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Field Notes: The People Who Appear When You Live Differently
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A reflection on intentional living, wild nature, and retraining old stories.
What I’m learning is that when we change our inner world and the way we live, the people who enter our field change too.
Life becomes a mirror.
The more intentionally we live, the more aligned the people who appear beside us.
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Transcript
Video Episode Introduction
00:00:01
Speaker
A little insight into this episode you're about to listen to. I just thought I'd let you know there's a video version on YouTube and you can find a link to that in the show notes. The beauty of that is, is that you'll get to see the stunning location that I actually recorded this episode at And you'll get to see Gibbeth, my dog's beautiful little facial expressions and antiques because he sat next to me the entire time that I was recording it. So I hope you enjoy and I look forward to hearing what you think about it and what reflections you have after listening to it too.
Life Transition and Reflection
00:00:31
Speaker
For many years, I shared my work in a teaching context. But this new chapter feels different. I'm less interested in teaching and coaching and more interested in observing and documenting what life reveals when we slow down enough to listen.
00:00:51
Speaker
So it's been a while since I've shared some long-form content on my YouTube channel and podcast. and i've been in this really big transition phase in my life, relocating from a place that I lived in for 15 years to a completely new environment.
00:01:09
Speaker
just myself and my two dogs, you know, three hours away from my children. And I really had to adjust to a new rhythm of life and lean into not knowing um a lot.
00:01:21
Speaker
And so i didn't actually share the actual transition as it was happening because I really needed to go inwards and incubate and just let myself really feel what this transition was about.
Living by True Desires and Holistic Health
00:01:34
Speaker
So I'm reigniting this channel to share with you some of the things that I've been learning as I've been taking more of an observation role rather than a teaching and coaching role. For many years, I tried to live in a way that matched the expectations of others around me. But even in those busiest seasons of my life, there was always a quieter rhythm underneath.
00:01:58
Speaker
a pull back to nature, craft, slower living. This chapter of my life is simply allowing that to come forward more fully. Recently, I started working with a personal trainer.
00:02:12
Speaker
holistic personal trainer not because I felt the need to improve my external self but to build that internal strength with all of this change and transition I wanted to build strength and agility in not only my physical body but have that match my mental capacity and emotional well-being which I have been through this very interesting journey of regaining strength internally, but I wanted that to be on a physical level level as well.
00:02:45
Speaker
The reason I chose to work with this holistic personal trainer is because when I went to an event that he and his business partner and brother actually hosted, I really observed how women who came to this event just felt comfortable being themselves around them.
00:03:03
Speaker
I wanted to be able to work with a trainer that wouldn't wouldn't make me feel like I needed to be better, but help me refine who I am.
The Role of a Personal Trainer in Growth
00:03:12
Speaker
And so i have, I've started working with this trainer and it has been amazing because we have worked really on where I'm at and where I wish to go and doing it in a way that honors who I am and where I'm at and not feeling like I really need to take leaps and bounds forward, but just slowly progressing in my own journey, making the changes that feel in alignment with my personal development physically.
00:03:41
Speaker
And that has been beautiful. The other reason I wanted to work with a male trainer who holds this kind of space is because I wanted to be able to show up vulnerably. um In my raw unrefined state, willing to work on myself without feeling like I needed to be at a level greater than where I was at. And he has certainly offered that space for me to just work on my self-improvement without feeling like I needed to be 10 steps ahead.
00:04:11
Speaker
And I think that's a really powerful thing for a trainer to hold space like that for someone. Especially as someone who is at this stage in my life's journey where I have spent the majority of my adult life feeling like I needed to be someone different, to be to improve myself, to be what others expected, um actually working with my own unique strengths and building on those has been something I've done in my in all areas of my life.
00:04:41
Speaker
But also having someone that can push you to that next level gently. um I shouldn't say push, but guide you to that next level gently. That has really been powerful because in my own personal fitness journey, I've done a lot to sustain physical health and well-being. but I've also been hesitant to push myself too far.
00:05:04
Speaker
And especially being here on my own now, I really haven't wanted to injure myself, so sometimes I actually have held myself back. So having someone work alongside of me that enables me to not only push my boundaries and reach my growth edge, but actually step beyond it in the physical sense, I have no doubt is also helping me do that in my mental capacity as well, which is why I wanted to take on personal training, because I believe the whole as within, so without. And so if I could work on my own ability to move through my own limitations and challenges physically, then I would be able to do that in other areas of my life too.
Connecting with Nature and Community
00:05:45
Speaker
Aside from that, one of the reasons why I wanted to work with a male trainer is at a subconscious level. I had developed this belief that mostly women work on themselves and connect with their shadows and are you know working really hard to improve themselves.
00:06:05
Speaker
um and being willing to look at their their shadow patterns because that has been my experience. And when I turn up to events like these wellness events, I have to say there's mostly women there.
00:06:17
Speaker
And so it's not a judgment of mine, it's more of an observation. But this particular personal trainer has been doing their own internal work on themselves as a part of their own personal development journey. And so the conversations we have while we're working on my physical fitness and ability also are in those areas of health and well-being and mental stability and growth and the things that we can do for ourselves to foster that.
00:06:47
Speaker
And so interestingly enough as a single woman at 50 looking around I don't see many men in my age group that are doing their own personal work. and Not in my personal circle of influence. And so being in the presence of other men like this trainer and his brother who are willing to not only improve themselves physically but work on their own mental state and ability has been a really powerful experience.
00:07:19
Speaker
which has opened me up to seeing other people in my physical environment that are willing to do that too. Now I'm not saying that this is a love story that I'm about to share with you about how I finally met my sacred union match.
00:07:36
Speaker
This is about me developing my sense of self-worth and connecting back to the value of what it is that I bring to the collective and harnessing that and actually strengthening that.
00:07:50
Speaker
But what's interesting is is I've moved to this region based on my lifestyle choice and that the connection to wild nature as well as being able to work on my own self-development and I believed that moving to this area would actually bring me in contact with other people who actually have a respect and a desire to connect with wild nature and to not control nature, but to be a part of it.
00:08:20
Speaker
So the fact that my personal trainer actually goes into wild nature to do his personal physical development work and even works with like picking up heavy rocks and hanging off trees,
00:08:32
Speaker
it's not all just in a gym and the gym facility that we work with is actually semi outdoors which is amazing for me and it's in a bush setting so there's a lot of wildlife around while we're doing it having two dogs at the moment you can only see one featured in this clip because the other is currently sleeping on the the back seat of the car comfortably. We've just been down to one of our favorite beaches exploring and it's full of driftwood and just interesting things for the dogs to explore and even for me. so
00:09:03
Speaker
But where I'm living is a block away from a dog beach which I often take the dogs first thing in the morning, very early in the morning, often before sunrise so we can see the sunrise or I take them really late in the evening before sunset and it's dog friendly beach where you can have them off leash certain times and those times fall into that category and Often I'm there on my own but sometimes there are other people people jogging and people doing their workouts But there has been this one man that I've seen regularly from the first day that I went to that beach seem to be there at very similar times and
00:09:44
Speaker
And he has a dog that he takes to the beach. And the funny thing is, is I i kind of assumed this man was ex-army. I just, looked at him, he's older than me, and he he looks very fit and capable, and he runs up and down the beach with a tennis racket and a ball, and he hits the ball for his dog, and the dog takes off after the ball and brings it back to the man. And the dog's very high energy, much like Gibbous here, who's featured in this clip.
00:10:14
Speaker
he and He runs after that dog and he can't keep up with that dog. That's how high energy that dog is in comparison to Gibbeth. But I assumed this man was ex-army because of his physique and how much energy he has. and But he drives a truck that actually has advertising for an outdoor adventure business. and We've crossed paths many times on the beach, we've said hello and you know what a beautiful sunrise and we've just talked in passing. But the other day, for the first time, we actually stopped and talked properly.
00:10:47
Speaker
We were heading up to the steps to leave and he said, you know I'm not going for a swim today because usually he takes a dog for a run and then he goes for a swim. and I was finished my walk with the dogs. We'd done a big long walk and we were coming back to head back up the steps and we use the same steps and he actually parks in the car park that I enter through but I walk there which is how I know what his truck looks like.
00:11:10
Speaker
And anyway he said so i'm I'm not going for a swim today and I thought oh it's a beautiful out there why not and he said I've got to go to work and he sounded a little bit like oh I've got to go to work and I was like, hey, I know your job, I've seen your truck and it doesn't look taxing at all. It looks like quite a lot of fun. And so we got talking about his work and it's actually his business that he runs with his son.
00:11:33
Speaker
And it actually really surprised me because a lot of what he talked about was self empowerment. and how he and his son run these self-empowerment programs. And I only really saw the corporate jobs on his truck that he does, but he was actually saying, we don't just work with corporate, we also work with regular everyday people.
00:11:52
Speaker
And we do these empowerment programs with mothers and daughters, which they had going on this weekend, and mothers and sons, and fathers and sons, and fathers and daughters. And they do overnight camping trips and help people connect with world nature while also connecting to themselves and each other.
00:12:09
Speaker
And he says, you know, especially in those big burly types who who seem who don't want to get in touch with their feelings. And it was just ironic that I saw this man and thought, oh, he's ex-army. But no, he's actually probably a lot softer inside than I gave him credit for.
00:12:26
Speaker
And I thought it was interesting that this was happening because I have been wanting to open up my subconscious to seeing that there actually are men out in the world who are willing to actually go within and work on themselves and connect with their their inner child, for want of a better word, or their shadow patterns, and and actually and still be able to be in their masculine, um in their divine masculine, but connect with their divine feminine essence as well.
00:12:59
Speaker
And so...
Aligning Life with Nature's Cycles
00:13:00
Speaker
and Again, this is no romantic story that I'm about to tell you that I've met the love of my life. I'm just expressing this because this whole change that I have gone through of making decisions to live intentionally, to live in an environment that supports my well-being, that actually aligns with my own passions and um that desire to connect with wild nature then rather than to control nature.
00:13:28
Speaker
has actually opened me up to meeting people who are also like that and that's exactly what I wanted. and the whole idea of living rhythmically, I have for many years operated according to the moon cycle and not only do I do my physical activities and my workouts based on that, no kippus, I also choose to do my business activities working with the moon cycle.
00:13:55
Speaker
And so that is why I wanted to live somewhere where I could actually immerse myself more in the rhythms of wild nature. Things like going to the beach and choosing the time to go to the beach based on the tide.
00:14:09
Speaker
It makes no sense to me to take the dogs all the way to the beach only to discover the tide is high and we can't even access the sand, let alone explore all the magical elements that are left behind when the tide is low. So I am now tuning into what's the tide doing?
00:14:27
Speaker
I definitely don't worry so much if it's going to be raining or if it's sunny I go rain, hail or shine because that's the magic of wild nature. It's not about controlling the circumstances to be able to enjoy it, it's about enjoying the circumstances as they show up.
00:14:42
Speaker
What I think is really beautiful about all of this is that I'm really starting to observe that we all have, I mean, I've always said we have our unique thread that we add to the collective tapestry.
00:14:53
Speaker
But the whole thing of refining our unique thread and actually... strengthening the collective tapestry with our contribution to it actually brings me back to this whole idea that we working on ourselves individually based on our unique talents and skills is actually our contribution to the collective rather than trying to be who we think others expect us to be or what society says is acceptable other than being the best version of
00:15:26
Speaker
My personal training is not about becoming the best at anything or over anyone else. It is about becoming the best version of myself so I can sharpen my tools and strengthen my thread and contribute my unique thread to the collective tapestry to help strengthen it with what I've developed personally.
00:15:48
Speaker
And I'm observing that in other people around me, which is really magical. I don't think that there's any one right way to live our life, but I do believe that when we begin to listen to ourselves more closely and to what feels true for us, something beautiful begins to unfold.
00:16:08
Speaker
And that's what I'm experiencing in this current transition.