120: Mantras in Motion with Erin Stutland

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What's next? This is a question we're all having to ask and answer more frequently. I'm Jenny Blake, your host of the Pivot Podcast and author of Pivot. The only move that matters is your next one.

For show notes from this episode, visit pivotmethod.com podcast if Change is the only constant, then let's get better at it. Here we go.

Hi everybody. Welcome back to the Pivot Podcast. I am so happy to be here today with one of my favorite people in New York City, Erin Stutland. Erin and I have crossed paths in always serendipitous ways and it's always a delight to run into her in person. So I am absolutely thrilled and honored that we get to talk about her new forthcoming book, Mantras in Motion on today's podcast, Manifesting what yout Want Through Mindful Movement. Erin is a renowned author and Mind body wellness expert. She's the host and lifestyle coach of Z Living's cable series Altered, and she was nominated for a Real Screen Award alongside Oprah's Super Soul Sunday. Her show is currently in its second season and Erin is all about exploring her proprietary approach to creating meaningful change by harnessing all of the body's mental, physical and spiritual energy through a combination of stories, journaling, exercises, meditations, and movement. Erin, this is so near and dear to my heart. Just thrilled to have you. Welcome to the show.

Thank you so much, Jenny. It's so good to talk to you. I was looking forward to this conversation for so long, so it's always a pleasure to get to talk to you.

Well, the last line of your bio that I didn't read is that you are living in Brooklyn with your husband Lance and daughter Quinn. Before we hit record, we were just talking about you celebrating Quinn's first birthday, which is pretty epic that you were raising your first child while working on and launching your first book.

I know. I mean, the timing was crazy. I got. It's funny because I actually got the book deal the same same week I found out I was pregnant and then 10 weeks later I found out that we Got a second season of the TV show. So it was like I was growing a baby. I was. I had to write a book before the baby was due and then shoot and shoot a TV show in all in that time frame. So it was, you know, it was like the perfect storm of. Of all the things converging at once, which is crazy.

So my completely inadequate question is how? But I mean, really, what were some of your practical tactical strategies for juggling all of this? Because it's a massive amount of stuff, both physically time wise, but also mentally just expanding into this huge next version of yourself.

Yeah. From a practical standpoint, it was not easy, you know, because you're just so. You're so tired. I was so tired physically from, you know, being pregnant. And the nice thing about that, the. With the show kind of coming in, is that when I'm. When I'm shooting the show, I sort of take a little bit of a step back from my business because it's hard to continue running the business. So I kind of have some things automated so that, like, running the business was kind of off my plate. And then I wasn't shooting every single day. So I would kind of write in between, you know, right after a shoot, day or night, then I would have two or three days off and I would write. So it was just trying to squeeze it all in when I had the energy. But your energy, There's a certain point of the day when you're pregnant, you're like, and I'm done. I don't have any more creative ideas.

So from that standpoint, it wasn't easy. And then I actually ended up needing a little extension on the book because I didn't get it all done before she arrived.

Oh, my goodness. And meanwhile, your body's changing, and so much of your work involves your body. I would love for you to tell us both what is mantras in motion? And then how did you navigate that? Like, were you filming the show while pregnant? Were there times where you felt like. But I'm Erin Stutland. Like, the agile mantras in motion, you know?

Yes. I love that you brought that up, because being pregnant was definitely a challenge for me. And to be pregnant while I was shooting a TV show was an even bigger challenge. So let me tell you a little bit about mantras in motion, and then I'll talk about those wonderful challenges that I faced. The mantras in motion is it's basically taking some of these wonderful concepts that we all know now. I think at this point, we're all very much Aware of concepts of confidence and self esteem and positive self talk and compassion for oneself and taking inspired action. I have found in my life that as much as I read about these concepts and digested them from an intellectual standpoint, they. They still weren't sticking in my life. You know, I would take two steps forward and I would take three steps back because I'd be like, I'm gonna, You know, I'm feeling confident. And then the next day I'd be like, no. My body was like, no, you're not. Like, you were just talking shit about your body, you know, today. So I. I created this. This method where we're using these concepts that, again, that we know and love, these intellectual concepts, and we're getting them into our body by speaking mantras, positive statements, affirmations out loud while we move so that.

For what it is we want in our life begins to vibrate in our body through every muscle and every cell. So that they're not just intellectual ideas, they're actual physical ideas that we begin to embody in our lives. And I found that, that by in doing that, that's really what began to create change in my life. And being someone who was physical, I was a dancer. You know, movement has always been a big part of my life. And I really believe that movement in your body creates movement in your life. And so how can we take these things that we want to embody and get them really deeply in there so again, so that they're not intellectual ideas. So that's what mantras in motion is all about.

Real quick, I just want to say I got the pleasure of taking one of Erin's classes. Should have taken 100 more, but it was so good. It's so energetic. Your energy is just fire, fire, fire. And there is something incredibly powerful about not just that feeling of runners high or workout high afterward. It is kind of a no, not a running. It's not car. I mean, it's very strong cardio, but also dance elements. And it's so cool. But then once you've been saying these mantras out loud in a room of other people, there is a really powerful shift that happens. And I love your mantra of movement in your body creates movement in your life, because that's been so true for me too. And sometimes when your life feels stuck and you've tried everything, intellectually, it's the body that actually creates the change and opens the doorway into something next.

That's right. That's right. You got. And the movements can be really simple. So, like, you Said Jenny. Like, the class that I teach live in New York City is really high energy. But what I brought to the book were really simple, very straightforward movements with the mantras so that it doesn't really matter your fitness level. This is something that you can do that you can get up and in your office, in your bedroom, wherever you are, stand and do five minutes of movement and mantra and really feel, feel a significant shift. Because it's all, I think, you know, to create the life that you want, you have to constantly be shifting your perspective into a place where you feel empowered. You know, it's not. Some people are lucky enough. I don't, I don't know many of them, but some people are lucky enough to have just a positive frame of mind all the time. I know myself, I'm not one of them. I have to constantly shift myself into that place so that I feel empowered, so that I feel energized, that I feel inspired to take action. And I believe that movement can help you do that quickly and efficiently.

I'm so grateful that you said that. I remember I went to college with someone who, I swear in her mind she was just a princess, like in a way of good, like her confidence. There was just no daily battle with her self image or self confidence. It was just all there, all the time. It was like, I am queen, hear me roar. And this was her worldview. And I'm serious, it wasn't even a front. This wasn't even the time of social media. I knew her well and I was like, how? I just don't have that. And it's interesting hearing you say that, that you have to, you're someone who has to work a little more to create that shift. And when you feel that lower vibration, to take it somewhere else. Because of course, with social media, someone could look at you and you're on a TV show and on the COVID of your book looking gorgeous and think, well, you feel that way all the time. That the outside always matches the inside.

Yeah, not, not true at all. It's, you know, it's. I definitely feel that through the work that I've done and been teaching for the course of, you know, 10 plus years, what I've. One of the, One of the things that I'm proudest of manifesting in my life is that I do feel like I return back to a state of love and peace more quickly and on a regular basis. More so than I ever did before, certainly more so than I did when I was a teenager or in my 20s, you know, I didn't feel like I had any control over my mood and my attitude. I just, you know, I just. My attitude and my mood would just run amok. And I didn't believe that, you know, I didn't believe that I actually had the control. And so through. And maybe control. Control is not the right word. Maybe the power, right, the power to really change. And so through, you know, over the course of the years and through practicing this method and coming back to it again and again, I do feel definitely a sense of more stability in my life around maintaining that sense of peace and ease and love. But certainly I don't. It's not. I don't wake up every day being like the, you know, the sun is shining. It takes work. And I think, you know, every time I move to a new level in my life or push myself outside of my comfort zone, I have to return to this work. And, you know, you brought up the idea me being pregnant while shooting a TV show. I mean, that really tested me. That really tested that place in me. Because, you know, I thought I had come to this place in my life where, like, I fully, like, accepted and embraced my body. And I was in this great place with loving my body, and I just felt good in it, and I wasn't beating myself up. And then I got pregnant, and then my body was changing out of my control. There was nothing. You know, it was only going in one direction. It was only getting bigger. There was. And there was absolutely nothing that could be done about that. That was actually the right thing. And it was. It was very hard for me, which I was surprised because I thought I was really in a good place of embracing where I was in my body. And I had to really dig in and do this work that I actually lay out in the book on an even more daily basis to keep myself in a positive frame of mind. Because it's so interesting not to go off on a pregnancy tangent, but I think as women, we're sort of expected to.

Love our bodies at all different phases of life, which is so hard to do. We're expected to be like, okay, embrace your body while you're at a great size. And now that your body's changing rapidly, embrace it at this size, you should embrace being large. You should embrace being small. It's actually really, really hard to do. I think it takes work.

Not to mention that for 30 years you have it ingrained from society. Be skinny, be skinny. Don't you know? And I think it's changing now. There's certainly more body Positive movements and curvy yoga, things like this. But when you and I were growing up, it was just one thing. Be skinny.

That's right.

And I've always thought. I haven't had kids, but I've always thought being pregnant would be hard for me because I just always had this fear of gaining weight and how would I lose the weight? And all the magazines, it's all about, how fast can you lose the baby weight? And it's all about the outer and the looks and the numbers and just things that, as you said, are feeling good. Ideally, that's within our control to do positive things for our body and have body kindness. But the number on the scale is gonna move sometimes, and life happens. I just came out of a semester of school, and I just simply couldn't get to yoga and Pilates as much. And I wasn't walking as much because I was commuting on the subway. And my body changed. Like, it's. It's just the nature of the beast sometimes.

Yeah, it's so true. And, you know, I really. After I had the baby, I. It was a real, like. It was an interesting, like, awakening because I knew my body didn't look like it did after I had the baby. And yet I was, I think, because I felt so profoundly, like, proud of what I had done and accomplished. I was like. I was looking in the mirror and I'm like. But I like what I see right now, and it's not what it was there before. It's certainly not. But I made a commitment at that time, especially in the day and age of social media, where you see so many images, you know, of bodies on Instagram and especially with postpartum, you know, while I was pregnant, I'm not kidding you, I would, like, obsess at looking at pictures of, like, postpartum women. And I would find that if I saw women whose bodies changed, like, in six weeks, they're like, and look at me. I'm, you know, back to my own body in six weeks. Well, that didn't make me feel good because I was like, well, what if I can't do that? But then I would see other images of women who are like, you know, I say, quote, unquote, real images, even though it's all real, but that, you know, six weeks or three months postpartum, they were still soft and stretch marks and whatever, and I would see that. And I didn't feel comforted by that either, because I was like, but I don't. What if I don't want that? Or what if I am there and I can't embrace that? And it was after I had the baby, I made a commitment that I would not share pictures of my postpartum journey body at all. Period. Full stop. End of story. Because I did not want to contribute to that conversation about focusing on a body one way or another, like, whether or not I fit into my skinny jeans again or I didn't. To me, I'm like, this is not. This should not be what we're valuing, what we should be valuing, you know, to me, I was so proud of how I was being once my daughter arrived. I was so proud of the fact that I. I hired a chef to make me food. I was getting. You know, obviously you don't get a ton of sleep, but I was resting when I could. I was cocooning. I was giving all my love and attention. There were so many wonderful things that I was proud of that I felt I should be valued for, that I wanted to value myself for. And none of them had to do with the shape of my body or the look of my body. And so I decided I'm not talking about my body on social media at all. Even though I'm in the fitness industry, even though maybe people are expecting me to do that. It's not what I want to value, and it's not part of a conversation that I'm interested in contributing to that is so powerful.

Just, I love. I love what you said of focusing on how you were being, that you were so proud of how you were being. Not to mention that you created a human. And.

And then I love your choice that you can opt out of all that and that you did. And that rather than participating in that spectrum, that or that kind of linear, it's either like this or like this, and where do you fall? And then so much of it is so crafted, and you're right. And then it kind of unconsciously plays into the conversation about the body as something that's so important after baby, rather than the mom's health and how are you being and how is this relationship emerging?

Right. Right. Yeah. Okay, so we're ready for. We're ready for a shift in that conversation. And not just around. Yeah. Not just around post baby, but I think in general, like, oh, yeah, let's. Let's shift to what's important here with women in particular.

Absolutely. You used to be an actress, so a dancer and an actress. How. That world seems pretty crazy to me, like living in New York City. Some say it's a jungle, but Trying to be an actor in the city. I can't even imagine all of the rejection or not hearing at all and pursuing the. First of all, just how on earth did you do that? How did those skills, how do they translate to what you do now?

Yeah, it is a crazy, it's a crazy industry and it's a crazy choice to make to say, I'm going to be an actor. But, you know, and people would say this when you, you know, when you come out of school. Like, they would say, if there's anything else that you think you can do aside from acting or, you know, being in entertainment, then, then go do it, because this is not easy. And I really felt like there was nothing else that I could or wanted to do at that time. And I really, I made a commitment to myself that I would continue doing it and auditioning and pursuing it for as long as it was fun for me. And that's actually really been my, like, North Star question. It's very simple. But it's been my North Star question even in my own business, even after I left acting. Is this going to be fun? Is this going to bring you joy to do this thing, whatever it is, create this product, write this book, do this thing? And that's what I really followed as an actor. Like, do you enjoy going on auditions? Do you enjoy sort of this hustle? And for the longest time, even though it was hard, there was joy in it because, you know, you're pursuing creativity and you're pursuing self expression and really acting, really, most art forms are about getting to know yourself. You know, if you're to be a good actor is to know yourself and to know the dark parts of yourself and the light parts of yourself and how to relate to the characters that you're playing, how to get inside them, how to have empathy and understanding for them. So it really is a beautiful, beautiful career. It's a beautiful practice. It's a beautiful craft in itself. The business of it is very hard. And what I found was that when I started my, my business, I started just kind of this little business on the side where I was teaching.

The workout and these little workshops in New York City. And as it was starting to grow and take off, I realized that how much I enjoyed being able to sort of be in control of how and when I got to create something and express myself, which was I was doing through my business. And I got tired of waiting for a casting director to say, yes, Erin, you may now use your talent, because that's the challenge with the career is that you're waiting for somebody else to give you the green light. And if you're someone who is creative and has something to say and express, you shouldn't wait for that green light. You got to make their light green and go.

And I think that actually really served me in creating my business and being an entrepreneur was.

A lot of people I know who come to entrepreneurism after being in corporate, it's hard. They're kind of like, it's harder for them to feel secure in the insecurity of being an entrepreneur. Right. Because you don't know where your next dollar is coming from or if you're, you know. And for me, as an artist, that was already what I was living. You know, I was already used to living in the unknown, of not knowing. And so it was actually like such a joy that I'm like, oh, my God, I get to create a little something and somebody's gonna pay me a little something to make something. Like, to me, that was, you know, that was. That was everything. And what I realized, and I actually talk about this in the book too, I talk about this in the first chapter where I help people identify what their core values are. Because I think, you know, if you're going to create any goals for yourself and figure out what it is that you want to manifest, you have to get really clear on what your core values are, what is important to you. And what I realized along the way that was important to me was, you know, self expression, creativity. These were some of my core values. And. And over time, I discovered that they didn't need to necessarily be expressed only through acting. They could be expressed through running a business as well. Creativity, self expression, those things could really be expressed in my business. And so that was really freeing when I identified what those core values were and allowing me to kind of eventually step away from acting completely.

There's a great business motto in there. I get to create a little something and get paid a little something by someone else. It's funny you say that, because people often probably don't think of business as inherently creative, but it is. And that was one of the reasons that I don't talk about as much. I don't think I've articulated it nearly as well as you have about why I left working full time for Google. Part of it is just the ability to create when I was called to create and what I was called to create. And that is so much more empowering than waiting for permission or waiting for the green light. Like you said that, yes, it is. Scarier being self employed. You don't know where your next dollar is coming from, but at least it's within your control to go hustle for it and absolutely try and drum it up. Also, I have to ask you, it said in your bio that you made an appearance on Sex and the City.

Is that.

Did it make the cut or like, is there an episode we can find you in?

Yeah, girl, you know it.

So I did actually, I did Sex in the City and the Sopranos and Chappelle's show and a couple others. So Sex and the City was my very first. You know, there's something called sag, which is the Screen Actors Guild, and you have to do certain kinds of work to get your SAG card. And so I had. That was my first job to get my SAG card. I had one line on Sex and the City and I had a scene with all four of the girls in, you know, that place where they have brunch all the time and I'm their waitress. And it was amazing. I'll just share really quickly. You know, the day that we're shooting, you know, you're so nervous. Like, you just have this one line and literally the line was like, what can I get you?

Which is epic to get your SAG card for. But, you know, you're, you're there, you're on set and you're kind of like, you're so nervous because it's your first one and you're excited and they're setting up the shot and they have the girls all had their. The women had their stand ins, Right? So people who kind of look like them, who are sitting in their seats so they can light the scene and, you know, kind of you're standing on the side watching them set up and then all the stand ins get up and they leave. And then all four of them come in together, like as a posse, and you're just like, oh my God. You know, especially this was like in the height of when Sex and the City was, you know, at the peak of like, everybody, like this is before, you know, Netflix and everything. So people would go home on Sunday night at 9 o' clock to watch the show. Like you didn't miss it, you know, and so this is exactly when that was happening. So it was really, it was really fun. It was a great.

Which episode was this?

It was the episode where Miranda asks Carrie to be the godmother of her son. She's pregnant.

Okay, that is amazing.

Unoriginal sin, it's called, is the episode. And it's quick and it's at the very beginning of the episode. So if you watch it, oh my gosh, don't blink or you'll miss it.

Well, I have to also give a plug. I've just done a six hour deep dive. Listen. Origins, the podcast did a three episode series of Behind Sex and the city for the 20 year anniversary. And it's based on a book called Sex and the City and Us. And both the book and the podcast on Origins are about how transformative Sex and the City was for women in particular. But our whole culture, you know, how the culture talks about sex and, and, and fashion and New York and singlehood and being single over 30. And so I've been immersed these last few weeks.

Yeah.

And, and I know for me, you know, I started watching sex in high school and there is no question that it shaped my love of New York, my feeling of independence and celebrating that independence as a woman and not only defining myself by my relationship status, the importance of female friendship. There is so much that that show did do for all of its faults and all of its flaws which are discussed in the 20 year anniversary.

Oh, wow. Amazing. I have to tune into that. That's a great reco.

Okay, I'm gonna do a sharp right turn or left turn, whichever direction.

Whenever I think about this genre of mantras manifesting, a couple things come up because I think different teachers in this realm have different philosophies. So affirmations sometimes get a bad rap because people saying them feel that they're not true. And should you say it, should you act as if and say it or not? I'm curious where you stand on that. And then I don't even know if this is directly in your book, which I did read and love. But the question of spiritual bypassing is very fascinating for me because with all this stuff, you know, I'm like you. I like to cultivate the best mood, the most loving, peaceful, harmonious energy that I can.

But I do think spiritual bypassing is so interesting. Like where do you fall on letting yourself be down?

Yeah.

Be low vibration versus trying to turn it around.

Yeah, I love that question. You know, I, I'm a huge, huge proponent of being with your feelings, whatever they are. I think it's so, so important. And you know, there was a time in my life, I'll tell you when I, when I started getting into this, you know, 15 years actually when I was in college is when I really started to, started to read some of these books because I was going through a rough Time I was experiencing a lot of anxiety and depression. And I started collecting all these tools, right, These spiritual tools. And they were wonderful because they helped me, like I said, create this shift and shift in perspective and start to feel better. And I think when I was in my early 30s, I. I was like, these tools are getting me all the way there. You know what I mean? Like, something's still. And I. And I. And I met a wonderful therapist who I was seeing. And that was actually really the bulk of the work that we did together. Was beginning to embrace.

The. Some of the feelings that I was not willing. Wanting to look at, you know, that I was wanting to push down and put in the closet and kind of close the door and not look at feelings of maybe things about myself, feelings that I would have that I didn't think were nice, appropriate, acceptable feelings like jealousy. Feelings like my. Even my own ambition feeling. You know, maybe there were things that I did. I'm like, that. Maybe that wasn't so nice, but I did it out of my own ambition. I don't want to look at that. That belongs in the closet. You know, feelings of inferiority, all of these things that I didn't want to look at. And I had to really open up the closet and embrace them and take a look at them and sit with them and learn and be okay with them. And I'm a really big proponent of that. I think that we can't. I think the tools are so important. The spiritual tools are so important, and that they can really make a huge difference. But if we don't do the deeper work of looking at sort of what's underneath things, I think we're doing ourselves a disservice. And I do approach it in the book, particularly in the belief chapter, where we talk about some of the beliefs and the subconscious beliefs and how can we dig into those and really look at what's down in the basement? And I feel like in my next book, I want to go into it deeper because I wanted this book. I really did want to teach the tools that anyone can use, no matter, you know, your age or your sex or your gender or your sexual preference or your race, that these are tools that you can start to implement into your life. But I do think there needs to be a greater conversation expanded on.

How do we sit with the feelings and how do we embrace the feelings? How do we work with those feelings? How do we shore up our feelings about ourselves so that we, you know, can live a happier life? And I think that directly leads to your Other question with affirmations. So, you know, you've got these affirmations and you don't believe them. Well, what do you do about it? And I think it's. I think you have to get really in tune with yourself. So you have to know.

Is, you know, I think there is something to be said about faking it. So you make it a little bit. I think there, you know, it's interesting because one of the women in my shrink session community, that's the. My online program that I have, she was doing one of the workouts recently and she said, you know, the first day I did the workout with these affirmations, I didn't believe it at all. It was really hard for me. The second day, I still didn't believe it. By the third day, I started to really believe these things. Something opened inside my body, inside my heart, and I got really emotional when I started to say these things, these things, because I realized something opened and I realized I haven't spoken to myself in this way, in this kind way for so long, and that I am deserving of these thoughts. Like, I do deserve to think these things about myself. And so that is a beautiful moment of transformation where she. An example where she used the mantra the affirmation several times until it began to work for her. But I don't, you know, but if you're really up against something and you're finding it just then you got to dig in and find out why, you know, why do you have resistance around this particular thought or affirmation, what's underneath it? And I think that will serve you to really look to do the deeper work of what's underneath, what's the belief underneath it. I think it's important.

I also love Byron, Katie's message that any stressful thought is an alarm clock waking you up to an unconscious belief or something that isn't true.

So absolutely.

So combined with what you're saying that, yeah, if there's. If there's some affirmation that just won't stick and it won't work, and the prevailing truth that you have, because I could relate to so much of what you said about your teens and twenties where I just thought it was the objective truth, like that inner critic voice that I had about my body. Let's just use a simple one, like you're fat or you're ugly. I just thought that that's just the truth. Well, I'm just objectively saying, stating what is true and it's not at all. But of course, those thoughts Made me feel horrible.

Right.

And so if you would notice, and you're the perfect person to write a book on how those unconscious beliefs or subconscious or traumas happen and the feelings we want to avoid because they usually happen in our body. And the way that we know a thought, as Byron, Katie would say is untrue, which I think is revolutionary, is that our body feels like shit. It feels gross, we feel down, we feel sad. And that means there's something to look at and there's an opportunity there. But it's hard to have that awareness and be the watcher and have that self compassion in the moment.

It's so. It's so hard. And I think, like, to your point, you know when you said that, you know, in your teens, like, it felt objectively true to say I am fat or whatever it is that gets stored in your body. And it. Like when you said that what. Like, the image that comes to mind is like, I feel like, okay, my, like my muscles kind of like grip on to that truth, right? And so now I'm like, yep, that's. That's my muscle. My muscles are saying I have fat. Like, it's in my legs, it's in my butt. You know, it's everywhere. I'm living that thought. And so what's so beautiful, I think about this work of putting movement to it, is when you start to move, you literally are sending oxygen to your muscles. Like, that wasn't there before. That's literally what's happening. And to me, you know, it. It opens pathways in the muscles. And so if you can be moving now, you've got this openness in your muscles, in your heart, in your cells, and you're whispering a new idea in there. Like you're whispering into the muscle, hey, you're wonderful. You're beautifully made. You know, your muscle's like, oh, wait, wait, what? Hold on, I haven't heard that. Really? Is that, you know, and it takes a while for your muscle to be like, yeah, yeah, actually, that's the truth. And I think that's where the transformation really happens. And that's why I do believe, like, that it is in certain instances, it is okay to continue to practice it until your body and your muscle memory gets it.

Totally. And even the way you shifted, you're beautifully made. That might be for someone to. That's harder to argue. The human body is a miracle. And rather than, oh, you're beautiful by Giselle and Instagram standards.

Right, right, right.

Okay, last question. Before the actual last question. When we wrap up.

Manifesting is also one of these somewhat controversial terms in the self help world. Whether you either manifest what Tosha Silver calls a grocery list for God, or you could, on the other side of the spectrum, surrender everything and just say thy will be done and really not be specific at all. Where do you fall on the manifesting spectrum?

Yeah, that's a really good question. And I've certainly changed over the course of the years. I think there's something really fun about getting specific with what it is you might like to see happen in your life. Because I think when you can get specific, life will be like, cool, I'm going to do a little magic and you're going to be amazed by it. And I think it puts a little sparkle and magic into your life when you're like, I'll share a really quick story, but I went to go see a dance concert, this is years ago, and the tickets were sold out. And I was standing and I really wanted to see this company. And I was standing in this long line hoping that maybe. And I was thinking to myself, you know, wouldn't it be nice if somebody walked out of the concert, walked out of the, of the building and had a ticket and they brought it over to someone standing in line and you got, and someone got the ticket and that's exactly how I said it in my mind. Wouldn't it be nice as I walked out of the building, had a ticket and brought it over to someone in line and two minutes later somebody walks out, they had a ticket and they were like kind of waving in their hand and they brought it over to someone like five behind me in line and I was like, oh my God. I wasn't specific enough, you know, like in a fun way. And so I started, I'm like, oh my God. Okay, so let me get back into my room. Wouldn't it be nice if somebody walked out of the building and had a ticket and they brought it right over to me to where I was standing, to this latitude and longitude. And I kind of just repeated that in my mind and lo and behold, it was so funny. I was there with a friend who was less interested in seeing the concert. And I'm standing there kind of thinking this in my head. Somebody walks out, my friend sees them, grabs the ticket from the person and brings it to me right, right where I'm standing. And so, so that is an example of just sort of magical fun being specific when, you know, when it comes to manifesting. But it's rare that it happens quite like that. And I Think you have to also really, I think it's so important to get in tune with the feelings that you want to have. So I really, I strongly believe that anything that we want to have in our life is not about the thing at all. It's not about the relationship, it's not about, you know, it's not about the shoes or the coat, whatever it is that you want. It's about how it's going to make you feel when you have it. And so I believe it's actually more important to focus on cultivating those feelings, feelings of, you know, safety, acceptance, creativity, whatever it may be. And I think that, that, that is something that's in our power on a daily basis.

So beautifully said. Thank you. Last question. What's one homework assignment that you'd want to give? Homework is so not a good word. Neither is assignment. But.

Practice that everyone who's listening could do in the next week.

Yeah, I would say my number one is to go for a soul stroll and a soul stroll. Yeah. And especially for you, Jenny, since you're so busy right now. A soul stroll is a walk and that's all it is. And it's very simple. And you know, if you're, if you're able, then it's very easy to do, to just head out. And with this soul stroll, you're gonna, you're gonna make sure you're not checking your phone, you're not looking at Instagram, you're not looking at Facebook. This is an opportunity for you, to connect with you. And I would invite you on this walk. And I would say 10 minutes away from your home, 10 minutes back is set an intention for yourself before you go. Really simple. Not. Doesn't have to be complex. It doesn't have to be, you know, it. Maybe you're wrestling with something, maybe you're trying to figure out a business solution. Maybe you are in need of a little bit of healing or for a broken heart or whatever may be. So before you begin, you just set an intention. Like this walk is about healing and I'm open to receiving whatever that might look like. And then you head out and. And if you want a little support on your soul stroll, I actually have a free soul stroll playlist. So it's a really fun, energizing music playlist where I'm coaching over it and I'm giving you mantras. So people love to use that. It's actually called the soul stroll. And you can download that. We can leave the link in the show notes. It's@erinstutland.com if you look at the upper corner, there's a little button that says walk it out. So there's a playlist that can kind of support you on the soul stroll. But just going out for a walk, 20 minutes has such the possibility to really shift so much energy in your body, in your mind and in your heart. So that's your assignment this week. I love it.

That's amazing. I'm going to do a soul stroll later today. Thank you so much, Erin. I'm so excited for you and happy with the launch of Mantras in Motion. Please let everybody know because I know you came up with an incredible book bonus bundle as well where they can find that and connect with you online.

Yeah. So come to erinstutland.com and that's S T U T L A N-D.com forward slash book. And on that page you'll see we're giving away some really great book bonuses. There's a magical Manifestors workshop. It's an hour long workshop and it's, it's really, it will help you get clear on some of those things that you're like, what do I want in 2019? What's important to me? And again, clear on also the feelings that you want to have, not just the things that you want. So we're giving away that. There's a meditation that helps unlock some of those subconscious beliefs that you get. I'm sharing some really inspirational playlists and if you preorder before, I'm not sure when this is airing, but if you pre order before January 8th, you also get the audiobook for free. So come to erinstutland.com book and you can also find me on Instagram at Erin Sutland.

Amazing, Erin. Thank you so, so much.

Thank you, Jenny. It's so good to talk to.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Pivot podcast. Make sure you don't miss an episode or my insider tips and templates by signing up for Pivot List, a curated twice monthly newsletter where I share the inside scoop on what I'm reading, watching, listening to and the latest tools I'm geeking out on. Sign up@pivotmethod.com pivotlist get show notes from this episode at first pivotmethod.com podcast and connect with me on Twitter @jennyblake.

Remember, build first, then your courage will follow. Hasn't it always.