Starting With Gratitude

When we embark on our healing journey (which is a journey of a lifetime!), it is so important to acknowledge the truths that we are not only healing from our own personal experiences but we are also healing from intergenerational trauma and from collective wounds. Our special guest Vanessa Bennett - LMFT, Author, Facilitator, Podcaster of the Cheaper Than Therapy Podcast, and Mama - offers us prof...

When we dream to live an unconventional life, we must fully accept that it requires us to walk an unconventional path. And unconventional paths are paths that require us to fully embrace the unknown, practice radical acceptance, and deeply trust along the way that we are being led to where we dream to be. For LaNia Roberts, her unconventional dream life includes being an artist. This unconventiona...

Do we need to be fully healed to experience a healthy relationship? What is required of us to experience a healthy relationship? Are our partners at all responsible for our healing? What if we have different attachment styles? How do we know whether or not we should walk away from a relationship? These are all questions (amongst others) that we explore and expand on in this conversation with Traum...

When we talk about living in the present moment, we also have to talk about embracing the unknown because the present moment is the unknown. This is one major reason why most people don't live in the present moment.  Rather than living in the present moment, most people live in the past (is this you?) because the past is familiar, and therefore, feels easier to control. When life feels "...

Living in a society that encourages unhealthy masculinity creates a society that suppresses feminine energy, which is the energy of surrender, of trust, of nourishment, of intuitive knowing. We are living in a time now where the masculine and feminine energies that exist within us individually and collectively are being awakened and balanced. Especially over the last few years, we've grown aw...

What if all of life is a journey of unfolding into your true Self? And what if there were phases to this unfolding? Our guest, Arielle Estoria, shares with us the five phases of our life unfoldment, which she expands on in her latest book, The Unfolding: An Invitation to Coming Home To Your True Self. Actor, Poet, and Author, Arielle, observed her becoming and unbecoming in the last few years and...

PTSD symptoms don't always show up right after a traumatic experience. Sometimes the symptoms arrive years later when you least expect. For our special guest, Madeline Popelka - who is the Founder of one of the largest healing communities on Instagram and Author of the recently published book, You're Going To Be Okay - she didn't experience her PTSD symptoms that stemmed from childh...

Imagine being able to look back at your life and say, “I was present for all of it.” I don’t know about you but I desire to be able to genuinely say that.  Being present has been my main mental, physical and spiritual practice for the past year now and, as time passes, I continue to expand my conscious awareness as to why being present is so powerful. I have truly come to fully believe that being...

"I can really trust I am fulfilling my purpose, as long as I am Being present," shares Shamanic Healer, Spiritual Teacher, & Author, Shaman Nabeel Redwood, as he expands on finding your purpose. For Shaman Redwood, "finding your purpose" is less about pursuing and fulfilling a destination and more about Being fully in the present moment. Inspired by his book , "Inner P...

Hating on our exes honestly makes no sense to me. I wouldn’t have the healthy relationships I have now without my exes. I wouldn’t be who I am today without my exes. The acknowledgement of these two truths alone is like… why wouldn’t I be grateful for my exes? And I'm not just referring to past lovers and partners. I'm referring to all my exes - ex friends included. In my opinion, being...

"Human design helps us get back to our energy," explains our special guest, Human Design Expert, Leah McCloud. What is human design? Who is human design for? What are the essentials when reading a human design chart? How does it help us manifest our dreams? And why does it return us to our (true) energy? These are all questions we answer in this episode and more! For Leah, human design f...

This episode is everything you need to know about Saturn Return, which is a deeply transformative experience we all grow through. While our returning guest, Afro-Indigenous Medicine Woman and Spiritual Teacher, Réyel Byrd , is commencing her Saturn Return on March 07, 2023 - ya girl, your host, is ending her Saturn Return. In this conversation, Réyel shares her wisdom through her knowledge and ins...

Being in transition is hard. Owning your passions is hard. Becoming a mom... is hard. But just because it's hard, doesn't mean you're incapable. Just because it's hard, doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. Just because it's hard, doesn't mean you should give up. In this conversation with Founder of By Way of Us , Sarah Kim, we expand on various seasons of lif...

Over the course of the past year, I have been deepening and developing relationships that feel like answered prayers (and they totally are). It's no coincidence that the year I begin to manifest healthy relationships in my life that are good for my mind, body, and Spirit, followed the couple of years I spent turning inward. Though I still have so much to learn about healthy relationships and...

An alchemist is someone who can transform any normally disempowering experience into an empowering one. An alchemist is someone who sees the medicine and the message in any mess. An alchemist is someone who doesn't run from the shadow and instead welcomes it, understands it, and loves it into light. This conversation is all about being an alchemist, and our guest, Crystal Streets, openly shar...

Some are for discipline. Other are against discipline. And for a while, I wasn't sure whether I was for it or against it but I've come to the clarity that I am absolutely for it. I not only believe that a successful life is a disciplined life but I believe that discipline is a part of nature, and if nature weren't disciplined, all of life would cease to exist!  Also, what if I told...

When life gets tough, most of the time, people just want easy answers. So they seek for answers outside of themselves - online, in relationships, at work. And while some external findings do bring forth temporary clarity, it's never the clarity that brings forth long-lasting results. The answers most of us are seeking are answers that are only found when we stop searching outside of us and tu...

I wasn't planning on publishing an episode specifically about 2023 but I had a change of mind, as I felt called and inspired to record a conversation we can all return to through the year and replay when we feel the need to be gently reminded and encouraged that this year is our year - regardless of external circumstances, current situations, and/or if expectations are being met.  Many people...

Getting to the point where you can say you are grateful for your mental illness is a journey and in this conversation, we explore that journey with Mishko. With the help of their mom leading the way, Mishko received the diagnosis' of bipolar disorder, adhd, and anxiety and has felt that since gaining this self-awareness, they've been able to alchemize their darkness into light in ways th...

One of the most important perspectives I gained in regards to "starting over" and pivoting in life is that... when we intuitively feel called to start over and pivot, it's a sign that we've completed a cycle and it's time to move onto a new one. This perspective of completion gifted me a sense of wholeness, which encouraged me to move onward and upward. I write "start...

It’s ya girl, your host, Jocelyn, y como siempre (and as always), I am so grateful you are here. Welcome to my Starting with Gratitude podcast!  This is a safe space, intended to host heart-centered, meaningful conversations exploring all topics of the human and spiritual experience. This space also intends to reflect healthy, honest communication. Some episodes are between you and I. Other episod...

🎙 "If my 28-year-old Self were to give a gift to my 29-year-old Self, I feel like that gift would be an open heart. I feel like that gift would be readiness. I feel like that gift would be a calm, regulated nervous system and a strong spiritual foundation." - Jocelyn When I turned 28, I published an episode expressing my gratitude for my 27-year-old Self. It only felt right to now publis...

🎙 "Being in the feeling is imagining something so vividly that my body feels it." - Jamila Reddy A conversation that encourages feeling and inspires willingness, Jamila Reddy shares with us this season of her life where she is experiencing the beauty of answered prayers and the season that came before, which was full of grief but ultimately contributed to her being where she easefully st...

🎙 " If we don't have our heart open, our blessings don't come. " - Réyel Byrd From the deep desire to expand and experience higher potentials to reprogramming the subconscious to opening your heart and beyond, this conversation with Afro-Indigenous Medicine Woman and Spiritual Teacher, Réyel Byrd , walks you through the spiritual, the awakening, the healing journey. Whether you...

🎙 "If you have to suppress a truth in order to keep the peace in a relationship or in an environment… then is the peace really present? Where is the peace in that?" - Jocelyn This is basically a conversation about why expressing the truth is awesome - even when the truth you're expressing feels uncomfortable. Not long ago I had a moment where I felt called to express an uncomfortabl...