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199. Navigating Anxiety : A Life Coach’s Guide to Transformation with Brittni Cosgrove
36 Plays1 day ago
Brittni Cosgrove is a Transformational Life & Business Coach. She helps ambitious souls become their most magnetic, authentic, and confident self so they can create a bigger impact doing what they love. Whether you’re scaling your business, starting a nonprofit, or deepening your relationships, Brittni will help you overcome subconscious set points and master your mindset so you can stop self-sabotaging and see the results you crave. Brittni is a certified Mastery Coach, breathwork facilitator, and speaker. Additionally, Brittni sits on the board of the nonprofit Travel Through Trauma and is the organization's resident Life Coach.
Brittni uses her voice to help humanity break free from self-imposed limitations, shatter glass ceilings, leap into the unknown, and collectively uplevel to shift the world into one of more passion, purpose, and peace.
Links:
IG: @brittni.cosgrove
Website: brittnicosgrove.com
Show Highlights:
- Why subconscious blocks often stem from unexpected past experiences—and how identifying them leads to breakthrough moments.
- The power of curiosity and trust in self-discovery, allowing emotions and sensations to be witnessed rather than resisted.
- Brittni’s philosophy of working with emotions like a compassionate observer, helping them settle rather than suppressing them.
- The ripple effect of healing—how personal transformation impacts families, communities, and even the world.
- Navigating growth through coaching, whether in business, confidence, or life alignment.
- The unique impact of the nonprofit Travel Through Trauma, which combines self-work with solo travel as a healing experience.
- Encouragement to embrace life as it unfolds—understanding that every step, even moments of uncertainty, are exactly as they should be.
Contact Kendra Rinaldi to be a guest on the podcast https://www.griefgratitudeandthegrayinbetween.com/
Recommended
Transcript
The Journey of Anxiety and Authentic Living
00:00:01
Speaker
It's very much an embodiment practice because even in my current life, it's not that the anxiety has been so healed that it's gone for forever.
00:00:11
Speaker
And so every single day, every time that anxiety comes up or any, any ah really, and even past the anxiety, just any of those feelings or sensations that I would prefer not to feel transparently every time that those show up, it's an opportunity for me to live my work, feeling it, letting it be here, seeing the gifts within it, seeing the purpose of why it's showing up.
Exploring Grief and Gratitude
00:00:44
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Grief, Gratitude, and the Gray in Between podcast. This podcast is about exploring the grief that occurs at different times in our lives in which we have had major changes and transitions that literally shake us to the core and make us experience grief.
00:01:07
Speaker
I created this podcast for people to feel a little less hopeless and alone in their own grief process as they hear the stories of others who have had similar journeys.
00:01:19
Speaker
I'm Kendra Rinaldi, your host. Now, let's dive right into today's episode.
Meet Brittany Cosgrove: A Transformational Coach
00:01:28
Speaker
Today I'm talking to Brittany Cosgrove. She is a transformational life and business coach. We will be chatting about her own journey and dealing with anxiety and how she got from that to who she is now. So welcome, Brittany. Hi, thank you so much. I'm excited to be here.
00:01:50
Speaker
Thank you for joining us and for sharing your journey and your own story. So I like to start off just learning a little bit more about you. We were were talking beforehand.
00:02:01
Speaker
Where do you live right now and where did you grow up? Tell us about your own life. Yeah, so I grew up in the mountains of Northwest Washington, ah kind of up near the border and a little, just very, very rural, very much sticks mountain area. It was lots of nature, lots of outdoors.
00:02:20
Speaker
And then after college, I moved to the Florida Keys, where I have been pretty much since then. i'm currently at back out in Washington State seeing family and being back out here.
Life by the Oceans: Atlantic vs Pacific
00:02:31
Speaker
so it's kind of been nice having that bridge of ocean and mountains and sunshine and rain and everything. The two coasts. Yeah. You've lived on both.
00:02:40
Speaker
And the two kind of outermost coasts of the U.S., right? Like the top. Yeah. Top north, northwest and the south. East. Very much corner to corner. Corner to corner. Okay. So now be honest. Which ocean is better?
00:02:58
Speaker
Which ocean do you like? It's very different. Atlantic. It's so, I love being able to go into the ocean when it's like at any time of year and it's warm. The water is warm. And I feel so guilty. I feel like I'm betraying the Pacific Ocean. but No, no. Listen, I remember when I lived in California and I remember I'm like, why is this called Pacific?
00:03:19
Speaker
There's nothing Pacific about it. It's so... rough you know there was it was hard to like get it it'd be scary you know as a kid we'd travel there it'd be like the waves were huge and I'm like I don't think this is specific when we were younger we used to vacation down to the Oregon coast and we would go out and like jump in the waves and it was one of our favorite things but in order to enjoy it you had
Choosing Intuition Over Anxiety
00:03:42
Speaker
to have your body go numb because it was so cold so cold yeah And I remember i was in college, my yeah my middle sister had just moved out to Florida. And so we went to go visit.
00:03:51
Speaker
First time out there, first time on the Atlantic side and jumping in those waves where it was enjoyable from the first moment because it's just not freezing. It was game changing. i was I've never been able to go back.
00:04:05
Speaker
That's awesome. I do not like, I do have to say, I do not like when you go in the water and it's hot. That I don't like. I don't like like going in and that it's hot. It's got to be pleasant. and You know, yes. you yeah You have to feel like you're cooling off. Like not like a yeah like going into a hot pool. or Like it's like, no, I might as well into a hot tub, you know, jacuzzi.
00:04:24
Speaker
So that's great. it warm But not ice. Yeah. Not a cold plunge. Not a cold plunge. Now, when you moved to then Florida, was for work? What was like, you said you went to college there? Or is that what you just said right before?
00:04:40
Speaker
i was in college in Washington um oh Western Washington University. And I was, it started out as just a ah little, It was like an internship over the summertime before I was going to go to grad school up in Maine, actually. And this was the first time, this is actually fun that comes up because I have never been so grateful for turning away from that like that academic lens that I had always been on that one specific path.
00:05:07
Speaker
And it was that summer, I was just doing a fun internship before moving up to the Northeast. And towards the end of the summer, I just kept getting this like sinking feeling. like there is something wrong. I am not supposed to be going up there. I'm not supposed to be going to grad school.
00:05:20
Speaker
It was such an intense feeling in my body that I ended up deferring for a year. um and within 24 hours, all my professors had given me an out from their classes. I was able to break my lease with no consequences. I mean, I was two weeks away from classes starting. It was the 13th hour.
00:05:42
Speaker
And then I was in this weird middle phase of what am I doing? Where where am I going? What do I want? It was intense for someone that had been such a planner and I'm so type a and I never had this limbo land of uncertainty.
00:05:56
Speaker
And on a whim, um my sister and i went down to the Florida Keys and i ended up falling in love with Key West. And I planned to only be there for one year, just as a gap year between university and grad school.
00:06:10
Speaker
And life changed. It was the biggest pivot. It was the first big time I'd ever stepped into such a different life than I had been building.
00:06:23
Speaker
and I ended up being there, i mean, since 2018, it was, it was wild It's as you were talking, because part of what you do is helping people also, you know, now that you are a life coach as well, that you yourself dealt with anxiety in that moment when you felt that it was not the right thing, that you felt this pit in your stomach, how did you recognize whether it was intuition or whether it was anxiety at that moment that was not letting you go? Like how
00:06:56
Speaker
How in the moment did you kind of decide, wait, it's not that I'm like letting anxiety win per se at this moment. It's actually that I really do not want. How did you make that distinction?
00:07:10
Speaker
Great question. i by that point, was very familiar with my anxiety and how it presents. um I had been struggling with severe anxiety since about kindergarten and over my childhood and youth and through college had really developed um, an identification with that, with that anxiety, which later on, I ended up healing that because I have anxiety. I am not my anxiety.
00:07:34
Speaker
But during that time, i was very wrapped up that this is just a part of me. So I knew how it played out my life and my anxiety is very much fueled by perfectionism and an inner critic and more of that judgmental tone.
00:07:49
Speaker
It has never presented in a way where it wants me to not do something. And so knowing that about myself and how, how that part works, I could see like this step of going to grad school. It's what I should be doing. It's what I'm supposed to do. It's the plan. It makes sense. It's the safe. It's this, that would be like the safe how would be this take part. ah And so then when I just, every time I went to go work on the kind of the lead up steps before school started, and it was this almost, yeah, it was just like this black hole that would just suck
00:08:22
Speaker
everything into it within the like my stomach and that central upper body area. And it was so, it was so different than the type of inner critic and anxiety that I was used to that I was like, okay, there's something different here.
00:08:42
Speaker
This is different. And when I slowed it down, it was so odd because even though I knew but grad school was safe route, every time I went to lean into that direction, it was like my body would be tugged backwards. it was fighting.
00:08:57
Speaker
And I just knew there was something wrong in ah a different way than like the head anxiety where it's like, what could go wrong? It's like, no, there is something wrong. And it was the first real experience of trusting myself and leaning into that unknown and leaning into that inner trust where i was I was confused. It didn't make sense, but I knew, i just knew that there was something different for me, a different direction.
00:09:30
Speaker
and then the anxiety came up because I didn't know which direction I was going. And that was a whole other slew of anxiety. But it was really tuning into like, this is a different energy, having that awareness and just slowing it down and really questioning it was kind of how I helped differentiate intuition versus anxiety at the beginning. Cause this was a very new experience for me at that time.
00:09:56
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you for for for explaining that difference, what it felt for you. Because a lot of times it's hard to know when we are leading with fear or where when we're leading with love in our life. Or, you know, like what which one of the two is it that's kind of leading our lives?
00:10:13
Speaker
Now, let's talk about how you you you were like your journey with anxiety and how it reflected mainly in your perfectionism in your life. So, and how it was that you were able to realize what it was.
00:10:30
Speaker
I i love that question because it was such a journey. I, like I said, I had started experiencing pretty severe anxiety and depression when I was in kindergarten age.
00:10:40
Speaker
I was very young. And because of that, by the time I was in my youth and even in my college days, I didn't even realize that like there was anything, I don't want to say wrong, but I just thought that was how I was.
00:10:55
Speaker
I just thought that was my norm. That was just how it would always be for forever. And so it got to the point where in college, every single morning, i would wake up and go throw up just because my body was on such overdrive.
00:11:06
Speaker
And I didn't see that as a problem. I thought that was just how my life was. And it was after 2020, when I was really getting into like entrepreneurship, life coaching techniques, learning what looking inward can do for us, that I started working with the energy that was there. And this anxiety had been present my entire like lived memory, as long as I knew it had been there.
00:11:35
Speaker
The first thing that really helped me see it as more than just who I am, as being different than identified with it, was realizing i am not anxiety. And I kind of mentioned that a few minutes ago, but really um and embracing this idea that I have anxiety or I feel anxious, but I am not just that.
00:11:56
Speaker
I am so much more than any of the energy that's here. And just that simple mental shift of realizing i have anxiety, I am not anxiety, opened up this understanding that, okay, there's a part of me that's really gripped onto something.
00:12:13
Speaker
For me, it's usually been perfect perfectionism and striving for excellence and really that type of energy or that type of direction that it leans. But it was just taking this understanding that I have this part, it wants something for me. Like, how is it trying to help me?
00:12:28
Speaker
kind of counterintuitive, but this anxiety, how is it trying to serve me? Why is it here? Because if it's here, it's here for a reason. And then I was able to start seeing that, oh, this anxiety that's fueled by perfectionism just wants me to be responsible and be integrous and do my best, be living in excellence.
00:12:53
Speaker
And when I could see the intentions of what it was trying to do then I was able to make more of a conscious decision of, okay, I want to honor that because too want all of those things. I want my life to be filled with integrity and doing, being so proud of what I do, proud of the work I put out, proud of the relationships I build, all of it.
00:13:14
Speaker
So how can I honor that intention, but without buying into the the inner critic and the belief that was fueling it that like I'm not a good, I'm not good enough that there's something wrong with me.
00:13:28
Speaker
And that over time i was able to start recreating those neural pathways and see my anxiety almost like a little kid. Like it's just trying her best to help me. She wants to so much for me to do great work in this world.
00:13:44
Speaker
Such a beautiful, innocent intention. I can love on it and it gets to be here. I'm not trying to push it away. I'm almost embracing it, like I said, like a child. And through that, it's not that the anxiety goes away, although it definitely has. I mean, when I first started this work, my anxiety on my thriving days would sit at about an eight out of 10.
00:14:04
Speaker
After a couple months of really... and intentionally meeting this energy and working with it, on the days where I was struggling, it was sitting at about a three or four out of 10. So it did heal it, but it's not that it goes away and we don't heal to make it go away.
00:14:20
Speaker
It's just the acceptance that it gets to be here because it's a part of us, but it doesn't have to be in the driver's seat. It doesn't have to control our decisions. It's really that compassion-based lens of seeing it for how it's trying to help and then honoring that intention, but in a way that is more aligned and more productive and feels better.
00:14:44
Speaker
I absolutely love everything you just described, because a lot of times when we meet it back with the same energy as it's coming to us with that resistance, then it creates yeah even more anxiety because we're resisting.
00:15:02
Speaker
I think of it a lot with grief, right? You just said it's there with anxiety. It's there. It's not about it pushing it away. It's about meeting it, seeing it. Okay, why are you showing up at this moment? I wonder what was it around my, about my surroundings right now that brought up these emotions of grief? Or what is it about my surroundings right now that's bringing up anxiety? And, and there's so many times in which we do have to listen to that anxiety because it is going to protect us.
00:15:32
Speaker
Like if in the moment you're anxious, And it's because you're there's some something or something that's causing that actually is causing danger, then you do have to pay attention. Right. So it is not about turning it off. It's about tuning it kind of downw dialing it down a notch.
00:15:52
Speaker
ah Yeah. I love that metaphor. Dialing down. It gets to be here and there's always feedback in it. It's here for a reason, but exactly. It doesn't have to be the, and there's just always more context.
00:16:05
Speaker
And when we have that awareness of it, then we can, like you said, tune in and really discern how is it trying to help me? Is there something I need to do in this moment to, like you said, take myself out of this dangerous moment or maybe this Yeah, whatever that trigger is, really looking at it with that lens of,
00:16:24
Speaker
It's here for a reason, but what are we going to do about it? Yes. and and And trying to distinguish, okay, is it coming from this childlike, like the seven-year-old, five-year-old me thinking that this was danger and therefore I would be anxious?
00:16:39
Speaker
And then if that is so, then okay, hey, little Brittany, like it's not, it's okay. Like that's something we've already learned to manage. It's not that scary situation.
00:16:50
Speaker
to be, you know, thunder's not that scary or lightning whatever it might be. It's not, yes, you used to be scared of that, but that's not something to be scared of up anymore. You know, kind of easing, right? that That little childlike behavior that's come showing up in that moment. and Absolutely. Absolutely.
00:17:09
Speaker
I love seeing that all these parts, the energies, the sensations, the anxiety, the fears, I love seeing them as little kids because then that way we can all, we shift that lens into that more compassionate realm. We're not, we're not trying to push it away. We're not trying to force that energy down or convince ourselves to not feel what we feel, but instead it's just, we're human.
00:17:31
Speaker
We're human. And there's so much that goes on internally and it all gets to be here. Yes, yes, embracing it embracing it as part of ah part of part of us, not our identity not our full identity, as you said.
00:17:44
Speaker
And what you were saying of the I have rather than I am, anxious like you the saying that, i it shifted for me. i grew up with like having asthma. yeah I would get asthma attacks. And so then I would, instead of me saying I am asthmatic, switching to I get asthma, you know, like, you it completely changed. I no longer, you know, I no longer get asthma attacks.
00:18:07
Speaker
But I think that it was partly that shift in mind. And my mom was the one that would kind of tell me, it's like, no, you can visualize yourself. Well, she wouldn't say, she would say more like visualizing myself in scenarios in which I didn't, that,
00:18:19
Speaker
would normally create the attack, like you know, and not getting it like more the visualization of it. But the part of identifying myself with that, like stepped, you know, stepped away from it. So I love when the the same with anxiety, i I myself have those tendencies of having anxious moments.
00:18:41
Speaker
And so the same, I'm, I can't, I do not say I am anxious, or let me just say, I i really try not to say that. i you know work on not saying that, just saying, oh, I'm having an anxious episode.
00:18:55
Speaker
So 2020, you kind of make, you dive into your own ah discovery of personal growth and development and how to then this transition into now what it is you do.
Reflections and Entrepreneurship in 2020
00:19:10
Speaker
2020 was such a pivotal year. When everything else shut down. That was my first time really yeah ever that I actually hit pause for an extended amount time. And I got so curious, like, what do I want? Very similar to that time between grad school and moving down to Key West. I really evaluated where am I going?
00:19:30
Speaker
What am I doing? Why am I doing any of this? I was so fueled by momentum and motivation and I've always been career driven because but I was burnt out and I was exhausted and I felt kind consistently underappreciated and undervalued in any of the workspaces I had been a part of.
00:19:50
Speaker
And I was just questioning like, yeah, why what is the point of any of this? And through that, and through that pause that 2020 was, i started my first online business and I just, I just loved the entrepreneurship journey.
00:20:04
Speaker
I love getting to build something that was for me. I love getting to put all my creativity and momentum into something that I was getting to create. And it was at the end of that year that I was listening to a podcast for entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs where I really started learning what is life coaching?
00:20:21
Speaker
What is the coaching industry in general? Because I had a bunch of judgments and thoughts about what it was. I thought it was very toxic positivity meets hyper masculinity and just was not into any of that.
00:20:34
Speaker
And when I was listening to this podcast, it was almost like I just felt this soul calling into it. Like there is something deeper here. It was so focused on helping people, helping people heal and grow and change their lives, but with a very sustainable and healing emphasis so that it wasn't bypassing anything.
00:20:54
Speaker
It was using all experiences and everything that was here as stepping stones to get where we want to go. And I just loved what it was hearing. That following year, i ended up enrolling in a year-long certification program that was very much an inside-out approach where I learned the actual impact and power that this work in methodology has. And it changed my life in the most amazing transformational ways. And it wasn't easy. There was a lot of growing pains. There was a lot of shedding. There was a lot of
00:21:27
Speaker
letting go of things that I thought would be for forever. As I was in this phase of really real self-discovery true internal healing and just working with everything that was inside, all the parts, the emotions, the energies.
00:21:44
Speaker
And through that, I just fell in love with what transformation means and how transformation can be sustainable and lasting. It's such a buzzword these days. And there's so much...
00:21:57
Speaker
of this idea of almost like the yo-yo diet, but that can be applied to everything where we, the stop, go energy. And I can see that of how people want and desire things, but there's these internal blocks that they themselves are holding them back and having that support system and helping people work with those in a way that's compassion-based, that's healing old judgments and the inner critics and the parts that we thought we needed to get rid of.
00:22:25
Speaker
It's just such a compassion, acceptance-based way of building momentum. And through that, it's actually more productive, more efficient. The results come quicker and it feels better for everyone along the way.
00:22:38
Speaker
and it was really in that first year as I was learning the impact on myself, I just knew. i do not believe that purpose and career are associated for everyone and maybe not even most people.
00:22:49
Speaker
But I've known that for me, my purpose was career-related since I was little. And this was the epitome of everything that I had wanted. And it was, like I said, it had that helping people, but in a way that was very um future focused and using the past, healing the past as a way to not hold back from the future.
00:23:10
Speaker
And I just loved that approach to life. And since then, it's been kind of a journey as I've played with more of a business focus on people, more of a lifestyle focus with people. It's kind of done that full spectrum.
00:23:23
Speaker
But really how we do one thing is how we do all things. So clients will come to me, focus on their business, and we're going to work on their life. And on the flip side, people will come to me wanting more confidence or more of the intangible things.
00:23:38
Speaker
And it's going to show up in their relationships, in their work, in their health and well-being, all of that. And I do love the variety of that because at the end of the day everyone is going through something and everyone has ways that they are subconsciously holding themselves back or misunderstandings or misbeliefs that have been created in childhood or through past past experiences and helping people really embrace it all, embrace everything that's here It leads to true self-love, which is reflected into every and all relationships from there.
00:24:13
Speaker
And it's like, we all get to have this ripple effect. We all get to live our lives on our own terms. And life will life. This is not an easy, it's not it's not easy, but it creates almost an easeful way of being so that as life lives and as life happens, it doesn't take us out of the game.
00:24:32
Speaker
We still get to be who we are We still get to want the things we want, build the life we want, but it's in a way where we're meeting life as life meets up
00:24:44
Speaker
I like it. Meeting life as life meets us. it's It's being, to some extent, prepared with some tools in order to be able to navigate it as it starts kind of meeting us. It's like going on a road trip. I tell this to my clients with grief coaching.
00:25:01
Speaker
<unk>s There's tools out there that we already use in our day-to-day that went in general in life. we've just We already have some tools that we use. And then how do we incorporate that within our grief once we have experienced grief?
00:25:14
Speaker
With anxiety, it's similar. There's already tools we may use. It's identifying which ones have helped us get to a certain point in our lives so that we already know that when life meets us as we're walking in life, okay, which tools can I use? Should it be...
00:25:32
Speaker
you know, counting backwards right now or something, focusing on certain items around me right now that I can name, smell, what, you know, all these different tools that may come into play if it's in a moment of anxiety, if it's in a moment just of life choices and someone kind of meeting careers, like, okay, what tools can I use?
00:25:50
Speaker
So I am curious with your approach of coming from a background that you yourself have lived through something you with anxiety, how does having that,
00:26:02
Speaker
background in your own life and that or that um understanding of, let's say, and anxiety, understanding of making really big life choices and changing completely career paths influence or impact the way you coach and how clients relate to you?
00:26:24
Speaker
It's very much an embodiment practice because even in my current life, it's not that the anxiety has been so healed that it's gone for forever.
00:26:34
Speaker
And so every single day, every time that anxiety comes up or any, any ah really in even past the anxiety, just any of those feelings or sensations that I would prefer not to feel transparently, every time that those show up, it's an opportunity for me to live my work, feeling it, letting it be here, seeing the gifts within it, seeing the purpose of why it's showing up and choosing a very self-compassionate way of living.
00:27:08
Speaker
and it's that living by example. And because I believe in this work and i know very firsthand and not even just on a couple occasions so on firsthand, continuous living experiences,
00:27:22
Speaker
I am my own best and first testament to how this work can create a different way of being so that there isn't so much that we get swept up in and we're getting stuck in And it also helps me see when I'm working with a client, I can see the stories underneath the stories.
00:27:43
Speaker
I can see the different layers and how they're playing out because I've been there. I get it. And I'm not saying that I... And, you know, everyone has their own unique experience.
00:27:55
Speaker
I can never truly know someone else's experience. But under that umbrella, I've walked with that. I know how challenging it is to start feeling feelings when you've had emotions turned off for years, if not longer. And i know how complicated and frustrating can feel wanting to move forward and feeling like you're looping backwards.
00:28:20
Speaker
And I know the fears of how it feels when you think you're healing, but then something comes up and it's that fear of regressing. and these are common themes that outside of everyone's unique experience, anyone that's had a similar experience can understand those that come up.
00:28:39
Speaker
and so And really it's just leading with compassion and love, holding that space for the client so that they can have their own experience and that their journey and normalizing it.
00:28:50
Speaker
Everyone feels like they're going backwards at some point. Everyone questions, what is wrong with me? Why can't I get myself unstuck? And then let's work with that. that Those thoughts, those energies, they're here for a reason. Let's get curious.
00:29:09
Speaker
And being able to reflect that back to clients in a way where I'm not trying to get them to bypass anything. i am such a stand for feeling everything that's here. The whole human experience gets to be your experience.
00:29:22
Speaker
And work with that so that instead of bypassing, you're moving through. And I've just found it to be a very Yeah, I mean, the word compassion-based just keeps coming to my head because that's really, at the end of the day, when we live that ourselves, that does ripple out into our families, into our personal relationships, into our professional relationships, into the people we see at the grocery store.
The Compassionate Coach
00:29:49
Speaker
And it just gets to continue rippling. I love what you said regarding that even though you yourself have dealt with anxiety, that you can't say for sure that you completely understand somebody else's yeah anxiety.
00:30:05
Speaker
Just like the same with grief. It's just because you I've you navigated grief myself. I can't say I understand what you're going through. No, I don't. I can relate, but I can't like fully understand. Just like you said, I've been in this umbrella before.
00:30:19
Speaker
I have some concept of it. And this is what's worked for me. I can't truly say what it is for you. i It is so important to have that relatability in general. And like you said, compassion and with coaching, that compassion is everything because a client gets to be seen and heard without judgment because there's this element of compassion. So love, I love everything that, that you, you said the, the part about, um,
00:30:56
Speaker
being able to embrace and be curious about what what what life with what these emotions are bringing to us, what are some techniques or questions that you may, if you don't mind, like giving us some examples of what what you might do with a client in terms of, okay, this is showing up. What are kind of questions we can ask ourselves to get more curious about what the actual cause is?
00:31:23
Speaker
Yeah. I like to offer kind of a couple different layers so if someone's more on the mental layer they're very in their head like let's use that so questioning where outside of my mind is the evidence could I prove this in a court of law like whatever that thought or belief is that's triggering all the the energy and anxiety and any sensations that are there and really questioning can I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is true and if it's no
00:31:56
Speaker
then what else is true? What else is here? And just starting to open up the aperture just a little bit more, just questioning and seeing that we oftentimes will see our thoughts as fact, but is it true?
00:32:11
Speaker
Are our beliefs fact? And really getting comfortable in the discomfort of questioning systems like that.
00:32:23
Speaker
Now, if the energy is really big and alive in the body and someone has the spaciousness and openness to explore that, then really tuning into that energy and asking, when is a time I remember feeling this way?
00:32:39
Speaker
And this is kind of a subconscious route. So not looking for a memory, not looking for an answer, just trusting what naturally comes up, trusting what naturally arises. When is the first time I remember feeling this way?
00:32:53
Speaker
And it might not be literally the first time, but whatever answer or whatever memory or time comes up, there is a reason that that specific memory or thought or belief is showing up.
00:33:05
Speaker
So then getting curious with that and looking at that memory or that past experience with a fresh lens and starting to question, what are the misunderstandings I developed?
00:33:17
Speaker
um And this, you know it's Our subconscious is so tricky and it's one of my favorite things to work with because it's never what we think it's about. For example, I was working with a client on growing her business and the what was keeping her stuck was a misunderstanding she had adapted based on her high school swim team and not getting to try out.
00:33:40
Speaker
So it's like this what we consciously think is two very disconnected things. There's some connection there. And so just getting curious and open to what is alive. i would say just being,
00:33:56
Speaker
being open and trusting yourself and feel like the energy that's here, breathing into it. Sometimes that can create just so enough spaciousness that we can step back and see what's going on with a different lens.
00:34:12
Speaker
And just like, I imagine like with every inhale, And exhale, like breathing, sending that breath to that energy. And just for this moment, can it be here? Just right now, can you give it full permission to just be here?
00:34:28
Speaker
Just seeing it, just witnessing it. And sometimes that acknowledging and that intentionality of giving its space is the very thing that helps that energy either settle or just be less gripping or quiet down a little bit.
00:34:45
Speaker
so that we can pivot or evaluate or get clear on what we need in that moment.
00:34:57
Speaker
As you were saying that, I thought back, as you were describing that, I'm thinking back to that energy being that little kid, like you said, right? And so as you're saying that, I was thinking of this moment. And let's say my kids, they're teenagers now. I have now dogs that are the ones that may interrupt my podcast. No longer is it children. I mean, that they were already grown when I started podcasting.
00:35:19
Speaker
But thinking of ah kid coming in and saying, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy. mommy Right. And it's like if I don't just sell allow, OK, honey, what is it that you want right now? And answer that question and instead shut the door and leave them out.
00:35:34
Speaker
Like if I were to have my dogs be outside and not keep the door open, all I would hear would be screaming. scratching on the door, barking, it would be way louder than if I just allow them in.
00:35:44
Speaker
So that was a visual I had, as you were saying, of just allowing it to just be there, seeing it. It will just be, it will just kind of dissipate. Like they're just sleeping right now, right? It will just kind of dissipate.
00:35:58
Speaker
It's not going to be as intense as if you just shut the door completely. Absolutely. And yeah, perfect visual. like It just wants to be seen, acknowledged.
00:36:12
Speaker
yeah that's like as it As you're saying, that's like when I was thinking, I'm like, oh yeah, it's kind of like this. i like I like using those examples because they... and They kind of make sense to me when I see it in my head, like visually of things that happened to me in my life, you it's like or happened in my life.
00:36:30
Speaker
But I'm like, oh, yeah, I see how that could be because this would be the this way. Thank you for those for those tips and that that perspective. I love that.
00:36:41
Speaker
Brittany, what does it look for someone to work with you? What is it what does it look like? What is the process? How does someone work with you? And who do you coach?
00:36:54
Speaker
Yeah. And who do you coach? I work with people that know they want more. Ambitious souls, visionaries, world changers that want to make an impact, want to live a life ah they love.
00:37:06
Speaker
And I want to be clear, this does not mean that you're going out there and running for president or wanting to to be CEO of a multimillion dollar company. Maybe that's what you want.
00:37:17
Speaker
But it's also for the moms that want to live a balanced, authentic lives and change their generational trauma. It's for the young adults that want to create change in their communities, but feel really disempowered.
00:37:30
Speaker
It's anyone that knows they want more, knows they're capable of more and wants to make that happen. However that looks in your life, however you want. You get to live life on your terms.
00:37:41
Speaker
What are your terms? So within that, I work with people one-on-one. And then actually this summer for the first time in i think, two years, I'm reopening a group program called the Aligned Launch. It's a three-month program.
00:37:55
Speaker
So I have a couple of different capacities of how I work with people. For anyone that's curious or interested, I am happy to offer ah complimentary call sometime on my calendar to just look at what's here, look at how I can support, what how I can help.
00:38:10
Speaker
um I can share the links so that you can, for anyone that wants to sign up for that. I also offer workshops that are completely free to anyone and everyone on a, I'll say quarterly basis that is not super consistent. It's every couple months, um but you can find information on that on my website as well.
00:38:30
Speaker
And yeah, any way that I can support and help, I'm always, always here to do it. Perfect. And you're your, your website will be on the show notes and it's your name, right?
00:38:41
Speaker
It's your, your name. Your website is your name. Now there's something i I didn't mention is that you also work for a nonprofit. You, you work in a nonprofit or but can you tell us about that? The travel through trauma?
Healing Through Travel
00:38:54
Speaker
Yeah. Travel through trauma is a nonprofit that was founded and started by one of my soul sisters, Ashraf. And her and I actually met while traveling We both, as well as the vast majority of our team, have all experienced a massive amount of healing and growth and working with ourselves through the power of solo travel, solo world travel especially.
00:39:18
Speaker
And so when Ashaf came to me, let me know about this and powerful idea, i was i mean immediately like, yes, I want in, I want to support, how can I help? So the nonprofit, we brought together a team of licensed therapists and different styles of coaches, as well as like language teachers, self-defense coaching, um a whole variety of things that support life and wellness.
00:39:42
Speaker
And it we've developed a four-month curriculum that we send young adults through to help them heal from trauma and fears and overcome anything that they have experienced.
00:39:54
Speaker
And then we pair that with sending them on a solo international trip to help them embody and integrate the work that they've done and help them really lean into just push stepping out of their comfort zone, really trusting themselves, building that confidence in themselves.
00:40:12
Speaker
And then we have a couple of partners so that when they come back from their trip, they have support in the months that, um, after our program. And it's just such a unique and groundbreaking way of helping people change their lives. And through that, again, it's all about the ripple effect. When you change your life, you change your family, you change your community, you change the world one person at a time. And it's just such a gift to be part of it because there really is nothing out there. Like like ah there's really nothing out there like it right now. It's such a different way to use travel as a method method of healing, true healing.
00:40:51
Speaker
And then, like I said, we just have a team of Phenomenal professionals that bring their expertise to support the client along the way. and love that. i and And for anybody just wanting to just ease in, can it just be that you push them to go for a movie by themselves or in the restaurant by themselves. ah just like like I'm like, wow. I'm like, okay.
00:41:13
Speaker
I have so many friends. I was just talking to a friend yesterday about that, about traveling. so i'm like Aside from when I moved to the U.S., I've never just gone and traveled solo. so That would be something and that I'm like, maybe that's something I should
00:41:29
Speaker
That's so cool. And if it feels scary and big, that's because it is scary. That's a big jump. And and we do we hold them and support them through that experience. It's not just dropping them somewhere.
00:41:41
Speaker
But how empowering. empowering. So empowering. You come back and you're like, oh my goodness, I did it. Like I did something that I was fearful in that confidence building, you know, with it. So that's amazing.
00:41:53
Speaker
And it's mainly for younger young adults, like the majority of the ones. Yes. the Exactly. Young adults, um I believe it's like under 30, just so people in their 20s are coming out of their school years. And it's right now, the the it's based in California, Southern California. So our therapists are licensed through California.
00:42:16
Speaker
um But as we expand, we just look forward to being able to support people all over. That's wonderful. I love it. So you but you just have your multidimensional human being also just the capacities of how you are also contributing to humanity and other people's growth journeys one-on-one with what you do and also with this nonprot you know this nonprofit.
00:42:39
Speaker
Amazing. Thank you, Brittany. Brittany, I always like to end with, is there something I have not asked you that you want to make sure that you share with the listeners? Yeah. Ooh, that's such good question. Something else you want to leave with the listeners that you want to share?
00:42:55
Speaker
It's your, for you, whatever you want to share. I would say for everyone listening that there's, it's really easy to get into the mind of I should be further along.
Acceptance and the Temporary Nature of Life
00:43:05
Speaker
I should be somewhere else.
00:43:07
Speaker
But just for this moment, see if you can open up and lean in that you are exactly where you're meant to be. Exactly where you are gets to be okay. And Everything is just temporary.
00:43:21
Speaker
Everything is just in this moment. So I'll just leave that little food for thought for people to play with, open up to, think on. Thank you. Just that shift can be so powerful.
00:43:33
Speaker
It is. It's just that settling in. Again, you don't have to slam the door on that uneven in your life. you It's okay to be where you are at this moment. It's okay. It's temporary.
00:43:44
Speaker
Thank you so much, Brittany. Again, this was Brittany Cosgrove, and I look forward to learning more about you. I'm sure the listeners will be also reaching in and connecting, and all your social media links will also be linked below. Thank you, Brittany.
00:43:59
Speaker
Thank you. Thank
00:44:05
Speaker
Thank you again so much for choosing to listen today. I hope that you can take away a few nuggets from today's episode that can bring you comfort in your times of grief.
00:44:18
Speaker
If so, it would mean so much to me if you would rate and comment on this episode. And if you feel inspired in some way to share it with someone who who may need to hear this, please do so.
00:44:34
Speaker
Also, if you or someone you know has a story of grief and gratitude that should be shared so that others can be inspired as well, please reach out to me.
00:44:47
Speaker
And thanks once again for tuning in Grief, Gratitude, and the Gray In Between podcast. Have a beautiful day.