From Feeling Stuck in Life to Reinventing Yourself with Kasey Tench | Ep. 78

Hello, welcome back to the Holistic Inner Balance podcast. We are so excited to be interviewing Casey Tench today. She is the owner of Rooting for You Holistic Life Coaching Mentorship, and after spending a decade in public education teaching life skills, she transitioned into the life coaching world. She's built a coaching structure designed by the seasons that both we and Mother Nature move through. I am so excited about that because Ayurveda is all about moving with the seasons of Mother Nature. And so that's my jam. Lots of, lots of good stuff to talk about today. So welcome, Casey.

Welcome, Casey. We're happy you're here.

Thank you. Thank you. Beautiful introduction, Hadlee. Thank you, Dr. Cain, for having me. I'm so excited to be here today.

It's lovely that, Hadlee, you dialed right in on the seasons and this rhythm that we go through with life. In fact, yesterday I was just talking to a client about seed cycling and how seed cycling, if you compare that with the lunar cycle, how that can be a really effective way to start to naturally get your body and your hormones into a natural rhythm. And so I'm really eager to learn more about that particular aspect of the work that you do. And so what I, what I'd love to know is, tell me about you. Tell me your story.

Okay. Um, so I left the classroom in June. I was a high school teacher. I worked with freshmen through seniors, um, for 10 years, and it was a magnificent experience. Um, but I began to experience some extreme burnout. And I just had this knowing that it was time to do something different. Um, I taught life skills courses. Truthfully, I feel like I have been a life coach for the past 10 years. I am just coaching teenagers. And so it was a really natural transition for me to move into this space to begin working with women instead of children. I have been diagnosed with a number of different chronic illnesses. And so I've been navigating through each of those while also teaching. That was a factor to my burnout. And the two of those combined, teaching and the diagnoses, those are the reasons that I realized that a lot of the structures that are in place that are meant to be supportive for women are actually pretty broken. And so I wanted to step into a different role of support. support so I could help the woman who is possibly going through what I went through in the early years of my— of receiving my different diagnoses. I felt really let down by Western medicine, and so I began researching different alternative practices, and I'm currently studying Ayurvedic medicine now as well. And so I have found healing and holistic modalities, I have healed my body. Each of my diagnoses are now in remission, and I just want to scream it from the rooftops that it is possible to heal your body, and it is possible to alleviate a life of burnout, and it's possible to thrive. You know, you kind of have to figure out how to get there though. And so that's, that's my, my true goal is is to show women that I've built this bridge between the chronic pain and the chronic illness and just the part of life. And I've built the bridge to figure out how to find peace and thrive and help. And now I want everybody to come on with me so I can show you how to do it too.

So it sounds like you have this combination of skills. One is education and teaching, and then you had these personal experiences that catalyzed you attaining skills to build this bridge for actual true healing.

Yes, that's exactly it.

And I love the way that you put, you put it as I've built this bridge, and you're not like, well, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get you to the other side. It's rather, it's like I built the bridge and now it's time to empower you to actually get yourself across the bridge.

Yes. That's it. I mean, for anyone who desires true health, you know, it, it takes some elbow grease to get there. And, and I'm not claiming to be the one to, to heal anybody, but I, I can show you how I did it, and I can help you find ways that really work for you too.

If we can zero in—

oh yeah, I always say that coaching is all about asking questions rather than ever giving much advice. Definitely. It's like, what do you want?

I ask so many questions.

Yes. Yeah, yeah. So good.

It's like the toddler that's like, why, why, why?

Totally.

All like that more, then we would have a lot more answers, I think. Or just a lot of people be annoyed with us. One or the other.

Funny you said that. I was the child that was, why, why, why, why? And I drove my parents crazy. And it is— the irony has not missed me now that it is— it's my career to ask why a million times.

I love that.

So I'm curious about this bridge, and I was wondering if we could zero in a little bit on that. Yeah, especially when we're talking Ayurveda, I think it's really easy for us to be in this theoretical, imaginative, metaphorical land. And so if we just add a little bit of grounding and maybe specificity to that, can you tell us a little bit about the bridge? What do you mean by that bridge? What actually did you do that helped you actually create healing and get from one place to the next?

Sure. Um, so for me, what I— the different modalities that have worked for me. I first, um, I first just opted out of Western medicine. I, I was receiving diagnosis after diagnosis and prescription after prescription, and I just continuously felt bad, and then my labs would be normal, and it was just this merry-go-round of And so I stopped. I stopped going to see the different doctors and I was like, you know what, screw it. I can figure out how to feel better all by myself. I dove into herbalism. I found a naturopathic doctor in my area and I started working with her. I broke up with gluten.

Mm-hmm.

Dear.

Um, a lot. I've I'm embarrassed by how hard I've cried. Oh, I love bread. I love bread, um, but bread don't love me. And so, uh, getting rid of gluten was a— it was a huge milestone in the journey. Um, learning about different supplementations, I began seeing, uh, functional LPN, and she really helped me with the lab side. Um, and supplementing different things. But truthfully, a lot of it was mindset. Um, and as I said, I'm studying Ayurvedic medicine now. And so one thing that I've learned, and, and it's so interesting because while I'm in class, I am, I'm critiquing my own, um, journey and I'm like, yes, that's it. That's what happened. And so one of the primary causes of diseases is forgetting your true nature as spirit. spirit and disconnection from spirit. And that was it for me. Now that I'm able to look back on it, I was completely disconnected. And so reconnecting and finding that, um, that purpose and, and just knowing that, okay, this is going to get better. It's not good right now, but it's gonna get better. And having an inner knowing of I'm divinely protected, guided, supported, and all of the above. That was major in the healing journey, but also being aware of the different cycles that I was in mentally and physically, being aware of the habits that I leaned into that really weren't serving me. I loved Taco Bell so much. I had to break up with Taco Bell, too. Um, but just relearning how to nourish my body. I never correlated food with nourishment. And now saying that, I'm like, what? How did I not? But I never did. Um, I struggled with different eating disorders. And so food to me was gain weight or not. It was, there was no nourishment key. And so I had to learn about that. I had to learn how to feed myself. I am from the South. We cook everything in grease and a lot of biscuits and, I mean, fried everything. So, I had to figure out how to eat in a different way than how my family taught me how to. Then the mental health piece is really what I work most on with my Clients right now. As soon as I get my certification as an Ayurvedic health counselor, I will integrate the more physical piece. But right now I work with my Clients on the mental part because that was a catalyst for me as well. My mindset. I was just waiting on something bad to happen. I was just waiting on it. I was filled with guilt, filled with shame, filled with anger. And I had to address those emotions myself and work through those myself, figure out where they came from. I believe that unresolved trauma manifests in the physical body, and it is clear to me now that I had a lot of unresolved trauma, and, and that trauma had manifested in different places in my body. That's where it landed. And once I began working through that, I started feeling so much better. My stage 4 endometriosis, it was It took 3 weeks, 3 out of 4 weeks every month. So my life was controlled by pain. And as soon as I began working on my diet, connecting with spirit, and figuring out where that trauma was coming from and facing it and addressing it, that was when the pain went away.

That's amazing. Do you have imaging, uh, to show actual change in the endometrial lining, or is it more your subjective

It's my subjective experience. I don't have any imaging. I have the imaging from before, but nothing new. I saw my gynecologist. This was probably 3 years ago, but it was when he told me that I was in remission. And he said, Casey, how'd you do this? You haven't been in here in 2 years. And I was like, that's why. That's amazing.

That's how I did it. That's a mic drop moment right there.

Yeah, yeah. And he, he was amazed and he said congratulations. He told the whole office and, and he was like— when I told him I wanted to come off of the Depo shot, he told me that he did not support me in my decision, um, that he did not think it was a good idea. You know, at that time they were He said, pregnancy, Lupron, Depo, hysterectomy. This is what you can do to manage your pain for the rest of your life. And I was like, I don't like any of that. I'm going to figure something else out. And so I went on a 2-year hiatus, worked on myself, went back for an exam, and he told me I was in remission. And I said, I knew that I could do it. And he was like, I'll be honest with you, I did not think you could, but now I know that it is possible.

I have to celebrate you attaining victory over the, the nocebo effect. And I think that's, that's really amazing. And I just honor you so much for that. A lot of us have heard about the placebo effect where we will something to work, by just sheer belief that it will work. But the nocebo is equally powerful where we're told that something won't work and then we can will ourselves into not responding. And you're kind of describing this experience with your clinicians where they're like, you're really— these are your only options is this, this, or this. And like, really, it's pretty likely that you're just going to need a hysterectomy. And I do hear that. From a lot of endo warriors. And so what I love about your story is that you didn't know SIBO, that you didn't take on that belief of your lack of ability to heal, and you pursued healing anyway. And thankfully, you have a wonderful end to your story of healing of the endo. Like, you're in remission. That's wonderful. Not everybody is able to attain that, so it's really a victory for you. But I think a huge part of it, like you said, is mindset where you didn't let that be the end of your story.

Yeah, I just knew. I mean, I was 25 whenever this was happening, and I knew I'm too young. I'm too young for a hysterectomy. I don't want to get pregnant. I'm not interested in becoming a mother right now. And, you know, I have a background in child development and I was like, also, that's not a reason to have a child. And so that was something. And I was like, and Vyvanse put my body into false menopause. What? I don't want to do that either. And the Depo shot, I tried the Depo shot for probably 6, 6 to 9 months. And I, I was in debilitating pain still. It wasn't working for me. And so it just, to me, none of it made sense. The advice that I was being given did not make sense to me. And so I just, I opted out of it until I could find something that made sense. And coming home into my body, living cyclically, learning about my womb, That has made so much sense, and so that is what I have found support in.

I love how you say coming home into your body. It's svastha, right? It's the being seated in the self. It's basically what health is in Ayurveda. That's so cool. So you've talked a little bit about rebirth, and I wanted to just ask you a little bit about that. Why? You know, why you mentioned that you kind of help people come to a rebirth within your, within your program?

Yeah. So rebirth is something— whenever I figured out that I'm going to name my roadmap the Rebirth Roadmap, I was like, yes, this is it. Because I have rebirthed fully. I am not who, who you're meeting today is not who I was 5 years ago, certainly not who I was 10 years ago. And so I have this deep-seated belief that we have this magnificent ability to reinvent ourselves, to fully rebirth. I was at a place riddled with chronic illness. And I was miserable in my life, miserable in my career. My dad had just passed away, and so I was in this really existential space of what is this? Why are we here? What is, what is the whole purpose? And that ties back into the spiritual piece too. Um, but I realized that I rebirthed during that time. I didn't know it at the time. It's taken years of contemplation to figure this out, but I was rebirthing. I went into a cocoon and I came out a completely transformed individual. I believe though that rebirth doesn't have to be this 7-year span event. I believe that we can rebirth every Monday, at the beginning of every week. Um, we can rebirth every day. You know, if yesterday was trash, Throw it away. We can start over today. As women, we have the magnificent ability to rebirth every single month. The first day that we're finished bleeding, it's a rebirth. We have decayed the last month and we can start anew. And so I, I feel kindred to the term rebirth because I like Having that knowing, and I like having the power that I can be different today than how I was yesterday. I can make tomorrow a whole brand new thing. It doesn't have to be like it was today. It is empowering to me to know that I can create what I desire instead of just kind of working with the life that I have been given. That's what I was doing when I was ill, is I was just— I was navigating through the life that was given to me. Now, today, I'm creating my own life. I'm creating my own future. I'm not doing anything that was given to me. I'm making it all myself. That is a rebirth to me.

Can you tell us a little bit more about how you do that? So I imagine that there's somebody listening to this conversation that's like, all right, I got my notepad and paper out. Like, what do I do? What's next?

So to me, again, it goes back to mindset. Being aware of your reactivity is important, I believe. I was a highly reactive individual. It took nothing for me to snap on somebody. And so I have learned—

Lots of pizza going on there.

That, like, almost all the time. Um, like, I get sweaty all the time. I mean, it's everything. Pink skin. Um, but I have realized that we can't control what happens in life. We cannot control the things that are going on outside. We can control how we respond to it. We can control how we react to it. If there is something happening that we don't enjoy, we can control choosing that again. You know, if there's an interaction with a person and being around someone stresses me out or makes me feel uncomfortable or causes me anxiety, I don't have to be around that person again. If I'm unhappy in my career, I don't have to stay there until retirement because that's what I went to school to do. I can change. And, and obviously it's scary to do something totally different, but that's something that we have the power to do. We have the power to make our own decisions. Is it terrifying to do something different? Oh yeah. But is it worth it to me? Yes, it is.

So if someone's listening to this conversation, maybe that first thing you can write down is to ask yourself, is there anything in my life that may be serving as an obstacle to transformation?

Yeah.

Am I in a relationship where the other person is an antagonist in my joy, an antagonist in my story? Is my job giving me life or does it feel like it's draining my soul? Am I getting time to fill my cup and what are those things that fill my cup and how can I be mindful about doing that? And so as you're listening to what Casey's describing is stop and maybe even hit pause on this podcast and Write those things down so that you can start to identify what might need to change in your life, what might be getting in the way of you truly transforming and rebirthing, as Casey says.

Yeah. And this, this just reminded me, I, um, I subscribe to intuitive eating. It is something that I believe is, is powerful. It helped me heal from a number of eating disorders. Intuitive eating is listening to your body when you are hungry and really eating what you want. I know it works because when I first started it, I went to Taco Bell. I was like, OK, I can eat what I want. Taco Bell. I went to Taco Bell. I had one bite and then I didn't want it. I had one sip of the Baja Blast. And I didn't chug it. And I was like, okay, this is, this is, this is magic right here. But that, that concept, I share that in my client sessions. My clients think that I'm going to tell them that they have to stop vaping or they have to stop drinking. They have to stop with their binge eating. And there's none of that. I suggest to them, do whatever it is that you want to do and then listen to your body afterwards. You know, I'm hearing a lot of shame around these habits. When you walk away from, from doing them, do you feel like crap or do you feel good? And when they have that permission, okay, I can do this thing, and then they do it and then they figure out I kind of feel like crap when I do this. I am not going to do this anymore. That is it. Just awareness of how does it make you feel? How does this food make you feel? How does this beverage make you feel? How does this person make you feel? How does this place make you feel? Tap into that. Sit with your body. Are your shoulders tense or are they relaxed? Do you have that shame? Do you have guilt? Or are you confident in your decision? Those are the cues that tell you whether whatever you're doing best serves you or does not.

So it's like intuitive living. Yes, just expanding the intuitive eating to intuitive living. I resonate with that so much. That's like my favorite thing ever, is to just tap into what our bodies are telling us. What, you know, and that's also easier said than done because a lot of us have been have been, like, raised to totally disconnect from our bodies and to look to an outside authority over, you know, what we're supposed to do, in quotations. And so, yeah, I think it's just so helpful to have someone to guide you through that. It's like, it's huge.

Yeah.

Hadley, Hadley, I feel like you were You're my guide in that sense. So I'm driving into my office this morning, and I'm like zooming down the highway, and I have a giant bowl of oatmeal that I'm hammering. So I'm like driving down the highway, and I was like, oh, Hadlee said don't do that. I'm like rocketing down the highway at like 70 miles an hour.

And I'm like, water, water, water, water.

And I'm just like shoving oatmeal into my mouth and like listening to the radio. And I'm like, I'm like, oh my gosh, my guru Hadlee would be— she would be laughing and shaking her head. So my, my little like Hadlee on my shoulder was like, shouldn't you sit and like mindfully enjoy the nourishment of your oatmeal?

No judgment. The little Hadlee on your shoulder has no judgment at all. Just a little reminder, remember to tap in and see how this makes your body feel. And then, well, it worked.

I did. I noticed it.

How did you feel, Dr. Kane, afterwards?

Um, well, I haven't re-tapped in yet, so.

Okay.

Um, how am I feeling? I do feel a little squirrely, but I think that's like excitement. I always get excited when I'm having conversations that make my soul sparkle. So I have a little bit of excitement, but I also feel a little bit like my stomach's a little bit tight. And so it's probably like, what the hell were you just doing? So

yeah,

I think once the excitement dies down and my body's like, okay, are you listening now? Then I'll probably have all of the gas and bloating. We'll see. It'll be a surprise.

Well, that's the thing about intuitive eating and intuitive living. Right, is that we need to actually pay attention, right? Like, if we're just doing things on autopilot and we're like, you know, driving down the highway and we're doing all these things, then it's really, really hard, or it's impossible, I would say, to do the intuitive living and the intuitive eating.

Yes, yes. Taking that pause to tap in and figure out, okay, how did this feel? Because if we don't pause and we don't tap in, then You know, a couple hours go by, then you do feel the bloat and you do feel the gas, or you do feel the uncomfortability. You're like, where the heck did this come from?

Yeah, and you don't know where it came from, so then you can't really make a, uh, an informed decision in the future because you're like, oh, this just keeps happening, I don't know why.

My favorite part of that story is that you use the word hammering oatmeal.

Oh, I love that. Not beer.

No, pounding oatmeal.

It's the naturopathic binge.

Yeah.

I also want to shout out, we're talking about intuitive eating. And so if this is a new concept to you as you're listening to this, is there's a wonderful book that was written by Evelyn Tribble and Elise Resch in 1995. And that's kind of the gold standard of intuitive eating, where it's attempting to bridge the gap between this Anti-dieting movement and then that medical weight loss community where it's about looking at exactly what you were saying, Casey, is like tapping into how your body feels when you're nourishing it, which is the opposite of what I was doing, is I was just having a heyday and laughing at the meta awareness of what was happening. And so intuitive eating is the opposite of what I did.

Well, and yeah, that book is That book is really good. They also have a new edition of it. And so it has even more of the— 1995 was a while ago.

It was a minute ago.

Yes. And so they have some new editions with new research and everything that they've been able to uncover in the past 20, over 20 years since then too. It's a really, really good one.

So I want to circle back and add a little bit of grounding to it. And so we've been talking with Casey about helping women take their power back. And particularly, you use rebirth, which I think is just a beautiful description. You have a whole free gift, by the way. So for you listening, if you haven't downloaded it yet, go and check it out. You can find Casey on her Instagram, and we'll make sure to put that link in the bio. But you definitely want to check that out. And then she also does weekly coaching sessions. They're 8-week sessions, and then on week 9, that's when, you know, you will have, in her description, achieved your rebirth, which is super cool. And in this conversation, we've been talking about how to start the process of rebirth. And Casey, you've given us some pretty good starting points. So number one I wrote down is mindset, and so starting to be aware of your reactivity. And then something you said earlier in our conversation is being aware of why you feel the way you feel and doing that deeper trauma work, because sometimes our mindset is because we have traumatic experiences that necessitated that kind of a mindset for protection at that time that's no longer serving us later in life. So I really appreciate and respect that. So it's kind of like a psychology piece. And so you help people with mindset.

Can I just interject there? Because I think we were talking a little bit about how changing things in our lives, quitting our jobs or doing like some, some big thing is obviously really important. But I also love how you bring in the, the psychology piece, because that's not always the— wherever you go, there you are is kind of is the thing. It's like, you might be dissatisfied in your job, you might be dissatisfied in the place that you live currently, you might be dissatisfied in something else. And so getting really clear on whether that is because of that thing. Or if it's because there's some other stuff going on, you know, underneath the surface. And so I love— I like that you bring that piece of it into it as well.

That is— I mean, that's exactly it, Hadlee. I call that getting to the root. Um, going back to me asking why, why, why, why, all the questions, you know, when my client says, says something, expresses something. Yesterday in a session, we were talking about anger and resentment. And I asked, well, why are you angry at such and such? Okay, what about that made you angry? And then I switched it to sadness because anger is the blanket emotion over sadness. And I said, all right, well, what about this made you sad? And I mean, it was immediate tears. And she was like, I never realized that I was sad about that. I've just been mad about it. And, and so just asking, okay, well, what about that? What about that? What about this? My clients, they get to their own root. They're just guided there through my different questionings. And, and like you said, if you're unhappy at this place and you don't address what about it made you unhappy, odds are you may not be happy at the next job. You may not be happy in the next relationship. If you aren't getting to the root of what really caused that frustration, resentment, or anger in the first place.

So good. That's interesting. I hadn't heard that anger is the blanket over sadness. That's interesting.

Yeah. And resentment is the blanket over jealousy.

Oh yeah. That sounds like you're— yes.

You sound like you're quoting, like the way you said that was like so eloquently, beautifully quoted. Where can I learn more? I want to read more about that.

Um, honestly, Brené Brown made my brain explode when she dove into the different emotions. Um, I've learned a lot from her, and so I would, I would start there. Atlas of the Heart. Oh my gosh.

Oh, that's the one that I haven't read. I think I've read every other book, but that's the new one that she Yeah, she just released, right? So yeah, I gotta read that one.

It's magnificent. Um,

well, add that to our list.

Yes, we're giving all the book recs today. Wonderful, wonderful. Awesome. I'm also really curious about, um, you had mentioned before we started recording, um, you mentioned, uh, linguistics and how linguistics play into the healing journey. And I just wanted to ask about that because I'm a big language, like, nerd. So I would love to hear a little bit more about that.

Okay, uh, so I received my coaching certification in NLP, neurolinguistics programming, and so that really kicked off, um, I guess my desire to learn more about linguistics and the role that linguistics plays. But the words that we use, they help really create how we view and think and see and live. And so the one word that I work on a lot with my clients is the word should. The word should— the word should carries the energetics of shame. And so when I say, I really should have said this, I really should have done that, then I feel like shit about myself. Mm-hmm. Because I feel shameful that I did not do that. And so if someone says, I should have worked out this morning, I should have sat down and ate my oatmeal instead of eating it on the highway, then you feel bad. That's counterproductive. You know, let's, let's change that word should to did you want to? Is that what you wanted to do? Did you want to work out this morning? Oh, you didn't? OK. Well, that is, you didn't want to work out, so you didn't. You honored that. That very minuscule flip all of a sudden removes all the shame off of your shoulders. Shouldn't. OK. I don't want to. I didn't want to. And just Honoring what is the core feeling behind that, behind that should. I have practiced completely getting rid of the word should from my vocabulary. I work with an energy teacher and she told me that I was shoulding myself.

Yes, I always say stop shoulding all over yourself.

And since IBS was one of the diagnoses I was carrying, I'm far too familiar with, with shoulding on myself and Shitting on myself. So I'm not doing either of those anymore. Um, and I also, after learning that, when I share it with other people, I share that there's plenty of people in my life that, that try to throw shame on me. My mom's favorite thing to say is shame on you. I will not shame on myself, shit on myself. I'm not doing it anymore. And I really encourage people that I work with to do that as well. Another word tying back into the linguistics, a word that I like to use is desire. What do you desire? What— out of this conversation, what do I desire you to walk away with? What do I desire from my career? What do I desire when I eat? What do I desire when I connect with my husband? zoning in on what I desire has, has really helped me because at the beginning of this space, if you asked me, what do you want, Casey? I would be like, I don't know, I just know what I don't want. Okay, well, I mean, that's nice, but how can you really envision your goals and your dreams if you don't know what it is that you do want, that you do desire? And so I've practiced instead of Saying what I don't want. I practice saying what I actually do desire. I claim that. I believe that— back into the mindset— I believe that what we view in life is precisely what we're going to receive. What we believe is going to happen is what we receive. We believe when we wake up today is going to suck, I believe that it's actually going to suck. If I wake up and I believe that today is going to be full of purpose, Then that is what I'm going to receive. I believe that in my relationships. I believe it when I go run errands. If I think it's— there's going to be a ton of traffic and it's going to be a pain in the butt, that's, that's what I'm going to be given. But if I believe it's going to be a quick, speedy 15-minute errand run, then I see that that is what I receive. And I think this goes into linguistics and mindset. the words that I use to describe the experiences that I desire.

I love it. Yeah, words matter. Words matter a lot. They matter for how we believe. They matter for how we impact other people too. And yeah, I think I just love that you bring, you bring in the very intentionally bring in the linguistics piece of it, because it is so important to change our language. I, I talk a lot about like the language that we use around food and, you know, that plays into diet culture and that we don't realize that we even do. But it, but it reflects— it's kind of a give and take. It's like our language reflects what we believe and then also what we believe like reflects our language. And so if we can change our language, even if we don't quite fully believe it yet, It's like it gets us on the road to actually changing that belief. So that's—

Definitely. Yeah, definitely. It's a building block. Um, and just like anything, it takes a little practice. Um, takes a couple workout sessions to get that muscle memory in changing your words, changing your beliefs. Um, a lot of people I know that when I— whenever I was at the beginning of this journey with my chronic illness and miserable in different scenarios, my mindset was life sucks, life is going to be hard, this is how it is. That was how I viewed it, and that was exactly what I was receiving. And I had to figure out how to flip that so then I could see a transformation, I could see healing.

And neuroscience-wise, When you start to think things, you know, I didn't want to as opposed to I shouldn't have or I didn't or what, you know, whatever those messages are, then you start to lay down new synaptic connections. A synaptic connection is the way that the brain makes memories, the way that the brain creates understanding, the way the brain processes. And so if we're only thinking about what we don't want or what we're upset about or what we're trying to heal from or what we're trying to avoid, that's the way that your brain is going to start to orient itself versus what we're talking about here is you're actually intentionally rewiring the brain. You're engaging in neuroplasticity with intention. And I think that's really important because a lot of us feel like, well, this is just the way my brain works. And this is the way that my brain thinks, but we can actually literally change the way that the brain thinks and works with intentional habit changes by checking your thoughts, like you said, being aware of your reactivity. And I love the questions that you ask. What do I desire when I blank? Or what do I want? Or what are my goals and dreams? And starting to focus your brain, your brain's attention on that.

Yes. That's it.

That's amazing. So how— tell us a little bit more about how people can work with you and learn from you.

Uh, do you want me to explain my— the coaching structure?

Yes, please.

Okay, so the co— the coaching structure that I use is within alignment of the seasons that both we and Mother Nature go through. You mentioned that in my introduction. Um, I ask women to note when their menstrual cycle is Coming, or has it just recently passed? And we begin working together right after the cycle ends, right after their bleed ends. The first week of working with me is our spring, when you are in your inner spring, when you're in your follicular phase. And this is the time to show resilience. You just made it out of winter. You just made it out of your menstrual cycle. This is the time that we plant seeds. And so with life coaching, I ask, what are the things that you do want in life? What habits do you want? How do you want to change your morning routine? Do you want to change how you move your body, how you feed your body, how you interact in your relationships? This is spring stuff. The very next week is ovulation, and that is our inner summer. This is the time to, you know, big Lizzo energy. Flex in your vitality, be seen, the time to nourish and cultivate those seeds that were planted, to practice the new habits, see what's working. Um, in fall, which is the luteal phase, this is when I ask my clients, what leaves do you want to shed? What habits, what behaviors, what thought processes are, are not serving you anymore? And you're ready to really release those. And then in winter, this is the decay period. So all the leaves that we shed in fall, we allow them to lay on the ground, let the snow cover them up. They will decompose and they will provide nourishment to you as you bloom again in spring. Winter is the time to rest, restore. I use the term decay. We talk about mourning the parts of us I believe that there's a lot of people who experience this identity crisis during a rebirth, turning into the new person that they want to be, and they're like, but this is weird because this is not who I used to be. In winter, we honor who we used to be while knowing that it has served its purpose. That version of me served Served the purpose that I needed while I was surviving, but I know that I am ready to expand out of that. We process that. Week 5 is spring again, and so we run through the seasons one more time. The big difference with the second, the second rotation of the seasons is we are more intentional. What habits did you want to plant the first time but didn't stick? OK, let's talk about why they didn't stick. Do we need to change anything? What— is there a limiting belief that is causing you to not be successful in this new habit? Do you really not want to? Okay, well, let's figure something else out. Um, and then the, the second winter is more of an integration than of a decay. I like to, to encourage my clients to integrate the past parts of them, to take what they learned from the most painful experiences in their life and release what, what no longer serves. Um, it's truly a magnificent thing to see women move through each of these cycles and phases in 8 weeks. I just recently graduated 2 clients and I cried because I was like, I'm so proud of you. I'm also going to miss you, but They leaving me, they were not the same person than who they began the sessions with. And it's just so beautiful to watch a human transform in a way that, that makes them feel good and helps them find peace in, in their lives. And then of course, week 9 is the rebirth. You're all on your own without me, and, and you're using the skills that, that you learned in our sessions, and you are creating the life that you desire. The first time I realized that I was in a rebirth, a girlfriend told me I was being reborn. And, and I was, I mean, I was a mess. I was crying hysterically. And she was like, Casey, you cried the first time you were born, didn't you? And when she said that, I was like, oh my gosh. And, and so that is a message that I share with my clients. You cried the first time you were born. Who held Who will hold you now? Because that is a part of being an adult is we look around and we figure out we are the adult. We are the person to hold us. And sure, you can do it all by yourself. Absolutely, I did. But when given the chance and opportunity, doesn't it feel comforting to know that there is a person who can hold you and guide you through it?

My friend, that was beautiful.

Oh, that's beautiful. Thank you. Oh, thank you so much for being here today and for sharing with us. I think this is gonna— people are gonna leave this conversation feeling so inspired and so excited about their new, their new rebirth.

Yes.

And the new identity. Yes. That they're stepping into next. So thank you so much. Um, is there anything else that you want to share with our audience before we head out?

Dr. K mentioned that I had a freebie to give, and it is a 7-day journaling guide. Um, I have found incredible comfort through journaling in this healing journey of mine, and I share it with my clients. The journaling guide has morning and afternoon journal prompts. I call it the bookends. You begin your day with intention. How do you want your day to go? And then you end your day with a good reflection. Each day has a different theme— Mindset Monday, Talk It Out Tuesday. The rest of the days have things too, and the journal prompts go along with them, but it helps you just live more intentionally. Like we said, you know, a lot of people forget to take that pause, and these journal prompts will prompt you to pause and reflect on your day so you can then rebirth the next day. At the very end of the journaling guide, I have a little love note to the writer just to share my intention for the purpose of it. I think it's a magnificent practice, and I believe there's true healing in, in writing down our thoughts, hopes, dreams, desires, all those things. And so I would love, I would love for your community to find that, um, that journal guide.

I'm gonna get it.

I'm really excited about it.

Yeah, it'll be, it'd be cool too to look back after doing the rebirth and seeing the change in the journaling from when you started through the end of the process, which is a continual process of rebirth. Like you said, every single day we wake up, we could be reborn.

Yeah.

And so I love that in terms of like the actual therapeutic processing, but then also like, wow, look how far I've come.

Yes, yes. And just reflecting fondly on, on the steps that you've taken. You know, it's easy for us to think about today and to feel like I'm not where I want to be, but imagine where we were 2 weeks ago, 2 months ago, 2 years ago. We are— we're always doing way better than we believe we are.

Awesome. This has been such a great conversation.

I'm so glad. Thank you for having me.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks for listening, everybody. Be sure to click on the links in the bio. Make sure you pop over on Instagram, give Casey a follow, let her know how you found her, and Be sure to check back. We have some really awesome podcasts on their way. And so if you haven't, be sure to like and subscribe. And if you have a hankering, share it with somebody that you know that might also enjoy this podcast. All right, thanks everyone.