[Intro] Hello and welcome to my podcast, Empowered to Thrive. I'm your host, Corinne Powell. I'm an intuitive guide and I absolutely love helping people to heal from within so that they can create a life that they love, a life that they enjoy.

We weren't meant to just tolerate and get through life. We were meant to thrive and enjoy the life we're living. Of course, we will have seasons and moments that are difficult and challenging.

And the beauty of it is that we can be supported in those moments. I am here to be an aid and a guide to support you. And I hope that you will enjoy not only today's episode, but some of the past episodes if you haven't heard them yet.

On this podcast, I talk about all things inner wellness. We also sprinkle in some spirituality and parenting because as a mom to three kids, parenting is a big part of my life. I hope that you enjoy the episode and that there's at least one thing you'll pull from it and start to implement into your own life.

If you want to follow me in other ways, you can find me on Instagram, ⁠@corinne_changeradically⁠, or on Facebook, Change Radically. Would you do me a favor and share this podcast with your friends? If you hear an episode that resonates with you? And would you also go ahead and give me a rating and review my podcast? It would mean so much to me and I would appreciate it. I hope that you enjoy the episode and that we connect.

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Let's talk today about becoming consciously aware and what to do as we become aware. When I think of conscious awareness, I think of recognizing our thoughts and being in touch with our feelings. So as we go through the course of a normal day, there's going to be a lot of thoughts that race through our minds and a lot of feelings that we feel throughout our body, sensations and words that we attach to those feelings like anger, frustration, sadness, remorse, guilt, shame, joy, excitement, anticipation, hope.

The difficulty is when we are not aware of the thoughts we're thinking or the feelings that we have. We can become so out of touch with our own body because of needing to protect ourselves and cope through the traumas and the stressors of life that we disconnect, we disassociate, we numb out. And if we do that, we will not even realize what it is that we're feeling, what sensations are going on throughout our body and where at or what thoughts we are thinking.

Consider an interaction you have with a stranger or someone you know. As you step back from it, do you know the thoughts that you had during that interaction? What was rumbling through your mind? Can you get in touch with the sensations that you felt within your body? Say you felt anxious or excited. Did your stomach respond? Did you have a stomachache? Or perhaps you feel tension in your shoulders because you were carrying pressure and stress.

You determine it. I'm throwing out some examples to get you going in the direction that I'm hoping this conversation will take you. Feelings can be bottled up.

They can be suppressed. And if done that for too long, they at some point become explosive. Take for example anger.

Anger is an emotion that masks other soft emotions underneath it. So underneath the emotion of anger, there could be disappointment. There could be hurt, pain, sadness, overwhelm.

And when we don't allow those feelings to be expressed, whether that's through crying, whether that's through conversation, just talking it out with somebody, letting them know how you're feeling, expressing yourself. If you bottle up your emotions or suppress them, they have to, they must come out at some point. And so we see anger or rage but are we considering why it's showing up? There is always a reason.

So again, as I think back over what I originally started out by saying, I want to mention that becoming aware of your thoughts is not the same as being analytical or overthinking. I'm not suggesting you should ruminate on your thoughts and always have the thoughts running through your mind that you're processing over and over again. There is good mind management tools that are necessary in order to function in a way throughout your day that's going to be beneficial to you.

Overthinking and analyzing situations is sometimes a result of trauma. It's sometimes a result of, say, you need to figure out the situation because perhaps if you figure out the situation, then you'll be able to explain yourself well enough or you'll, they're just, I shouldn't even go off on giving the possibilities because they're endless. The reason you may be overthinking could have so many reasons attached to it.

So really, I'm just wanting to bring this up so that you can start to consider as you go through your days, what am I thinking? What am I feeling? Becoming more aware, waking up to the reasons why. You don't have to figure it out. You can sit with me or someone else and just present, hey, this is what I've become aware of.

I don't know why it's there. I don't know why I'm thinking or feeling that, but I'm aware of it because awareness is first step. To become aware is to start to get you to know yourself better.

To get to know yourself better is a key in healing. So this is a very simple first step. If you're looking to heal and move to a place that feels more comfortable, more enjoyable, you can begin by just becoming aware.

Go through your days and start to just get in touch with the sensations you feel in your body, with the thoughts that you think, with the feelings that you have. Now, oftentimes we have thoughts and feelings because our feelings are affected by our thoughts and those are based off of our form beliefs or our projections. So say I experienced a parent figure who didn't seem to care about what I thought or how I felt, even how I was doing perhaps.

I may project that onto other people. I may have a form belief that says people don't really care about what I think. They don't really want to hear how I'm doing.

If I walk through life with that belief, I'm going to project that onto other people. I'm going to hear their words and interpret their facial expressions in a way that confirms that belief that I already have. People don't really care.

People don't really want to know. And so I have the opportunity to simply be curious. That person's expression could have meant so many things.

That person's words could actually be taken multiple ways. Many times people are responding in whatever way they do based off of their own form belief and their own projection. So if we take it personally every time, we're going to do ourselves a disservice because everybody is actually not trying to personally attack us.

Think of a person who said something harsh to you. Now consider what they are going through, perhaps what their life situations have been like and you may not know. Or just consider the fact that maybe they were speaking from a moment where they felt triggered by whatever you did or whatever you said.

So your words or your actions or your facial expression reminded them of their own past pain, their wounding, and the trauma that they experienced. And remember, trauma is, we encounter it all the time throughout our life. I'm not just talking about the big events that we think of as traumatic. Those are very traumatic. 

There is also trauma that we experience in our developmental years simply because our parent figures may not have the tools that they need to regulate their own emotions and to help their children regulate theirs. They may not know how to be supportive.

Well, that leaves a child to feel isolated and lonely, not knowing how to navigate what they're thinking and what they're feeling. So there is so much room here for possibilities. And I'm going to go back to it.

I'm just giving you a suggestion so that you can start becoming more aware of yourself and you can learn more about yourself. With that, you can schedule a session to meet with me or talk to someone else that you go to for good, loving support. And you're going to have, you're going to really be helping yourself out by simply starting to just get curious and explore what it is that's rumbling through your mind and your body in the course of the everyday.

If you've got questions, comments, or just some thoughts, send me an email corinne@changeradically.com. Until next week, be well. 

[Ending] We've come to the end. What did you think about what you heard? I hope that there's something you pull from today's episode and start implementing it into your life. Create the change that you want to see, the change that you hear about. You have the opportunity to transform your life and I'm ready to link arms with you and to help and guide you to the life that you want to live.

If you resonated with what you heard today and it touched you, would you share it with your friends? Would you also go ahead and rate my podcast and write a written review? It would mean so much to me. 

I hope that we'll connect, whether it's for a session or just to connect because I enjoy meeting new people. You can find me on Instagram, ⁠@corinne_changeradically⁠, or on Facebook, Change Radically. You can also always email me, corinne@changeradically.com. If you have thoughts, questions, or anything that you just want to talk about, send me an email. 

I hope that you have a wonderful week, but no matter what your week is like, in the moments that are quiet, maybe it's when you pillow your head at night or when you're driving in the car or taking a walk, or maybe it's going to be in the midst of the chaos with your children or the craziness of work. I hope that you'll remember how significant you are, that there is meaning and value to your life, and that I, for one, am so glad that you're alive.

Catch you again next week.