From Taylor And 50 To Everyday Integrity

A foggy Sunday turned into a precision tune-up for courage. We start with a simple idea that feels radical in practice: let karma be a comfort, not a threat. From Taylor Swift’s reminder that consequences are real to 50 Cent’s masterclass in timing, we use pop culture sparks to illuminate how everyday integrity actually works when the stakes feel personal and the room gets awkward.

I share the quiet tests that matter most: telling a coworker the hard truth, correcting a bad joke without losing your center, and choosing to give back when privilege gives you reach. We break down the difference between reacting and responding, and why emotional intelligence is not softness but accuracy. You’ll hear practical ways to pause in heated moments, hold your boundaries, and still speak with clarity and care.

We also talk strategy. Sometimes the right move is to keep receipts, save the draft you don’t send, and wait for the moment when truth can do the most good. This isn’t about revenge; it’s about safety, accountability, and protecting your voice, especially if you’ve been minimized or dismissed. Through it all, we hold one core challenge: let pain make you kinder, not harder. Turn hurt into better choices, cleaner language, and braver acts that keep the air clear for everyone.

If you’re ready to name the monster without burning down the room, this conversation is your map. Listen, reflect, and then try one small act of civil courage this week. If it resonates, share the episode with a friend, leave a review, and subscribe so you never miss what’s next.

Chapters

• 0:00 Foggy Sunday, Honest Mood
• 1:45 Karma As A Soothing Compass
• 5:12 Values, Courage, And Accountability
• 8:30 Privilege, Responsibility, Giving Back
• 10:40 50 Cent, Diddy, And Timing
• 14:30 Name The Monster Without Rage
• 19:10 Emotional Intelligence In Hard Moments

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

It is a gloomy foggy Sunday, y'all. I woke up and I was in kind of a funk. My energy levels were super low, and I did not expect to record an episode for y'all today. Now I spent close to two hours in a social media spiral. What resulted from that rabbit hole is a side of me that I think y'all need to see in order to really get a full picture of who I am. So I decided to let you in on the savvy little bitch that I can be sometimes. All the while tying it to a learning that I believe this world and especially women need to hear. I'm also munching dark chocolate-covered gingerbread cookies because it's still festive season. And I want you to get really, really cozy with me, but also clear as fuck. Because what's gonna come is important. So lean back, prep your snake of choice, snuggle in, and let's get into it. Now, y'all, to give this episode an embodiment, think a hybrid of 50 Cent and Taylor Swift. Because I noticed that I'm in a weird mash of both my Taylor Swift era and a very specific 50 Cent era. Now, how do I detangle that? As I said, I was on social media all morning. And it usually isn't a very profitable habit or act to zoom out on Instagram reels. It did spark this idea in my head. Because my feed was full of Taylor Swift, who, as we I guess all know, just released the first part of her documentary series, The End of an Era. I haven't watched it yet, but I will in a big celebratory style with my partner tonight. We're gonna have popcorn, we're gonna project it onto the wall. I'm gonna snuggle up, it's gonna be beautiful. Anyway, there was one reel that stood out from all the Taylor content, and that was when she was interviewed and she was asked, What did you learn in your 30s? And she said that karma is real. And it got me thinking that I am really living my life in a way. Now, with all my yoga background, I don't need to explain that I am so on this train that the belief that karma is real is a very, very soothing thought for me. Meaning that I am standing behind my actions. I am showing up as the human that I want to be, that I'm not playing small, that I'm not holding back. And don't get me wrong, I'm far from perfect and I'm also falling short at times. And there is moments where I stumble and fall, but I do stand up and I try again. And I think that's the most important point. I am in a point in my 30s where I have figured out my values and I'm courageous and self-confident enough to show up for them. And that is what distinguishes me from so many people. I do not take the easy route, usually. Again, sometimes I stumble, but if I do, I correct myself. And I also want to talk about that more later on. Now, right at the beginning of our you and me time here, I want you to think about in the terms of your own life. Does it feel like a soothing thought if some mighty force would come down and declare that karma, the law of action and reaction being tightly knotted together, is in fact true. Is that something that evokes scarces or even fear in you because you know that you're not showing up for yourself and others well enough? Or is it a thought that you can enjoy? And I know so many of us put such a load of pressure on ourselves to be a good human, to show up that we can sometimes crack under this pressure, and it just blurs our vision because we want to be even more good and even more good and even more good. And I very often think that also has to do with ego, as in you charge yourself worth over what you can bring to this world, and this is certainly a very attached behavior, so something that you don't do out of pure love, then. But I I did speak about that in a previous episode already, so I don't want to do a detour on it. But can you genuinely say from yourself that you're pleased with the person that you're showing up as in the world? Not just a person that you think that you are, the persona that you made up in your mind of yourself, but you know, in those little moments when you're having a talk with your coworker and you're actually having to confess something that bears the possibility that she or he sees you in a bad light or that you fell short on anything. Will you actually stand by that? Will you actually have the courage to say it? Or do you play it small or hide it? I mean, those tiny moments in life when you gotta live truthfully. Do you give back to your community? Are you aware of the world that you're living in, of the privileges that you have, of also the things that you earned in life, because you're standing on other people's shoulders, right? But also the steps, the effort and the grit that you put in to achieve something, to be that person that you are now. But even if you earned it, are you also giving back? Because that's also a responsibility, right? The better our lives get and the more privileged we are, the more resources we have. We so often get blinded by the glittery light, but we have to stay mindful of the responsibility that we have that comes with this power, that comes with this privilege, and that is certainly also giving back in a way. Now I want you to keep that in mind as the foundational layer of our episode. The other content that my Instagram feed was full of was the glowing and self-confident face of 50 Cent, who just released his documentation on PDD. No, this is very pop culture, but stick with me. We are gonna learn something from that. For y'all who don't know what I'm talking about, P. Diddy or Sean Combs, this is Rap Mogul, who is a very fucking bad guy, and he got incarcerated. He just faced the legal sentence of his trial and all that was going on for the past year. He's in prison now, but he got away with a lot as well. And then on the other hand, there's this other rapper, 50 Cent, who has held a grudge for over a decade, maybe I can even say for decades, who just now Lean Diddy Combs is in jail, released his documentation series, which I have also not watched yet. I'm gonna do that right after I watched the Taylor Swift documentary, on all of P. Diddy's misdeeds, on all of the dirt he pulled out from the last two decades. Oh my god. And y'all, I'm inspired by that amount of grit and dedication and showing up for the right thing. If we can't agree on something, because whatever P. Diddy did or did not do, one thing is really clear that he's a deeply bad person. I don't want to shine light on the fact that 50 frickin' cent has been more or less silently documenting and digging up this bad man's misdeeds for years. And he waited for the right moment to drop the bomb, and now he has a Netflix documentation series, and he's doing publicity for it, he's on all these interviews, and his face is radiant. Like you should look into this man's face the way he's proud of himself for doing something good, for actually standing up for so many victims, for being that person who's facing a responsibility, even though there's a really high chance that this would put his own life in danger. I just applaud to that. I'm also just noticing that so many of you who listen know me from the yoga world, and we're gonna loop it back into that in a little bit. But would you have thought that your favorite yoga teacher is talking to you about rap moguls and Taylor Swift one day? Yeah, me neither. You're welcome though. The learning that I want to extravagate from this is that so often in life, it is A important to show up for the right thing. B to not drown in an emotional reaction and show all your cards or spill your juice right away. And C to fearfully hold that belief in your heart that the right time will come. And in Taylor Swift's words, that karma is real. Now let's break it down. What does that mean for you and me? For the small people, for the tiny folks who live their everyday lives, who don't have shiny career and big heroic fights with rap moguls. Thank God we don't have that. But in a way we do. Because I do believe that for all of us in life, it is true that there's heartaches, there's times where people wanna I will just say fuck us over, where people wrong us or put us in a bad light, even though we might not deserve that. Now also keep thinking about the foundation of a podcast episode here. What we talked about in the beginning, that you show up for yourself, that you stay true to your values, that you're actually such a good human that you don't get entangled in the weariness of where the waters are murky and you can't really dissect anymore what is real, what is not real, what is good, what is not good, who started it, blah blah blah. And I want to get into that too. Like, how do we not get tangled by our emotion when somebody does us wrong? Let me give you a personal example. Peace and love and light, yes. Absolutely, 100%. But also accountability, integrity, and the courage to name the monster. What do I mean by the courage to name the monster? Well, think back. How often have you been in a situation where somebody made a bad comment about you in front of your eyes? Or somebody bullied you, or maybe somebody bullied somebody else for the sake of your own and everybody else's comfort. In order to keep the harmony, to not disturb the social setting that you were in, you didn't say anything. You did not name the monster. You did not show up for yourself, for what you in your heart knew what was right, or even for somebody else. And I get it, like I've been there so many times. This is also a self-protective layer. But yeah, I think that's part of growing up, that you're sourcing that inner strength to go beyond your comfort level and in the situation, in the eye of the tiger, name what is not right. So, first of all, think, are you able to do that? And to make it more interesting, in what specific social settings are you able to do that? Where do you feel safe enough? And in what specific social settings or environments or with what which people are you not quite able to show up as that person just yet? And why? Now this would be a good journaling prompt. You want to do some extra homework? Go and journal about that. If you believe in astrology, and as the statistics show, this is the point where I'm losing so many male followers. I'm a loves have quite a couple fire placements in my astrology chart. Whether you do Western astrology or you do Vedic astrology or shamanic or whatever concept you're following, from whichever angle you look at my chart, there's always quite a lot of fiery energy. And I do deeply relate to that. I am quite passionate, and sometimes my emotions can overrule me in every way. So I get it that whatever emotion it may be, whether it may be fear that makes you hold back and stay silent, or it is anger or frustration, and you're unthoughtfully spelling whatever word woman comes out in the very situation that somebody triggers you. I've been on both sides, I've done both countless times. Cool thing is that actually doing deep self-work and acquiring emotional intelligence will not bind you to those reactions anymore. It gives you agency over it, it allows you to lean back for a moment and not just dissolve into the stream of emotions, whatever that one may be. And I also mean that in those moments when somebody is, again, not being kind, when somebody is pulling a bad joke, saying something racist, or when your uncle, who's actually quite an okay guy, has had a drink too much at the Christmas dinner table, and all of a sudden his misogynistic jokes come up. Now that's the moment where you can either get very emotional or say nothing at all, or you lean back, take a deep breath, although while still staying present in that moment, and then choosing your reaction so that you can actually calmly, maybe even kindly, but certainly clearly correct him, or at least shine light onto that his comment was not appropriate. Maybe with a joke, maybe use humor. Maybe be very clear and strict about it. Put that setting into the work field. It might get even more challenging. Put that scenario into a bar setting where you're meeting your new boyfriend's friends and you're actually wanting to make a good impression. And the people pleaser within you wants them all to like you. But then one of the guys cat calls a girl right in front of you. What do you do? What do you do? Why am I coming up with those examples? I want you to be aware of that we face uncorrect behavior from certain people in our everyday lives. And yes, it's sometimes even good people who do bad things. Like that's the paradox that you have to hold in one hand. Even though they might be good people, if there's nobody who's who's correcting them, if there's nobody who's showing up for the person who isn't in the room, then this power or these thoughts or these shadows and people will just grow and grow and grow and as Tolkien says, it's the kindness of the everyday people that keeps the darkness away. It's the little acts. And we gotta show up for those little acts, like these little tiny acts, they matter so much. So showing up in the situation for things that are not right does really matter. And I myself am thinking, how can I bring more of this kind of energy into the new year, into my new life phase also as a mother? How can I refine myself as a human even more so that I can source this inner strength and show up in the moment and simply do the next right thing? Yes. Now I've also quoted a frozen song. Wow, what an episode. But what's with the bigger things? Sometimes it is not the right time to respond. Sometimes you gotta be a little bit more like 50 cent. You have to gather information and keep it with you until the right time hits. Now I know this might not ring true for everybody. So if the next little layer that I'm smearing onto our layer cake of this episode is not ringing true for you, so be it. I've also just had a very inspiring talk with a friend and my partner, in which I have declared my partner as the master of no resentment. Like this man is he's in so many ways, he's so much more of a yogi than I am. And I love that I can look up to him in these ways and be inspired by his kindness and his ability to not hold grudges. Because I'm not quite there yet. I do hold a grudge, and maybe that's the fine replacement in my chart again. Maybe it's just something that I haven't worked through yet. Maybe it's some youthful self-righteousness in me that makes me think that I have to show up and do the right thing. And whereas a lot of yogis would say that I have to practice more detachment, I'm also proud of that side of myself because it made me show up in actual real life situations where somebody would get harmed or where I showed a lot of civil courage. I just came to peace with that being a part and a pillar of my character. For example, if you have ever done me wrong, and yes, there's numerous people who've stolen from me, who've bullied me, who have twisted my words so they would be shown in better lighting. You can bet that I have a neatly sorted folder of screenshots and notes in my phone of proof, evidence where somebody took my ideas and sold it as their ideas. Where somebody said something and I sometimes even typed in a response, but then did not send it, but kept it in my notes. I just want to say that I can be a little savvy and I'm proud of it. Because I'm also pairing that with emotional intelligence and reflection. I'm not passionately thunderbolting my opinion and my self-righteousness into the world at the first given chance. But I know that when the right time comes, karma strikes, and it is my turn to show the world the flip side of the story, my side of the story, that I have all the evidence I got. And yeah, that is strategic. And yeah, I think that we all, especially women and people of minorities, people who have been wronged times and times and times in their lives. It is so important to have a little bit of a strategy and gather your evidence to have it as a backup, but also not. No, this is really important. Listen closely, to not let it eat you up inside. You cannot let grudges darken your heart. You cannot get obsessed with revenge because it will nag on your own kindness. And that is the last thing that you want to happen. You gotta stay in the light, you gotta stay rooted in the good deeds. But be prepared to show up for the good, for your opinion, for your values when life gives you to. Chains. And see, this is a fine line that I don't see many people doing. Now, once again, shout out to 50 Cent because his radiant and happy face in his press role just gave me exactly that feeling. And my loves, I want to wrap it up with one of my favorite quotes from a fiction novel that I read years ago that made me come to peace with my Catholic upbringing again, which is quite a big pitch black, dark rabbit hole that we could journey into as well, but that would spin over an entire episode at least. The book is from Sumunk Kid. It is called The Book of Longings. In it, the mother of Jesus Maria says, Wow, this is getting really Christmassy. I love the unexpected, time-related presence of this quote. And I want you to take a deep breath. If you're not driving, close your eyes. It is always a marvel when someone's pain does not turn into bitterness, but brings kindness forth instead. Ah, it gives me goosebumps every time. Listen to it again. It is always a marvel when somebody's pain does not settle into bitterness, but brings kindness forth instead. So how can we use our own pain, yield it, act upon it, but also don't let it turn you bitter and hard and armored up. But instead grow. Grow to be such a strong human that you can do more kind, that you can show up, that you can make the world better, and let karma be a principle that plays for you, not against you. Okay, I hope you all had fun. I certainly did. Thanks for listening, and please write in if this made any sense for you at all. And if you want to be that vulnerable with me, text me how it rings true for you. Because this is your reminder that we have so many shared experiences, and you're not alone. With that being said, please click like, comment, and subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to your podcast. And I'm gonna see you next week. I'm your host, Sarah Grace. Thank you, and love for you.