiful friend had a bolster. So she was like, I'll give you my boulder, bolster, I don't even know what they call them. Um, I'm gonna say bolster. If that is wrong, you you may correct me. And it was beautiful. I literally sat in all the poses, and of course, one of the ladies, because she was like, Oh, what does everyone want to work on? One of the ladies put their hand up and said, the hips. And I was like, I clearly was meant to come to this glass. And what happened was I just sat in it and I breathed through it, and my hamstrings, my back, my glutes, my hips, everything in that region was literally as stiff as concrete. And I was breathing through it and it was relaxing, obviously, and I was moving, I was like, oh my God, how have you been holding all this? And I sat with it because obviously I lead women through them releasing, and I don't always do that practice enough, clearly, for myself, but I know how powerful it is, and I know that the universe always gives me the gift because it was a gift, a beautiful free class to relax and honor my body, because of course I get to receive, and I also get to receive the slowness from somebody else holding space. She's such a beautiful woman, she runs an incredible yoga class. And I was like, I just said to her afterwards, like, this is exactly what I needed. I'm so grateful. Um and my back actually started to get sore. Now, that's a very normal thing. I, whenever I held tension or pressure, and the old survival me would have pushed through that and ended up with back injury. The new me doesn't mean that I won't get back pain, but I have not pushed through it. And the beautiful part about this, and which I love, was because before I was meant to deadlift today. And obviously, I went to yoga last night. Of course. Thank you, University Bird Guards Angels. Thank you, me, because it's really in the end, it's my choice. I made a powerful choice to message her and be like, uh, how can I watch you do your classes so I can support you and I can come and work for you if it's a good fit. And she was like, well, maybe come to boxing and I couldn't quite make boxing. And she said, Oh, you can come to yogurt in today. And honestly, of course, of course that happened, right? So here's what I mean about making powerful decisions under pressure. The old me would have been like, oh, I have, you know, if I was looking at prospects or looking for ways to be more aligned with making money in different aspects, because I like to get out in community. I like to also still use my PT skills, and I like to find aligned people to support in business as well. So it's a beautiful thing where we get to give to each other, which I find so amazing. And so it's just a beautiful fit, and she's such a gorgeous woman. And so, in that, I was like, okay, cool. I get to reach out to her and we get to talk about this. Like, I get to go and allow myself to be supported, of course, to receive. And that then released so much out of my body that it was holding. And then I started to get a little bit of, you know, slight little bit of pain in my back, which is good because the point of it is if I release it, it then gets to recalibrate and I get to then move powerfully forward. And I knew today that deadlifting was not a thing. I did a little bit of upper body and was like, that's perfect. I'm gonna leave deadlifting to Friday. I need my body to recalibrate, to open up, to allow it to release because it was so hard on my back and so tight that I had to just let it soften. And in those moments when I was with the breath and I was allowing my body to soften, I was like, how beautiful I'm receiving my breath. Like it gets to be that simple. And what I've noticed over the last few weeks is receiving is that beautiful, it gets to be that beautiful. Receiving is about looking at everyday life and seeing the beauty in it. Because here's the thing there's always gonna be external pressures, there's always gonna be external things happening. But once your life is ruled by external pressures or other people around you, you're no longer the co-creator of your life, right? They become a co-creator, and that's not very fun because half the time they don't want to create what you want, they just want to create what they want, right? So, you know, seeing the tawnies, being obsessed with my indoor fire. If you do not follow me on social media, I got obsessed the fact that I can keep a fire going for a day, and I was like stoking my fire, and like I just get so excited about it. And watching it and being in a beautiful warm house, and then watching the tawnies outside and the cookburas and receiving, you know, beautiful gifts of yoga and beautiful people in my life that are aligned and supported. And this morning, going and have a beautiful coffee and receiving a free coffee with a beautiful friend and going for a walk. Like I created this life and it's beautiful and amazing. And yeah, there's always gonna be things, right? But I think the other thing that made me realize is that once I released from the body, it just gave there's so much less pressure and it was everything was softer and didn't mean it wasn't as big a deal because you're not so tightly wound, right? And when I was, you know, a few weeks or days ago, daydreaming, because I'd released something else, right? Another pressure, another way of being like, how do I look at this powerfully? And what choice am I making? What am I creating? What action am I taking? And so it's about what's going to move the needle, but it's like I can also daydream and make space for that. And I was sitting there and I was just dreaming of this beautiful life where, and this is how I've done this before, guys, so I know it works. Where I was, you know, running these incredible events at these companies, and I'm talking and I'm leader, talking about leadership and helping teams, and then I'm on stage and I'm doing this massive, you know, talk, and you know, all these people are watching, and it's the most incredible thing. And then I lead this beautiful, powerful retreat for this CEO of this company who wants to gift her beautiful employees, the retreat of growth, really. And it was just beautiful, you know, co-creating and like bringing things in and then letting them do what they wanted needed to do too, and then being able to support these people in mind, body, and soul. And I just could feel the gratitude, like I could see them, the speeches at the end we all made, and the crying and the gratitude of how much they performed, and and by performed I mean transformed because of the impact and how they're going to lead their life differently. And I just the slowing down of being in a beautiful retreat space, having a massage, being supported. It was all so, so beautiful to witness. And I was in it, it was real to me. And I think, wow, when did we stop dreaming? When did we stop allowing ourselves to no longer be run by our thoughts of trying to make enough money to pay a bill or to pay rent or all these things? And I understand they are pressures, and I get there needs to be a logical way to pay for things or to work things out. I absolutely agree. And though I think there gets to me magic, and I think a lot of us have forgotten about the magic. And I think it's sad. And I had like when I went back into survival mode, I forgot about the magic. Even when I've been in Army, I forgot about the magic. To sit in daydream and be fully in it like it was real. And that's what they talk about in manifestation. Like you have to feel it like it's actually happening right now. And although I've got that concept many times and done it in meditations, but to just do it in my own head and to be in my own living room and just to sit there and let it happen magically and be crying and be smiling and just having this incredible experience, that gets to be part of your day. Like you're not going to, you know, if you're gonna be delusional and have big dreams, you're gonna have to do things that are gonna show you and make you feel like it's already real. And I don't think it takes away from life. If anything, I think it actually enhances it because then it means that I will give myself time to look at the tawny frog mouths that are sitting in my tree. And I will take more time for peace because I understand the cost of peace is too high. And I will take the time to go do yin yoga. And it really never was about going and seeing her on a glass. Let's be real. I received so much out of it, and I completely melted in the class. And it's about that to who. Like all of this life gets to be beautiful and amazing and the most magical thing in the world. And a lot of the time we can keep carrying it if we want to. We can keep walking around with all the pressure and all the things. And you know what? The biggest thing that helped and actually got me through it all was doing an hour of yoga. Breathing, which is what we do every day, just not consciously, obviously consciously, but not like I'm conscious, my breath. I'm being with it, you know, getting in my body, releasing the pressure. And this is what I love and I do, and she remembers my in-person event is I allow women to release the pressure in a safe space. And that's really important in the body. It's really important, and it's the key to allowing you to move forward powerfully. Because when you release the pressure, you have the space to create. And today I got up and I felt amazing, right? Because I'd released the pressure. And I got to work and I had a beautiful couple of sessions with people. And then I went for a girl with a girlfriend to have coffee. Like it was just the most beautiful flowing day. And I got to receive and I got to be with all of it. And yeah. We don't realize how much pressure our body is holding. We also don't realize that if we let it go, nothing bad will happen. And yeah, they're going to be things that are more important to do than others. I get that. However, cut off all the crap that you're thinking about because I bet your list is 300 things long. And right now you probably only need to do one or two. That's actually going to move the needle in your business, in your fitness, you know, all of the things. And why not give off things you can give off, especially to people that have done it before and can do it quickly and whip something up for you like that? I had a beautiful client message me yesterday, and she told me that her program, so I wrote her a one-on-one program for her hiking. And um, she literally did a hike the other week. So she's been doing this program for probably, I think it was an eight-week program. Should we do it for like close to six weeks now? I don't actually know, maybe four or six weeks. Wild, I can't, time is an illusion. Uh, and she literally wrote me a message and was like, I felt amazing on my hike. Like she felt stronger. She was like going up, you know, uh like rocks and things and steps, and she was killing it, and she's like, I felt amazing. All because we did strengthen exercises around her hips and her joints, and all she didn't have to think of any of that. She paid me. I did all the thinking, I did all the putting it together, I put it on the days, I just asked her questions, and now she has a program that she follows every day and a great routine, and now she's gonna be more powerful when she hikes and actually feel good and feel stronger and loves it. So, one, if you get the chance, please release the pressure from your body, your mind. That's sitting with meditation. That's one of my favorites. The other day I randomly walked downstairs and sat on my mat for like 30 minutes, and there was no noise and nothing going on, and I just let myself be with the clouds of my thoughts as they just rolled on by. So powerful. Releasing the pressure. Sometimes I have this beautiful thing that I do that I actually got from my first coach, and you write down all the things that you think you've got to do. Go away for 10 minutes, come back, cross them out, and then you do it again. Like, sorry, then you go away for another 10 minutes. So you do that again, and then come back and cross it off. And you realize by the time you come back the third time, half the stuff you wrote is irrelevant, and you didn't actually need to do it, and it wasn't going to move the needle or change anything in your life. You've just written a list that's so big because you think you've got to get everything done. And then you do two things, and sometimes I end, and then you like celebrate that you've done two things, right? You're like, fuck yeah, I did the two things that were probably the most important, or that were the most important. And then you're celebrating that so much so that sometimes you end up doing the next four. Sometimes I would end up doing the next six or eight, and I wouldn't even know. But because I had celebrated the fact that I'd done it and I released the pressure, there was no, I didn't have to do anything. I chose to. And that's really the difference between allowing yourself to release the pressure in your mind, your body, and your soul so that you can actually make aligned steps, then pushing through survival mode and then ending up unwell, sick, or injured. It's always how it ends up because somehow the universe has got to slow you down and it'll find a way. So I hope you receive something beautiful from today's episode. It's a bit quicker today, a little bit shorter. I do have to go take my dog to Vivette. Right for me that she's all well and her leg is fine. And I hope you have the most wonderful, wonderful day. And I hope you realize that you're not the only one holding pressure. You're not alone. There are lots of people holding pressure. And if you would like to learn how to actually honor what you truly need and have someone support you in that, I am here. I run one-on-ones, I run a mastermind. If you'd like to do it in health, like I said, I do programs or the holistic woman, we start another one of those next month, the group program. So I'll keep you posted. But I hope you just have the most magical day. Take the pressure off, release whatever you need to out of your body so it's no longer carrying all of this stuff that you actually don't need right now. And you just honor the things that are going to align with you moving forward in wherever it is you want to take your life. Could be in your dating life, it could be in your business life, it could be in your work life, could be at home with your children, it could be with your family. There's so many facets of life. And they all are connected. And though it's super powerful when you get to hit all of them. But if all you have capacity for right now is one, choose the one and go after it. I love you. I hope you have a magical, magical, magical day. Oh, before I forget, please subscribe to the channel if you love it and you want to hear more so that you don't miss an episode. Subscribe, like, please comment anything that came up for you, anything that served you, anything you'd like to hear. And I will get back to you. I do have an episode that a lovely listener has asked me to do, and I will do that soon. It will be coming up soon. And yeah, I'd love you to share it with anyone who you think this would serve. And if you share it on social media, please tag unapologetically wild with Katie. And if you have anything you want to share with me, please DM me at Katie underscore sontag uh on Instagram or you can find me on Facebook or whatever. So I hope you have, like I said, a magical, magical day. Please, I would love for you to support the podcast however you can. And that would help me, and I would love that. So I'm so very grateful that you tuned in and I hope to be in your ears again next week.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

Thank you for tuning in to Unapologetically Wild with Katie Suntag. If you love this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, or share it with a friend who needs to hear this. Together, let's build a community of women who are ready to embrace their wild, unstoppable selves. If you don't already, follow me on Instagram or Facebook at Katie.suntag for more empowering content updates and behind the scenes button. I can't wait to connect with you. Until next time, stay wild and unapologetic.