[Intro] Hello, and welcome to my podcast, Empowered to Thrive. I'm so glad you joined me today. I'm your host, Corinne Powell.

I help people pleasers find happiness, embrace courage, and experience peace of mind through inner child healing. If you're desperate for change and not sure how to make it happen, I'm here to guide you along the way. 

In this space, you'll find motivation to live a life full of joy and resilience. We will talk all things inner wellness with spirituality interwoven at times. Being a mom to three, parenting will be a topic of conversation for sure. 

So happy to have you. Enjoy today's episode. 

…

Hi, friends. As we're closing out 2020 and heading into 2021, we have all been touched by the difficult year that it's been.

And I don't want to sit here and just talk about that. We're inundated with the fact that it's been a really challenging year. Perhaps you have even lost someone that you love deeply.

There is hope that it will not need to be bleak and hopeless as you go into 2021. I don't know what this next year is going to bring, but I have hope that it can be better than the last year because that's been my experience. A few years ago, I was living in a place where it was just hard to get out of bed in the morning.

I was physically fatigued and I was really stretched in every way. Plus, the past traumas were compounding how I felt. And just surviving felt like it took everything out of me.

Thankfully, that's not where I am anymore, but I could be back there if I'm not deliberate. I have cultivated change and I am deliberate to continue to keep in place things that I need to do to help myself out. Certain patterns, mindsets, ways of living that have been serving me.

I want to share these things with you in hopes that you can grab a hold of something and take it for yourself. A big part of what I've had to do is say no to a lot more. I've had to protect myself and my energy.

I've had to look for ways to create ease, whether that's simplifying the meals that I make or doing less in homeschool. Now, don't worry. My children are all above their grade levels, but still, that means the days that I'm teaching them, I teach them less than the days my husband's teaching them.

Why? Because that's what I need to do to make sure I conserve my energy. There are other things that I've done. My husband is at home and with my kids a lot more than he used to be, and that's been a huge help to me.

It won't always need to be that way, but for this time being, that has helped me to survive. Of course, we don't have to homeschool our children. We choose to do that.

So, whatever lifestyle you choose to have, my hope is that you will find the ways that you can create ease and serve yourself within that lifestyle. And I want you to know, because I needed to hear this a long time ago, and maybe people told me it and I just couldn't hear it. I really don't know.

But I want you to know there's always another way. The way you've been doing life is not the only way to do it. You can create change.

You can create ease within your life. And some of that might be through doing the inner work to determine why you function the way you do. Why do you carry the mindsets that you carry and live out the patterns you live? There's a reason.

And as you discover more about yourself, you're able to make powerful choices that serve you. And I'm right there with you. I'm totally in process, learning as I go, growing.

And that's the beauty of this. The point isn't to arrive. My goal is not to arrive.

It's to continue to learn more about myself and develop a lifestyle that feels like it fits me well. I don't want to live a lifestyle that works for someone else. I want to figure out what's best for me and do my life that way.

There's so much controversy in the middle of the pandemic and everything that's been going on with COVID. And even in that, my two cents is always that you're going to have to do what's working well for you and your family. It can be really hard to have disagreements with people and misunderstandings.

At least they're hard for me. I'm the type of person who never liked to ruffle feathers. I was a people pleaser. And when I'm not careful, I revert back to that. 

So I've had to be extra deliberate to do what's best for me and my family even when other people disagree with it. And why do I even say that? Because as many of us know, your mental well-being is so important.

It's equally important to your physical well-being. And isolation and lack of physical contact will have a devastating effect on us. So I'm not here to be controversial, not at all.

All I'm trying to say is be aware within yourself, pause, and let yourself discover what is it that you need and how can you bring that into your life in this new year. You know, sometimes people feel like it's a fresh year, it's time for change. And that's true, but I feel like it's always time for change.

Every day is a fresh day. And this is an invitation, just like next week will be an invitation, and just like last week was an invitation, that change is available. And there is an easier way, there's a brighter way, and it's available to you and it's available to me.

And I am discovering what that is as well. But I am so grateful that I'm not in the place I was a few years ago. I am getting more sleep, which is so important for my body.

I'm giving it the rest it needs. When you run yourself ragged, and you're a high performer, and you have trauma in your life, so you function in these unhealthy survival... 

…

[Advertisement] I want to pause from today's episode to invite you into a couple different events that are coming up. I am offering group coaching starting January 5th.

There will be three meetings, all held bi-weekly on Tuesday evenings over Zoom. I keep my group small purposely so that you get my direct attention. In this next run of group coaching, we are going to be focusing on inner child healing, how to love yourself, and what to do with feelings of shame that may show up.

But that's not it. There will be even more conversation than that. If you're interested, but the price is too steep, please reach out and message me.

I want to offer you a discount code. Also, I want to invite you into a challenge that I am running in a private Facebook group from January 2nd through the 9th. If you want to start off your new year of 2021 with a bang, you should join my challenge group.

It's a great place to just find encouragement and community. I will be cheering you on every single day, offering you great suggestions. And if you do the things that I'm suggesting, I can guarantee you're going to find yourself changing even just within seven days.

I hope that you'll check out in the show notes for more information and reach out to me if you're interested. For now, back to today's episode. 

…

…modes, and you use protective mechanisms to manage.

It takes a toll on your mind and on your body, every part of you. So I'm coming out of all of that, and I'm learning how to love myself and to take good care of myself. And this is basic, but so important.

Change on any level is good, and it's moving you in a better direction. So I just want to send you hope and peace. My hope for you is that you are going to find new levels of joy in this next year.

That you are going to find inner peace that causes you to feel grounded and settled within yourself, even if nothing changes around you. That's always my goal, that no matter what's going on around me, I want to be able to ground myself and be living in peace and in rest. And it's my goal, so it doesn't mean that's where I'm always at.

But I know where I'm going to because I have a goal. And I can align my life, and I can make my decisions based off of my end goal. I know in this last year that was so helpful to me, to know what my goals were, and then it made it easier to say yes or no to certain things that came my way.

If it aligned with my goals, then yes, I could bring that in. I could say yes to that. And if it didn't align, I had the option of still saying yes, but it made it easier to know whether I should say yes or no.

It's okay to try something and decide, you know what, this isn't serving me. This is not the best way for me. It works for someone else.

Maybe it even works for Corinne, but it doesn't work well for me. And let it go. This is your life to live.

Everyone else doesn't have to agree with you. It doesn't even matter what they think. You decide how you're going to live and do what is best for you and for those that are in your household.

So happy new year. 

[Ending] I want to close out today's episode by thanking you for being here with me. We've made it to the end, and I hope what I shared has been helpful.

If there is anything I've mentioned that you want to talk about in more depth, I would be so glad to connect with you. You can always find me on Instagram ⁠@corinne_changeradically⁠, or go directly to my website, changeradically.com. Of course, within the show notes, there's other ways that you can connect with me. And if there is someone that you think would benefit from this podcast, please share it with them.

To help my podcast get more growth and reach more people, please subscribe, review, and rate it. And until next week, I'm wishing you the very best.

I've known what it is to just get by... I want to share with you how to get to a lighter place! If you'd like to connect with me further please email corinne@changeradically.com or go here. 

Remember, doors are open for group coaching!! Our meetings will be held over Zoom on Tuesday evening, Jan 5, 19 & Feb 2 from 7:30–9:00 PM ET. We'll be talking about how to nurture and heal your inner child, how to grow in love for yourself and what to do with feelings of shame you may experience. Sign up here. 

Also, the "New Year, Happier You" Challenge begins Jan 2–Jan 9. Only $20.21 to join!! It'll be a great week full of connection and helpful motivation to get you going in the direction you want this new year! Sign up here.