Embodied Consistency w/ Fran Medina
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What's good? It's Colleen Witt and Eating While Broke is back for season three. Brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. We're serving up some real stories and life lessons from people like Van Lathan, DC Youngfly, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and many more.

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Presented by State Farm. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Yo, it's Big Bank. Check out my podcast, Prospective with Bank, on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Each and every Monday, Prospective with Bank podcasts will feature individuals, all walks of life, who come together to share their unique perspective and engage in enlightened conversation. This podcast will explore all type of conversations from everyday people, your favorite celebrities. Every Monday, listen to Prospective with Bank on Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple

God can't bless who you pretend to be or who you compare yourself to. He can only bless you and the lane that was created for you. I feel that for somebody. You don't need no edge entity. You need boundaries. What? I don't need your likes. I don't need your validation. All I need is a God fighting for me that says all things.

I have a question for you. How do you define wellness? Have you even thought about it? I doubt very seriously that you can be in the world of social media or listening to podcasts without having to experience the many different definitions of wellness.

The truth is that everyone has their own form of practicing wellness. For some people, it's taking runs, it's praying, it's worshiping, it's meditating. But there is something to be said about hearing different perspectives on wellness and understanding. Is there anything here that I should include in my own practice?

I have discovered that wellness for me definitely comes down to my prayer. It comes down to writing. It comes down to getting into the word. Sometimes it's getting into words that are rooted in the word, but not necessarily the Bible. There are devotional sometimes that I tap into that can help me break down things instead of diving right down into scriptures because low key, sometimes I dive in description. I'm like, that could be a good sermon. And so it robs me

of the opportunity of really being fed and restored. However you define wellness, though, I think it's always very powerful when we have an opportunity to understand how someone else is growing in their knowledge and wisdom of wellness, especially when they are generous enough to share it.

There have been many pioneers of wellness on the internet, but I don't think there have been any that have been as consistently authentic as Hey Fran. Hey, Fran Medina is an incredible podcast host. She is a content creator. She is a blogger. She's a producer, a director. She's all of these fancy things. But what we love the most about Fran is that she is simply her.

And she allows everything she does to flow from the authenticity of who she is. What I enjoyed the most about having an opportunity to explore more about what is giving her peace is that she has been obedient recently to doing something that feels like it would be counterintuitive.

We'll be right back.

with where we feel God is leading us, consistently obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit, guiding us from season to season, we may find ourselves making some tough decisions that no one else possibly could understand, but also experiencing a peace that they couldn't understand either.

Seems like Fran has found that peace. And so I want to allow you to experience what's happening in her from the place of obedience in a way that I hope pushes you a little bit closer to your obedience as well. I can't wait to hear what you think about it. Hi.

Hi. How are you? I'm amazing. How are you today? I'm doing well. I feel like I am slowly infiltrating the friend zone, getting grown, we podcast network. Like, I don't know how many more episodes. I don't know if I need Dustin and Santi. Like, I don't know where I'm headed here, but I feel like I'm headed somewhere. And I just wanted to be clear that I don't want to call it cloud chasing, though, but something is definitely happening here. And I just want to acknowledge it. How are you?

I'm actually good. I'm, you know, hitting that sort of mid-year wall a little bit where you're like, whew, okay, it's about to be June, but still.

feeling reinvigorated for the second half of the year just as well. So I'm definitely in need of a reset. I have made it my mission. It started, I think during the pandemic actually, where I started taking the summer down with my girls during the school year. So I have a third, we have six kids total. I have a 13 year old and seven year old are still in school.

And trying to take the summer down to like reset and figure out like, who am I? Who have we become? What really matters for the rest of the year has been so helpful. And that's why we're doing this now. Yes, absolutely. I'm with you on that. I have tried to practice wellness more and more, I will say like over the last.

I will say intentionally over the last three or four years and not just seeing wellness as like starting a diet. Cause I feel like wellness, when it first started, like people were basically talking about how do we find a way to reach our weight loss goals? But the expansion of wellness has really become part of a practice. Like how are you practicing wellness daily? And you are like such a,

a guru when it comes to wellness practice. And so I want to know, how did you get to this stage of your life where wellness became so important to you that you felt it worthy of building a life and sharing it with others?

Well, really, it happened. I mean, it was like life always happens completely accidental. Well, accidental. Where I was suffering from an illness. I had some kidney complications when I was 25. And it really...

just the pain I was enduring, the amount of medication that they were putting me on. And then doctors kind of suggesting all these really invasive surgeries, just really, it was a wake up call at 25. I was like, wait a minute. And it really had me go inward to kind of look at my life on a holistic level, like outside of, you know, whatever causes the doctors may have suggested, you know,

you know, or the causes that they may have mentioned, I still could see how I had not been living in an intentional way where I was like being mindful of my diet, my sleep. Was I outside? Was I drinking enough water? Even just the people around me, you know, what I was absorbing musically, what I was watching, what I was reading, you

And it kind of made me realize, like, let me pay more attention to those smaller details that I think we tend to overlook and not consider how much of an impact they make over time. And I started talking about it on Tumblr. That's where I started and just kind of sharing. It was kind of like a diary of what I was coming to understand about my lifestyle and myself and just like this sort of like...

crack in my consciousness, I guess you'd say, of just really seeing beyond myself and just my life as a whole. It was kind of awesome in a weird way, kind of bittersweet, right? Where it takes something so heavy to happen to break you open. And I started sharing that online and built this community of like-minded people who were kind of in similar situations or just looking for more in their lives and their day-to-day and really

It's just been that ever since. And here I am almost 15 years later, still pushing forward with the message. Yeah. And inspiring so many other people to do the same. I'm struck by what you said. So I think a lot of us think about like what we're putting in our body. We think maybe about water, maybe about sleep, but you talked about the content that you are consuming and the ways that it can negatively affect your body. What is the correlation between the music and content that we consume and

and the way that it can show up in our body responses.

Well, I mean, the way that I've been doing my research, because at first it just was more of an intuitive thing where I was like, maybe it's what I'm watching and listening to. But as I researched just our body being made up of so much water and how water and frequencies, you know, water moves through sound. And just so I was paying more attention to the way that some music would kind of lift me up and then some music would kind of take me down and change.

just being more mindful of like, how do I feel when I listen to certain things? And that kind of just led what I would choose to listen to and when and why and being more intentional of sort of realizing that you have that power over how you want to feel during the day. And so that's kind of how it started for me with being more intentional with even something like a playlist or what I'm listening to in the gym.

That's so good. And I think for so many people that probably explains why they feel a certain way when they're listening to worship music in a different way when they're like in the gym. So I box in the mornings and like, I don't listen to my worship music when I'm boxing. But you need that fire. Right. And then my boxing music doesn't necessarily make me want to like lift my hands and give God a praise. I'm trying. Maybe there's an intersection somewhere. I haven't found it yet.

Absolutely. I think that's so profound. And I think people are probably going to pay more attention to that now. This started 15 years ago. So 15 years ago, this is not when the wellness conversation was as prominent as it is now. So I'm wondering when you first started exploring this, I think especially in communities, black communities, I don't say communities of color, we're like girl communities.

Don't nobody had time for that or like girl, like how was this received in your world when you began to really tap into this different way of being? I mean, to be honest, I think the most pushback I received is probably my family. Yeah, they were just kind of like, this is white people stuff. You know, you're talking about like not eating meat because I was tinkering around my diet and

At the time, now veganism and vegetarianism and plant-based is a little more open. More people are considering it. There's more options in the supermarket. So it's a lifestyle that is more accessible. But at the time, my family was just like, oh girl, what are you even on right now? But online, I didn't receive much pushback. To the contrary, people were really excited about

and kind of on fire about this different perspective with beauty. Cause you know, we were doing the natural hair boom, you know, on YouTube and, and there was a lot more investigation and curiosity about the products we were using and the effects they were having and,

And just how to kind of take more power in what your regimens look like and feel like. And so I think I was actually welcomed because people were like, oh, you're trying to figure this out too? Great. It became more of a community-based thing.

information center, if that makes sense, where everyone kind of had some input. And if this didn't work or that worked, or, oh, I'm a cosmetologist, I can give you some science, you know, and just us, everyone kind of working together to find the best results for whatever the needs were. And I really appreciated that because it's almost like we created a little forum and

an unintentional forum just to make sure that everyone had access to the information they needed. And that was really exciting. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Nurturing growth at Woman Evolve has been my greatest joy, but sometimes I'm faced with uncertainty because even healthy change has its crossroads. That's why I lean towards therapy when determining which new paths to take.

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It seems like if you do anything long enough, even the people who are your naysayers will eventually catch up because your consistency makes the difference. So I can imagine, though your family may have been a little bit skeptical, like what is this? 15 years later, they're seeing that not only was it something, it was something that was going to be instrumental in the lives of others.

I'm wondering for someone who's like trying to incubate their hope for something they want to do that is foreign to their family. Maybe it is something that they've never seen before. It's out of the box and they haven't yet found their community. Like what kept you motivated? What kept you locked in in order to be consistent to this calling, this sense of, um,

of a path forward that had been uncharted in your life, but you felt so connected to. How did you keep your passion there? I mean, I just based on how I was feeling, you know, I follow the truth by how it makes me feel. And for me, I was seeing the changes. I was seeing the mental health changes, my energy, the vitality that I was experiencing that I hadn't experienced before. And for me, it was like, even though I was in a

even if this is something that hasn't been modeled, that I haven't seen, that I, you know, my family had pushed back for, I felt so good. And, and I almost knew that instead of trying to be too preachy with them, like, no, this is what needs to happen. It was like, I'm just going to embody it. I,

I'm going to live it. And if this is a truth that really does work for me, it will resonate with them in whatever capacity it needs to. Because obviously the changes that I went through, it doesn't mean that everyone else has to go through that same blueprint. But just them seeing me being someone that was curious and someone that was kind of observing myself and investigating and questioning, just trying different things.

Now it's awesome because I see them on Facebook with like food memes about things you have to change in your diet. And I'm like, I'm not going to say I told you so. But here we are. Yeah, because they see my life. They see me.

They just see how much I've glowed. You know, like I glow. It's not even a glow up in the way that we tend to use it culturally, but it's just like a literal glow in the changes that I've gone through in the past 15 years. And they've witnessed it. They've watched it unfold naturally and organically. And sometimes it's all people need is to just witness it. And it's changed their lives as well, which has been really awesome. Yeah.

I really feel like that's what makes it difficult for us to stay consistent. Instead of embodying something, we want to campaign for it. So we campaign for the boundaries, we campaign for the new way of living, and if no one gets on board with us, then we abandon it altogether. But when we say, "No, this is my truth," and I don't even need for my truth to become your truth.

I just need space for it to be my truth. Eventually, those who are going to join you will join you, but they shouldn't determine whether or not you get started. And because of that, you were able to blaze a trail for people who didn't even know they wanted to walk down that path yet. And as a result, literally countless of people, countless brands have been connected to this work that you've been doing. And so I want to ask you,

There's this fine line that I have found. I'm curious to understand if you have felt it too, where like, this is my passion. This is what I love to do. But then there's like the technicalities of branding, partnerships, monetization. And now like this thing that I hold dear has like a deadline and timelines and all of these people connected to it. Like, how do we stay in the love part of it when you got like,

all these different people in the mix. Now, and it's a good thing, right? Cause it's exposure. It allows you to care for your family and dream and live. But also like, how do you keep it? How do you keep it pure even while it's growing?

I mean, that has been the learning curve, to be honest. I think I'm still figuring out that balance because, you know, the beauty of this community that I was able to create is that, like you said, it started growing. Then before you know it, what started off as an online conversation turned into a brand, a business. Now it's a business of wellness. And that part...

was hard for me because that wasn't my intention coming in. But I also saw it as a blessing because I'm like, oh, I can continue to expand. I can continue to grant even more access to these communities. You know, I now will have funding. And it just was like,

invigorating to think of how much more could be done, especially for our communities that were lacking access to this information. And that excited me and had me pushing forward. But then it does become, oh, you know, maybe you should dress a certain way or do these certain opportunities. And then, you know, sometimes people will go against what you want.

And kind of make suggestions telling you, yes, you know, we know this is your comfort zone, but you got to think bigger. You got to think beyond that. And what I've learned is that I always kind of stick to my first mind. And that's the balance, right? Sticking to your first mind, your intuition and being like, this doesn't feel good to me. So I'm not interested in that opportunity, even as big as it might be. Yeah.

With also being open to change, because sometimes you can still be a little anxious because this is a new world, right? You're forging a new path and that's not always the easiest feeling in your body and like your nervous system, but.

I think finding the balance of staying true while still trying new things has sort of been the learning curve that I've been on. But for the most part, I always check in with myself before making any decision to make sure that it's coming from a place of intention as opposed to perception, which I think is the game that we can kind of

get lost in of being more concerned with how I appear as a businesswoman as opposed to how I feel as a businesswoman. And so that's kind of my measure, I guess, for everything I do moving forward.

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and also wanting to be relatable and tangible to the people who aren't necessarily having these types of experiences. Like you're having these big brand conversations. Like, I guess what I'm asking is like, how do you stay? I don't even want to say stay humble, but like, how do you stay grounded? Cause like,

I speak to people and while I know none of us are walking the exact same paths, I think that there are certain practices throughout my day. There are certain ways that I engage with my friends and my family that help me to really maintain a broad perspective on experiences that are not similar to mine. So like, what are some of the things that you do to keep your perspective broad enough to continue to feed the type of

content and solutions that make a difference for the people in your community? I mean, I guess the biggest thing really for me, the older I'm getting, it's just my, how do I say it? It's like, I've learned that the sticking back to the basics, like, okay. So, you know, I'd recently moved to Oregon from New York city. Right. And,

And business-wise, people were like, what? You left New York, which is like the hub of business and just the electric pace. And if the who's who and the who's doing what, you know, and you're living in Oregon now, it's like kind of out the way. And are you going to be forgotten and FOMO? And if you need, you know, you won't have the access to opportunities. But I felt like

I had to do, like I mentioned, what felt good to me in order to properly be of service for my community, you know, because if I started chasing, I had the dope crib in New York and, you know, people watching my, my business grow and change and those things were happening, but I didn't feel it really shifting me internally in the ways that I needed. And so I think that,

It's not so much staying humble, but it's more so just staying true to like what feels good to me and trying not to get caught up in the markers of success that people create. You know, our society is created for what that looks like. And it's like the bravery to create my own markers of success. I think that keeps me connected where it's like, you have to be okay that maybe like

Certain cars or homes or positions or goals may just not be in alignment with like what you're actually looking for. You know, I've noticed for me and not to say, I mean, I still like a nice car and a comfortable home. You know, I love access to every option, but I've noticed for me, I'm more concerned with like how I can be of service internally.

in the best way possible to my community, to my family, to myself, most importantly, and making sure that every decision kind of comes from that well, you know, and that intention. And so that keeps me connected. That keeps me, I wouldn't say humble, but it just keeps me connected to the people that I want to be connected to. And the reasons that I started doing this in the first place, which was just for us to

be of service to each other in ways that I imagine our ancestors and, you know, the generations before us, before like society was kind of designed to be the way it is now. It was more about who could bring what to your home, what, you know, skill sets you offer to your community. And I just, I think of it in that way, if that makes sense. It does. I don't know you very well. I, like many others have heard your podcast and,

And I don't know why, but the moment you said Oregon, like I'm like, that makes sense to me. Like that feels like on brand for me. And I've never even been to Oregon. I don't know you and I've never been to Oregon, but I just see it being like all green and earthy and like homemade jams and farmer's markets. And it just feels okay. It feels very on brand. So like, I am not surprised. And I hope that you are adjusting and finding lots of peace there because you certainly deserve that for all you pour out.

Thank you. Yeah. And like I said, it wasn't a decision that made sense to most people from a business aspect. But like you said, just from knowing and gaining a sense of like who I actually am outside of business, it made sense. And so I had to go with that. And it was like a prior.

prioritizing of self before money or business moves. And that's a hard choice to make a lot of times when you are a business. But I've noticed that it's always led me in a much better trajectory than any other decision I could have made. So I've kind of sticking to that. I feel that way too. When I preach messages and they get popular or something happens and there's something that's going viral, I can...

One part of me can begin to feel the pressure of like, you're probably never going to preach anything like that again. So you might as well just like let that one live on forever. But then there's this other part where I'm like, you don't have to do what you did yesterday. All you have to do is see what is available for you in this moment.

And generally that does start from a place of like, what do you need? Where are you growing? Where are you developing? And all of the messages that I'm able to share are rooted in my own sense of discovery, my own need, my own purpose and fulfillment. And there is something very...

rooted that I think allows for it to touch other people because I want to be on this journey with you. I don't necessarily want you to think that I'm so far ahead of you that I can tell you that I'm looking down on you, but I just want you to know that I do see some light at the end of the tunnel and sharing that with other people. I don't know. I think there's something about this generation of influencer that I think is really rooted in

relatability and something that feels really tangible. And I think that there are people who want to do life with you and not just experience a one-off from you. And that sense of community has been really powerful in shaping what I do with Women Evolve too. But it like only thrives if you're yourself. It doesn't work if you're pretending. It can't be sustainable otherwise. Right. Yeah. And people can feel it, you know, energetically, like,

Like you see certain creatives that people will be like, what is it about them? You know, they just have, they're like, it's not so much a forced brand, but it's a magnet. You know, they're just magnets for opportunities and people. And a lot of times I feel like the most authentic version of yourself you can offer, you're going to glow because you're really doing what you want and saying what you want and moving how you want. And that it like...

vibrates off of you, you know, when you're living that way, as opposed to the stresses and pressures of trying to maintain something that isn't really you, you know, and I think people can really feel that and sense it. And it's like a calm energy that you give off of like, I'm just kind of taking each day as it comes and staying open to opportunities and just, I guess, in flow, you know, it's people can feel that you're in flow. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Resisting the pressure. I wonder, so intergenerationally, I have noticed that many women who would be considered from a different generation than I am, an older generation than I am, are leaning in to a new definition of womanhood, a new definition of freedom and of wellness. And I'm wondering, have you noticed the same thing? And what do you think it is about progress

previous generation's way of living that felt so restrictive? And what are you excited about as you see that previous generation lean into a more broad view of wellness and wholeness?

I think it's exciting. Like my mom, I think is a great example. She, you know, as she's an immigrant, she came from the Dominican Republic and a lot of the decisions that she made were survival based. You know, she was coming into a new country, didn't speak the language, didn't really understand the lay of the land. And, um,

She had to, like I said, you know, she was working cleaning offices and just like really had to do what she had to do to survive. And it didn't grant her an opportunity to have a life of rest or pleasure or travel. Like these things were a luxury for her at that time.

And so I think it's beautiful that she sees that I was able to build off of the foundation she laid where now she sees I do have the opportunity to rest and design and create a life that

that caters more to how I want to feel and for me to thrive as opposed to like making decisions off of need or desperation. Like it's just a completely different feeling in our bodies and the way that we move. And she now gets to lean into what I've created. It's really beautiful because now it's almost like an ecosystem we've created from the foundation that she made. And

Even something as simple as her going natural, her hair, which for Dominican women is like a really big deal. Yes. Oh, my God. What? No, natural hair was not really an option. And her not having, you know, her big fro and just feeling freer and being able to travel and rest and knowing that she has access to joy and even going to therapy.

which is a big deal. I think for that generation, huge deal for our families to, to talk about our family secrets, you know, it's like, I'm just, I love that. It's almost like they've seen us embody that freedom, that freedom of choice and of movement and of joy and love and pleasure. And I think they're like, hold on, you know, I,

I like to lean into that too. And it's beautiful. It's exciting. And like you said, even Gen Z, the younger ones, they're totally consumed by that, you know? And it's just beautiful to see. I think we've continued to improve on the design with every generation. So I think it's headed in a beautiful direction. I have to tell you, friend, though, I do think I'm going to betray us a little bit because my seven-year-old has a conversation with her sister and she's like, she's why I want a therapist. And I'm like, you know what, Ellen? You know what?

know what and I want you to honor your feelings but can you honor them with me she's like do they have children therapy I need a therapist like that is her thing every day and I'm like little girl I didn't even know what a therapist was when I was seven years old I don't know I'm gonna scale it back a little bit I'll catch y'all at the finish line but me and her we gotta slow down a little bit

That is so funny. But see, that to me makes sense because I think there's so much more in touch with their feelings. And they're more vocal about it and more interested in leaning into what they need to do to connect to those feelings as opposed to the older generations where they didn't have time for feelings. There was work to be done, families to raise.

wives to be, mothers to be. And so I think it's beautiful that we're just like a generation of feelings. Yes, we are. And I want to continue to see the beauty in it, even when I'm tired. Right. Fran, you have to tell me, so someone's listening and maybe, you know, they've always thought wellness was just their physical body and like, okay, going to the gym and eating salad. Can you define wellness as you see it?

Wellness to me is just the holistic approach to your day to day. You know, it can be as simple as I know people think meditation. I have to meditate for an hour and see a glowing light. But it's like even something as simple as a micro meditation, which to me is like when you're watering your plant, just that focus on the plant in that moment, that intention of meditation.

whatever it is that you're doing to the fullest. If you're drinking a cup of water, enjoy that to the fullest. Don't let your to-do list or what meetings you have coming up interfere with that little small pleasure. And to me, it's just finding...

All the pleasures in your day and being fully focused and poured into whatever that is. If it's just a walk, if it's your work, actually focus on your work. Don't let the fight you just got into with whoever or whatever is on your schedule for next week, that flight that you have to pack. Like we just get so, I think, consumed by,

I consider it like a fishbowl where our minds are just these little fishes floating all day, all day. And I think for me, wellness, meditation, all these things is just how can you find those pockets of full presence throughout the day in everything that you do? And to me, that's the definition of it.

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So it is definitely something that someone has to consider as a part of their daily routine. How can we discover maybe someone's like, I'm way off track, like I've never done wellness and now I'm burnt out, I'm overwhelmed and I'm in over my head and I feel like there's no way out. How do we begin to reverse that?

the hustle and bustle culture of our families, of our communities, that we may have even set in our own worlds and to begin to introduce wellness, even though it's never been there before.

Kind of similar to what I just mentioned. I think it can be daunting to think about, right? You think you need the yoga mat. You need to be taking classes. People think they have to wake up at 5 a.m. to go for a run. And it's just like, how am I going to fit wellness? And it's like, I think it's less, don't view it as trying to fit it in as much as you can.

as much as it is, is trying to connect with yourself. Wellness can be five minutes of silence. You know, it can be when you get home, maybe reframing the energy you come into your home with, right? Or I know some people are like ripping and running, do this, do that, yelling, you know, to the kids. Remember our parents, like my mom would come in like a tornado. It's like,

You know, for me, it's like coming in and just sitting down for a second before you even say anything to anybody. And even maybe asking your family to grant you that space. You know, when I walk in, it's not that I'm not excited to see you. I love you, you know, but it's like sometimes I need space to decompress. Give yourself those five minutes. I know sometimes people will sit in their car before they even come inside the house. Oh, yeah.

But to me, that's a micro meditation, right? Why do we do that? It's because you need to kind of decompress. You need your nervous system to kind of find its home base, right? Before moving forward to the next task. And so I just say to just, it's really just finding the quiet, the moment where you can just like sit with your thoughts and whatever way that that looks like for you. So-

It doesn't have to be this daunting thing. And you'll realize by having five minutes to yourself, the next day you might want 10 and then the next day you might want 15. And before you know it, you can't remember life without those moments of quiet. So really it's just starting small and then building it out as you see fit. To me, that's,

the best advice, especially with the hustle and bustle culture and our attention spans nowadays is so much shorter. So start small and just let your body feel that. And I feel like your body will continue to beg for more and kind of design that out as it needs. As long as you continue to listen to it too, you know.

So I feel like what you define was integration. Like it starts off, you're being obedient and then you are obedient long enough that it becomes integrated into the way that you show up in your life, which I think is encouraging because it's not something that will be a task forever. It's something that may start off feeling like a little bit of a task, but the goal is to do it in such a way that it just becomes integrated into how you show up in the world and how you show up in your life.

So friend, I'm wondering, like, what is something you are being obedient to right now that you hope one day you're going to have like fully integrated into your being? Really? It's I just turned 41. Come on. Right. Come on, 41. And really, I've been wanting more vitality. Right. Like that's something that's been important to me as I get older. It's a lot of why I moved out here. Right.

So I want to be more obedient to enjoying my life outside of work. You know, it's something that is very difficult because I think we define ourselves by our productivity, by what projects we have coming up. And trying not to center work so much seems counterintuitive nowadays. But I really...

feel happiest when I am spending time with my family and my friends and going for walks and riding my bike. And I know work will always have to be there in some capacity because that's how we sustain. That's just the reality of life. But I want to be obedient to spending more time enjoying my life and the actual fruits of my labor and not only the labor, which I feel that has taken up

I think a little too much time in my life and I want to make time to enjoy it while I'm here. So that's what I'm being obedient to. That's so powerful because I think that for the social media influencer content creator world, and I started blogging in...

2011. And I think that for the world was so uncharted, things got popular so fast. It was such a surprise that it did become very consuming. And then it also felt very fleeting. Like surely this can't last forever. And then you look down, you're 10 years into it, you're 12 years into it, you're 15 years into it. You're like, okay, so this can last. So now I need to figure out how

I can last and keep up with it. And so like readjusting and really trusting God that like whatever you have for me is going to be for me. I don't have to like hustle up on it. I don't have to kill myself in order to get it because I don't believe that it is within your will for me to,

the thing that I'm doing instead of becoming on my own. And so I think that what you said is so powerful. Yeah. And sometimes when I say similar to the message you just shared, people will be like, oh, but that's not realistic. You know, we still have taxes, you need retirement. And we have so many stressors and factors that we consider. And they're all very real. I mean, we do live in this reality, but I think the faith is,

Whether people understand it or believe it or not, I can only go off of what's worked for me. And like you said, when I first started this, I had no idea that 15 years later, I would still be here reinventing myself, staying true to my new interests, stretching, growing. I mean, I went from blogging to YouTubing to podcasting to producing to directing. I mean, it's like...

I just feel like a kid in a candy store that's constantly trying new things and being curious and staying open. And it's like, how could that end? You know, I just, I just have to stay curious and open and trusting that it will continue to unfold because I saw nothing.

Right.

I'm like 15 more years, 15 years beyond that. Like I'm ready, open, willing, able, and just kind of staying true to that, which is why I want to enjoy it while I have it. Because I think we tend to put the enjoyment part off saying I have to hustle now, I'll enjoy it later. But it's like, you don't know that part, you know, you just have to make room for both. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, so I want to know before we go, what woman in your life has been most influential as it relates to your journey of wellness? What woman in my life? Interesting. I mean, I'd have to say my mom, funny enough, as she's been...

She's been the most inspiring and motivating because I was able to see how her life in contrast to mine, she is a constant reminder of the blessings. And like I said, I'm an improvement on her design. And so to me, it's like, who else could be more inspiring than her? And I'm thankful that I can embody that.

all the hope that she had. And I'm thankful for that and happy to give that back to her and be an ecosystem for each other. So I think she's probably the most inspiring person on this journey for me. I love that you said embody her hope. Cause I think I, I think I do that for my mom too. My mom talks about like all of these dreams she had growing up and things she didn't get to fulfill, but I can tell when she's watching me that she's like watching her too. So yeah.

Absolutely. And with love, because sometimes parents can be a little rigid with you because they are living through you. But my mom has done it with love and grace and pure admiration, you know, and to me, that's been amazing.

the best part, you know, cause she, she's letting me be myself, but also watching the ways that, you know, like you said, it's like, I'm living out things that she couldn't even have imagined. And so I love that. I love that for us. You know, I'm like, we deserve that. So I'm thankful for that. What do you hope that she knows about the impact that she's had on your life? Oh man. Yeah.

I just hope that she feels seen. I know it's hard when you don't reach certain goals and certain markers in life. It's easy to kind of beat yourself up. My mom probably always thinks like she didn't do enough. She didn't accomplish enough, but I want her to know that

In what really matters, which is matters of the heart and life and connection, she's absolutely seen. And everything she planted will continue to grow even beyond us. So that's probably the biggest thing for her to feel seen and appreciated and loved. Beautiful. I'm sure she sees...

She feels seen when she sees you because when we see you, we are getting a piece of her and what a beautiful piece that is. That's awesome. I'm grateful. I'm grateful for your life. I'm grateful for your work. I'm grateful for the ways that you inspire us to live in our bodies, to live in our experiences and trust that we're safe within ourselves. And I just hope that you find so much joy and peace there in Oregon. Come on, black girls going to Oregon. We're going to have to make our way out there. Okay.

meet me for a hike I'll be here waiting on you but I appreciate that I appreciate you speaking that life and love on me and of course the feeling is mutual so thank you I'm happy to share space with you today oh thank you take care thank you bye bye

Friend, you have been so generous with your experiences, your journey and the information that you shared today. Thank you so much for co-hosting this podcast with me. I think that there are going to be some women who listen to this and truly feel themselves one step closer to really being consistently obedient in the direction of their purpose. Thank you for the trail that you continue to blaze for us all as we experience what wellness is for us.

And as we make it personal, I'm so excited that the delegation gets to experience your discipline. Come on, Oregon. We will see you on the hiking trail or online until then. This conversation is going to transform the lives of so many. We want you to send us pictures or videos of you practicing your own discipline.

journey of wellness. Email us at podcast at woman evolve.com. If you find yourself doing micro meditations, you were watering your plant, you were present with the kids, you took yourself on a walk, whatever it is, we want to celebrate those wins with you. Email us at podcast at woman evolve.com so that we can be inspired by the wellness inside of you. We'll see you next week.

What's good? It's Colleen Witt and Eating While Broke is back for season three. Brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. We're serving up some real stories and life lessons from people like Van Lathan, DC Youngfly, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and many more.

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Hi, I'm Katie Lowes. And I'm Guillermo Diaz. And we're the hosts of Unpacking the Toolbox, the Scandal Rewatch podcast where we're talking about all the best moments of the show. Mesmerizing. But also, we get to hang out with all of our old Scandal friends like Bellamy Young, Scott Foley, Tony Goldwyn, Debbie Allen, Kerry Washington. Well, suit up, gladiators. Grab your big old glass of wine and prepare yourselves for an even more behind-the-scenes Scandal.

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