Jeanne: [00:00:06] Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of Naturally High. As always, I'm thrilled to be here with you today. I'm Jeanne Foot, and today we are at the final episode of the Awaken series. So the last letter in AWAKEN is N, which stands for "next level you." And this is nothing that is wrong with you. It's that you've reached a new plateau of growth and evolution, and we are going to discover that together. So before we go any further, I want to say this. If you've been listening along through this series, I hope you take a moment to acknowledge yourself, not because you got it all figured out and not because you've arrived at some polished, perfected version of yourself, but because you're willing to look within at your challenges, look at your edges, your victories. And we don't often applaud ourselves for what we are doing well. We kind of take that for granted and, you know, minimize that effect. I know I do. I really am not good at acknowledging my wins because my eye is a critical eye and it looks for the things that I don't do well before the things I do well. So if that's resonating with you, I really, really encourage you to applaud yourself. So why are we applauding ourselves? You become willing to become more aware, awaken more conscious, more present in your life, more honest, even possibly more curious about the patterns, the beliefs, the relationships, the coping strategies, and the stories that may have once helped you survive at some point in your life, maybe no longer can be helping you truly live to your fullest potential.

Jeanne: [00:01:49] And you hear me say this often, but what we typically adapt to as younger versions of ourselves really becomes our demise in our lives later on as adults. Because if you're a people pleaser and a caretaker, or you're the one who's signing up or overextending yourself, that's not going to change unless you start to put in the boundaries or the no's that need to happen in order to be truly authentic to your own life. So this concept feels really personal to me because as my life stands right now, I feel like I've outgrown my current life. So what do I mean by that? So if you're on the outside looking in, you would say that my life looks essentially the same. For the most part. I live in the same house. I have the same spouse, same friends. Work has evolved, but looks the same. But what feels completely different is me. Not slightly different, but completely different. It feels almost like the glove doesn't fit anymore. Like I've awakened to a life that feels foreign to me. Like I know I orchestrated it. Things are familiar for me, but yet it feels so unfamiliar because the person inside and the person I've identified with it doesn't fit any longer.

Jeanne: [00:03:15] There's things that I have evolved beyond. I think about beyond addiction, beyond recovery, beyond perfectionism, beyond whatever you fill in the blank with however you want to. But we do transcend our life is not to go from -5 to 0 and stabilize crisis. It's really to flourish, and to flourish is to move beyond where we were. And so how it looks different is how I want to spend my time, my money, the people I want to spend time with, even the subject. Sometimes I have very little intolerance, especially for complaining. If you know me well, you know that I feel like I've reached a quota of people complaining and negativity in my life. And so when I brush up against it, I'm present to it. And I try to hang on to myself and not abandon myself with the people who are talking to me. But I feel like I want a different conversation. I want a richer, more meaningful, deeper conversation. And I crave true, real, meaningful connection that offers a dimension that I've never experienced before. But I know I'm truly ready for. I feel like I've awakened in my own life to a different possibility for what lies ahead. And sometimes what is being created until now feels a little hollow. Actually, in some respects, don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for my privilege, my opportunities, which I feel has been generally earned. But life has shifted. And what is important to me in a way that I crave more, I crave different and something more aligned with the person I have become and still am becoming.

Jeanne: [00:05:07] To outgrow your life as you know it is the whole point of the awakened series. It is opens you up to more fertile ground opportunities in the past, what just seemed like far fetched dreams that it felt exactly that. Dreams for others, but not for you. So to awaken to your truest potential, the next reiteration of yourself is the whole point of life. Not to come into this world and live out the paradigms that you have from previous generations, or who you've been told you are. But to really reach your truest potential by living authentically is to rebel what others may expect from you. But it is the most brazen thing you can do. Just be you. Especially when we are leaving behind behaviors and patterns that may not always serve our highest self. Now, a lot of people close to us may feel vested in us. So when we start to change, they may not always like it because in some way we were serving them, especially if you were the person overextending yourself to other people in the form of people pleasing in the form of serving or whatever it may be. But I want to reiterate, this is about you. Whose life are you going to live anyway? Yours or someone else's version of your life? So that's what I mean by this.

Jeanne: [00:06:23] The most brazen thing you can do is to live your life. And it may not be comfortable, especially when you want to make changes, but, you know, transition can be really, really painful. You're not where you were in the comforts of where you were, and you're not where you want to be...yet. And in the middle is where I call the messy middle. And sometimes it doesn't always feel so comfortable. So if you're in a space that seems undefined in your life, just trust the process. Trust yourself that you know what you're doing. Otherwise you would not be doing it right now. An awakening is not small work. It's incredibly courageous work. And that's what it's about. It's a process of unlearning what no longer fits for us anymore. It's not about becoming somebody else. It's not about shoulds. It's not about muss. It's not about fixing yourself because you are broken. It's about coming home to the truest, most authentic parts of yourself, and then beginning to build a life that is congruent with that truth. What an amazing gift. So today we're going to talk about that next level version of you, not the version who has it all together. Not the version who never struggles, never feels, never gets triggered, never doubts herself or himself or never has a hard day. That person doesn't even exist. But the version of you who knows how to come back to yourself again and again and again.

Jeanne: [00:08:00] So what do I mean by that? The version of you who can recognize an old pattern without automatically becoming it. The person of yourself. The version of you who begins to trust themselves enough to make different choices. The person who wasn't hijacked by their emotions but can stay with it. I want you to hold this question as you listen. Who are you becoming? And what would it look like to begin living from that person today or in this very moment? Let that sink in. Who are you becoming and what freedom would it offer you to live, to begin living from that person today or from this very moment? When people hear the words next level, quote unquote, there can be a lot attached to that. We might think it means doing more, earning more, looking better, being more productive, be more successful, having a more impressive life, more of... When you are addicted to more, more is never enough. So that's just want to hold that frame in front and center. And there's nothing wrong with wanting more for yourself. There's nothing wrong with ambition, growth, expansion, or wanting a life that feels rich and meaningful. But I think we have to be very careful about the energy behind it. Because sometimes next level is really just another way of saying I'm not enough yet. And that's not the kind of level I'm talking about at all.

Jeanne: [00:09:44] The next level you is not built from self-rejection, but rather from self-respect, personal integrity, and what is important to you. It is built from the understanding that you do not have to abandon yourself, who you are to become, or who you're meant to be. The next level you has clear boundaries, has greater capacity to sit with discomfort, may choose different relationships, may even rest more. That's something I'm still learning. I fight fatigue as if it's failure. That person may speak more honestly. She may no longer use the same strategies to numb, avoid, perform, people please or prove her or his worth to anyone. But none of that comes from deciding that the current version of you is unworthy. It comes from recognizing that you are worthy of a life that supports you. A life that does not require you to betray yourself, to just connect or belong. A life that feels safer in your body. A life that reflects your values, not just your fears. And for those of us in recovery or healing of any kind of deep personal transformation, this matters very much so. Because recovery is not just about what you stop doing, it's also about what you begin creating. It's about learning how to build a life you do not feel you need to escape from. And all behavior has purpose. So if we're finding ourselves saying one thing and doing another, we want to close the gap on that.

Jeanne: [00:11:20] We want to look at what is driving that. And sometimes the old self no longer fits. There's a point in any transformation where the old identity begins to feel uncomfortable. You may notice that the things you used to tolerate no longer feel tolerable. The conversations you used to have may feel draining, perhaps boring. The people used to shrink around me bring up something different in you now. The way you used to cope may not work the way they once did. And sometimes that can feel confusing because the old way is familiar and there's comfort in familiarity. That's why transition is painful. As I said before, you do not have the conforms of your old life, but you haven't reached the shores of your new life and feeling like neither destination is available to you brings up confusion, self doubt as to why you may even thought this was a good idea to do make this change in the first place. And that's where the messy middle is really all about. It's about really wondering if you want to go back. And then even in the hero's journey, there's a point where a moment of surrender, there's no turning back. The bridges have been burnt. You have to keep moving forward. And sometimes we doubt the journey and the process because we're not in any man's land. And even if it's painful, even if it's kept you small, even if you're left depleted, the familiar can feel safe not because it is, but because it's, your nervous system knows it. We crave what is familiar, even if it no longer wants what we are being given.

Jeanne: [00:13:04] So it's the same with why do people find it so difficult to leave relationships that no longer serve them, especially when they're abusive and danger is imminent? But they do because it's familiar and it's better the devil they know than the devil they don't. And it's sad, actually. So as you begin to change, there can be this in-between space where you don't feel like you're really available for your old life, but you have not yet completely embodied the new one. And that space can feel incredibly lonely. It feels uncertain. It feels like maybe you're doing something wrong. It's simply the space of becoming, and you're learning how to hold a different identity. And you're learning to make choices from a different place. And you're also learning how to stop asking what will keep everyone else comfortable and start asking what is true for me right now? And that takes practice. It takes massive courage. And very often it takes support, which is why accountability, fellow people, fellow guides, community of like minded heroes who are journeying together is so important. And one of the most important things I want to remind you today is that you do not think your way into a new identity alone. It's not wishful thinking. Otherwise we'd all be there. You build it through evidence. You build it through creating new neural pathways. Every time you create a pause, instead of reacting, you create new evidence. New information. Every time you tell the truth, instead of performing, you create evidence. Every time you honor a boundary, even when it's uncomfortable, you create evidence. Every time you reach out for support, instead of isolating, you create evidence. Every time you choose rest, instead of running yourself into the ground, you create evidence. Every time you feel an emotion without needing to numb it, fix it, or escape it, you create evidence. And evidence is a form of creating a new neural pathway, which shows that your life is changing. And over time, these moments begin to change the way you see yourself. You begin to say, I'm someone who can trust herself. I'm someone who can tolerate discomfort. I'm someone who can have a hard day without abandoning myself. I'm someone who can choose differently again and again and again. I'm someone who's creating a life that feels aligned. This is what next level you looks like in real life. Not a big dramatic breakthrough. In fact, often people see the changes in you before you recognize them in yourself. But this is through a series of really small, honest, embodied decisions.

Jeanne: [00:16:08] So I want you to ask yourself, what would my next level self no longer negotiate away? Would she no longer negotiate away to her peace, her recovery, her truth, her sleep, her physical health, her financial well-being, her integrity, her creativity, her time, even her boundaries. Her right to be treated with respect. I want you to notice what comes up for you as I listed those. We want to increase our capacity for the life that you really desire. And sometimes people say they want a more, bigger life, more full life. They want more love, more freedom, more visibility, more purpose, more success, more, more peace, more the disease of more. But those very things begin to arrive, and suddenly it feels uncomfortable again, because a bigger life asks us to have a bigger capacity. We have to have capacity to receive, capacity to be seen, capacity to say no, capacity to experience uncertainty, capacity to feel disappointment without collapsing. Capacity to allow good things, without deciding that somehow we must earn them through exhaustion, depletion, overfunctioning, perfectionism. This is where nervous system work becomes so important, because your system has learned that life does not feel safe, or that connection is unsafe, or that success comes with a cost. Your body may respond to expansion as though it is dangerous. I would say this is something I completely agree with because I had a sharp head and worked from the neck up really well. I thought as long as I have a good brain, I can think my way out of anything. But the truth is, you can't think your way out of anything.

Jeanne: [00:18:06] You have to feel your way out of anything. And we now know that feeling precedes thought. So you will feel sensation in your body, which may be looked as as a threat detected. And then your thought is formed from that position. And because when your system has learned that life is unsafe, or that connection feels unsafe, or that success comes at a cost, your body may respond to expansion, although its danger, it may procrastinate, you may overthink. You may start people pleasing again. You may pull away. You may even pick fights. You may go numb. You may reach for what is familiar. An old coping mechanism. Not because you do not want the life you want, but because in that moment, your system is trying to protect you from what feels unfamiliar. So the work's not to shame yourself. The work is to notice. Just notice what you notice. Slow down, get curious, and ask what is happening in me right now? What feels threatening? What do I need to do in order to stay with myself? The next level you is not someone who never gets activated. It's working with it. It's rather someone who learns how to reorganize activation earlier and respond with compassion, tools, support, and choice. And this is so important. Choice. We do have choice, but we feel often that we have no choice because we revert back to our old patterns and behaviors.

Jeanne: [00:19:47] You have choice. How do you stay with yourself and not abandon yourself? In these moments when you feel like you want to run for the door? Letting go with love. There's another piece that we do not always talk about. Enough. When you grow, we may grieve. We may grieve our old life. We may grieve relationships that no longer fit. We may grieve lost opportunity. We may grieve the role you played in your family. You may grieve the version of you who had to work so hard just to feel accepted. You may grieve for the years that you felt you lost. You may grieve the fact that some people may not understand the changes that you're making. And sometimes you may even miss the old coping strategy, but not because you want to go back, because it gave you so much relief. So I want to say this clearly you can miss what was familiar and still know it is no longer where you belong. You can feel sadness and still move forward. You can love people and still need distance. You can have compassion for the former version of yourself without handing her the steering wheel again. That's maturity. Self-compassion. That's recovery. Holding space for both.

Jeanne: [00:21:05] Now I want to give you a simple practice you can use this week, something that does not require you to reinvent your life by tomorrow. Take a notebook, open up a note on your phone, or simply sit quietly with these questions. I want you to notice what becomes alive for you or activated when you hear these questions and how they landed. Who am I becoming? What do I what I want to achieve, but not what I want other people to think of me. But who am I becoming? Maybe you're becoming a person who trusts themselves. Maybe you're becoming someone who is emotionally available. Or maybe you're someone who takes exquisite care in her recovery. Maybe you're becoming a new leader. Maybe you're becoming someone who can speak up. Or maybe you're just becoming someone who no longer makes yourself small. And I want you to ask yourself, how does that person care for herself? How does she speak to herself when she's had a hard day? How does she handle discomfort? What does she no longer tolerate? What does she make room for? What does she allow close to her? What does she do when she feels like abandoning herself? And then this is the most important question I want you to ask yourself. What is one small action I can take in the next 24 hours that reflects the person I'm becoming? One action. Don't go big or go home. One small action. Maybe it's making an appointment. Maybe it's going to a meeting. Maybe it's a simple no. Maybe it's eating a one nourishing meal. Maybe it's a stepping outside for ten minutes without your phone. Maybe it's sending the email, maybe it's having the conversation, or maybe it's just getting honest with someone you trust or even yourself.

Jeanne: [00:23:08] Maybe it's allowing yourself to rest. Do not underestimate these small choices. Your life changes through the choices you repeat. So as we complete the AWAKEN series, I want to invite you to reflect on the journey you've been on. Perhaps there was an episode that brought something into focus for you. Perhaps there was a belief you began to question. Perhaps you saw more clearly how self-worth, identity, coping, connection, or your nervous system has shaped the way you move through the world. The work of AWAKEN is not a one time event were never exonerated from hard work. It just becomes easier to work with. And what was front and center that dominates our life slowly recedes into the background. It's a relationship you build with yourself through a daily practice. It is a willingness to keep noticing when you are living from fear or old habits or survival strategy, and becoming more gentle with yourself. Loving, courageous, returning to what is true. You don't have to do it perfectly. You don't have to know every answer. You don't have to wait until you feel completely ready. You simply just need to be willing to take the next step. And then another. And another. And that's how we build trust within ourselves. And that's how identity changes, and that's how a life changes. So as we leave this episode, I want you to remember this.

Jeanne: [00:24:35] Your next level you is not asking you to become someone else. It's inviting you to become more fully who you are Yourself. More honest. More grounded. More connected. More available to the life you truly want. And perhaps the question is not am I ready for the next level? Perhaps the better question is what would change if I stopped waiting to feel ready and began practicing being the person I already know I'm becoming? That's a big question for me because I always have done the work, or constantly are in the work of what I'm sharing with you. And what would change if I stopped waiting to feel ready and became practicing behind the person I already know I'm becoming. For me, that's a part of me that wants to become more visible, more visible in a way that if I lived without courage or fear, I probably would be more front and center in my own life. And I don't have a defined way of what that looks like when I say front and center, but I recede because it feels safer for me to be in the back wings of the stage rather than front and center of the stage. So I want you to think about what would change for you if you stopped waiting to feel ready and began practicing being the person you already know you are becoming.

Jeanne: [00:25:56] So thank you for being here. Thank you for fellow journeying with me. And thank you for allowing Naturally High to be part of your journey. If this episode resonates with you or the entire AWAKEN series, share it with someone who may be standing at the edge of their own next chapter. And if you're ready for more personalized support in creating a recovery and wellness life that truly fits you, you can connect with me through the links in the show notes. And if you're ready to go really deep in the next AWAKEN series, which is a six month course, then I suggest you put your name on the waitlist below. Take good care of yourself. And remember, you're allowed to create a life that feels as good on the inside as it may look on the outside. Until next time, stay naturally high.

Jeanne: [00:26:43] Thank you for joining me for this episode of Naturally High. If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or reach out to me through the links in the show notes. Together, we're changing the way the world approaches mental health, addiction, and trauma. Remember to like, subscribe and leave a rating for Naturally High on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode. For more inspiration and resources, follow me on Instagram at therecovery_concierge or visit therecoveryconcierge.com. Stay empowered, keep rising, and I'll see you in the next episode.