Rocking Life with Amy Edwards

SURRENDER. Surrendering to what life is showing us is way different than giving up. What does it mean, and how can we embrace more surrender, you ask? We got you this week! The podcast is in four segments, and here’s this week’s breakdown:

1: Rock Your Life with Amy: This week, I get real about the things that I truly need to surrender to, and the ones I have surrendered to in the past. Surrender can be easy, sure, but there are times in my life that it's been exceedingly difficult. I share about those particular times and what surrender really, truly means in my life. What does it really mean? Listen to my segment to find out!

2: The Interview (12:56): Interview this week is with Kimi Inch, aka Mistress Nina Payne. Kimi is professional dominatrix, a somatic therapist/healer for couples and individuals, a kink and BDSM expert, consultant and educator, and a core energetics practitioner. You can find her on Instagram @kimiinch or @domidollz, and at domidollz.com. We get into what kink means and the breakdown and psychology behind it, and the power exchange within that, and the control versus surrender that the type of play and work she engages in and fosters with others can have, including positive effects throughout our lives. We cover how we can hide the things we do and her process of surrender into who she truly was. “It’s really hard to surrender if you don’t trust, and if you don’t feel a sense of safety.” We cover how that can positively bring power to your whole life. And how so much of what she does isn’t about control, but rather, connection, and how that can be a form of vulnerability and surrender. “And that connection and dance is really what kink is, and if we could let go and apply that more to our lives, then imagine how much more freedom and choice and options that we would have.” It's such a great interview, listen from more!

3: Go Aff Yourself (30:39) with Affirmation Maven Jill Faulkner of stickwithit.co:, we talk surrender as letting go, and how it can be ironic that it’s hard to try to grasp the concept of something that is about loosening the grip—  and how we visualize surrender and how Jill feels it in the physical. What do what we envision with surrender? (Spoiler: Jill is laying on a cloud!) And leaning on trust in times of surrender, even when we don't understand our purpose. And this week’s aff keeps it simple: I Surrender.

4: BYOBBB (46:02) Build Your Own Brand, Biz + Brain with Bijou Finney: I ask Bijou a few hard questions, like: How much is surrender defining your life right now? We get into empathy and all the different types of surrender; our discussion on goals vs surrender; how we think everyone needs to record their own podcast; surrender to feelings vs events; how hard it is on your body when you don’t surrender, and how in business it can mean a pivot.

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POWER. How do we look at all the different facets of power, and what it means to us? From the control aspect, to giving it away to others, to specific ways to project it into the future, we got you this week with power! The podcast is in four segments, and here’s this week’s breakdown:

1: Rock Your Life with Amy: I have some legal things that can leave me feeling power-diminished, and I talk about one specifically and how I am dealing with it in relation to staying in my own power. It's tough when you have moments of inadequacy, loss, or situations that are out of your control. Especially when money comes into play, too. But it can be done. I talk about my process for staying in my power and the choices around that. Whew!

2: The Interview (13:46): Interview this week is with Jeff Ward, talk radio host of The Jeff Ward Show now on Statesman News Network. Jeff is a radio veteran with 20 years on KLBJ, and he was voted by the Austin Chronicle as the "Best Afternoon Host" five times. He is now hosting The Jeff Ward Show on SNN Mon-Fri 9 - noon. Jeff hides from his kids to get this chat done, and in doing so, he hits on what he has learned about what can take you out of the moment, and not to focus on that but rather to play the play, so to speak. We also cover the way that talk show hosts can be viewed and then we get into parenting , a little bit of chaos, and living in the moment and how that can be powerful in itself.

3: Go Aff Yourself (29:09) with Affirmation Maven Jill Faulkner of stickwithit.co:  What about when we feel power-less and out of alignment? And more importantly, what happens when we give our power away in relationships? What does that even really mean? When we are wanting to please others, that gives our power away. And we settle in real time on the aff today, and focus on taking full ownership of our own power. Jill also gives and an update on stickwithit.co, and this week’s Aff is: My Power Is Mine.

4: BYOBBB (43:55) Build Your Own Brand, Biz + Brain with Bijou Finney: We look through the lens of business, and at power vs control. How does being at home affect our power in business? And how can we use past times when we had a powerful feeling and project that into the future? We also talk about power being something we are grateful for and how to enact that into your daily practice. And finding that space where we don’t need to flex, but stand in our own power. Oh, and she declares me a power suit.

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COMFORT ZONE.Uncomfortable in your comfy space? That’s what it’s all about, as this week we get into what rocks our comfort zone! How can we see that we've gotten out of it when we don't have perspective? Also, we find some practical ways to get out of it in quarantine, and more. The podcast is in four segments, and here’s this week’s breakdown:

1: Rock Your Life with Amy: Surrendering to the unknown and finding peace in that might be the most uncomfortable thing of all. We have to just give in, trust, and yeah, be vulnerable at times. And those can be hard internal places to go! We are forced into letting go of control right now, which is what comfort zone is all about - letting go of control and going into the unknown. But that's where we grow! Oh, and I take cold showers, which is wayyyy outside my CZ... listen for that.

2: The Interview (13:46): Interview this week is with John Gorman, essayist, storyteller, speaker, and top-100 Medium writer. John is so candid, easy to talk to, and the convo just flew by. We met through the Ketamine clinic, Illumma, and he had written about his experience, which pushed him out of his comfort zone. We talk about how he defines comfort zone, pushing ourselves to the next level until it becomes our baseline, and how he views this through the lens of depression, which is something he is actively working on. How can we see this all as a debit system-- one in which we build up the good to counter the negative and maximize our investment in ourselves? Going out of our comfort zone is where the reward of this lies! John also emphasizes the importance of lateral movement when you’re stuck, and how we can look for catalysts in our life to find those places where were can find momentum. And he says: "Something is going to happen-- so you might as well be the reason that the good thing happens, and keep making bigger decisions."

3: Go Aff Yourself (29:09) with Jill Faulkner of stickwithit.co:  We talk action vs. the comfort zone, and Jill asks: is it ever good to stay in your comfort zone? We talk about the internal, intangible comfort zones; resistance; and Jill observes this: "Nobody else is in charge of getting us out of our comfort zone. It’s nobody else’s responsibility. And on the other side is where the growth is." We wonder about the opposite of comfort zone, and this week’s Aff is: I Trust My Expansiveness.

4: BYOBBB (47:13) Build Your Own Brand, Biz + Brain with Bijou Finney: She is experiencing a lot of upheaval in her own life, and we get into how uncomfortable that is, and what that’s bringing out In her personally and in her business. What happens when home is now not the comfortable place we want it to be? How we can adapt, in many ways? We also discuss that if you’re alone and working alone, how important it is that we find someone to give us reminders of how far we've come? This expands into some self exercises to see how far you’ve come and give yourself perspective.- and perhaps make a practice of looking at how we have grown and gotten past our comfort zone when we have had our heads down and been working, unable to realize our own growth. And the unknown is where we create!


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VIBES! This week we work on raising our vibrations and what that means from an energetic standpoint and how we can go about doing so, from the practical everyday strategies to the deep work that lies in our subconscious. The podcast is in four segments, and here’s this week’s breakdown:

1: Rock Your Life with Amy: How are your vibrations this week? Mine were not on point, despite doing all the "right" things. So I dove deep to explore what we can learn from that and how we can embrace the lower vibe moments and use them to teach us and ultimately raise our vibration. I get into the vibrational power of honesty and how we can tap into that and use it to raise us up.

2: The Interview (12:12): Today we talk with Giselle Koy. Giselle is a powerful vibrational force, and the author of six books, her latest being "The Codes of Immortality." She is a certified epigenetic coach and a transformational coach centering on getting people into their full power and fulfilling their soul and destiny. She talks about how she is handling this time, talks practically about using a spiritual and vibrational checklist, which I love, and she takes this further into how vibrations affect our DNA and other things we can be doing to raise our frequency. She addresses that we have to lay the right foundation to raise our frequency, and what we can do to make that happen more optimally. And she mentions what she's working on now, and to get that, simply email her at [email protected].

3: Go Aff Yourself (31:43) with Jill Faulkner of stickwithit.co: Jill vows to work on her accents, and we determine that this can raise your vibration! How? Listen to find out. We talk about who we are inherently and what happens to our vibration in this experience. Resetting and expanding your vibration is our focus, and it enables us to be our true self in the world. Can we have high vibration without the “productivity” we are used to? And what about when no one is looking?. This week’s Aff is: I release my blocks.

4: BYOBBB (51:23) Build Your Own Brand, Biz + Brain with Bijou Finney: Neither of us were feeling high-vibe the day we recorded, so it was a great time to talk about what to do in those moments. We touched on work flow and the roller coaster of vibes even when you are doing al the “right” things, and self medicating when our vibe is really low. What do we do on low vibe days when we can’t do any more? And how pervasive is the collective vibe, and what does honesty bring to the table?

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What a time to focus on GRATITUDE, huh? These weeks during the pandemic prove to be an excellent time to learn when we focus, so this week was really fun to develop new ways of finding gratitude. The podcast is in four segments, and here’s this week’s breakdown:

1: Rock Your Life with Amy: I found myself wondering about potential this week, and looking at how easy it is for me to see it in others and how hard it can be to see in myself. If we truly want to actualize our own power, how can we use gratitude to do this? I do something different in my gratitude practice to experiment with growing my power in the future, and future gratitude.

2: The Interview (12:30): Today we talk to Deanna Wheeler, Texas music artist and singer-songwriter. Deanna is a USAF veteran and a single mom to three kids, who was in an abusive relationship, faced and overcame paralysis with guillaume barre in 2018, and is honest and candid about her life and all she has been through. We talk about being un-grateful and how she hones in on gratitude in her daily life. “Whenever your soul is happy, it’s easier to heal.” Through her life and healing journey, she speaks about the integral need for patience as a part of gratitude, which I hadn’t really considered until now. “You can’t really have one without the other [patience and gratitude]. You have to have patience in understanding your past.” We talk about being patient with yourself in finding the gratitude while looking back, because it’s not always easy- in many ways. We talk too about what we are grateful for in this moment, and Deanna asks me about my own drive and where I find that.

3: Go Aff Yourself (29:40) with Jill Faulkner of stickwithit.co: This week we discuss gratitude practices and the challenges we all face right now, and we come up with this affirmation to help ourselves look for gratitude in every situation and to help us train ourselves to operate from this perspective more and more. 
This week’s Aff is: I am able to find gratitude when/where ever I look for it.

4: BYOBBB (45:16) Build Your Own Brand, Biz + Brain with Bijou Finney: Bijou had an accident this week and talks through how that has affected her gratitude, her job, and everything. We discuss the impact of focus each week and the positivity and effect that has on our mental states and practices. We get into how when it is the hardest is the best time to focus on something. We talked about the uncertainty of the future, and how living through this is making her ultra grateful and appreciative of even the hardest times at work— developing a practice of being grateful for things that she didn’t know to be grateful for in the past. The power that knowledge and behavior has on our immune system, and how she had to find ways to be kind to herself and her partner and the effect that it had on her physical and mental well-being and the return on investment. And I talk about the book “Turning Pro” and how I am finally ready to fully understand the concepts in it, and are we using “pro” attitudes in quarantine.

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This week we get down with some PASSION. And during a pandemic, no less! While that is definitely challenging, we still all find ways to look into what it means and how to find it. The podcast is in four segments, and here’s this week’s breakdown:

Segment 1: Rock Your Life with Amy: Amy asks a lot of questions this week. She also gets into not feeling passion at the moment, what this week's affirmation brought to her life, and how allowing herself to feel pushed her to get deeper to find what she is truly passionate about, and how you can too. When we are triggered, what is that showing us?

Segment 2: The Interview: This week's it's with Wes Hurt, the founder of CLEAN Cause organic sparkling yerba mate drinks which provide 50% of all their profits to support recovery from alcohol and drug addiction through sober living scholarships which you can find out more about at clean cause .com. Wes is also a husband and father to two children and lives in Austin and is a recovering addict. Wes and I get really real really fast, which we both prefer. We talk about stripping away the layers to find what’s underneath the surface of exterior passions. Wes raises strong questions within this, too. He asks, “Would I be proud of what I do today if the pandemic eliminated next week? And how will I be seen by people, and the actions I made and the way I handled it, if it stopped? THAT is my new litmus test by the decisions I make.” We get into regrets, what makes our character, our places of purpose, powerlessness, and, yes- what truly matters and what we truly care about when we face death.

Segment 3: Go Aff Yourself with Jill Faulkner of stickwithit.co. This week Amy and Jill talk about the company she founded and her passion for that. We get into hobbies and side hustles, music, and whether or not we lose passion in the process of doing the work, sometimes? The Aff this week seems beautifully prescient for the times we are living in right now. Allowing ourselves to feel overwhelming and powerful emotions moves us both to explore this idea in all its contexts. And we end with Jill thinking about recharging and giving, and what she needs now, and it follows perfectly with what Wes talks about in The Interview. This week’s Aff is: I Let Myself Feel.

Segment 4: BYOBBB -Build Your Own Brand, Biz + Brain with Bijou Finney: We both feel depleted of passion and get real about our struggles with our brands and businesses. We dive into how this affects our brands and our businesses. We discuss the luxury of passion and the fight or flight response that can be attached. Bijou has been on an entrepreneur call and discusses the general climate of that, when products or services are not needed at this time. What do we do when passions feel extinguished? Our takeaway is to mix it up when we are feeling limited, and find time to fan your embers and take care of yourself.

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Time to rock that BRAIN this week, and we could probably all use it with waht's going on in the world right now.... the virus, the shelter in place orders.... How are we coping and how can we maximize this time for our minds? The podcast is in four segments, and here’s this week’s breakdown:

Segment 1: Rock Your Life with Amy: Amy explores what we can do with this time we've got on our hands, the habits we can build, the surrender that we are asked to make now, and how paying attention to our sleep can impact our brains. And Amy gets personal this week with a reframe realization of an issue she's had her entire life.

Segment 2: The Interview: Art Markman, Ph.D. of Psychology and Professor at UT, author of several books including Smart Thinking and most recently, Bring Your Brain to Work, and he has the podcast "Two Guys on Your Head." Art is great at explaining how our brains function at times like we are currently experiencing. We cover motivations, emotions, habits, how not to make a decision about what we are “supposed to be feeling” right now, what we can do to leave work when we are working from home, and so much more. And what's most important right now? He says, "Take the time to rethink. Do I want to do things differently while I have the chance? [This time] is a really great chance to rethink the way that we interact with the people that are closest to us and to make that better." Learn more about Art HERE.

Segment 3: Go Aff Yourself with Jill Faulkner of stickwithit.co. This week Amy and Jill talk about the effect that affirmations have had on our brains over the years of doing them; subconscious negative patterns of thought that we may choose because they are familiar; and Jill has a big aha! moment. This week’s Aff is: I Work With My Brain.

Segment 4: BYOBBB -Build Your Own Brand, Biz + Brain with Bijou Finney: Bijou and Amy both have had cases of zombie brain; they cover sales in the time of coronavirus and how to focus on the clients you already have; how our brains work with choice; and ultimately, this week's grand takeaway about reframing and how we can work to find the good in any situation.

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Let's get that FUTURE SELF going this week. Can we live as our future selves in the present? That’s the big question, and with all that’s going on in the world, how do we possibly navigate that… and what if we don’t? The podcast is in four segments, and here’s this week’s breakdown:

Segment 1: Rock Your Life with Amy: Amy goes deep on how she's finding her future self through a self-experiment, and attempting to live as her. And the deeper ‘what if?’ of the future self… what if we try? What would that be like?

Segment 2: The Interview: Taylor Ellison, Lifestyle Host and Producer on CBS Austin’s We Are Austin morning show and Austin After Hour talk show, also is a sound healer and regularly hosts meditations. Taylor shares about always knowing her future self existed, and how we can believe more deeply in ourselves. “You have to act as if. Let me step into the role that I want to have, and act as if I already have it, and eventually that self catches up to the self you’re trying to be and they merge together.” She talks further about the power of the present and the excitement of the future, even as we live in trying and uncertain times, and how she does the work to live as her higher self. More about Taylor HERE.

Segment 3: Go Aff Yourself with Jill Faulkner of stickwithit.co. This week Jill talks about the physical reality of her now and the incongruency of that with her future self. Amy remembers a song she wrote about how our future self is always within us, and plays it for Jill. This week’s Aff is: I Am Who I Desire To Be.

Segment 4: BYOBBB -Build Your Own Brand, Biz + Brain with Bijou Finney: This was recorded this a week ago, and what a difference that week has made in our work lives. We talk about the future self in a work context at the beginning, but move on to a lot more, with a lot of great info on gratitude, self work practices and habits that you can do at home— those things we can do for tomorrow’s self that will pay off when we look back. My future self cuts me some slack and Bijou talks plants. As Bijou says, “What you give yourself— all the water and food and positivity— will help you grow into what you should be.”

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In a week that can feel dark, we are working on rocking our LIGHT. In Amy's Rock Your Life, she talks about ketamine, finding our light, and how times of darkness can be the most important moments to go within and do the work to find our light and nurture it. The Interview is with Alli Waddell of Illumma Ketamine Infusion Clinic of Austin, and she speaks about her personal journey to mental health after depression, bulimia, and suicidal ideation, and how she has found her light and helps others find theirs. Go Aff Yourself with Jill Faulkner of stickwithit.co covers lightness in body and mind, and our aff this week is "I Step Into The Light." On Build Your Brand with Bijou Finney, we get into the very timely discussion of how businesses go through cycles of light and dark. BONUS content at the end: Austin360 Radio's interview with Alli to learn more about Illumma Clinic. More at amyedwards.com/blog.

Who doesn't want more ABUNDANCE in their lives? Well, Amy learns a lot about focus and abundance this week, while also discussing her daily practices around the topic. Our guest is the very lovely and very wise Qi Dada of Divine and Conjure. Qi is a Priestess, Musician, Community Leader and much more, and she shares about her years of studies of abundance and how her perspective shifted after her recent trip to Africa and the loss of a close friend. Go Aff Yourself with Jill Faulkner of stickwithit.co brings the aff "I See The Abundance and I Welcome More" which brings up a lot for Jill about money. Bijou and Amy build our brains and brands with a chat on our animalistic natures, purpose, and an abundance spell. More at amyedwards.com/blog.