Transcript
Speaker: Hello and welcome to the Outdoorsy Educator Podcast, where stories become lessons and every journey has something to teach us. Every week I sit down with people from all walks of life to hear their adventures, explore their experiences, and uncover the insights that have shaped them along the way.
Speaker: Whether it's from the outdoors, the classroom, or any other path, each conversation offers a fresh perspective on learning, growth, and what it means to truly connect with the world and the people around us.
Speaker: Before we jump into today's conversation, I wanted to give you a quick heads up. We experienced quite a few internet connection issues while recording over Zoom today, so there are a couple of moments where the audio overlaps or we accidentally talk over each other. We appreciate your patience because despite these technical hiccups, this conversation is absolutely worth sharing. Thanks for sticking with us and we hope you enjoy the episode.
Speaker: And on this week's episode of the Outdoorsy Educator podcast, we have Megan Madrid. Megan, how are you today? I'm doing well, thank you. Well, thank you for being here. what Nice to be here.
Speaker: Oh, thank you. And it looks like beautiful weather behind you. Why don't you tell the audience a little bit about who you are? I'm Megan Madrid. I'm an ordained minister, spiritual healer, artist, author, brand ambassador, model, actress, professional speaker, reviewer, foodie at heart, um entrepreneur, business owner, philanthropist, and humanitarian, which that is a mouthful, but definitely a long journey of getting to all of that.
Speaker: There are so many questions. That is fantastic. The reason we connected is really through the outdoors. I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, you're in your RV full time now. um And I'd love, I think it might be a good place to start with that journey. I'm going to assume you haven't always lived on the road full time. What brought you to this place?
Speaker: I am full-time living in my RV, me and three dogs and a turtle. And no, was not always like that. um In 2024, my husband passed away.
Speaker: what at that time, I was currently homeless because I was staying close to the hospital where he was and or couch surfing with family. um He had eventually begged me to take me and my three dogs. We didn't have the turtle back then to go with family because he knew that the hospital was not going to release him anytime soon. And he wanted me to not be homeless or at least in a car in nature,
Speaker: in that aspect. So I did do that and did not start living in the RV until after he had passed. there It was always a dream of ours together, but he didn't get to see it.
Speaker: So is part of your journey now almost like honoring him and to continue that legacy? Yes. um The ah RV that I have, I feel like I was divinely guided to. It fulfilled the last three promises that he had ever made me. He told me i was going to have an RV and travel. I wasn't going to be homeless and I was going to be able to do laundry.
Speaker: And ah it does fulfill all three of those. So, I love, I do love the laundry aspect of it, keeping it of romantic, whimsical and practical. I think that's kind of fantastic. If you don't mind me asking, where's do you have one kind of home base? Are you located you in a certain state or in a certain area most of the time?
Speaker: i just recently got to where I'm going to be at a certain place and location right ah for... An extended amount of time because on top of everything else that i do I added camp host to that as well because I did not realize that was a position.
Speaker: But everywhere I went, I was greeting people. i was picking up trash. I was just being myself. if I didn't realize you can get paid to exist.
Speaker: right yeah paid so when i did i accepted a position yeah um so i found a location where i am in a state park it is gorgeous it's in oklahoma uh i love where i'm at my girls when i say girls i mean my fur babies they love it here And so now we are like at a permanent position to where I can just kind of decompress and focus on my hobbies and my wants and my desires of these other areas that I do. so
Speaker: I love that. I was camping with a friend. Oh, it was in the spring sometime and got talking to the camp host there. And they had had a more, let's just call it conventional life. You know, they had the house nearby, actually where we were camping.
Speaker: And that she had suffered a traumatic brain injury and it kind of made her reevaluate her life in many ways and was now a a camp host living in the state park. And just having the time of her life, she found it incredibly fulfilling and was kind of filling needs she didn't realize she had, I think, at the time. It was a really interesting conversation. So it sounds like maybe not the same journey by any stretch, but there's some some similarities there.
Speaker: The passing of my husband made me realize, i mean, we are not promised anything. They tried to get me prepared for that since 2017 because of his health issues. And still, even though it wasn't 2017, it was 2024 when he finally passed, I still was not ready when that happened. And I realized just how much we need to be as authentically ourselves as we can, as real as we can,
Speaker: You don't have to be perfect, but if you're not happy in a situation where, whether that's where you live, where you work, the relationship you're in, whatever it is, you need to like have that conversation with yourself. And I did, and I started putting into action and having the right intentions And it freed me.
Speaker: It made me happier. It made me be able to go through the grief process. It made me be able to heal in ways that I never expected. um i look younger now than I ever did back then. 10 years ago, i was almost 500 pounds.
Speaker: I am under 200 pounds now. Wow, congratulations. I've just been able... Thank you. I've just been able to like reverse so much stress, so much anger, grief, things that were limiting me.
Speaker: And being in nature helps. ah Being honest and true to myself of helps. And so you've mentioned nature now a couple of times, which is obviously that the platform... The RV has Was this something that was always part of your life, something you kind of stumbled into being, or was it an intentional key to your recovery, being in nature far more than before?
Speaker: I've always loved nature and animals, but I was before i was always taking care of people, places and things and putting everything in before myself.
Speaker: And so then after i realized, no, I need to kind of pull back and figure out what is my energy? What is what is what do I really want?
Speaker: And when I thought about that, I was like, well, I really want to be able to see the birds and sit up outside and watch sunsets or stargaze when I want. And how can you do this that if you're not where those things are?
Speaker: And yes, you can see a sunset in the city and you can stargaze. But it's not like the view that I have right now. I step outside. I see the lake.
Speaker: indian is very And cool and cool. And it's tree everywhere. And I've got birds and nature visiting me from everywhere. Like I was recently a mama bird for a week because of where I'm at.
Speaker: And I wouldn't have gotten that opportunity if I didn't take into accountability where I wanted to be and how I wanted to be. Absolutely. I love that. It seems such a simple thing to me to really just iron out what is I want out of life. But you mentioned that you do healing.
Speaker: I'm assuming that some people struggle with that. It feels selfish to put what you're wanting, truly wanting first. How do you help talk people through that?
Speaker: it's the most selfish, unselfish thing you can do because you think it's selfish, But really, when you put yourself first, okay, so the easiest way for me to play is if you're in a plane and we're going down and those oxygen masks come down and you don't put yours on first, you're not going to be able to help everybody else around you.
Speaker: But you go ahead and put yours on first and now you are helping the people next to you, the people in front of you, the people behind you because they're freaking out. You're not because you can breathe.
Speaker: It's going to be that simple. And at first thought it was selfish of me. And I realized I'm able to do way more now and help a lot more now than I was back then before, because I'm not.
Speaker: doing it angrily. I'm not doing it tiredly. I'm not doing it because I feel guilted. I'm doing it happily. I'm rested. I'm in a state of mind where I can clearly think.
Speaker: And when I start breaking it down to them that way, then they realize, ah, Because when I say ordained minister, spiritual healer, a lot of what I do is just counsel people into where we're talking, we're having conversations, and then they start to see things from a different perspective where they can sit there and honestly think, because most people don't know what they want or how to get it.
Speaker: And then when they start breaking it down to realizing, okay, this is what makes me happy, but this is what's holding me back. Most of the time, it's ourselves holding us back out of fear, guilt, shame,
Speaker: or things that were not make make up excuses. And yes, some of these excuses are valid because time, money, lack of it education, things of those things, but there's answers for them. There's resources for them.
Speaker: And all I do is help them realize they don't have to limit themselves. Yeah, I think that's something that we can all relate to in and the degrees that we can relate to it probably vary throughout our life depending on the circumstances that we've recently gone through and it does it seems so simple and yet can be so difficult I think for all of us to put ourselves first in that way and then as you kind of said it's it seems selfish but actually unselfish because then you're being the very best version
Speaker: of yourself for others, which is probably all the other people really want anyway. But at first people think putting ourselves first, it's because we're trained to do, go,
Speaker: work if you if you love me, you're going to bend over backwards and enable me. And no, not necessarily. That's toxic thinking. That's toxic behaviors. when really And I've been there. I've done that. I've been the one that solved the problems for everyone. And then when I stepped back, I realized, no, I hindered you.
Speaker: And when I should have let you figure some things out I should have let you grow and not be codependent and I so I can relate to a lot of those situations and when they realize I can relate to those situations I've been there I've done that then they realize okay it is possible because I haven't always been like this I mean I've been through those phases where I used to smoke I used to drink I used to do drugs I don't do any of that now You meet me now, you would never picture the old version of me that used to do those things.
Speaker: I'll occasionally have a glass of wine or a wine cooler now, but I don't go get drunk. I used to. I'm going to make an inference so that was probably a coping mechanism.
Speaker: oh yeah. A lot of us don't realize... We do it to cope. We do it to numb. We do it to distract. We do it because other people are doing it and we think it's socially acceptable. i ran into somebody not too long ago. He goes, yeah, I don't really drink except for when people are around. And I said, then why do you drink? And he goes, well, because they're doing it. So I do it.
Speaker: and I'm like, but do you want to? and he's like, well, I don't want to be excluded from the group. And I'm like, but you. don't really want to be drinking do you and he's like no I don't want to be drinking but his friends drink and I'm like that's a hard call because I've had to remove myself from people places and things before that I love but we didn't line up anymore and if I wouldn't have I would have continued doing those things being that person going down that road and i didn't want to anymore
Speaker: So there's many people that I still love, but I have to love you from a distance. I have to love you from afar because I can't force you to change. And until you want to change and until you take the right intentions and actions, we can't be in the same environment.
Speaker: Yeah, i it it makes perfect sense, but it is so difficult to step away with. that There's a degree of comfort in familiarity, even if it's not positive, even if it's actually toxic.
Speaker: At least you know it, and it's it's it's people your're you're, yeah, like said, comfortable with. lot of people will stay in relationships. Yeah, yeah sorry, ahead. A lot of people aren't willing to be discomforted, even for a short amount of time.
Speaker: Because they would rather stick with the familiar, with what they know and what they view is stability instead of trying to stability.
Speaker: their footing on their own. And I understand that it's hard. It was a very difficult road. I mean, I could have a million times ran back to old familiar situations, people, places, and things to ease the discomfort that I and was going through.
Speaker: But it's a thousand percent worth it when you finally break through that barrier where you feel like you can't take it anymore and you want to give up and then you just keep going because you know if you just go just a little bit longer something's going to break through and it is it's worth it and it was worth giving up all of the toxic behavior places people things i found peace that i would never have found otherwise Listening to you talk about your journey, resilience is obviously a vital part of this, you know, being able to face these tough times and get through them.
Speaker: What has this journey, especially since 2024, but prior to that too, taught you about being resilient and the tools you need to acquire to to be resilient?
Speaker: You don't realize how strong and resilient you are and the things you can go through until you're put in that position in and that situation. Because if you would have asked me before, if i would be able to drive the ah RV that I drive ah and also have a trailer connected to it and go down a highway and like, I would have told you, no, I would never have been able to do those things.
Speaker: I would have told you i would not have been able to handle the situations that I had been in. I would have told you i could not have built a fire, figured a way to feed myself and my girls when i was in situations where we didn't have electricity. Like, I would have told you i was unable and incapable and not as resilient.
Speaker: Looking back at that and now... I'm incredibly brave and strong and resilient and everybody has that capability in them.
Speaker: If given the opportunity and if they allow themselves and don't hold themselves back. I love that. I had to so i can go ahead to, I had to completely surrender and be like, okay, I'm here. I'm in this situation. This is what I'm going through right now.
Speaker: And then I realized how capable I was like, skills that from jobs that were from a long time ago started kicking in and realize and it was like puzzle pieces coming together I love that. And it's funny, you've you've almost hit the nail on the head with the next question I have to ask you, because I'm a big fan of small moments where we learn a big lesson about ourselves or realize how far we've come. And without putting words in your mouth, it seems like you've gone from merely surviving to now thriving. And ah and you mentioned it with building the fire, but I was curious if you had any particular small moment, something that might seem small on the surface,
Speaker: but was actually you know a marker, a flag that really made you realize, look how far I've come. Yes. um And it sounds weird and it sounds ah completely lee unrelated, but okay, I wake up in the morning now and I'm hungry.
Speaker: Women don't realize when we wake up, if we're not hungry, our cortisone levels are so high. We are so stressed that our bodies have already shut down and not done the basic needs that we want. So now when I wake up and my stomach growls and I'm hungry, that's a little moment that tells me I'm no longer in survival.
Speaker: I'm thriving. I'm actually... My nervous system has gotten out of survival mode. And that makes me happy. i love that. That I wake up hungry where I can make a breakfast.
Speaker: I love that. Yeah. It was such a simple thing. that a book yeah Because before when I was stressed and busy and in survival mode, I used to think, well, it's a good thing I'm not hungry because I don't have time to make something.
Speaker: I didn't realize that meant my cortisone was so high that I was already so stressed the second I woke up that that's why I wasn't.
Speaker: That's so interesting, something I've never really combined and and you know put those things together. But it's something I'm going to pay attention to now because you're right, your body is in survival mode, dealing with the nervous system issues. I think that's that's fascinating and and something that I'm going to think about.
Speaker: As we kind of round the corner here, I did tell you at the beginning we would have, before we got on I'd have three questions for you ah before we wrap this interview up. And my first one, I think, is going to be particularly interesting with you being our guest today about success. And I like to ask my guests how they view success and if their opinion or view has changed successfully.
Speaker: from years past. What do you, or how do you consider success to be part of your life now? I view success much different now than I used to. um Okay, so in the past, I used to view success with how much money was in your bank, how much material did you have, what things like that i do not view that as success now i mean yes those things are nice they're tools that you can use for good or evil but now i view successes can you have a slow morning time with your family can you make your own day and choice and how you direct your life
Speaker: that I view success. And I'm able to wake up slow with my girls and go for a walk if I'd like, stretch, do yoga, drink coffee and watch the sunrise. I mean, I'm able to make those choices. And I view that now as success.
Speaker: Well, I think that's a very good lesson for all of us. Something we haven't mentioned, it just hasn't come up organically in this conversation, is is reading and books.
Speaker: And I do like to ask my guests if there's ever been a book that's been particularly impactful on your life. It might not be the greatest book you've ever read, but something that's just had a lasting hold on you, something that's really made you think.
Speaker: Okay, so this book, it ah it's funny. And it's not what I thought it was going to be. And I can't even remember who the author was, but it was about it's like phobias. And I thought it was going to be more clinical and talk about like people and their phobias.
Speaker: But it was a fiction book of... people going through these phobias because like they got kidnapped by this doctor and put in this place and injected with this serum that made your worst phobias come true.
Speaker: and so, yes, you learn some of the technical terms of phobias, but this book has made, and all I would have have to like, it's been years since I read it, and but when I picked it up,
Speaker: up I was thinking, oh, I'm going to learn something. This is going to be very clinical. And no, it was it was definitely just fiction. And the reason has stuck with me, though, is because the different characters through the book and what scared one person did not phase another person. And it was just fascinating to see how everybody was interacting and with it. And it made me realize, okay, yeah, because I used to have fears that were real to me.
Speaker: And it made me think how my fears were weren't somebody else's fears but then some of our fears we were like co-insinked on because like some people everybody's like terrified of spiders or something like that and then how it made me realize how even that's changed and how being in nature has made me take a different look on that i used to kill spiders now i relocate them right they come in my rv i have a conversation with them and i put them outside You let them know that this is your home. But the past me would have been like, nope.
Speaker: day yeah it Yeah. yeah And it's just funny how you brought that up. Cause yeah, it was like how to control my phobia or something like that book. I'll have to like look at it and I'll send you an email if I find the name of it, because it's a quick read. It's not a very thick book, but it is a fiction book.
Speaker: Yeah, I'd be interested to hear that. But tell you, it tells you the different phobia names and the definitions of them before each chapter. So that was kind of interesting.
Speaker: Very nice. My final question for you today is I'm thinking about you now being a a camp host and there at the state park. If there was somebody who could also be a camp host at the campsite next to you and you could just pick their brains, go for hikes with them, learn from them, ask them questions.
Speaker: I'm good to ask you who it could be, but this could be somebody you know, somebody you've never met, somebody famous, somebody not famous, you know dead, alive, from history, from the present day, anyone who's ever existed.
Speaker: Who would you like to be the camp host next to you, and why? Nikola Tesla. in tre Now, you're the second person to say this. I'd love to hear why.
Speaker: Because, okay, he... would be creating and building things. And like, sometimes i will be Mickey mouthing something together with what I have to make.
Speaker: And I bet you, we would have a very interesting community um just free energy and expansion. And not only would people be able to benefit it,
Speaker: from it but I would like pick his brain on so many different topics because I think we definitely need to come together as a community as a whole to where we're not being drained for every penny that we have just to survive and he was coming up with ways where those answers were getting solved those questions were getting solved and i would really like to read some of his because I know some of his research is out there but I know a lot of it isn't but I would want him to be the camp host next to me yeah I think that's a fantastic idea. And I would definitely come out there and come camping with the both of you. I think that'd be a fascinating experience.
Speaker: If somebody would like to reach out and talk to you, maybe just ask you a quick question about your journey and your experiences. What's the best way for somebody to get a hold of you? Either email or my business phone number.
Speaker: And my email is the number eight period Madrid period divinely guided at gmail.com. Or my business phone number is 918-409-4334.
Speaker: four ah nine four three three four Fantastic. Well, anyone who's listening who would like to get in touch with Megan, rewind this 15 seconds, write down that email address and number. Well, Megan, this has been an absolute pleasure. I'm so glad we've connected this way. Thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker: Thank you for having me on here. It was nice meeting you.
Speaker: Thank you again to this week's guest and I hope today's episode was as enjoyable for you as it was for me and perhaps even inspired your next adventure. If you did enjoy the show, please be sure to subscribe, leave a review or follow us wherever you get your podcasts. You can find more information at theoutdoorsyeducator.com or follow us on Instagram, TikTok or Facebook. Until next time, thank you so much for listening to The Outdoorsy Educator Podcast.
