🔥 Burn It Down to Rise: The Courage to Reinvent Yourself (Ep.40)

Have you ever felt like your soul was calling you toward something bigger… but fear kept convincing you to stay where it's safe?

In this deeply personal episode, I share the story of the two biggest reinventions of my life... walking away from a successful corporate career to build a wellness company, and years later finding the courage to fully step into my calling as an Akashic healer, teacher, and podcast host.

Neither transition was planned.

Both began with moments that completely disrupted my life.

You'll hear how illness, unexpected setbacks, uncomfortable feedback, and seemingly closed doors became the very catalysts that led me toward my greatest purpose.

In this episode, you'll discover:

✨ Why your deepest desires are not random
✨ How fear disguises itself as practicality
✨ The hidden gifts inside life's biggest disappointments
✨ Why clarity comes after you take the first step—not before
✨ How to recognize when your soul is asking you to evolve
✨ The courage required to leave behind an identity that no longer fits
✨ Why your next chapter may already be waiting for you

If you've been feeling restless...
If you know there's something more...
If you've been hearing the whispers of your soul...

This episode is your invitation to trust them.

Sometimes the life you're praying for begins the moment you're willing to become someone new.

✨ FREE AKASHIC ABUNDANCE ACTIVATION MEDITATION ✨

Release energetic blocks to abundance, financial freedom, and receiving with Nicole's guided Akashic meditation.

👉 Download here:
https://nicolemixdorf.mykajabi.com/abundance-activation

✨ WORK WITH NICOLE ✨

💜 Ready to Heal at the Root?

Experience a private Akashic Healing Session with Nicole to uncover and release the energetic, ancestral, and soul-level blocks impacting your life.

👉 Book your session:
https://calendly.com/nicole-balancebynature/akashic-healing-journey-60

🌙 Website
https://nicolemixdorf.com

📸 Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/nicolemixdorf/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Heal with Nicole Mixdorf. Let the journey begin. Welcome back, beautiful soul. I'm Nicole Mixdorf, your host. I'm an Akashic healer and intuitive guide, and I'm also a corporate wellness executive. And today we're going to be talking about reinventing ourselves. Have you ever had a moment in your life where you felt that you it was just time to move on? It was time to do something new. Maybe you've felt a calling in your life that is just really, really pushing you to want to do something different, to break out of your comfort zone. And maybe fear has been the thing that has held you back because typically it is fear that holds us back from doing what we really actually want to do in our lives. But there comes a point on the journey where you can't ignore the calls and the whispers of your soul anymore. You can't dismiss for another moment what is meant for you. And this desire that has maybe been on your heart for a long time is suddenly just burning. And you cannot dismiss it anymore. You have to pay attention. And typically, what I've found in my own life is that something difficult usually happens in life to force us to find that moment where we recognize it's time. It's time to move on. It's time to shift into something new. I've been through a couple of reinventions in my career, several in my life personally, and I've gone through one recently. And I want to share some of those stories with you because maybe you're at a point on your path where you're recognizing that you're not feeling 100% fulfilled doing what it is that you're doing. Maybe it's work, maybe it's a relationship, maybe it's another part of your life. Maybe there's something connected to your purpose that you're feeling really called and drawn to do, but you don't know how you're going to go about it. The path isn't clear. And because the path isn't clear, it just stops you in your tracks from really stepping forward into the unknown. But I will say that the greatest achievements of your life do not ever come from being in your comfort zone. They come from taking that leap of faith. They come from trusting the vision that was planted into your heart. It comes from taking the first step, from making the decision that this is your moment, that this is your time. So for anybody who's on the path, who's been thinking about something, about changing your life in any kind of way, this is for you. I want you to know that there is more for you. There's always been more for you. And anything that you have desired to do is not random. These desires were placed into your heart for a reason. They were given to you. They weren't given to someone else. These ideas that came through and popped in in this moment of inspiration where you felt in your heart this recognition that it ignited something within you and an excitement, a joy, something that makes you feel a little more alive, that's not random. That showed up because it's meant for you. And sometimes when we go through a series of challenges in our life, or when a door seems to just slam in our face and we don't understand why, it's because that wasn't meant for us. We are meant for something different. We are meant for something better, something so much bigger than you could ever possibly imagine. It's about getting out of your own way, trusting in the universe, trusting that you are supported when you say yes to whatever lights you up inside. But it's not always easy. And I'll tell you from my own experience, it hasn't been. I spent over a decade working in the corporate world. I was actually working in the travel industry, kind of worked my way up the ladder, loved what I was doing. I was going out and meeting with all kinds of different organizations, sitting down with CFOs and controllers, talking to them about business travel that they did at their company and pitching them on the corporate travel services that we were offering from the travel agency that I was working with. And it was so much fun. I was really successful in that role. I rose up the ladder. I was managing a big team. I was organizing all the sales conferences and organizing the sales trainings. I was going out and winning my own clients. I won a lot of business for that company. And I had a lot of fun doing it. I got to travel all over the world. And it was great, but it was also stressful. And in the meantime, while I was working there, I got really into yoga. I mean, yoga practice for me was the thing that gave me my sanity in the midst of all of the madness that I was dealing with. I was traveling constantly. I was on and off a plane at least a couple of times every single month. And there was just a lot going on. And in the middle of all of that and the pressure to perform and hit my targets and do everything that needed to get done for my team. I mean, I was trying to do four jobs in the time to one. The one thing that kept me going was my yoga practice every week. I felt like when I showed up on the mat and I was able to do my deep breathing and move my body, that it was my exhale that allowed me to let go of all of the stress that was in my life. And I really had fallen in love with yoga. And I decided, and this is back in 2007, that I wanted to become a yoga teacher. So I did a yoga teacher training. Can't believe that was 19 years ago now, and became a yoga teacher. And because I had worked in the corporate space, my initial idea was to do corporate yoga. And I had this thought that I would build this business and grow it to the point that it could replace my income from my job. And then I would quit my job to do that full time. But here's the thing: when I was working full-time and traveling constantly, there was no extra time for starting that business. So it just sort of sat on the back burner for so many years until my dad got sick with cancer. And then all of a sudden, the stress at work and the stress at home started making me sick. And then I developed the bleeding ulcers and I got sick. And then I had to take time off work because it was just too overwhelming and I couldn't function anymore because I was literally bleeding every single day. I mean, it was a disaster. And when I finally took that leave of absence, I wound up going to do several wellness retreats. And at the first one that I did, the most beautiful practice came to me. And that was doing a vision exercise, a bhavana practice. And it was about envisioning what I really wanted for my life. Like if I could take all circumstances and put them to the side, and if I just knew that I would succeed no matter what. So take all the fear and just move it to the back because I'm 100% going to succeed. What is it that I actually really want? And that was the first time that I really connected deeply with this desire to bring yoga into the corporate space. And I thought, God, I really, really want to do this. Like if I could do anything, that's what I would want to do. But then all the butts start coming in. But how do I even get started? But what about my income? But what about this? What about that? What about this? And my beautiful friend Katie, who was there with me, she just said, Nicole, you don't have to have it all figured out. Your job is just to connect with what it is that you really want. And so that was the first time that it became sort of real to me that maybe this could be a possibility. Like maybe I could figure it out. And the other thing she said is, you know, yes, you would be quitting your lucrative job and it's a step back, but ultimately it's to take a big leap forward. And that intrigued me. And I thought, okay, this is interesting. So then I started thinking, this is a possibility. Maybe I can really do this. But I didn't know how to do that. I've never run a business. I didn't have a business plan. I had nothing, nothing. And in the meantime, I was still not feeling good, still, still trying to deal with my own health stuff at the same time. But this idea was now had a real fire lit underneath it. And I really didn't know what to do. I felt like I was at a crossroads. And in the meantime, this other travel agency, a competitor, a much smaller organization, I was working for a really big global firm, one at the top in the world. And the smaller regional company reached out and they wanted to recruit me to be their vice president of sales to revamp their sales team and take everything that I'd learned from the larger org and bring it into their business. And they were going to pay me even more money. And they were going to let me work from home, which was a really big deal because my commute was killing me. And that was attractive. It really was. And so I had these three options in front of me. Do I go back to my job where I was making $200,000? Do I go and take this new job that was going to pay me even more? Or do I throw it all to the wind and start a wellness business? Wow. Well, one thing that uh really amazed me is that that moment in time came in 2012. And I first had the idea of starting the wellness business back in 2007. Wow. Five years. For five whole years, that idea had been in my mind and on my heart. And for five years, I disregarded it. I just left it on the sidelines. It's amazing how you blink an eye and five years just comes and goes. Wow. Well, what is the thing that really pushed me to finally take this leap of faith? I was walking in my neighborhood and I used to have a little old neighbor who lived down the street. His name was Jack. And at the time he was 92 years old. He has since passed away. And as I was walking down the road, he was standing in front of his house, just waiting to say hello to people as they walk by. And so I went over and said hi to him. And he didn't know anything that was going on in my life. He did not know that I was at a crossroads, that I was trying to decide what to do. And I looked at him and he looked at me and he said something I'll never forget. He stared at me in the eye and he said, In all my years, the one thing I've learned is that if there's something you want to do, do it now. Don't wait. Because opportunities won't last forever. And one day you'll be standing here like an old man, thinking about the things that you did do and thinking about the things that you didn't do. So if there's something you want to do, do it now. Whew. Honestly, I got chills all over my whole body. I still get chills thinking about it today. It was the sign. It was exactly what I had been waiting for. And I knew it. And I just turned around, I marched back in my house, and I said to my husband, that's it. I'm quitting my job and I'm starting this business. And I never looked back. And that was 14 years ago, which is so crazy to me how fast that has come and gone. And it was a crazy thing to start a business when I didn't have a plan. I wouldn't do it the same way again as I did back then, because I just knew at the time that if I went back to work, I was walking back into the same set of circumstances that made me sick in the first place. I knew that if I took this other job, that it was going to be more of the same. And I knew that if I started this business, that's really what was calling to my heart. Like I knew I just needed to do it. I was supposed to do it. And what wound up happening as a result? Well, it wasn't easy at first, of course. I had to figure it out myself. I didn't have a mentor. I didn't know anybody who was doing this kind of work. It was very new to do corporate wellness back in 2012. And I had to figure it out by myself. Now, granted, I had a background in corporate sales, which is what gave me the confidence to take this leap of faith and do this because I knew I had the skill set. I just didn't know who are the decision makers. What is it that they want to hear? Was it what is it that is going to get them to want to say yes? How do I price my offerings? What do I even want to offer? I mean, there's so many questions that I had that I just needed to figure out by trial and error. So if I could do it again, I would have found a mentor to help me speed that process along. But in the end, it was amazing. I've worked with incredible brands like LAX International Airport. I've worked with Hulu, I've worked with Accenture, I've worked with the LA Philharmonic, I've worked with beautiful brands. I have been in charge of wellness programs to support thousands upon thousands upon thousands of employees at different organizations all around the country. I've spoken on stages to thousands of people. I have been the one that developed entire well-being programming that have changed so many people's lives. And it was amazing. And if I hadn't said yes to me, I wouldn't have been able to have all of those incredible experiences along the way. Throughout my journey of running my corporate wellness business balanced by nature, I also was dealing with chronic illness on and off, dealing with these annoying, frustrating, debilitating bleeding ulcers that would leave me feeling so depleted and drained and chained to a bathroom. And eventually I had to heal myself because the doctors had no right answers from me. And in the process of exploring over 60 different healing modalities and diving into the akushic records and becoming a healer myself, I healed my body. All five layers of healing: the physical, mental, emotional, energetic, and spiritual origins of the illness, I was able to address and release. And I'm healthy and it feels so good to be healthy. To feel good every day is a blessing I never take for granted. I love and appreciate those miracles that I have received along the way. And I started healing people in secret because I wanted other people to have the same kind of opportunity to uncover those deeper layers that nobody tells us about. And so I stayed quiet in my little cave and through word of mouth just started working with people several years ago. And I always felt like there was more for me. I always knew that I was supposed to be doing something bigger with it. Terrified to share out loud what I was doing. I was scared of being judged. I was scared that my audience was gonna think I was crazy. Because Akashic Records, are you kidding me? I mean, this is literally spiritual healing. And some people don't believe in that. Some people's religious beliefs just don't align with it. And that's okay. It's not for everyone. There's a whole group of people that this is for, and there's a whole group of people that it's not for. And I'm all right with that. But it was having me play really small. And then last year in January, we had these massive fires in Los Angeles. And I had to evacuate my house. And my family and I, we had to leave. It was just a horrible tragedy. I'm sure you remember I had nine friends that lost their homes in those fires that were raging throughout Los Angeles. And when I came back, the very next day, I was flying up to do a keynote about resilience and life balance, which are topics that I love speaking on. And every time I speak to an audience, I always raise the vibration of the room. People are always so excited to hear what I have to say. They're usually hanging on my words. And I normally receive so much positive feedback at the end. All these different people telling me how everything that I shared with them, it just clicked. It just made sense. And that's what I'm used to. Well, I did this talk, and for the first time ever, I didn't get the feedback that I was expecting. There were several people in the audience that were offended by what I had to share. Now, the talk I was giving was about resilience. It was about how to have a resilient mindset. And that's something I'm really passionate about because I've been through so much. I went through so much loss and pain and illness and all of these difficulties while trying to raise babies and manage my growing business. And it was a lot. And I did it with a positive attitude. I did it feeling good about life every single day, even though my body, it felt like in a lot of ways, was betraying me. I didn't let it rob me of my joy. I didn't let it stop me from doing what I want to do. I didn't let it define me. And that's a powerful message to share with people. But my story of resilience happens to be about healing. It happens to be about holistic healing specifically, about not allowing the doctors to put their limitations on me. It was about looking outside and finding my own answers, finding my own healing and how I could be resilient through all that, how I could maintain a sense of balance, a sense of normalcy as I navigated my way through it. But here's the rub I didn't think about the fact that the group I was speaking to was running the medical center and the medical school. Literally, this is the Western medical establishment that I was speaking to. Do you think they were ready to hear my message about not letting Your doctor put their limitations on you. No way. That was not the audience for my message. For that message in particular. When that feedback came back, that there were a few people in the audience that were offended. And especially they were people that were dealing with some health issues. I was shocked. And I thought, wow, but you know what I realized? They weren't my people. They were not the ones that I was supposed to be talking to. And so when something like that happens at a moment in time that was so crazy. I was dealing with fires, being evacuated. I didn't cancel the talk because I wanted everybody to see how I handle being in a crisis while in a crisis. That was literally a huge piece. How do I maintain sanity and balance and normalcy and joy while navigating through something really hard? And so for these difficult things to come up, and then this feedback that literally felt like being punched in the face, I just couldn't believe it. And I thought there's something bigger for me here. So I did what I always do, which is I went into my own Akashic Records and I asked, what is the significance of this? Why is this happening right now? Why is this feedback coming up right now? Because it was random. It felt like it was very out of the blue. I mean, it was definitely out of the ordinary, not what I'm used to. And I thought, okay, why is this happening? And the answer that I received is that there's another audience that's waiting for me. And I need to stop wasting my time talking to audiences that are not the ones that I'm supposed to talk to right now. And I took that insight to heart. And it made me realize there's so much more for me. I cannot keep hiding what I'm doing to conform and fit into the corporate narrative that I built around myself. I needed to give myself permission to think bigger, to be bigger, to become who I am meant to be. I am meant to rise as a healer. My voice needs to be heard. I am meant to share my light in a bigger way. And I couldn't keep doing that if I stayed stuck and playing small in my comfort zone doing the work I was doing before. So as this insight came in, so did the lunar new year. And last year was the year of the snake. And it was all about shedding, shedding the layers of identity, shedding the layers of who we are. And so I leaned deep into that. I mean, the whole time just felt crazy because we had just had the inauguration as well. And so there was just all this craziness and change that was happening, and the energy in the world felt very destructive, especially with the fires. It all just felt very destructive. And then I thought, okay, year of the snake, you know what? I'm gonna lean in. If the energy in the world right now is about destructive and burning it down, then I'm going to burn down this old identity of mine and allow myself to rise up as who I'm meant to be. So I took this massive leap of faith to lean in and go all in to my healing practice, to rise up and be who I'm meant to be. And it caused me to have to confront a lot of things that I needed to heal, that I needed to face. I had all these opportunities, especially one in particular, show up at just the right moment as I'm doing some healing work, releasing these old parts of myself. A training came up for me to awaken more of my own spiritual gifts, to rewrite my masculine and feminine blueprints, to balance the energies within my own body. And that healing program changed my life. And then I decided to get certified in Reiki and light language activated, kundalini energy activated. All of these amazing things happened in my life because I was willing to listen to the sign. I was willing to see that the punch in the face that I received was a blessing. That was the catalyst that allowed me to rise into who I am now. That is what allowed me to finally launch this show. I had had the idea of doing a podcast for years, but I never did it. And I'm so happy I didn't back then because it would have been a completely different show than it is now. Now I'm free. No judgment. This allowed me to rise. And what happened since then? Well, I think I'm on episode 40 now of my podcast, which is incredible. And the impact that it's having on people's lives has just been amazing. I love hearing from listeners how what I had to say impacted them, how they love taking notes when I'm talking, how they feel so inspired listening to me, how they love just having me in their ear because it elevates how they feel. I wouldn't be doing any of this had I not done the introspection about that craziness that was happening in my life at that moment, to uncover what the deeper meaning was and to trust it. Because I trust my intuition a hundred percent. When something comes through, I know it's truth. And I say yes, even when the path is not clear, even when I have no idea how I'm going to do any of it. I just trust it. And every time I do, I get rewarded. Beautiful things happen. And so this was my second career reinvention. And it honestly felt like starting all over again, a completely different business model. Instead of being B2B, it was B2C for the first time ever. And I had a lot of limiting beliefs that I had to clear around that, that I didn't know what I was doing, that this wasn't for me, that maybe people don't want to hear what I have to say. And I had to go in and uncover what is the source of those beliefs? Where does that even come from? Oh, clear that, clear this, clear this. Because I didn't need to carry that anymore. It didn't need to be my lived experience. It didn't need to be the way that I operate in the world. I know what I'm here to do. And I get to do it now because I was willing to take the leap of faith. I was willing to burn down my old identity to allow the new me to rise. And guess what? The new me still gets to do the corporate wellness work too. I get to do both. It doesn't have to be one or the other for me now. Maybe it will be one day. But for now, I get to do both, and I get so much joy out of that. I still get to speak on stages and I love doing that. I love lighting up a room. I love inspiring people. You better believe that I ask a few more questions ahead of time to understand the audience a little bit better and to make sure that they don't have any topics that would offend them in any way. So a little bit more planning is being done on the front end for sure, because any messages can be tailored to any specific audience. But that experience that I went through, I was meant to go through that. Because I was meant to have this realization that there was more for me, that I could not limit myself anymore, that my tribe was waiting. And the more that I put it off, the more people that weren't getting the support, the healing, the help that they really needed in their life. So, what is it that's sitting on your heart? What is it that you want to do? Because you know there's more for you. There's more for all of us. And we are at a time on this planet where we are all awakening, where people are starting to remember their truth, where people are reconnecting with their purpose and remembering why they're here, why they chose to come at this moment. What is their beautiful puzzle piece that they're meant to put into this tapestry of life here on this planet? Because we all have a role, we all have a part that we're playing, and one is not more important than the other. But there's something bigger, there's something waiting for you. Take the leap of faith and trust that when you say yes to you, when you say yes to what lights you up inside, that something so much better than you could have ever dreamed of is waiting for you on the other side. Thank you so much for joining me on healed with Nicole Mixdorf. If today's episode inspired you, please take a moment to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who's on a healing journey too. And be sure to follow me on Instagram at Nicole Mixdorf for more inspiration, healing tools, and to find out about my program. Remember, you have the power within you to create a life of balance, vitality, and joy. Until next time, stay grounded, stay open, and stay healed.