"Embracing the Magic of Our Wild Children: A Conversation with Kristin Merwin" Podcast Episode

All right. Welcome back, my friends, to another episode of I was born to do this. This is our fresh new episode of the season. I took the summer off. I'm really excited to be back in. I'm really excited to be here because we have something extraordinary that has happened in last few weeks, and that is why I have this beautiful guest with me, Kristin Murran. How are you?

I am doing well. Thank you. Thank you for having me on here today.

It's my honor. I realize I said your last name wrong. Kristin Merwin. I know her well because Kristen was my very first Mastermind client in 2000. Is it 19?

Yes.

2019. You were the very first person that said yes to my mastermind, and I owe all my success to you.

You don't, but I owe mine to you.

I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful for you. I tell people all the time, you just need one yes. And when you have that yes, then you can continue your work. And you are my yes. Praise God for you.

It was. It was a fast yes.

It was the best right away.

Yeah.

And we've had an extraordinary journey together. And now we're on this journey where you are a Mosai member and you are one of our writers, an author in the Mosay message book. This just came out a few weeks ago. This book is so powerful. It has 12 awesome, extraordinary, phenomenal leaders telling their stories of expansion of their most important messages. And you are in here. And so what I want to do is first congratulate you for being a published author.

Thank you. It was fun to write.

So much fun. Number two, I want you to tell all of our listeners, like, who you are, and then we're going to go deep into the message that you wrote in this book. So why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

I am a resiliency coach for kids and teens. I have four of my own kids. I'm married, living in Arizona, and I love my work. I got started in 2019 after working with you. So I have been doing coaching, and before that, it was working as a photographer doing magic of me books, which then grew into the seven magic mindsets, the curriculum I wrote for kids. So it's blooming and continuing to grow as we speak.

Oh, my gosh. You are amazing. I'm gonna tell people. I'm gonna tell people what I know about you. Okay. I can say this because we've walked this path. I mean, you really have walked this path together for the last five years. And one gift that I see so deeply in you is you have the ability to truly see the magic in children and in teens. And all that is needed is someone to see it for them to be able to believe it. And you change children and teens life everywhere, not only with your gifts, but with this curriculum that you built that helps them move through their mindsets and actually create lives that they love, which is like probably the most holy work you could do on this planet.

And it feels like a gift to me. So, yeah, I mean, I absolutely love everything about magic of me and the brand that I'm developing and growing. Magic inside. Yeah. It brings so much life to me.

And it's just so needed. I mean, and you and I both saw that post 2020. Children and teens have. It's like they haven't recuperated. That really threw them.

Yes. I mean, if you look at the statistics and the studies they're doing, it appears that the mental health of our youth has never been more troubling. And there's a lot of changes that need to happen.

Yeah. And you're one of those forces. And I just. I honor you because this path is not easy to create. It's not easy to build. And your determination to make a difference for children and teenagers has pushed you through so many fires and so many hurdles. And that is resiliency right there.

A little bit of grit gets you a long way.

A whole lot of grit. Got a whole lot of grit.

Yes.

That's amazing. So I want to talk about this chapter that you wrote in Mosai. And I'm going to find the exact. Oh, I love that you're chapter 13.

Isn't that funny? I didn't know if that was on purpose. And the wild child is 13.

Feels right. It feels right. So you wrote a chapter in this book. And let me just reiterate, like, this book is not a normal collaboration book. If anyone gets collaboration books nowadays, 90% of them are written by AI. They're just like business tools. People just want to have their name in it, which is fine. It's not a problem. That is not what this is. This is deep, heartfelt, channeled messages. The most important messages from truly empowering leaders. First of all, how does it feel to have your chapter held within the. Within the covers with all these messages?

I'm still getting through all of the chapters. The women in there are incredible and their stories and the wisdom that they're sharing. So I was really honored to be in there and be able to share a small part of My story? Yeah.

I mean, there's something about it. It's almost like the energy of all these stories in the book makes the book kind of vibrate. Like it's got this frequency to it. Right. It's magic. It's magic. So I want to. I want you to tell us about your chapter. What is the Wild child? Tell me about what? What is this chapter involved?

The wild child, the one that doesn't play by the rules. The one that does, you know, that lives outside of the box. And as I say in the chapter, I was that child. And I am raising some wild childs of my own. And these are the greatest lessons. And I think understanding that none of this is by accident or mistake, these wild childs that are here are here for a purpose. And if we can guide them and lead them, the world will change. Instead of trying to put the fire out.

I feel that because I was a wild child and I have some wild children. Right. It's almost like those are the ones that are going to move the earth if we help them. If we don't, it's like you combust, you know?

I know it's tempting to want to put that fire out. Sorry, I didn't want to interrupt.

No, no, I want to. I want you to talk about this because I feel like it's very simple. Nowadays it seems easier to put water on our children's fire because it feels too much and it feels too intense. Let's talk about this, because I'm sure there's a lot of parents right now who are struggling with their children, and they want to just tell them, like, just be the normal kid, fit in the box, because then I know how to handle you. Right.

Talk about it. I mean, there's. There's two parts to that, I believe, both of which I go into a little bit in the book. The first one is our temptation as a parent to, like you said, water that down, tame this. You know, we think that we're protecting our children by putting that fire out. Because you can't be that bright in the world and have this much going on and bring that energy down and play more by the rules. Yeah. But I feel we need to stop seeing blind obedience as goodness.

Oh, oh, that line right there.

Oh.

Stop seeing blind obedience as goodness. Keep going.

If we just did that, Kira, if we just did that, these children that are coming into the world are built differently because we have a new world coming. We can't raise them the way that we were raised. That world is long gone. It would be such a disservice to the world to try to raise them in the way that we were. And part of that, I believe, is raising them with this conscious parenting or intentional parenting. I mean, people give it all kinds of different labels, but it's really looking at the child as a whole. Instead of trying to put this square peg into the round hole, you're like, okay, what. What does my child need as an individual? Instead of looking at a blanket parenting technique or even a parenting ideal. Because some of the chil, you know, I have four, you have five. While some of the children will follow and will do great in mainstream whatever, you will have those that won't. And instead of seeing that as a problem, seeing it as a gift and seeing it as parents, like, how do we guide them and lead them through this and help them develop their gifts instead of that temptation to put out.

The flame, oh, my gosh, we gotta write your whole book. Okay, Like, I know that you are writing a children's book that is gonna be wildly successful and just speak to the children and the parents.

But.

But hearing what the wisdom that you have, it's like, this has to be the whole. We have to have a wholeness. You have to have a full book on this, because what you've learned, you've trained with Dr. Shefali and, like, all these amazing, amazing gurus and wisdom holders for conscious parenting. But the thing that's different about you is that you have a familiar energy. So that means that when you talk to me, I hear what you're saying. Where some of these bigger guides, they speak in language that doesn't resonate to a parent. And that's like, the bridge. You're the bridge.

Yeah. Thank you. I think, because I'm in this with you, so I'm not speaking from this place of, like, here. Let me tell you how to do this. It's like, here. I'm actually in my worst week of parenting that I've had in years. Let me go on a podcast and talk about parenting this week.

Like, I will.

If you want to talk to about issues and problems, you know, I'm in it with you, and I'm not coming to you with this idea that this is easy.

And the relief that that brings because even though our brains understand that parenting is not easy, we somehow feel like we should have it figured out. You know, I don't understand what that.

Is, and it's true.

Makes sense, right?

And. And everyone thinks everyone else has it figured out. I think that's the big part too. And so sitting down with someone who will be real with you. And that's the second part of what I wrote in the chapter, which, by the way, I could only just give tiny snippets. So I feel like it's only half of a thought in there, but the other half of that is, what is this bringing up in me when my child does not fit in that box? So it's not. Actually, my belief is it's not about what our child's behavior is. It's about what that's bringing up inside of ourselves, that we either didn't heal ourselves, were never allowed to express ourselves, or develop this idea that that wasn't okay.

It flips the whole thing on its head.

That's what you do, and that's the magic.

Yeah.

Thank you. I mean, this is the work. And that's what I learned through Dr. Shefali's conscious parenting program, is that I thought I could learn techniques and practices to really help my child. And I had done years of work.

Right.

And been to therapy, so I was really surprised that, oh, wow, this actually isn't a kid issue. This is a me issue. And when I healed those things in myself, what I found was my relationship with my child healed What?

Oh, my gosh. If you guys are listening, I'm sure your mind just got blown, as did mine, because I'm sitting here looking at. I had a pretty rough experience with one of my kids this week, right? We. Before I got on the podcast, we were both like, I don't know what this week was. This week was upside down, inside out, seven different fires.

Right?

And I'm looking at it. I'm like, oh, my gosh. The reason why what happened triggered me is because that's one of my deepest wounds that I haven't been able to fully heal. And so that experience with my child hit that deep pain, and then that child reflected it. They felt the pain. So we were like, almost playing tennis match with this pain ball back and forth, when in truth, it was just my ball. Damn.

The whole time. I know. It's so painful.

It's so. But in the.

People think that children are a reflection of their environment, but they are our mirror. Yeah. And they are our greatest teachers if we will allow them to be somewhere. We decided parents have all the answers. But I truly believe that this is such a gift to us to have these children that put a mirror up for us to see the things that we could not accept or love within ourselves.

This is hard. It's hard information. How do you help people move through this? Right. Like, it'd be very easy to want to turn off this episode right now and be like, no, no, no, no. Stick my fingers in my ears. This is not my problem. This is not my problem. Right. Like, good luck to you. How do you help parents move from this new information to the place of. Of action? Like, what's the action? Then we see that this is here. What's the action?

There's so much action.

Yeah.

That is the beauty of all of this. We don't have to stay stuck in any of this. That's why it is such a gift that our children can bring this up for us. Because we would never have probably seen this, or maybe we would have, you know, in other ways down the line. But our children are able to bring up the deepest parts of ourselves because we love them with all of us, with, all of, you know, our hearts and ourselves. I go over three ways, my top three practices in the chapter.

Can you share?

Reparenting? Okay, yes, I'll be fast. Reparenting, which is going back to that younger part of ourselves that's probably triggering, you know, that is bringing up the bells and whistles. When our child has disobedience and has something. This is a younger part of ourselves many times. And so learning about reparenting and going back, you'll hear them called inner child, Inner child healing. Sometimes you'll hear them called the shadow. It's got all different, you know, and it's based on ifs internal family systems. You go back, you revisit that child with the wounding, and you heal those places within yourself. Hypnotherapy is incredible for that which I'm almost trained in. And that work is unbelievable. I have seen women go back and visit that child and integrate them back into who they are. But the healed child, that is seen and heard and nurtured and nourished, and that releases that pain that they were feeling that they couldn't explain. It's usually those activations or, you know, whatever triggers, whatever that people call that. You don't even understand. Like, you don't understand why you feel that way. And when I hear someone say that, I would say it's a high chance that that is a younger part of ourselves that is trying to get our attention.

So how do people work with you? So do you work with the parents to help them do this work, or do you work solely with the children? Like, what is it? What does your scope look like?

I am putting together a stay wild course that talks about the reparenting, grounding practices, rewilding, it's called, and the nervous system and how that works and some meditation practices and journal prompts. So I'm going to offer all of that. I'm not doing one on one right now because my list is full, but by having things automated and having them on my course or on my website, you can see the videos and get the prompts, at least for now. I would love to coach parents in the future. Yeah, yeah.

And what I love, though, is that you are creating something that people everywhere could take. Right? Like you're creating something that we can go reach the masses because you're hitting a topic that it affects almost everybody. Almost everyone is. Well, everyone's affected. Even if you don't have your own children, you have your inner work that needs to be done. So everyone needs your work. How do they follow you? How do they get in touch? How do they get your courses?

They can find me on Instagram right now. The real magic inside. And in my bio, they can click on the links. I believe it's labeled stay wild. And that will take them to more of these prompts and some more information on what we talked about today. And then my website is on there, which is currently under construction, and I'm hoping we'll be up really soon.

Amazing. And you have the seven mindsets for children that you're creating a course for as well. So that's coming out. So everyone go follow Kristen on Instagram so that you can watch as she puts this stuff into the world. But first step, just go get this book on Amazon. It's called Mosay Messages. And this book, you can read her chapter 13 so you can learn more about this beautiful rewilding. I love that so much. That's such a beautiful term. And, Kristin, I just want to, like, I get emotional because I've watched you from the first time we met and you had all your ideas written on paper. We met in my office in Arizona, and I saw your empire, and I was like, this is what you build. And here we are five years later, and I'm seeing you do the visions that you had. Like, you've taken action and you're bringing it to the earth and is like my deepest joy to watch that happen. There is no way they can't expand. There is no way they cannot thrive. They just need one.

Yes.

All right. Love it. With that, I will see you all on our next episode. Bye, guys.

Sam.